Playing Matrix (or other) games on an Acer Aspire One?

[Temple]

Recently I picked up an Acer Aspire One from Office Depot. It's a nice little machine that I got so I could sit in my easy chair in the living room and surf, check email, look up my wife's questions on Google, things like that.

Now I'm thinking to myself, this might make a fun little wargame playing machine. I could take it on the road, etc. It's WinXP SP3, so there's no Vista issues. And 1GB of RAM should be plenty. The video is "Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 with shared memory" so no fancy 3D support, but it should be good enough for most wargames out there. And it has a 160GB hard drive, so storage isn't an issue. The processor is a 1.6GHz Atom, not wildly fast, but running WinXP it seems decent enough. I have an external hard drive to install apps onto it, but there's not one in the rig, so any game that requires the CD in the drive is not going to work.

Probably the biggest shortcoming [;)] is the screen. It's 8.9 inches diagonal measure, fairly small. However, I have excellent reading eyesight and so seeing the tiny detail isn't a problem. However, resolution is 1024x600 and that widescreen format is sometimes a pain with older PC games and even some newer. I know I could probably run DOSBox on here, the question would more likely be could I force some other games to play in a window so that they don't stretch out over the screen?

So what games might be good for this machine? I know people are going to say "what are you interested in?", but really I'm open to all areas of suggestions. Getting this machine might open me up to try games I might have overlooked before. Since this is a Matrix forum, obviously Matrix games should have priority in suggestions, but any interesting wargame suggestions are welcome.

[rickier65]

I have a widescreen Tosh laptop (older) that also runs in a stretched out mode. Some of the games that look fine to me: Advanced Tactics, Panzer Command:Kharkov, TOAW III, and Battles in Normandy (and I assume Battles in Italy), and Kharkov - Disaster on the Donets.

For AT, the larger scenarios may run kinda slow on your rig (they do on mine) but is you avoid the "monster scenarios" you should be ok. Not sure that PCK would run. It runs on mine but CPU is faster and I have a little more memory (not much more). I'd check the game spec of course.

And the best part is that all of the games above play without the CD in the drive.

Rick

[SlickWilhelm]

Temple, I'm betting that many of the Matrix Games would play nicely on that system. I would put Uncommon Valor and The Operational Art of War III as just two excellent choices of where to start. 

[iaidoka2]

Ive got a Samsung NC10 netbbok with the 1.6 Atom processor and 2gb RAM - I currently have COTA and WiTP installed. They run fine considering the hardware. I am going to try some others I have as well (AT, TOAWIII, HTTR for starters).

[Erik Rutins]

My guess would be that all our games would work fine.

[NefariousKoel]

1024x600 resolution can be a difficulty if the game in question only supports a couple specific resolutions.

[Erik Rutins]

Most drivers will allow you to compensate. Worst case is you have to scroll the screen around a bit to see all of the larger virtual screen.

[kam99]

Hi,

I have just purchased a Samsung NC10. It runs XP with 1GB RAM, the screen can stretch to 1024x768 and it has a 1.6 GHz Atom processor. I have tried running Panzer Command: Kharkov on it without any success. I note that ioidoka2 has managed to run COTA and WiTP on it. Can anybody suggest any other wargames (particularly Matrix ones) that would run on my machine?

Many thanks,

Kam

[leastonh1]

Hi Temple,

I got the exact same model Aspire two days ago and am in love. It's a fantastic little machine. I've spent this afternoon setting it up to dual boot XP with Linux and everything's working perfectly. I haven't tried any games on it yet, but have read online that it's pretty good for many recent games at 800x600. Apparently, it's the CPU and not the GFX that causes performance bottlenecks when gaming on it. Still, if you Google "games on Acer Aspire One" or similar, you'll find a few sites with lists of what does and doesn't work. Unreal Tournament 2004 and Quake 3 supposedly run very well, so I'm looking forward to getting those going along with some of the Matrix titles! The only thing I'm not keen on is the battery life at around 1hr+. There are some nice 7800mah replacements on Amazon which run for between 6-9hrs between charges.

Have fun with the new toy. It's the cutest gadget I've ever bought and well worth the money [:D]

All the best,
Jim

[dogancan]

I am also looking for an umpc. I am expecting to be able to play heartsof iron 3, but at least I should be able to play the next panther game, BftB. I would appreciate any suggestions...

[iaidoka2]

Just tp update this thread. I just installed TOAWIII on my netbook and it runs very nicely indeed. This week I have had it in the office and in the quiet moments have been playing a few scenarios to see how it performs and I haven't really noticed much difference with my core2duo desktop machine.