$35 NZ ? That's 23 USD!!
What laptop can you buy with that money? :-o
What specifications have this computer?
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A very simple one that I got at a place that recycles donated hardware and sells it cheap. Intel Core 2 Duo that maxes out at 1.4GHz, 3GB of DDR2 RAM and integrated video. The system doesn't even have HDMI output, just VGA. But for the price, I'm satisfied, I can take it with me and still browse the internet and have Netflix and a few simple games if I want them.
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I have a laptop "almost" like that (6 BG RAM), a 2 GHz Core 2 Duo and an ATI mobility 5450 (If I'm correct).
Steam is slower on each upgrade :). But I still can game quite a lot with it.
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With all the games I have, I refuse to risk temptation. I'll probably try to install something that would set it on fire. Besides, the internal hard drive is beyond tiny, another reason I won't to avoid installing anything beyond the minimum. Started with about 150GB.
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I gave to some relatives a laptop with a Radeon Mobility 5450 as well. They don't game on it but it's very usable for casual use. A long time ago, I remember running Crysis and Fallout 3 on it. Decent GPU at the time ^^
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For now, I've just stuck the current game shortcuts into a desktop folder, but I'm hoping to find a basic DRM free game manager I can launch from the taskbar and just have a nice looking list of games.
Put them in a folder and set it to list view :3
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Why do you need a manager? Just make a group in start menu and put game shortcuts there. Don't spend precious RAM and CPU resources on useless junk that gives you nothing.
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Yep. I wouldn't even install Win 10, hell even Windows.
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Yeah, Windows 10 would be a pain on 3Gb. Windows 7 should be fine, more or less. SSD would help a lot, but it would cost more than the rest of this laptop ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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It came with Windows 10 Pro, and actually runs it well enough that I'll stick with it over going to an earlier OS. Won't ditch Windows, to ensure my games can run natively rather than through other methods, and because I've been letting family use it here (Netflix can keep them quiet) and I don't trust those troglodytes not to break something they don't understand.
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Well, other than gaming Linux would be a lot better.
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I've had no slowdown issues despite the specs so got no reason to switch myself. If Windows 10 was unsuitable for the hardware, maybe I'd go with it, but I just have no reason to mess with what works.
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Well, if you are happy with it right now i can't see any problem :)
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Did try that, but a bunch of icons wasn't quite what I wanted, and I can't seem to sort the start bar folders as I'd like, Windows 98 was much easier for making a games folder there as I did many years ago. Also tried linking the folder to a toolbar on the taskbar, something I do on my desktop for some commonly used software but couldn't get it quite right and wouldn't be very good once I get more installed.
If I can find something that isn't a massive memory hog, I don't mind sacrificing a bit to it, I've been installing games that don't even require half of what this laptop has. But the common software is all linked to accounts where I own dozens, hundreds or even thousands of games. I've been letting younger family use it for internet and entertainment when I have my desktop (works well for the nephews after school until their mum is out of work) and unfortunately, they won't hesitate to install other stuff if they thought they could get away with it. They already wanted to install Minecraft from my Windows Store account. :P
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Windows 98 was much easier
I know what you need! Open-Shell (previously Classic Shell) - it's a little tool that makes start menu look and feel like it was in Windows 98. Give it a try! I use it on win 10, but it also works for win 7. Absolutely must have!
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So I could do like this again? Might be worth a try if so, though Playnite seems to do the job fine when I tried it out.
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Yes, you can. I recommend to try it anyway, even if you've found a manager for your games.
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I'm only using Steam but there's GOG Galaxy and for Linux there's also Lutris.
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Old games that are cheap and fun.
1: OpenTTD : Free and easy to get going
2: OpenRCT2 : open-source re-implementation of RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 : Free
3: Aurora : Spreadsheet spacesim : Very-micro-managy but very fun once you get into it and Free
4: https://cncnet.org/ : Multiplayer of all the old Westwood Studios games like C&C Free
5: https://www.myabandonware.com/ : If it is old, forgotten, and not for sale on GoG or Steam, its here. And free.
For managing things https://www.launchbox-app.com/. Like steam or GoG, but free and you can plug in emulation stuff too.
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Why not find a drive replacement, or external one? Or just a big usb stick and you got loads of space.
Also you can make iso's with poweriso or daemon tools (and then mount and play) as long as it doesn't have copy protection.
Though for those you could use alcohol 120%.
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I had an old laptop with a horribly slow IDE HDD. Got a tiny "world's smallest" USB flash drive (barely visible in the USB port), installed Linux on it and used it like a poor-man's SSD. Linux being Linux of course the system booted in under 10 seconds even on that 2003-era laptop. Compared to about 5 minutes for Windows Vista kill me on the HDD to fully load and settle down.
It did have a built-in wifi which I upgraded to 802.11n and actually had a good AMD Radeon GPU so watching full-screen videos XviD ... was no problem at all. And things like emulators worked great for playing older games/consoles.
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Simply can't be bothered. It would be easy to get a bigger drive (I actually have some spare 320GB drives sitting around from scrapped laptops and PS3s), but it would take some effort to get it sorted, all just to have some extra space in a system that is still otherwise lacking.
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I can't help with what you want, but I think Steam has some DRM free games that you can play without running Steam. You can probably download the game on another computer and then copy the game files over to the laptop. There are a lot of old games on Steam that should would fine on that laptop. I had to play games on an old single core laptop in the past when my PC died, but I installed Steam on the laptop. I just searched through all my games for ones that had really low system requirements, like point and clicks and other classics.
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Yeah, got a PCGamingWiki page for games that support that, and I might take a look later to see if I own suitable titles, but I'm in no rush, my GOG library and disc collection alone are quite acceptable, and some freeware games will be going in there after.
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I use an excel file, the games can be activated with an hyperlink, you can add as much info as you want, has an intergrated search function crtl + F and it uses close to no resources
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Still need to dig out one of my Microsoft Office discs if I want that (got 2000 Professional and Student 2007 somewhere...), but admit that could work if I can lock the file from alterations once it is ready.
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Hadn't been aware Galaxy supports non GOG games, but I'll probably avoid it anyway unless it doesn't require account sign in for just doing that. Even if I ignore the rest of my library, got brats using this as a distraction tool when I'm on my PC and they won't hesitate to download some of the games this system would have issues with.
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I had a similar laptop, you should try the game NITRONIC RUSH it's fun and low spect game, also did you try GeForce now?
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I'm aware of the game, also own the sequel on Steam.
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Hmm, that does look decent enough, I'll do some reading up on that.
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If it's an "old clunker" are you sure you would want to waste the resources for running a DRM?
Some suggestions:
- If you're running Windows, you can slap your game shortcuts into Quick Launch and not clutter your desktop with a ton of shortcuts. Even on Win 10, I still use it. :P
- If you don't mind an application launcher similar to the dock on Mac, Rocket Dock is very low on resources. I've been using it since my old XP days and it works just fine on Windows 7, 8/8.1 and 10, and with the right icon set and dock skin... it can look really nice.
- Otherwise, if your preference is to have a game manager, you can go with Playnite.
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I use some commonly used software in a taskbar toolbar on my desktop PC (as can be seen below), but I'm looking at around 30 games total (got a lot of old games on CDs, even stuff like Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid) and it would get rather cluttered once I was done.
The laptop is low spec, but the games are as well, so I figure if the requirements for a potential launcher aren't too heavy, it would be useful. Part of the problem with the current method is just that I'm allowing my nephews to use the system, mostly after school entertainment until their mum finishes work. A folder is full of shortcuts that can be renamed, deleted or moved elsewhere so moving them to a system light launcher lets me keep the folder safe and can work as a backup. A client like Steam is linked to an account where I own plenty of games they would try to install even if I could resist. That Playnite one did look promising when another user suggested it so I'll be giving it a try later.
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Got a couple of those, but the disc drive is too loud. Can't hear movies or games over it. :(
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a folder on desktop full of shortcuts, that was my game manager when i got my first pc
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I used the Windows 98 Start Bar, but it was a lot easier to organize back then. Wanting something other than a folder, since i don't trust the younger idiots using the system to not delete, rename or move stuff, a game manager is less likely to deal with that.
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Sort of funny, recently the AMD graphics software added a "Gaming" tab that lists all my installed games, and I was thinking that I didn't really need another "game manager".
Personally I've been using Fences dropdown box on my desktop there, it's only slightly better looking than in a window folder.
Playnite looks pretty good for what you want though.
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Picked up a very basic laptop recently for NZ$35. Low spec in every way, I don't intend to do much with it but it is available when I'm going on a trip for a few days, rather than being limited to my phone or trying to take my desktop with me.
Since it is junk though though, I have no intention of installing Steam for gaming on it. Going to limit myself to some older GOG / Humble library / freeware games I own as well as some games I'm installing from CDs and installing No CD patches for, this drive is sodding loud, preventing me from using it for DVD movies like I hoped. For now, I've just stuck the current game shortcuts into a desktop folder, but I'm hoping to find a basic DRM free game manager I can launch from the taskbar and just have a nice looking list of games.
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