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What games for Core Duo Macbook?

PowerGamerX

PowerGamerX

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 9, 2009
673
1
Okay this has probably been asked quite a few times but I've been having a hard time finding good answers so I decided to make my own topic.

I have a White Core Duo Macbook. I know that the GMA 950 in it is far from being ideal, but I like to push what I can out of limited hardware. I'd prefer Mac native games as well. Currently all I have is WoW which works fine and is playable (20fps and up is playable for me) on native resolution.

So as far as suggestions, I would like to play in the native res, as well as get over 17fps. I don't want any suggestions of games that I would need Windows for, just Mac games please. Other than that I'm open to anything.

If you need the full set of specs for some reason:

Core Duo 1.8ghz
2gb ram (1x PC 4200 533mhz DDR2 2gb)
60gb Hard Drive
OSX Snow Leopard
 
GMA950? Try Solitaire. Or perhaps Chess. A good game of mental wit can be very entertaining.
 
Wotan31 said:
GMA950? Try Solitaire. Or perhaps Chess. A good game of mental wit can be very entertaining.
Click to expand...


I hate these stupid responses. Yes I like Chess and Solitaire, but throwing out completely unhelpful reply's does nothing for anybody. What makes me angry is this is the first reply on any topic of this sort. My gaming PC is fairly high end, but there are times when I would like to play a decent FPS or racing game on the go. Why can't people just throw out some decent suggestions?

Thanks for a completely unhelpful response!

-Ryan
 
Jedi Knight 2, Jedi Academy, Black and White, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Quake 3, Unreal Tournament, Max Payne, Warcraft 3, Civilization 4 (I think), Age of Empires 3.
These should all run ok.
 
Rodus said:
Jedi Knight 2, Jedi Academy, Black and White, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Quake 3, Unreal Tournament, Max Payne, Warcraft 3, Civilization 4 (I think), Age of Empires 3.
These should all run ok.
Click to expand...

Totally forgot about RTCW. Enemy Territory is amazing :cool:
 
Dude, Civilization IV Beyond the Sword, hands down. Amazing game. You'll love it after playing it just once. It can be a bit addicting tho, lol.
There's also Call of Duty, (I'm not sure if modern Warfare 2 came out for mac, but you can certainly buy Modern Warfare 1). There's also Battlefield 2142 or 1940 if you're into that.
Splinter Cell is a good game, also.
 
colbertnation said:
Dude, Civilization IV Beyond the Sword, hands down. Amazing game. You'll love it after playing it just once. It can be a bit addicting tho, lol.
There's also Call of Duty, (I'm not sure if modern Warfare 2 came out for mac, but you can certainly buy Modern Warfare 1). There's also Battlefield 2142 or 1940 if you're into that.
Splinter Cell is a good game, also.
Click to expand...

Haha, did you even read his specs? Modern Warfare would be like a slideshow on that laptop.
 
Don't know if you like RTS but homeworld 2 is an awesome game and should run fairly wll on your machine.
 
nick1516 said:
Haha, did you even read his specs? Modern Warfare would be like a slideshow on that laptop.
Click to expand...

This went through my head too. The x3100 could barely run it how could the gma950 without harware t&l even start up the game?
 
PowerGamerX said:
My gaming PC is fairly high end, but there are times when I would like to play a decent FPS or racing game on the go. Why can't people just throw out some decent suggestions?
Click to expand...

Because there is nothing that's younger than five years that could decently be played on that specific hardware. Unreal Tournament 2004 or Return to Castle Wolfenstein are probably already too much for that graphics chip. I'd say that everything beyond the Quake 2 graphics engine will most likely bring that machine to its knees.

Half-Life 1 on Windows might work - it's an enhanced Quake 1 engine that does not necessarily require 3D acceleration. And although they're ten years old now, Half-Life 1, Opposing Force and Blue Shift (and all the mods like They Hunger that have been made for them) are still great games.

Diablo 2 will also work - even on OS X.

But face it: The GMA950 chip is a great choice for Linux and its 3D desktop effects (because of Intel's great open source driver support), but it's the worst possible choice for games.
 
GMA 950 Macbook i had before this one ran

Half Life 2 smooth dx8.1 mode
World of Warcraft
Rollercoaster tycoon 3 (slows down as it fills up)
Sims 2
Unreal Tournament 2004

Thats about all i tried really, a interesting note that world of warcraft ran much better on my GMA 950 than it did on my friends GMA 3100.
 
I think the max you'll be running is Half Life 2, not the episodes since they use a newer and more demanding engine. But there's a lot you can play.
I'd go for;

Sim City 3000
RCT1+2
Unreal 1, 2, Tournament 99, 2004.
Half Life 2 and HL2 Deathmatch (before TF2 and L4D I was addicted to this)
Half Life 1 and expansion packs
Cave Story
Satan Sam (;))
 
Google up GMABooster, it may help with framerates, basically overclocks the GMA 950 but as long as you don't do it too much it shouldn't hurt.
 
I can confirm that Half life 1 works absolutely fine. I've been playing it again recently via crossover games, and it works full screen, decent resolution (I forget which). Opposing force also works, but Blue shift doesn't??

I think I need to buy a better laptop (or a console, but that would require buying a TV as well, sigh...).
 
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