Games for a 13" Netbook

[Savagezion]

A bit slower paced but good ones:

Civilization 3 (Civ 2 if 3 won't run, but I think it should.)
Rollercoaster Tycoon 1
Anno 1503

 

[VanityGirl]

It'd be great to know the specs of your netbook so everyone could better determine what would and wouldn't run on it.

 

[NuclearPenguin]

It'd be great to know the specs of your netbook so everyone could better determine what would and wouldn't run on it.

Its a NC10 Samsung.

A bit slower paced but good ones:

Civilization 3 (Civ 2 if 3 won't run, but I think it should.)
Rollercoaster Tycoon 1
Anno 1503

Topdown, topdown, topdown.

 

[Savagezion]

They are top down but don't need near the accuracy or attention to detail like you would with Diablo or Baulder's Gate which I assumed is what you meant. Are you wanting sidescrollers? I don't mean to be a butt, but I don't get exactly why top down is a problem automatically. Any FPS is going to offer issues based on distance from target or really any game with depth at all. So I would assume you need 2D games with no depth I take it?

EDIT: If so, Civ 2 still counts

 

[ResonanceSD]

Red Alert/ previous CnC games and MINECRAAFT!

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

Torchlight is a good choice.

It has a NETBOOK MODE.

 

[Katana314]

You should...not...get Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on an emulator called No$GBA.

Always been unsure what the escapist thinks about emulator discussion...at any rate, the game is no longer in production.

 

[BigTortoise]

Look. Let me be honest. That's not a gaming computer at ALL. PLus, we'd need specifications to know exactly what you can handle. Please give us the netbooks GPU at least.

 

[Tri]

Its a NC10 Samsung.

This confuses me, as the thread title says 13" but the NC10 is a 10"... either way, this is what we're supposedly looking at.

CPU 1.6-GHz Intel Atom N270
Operating System MS Windows XP Home
RAM 1GB
RAM Upgradable to 2GB
Hard Drive Size 120GB
Hard Drive Speed 5,400rpm
Display Size 10.2
Native Resolution 1024x600
Video Memory 64MB
Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
Bluetooth Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
Ports (excluding USB) Ethernet; Headphone; Microphone; VGA
USB Ports 3
Card Slots 3-1 card reader; SD memory reader
Warranty/Support One-year parts and labor/24/7 toll-free phone
Size 10.3 x 7.3 x 1.2 inches
Weight 2.8 pounds

EDIT: This most likely using an onboard Intel chipset for graphics, or something highly similar

Nothing like a little copy/pasting.

Also, for those who tl;dr, he doesn't want a topdown game due to the small screen.

About the only thing I can suggest on this little fellow is either emulators, plenty of great games from the SNES/Genesis era that I played on my computer with similar specs, and Plants vs. Zombies.

 

[Doitpow]

Hostile Waters

Sacrifice

Project Nomads

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Dwarf Fortress would run, albeit slowly. Of course, it's perspective is also top down and its interface alone is enough to give eyestrain.

 

[ms_sunlight]

Right, if you don't have it already, download Belarc Advisor [http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html]. Everyone who has a PC of any type needs it, and it's free. It will give you much more precise info on your system hardware, making it significantly easier to see if you meet system requirements or not.

If I had a netbook I'd load up Minecraft! I'd also say it's a perfect opportunity for catching up with your classic Infinity engine RPGs like Planescape: Torment and the Baldurs Gate series. It should also run Neverwinter Nights and Morrowind.

How do you feel about strategy games? They typically have much lower system requirements than most other genres. Plenty of great city building, war and transport games will run beautifully.

My other half plays retro games on his netbook. I installed DOSBox for him and showed him how to use it; he plays old and abandonware PC games from the 90s like A-Train or Railroad Tycoon. Also, SNES9X and other emulators for 16-bit systems will run beautifully on that spec.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

What operating system do you have because it seems to me that you can only play older games, and a lot of old games aren't Win7/Vista compatible.

 

[ms_sunlight]

What operating system do you have because it seems to me that you can only play older games, and a lot of old games aren't Win7/Vista compatible.

Lots of them are, or will run under emulation, or you can find a workaround on the net. Absolute worst comes to it, you can install a Linux partition because a lot of games that are problematic under Vista or 7 run fine using WINE. I did this recently to replay Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. OS shouldn't be a significant factor.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

What operating system do you have because it seems to me that you can only play older games, and a lot of old games aren't Win7/Vista compatible.

Lots of them are, or will run under emulation, or you can find a workaround on the net. Absolute worst comes to it, you can install a Linux partition because a lot of games that are problematic under Vista or 7 run fine using WINE. I did this recently to replay Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. OS shouldn't be a significant factor.

Idk, I couldn't get Thief 1 and 2 to run on my windows xp computer and I tried literally EVERYTHING I could find on the internet short of dual-booting windows 95.

Also, the fact that the OP can't so much as find his computers specs himself I highly doubt he'd be able to figure out how to run an emulator without some major help.

 

[Minjoltr]

I use an Asus Aspire One with Win7 Starter for gaming a fair bit.

Thief 2 runs fine and definitely requires a mouse. Same with the original Half Life. I can play Psychonauts but it's a little jumpy. Also got Hexen, Guild Wars, Braid, KotOR, World of Goo, Sonic Megamix, VVVVVV, Sonic Mega Collection and WoW.

I tried Half Life 2 on it once and the framerate is paralytically slow so I don't recommend it.

I have Torchlight although I've never actually played it and I tried Machinarium once but it froze. I'm not sure if it was a bug or if it just won't run on my netbook.

Can just about handle Minecraft but simply clicking on the icon once does not open it. It seems to require twenty or thirty clicks just to open one instance of the game.

Zork 1, 2 and 3 also run swimmingly on Windows' DOS emulator.

I can vouch for Fallout 1 although the colours were a bit messed up when I tried it. I think Deus Ex and Baldur's Gate would probably run although I can't find noCD hacks for the versions I own.

 

[ms_sunlight]

Idk, I couldn't get Thief 1 and 2 to run on my windows xp computer and I tried literally EVERYTHING I could find on the internet short of dual-booting windows 95.

Also, the fact that the OP can't so much as find his computers specs himself I highly doubt he'd be able to figure out how to run an emulator without some major help.

Well, the OP should think of this as a learning opportunity!

Besides, how long ago did you try playing Thief 1 & 2? Wine / PlayOnLinux have come a long way in the past few years and according to WineHQ [http://appdb.winehq.org/] both play beautifully under Linux.