Note: This isn't about gaming with a laptop, or portable games in general. This is about toting around a flash-drive/portable hard drive filled with games with the sole purpose of playing on computers that have poor hardware/overprotective security systems/etc. The defining characteristic of these games are very small impact on the operating system, very little DRM, and low system requirements which allows them to be played on computers without having to actually install the game. So, what I do is install the games on either my 4GB flash drive or 500GB hard drive, bypass the disc check, take it to school, and if it starts up perfectly add it to this list. You can add your own in the comments.
Also: My school computer is running a crazy security system: No creating or editing registry keys, no writing to the C:\ drive outside of My Documents, no internet connection outside of Wikipedia, etc.
[B]Notable Games:[/B]
[I]Warcraft III[/I] (RTS)
[img]http://www-users.mat.uni.torun.pl/~rembol/eng/wc3_1.jpg[/img]
Warcraft Human campaign in some pic I found on Google Images.
Ah, Warcraft III. It's like several games in one. Excellent fun to play in the computer labs, still selling so it's easy to get a copy of it. It works 100% on on my portable setup, especially when patched up to the latest version, since that removes the disc check.
100% Portable
takes up about 1 gigabyte of storage with the Frozen Throne expansion. (less if you remove the movies folder).
[I]Unreal Tournament[/I] (FPS)
[img]http://images.betanews.com/screenshots/955436898-1.jpg[/img]
I was actually playing on this level today, but it's still a Google Images pic.
If Doom created the multiplayer FPS and Quake improved it, then Unreal Tournament perfected it. Fast multiplayer, easy to set up a server for it, and if you have no friends with the game and are loath to hand out your copy, has bots.
100% Portable, takes up about 600MB storage.
[B]Games guaranteed to work[/B]
[LIST]
[*][I]Emulators[/I]
are always a favorite for portable gaming, but their dubious legality might turn people off, and the optional requirement of a gamepad for N64 and PSX games might help. But, for a storage-per-game ratio, a bunch of ROM's can't really be beat.
[*][I]Civilization II and III[/I]
Both work without the CD, no extra registry files. (Civ II, no heralds: 37MB. Civ III: 600MB)
[*][I]Doom 1, 2, TNT, Plutonia[/I]
With the addition of Skulltag, it's always a favorite for my computer class LAN games. (All four + some mods, 300MB)
[*][I]Cortex Command[/I]
[*][I]OpenTTD[/I]
[*][I]Fraxy[/I]
looks like a Shoot em up of some sort.
[*][I]Phun and Powder Toy[/I]
rather enjoyable physics simulators (Phun: 18MB)
[*][I]Worms 2[/I]
[*][I]Theme Park[/I]
[*][I]Starcraft[/I]
If it's anything like Warcraft/Diablo, it will not have a CD check with the latest patch.
[*][I]Age of Empires 2[/I]
[*][I]Survival Crisis Z[/I]
Isometric zombie shooter/RPG type game. Only works on Windows XP or lower. [48MB]
[/LIST]
[b]Semi-portable or of dubious status[/b]
[LIST][*][I]Dwarf Fortress[/I]:
This should work, but starting it on my school computer causes the whole computer to restart instantly. Plus, it takes up a ton of CPU.
[*][I]Unreal Tournament 2004[/I]
While it doesn't have a disc check, the CD code is stored in the registry. (6.15GB) (A third party program is required to create new registry keys)
[*][I]Baldur's Gate[/I]
While this [I]might[/I] work, I couldn't get the CD bypass to work correctly, so I'll have to play at home. (500MB)
[*][I]Spelunky[/I]
(but watch out, saves are stored on the computer, so not 100% portable). (14.9MB)
[*][I]Anything on Steam[/I]
It didn't work for me personally, but may for you. Who knows.
[*][I]Marble Blast Gold[/I]
One of the best games ever made, that's for sure.
[*][I]Worms Armaggedon[/I]
Apparently it's win. I don't know how portable it is myself, since I don't have a copy.
[/LIST]
[B]Games that will not work at all[/B]
[LIST]
[*][I]Rise of Nations Gold[/I]
I was really sad when this didn't work, but it needs the registry keys installed to work. Gives error "Please install from the Game CD", also has disc check.
[*][I]Sonic and Knuckles Collection[/I]
installs a ton of stuff in C:\Windows.
[/LIST]
I found that OpenTTD, Fraxy, Cortex Command, Powder Toy, Phun and SWAT 4 works pretty good. Maybe you could add these to the list? (eh, not sure about swat. i'm sure you can run it on most low-end computers)
Worms 2 and Theme Park are portable
uhh, Steam works fine.
Someone recently posted a program in the Dwarf Fortress thread that you install on your own pc, and then you can use a telnet client (which are often portable_ to play DF on any computer, using the CPU and save game of your own pc.
EDIT:
the post: [url]http://www.facepunch.com/showpost.php?p=20653189&postcount=1735[/url]
forum page about the program, on the df forum:
[url]http://www.bay12games.com/forum/index.php?topic=50643.0[/url]
[QUOTE=rakkar;20671454]Someone recently posted a program in the Dwarf Fortress thread that you install on your own pc, and then you can use a telnet client (which are often portable_ to play DF on any computer, using the CPU and save game of your own pc.[/QUOTE]
Novel, but not portable. I'm talking very limited internet connection, running straight off a portable drive.
I'm pretty sure DF could be portable (since it doesn't install anything), but whenever I start it up on my school computer the intro plays then the computer dies.
UT 2004 is completely portable, just get the registry fixer for it (it puts the key into the registry when run)
Viola, fully portable UT 2004. It's how I did it in high school.
[editline]04:51PM[/editline]
Baldur's Gate also works.
[editline]04:52PM[/editline]
The quality of this thread disappoints me.
[QUOTE=York;20671843]
Baldur's Gate also works.
[/quote]
I know Baldur's Gate worked, but whenever I do the bypass it says "BGMain2.exe might be a match for BGMain2.exe, skipped" which is odd.
[QUOTE=York;20671843]
The quality of this thread disappoints me.[/QUOTE]
How so?
Age of Empires 2 and Starcraft easily work, we always played them last semester in a class. (starcraft we just used iccup so we never had to install it, never had to install AoE2 either.)
I've played CS 1.6 and Age of Empires 2 from a usb, works flawlessly.
Would GTA 3 work? Because that would be awesome.
[QUOTE=JonniXD;20672038]Would GTA 3 work? Because that would be awesome.[/QUOTE]
I think so, Vice City as well! But San Andreas maybe a bit too big, 3.34 GB
[QUOTE=Xyzzy;20670642]
[I]Unreal Tournament[/I] (FPS)
[IMG]http://images.betanews.com/screenshots/955436898-1.jpg[/IMG]
I was actually playing on this level today, but it's still a Google Images pic.
If Doom created the multiplayer FPS and Quake improved it, then Unreal Tournament perfected it. Fast multiplayer, easy to set up a server for it, and if you have no friends with the game and are loath to hand out your copy, has bots.
100% Portable, takes up about 600MB storage.
[/QUOTE]
Son of a bitch
i remember playing in THAT map when i was like 8, i couldn't remember what game it was, i just could remember the map i always played that was it, i had so much fun in it and i never knew what fucking game it was.
Thanks man, thank you very much for allowing me now to know one of the most awesome games i played when i was young.
[QUOTE=Xyzzy;20670642][*][I]Anything on Steam[/I]
It didn't work for me personally, but may for you. Who knows.[/QUOTE]
You can make steam portable. Just make sure the target computer has it installed (no games needed) and run the exe from the portable storage.
How do you install the games onto the flash drive, like any other install and then just plug it in and run it off the USB drive right?
[QUOTE=Lone Wolf807;20672676]How do you install the games onto the flash drive, like any other install and then just plug it in and run it off the USB drive right?[/QUOTE]
Install the game on your computer, copy-paste all the files from Program Files onto your flash-drive, bypass the security if there is any, then you're done.
[editline]03:41PM[/editline]
[QUOTE=LtBubbles;20672644]Son of a bitch
i remember playing in THAT map when i was like 8, i couldn't remember what game it was, i just could remember the map i always played that was it, i had so much fun in it and i never knew what fucking game it was.
Thanks man, thank you very much for allowing me now to know one of the most awesome games i played when i was young.[/QUOTE]
No problem. It's also on UT2004 as well. (I just got it last week, it's awesome).
Could you also, in theory, burn the files onto a CD/DVD and run them from that?, I've had a bunch of them laying around for a while and that could be useful.
Or is that very illegal?
[QUOTE=TheBrokenHobo;20673087]Could you also, in theory, burn the files onto a CD/DVD and run them from that?, I've had a bunch of them laying around for a while and that could be useful.
Or is that very illegal?[/QUOTE]
If you're just burning the Program Files onto the disc it should be fine.
[QUOTE=Xyzzy;20673294]If you're just burning the Program Files onto the disc it should be fine.[/QUOTE]
Great! Now I have something to do with those 10 DVDs and 5 CDs!
Marble Blast Gold is a gem on the Mac and PC :science:
[editline]05:15PM[/editline]
Also, Worms:Armageddon is so much win.
[QUOTE=LinuX;20674518]Marble Blast Gold is a gem on the Mac and PC :science:[/QUOTE]
Oh my godddddd Marble Blast. The computers at school during my 7th grade had that preloaded on it, so the entire class was in a race to beat the game first. I was the biggest badass when I beat the last level. :clint:
Fuck, everyone plays that game in my class (We have a laptop program here in the great UK) when the teacher is not looking. They pirated the game from a flash drive anyhow.
I used to play a copy of a world of Goo copy and Crayon Physics on my flash drive on long trips on my dad's laptop.
Fallout 1 will work. Fallout 2 will also, but you'll have to drag the save files back and forth every time you want to play it.
GTA III and Vice City will work if you can copy files into My Documents.
Nanosuar 1 and 2 are gems to.
[editline]09:51PM[/editline]
Worms armageddon is pretty much like worms 2, just with online playing and more cool features.
[editline]09:53PM[/editline]
did i not mention... LOS DISNEYS? its fucking win, its like doom but its in the aleph one engine and is based in disney land.
You know some newer USB drives support their own registry, so if you install it correctly you could, in theory, play any game.
swat requires a video card (so can't play on integrated graphics)
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