What are the best games if you have Intel GMA950 graphics?

[FlightSuit]

I've finally gotten around to using Boot Camp to install Windows XP on my GMA950 iMac. It's very exciting that I can now play Windows-only games, but I don't know where to start. Can anybody recommend some good ones that would run OK on a system with GMA950 graphics? The processor is a 1.83ghz Core 2 Duo, and I've got 2GB of RAM.

 

Along with your recommendations, links to where I can download free demos would be appreciated.

 

Thank you!

[johnny_boy]

I'm in a similar situation regarding my PC gaming habits, depending on a lovable but limited Intel Mac Mini. I don't even want to bother with dual booting, so that limits me even more severely - starting up VirtualBox when I'm desperate to play certain windows-only games.

 

If you're not too fussy, you should easily be able to find a bunch of titles that suit your tastes, as long as you discard any recent graphics-heavy title. Even WoW is supposed to run decently under Intel's GMA. The Half-Life 2 engine scales decently, but is windows-only. Indie titles are great for this - the devs are usually fairly sensitive to low-grade graphic chips, also since their investment is limited, which sometimes ends up as clean graphics with specifics details.

 

It's hard to recommend anything specific without a hint of your individual tastes. Obviously, there's a plethora of classic gaming options, through emulation.

 

A few link suggestions:

 

Linux Game Tome - for cross-platform gaming

http://www.happypenguin.org/

 

Game Tunnel - Indie game news and reviews

http://www.gametunnel.com/

 

Indie Game Database

http://db.tigsource.com/

 

If you don't mind dealing with Windows, there's a lot of good stuff on Steam

http://store.steampowered.com/

 

Hope this helps.

[johnny_boy]

Some personal favorites:

 

Weird Worlds - Return to Infinite Space

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Digital_Eel/WW/WW_page.html

 

Oasis

http://www.oasisgame.com/

 

Starscape

http://www.moonpod.com/English/about_ss.php

 

Haven't tried Gridrunner Revolution yet, but there seems to be some positive buzz around it.

http://www.llamasoft.co.uk/grintro2.php

[aikainnet]

http://www.yougamers.com/games/?mainnavi=true

 

Find the game you are wanting to play and run the "Game-o-meter"

[MCHufnagel]

The GMA 950 is the most common chipset on netbooks. So whatever they can play, you can easily play. Your iMac has a much better cpu than a netbook and your standard screen resolution is a normal one and not gimped like a netbook. Here are a couple of links that should give you an idea on what is possible.

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/251808-33-intel-game-compatibility-list

 

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/games_to_play_on_netbooks/_/1/search/netbooks

 

As you can see, plenty of games are possible. The majority of these games are 5+ years old though.

[liveinabin]

There's lots you can play. My wife likes Civilisation 4 on her Macbook and I've been playing the Telltale games episodic Sam n Max adventures. They work fine with all the performance sliders turned up - even in a virtual Parallels window in OSX.

[FlightSuit]

Liveinabin, forgive me if I've already asked you this, but where did you get your avatar image? I wanna say that's from Battle Fever, but I think I could be wrong...

 

X-Bomber or something?

[liveinabin]

Yeah, it's the Dai-X from X-Bomber/Star Fleet. I've got the whole lot on DVD, but the graphic came from SFXB.co.uk