My mother is giving me her brand-new laptop, as she’s found she really only uses it every other week, and even then only to check her e-mail. Now, it’s about 350gigs, and I just bought an external hard drive that’s 500gigs.
A few years ago, I had to take all of my Sims 1 stuff off of my computer, as it was getting to be too much. Now, I’d like to play it again, but Mom and Baby Sis are telling me, no no, you can’t play it on a lap top, that’s not what it’s for, you’d have to put it on the external, and even then it won’t work, blah blah blah. Now, originally I had it on a 33 gig hard drive. (Desk top)
I’ve really, REALLY been looking forward to playing again. Are they right, or are they full of shit again? (As baby sis has been especially in the past?) I’d also like to find the last three expansion packs as I’ve seen them at Half-Price Books. It’s not like Sims 2, but the old version. Mom’s also telling me I can’t use my lap top for very long during the day, and blah blah blah.
Help me out, here?
(And then, could I keep the stuff on the external drive, and still play it from there, on the main computer?)
To your parents and sister I can only say, “Buhhhh- what??”
It doesn’t matter that the computer is a notebook. Notebooks are, essentially, no different from any other computer, just smaller. If it is a relatively recent computer (as I can only assume from the fact that it is ‘brand-new’) it should play The Sims with no trouble whatsoever. It should even play The Sims 2
I play The Sims 2 on my laptop all the time. The Sims 1 should certainly work on a recent model. If the laptop has a 350gb hard drive (and it’s not filled up), you should be able to install the program on the internal drive with no problem. It really doesn’t take up that much room, comparatively. Just make sure you have your serial numbers for the games.
As long as the laptop meets the minimum specs for the game, it should run it ok, as others have noted. My laptop is actually a more capable machine than my desktop. I play WoW and CoH on the laptop to use the better graphics and larger memory.
Well, I knew they were wrong-but I needed someone to confirm it. (Just like in the past, when both of them told me that Jasc Paint Shop Pro would take up my entire hard drive) :rolleyes:
I don’t want to do the Sims 2, because I never got the chance to get the last three expansion packs (and I could probably get them, like I said, at HPB), and I’m rather attached to the Sims I already made. I don’t see why I wouldn’t have the serials-I still have the original boxes, and if I get the next few, I’ll have those ones.
I do tend to get rather “download happy” I will confess, but fortunately, fewer people are making stuff for Sims 1, so I won’t have to worry about so much stuff being around to tempt me. (Although-CAN I put stuff on the external and use it from my laptop-or is that just for storage?)
Thanks. Now I can just say to her-SEE!!!
My girlfriend plays the Sims 2 on her laptop all the time. Now, it probably won’t run the upcoming Sims 3 but I would argue any computer made within the past 5 years would run the original Sims with no problem.
The one issue you *might *have is compatibility with the operating system. I’m not sure what OS the laptop has and if The Sims will run on Vista (if the laptop is indeed running Vista). But you can always check the game’s website to see if they’ve released any patches.
If that’s an issue, you can always install Windows XP on an separate partition/external harddrive and run it from there, if you’re so inclined. Or just play the Sims 2.
Oh, it’s from Mom talking to my Uncle Mike, her brother. Uncle Mike is a computer expert, and he told her not to put too much stuff on your computer, because you don’t want to it crash. Naturally, she interprets this as “Don’t put ANYTHING on, that’s why it’s soooo slow!”
(I looked again-the external is 250gigs. Still, I plan on putting about, oh, maybe 17 gigs worth of stuff on THERE, and that’s about it. Then I’d just have my Sims stuff on the new computer, and Jasc Paint Shop Pro versions 7 & 8, and that’s about it.)
Why have a computer if you can’t play games on it? Solitaire?
The problem I would have switching to 2 or 3 is that I’m too attached to my Sims and everything I’ve downloaded and built, and plus they age and die in the newer versions-so I don’t like that.
(BTW, the new laptop has about 185 gigs available) Mum suggested getting a flash drive to play from there?
Not exactly. Desktops offer a lot more room for cooling and chip layout, so a desktop’s graphics card and CPU are usually both:
A. More powerful, and:
B. Cheaper.
That said, the Sims1 is not hardware intensive at by today’s standards, and should run perfectly fine on any desktop or laptop purchased within the last 5 years or so, and it’s very likely to for computers older than that.
No, you see, it’s because they don’t have room to walk around inside the skinny little monitor you get on a laptop. You need a full CRT to have enough space to fit them and all of their little houses and neighborhoods inside.
Also, don’t dismiss Sims 3 yet: You can opt to not have your sims age at all in Sims 3 as well.
And don’t bother running the game off of an external drive. External drives should be used for backup purposes. Install it on your main drive. Sounds like you have plenty of space.
What’s most important when wondering if a game will run on your Pc is the type and speed of you processor and the model of your graphics chip.
According to the website you need: Intel Pentium - 233 MHz CPU and a GPU with 64 MB of VRAM.
Hmmmm…I’ll look at the specs again. I’m sure I should be good. I’m still going with my old Sims, though-I’ve been dying to play it since I had to take it off my old computer.
Do I have to worry about the lap top over-heating if I start playing too long?
(As for the external, I’m mostly using that for all my pictures and things I have saved-but I’m trying to placate mother dearest. She also wants me to buy a flash drive to use for the Sims, as well as for Paint Shop.)
It sounds like both of you are a little confused between application files and general data files. You generally do not want to install applications (like the Sims, Excel, Word, Paint Shop) to a flash drive- I don’t think you’re even going to be able to do so if you tried.
Flash drives are meant for storing things that don’t require a lot of frequent read/write time. Hence you can use it for storing the Word .doc that you’re only going to be saving every ~15minutes or so, but not for the actual copy of the Word program itself, which needs to be put on a hard disk. So for the Sims, you might be able to copy your savegame data files over to a flash drive (however don’t expect them to work until you put them back - whereas Word will prompt you to specify a location when you’re trying to load a .doc, The Sims won’t ask), but you need to install the actual game application to the harddrive. And unless you’re talking about gigabytes of crucial savegame files, there isn’t really any point to even putting your savegame data files on a flashdrive.
(Although-CAN I put stuff on the external and use it from my laptop-or is that just for storage?)