supported screen resolutions

[daviduk]

Hello, I am close to buying a refurbished laptop for general use. I hope to have the chance of playing some of my favourite older games on it from time to time but I am concerned about the screen resolution. One laptop I have in mind has a screen resolution of 1440 x 900. Would I still be able to play cmbo on this?

Thanks

[Schrullenhaft]

I believe you should be able to run CMBO on that. However it will NOT support the native LCD resolution of 1440 x 900. Instead the closest resolution will probably 1152 x 864. How the video chip and display handle that may be crucial question I cannot answer. Some displays will likely stretch the image out to fit the native resolution of the LCD, while others may only display the actual game resolution surrounded by black borders (a bit less common).

[daviduk]

Thank you for helpful reply. When you say the image may be stretched to fit the native resolution, does that mean the image will appear distorted on the screen.

The laptop (dell) should come with intel integrated graphics x3100, which should be good enough to run older games.

However I am also considering an old lenovo t61 which may have a different screen resolution (I am hoping 4:3). I need to find that out from the online store later today when they are open.

Should just add the usual resolution I play cmbo is 1600 x 1200 (on my pc).

[DARoot]

Greetings, Daviduk

There is, unfortunately, one other thing you may need to look out for.

Some of the Installation routines for games (such as CMBO, CMBB, and CMAK) will sometimes fail to detect an "on-the-motherboard" video graphics chipset properly, and may fail to install at all.

I have a laptop using the Mobile Intel® 965 Express Chipset, and normally run my desktop at 1024 x 768 x 32 bit color (60 Hz).

- CMBO will only install in "software" mode. CMBB and CMAK fail to install at all, since the detection programming believes I do not have a 3D accellerator (and they require at least 800 x 600 accellerated).

Of course, I do. It's just that the resolution detection routines don't recognize it. And it's a lot of fuss to overcome this.

DARoot

[altipueri]

I've got a collection of old PCs and laptops just so old games will be fired up occasionally. The variety of new settings gives me brain ache and I add to it by connecting laptops to external screens. Just occasionally I get a brilliant result - on a Win 7 with HD graphics CMBO was great.

Netbooks are really cheap now and although only 1024x600 screen you can get external screens secondhand for nothing or a tenner at a charity shop and they will play at 1024x768.

[Schrullenhaft]

The Lenovo ThinkPad T61's I've seen info for have been 1440 x 900 resolution displays.

The CMx1 series utilizes DirectX 5/6 routines. The Intel integrated video line should usually be fine (with the exception of the lack of visible fog effects) in most respects, though sometimes you are limited to the drivers that the laptop manufacturer provides, this could possibly result in the situation that DARoot experienced or other issues. I do NOT know the best Intel driver to use with the CMx1 series.

Most 'stretching' usually involves pixel-level stretching (some pixels being wider than others), which can make some items look a bit distorted (wider and flatter than they should be). I'm not sure of all the possibilities, but the pixel stretching may be different in different areas of the screen (moreso at the edges and less in the center, as a possibility). I'm not sure how advanced these stretching routines are and it may vary by video chip, driver and screen.

[daviduk]

Thanks for the replies. I went for a refurbished dell d630 in the end with the integrated 965 intel graphics. It should be running windows xp and have a screen resolution of 1440 x 900. Never had a laptop before so will be interesting to see what can be done with it, though will probably just be used as a back-up device and for testing and troubleshooting purposes (perhaps also as a portable device for watching/listening to media). Perhaps it will also be used for playing cmbo + other older games at some point!

[daviduk]

The refurbished laptop arrived yesterday and everything seemed to work on it ok. The laptop was higher spec than expected, 2.2 ghz vs 1.8 ghz, and performance seemed hampered only by a slow hard drive. The native screen resolution was 1440 x 900 (16:10 widescreen) which seemed ok for general use. The integrated graphics seemed adequate for cmbo. I installed cmbo but the best screen resolution available was 1152 x 864 (4:3). The image stretched to fit the whole screen and there were no black bars. The game seemed playable even at that low resolution, but since I have so far been spoiled with 1600 x 1200 resolution on my pc (q6600 and ati 4850 graphics) I think I would struggle to get a decent game out of cmbo on the laptop. I suppose one option could be to link my 1600 x 1200 monitor to the laptop but I didn't try that (the pc monitor also needs to be returned to samsung at some point for repairs).

I returned the laptop back to the online store that same afternoon as there were a number of black marks and blotches on the screen that bothered me (since the screen is what is looked at all the time). It was as though some business executive who had perhaps used the laptop at some point in the past had become used to jabbing at the screen with his finger. The screen lid also flapped about a bit when it was opened, though perhaps that is normal for refurbished dell laptops. I was told the problems would be fixed and the laptop returned to me.

[JoMac]

Hey Daviduke,

Since you have returned the D630 at the Online Store, try and opt for a slightly newer Dell D820 w/Centrino ( not Celeron ) 2.0 or higher CPU w/ATI-X600 Graphics ( or even the D830 Core2 Duo w/Nv140 Intergrated Graphics ) as you will find that eithter of these Dell Laptops work much better playing CMBO, CMBB & CMAK.

I first started playing CMBO with a D630 w/basic integrated graphics back around 01' time frame and it was barely adequate...You will be more impressed by either of the two listed Laptops above that came out around the 04'-06' time frames, and can be had on Flee-Bay for around $150.

Joe

[daviduk]

Thanks for the advice. The dell d630 was released around 2007, so it is not ancient. I believe the processor is an Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T7500 (4M Cache, 2.20 GHz, 800 MHz FSB), which seems fast enough for a cheapish second hand laptop. It scores quite well in the 'cpu passmark' comparison chart of all listed processors. It is even faster than some cheap new laptops being sold today, though newer laptops also tend to include improved integrated graphics + other faster components e.g. hard drives.

I wasn't after a cheap second hand laptop specifically for the purpose of playing cmbo, or for the purpose of playing any game in particular. I was just interested to know if it could! From what I have seen so far, the integrated intel 965 graphics seems able to do that, for older games at least (which I prefer). Though I do quite a bit of gaming, I don't think I would ever buy a laptop specifically for the purpose of gaming, I much prefer to do that on a pc, though with the obvious limitation of not being able to move a pc around very easily.

[JoMac]

Ops, my mistake as I was thinking of the Dell C640 ( which I had back in 01' )...Carry-On :-)

[Redwolf]

The laptop (dell) should come with intel integrated graphics x3100, which should be good enough to run older games.

Hmmm, not optimistic about that. I would highly recommend some half-decent Nvidia chip (second digit should be 5 or 6 or higher).

[altipueri]

I have an Acer 5620z laptop with XP and Intel x3100.

It runs all my PC games - CMx1, AGEOD, Paradox upto a couple of years ago. CMx2 is really blocky and slow so not really playable, nor AGEOD Pride of Nations or WW1. Hearts of Iron 3 is Ok, but not Crusader Kings 2.

So, for old games it is fine - Sid Meier's Gettysburg; TOAW; Civilization up to IV.

[daviduk]

Got the replacement laptop back from the online store, the screen is a lot cleaner but the laptop spec is completely different to the last one. It is still a dell d630 but the screen size is lower resolution (now 1280 x 800) and it has a slower processor (1.8ghz vs 2.2ghz). At least it does have 3gb ram. Most surprisingly, it now has a dedicated graphics card (NVIDIA Quadro NVS 135M), which makes redundant the original discussion about gaming on integrated x3100 graphics. However I did specifically tell the store I did not want the model which had the dedicated graphics card, since problems with that card on dell d630 laptops are well known (at the time, there was a mass recall of dell laptops which had that graphics card). The card is soldered onto the motherboard so there is no replacing it.

I can't be bothered anymore though to return the laptop and wait for yet another replacement, it is too much time, trouble and inconvenience (in addition to the cost of having to return the laptop). Since the laptop is second hand and has presumably already been well used, I'm hoping any problems with the graphics chip have long since been resolved. I believe there is a 6 month warranty on the laptop as well, so I might just put it through some graphics torture tests to see how well it holds up. If it lasts a year I shall be happily surprised. Lesson learned - never buy a second hand/refurbished laptop online - never really know what you are going to end up with!