Old guy down in computer aisle

[Billythegoat]

Ok , I come from a generation where you had to buy a calculator before you got a circuit board in the house. I played the SPI and Avalon Hill Board games in the 70's - 80's , I did have a Nintendo , and an Xbox . I really like the Combat Mission series of games (CM2 graphics) and have been binging on then in the Youtube channels. All I have now is a 1st generation IPad , I would like to get a laptop to purchase and play this series ( laptop just for portability and no real area I could set up a desktop). I can see system requirements for the games , but do not know if current laptops will allow me to play all the CM2 games , Battle for Normandy - Cold War. I did play the Panzer General, Allied General, and Pacific General on a prior laptop but when That Laptop died , the windows software went from XP to Vista , or the other way around , and I was unable to play those games , they would not load. So i have a few questions if anyone cares to answer

1. What current laptop could I buy to play all CM2 games ?

2. Laptops do not have a drive in them to load games these days , are these games physical ( like a CD sent to you ) or just downloaded ?

3. If downloaded how do you get all those games loaded  on a laptop's memory? 

Thanks in advance for any answers 

 

 

 

[StieliAlpha]

17 hours ago, Billythegoat said:

Ok , I come from a generation where you had to buy a calculator before you got a circuit board in the house. I played the SPI and Avalon Hill Board games in the 70's - 80's , I did have a Nintendo , and an Xbox . I really like the Combat Mission series of games (CM2 graphics) and have been binging on then in the Youtube channels. All I have now is a 1st generation IPad , I would like to get a laptop to purchase and play this series ( laptop just for portability and no real area I could set up a desktop). I can see system requirements for the games , but do not know if current laptops will allow me to play all the CM2 games , Battle for Normandy - Cold War. I did play the Panzer General, Allied General, and Pacific General on a prior laptop but when That Laptop died , the windows software went from XP to Vista , or the other way around , and I was unable to play those games , they would not load. So i have a few questions if anyone cares to answer

1. What current laptop could I buy to play all CM2 games ?

2. Laptops do not have a drive in them to load games these days , are these games physical ( like a CD sent to you ) or just downloaded ?

3. If downloaded how do you get all those games loaded  on a laptop's memory? 

Thanks in advance for any answers 

 

 

 

Let me try to give some answers:

1) CM2 does not have very high hardware requirements. I personally play it on a 5 years old gaming PC with an nowadays almost ancient Nvidia GTX980 graphics card and I am perfectly happy with it.

Many people here play it on a lap top. So, in general terms: CM on a lap top? No problem. Though others are more competent to give you spec’s.

@Schrullenhaft comes to my mind...

2)  Nowadays everything is download content. Sadly, no more DVD’s.

3) The CM games require only a few GB of your disk. Your potential new lap top will probably have a minimum 1000 GB SSD. Space enough for all CM games plus many many mods, even after Win10 reserved it’s share.

Good luck and have fun with Combat Mission.

Edited May 15, 2021 by StieliAlpha

[Redwolf]

You don't even need a current laptop. I have a Dell G5 with a 1050 mobile NVidia that plays CMx2 just fine unless you load up monstah maps. I think I paid $800 for it used quite a while back.

Of course my $4500 Macbook is a bit nicer. Oh yes, the Dell has a useless trackpad, so buy a mouse.

The bigger CMx2 games are 17 GB. So you can last quite a while with 1 TB of storage.

[Schrullenhaft]

A major consideration with purchasing a laptop will be what your price limit will be. Laptops tend to have a bit of a price premium compared to a similar desktop. There's also a lot of reliability and ergonomic factors that are somewhat fixed with a laptop. I'm not sure what brands are truly the best in this regard. For CM what you MIGHT be looking for may be regarded as a 'gaming laptop' or a 'desktop replacement'. This is a term that suggest that the laptop may not have a whole lot of running time running off of a battery.

Features to consider when it comes to a laptop (purchasing new; used ones could probably relax some of these specifications):

1. CPU:  I would suggest something that has a base clock speed over 2GHz (though some laptops may advertise their CPU speed with their 'Turbo/Boost' speed). I would suggest an Intel i5 or i7 that is 8th, 9th, 10th or 11th generation (i.e. - an i7-9750H running at 2.6GHz; a 9th generation CPU). Ryzen 5 and 7 series CPUs can also work, but I don't have a lot of experience with them running on laptops. CM is mostly a single-threaded application that benefits from a high clock-speed. Generally I would suggest 4 cores or more for the CPU and as high a clock speed as you can comfortably afford. More cores are not beneficial for CM at this point, so opting for a CPU that has a higher clock speed rather than more cores would be the most beneficial for CM.

2. Memory: CM is a 32-bit application on Windows. It can only utilize up to 4GB directly itself. I would suggest a minimum of at least 8GB of RAM, while 16GB or 32GB would be good for the variety of other tasks you may utilize the laptop for.

3. Video: A LOT of laptops will have Intel integrated video. This is a GPU that is built into the CPU and is a cost effective and power efficient way to drive a display. However for CM there can be a number of limitations with this GPU that can cause problems running CM. Therefore I suggest getting a laptop that has a 'dedicated video/GPU' (with Intel CPUs that Intel GPU will be present too and will actually run the display most of the time, with the 'dedicated video' being used for games or other graphically demanding programs), primarily I would suggest an Nvidia GeForce GPU. 4GB of video RAM should be sufficient. The lowest model I would recommend would be the GeForce 960, but most modern performance laptops should be offering the GTX 1050/1060, GTX 1650/1660, RTX 2060 and above. Laptop video chips are a little less powerful than their direct desktop versions. I would suggest an RTX 2060 if that is within your price range.

4. Storage: Most laptops should come with an SSD/NVMe solid state drive. I would suggest at least 500GB drive to fit most things comfortably on it. Larger is generally better, though some larger drives MIGHT have less performance or longevity (solid-state drives tend to have a certain lifespan for writes, though for most users this isn't too significant of an issue).

5. Ergonomic factors: Screen size, keyboard layout, mouse/trackpad. There's a variety of things that differentiate laptops and they'll be a personal choice. IPS display types for the screen offer somewhat nicer color presentation, but I'm not sure how to qualify that compared to other, standard display types. Often the brightest screen might look the best in a store. Screen refresh rate is a bigger deal for gamers that run high-framerate games, CM typically doesn't run anywhere at those framerates to probably make much of a difference with a high refresh rate display. As suggested above, definitely purchase a mouse to play the game (trackpads are just too infuriating to use with a game).

6. Reliability/Warranty: This is a hard one to quantify since each vendor has probably released flakey hardware (in the past or present). If you get a high performance laptop (like what is being suggested here), you'll want something with good cooling. Some laptops can easily overheat, especially on soft surfaces that might block some of the airflow or insulate the bottom of the laptop. A number of 'gaming/desktop replacement' laptops can be quite noisy when running with a demanding game (fans noise typically). You're tolerance for that (fan noise) may be a factor to consider. Looking at reviews for your laptop will probably be something you should do quite a bit of (Amazon, Newegg, BestBuy, etc.). However, where you purchase your laptop will affect what models are offered. So a model at Amazon might NOT be exactly the same as one that is offered at BestBuy or Costco. Sometimes the models are similar enough that the reviews might be relevant, other times the models may differ quite a bit in their specs and warranty (and possibly quality of build).

Edited May 15, 2021 by Schrullenhaft

[Billythegoat]

Thanks all very helpful , lets see if I can find a laptop with the above spec's , thanks Schrullenhaft

[Billythegoat]

Found a Acer Nitro5 in my price range , but only with 256GB SSD ( 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD (2 x PCIe M.2 slots - 1 slot open for easy upgrades) & 1 - Available hard drive bay ) does this mean I could get a seagate 2TB  Portable hard drive and plug it right in for the extra storage ?

[Lucky_Strike]

3 hours ago, Billythegoat said:

Found a Acer Nitro5 in my price range , but only with 256GB SSD ( 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD (2 x PCIe M.2 slots - 1 slot open for easy upgrades) & 1 - Available hard drive bay ) does this mean I could get a seagate 2TB  Portable hard drive and plug it right in for the extra storage ?

Yes a 2.5" HDD for bulk storage, or a 2.5" SSD for something a bit faster. Also worth thinking about - pretty sure the Nitro comes with USB-C Gen 2 port which should give a full 10gbps throughput, faster than the internal sata HDD socket. If you have cash to spare buying a full speed 10gbps external USB-C drive will give you a very fast external drive for backups etc - just a thought.

Ooh forgot to say, you could also stick another PCIe SSD in there, again fast, not cheap though if you want mass storage, and they can run a bit hot.

Edited May 17, 2021 by Lucky_Strike

[Redwolf]

3 hours ago, Billythegoat said:

Found a Acer Nitro5 in my price range , but only with 256GB SSD ( 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD (2 x PCIe M.2 slots - 1 slot open for easy upgrades) & 1 - Available hard drive bay ) does this mean I could get a seagate 2TB  Portable hard drive and plug it right in for the extra storage ?

It means you can add:

- a second NVMe SSD

- one HD or SSD in 2.5" format

- external storage as you wish, it will be fast enough

I have to warn you that a small C : drive is a pain in the allerwertesten. I would buy a bigger NVMe with this laptop and copy the windows install over to the big one, then move the small one to the second position.

It also sounds like this laptop has battleship dimensions. Did you see it in person? The only 2x NVMe + HDD laptop I have is a Thinkpad P50. The power supply alone is as big as the smallest Mac.

Edited May 17, 2021 by Redwolf

[Artkin]

The hard drive will go INSIDE the laptop. It has an available space inside that comes empty.

My 2c...

Laptops are still trash... PC prices are WAY TOO HIGH. If you want to play CM, you can run it on a 10-15 year old computer with little to no hardware.

I'm not even kidding.

[Billythegoat]

29 minutes ago, Artkin said:

The hard drive will go INSIDE the laptop. It has an available space inside that comes empty.

My 2c...

Laptops are still trash... PC prices are WAY TOO HIGH. If you want to play CM, you can run it on a 10-15 year old computer with little to no hardware.

I'm not even kidding.

it looks like the CM2 series of games have requirements that are manageable, but trying to find an older computer to play them for sale is a little difficult for someone who does not speak the language. 

[Billythegoat]

2 hours ago, Lucky_Strike said:

Yes a 2.5" HDD for bulk storage, or a 2.5" SSD for something a bit faster. Also worth thinking about - pretty sure the Nitro comes with USB-C Gen 2 port which should give a full 10gbps throughput, faster than the internal sata HDD socket. If you have cash to spare buying a full speed 10gbps external USB-C drive will give you a very fast external drive for backups etc - just a thought.

Ooh forgot to say, you could also stick another PCIe SSD in there, again fast, not cheap though if you want mass storage, and they can run a bit hot.

The reason for the extra drive is , the laptop would be my main computer, and if I got several of the CM2 games , I did not want to have to start limiting my use for vids or pics. I would not want anything to be installed in the laptop , my assumption is the seagate is just something I would use a cable to connect to The  laptop and hook it up every time I used the laptop. My life was spent in the operating room.

[Artkin]

18 minutes ago, Billythegoat said:

The reason for the extra drive is , the laptop would be my main computer, and if I got several of the CM2 games , I did not want to have to start limiting my use for vids or pics. I would not want anything to be installed in the laptop , my assumption is the seagate is just something I would use a cable to connect to The  laptop and hook it up every time I used the laptop. My life was spent in the operating room.

Realistically, hard drives are able to contain so much space nowadays that it's not even a concern anymore. Reliability and speed are much more important today. 

Western Digital's Enterprise drives (made for big companies... but people can still use them in their home pcs) are among the best of the best. They are usually made to fit the 3.5" form factor (for desktops) but they might come in 2.5" size (for laptops). 

These, or something similar should be totally okay for you. You should be looking for at least 1TB of space. But 2TB would have you set for ever..... good luck filling that up. 

Enterprise drives are made to be tougher since they're expected to be running at full capacity all day long. 

I use Western Digital Gold drives. I think they have a new name now, but should be the same thing. 

I've had a Seagate that I bought brand new fail on me. It took about 4 years. NEVER lost a Western Digital. 

Edited May 18, 2021 by Artkin

[JoMac]

Hey BillytheGoat,

Just get one of these older Dell XPS M1730 off Fleabay:

Dell XPS M1730 in "Computers, Tablets, and Networking" | eBay

Edited May 18, 2021 by JoMac

[Billythegoat]

18 minutes ago, Artkin said:

Realistically, hard drives are able to contain so much space nowadays that it's not even a concern anymore. Reliability and speed are much more important today. 

Western Digital's Enterprise drives (made for big companies... but people can still use them in their home pcs) are among the best of the best. They are usually made to fit the 3.5" form factor (for desktops) but they might come in 2.5" size (for laptops). 

These, or something similar should be totally okay for you. You should be looking for at least 1TB of space. But 2TB would have you set for ever..... good luck filling that up. 

Enterprise drives are made to be tougher since they're expected to be running at full capacity all day long. 

I use Western Digital Gold drives. I think they have a new name now, but should be the same thing. 

I've had a Seagate that I bought brand new fail on me. It took about 4 years. NEVER lost a Western Digital. 

Thanks for info

[Billythegoat]

6 minutes ago, JoMac said:

Hey BillytheGoat,

Just get one of these older Dell XPS M1730 off Fleabay:

Dell XPS M1730 in "Computers, Tablets, and Networking" | eBay

Will take a look

[John Kettler]

StieliAlpha,

It may be exclusive now to CMx2 Pre-Orders, but I've got DVDs for all the games I own, with one coming for Combat Mission: Cold War. Have ever made it my practice to obtain a physical copy of every CM game bought and to get the game specific physical manual, too, if one's to be had.

Regards,

John Kettler

Edited June 17, 2021 by John Kettler

[Erwin]

4 hours ago, John Kettler said:

Have ever made it my practice to obtain a physical copy of every CM game bought and to get the game specific physical manual, too, if one's to be had.

Probably all us old-timers prefer to actually OWN content.  I ordered many dozens of CD's rather than downloading MP files to a player.  Don't like the pressure to basically rent everything and own nothing.  One gets the sense that all this electronic internet stuff could all go down one day and people will wake up owning nothing.  At least with a generator one can make one's music and games work and not dependent on internet connection. 

Even now am listening to a news piece about ATM's or CC technology going down and people stranded unable to pay for anything.  Expect to see that happening with increasing frequency now we're in the cyberwar, hacking/ransomware world.

[sburke]

The problem with owning physical copies is 2 fold. 

First - CD drives are becoming increasingly rare.  The gaming rig I just bought didn't even come with one.  Hell my company won't even let us use USBs.  The world is moving rapidly to a software only online market.  

Second - when is the last time you tried loading CMBN from CD then upgrade/patch it to 4.0?  (most of which isn't available on CD).  I wouldn't even want to consider it.  I had done often enough for CMSF 1.  I never want to go through that process again.

I tossed all my CDs and now just keep the latest version of the full updater for all titles in 2 locations.  One of which is online just in case of a catastrophic PC event.

There is no difference between having an MP file or a game on your computer versus having physical media. You still have it in your possession and you still need a player.  Online only games are a whole other thing and yeah I'm not too thrilled about going that route either.

[chuckdyke]

There is still Solid-State Drives on which you can back-up all of your games. But who knows they may be on borrowed time too. 

[Erwin]

And one can always request a CD drive or buy an external.  But, yes, ext HD's and flash drives now they have large cap. are very useful as well.

[chuckdyke]

On 5/15/2021 at 7:22 AM, Billythegoat said:

but do not know if current laptops will allow me to play all the CM2 games

I had an Acer 8GB Ram and installed everything on a Samsung SSD Drive it played Engine 3 OK. Once on my holiday destination I connected the laptop with an HDMI Cable to an 84 cm TV. No problems I think it would play engine 4 too but now restricted because of Covid. 

[Erwin]

FWIW I have a 10-year old Win 7 laptop permanently in a remote location I spend time at and it is able to play all but the very largest scenarios with little problem (at highest res).  One can always lower the res to get better performance.

[Probus]

On 6/17/2021 at 5:18 AM, John Kettler said:

Have ever made it my practice to obtain a physical copy of every CM game bought and to get the game specific physical manual, too, if one's to be had.

I've bought all of my CM2 Titles online. Now that I think about it I wouldn't mind owning the hard copy of the game specific manuals.  I wonder if there's a way to buy just those?

[Monty's Mighty Moustache]

47 minutes ago, Probus said:

I've bought all of my CM2 Titles online. Now that I think about it I wouldn't mind owning the hard copy of the game specific manuals.  I wonder if there's a way to buy just those?

I don’t think BFC offer the game manuals in print. Print them out yourself?

MMM

Edited June 22, 2021 by Monty's Mighty Moustache

[Probus]

1 hour ago, Monty's Mighty Moustache said:

I don’t think BFC offer the game manuals in print. Print them out yourself?

MMM

I was thinking about that but some of them are in color.  I may start a thread to see if there is enough interest for Battlefront to add an option.  I really wish I had bought them now.