ThinkPad X200s as a retrogaming laptop? \ VOGONS

ThinkPad X200s as a retrogaming laptop?

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First post, by mukko

Posted on 2018-04-05, 16:57

mukko Offline

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Joined: 2018-04-04, 11:53

Hello,

I'd like to play some games like the first Grand Theft Auto, Motocross Madness, Midtown Madness and Zoo Tycoon. I've spent so much time on them in my childhood, I don't have the disks anymore but I bought them already for cheap on eBay.

As for the hardware I have a Lenovo ThinkPad X200s that's sitting there doing nothing. It's a bit too sluggish for modern tasks so I thought I could repurpose it into a retrogaming machine, is it a good idea?

Right now there's Windows 10 installed, should I bother downgrading to Windows XP to run those old titles? Is the Intel integrated card (GMA 4500MHD) going to be an issue?

Thanks for your help

Reply 1 of 2, by Pabloz

Posted on 2018-04-06, 00:24

Pabloz Offline

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Joined: 2017-04-22, 22:36

im not a fan of gaming laptop

during the 90s the lcd screens sucked, things suffered blur, delay even moving the cursor and you see its ghost, colors were not vibrant
Second of all is the screen resolution, while DOS games had 1 resolution...retro laptops came with a higher resolution,therefore the pixels looked weird. or view area was smaller than the screen.

Reply 2 of 2, by Tiido

Posted on 2018-04-06, 08:31

Tiido Offline

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Location: Norway (used to be Estonia)

If the screen is anything like my X200tablet then it wouldn't really be very good for gaming, while the IPS panel has nice color and decent contrast it has terrible response time. I'm not sure how well it would work for DOS stuff, the CPU would be at 100% all the time and I have doubts the cooling system will handle it, perhaps if you can find an util to change CPU speed in DOS for the C2D you'll be able to get somewhere. I also have no clue what VESA modes it supports and if it has any PS/2 emulation support for USB mice. There will also be no sort of SB compatibility. Now if retro means old windows games then there's not really much point in that either, the thing is not capable of 100% CPU use for extended periods of time and the screen sucks for anything that moves.

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