Have a win 7 mouseless laptop I’d like to put a game on and play for funs. Typically my go to game for olden computers is Heroes of Might and Magic 3 or maybe Civ 4. Any recommendations?
Diablo2, WC3, and RTSs would be tricky because lack of mouse and I’d prefer no rush to my actions so I can simultaneously be coding and just do minibreaks taking a turn or part of a turn here and there
Dwarf Fortress LNP is free and doesn’t require a mouse 😉 It requires a special type of insanity to learn, but the rewards are WELL worth it.
Here is a video of a drainable/refillable moat I made.
The quick transitions are Z-axis movement, you can only view one full Z-axis at a time. Dwarves go down so you’ll be diving into the depths of hell. Oh, and don’t mine the mithril tube unless you want to experience “fun”. No further spoilers. 😁
If you don’t want to learn the ascii, LNP comes with a few toggleable tilesets you can swap between, I personally just prefer the ascii. Once you can see it, it’s like being able to see the Matrix.
In case you’re not aware, there’s a project called VCMI which rewrites the Heroes 3 engine to add lots of modern improvements, fixes and easier access to mods. Thought it might be of interest since you like the game.
As for other games, how about XCOM? These games are turn based so you should be fine with touchpad + there’s plenty of time to think. Don’t know what specs we’re talking about but in case of modern revival, XCOM: Enemy Unknown should work without issues. XCOM 2 is slightly heavier but might also work.
You could also go for 4X titles like Star Ruler or Total War series.
Finally, there are turn-based RPGs like Knights of Pen and Paper - it’s light and pretty fun (as far as I remember anyway). A bit simple but might be enough to spend some time on.
The more modern Total War games are pretty hard to run, so keep that in mind OP. If you still have Windows 7 stuff like Total War Three Kingdoms or the Total War Warhammer games are going to laugh at you. That said, anything before Shogun 2 is likely to run on anything made post-2010.
Oh, totally. I never went beyond Shogun 2 so I forgot to mention it. Good catch.
Back in the olden days, when we used kerosene-powered computers and it took a three day round trip to get IP packets via the local stagecoach mail delivery, we still had games even though Steam didn’t exist yet. :b
We used to transfer software on these things called disks. Some of them were magnetic, and some of them used lasers (you could tell them apart because for the laser ones it was usually spelled “disc” with a “c”).
Anyway, those dis(k/c)s mostly still work, and we still have working drives that can read them, and because the brilliant idea of making software contact the publisher to ask if it was OK to run had only just been invented, we can generally still play games from the period that way. Some people kept their old games, but others sell them secondhand, which I believe the publishers still haven’t managed to lobby successfully to be made illegal, unless I missed a news report.
Even if you can’t get the original physical media for a game, sites like GOG sell legal digital downloads of many old games, which are almost always just the actual old software wrapped in a compatibility layer of some kind that is easy to remove, so you can usually get the games running natively on period hardware/software. Finally, some nicer developers and publishers have officially declared some of their old games as free for everyone to play.
There are still legal options for playing old games on old systems.
The same places you get old console games. Online auction and classifieds sites, and thrift stores, mostly. Flea markets and garage sales too, but they’re more hit-and-miss.
Have you really never heard of GOG? It’s an awesome platform. They allow you to actually buy games so you can 100% own them drm free. No Steam or whatever other game launcher is needed. Also they specialize in older games, so it’s perfect for this use case.
Well, games used to and still run on MS DOS, so Win 7 really isn’t an issue.
Myst
RimWorld! It’s an absolutely amazing colony builder
Nice answers everyone but this one is THE CORRECTEST ANSWER and what I’m about to play :)
