Most netbooks aren’t really designed with gaming in mind. The Intel Atom processor and integrated graphics found in most netbooks just isn’t up to the task of handling 3D graphics at high frame rates. But there are definitely some games that run well even on older netbooks. I think it’s a bit early to put Starcraft 2 into that category, but the folks at Netbooks Spain have loaded up a beta version of the hotly anticipated real time strategy game on an MSI Wind U100. And you know what? You can play it.

With the game resolution set to 1024 x 768 pixels, you’ll only get about 5 to 11 frames per second. But if you adjust the graphics to 800 x 600, you can get 15 to 20 FPS. That’s certainly not great, but the game is definitely playable at that speed.

It’s also worth noting that this is a pre-release version of StarCraft II. It’s possible that the final version could run better on netbooks like the MSI Wind U100. I suspect it will run even better on machines such as the Asus Eee PC 1201PN with NVIDIA ION graphics.

You can find a video of the Wind U100 running StarCraft II after the break.

via Blogeee

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Netbooks are known for their, low screen resolutions, and relatively underpowered CPUs. I would argue that none of these things actually defines a netbook. Rather, small size and low price are the defining characteristics. If someone put a Core i7 chip in a 10 inch laptop and sold it for $400, I’d be perfectly happy to call it a netbook. That’s just not likely to happen anytime soon.

Anyway, given that netbooks generally do have slow processors, low screen resolutions, and integrated graphics, you might thing that they’re not much good for gaming. And if you only play bleeding edge games, you’re probably right. But it turns out that there are plenty of games that do play well on a typical netbook with an Atom N270 CPU and 1024 x 600 pixel 10 inch display. And I’m not just talking about Bejeweled and Tetris clones.

GamingBolt rounded up 100 popular games and tested them on an MSI Wind netbook as well as a 2-year old Dell laptop and a 9-year old HP desktop. The verdict? You’d be surprised at how many ran smoothly on the netbook. That includes first person shooters like Quake III, Max Payne 2, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, role playing games including Final Fantasy XI Online, Neverwinter Nights, and Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind; racing games including Need For SpeedUnderground 2 and NASCAR Racing 4; strategy games including Starcraft and Civilization III; and adventure games including Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Rayman 2.

For the complete list, and more details about gameplay on each game, hit up GamingBolt.

via Netbook Reports

Joe Rybicki is a freelance writer who’s spent the last 13 years covering the video game and technology industries. He currently runs Plastic Axe, a blog about music games.

Netbooks are, generally speaking, fairly businesslike devices. We buy them for word processing, web browsing, and e-mail, not for music production or game playing. We buy them for their size and weight and battery life, not for their graphics chips and processing power.

But netbook owners aren’t totally out of luck when it comes to gaming, you know. We’ve got a whole suite of older games at our disposal, for one thing; many of the hottest games from even three or four years back run just fine on a machine with a 1.6 GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, and no dedicated video card. And thanks to the internet and other wonderful technologies, you can take your pick of older titles via services like GameTap or GOG.com.

But that’s not what I came here to tell you about. I came to talk about five recent games that your little road warrior can handle.

5. Torchlight

If you’re old enough to remember Diablo, the concept of Torchlight will be very familiar: Create a character, equip him or her with fantasy weapons, armor, and gear, and hit the dungeons to bash the crap out of waves of nasty creatures.

The hack-and-slash RPG is certainly nothing new, but Torchlight’s gorgeously cartoony art style and slick production values bring a breath of fresh air to the genre. And once you’ve spent some time digging into the game, you’ll discover that the character progression is astonishingly deep and varied, more so than what anyone has any right to expect from the simple, click-kill-loot-repeat gameplay.

You won’t find much to write home about in terms of the story, sure. But once you’ve gotten a taste of what the game offers in terms of character development, enemy evolution, and new areas to explore, it becomes astonishingly difficult to step away.

“But the game just came out last month!” you say. “Surely my lowly netbook can’t possibly handle it!” you say. Get this: Not only does the game run fine on most netbooks, it actually includes a special “Netbook Mode” toggle in the options screen that optimizes the game for underpowered machines. All that, and it’s only $20.

You can grab a demo from the official site, and unlock the full game via PayPal or Google Checkout. So on top of everything else, it’s convenient!

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The NVIDIA ION platform gets a lot of credit for enabling 1080p video playback on low power computers with Intel Atom processors. But NVIDIA ION systems are also pretty good at playing some (but not all) video games. I’m not much of a hardcore gamer, so I’ve been testing systems like the Asus Eee Top ET2002 with Age of Mythology, a 7 year old game that happens to be the newest PC game in my collection.

At a reader’s suggestion, I did download and try the open source first person shooter Nexuiz, and that also ran smoothly, although I confirmed to myself that I stink at first person shooters.

The folks at Laptop Magazine tried out a few other games for their review of the HP Mini 311 which has NVIDIA ION LE graphics. Basically, ION LE is exactly the same as the ION platform in the Eee Top ET2002 except that ION LE doesn’t support DirectX 10.

You can check out videos of the HP Mini 311 playing World of Warcraft and Spore at Laptop Magazine’s blog. The verdict? Both games are pretty playable since the GPU handles most of the heavy lifting.

MSI is launching a “Windy Zone” software pack for MSI Wind U100 and U90 users. There are currently 6 games and one rather useless app called MSI Q-Face that lets you add cheesy effects to your instant messaging icon.

The gamepack actually looks like it could be fun. The games include a few scrolling space shooters like Chicken Invader and Star Mission, and some other games that I can’t really tell much about from the images, including Chicken Shake, Island War, Loco, and Smileyville.

MSI doesn’t say where you can get the Windy Zone software, so it’s likely that the apps will be preloaded on future netbooks rather than posted online for download. Some members of the MSI Wind.net forums noticed a similar offer a few months back, but the web page was taken down before any games were ever released. MSI’s latest announcement is dated today, which could mean the software wasn’t ready to ship in December, but should be available soon. I think?

via Eee PC.net

Netbooks like the Asus Eee PC may not have the graphics processors or CPU speed to handle bleeding edge video games. But they’re plenty fast enough to help you get your fix of old school games like StarCraft. Or if you’re a bit more ambitious, it turns out you can also install a Windows application called RemoteJoyLite that will let you plug a Playstation Portable (PSP) into a USB port and turn your netbook into an external display for your handheld game console.

While the games still run on the PSP itself, RemoteJoyLite makes it look and feel like the PSP is just a remote control.

The PSP has a decent screen for gaming in the back seat of a car or on a train. But if you’re planning on getting your game on while lounging around the house, this hack will let you play your games on a larger screen.

You can find a video showing RemoteJoyLite running on an Eee PC 701 after the break. The software isn’t officially sanctioned by Sony, so I’m not going to link to it here. But if you’re familiar with a search engine called Google, you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding a download link.

via Blogeee

Sure, some folks buy laptops because they want to be able to get work done while on the go. But others have less serious goals in mind. After all, why should you be chained to your desktop when you want to play Call of Duty?

It turns out that most modern netbooks with Intel Atom CPUs are more than capable of running games, even games that require some 3D acceleration. No, you’re not going be able to play a bleeding edge game like Crysis without dropping a few frames. But plenty of games will run just fine. And in general, the older, the better.

With that in mind, the folks at Wired’s Gadget Lab decided to throw a Super Nintendo emulator on an MSI Wind netbook, plug in a USB joystick, and play some Mario Kart and Street Fighter II. The results? Pretty awesome. Basically it’s like having an SNES to go in a box that’s smaller than the original SNES game system. Check out the video for yourself after the break.

Of course, it should come as no surprise that you can run an SNES emulator on a device with a 1.6GHz CPU. After all, there are a couple of decent SNES emulators that run well on PDAs with 400MHz or slower processors.

But there’s one thing no PDA that I’m aware of can handle: a PS2 emulator. Sascha at Eee PC News.de dug up a video of one user playing Final Fantasy X on an Eee PC using a PS2 emulator. I have to say, playback isn’t nearly as smooth as with the SNES emulator. It looks like the game is running at half speed, at best. But it’s still pretty. There’s a video of FFX after the break as well.

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