RIPOFF City!

[WahooSteeler]

Dude, nobody needs thicker skin, that's how your response was interpreted, and we all know that's a difficult part of communicating without being able to hear a person's intent. Unfortunately your first response to Eagle did not defend or define what you were intending to say, i.e. that reading the box is all the "gamestop" employees would do. So before I go further, no harm done now that you've explained your comments.

 

And, no offense, but all of your suggestions are no different than what has already been offered. IMO, what IS helpful is that I think you seem to be the biggest "gamer" of all those that have posted so far. FWIW though, maybe if you had said up front "I play a lot games and yada yada yada" your posts may not have been misinterpreted LOL. :cheers:

[Badger]

you might want to go back further and reread.Post 5

 

It all comes down to what games she wants to run.If its some kind of first person shooter it comes down to the video card and the amount of RAM.Hard drive space is irrelevant.Its nice to have but don't buy a computer just because it has a large hard drive.

 

If its a smaller game that is not so demanding on the video then pretty much anything can run it.

 

Gaming is pretty much all I do when I come home from work.I play all first person shooters(FPS) games.I have run several online serves.I waste about 2 grand on just the computer itself about every other year.This is not including peripherals(monitor,keyboard,mouse,etc..).If you are truly looking into a new box make sure its based on the Intel core 2 Dou processors.Its been kicking the pants off of everything else including the dual core AMD processors.Try to make sure the rig has atleast 1 gig of ram ,anything that runs the crappy Windows Vista needs 2 gig since it will eat almost a gig just for windows to run smoothly.

[WahooSteeler]

"But Daaaad, Eagle started it when he said Badger was insulting first."

 

Good thing this discussion is on the web and I can type while I choke on my crow here! :oops:

 

Oh well, just like The Fonz, I can admit when I was wr, wr, wrrrr, wrr nnn, wrrrr, ..............uh, wasn't right. You have to admit, you must have laughed (ok, "snickered" and thought I was a Moe-ron) when I ended my post with,

 

"maybe if you had said up front "I play a lot games and yada yada yada" your posts may not have been misinterpreted".

 

Eagle, whatever Badger says, I'm with him.

 

Anybody got any meat tenderizer and hot sauce, this crow tastes like $#!+!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Man, I hope the real :brows: Wahoosteeler isn't mad when he comes back to the forum and realizes I jacked his username and made him look like an @$$!

[Badger]

Its all good I do it from time to time.Can't always be right,right

 

My real question is what games does she have and want to play.You might not have the original packaging but the CD should have the name of the game on it.If not if you drop it in it should bring up a splash screen with the game name .

 

If I know the names I will look them up myself and tell you exactly what you need to run them.

[dakal]

tigerdirect.com

[WahooSteeler]

I was helping a co-worker search out a good deal today and saw this one Eagle. Plenty of others I'm sure, but lots of speed and capacity on this one for under $400. It IS refurbished from HP though, so reduced warranty period. The other guys will have to comment on if the vid card is any good, but RAM, hard drive (including higher speed) other specs seem pretty good.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6883107510

[jeepdoggydogB]

Wow that is a good deal, the ebay auction I linked to is up over $325 after shipping and that box has half the RAM and is used compared to the brand new HP.

[Badger]

Thats not a bad deal for the main rig.You want to stay away from on board video cards when building a gaming rig.On board cards also use the mother boards processor to render graphics which will slow down the game.

[Eagle]

You still haven't answered the important question .What game/s is she trying to play on the machine.knowing this information means all the difference between just upgrading what you have to fulling having to buy a new machine.

The problem is, I don't know. It's a piracted copy she brought with her from Chile, so there's nothing on the CD that means anything to me. When I put it in my notebook computer all we got was a blank screen (grey, not even a blue screen of death), and in my desktop it froze the machine -- so I don't even get to a splash screen that I can identify.

 

And she speaks Spanish and I don't, so she can't explain to me what the game is about. She's a "young" 12-year old girl, so it ain't Mortal Combat or any of those military sniper games ... but I don't have a clue what it is.

[mjeff87]

"el taco de muerte".......

 

:D

 

Jeff

[Eagle]

Having just posted that I don't know what the game is ... I think I do know, if I understood her correctly. I *think* she said it's "The Sims 2" (deluxe).

 

Is that a game anyone has ever heard of? Anyone know what it requires to run?

 

Thanks again.

[Kenosha Warrior]

if its pirated then get your wife to double check with her that it acctually WORKS on her comp back in Chile.

 

Sometimes the encryption stuff will just make your machine brick itself if it tries to run a pirate program.

[shane634]

I agree with most on this issue. Gaming rigs need big RAM and good Vid cards. I am typing this on an Alienware Aurora M9700 2gigs of RAM and dual Nvidia 7900 vid cards running in SLI mode. Yes it was an expensive machine, but we won it from a Roadrunner contest online. You can take your old comp into any competent ( non big box ) computer shop and most likely have it upgraded.

 

On your ram issue if the board doesn't recognize more than 512 make sure you are using the correct speed ram ( pc100 and pc133 ) are older modules and may not be recognized in newer machines. Check your old ram to see if a speed is printed on it then match that. Also note some older boards just can't hanlde more than 512 on the RAM.

 

In my opinion building the box to your specs is way better than buying something of the shelf. Usually cheaper as well. Good luck with it.

[feerocknok]

If you have a T&L (info about what T&L is below) capable video card with at least 32 MB of video RAM (such as nvidia GeForce 2 or better or ATI Radeon 7000 or better) then you need at least:

 

800 MHz processor

256 MB RAM if Windows XP

128 MB RAM if Windows 98, Windows ME, or Windows 2000

At least 3.5 gigs of free hard drive space

 

 

If you have a non-T&L capable video card (such as TNT2, Intel, or Rage for example) then you need at least:

 

2.0 GHz processor

256 MB RAM if Windows XP

128 MB RAM if Windows 98, Windows ME, or Windows 2000

At least 3.5 gigs of free hard drive space

 

 

From the nVidia website's glossary Transform & Lighting (T&L) definition: Two separate engines on the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) that provide for a powerful, balanced PC platform and enable extremely high polygon count scenes. Transform performance determines how complex objects can be and how many can appear in a scene without sacrificing frame rate. Lighting techniques add to a scene's realism by changing the appearance of objects based on light sources.

 

Some other notes about video cards: T&L video cards started shipping around 3 years ago, so if you got your computer in the last couple of years you should check and see if you have a T&L card.

 

It's always a good idea to make sure you have the most current drivers for your video cards. The manufacturers usually have the video drivers on their sites for you to download. Visit the nVidia site or the ATI for the latest drivers for those video cards.

[chicofuentes0224]

Well Eagle , I can't help you with video games but if you ever need anything translated, just pm me or type it here . I'm fluent in spanish if you need help. (Parents are from Argentina, Grandparents are Italian.) Or just have her type it and I'll get back to you guys.

[JeepcoMJ]

Well Eagle , I can't help you with video games but if you ever need anything translated, just pm me or type it here . I'm fluent in spanish if you need help. (Parents are from Argentina, Grandparents are Italian.) Or just have her type it and I'll get back to you guys.

 

lol, I think he's pretty much there...he did, after all, marry into a spanish speaking family if i'm not mistaken

 

;)

[Badger]

If its is SIMs it will run pretty much on anything .Its not a graphic based game .If its not running or even going to a load screen its the disk itself.It was most likely not burned properly or it is scratched to all hell. I would suggest going to the story and buying a legal copy for her and it should have no problem loading on the current machine you have now.

[Eagle]

Yeah, her birthday is coming next week so I think I'm going to just buy a new copy. I tried to read (not load) the CD in my computer using Windows explorere and all I got was a "Drive Not Ready" error message. I guess that's what we might call a "clue."

 

Thanks, gents. False alarm. (I hope.)

[WahooSteeler]

Eagle, let me get this straight, after 3 pages of posts and you making me and Badger almost go to Emoticon blows ;) , it's as simple as "it's a pirated copy from Chile, i'll just go buy her a legal one"? :nuts:

 

Everybody! Flame the moderator, flame the moderator!!!!! LOL :D

[jtdesigns]

Ok here's a run down of the thread..

 

 

Eagle- :hateputers: :dunno:

 

me- :hmm:

 

me- :deal:

 

Wildman-

 

BLHTAZ-

 

Badger- :thwak: :smart:

 

me- :razz:

 

lostissues - :typing:

 

wahoosteeler- :smart: :smart:

 

wahoosteeler- :smart:

 

DirtyComanche- :mad:

 

Wildman- :waving:

 

jeepdoggydogB- :typing: :thumbsup:

 

Eagle- :clapping: :headpop: :???:

 

jeepdoggydogB- 8)

 

lostissues- :thumbsup:

 

chicofuentes0224-

 

Badger- :thwak:

 

Eagle- :eek: :driving:

 

Kenosha Warrior- :smart: :Canadaflag:

 

Badger- :oops: :waving: :yes:

 

wahoosteeler- :cry:

 

chicofuentes0224- ;) :cheers:

 

Badger- :rant: :wall:

 

wahoosteeler- :rant: :cheers:

 

Badger- :papers:

 

wahoosteeler- :oops:

 

dakal- :agree:

 

wahoosteeler- :typing: :chillin:

 

jeepdoggydogB- :eek: :brows:

 

Badger- :smart:

 

Eagle- :dunno: :( :???:

 

mjeff87- :rotfl2:

 

Eagle- :huh???: :thumbsup:

 

Kenosha Warrior- :nuts:

 

shane634- :thumbsup: :smart:

 

feerocknok- :typing: ;)

 

chicofuentes0224- :chillin:

 

JeepcoMJ- :rotf:

 

Badger-

 

Eagle- :headpop: :fool: :thwak: :teehee: :banana:

 

wahoosteeler- :shake: :shake:

 

me- :nuts:

 

 

 

 

al least thats how I see it!!! yeah I'm bored..... :popcorn:

[Twisty]

That was awesome!

 

Eagle, can you take the game into CompUSA (or another store that sells computers) and try it in a more modern system there? I'm sure if you tell them that you are not sure if the game is the issue, or if it is your computer, they will let you throw the CD into the drive for 3 seconds.

 

Good luck!

[WahooSteeler]

JT, that was the frickin bizz-omb! Cracked me up, funniest post I've read since becoming a member. And no words!

 

Twisty, hell no! Don't go messin' with this thread and gettin' Eagle and the rest of us all worked up and spun around again! Besides, what's Eagle gonna say when he walks in:

 

"Uh, yes sir, I've got this bootleg video game that my 12yr old step-granddaughter brought over from Chile, and she doesn't speak any english so I don't know what game it is supposed to be but every time I try to run it on one of our computers the screen just blacks out. So, could I crash one of your displays to try to get it to work?" :roll:

 

Eagle, I hope no offense was taken in my little scenario there, none was intended, it just added to the humor in describing the scene IMO.

 

Looky here Twisty, JT put the finishing touches on this pony and she's off to the glue factory! Let her die in peace! :rotfl2:

[Eagle]

I wandered into Wally World today and wasted some time looking at computer games. They have the Sims2 game, and the system requirements greatly exceed anything I have in the house -- desktop or notebook. In fact, pretty much everything they have needs piles more horsepower than any computer I have -- even the cheapie $10 game CDs.

 

I finally found a couple of $10 discs that may run, and I found the last surviving copy of the original Sims game, which only requires a Pentium III 400 and 128 MB of RAM. That we have, so I grabbed that, and it'll just have to keep her happy until she gets back to Chile and can exchange pirateware with her uncle Sebastian -- on his computer, not mine. (I think I now I know why half the time when my wife is in Chile she has to use an Internet cafe for e-mail because Sebastian's computer isn't working right.)

 

Considering that my home computer is orders of magnitude better than what I use at work, this game thing is making it clear that something is seriously wrong. When a 12-year old child needs mega-times more computer than we use to operate a damned TOWN ... that's just plan wrong.

 

Good summary on the thread, by the way. I guess at this point I should append

 

Eagle: :nuts: :dunno: :hateputers:

[Wildman]

JT -

 

Yup, that about sums it up.

 

:jump:

[Eagle]

:cheers:

 

Today was a rainy, shut-in kind of day so Grandma took pity and gave the kid the Sims game today instead of waiting for her birthday. Success. It runs on Grandma's computer, and she's a happy camper (for at least 24 hours, probably).

 

Thanks, folks. I appreciate all the advice.