RejZoR's little secrets

Little technology secrets for big everyday problems...

Gaming on ACER Aspire One

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I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO UPDATE THIS LIST ANYMORE BECAUSE I HAVE REPLACED MY ASPIRE ONE WITH LENOVO S205 THAT'S USING MUCH MORE POWERFUL HARDWARE (AMD E-450 APU and Radeon HD6320). I CAN STILL TRY TO ADD USER REPORTED STUFF BUT IT WILL BE UNVERIFIED.

I've been playing with Aspire One for few days and this little kiddo is actually quite powerful.
So i've decided to test games on it and build a list of games that work fine.
Native resolution (1024x600) used when possible, otherwise the highest selectable lower resolution is used instead. The list applies to Acer Aspire One with Atom 1,6GHz, 1GB of RAM and Windows XP SP3!
The list will be updated when i try more games or when my great readers submit info about games that are not yet listed. If you've tested a game that is not yet listed, let me know and i'll add it. smile

LAST LIST UPDATE: 2011/10/03

GAMES PLAYABLE ON ACER ASPIRE ONE:
4x4 Evolution (all set to max)
Aliens vs Predator Gold (all set to max)
Aliens vs Predator 2 (all set to max)
And Yet it Moves (all set to max)
Bad Rats (disable Shadow stencil, 800x mode, runs in windowed mode)
Bejeweled 2 (all set to max)
C&C:Generals (all set to low)
C&C:Red Alert 2 - Yuri's Revenge (all set to max)
C&C:Red Alert 2 (all set to max)
C&C:Renegade (all set to max)
C&C:Tiberian Sun (all set to max)
Call of Duty (all set to low)
Carmageddon 2 (all set to max)
Chains
Chaser (Shadows set to blob, Medium textures and Medium curves)
Crayon Physics Deluxe
Commandos 2:Men of Courage (all set to max)
Croc 2 (all set to max)
Dangerous Waters (all set to medium or high)
Dark Reign:The Future of War
Diablo
Diablo 2
Duke Nukem:Manhattan Project (all set to max, use DirectX mode)
Dungeon Siege (all set to max)
Dungeon Siege 2 (use default settings)
Dungeon Keeper Gold (works in normal mode, Direct3D doesn't work)
EARTH 2150 (all set to max)
EMPEROR:Battle for Dune (all set to max)
Eufloria (may get slightly slower at certain zoom levels, but otherwise very playable)
F-22 Raptor (all set to max)
Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy (all set to max)
FEAR Combat (all set to low, small levels with not many players)
Flatout (all set to low, slightly lower framerate)
Flight Control HD
Galcon Fusion
Grand Theft Auto 3 (all set to max, just disable frame sync, frame limit and trails)
Grand Theft Auto:Vice City (all set to max, just disable frame sync, frame limit)
Grand Theft Auto:San Andreas (all set to low)
Gun (all set to max except textures)
Half-Life (all set to max, use Direct3D)
Hidden & Dangerous Deluxe (all set to max)
Hitman:Codename 47 (all set to max)
Hitman 2:Silent Assassin (all set to max)
Hitman:Contracts (all set to max)
Killing Floor (all set to lowest + KillingFloor.ini tweaks, playble most of the time)
KISS - Psycho Circus: The Nightmare Child (all set to max)
Lume
Machinarium (use Alt+F4 to exit the game, autosaving will still work)
Madballs in...Babo:Invasion (all set to max)
Max Payne (all set to max)
Max Payne 2 (all set to max, all medium recommended for fast performance)
MDK 2 (all set to max)
MechWarrior 3 (all set to max)
Midtown Madness (all set to max)
Midtown Madness 2 (all set to max)
Minecraft Alpha (depending on the map, use FAST graphics setting and TINY view distance)
Minecraft Beta (latest versions are again playable, adjust graphics a bit lower)
Moto Racer (all set to max, screen has to be set to 16bit)
Moto Racer 2 (all set to max, works only with this PATCH, music has to be muted)
Moto Racer 3 (all set to max)
Motocross Madness (all set to max)
Motocross Madness 2 (all set to max)
Multiwinia (all set to low, somewhat slow, probably worse with lots of units, but it works)
Nation Red (Disable Shadows, Particle to Low, disable blur and decrease number of bodies)
Need for Speed:Hot Pursuit 2 (all set to one level lower than max)
Need for Speed:Porsche 2000 (all set to max)
Need for Speed 2 (all set to max)
Need for Speed 2 SE (all set to max)
Need for Speed 3:Hot Pursuit (all set to max, works with my Vista patch)
Osmos
Peggle Nights
Plants vs Zombies
Project IGI (all set to max)
Quake 1 (all set to max)
Quake 2 (all set to max)
Quake 3 Arena (all set to max)
Rally Championship 2000 (all set to max, may crash with certain audio settings)
Re-Volt (all set to max)
Return to Castle Wolfenstein (all set to High)
Richard Burns Rally (800x600, 16bit, all set to lowest)
RUSH (slightly slower sometimes, but playable)
Serious Sam: The First Encounter (all set to normal/medium/standard)
Serious Sam: The Second Encounter (all set to normal/medium/standard, use Direct3D)
Severance:Blade of Darkness (all set to max)
SimCity 4 Deluxe (all set to Low or Medium)
Soldier of Fortune (all set to max)
Soldier of Fortune 2:Double Helix (use auto detected settings and 800x600)
Superbikes 2001 (set compatibility mode to WIn98/Me, all set to max)
Starcraft
Starcraft:Brood Wars
Starsiege (all set to max, use OpenGL)
Star Trek:Armada (all set to max, problems with sound and music)
Star Wars: Jedi Knight 2 - Jedi Outcast (all set to max, disable complex shadows)
Star Wars: Republic Commando (800x600, all set to lowest)
Swarm Arena (use Low graphics, may lag in mainmenu but works ok in-game)
SWAT 4 (all set to low, slightly lower framerate)
Swords and Soldiers HD (use Low texture quality to avoid corrupted textures)
System Shock 2 (all set to max, requires latest patch and -lgntforce switch)
The Sims (all set to max)
The Sims 2 (all set to low, expect longer loading times)
Thief 2: The Metal Age (all set to max)
Thief:The Dark Project (all set to max)
Tomb Raider 2 (all set to max)
Tomb Raider 3 (all set to max)
Tom Clancy's: Ghost Recon (all set to max, disable all shadows)
Torchlight (quite playable with all set to max, Netbook mode recommended for optimal performance)
Turba
Unreal 2:The Awakening (all set to high, disable detail actors to boost framerate in firefights)
Unreal Tournament 2003 (all set to Normal)
Unreal Tournament 2004 (all set to Normal)
Unreal Tournament 99 (all set to max)
V-Rally 2:Expert Edition (all set to max)
Warzone 2100 (all set to max)
Warcraft 3:Reign of Chaos (all set to max)
Warlords Battlecry 3 (all set to max)
Windosill (sometimes works slightly slower but still very playable)
World of Goo
Worms 3D (all set to max, not that there is much to set lol)
Worms Reloaded (lower settings prefered for smoother performance)
Zuma

GAMES THAT DO NOT WORK:
Age of Mythology (doesn't work, though some say it worked for them)
Alien Swarm (the game just closes without any errors after loading screen)
Alpha Protocol (GPU doesn't support Shader Model 3.0 error)
Area 51 (Midway free full version, framerate too low)
Batman: Arkham Asylum (GPU doesn't support Shader Model 3.0 error)
Blood 2: The Chosen (main menu screen flickers and is hard to use)
BloodRayne (GMA950 doesn't support hardware Vertex Shaders, OpenGL crashes)
Burnout Paradise Ultimate Box (GPU doesn't support Shader Model 3.0 error)
Clive Barker's Jericho (crashes on start)
CounterStrike:Source (too slow even on lowest settings)
Crashday (DirectX 9 device fails to initiate)
Crysis (too slow even on lowest settings)
Crysis Warhead (too slow even on lowest settings)
Dead Space (cannot initialize display hardware)
Defense Grid:The Awakening (too slow even on lowest settings)
DogFighter (doesn't start, just churns out massive error log and freezes)
Doom 3 (too slow even on lowest settings)
Exodus from the Earth (Graphic card not supported)
Far Cry (too slow even on lowest settings)
Greed Corp (GMA950 is not supported)
Half-Life 2 series (too slow even on lowest settings)
Hydrophobia: The Prophecy (GPU doesn't support Shader Model 3.0 error)
i-Fluid (too slow even on lowest settings)
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (GPU doesn't support Shader Model 3.0 error)
Need for Speed:Underground 1 (too slow even on lowest settings)
Need for Speed:Underground 2 (too slow even on lowest settings)
Need for Speed:Most Wanted (too slow even on lowest settings)
Need for Speed:Carbon (too slow even on lowest settings)
Need for Speed:Shift (crashes on startup)
Need for Speed:World (too slow even on lowest settings)
Need for Speed:Hot Pursuit 2010 (Unsupported GPU)
Painkiller (doesn't start, DirectX 9 errors)
Painkiller:Battle from Hell (doesn't start, DirectX 9 errors)
Project:Snowblind (too slow even on lowest settings)
C&C:Red Alert 3 (too slow even on lowest settings)
C&C:Red Alert 3:Uprising (too slow even on lowest settings)
Shatter (unsupported graphic card)
Section 8 (game crashes on startup)
Serious Sam 2 (doesn't start, black screen)
Sol Survivor (doesn't work at all)
Split/Second:Velocity (crashes on start)
STALKER:Shadow of Chernobyl (all set to low, too slow for me, but it works)
Stubbs the Zombie in Rebbel without a pulse (crashes on start)
SWAT3 (crashes, patch 1.6+ results in wrong CD inserted error)
Test Drive Unlimited (doesn't start, no error messages)
The Ball (Steam version, crashes soon after execution)
The Settlers 2:10th Anniversary (nothing happens when you start the game, no error messages)
The Suffering (Midway free full version, display device fails to initialize)
Tomb Raider and the Guardian of Light (GPU doesn't support Shader Model 3.0 error)
Trine (Steam version, nothing happens when executed)
Trackmania Nations Forever (too slow even on lowest settings)
Unreal Tournament 3 (kernel32.dll error on UT3 start)
Quake 1 GLQuake (screen corrupted, console overlapping 3D stuff)
Zen Bound 2 (graphics error, probably becase GMA950 doesn't fully support OpenGL 2.0)

1080p HD Video playback on any netbookMicrosoft Security Essentials problems and what has to be fixed

Comments

Unregistered user Friday, February 27, 2009 10:32:33 AM

Anonymous writes: Im putting max payne on there now! thanks

Unregistered user Friday, March 13, 2009 8:41:55 AM

Anonymous writes: I want to buy this laptop and play some simulator games like Falcon 4.0 and some others sims. Can you test some simulator games on the ACER Aspire One?

RejZoRrejzor Friday, March 13, 2009 11:34:18 AM

Ok, i'll test Falcon 4.0 demo today, to see how it works.

RejZoRrejzor Friday, March 13, 2009 2:19:20 PM

Ok, just one problem. Only demo that i could find out is packed in the most ridiculous way i could find.
First i had to dig up 2 separate parts, but now both fail to extract for some reason. If you can provide me or point me to some other demo of Falcon 4.0, i'm unable to test it for you. Sorry sad

Unregistered user Friday, March 13, 2009 4:06:33 PM

wondrs_cz writes: also Warcraft 3 (all set to max) :)

Unregistered user Friday, March 13, 2009 6:03:53 PM

SN1P3R808 writes: Thanks for trying to test Falcon 4.0 for me. Can you try Dangerous waters demo. Here's the link to the demo. http://www.sonalystscombatsims.com/dangerous_waters/demo.html Also try Lock-On demo. Link http://www.fileplanet.com/130891/130000/fileinfo/Lock-On:-Modern-Air-Combat-Demo

RejZoRrejzor Saturday, March 14, 2009 6:19:04 AM

Dangerous Waters works pretty well. Tried it with insane settings and everything checked and the 3D part was still running pretty well, though you could see the framerate isn't all that high. But if you only disable dynamic shadows, framerate jumps by 10-15fps!

Lock On on the other hand failed to run for some reason.
The game started, i could hear intro sound or music and then it just drops back to desktop. Could be just a problem with my system or drivers, can't say for sure.

Unregistered user Sunday, March 15, 2009 2:22:02 AM

SN1P3R808 writes: Hey thanks for testing them out. I really wanted to buy this laptop to just play Dangerous Waters but I've seen some other simulator games to play on it. I've used today a office max demo of this laptop and wow it's looks real nice and I love the display. Clear LCD images A+ I want a black color one. Best Buy has them with the 120GB hard drive for $300. I just wanted to only play some simulator games on it. I'll keep checking back on how other games playes with this laptop. =)

Unregistered user Sunday, March 15, 2009 9:41:19 PM

SN1P3R808 writes: Hi On your list I see F22 Raptor. Is it the Tom Clancy's : Hawx F-22 Raptor game?

RejZoRrejzor Sunday, March 15, 2009 10:09:52 PM

No. HAWX is the game of its own. F-22 Raptor is another one. Quite old one.
One of the first F-22 games.

Unregistered user Monday, March 23, 2009 3:20:19 PM

KotonKandy writes: Do you know if Everquest will work on this cutie? I would like to play EQ again, and I'm getting one of these netbooks in 2 days. Koton

Unregistered user Sunday, March 29, 2009 3:36:27 PM

Anonymous writes: does the resident evil games such as re1 and re2 using ps emulator, re code veronica using ps2 emulator and the pc version of re4 work on the acer aspire one.

RejZoRrejzor Sunday, March 29, 2009 5:08:00 PM

You can forget about emulators. Maybe by emulating SNES and N64 games.
But even N64 games will probably run pretty bad.

Unregistered user Monday, March 30, 2009 5:47:14 AM

Anonymous writes: how about half-life 1 and 2. and what do you think of streammygame.com, do you really think people can stream games over the broadband to their netbook.

Unregistered user Monday, March 30, 2009 10:33:09 AM

SN1P3R808 writes: Hey the list is looking great! I getting my AAO this week. It's black with 160GB HD. Can't wait. Hey Rainbow six RS and MOH: AA works great. Gunship! and Operations Flashpoint works great also. I bought these game to play on the AAO as soon I get it. Hey can you play these games without having to use a CD Rom drive once it's downloaded in the AAO hard drive?

RejZoRrejzor Monday, March 30, 2009 10:34:15 AM

Half-Life 1 should work, Half-Life 2 does work, but framerate is very very low. By forcing it to run in DX7 mode and by lowering hidden settings, it should work decent. But don't expect too much. I've also tried CS:S but framerate was 2 frames per minute lol. Regardless of what i tried with autoexec.

Streaming games from server should work fairly well, only downside i that you need another more powerful system to act as server and run actual games while on AA1, you'll only see video stream from that server PC.

Unregistered user Monday, March 30, 2009 2:50:50 PM

Anonymous writes: does doom 3 and farcry work on the aspire one. i have seen some farcry gameplay videos on youtube using the aspire one. anyway great list!

RejZoRrejzor Monday, March 30, 2009 7:15:23 PM

Doom 3 works but framerate is below anything playable. Same goes to Far Cry.
Maybe i should make another list with tested games that don't work too well.

Unregistered user Tuesday, March 31, 2009 9:05:41 AM

SN1P3R808 writes: Thanks for the info. Do you play games on the AAO with a disc drive? If so does the battery life shoten?

RejZoRrejzor Tuesday, March 31, 2009 5:34:34 PM

No. I'm using Alcohol 52% for virtual drive and just mount CD/DVD images.
Can't say for battery. I mostly use it on AC, when on battery i usually just browse the net or listen to music.

Unregistered user Wednesday, April 1, 2009 1:31:35 PM

Anonymous writes: what about quake 4?

RejZoRrejzor Wednesday, April 1, 2009 2:53:56 PM

Haven't tried it but since it's based on Doom 3 engine i'd say it's too slow to be playable.

Unregistered user Friday, April 3, 2009 5:31:16 PM

Anonymous writes: how about chronicles of riddick escape from butcher bay. it is not that demanding, will it work?

RejZoRrejzor Friday, April 3, 2009 7:04:36 PM

The engine is Doom 3 class, so no joy there either i'd say.
You can try to run the demo but since graphics are like Doom 3 on steroids, i don't think you'll get any useful framerate out of it.

Unregistered user Saturday, April 4, 2009 11:27:06 AM

Anonymous writes: hey does civilization 4 and age of empire 3 work on this netbook?

Unregistered user Wednesday, April 8, 2009 5:57:40 PM

Anonymous writes: You may add Age of Mythology to the list of playable games on the AAO. Just start the game in Diagnostics->Safe video from the start menu and select 800x600!

Unregistered user Thursday, April 9, 2009 7:05:52 AM

Anonymous writes: Oh,and you can run the game in full res 1024x600 by adding to the shortcut xres=1024 yres=600, like "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Age of Mythology\aom.exe" xres=1024 yres=600

RejZoRrejzor Thursday, April 9, 2009 1:23:22 PM

Got to try this one again i guess.

Unregistered user Friday, April 10, 2009 9:49:43 AM

Anonymous writes: hey can i play the lego games like indiana jones and batman on the acer aspire one. it has got minimum requirements which can run on any system.

Unregistered user Saturday, April 18, 2009 12:58:53 AM

Digital Snape writes: As to the question of Everquest 2, I have it loaded, and it starts but seems to slow to be playable - with everything turned as low as it can go. Mine has the 160gb hd and 1.5 gigs of ram memory upgrade. Perhaps more ram would help. Unfortunate too because WoW was working OK with some lowering of settings and tweaking. Dsnape

RejZoRrejzor Saturday, April 18, 2009 1:35:37 AM

You can try GMABooster to speed up graphics a bit.

Unregistered user Tuesday, April 28, 2009 6:14:52 PM

Anonymous writes: Does Diablo II work on the Aspire One? I really want the game for vacations when the internet doesn't work or when I'm bored.

Unregistered user Tuesday, April 28, 2009 8:24:58 PM

Anonymous writes: I really want Warcraft III for the same reasom as the guy above me, does it work?

RejZoRrejzor Tuesday, April 28, 2009 8:47:43 PM

Diablo should work (just as any other 2D strategy).
Considering C&C Generals are playable on it i'd say Warcraft 3 shouldn't be a problem. But i'll test both as soon as possible.

Unregistered user Thursday, April 30, 2009 6:48:03 PM

Anonymous writes: I would like to know also if Civ IV will work.

Unregistered user Friday, May 1, 2009 4:19:01 AM

Anonymous writes: i also own one of these computers add: Garrysmod (dx7 all on med-low) Age of epires 2-3 (all on high runs perfect) Battlefield 2 (all on low) Nintendo 64 emulation and all older systems Hl2 EP2 (saame as gmod aspire one loves source engine 2007) Team fortress classic (all on highest) Hl1+expantions (all on high) Oblivion (old oblivion patch with all on low or off about 25fps) Crysis (runs fine in dx9 10-20fps perfect sound quality) Sims 2 (all on high but textures) Operating systems :D Linux (95% of all them ubuntu 9.04 runs great) Leopard Tiger Panther Windows XP windows Vista (uber slow) Windows 2000 (i recommend) windows 98 (lol sucks) basically it. IF YOU BLUE SCREEN OF DESTH WITH HL2 DONT WORRY ITS A GLITCH IN THE SOURCE ENGINE WITH DX7 6.0 (6.1 works great) and 10 for some reason. Hope i helped :D

Unregistered user Sunday, May 3, 2009 10:35:27 PM

Anonymous writes: Does world of warcraft work?

Unregistered user Wednesday, May 6, 2009 3:30:31 AM

Anonymous writes: i bought acer aspire one screen 1024 x 600 / atom 1.6 / 1 giga ram /hd 160 gb , i test Conter Strike Source ( medium ) works great Doom 3 (all low) unplayable Hal Life 2 strangely crashes initializing memory read problem

RejZoRrejzor Wednesday, May 6, 2009 5:20:31 AM

CS:S on medium? No way. Not on GMA950. It was even half playable on Intel X3000 at 640x480 with everything to Low when i had GA-965G-DS3 mobo.
Tried it few times, even applied all sorts of hacks and tweaks, no real difference.

Unregistered user Thursday, May 7, 2009 3:07:40 AM

Anonymous writes: then run in dx7 and only play on untextured maps and yes world of warcraft with WOTLK gets 30pfs avrage

RejZoRrejzor Thursday, May 7, 2009 5:12:33 AM

DX7 with non textured maps. That must be enjoyable...

Unregistered user Thursday, May 7, 2009 7:51:53 PM

Anonymous writes: does the orange box work? it looks awesome.

Unregistered user Monday, May 11, 2009 4:14:42 PM

Anonymous writes: does spore work? what about mysims?

Unregistered user Friday, May 15, 2009 7:57:21 PM

Anónimo writes: What about Age of empires 3?? I've tried many times and it just wont work. Could you let me know if you can make it work please? Thanks!

Unregistered user Sunday, May 17, 2009 8:41:56 PM

Anonymous writes: will age ever work

Unregistered user Tuesday, June 9, 2009 5:45:28 AM

Sam Murray writes: Hi, nice work with the site, hope you're still responding to comments. I've extracted my Red Alert 2 .exe archive and when I run ra2.exe with wine, the game chugs and runs very slowly. Basically unplayable. Could this be a dodgy xorg.conf or because I'm running wine 1.0? Cheers Sam (gelugpa [(aht)] gmail.com)

RejZoRrejzor Tuesday, June 9, 2009 6:06:58 AM

I didn't make it clear that this list only applies to AA1 with Windows XP. I'll fix that. Sorry.

Unregistered user Tuesday, June 9, 2009 11:35:14 PM

Seb writes: I love this little machine, here's some I've tested to add to your list. Works: Dungeon Siege 2 Grant Theft Auto Vice City Superbikes 2001 (Compatibility Mode Win98, Turn Mipmaps On) Alien vs Predator 2 Gun Doesn't Work: Trackmania Nations Forever (Too Slow) Serious Sam 2 (Won't Run)

RejZoRrejzor Wednesday, June 10, 2009 6:08:24 AM

What graphics settings were used for those games that worked?
Also what settings were used for Trackmania?

This is important because some games (like SWAT4) work fine, but you have to set graphics to minimum for comfortable gameplay.
And there are games that do work, but are just way too slow even with settings set to lowest possible. And there are games that just don't work at all. They usually don't even start or they do but they just hang with black screen or something similar.
Just look how i rate games performance and write t down in a similar way smile

Unregistered user Wednesday, June 10, 2009 11:53:26 PM

Anónimo writes: age of empires works, but you need to change some settings. http://forum.agecommunity.com/forums/thread/817670.aspx

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