Recommendations for Windows XP Gaming Laptop

Hello,

I already have a laptop I use for gaming, but I have a lot of old games that only go up to Windows XP. I don't know what good specs are apart from hard drive space. Can anyone recommend a good gaming laptop that's Windows XP, or XP compatible? I know laptops aren't the best for gaming, but it's the only way I have space for it.

I'd appreciate it if people would actually give recommendations instead of trying to convince me to upgrade to Windows 7. I already have one computer I use for everything else. I'm not going to use XP to go on the internet, just play certain XP-only games off-line.

Thanks!

Do you not know Windows has built in compatibility settings that if you haven't tried might make them work. If that doesn't work like it does for 99% of the xp games I have why not just buy a portable hard drive install XP and boot from it instead of your internal drive and save yourself some money as buying an xp laptop is kind of well pointless if all you want to do is play games made for xp and you all ready have a laptop.

I have a Mac laptop, but I want to branch out to a Windows gaming laptop.

So if I get a Windows 7 laptop, I could run XP games on it, even if it doesn't say that they're compatible with 7? And if they didn't, installing XP on an external hard drive and using that would work?

Apologies if I'm asking really obvious questions, but I haven't used a Windows computer for ten years, and I unfortunately don't know a lot about computers anyway.

How old are the games? But if the games were designed for Windows XP, they're going to work with Windows 7.

The oldest are from 2001-2002, and are 95/98/XP/Vista compatible. So if I get a 7 laptop, these games should run on it?

Best if you list the games.

Also...... Are you running XP natively on a Windows XP laptop or are you going to run XP via on the Mac laptop via Bootcamp or via Parallels/VMWare/VirtualBox?

Apparently most of the games I want are able to be run on Windows 7, at least that's what they say on the publisher's website.

The only other game I can think of is The Oregon Trail (http://www.amazon.com/Encore-16841-Oregon-Trail-Edition/dp/B002CMU748/ref=pd_sim_sw_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=0NAC634EN0FAEWXR9F92, http://www.amazon.com/The-Oregon-Trail-Adventures-Edition/dp/B00005LBVS, and http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0439381673/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_3?pf_rd_p=1944687562&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B002CMU748&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0STN3AA7Y2B682E59T6S) (Apologies for no links, but it's not working when I try to create them.). My little cousin and I used to play it all the time. On each one, some say that it will work on 7, and others say it won't. I tried to look it up on the publisher's website, but they don't make this version of the game anymore.

I think this might be the solution your looking for, unless you really want to have a windows only machine as well. If the later is what you decide I'm sure me and others would be glad to make suggestions.

http://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac/how-run-windows-on-mac-3497251/

@operaphantom21: According to reviews of The Oregon Trail 5th Edition, it should work with (32-bit) Windows 7. It seems it's the earlier editions that do not.

It might not work on 64-bit Windows 7 either.

I guess I'll be getting a Windows 7 laptop. What's the difference between 32-bit and 64-bit?

Can anyone recommend a good budget laptop that will work for gaming? As a college student I can't spend too much.

tell us what you can spend, someone could make a better recommendation then

I can spend a maximum of $300, which isn't as much as I wish I could spend. I'd prefer it to be able to use CDs and DVDs, have at least 250 gb hard drive (I have a 2 tb external hard drive I use), and no smaller than 13 inches (the size of the MacBook Air I currently have). I'm not picky about specs, so as long as it doesn't lag, it looks good, and handles well, that's all that matters.

If $300 won't cut it, do you recommend I save up more for a laptop?

Edit: One of my friends recommended an Hp Elitebook 8440p Laptop, or a Dell Latitude E6400, would either of these be good? Sorry for the lack of links, but the link thing isn't working for me.

Just looked up the Macbook air and damn are they priced at a premium just for their size. I'd still suggest just using that macbook with windows duel booted onto the drive or an external. The integrated graphics with the I5 or I7 you have should run all those old Windows xp games just fine. I say that as $300 dollars won't get you anything even worth looking at performance wise and at that price expect bloatware, spyware and a host of other stuff preloaded that will make an all ready weak machine even slower. Usually under $300, you get nothing but a browsing machine that can send emails view YouTube, maybe some netflix, or word documented. Nothing else.

I'd recommend never spending under $600 on a laptop if it's a windows machine and games are something you want to do on it. At that price and sometimes a little lower you can find some on sale that are actually half decent and can play modern games just fine at 762p medium setting.

If your price is that low then you might have to search Amazon or Ebay for a used laptop.

I was able to get a laptop with an i5 3230m CPU, 8GB of RAM and a Nvidia 650m 2GB vRAM GPU for 315USD on ebay just around 4 months ago.

It can play any game out and some run at max settings like Alien: Isolation and Metal Gear: Ground Zeroes.

Okay, so I'll save up for a gaming laptop, and in the meantime use Windows on my Mac. Is there a difference between Windows 7 32-bit and 64-bit?