an old crappy laptop with:

processor: Intel Pentium 4, CPU 2.00GZ
memory:216.9 MiB
available disk space:13,5 GiB.
Multimedia audio controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] AC'97 Sound Controller
VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 65x/M650/740 PCI/AGP VGA Display Adapter
Running: Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid.

I've managed so far to play on Ubuntu :OTTD, Battle for Nobworth. I tried Americas Army, it was too slow to play. I tried Micropolis, lots of lag.

Any suggestions? I used to play games like Football Manager 2005 on this pc while using XP, but it wouldnt work with Wine on Ubuntu. I love games like Command and Conquer, Transport Tycoon, Sim games and tactical shooters like Delta Force. I hate REALLY crappy graphics.

Cheers!

Do you have 3D graphics acceleration?
If so i would recommend Quake3 Arena.
One of the best FPS in my opinion.
You may be interested in the following link:

http://ioquake3.org/

Regards.
The trooper.

Buy a serious video card.

I think he wants to play realtime strategy games...
There is netpanzer, but he doesn't want to have "REALLY crappy graphics" (netpanzer has 2D graphics).

How about Glest? its a RTS with passable grafix and free

http://glest.org/en/index.php

I can almost guarantee you it won't run on an integrated Sis chipset on Linux ... no way.

Yes, Glest is basic but does need OpenGL. Software mode games - good old C&C: Red Alert and Sudden Strike would run through wine. So will Delta Force.
He has CPU power in buckets for smooth emulation

thanks for the suggestions, i have no idea how to check if i have a graphics accelarator, is there a way without trying to unscrew again?

EDIT

I aksed someone, and they said to put glxinfo into terminal and post results. He said i do have a graphics accelarator as it says 'direct rendering:yes'

Does that change anything??

Also, i did glxgears, and they run really smoothly, with '500 frames in 5.0 seconds = 99.966 FPS'

If they say 'direct rendering: yes' then you're lucky to have acceleration on that card, but don't expect too much from that chipset. If you're using the 'sis' driver (see /etc/X11/xorg.conf) then see 'man sis' for other possible options to improve performance, there are a few and you may want to try them.

I'm betting you might be able to play quake 3 based games at lowest resolution, maybe.

sudo lspci -v

Look for VGA compatible controller, it'll tell you what card and kernel driver is in use. Basically, if it isnt nVidia or ATI - forget about any serious 3D games. You migh have some very basic acceleration with SiS but it won't even run quake3, i dont think.

with only 216 meg ram and a pseudo 3d built in chipset ( that is working- dri =yes , surprising )

well not much maybe
"Extreme Tux Racer" might run , maybe ?
"viruskiller.1.0.7 "- maybe ??
"trackballs .1.1.4 " maybe ?
Scorched3d-41.3-2 might run
"Glaxium-0.5-4 "might run
"foobilliards -3.0a" most likely will not run
but "py-sol-IFC " will run and so will "free cell "
"word war vi " should run ( fun and addicting )
"Penguin Command-1.6.11" should run

Hi, thanks for the info, i'll have a good look at all of them. Yep, the laptop is crap, my apple was stolen a year ago and i lost my job so couldnt replace.

I did the lspci thing, this is what it said about the VGA controller:
"01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 65x/M650/740 PCI/AGP VGA Display Adapter
Subsystem: Uniwill Computer Corp Device 5100
Flags: 66MHz, medium devsel, IRQ 11
BIST result: 00
Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
Memory at dfee0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
I/O ports at 9c00 [size=128]
Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 1
Capabilities: [50] AGP version 2.0
Kernel modules: sisfb"

thanks again guys.

Even an old nvidia or ATI AGP card will give you better graphics that the sis POS. You can get them at computer stores where they sell used parts or refurbished ones.

Take your pick.......

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/items/_W0QQ_n...romZR40QQ_mdoZ

Regards.
The trooper.

How is he going to fit an AGP/PCI-E card in his laptop?
Software mode games all the way for Woohoo, sadly.

One more tweak to try: if BIOS allows to increase shared memory for SIS chip it can help to boost performance a little bit.