A popular criticism of gaming on the PC is the cost of upgrading your machine to meet the specifications for all the latest games. What people who say this tend to forget, though, is there are plenty of games you can play on your PC without needing a hulking beast of a computer to run.

In an attempt at converting more people to PC gaming, I’ve compiled a few of my favourite games that virtually any computer from the last ten years will be able to run without too much trouble. You’re not going to be running Crysis on your old hunk o’ junk, so why bother? Try one of these fantastic games instead. Chances are, they’re better than Crysis anyway.

Fallout

I’m sure you’re not surprised to see this here. Fallout (and to a lesser extent, Fallout 2) was, ironically, a haven in a wasteland of linear games. Fallout is famous for being incredibly flexible to the player; most notable is the ability to play through without even using combat, just by interacting with the huge cast of characters. So open was Fallout that people are able to play through the game and see almost nothing that another player might have seen. Sure, there are modern games that use the “open world” dynamic, but Fallout still stands up as one of the biggest and most expansive worlds open to players today.

System Requirements:

DOS: Pentium-90, 32 megs of RAM, 2x CD-ROM drive, SVGA (VESA-compliant), SoundBlaster-compatible.

Win95: Pentium-90, 16 megs of RAM, DirectX 3.0a or 5.0, 2x CD-ROM drive, SVGA, DirectSound compatible sound card.

Mac: PowerMac with 16000k free memory, CD-ROM, System 7.1.2 or higher.

All versions require 10+ megs of hard drive space and a mouse.

Peggle

It’s not only old games that run on old PCs. Peggle is only two years old, but it has already reached the unofficial title of “most addictive puzzle game ever created”. The game consists of firing a ball at pegs in the hope of clearing all of the orange ones using just ten balls. Simple formula, but the result is an incredibly addicting and absorbing puzzle game. Well, I say puzzle game, but when you really break it down, there’s not much you can control directly other than the first few bounces of the ball. Even so, Peggle has eaten so many hours of my life that it just has to go on the list.

System Requirements:

Win 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista: Pentium III, 700 MHz or faster, 256 MB RAM, DirectX 7.0.

Mac OS 10.3.9 and later: G4,G5 or Intel Core Duo, 256 MB RAM.

15Mb disk space and an Internet connection is required to register both the download and CD-ROM versions of the game.

Grim Fandango

Tim Scafer’s masterpiece Grim Fandango was an obvious choice for this list. The game is undoubtedly one of the wittiest and best written games ever made, and features a cast who, ironically enough, are brought to life with excellent voice acting and a fantastic story. Okay, I might be laying on the praise a bit heavily, but this game really deserves your attention. The adventure genre, often considered a dead art nowadays, reached a peak in Grim Fandango. There’s only one excuse not to play this game: illiteracy. If you’re reading this, you need to play Grim Fandango.

System Requirements:

Windows: 133 MHz processor, 32 MB RAM, 30 MB hard disk space, 4 MB video card.

Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2

Perhaps not the most critically acclaimed game on this list, but certainly one of the best in terms of sheer fun. Command and Conquer: Red Alert 2 is a full-on real time strategy game full of preposterous and brilliant units, topped with a helping of self-parody and real-time FMV silliness. In the universe of Red Alert 2, tanks that can become trees face off against soldiers that can mind-control other units, and it makes sense. The expansion pack even added flying saucers. A fine example of an RTS that is pure entertainment from start to finish.

System Requirements:

Windows: 266 MHz Processor, 64 MB RAM, 350 MB HDD space, 4x CD-ROM Drive, 2 MB video card, DirectSound-compatible soundcard.

Deus Ex

Widely considered to be one of the best PC games ever made, Deus Ex is an example of an FPSRPG- that is, a first-person shooter/role-playing game hybrid. Like Fallout, Deus Ex is one of the most non-linear games you can play- each problem can be worked around in a multitude of ways. This usually results in unique player experiences, as it could take many, many playthroughs to see every inch of the game. As the old saying goes: “Deus Ex was awesome. Man, I should play that again.” Well, I say ‘old saying’: I just made that up. I’ve heard people say it though, honest!

System Requirements:

Windows: 300 MHz CPU, 64 MB RAM, 4 MB video card RAM, 4X CD-ROM drive, DirectX 7.0a, 150 MB available hard disk space.

Mac: PowerPC G3 (266 MHz), 64 MB RAM, 150 MB disk space, mouse or compatible device, 4x CD-ROM, 3D accelerator card.

Quake

Forget the outdated controls and nasty graphics. It’s Quake. Sure, it takes some configuration to get the controls to work properly, but once that’s done, Quake is as frantic and eye-bleedingly brilliant as ever. Get a few friends over for a LAN game, or play over the internet, and you’ve got yourself an evening of instant entertainment. There are endless custom maps coming out of the community, and the face-melting pace of the game keep the thrills coming, even after a horrible clichéd phrase like “keep the thrills coming”. Once you pop [the disc in the drive], you just can’t stop!

System Requirements:

IRIX 5.3 / Linux 1.3.88 / MS-DOS 5.0 / Solaris 2.5.1 / Windows: 66 MHz Processor, FPU, 8 MB RAM, 80 MB Hard disk space, 1 MB Graphics card.

Starcraft

Starcraft is one of the most popular PC games of all time, especially among the competitive scene. The Korean Starcraft circuit is so popular, in fact, that players have become celebrities and the competitions are broadcast nationwide on TV. This is perhaps indicative of the quality of the game: it revolutionised the real-time strategy genre, and is one of the deepest strategy games available. UC Berkeley even offers a course on the various strategies and theories surrounding the game.

System Requirements:

Windows/Mac: 90 MHz processor, 16 MB RAM, 640×480 8-bit display.

The Secret of Monkey Island

Alongside Grim Fandango, The Secret of Monkey Island is often heralded as the Holy Grail of PC adventure games. The writing is the holy water in the Grail, though; Guybrush Threepwood’s caption for the above image is simply “That’s the second biggest monkey head I’ve ever seen!” Seriously, this game is full of great one-liners similar to this one, and is a stickler for the adventure formula- make the puzzles as outlandish and crazy as possible. One of the most relentlessly funny games ever produced.

System Requirements:

MS-DOS 5.0 or higher: 386/33 DX, 1 Mb EMS, 256 color VGA/MCGA, SoundBlaster, Adlib, Roland MT 32. Basically, your computer can run this game.

World Of Goo

World of Goo serves as an example of a new market of games that even low-spec PC users can enjoy: Indie games. Indie games aren’t known for their graphical prowess, but rather for their often unique gameplay and attention to detail. World of Goo is a physics based puzzle game where you must build a tower out of bits of goo. It’s got all the makings of a great puzzle game: colourful and bright visuals, a catchy soundtrack, a deceptively simple mechanic, and little bits of what appears to be sewage. Actually, scratch that last point. That bit’s unique to World of Goo.

System Requirements:

Windows: 1.0 GHz or faster CPU, 3D Graphics Card, DirectX 9, 512MB RAM, 100MB hard drive space. One of the more demanding games on this list, but it shouldn’t cause too much trouble if you’ve got a modern PC.

Mac: OSX 10.4 or newer, 1.0 GHz or faster Intel or PPC processor, 512 MB or more RAM, 3D graphics accelerator, OpenGL 1.1 or newer.

Half-Life

Although this list is in no particular order, I decided to put Half-Life here, at the bottom. Why? Because, without all of the hyperbole I’ve poured into the descriptions of the other games, Half-Life is definitely one of the best games ever made. The total immersion that you have while you play, the feeling that you actually are Gordon Freeman, has only been matched by the sequel, Half-Life 2. All too often, when a game focuses on story, or level design, or the gunplay, the other areas suffer slightly. The massive amount of fine-tuning and polish put into Half-Life is evident from the fact that every one of these areas is top-notch. There’s a reason that people praise this game so much, you know; it really is something that everyone must play.

System Requirements:

Windows: Pentium 133 MHz, 24 MB RAM, SVGA video card, Windows-compatible sound card, 2x CD-ROM drive, 400 MB hard-disk space.

Well, there you have it. I went through a lot of options to get this down to just ten entries; there are a plenty of great games that can run on older machines. If your favourite isn’t on the list, feel free to leave a comment with a small explanation, and I’ll add them to the bottom of this post. Similarly, if you need help tracking down some of these old games, or can’t get them to run, head over to the forums and the community will be glad to help out.