Gaming Help

i do not play games on the computer, so i know nothing. i have fixed a computer up for a family for christmas and it has a gaming serial port. i assume that is for the gaming console or the joy stick. well if that is what it is for, what kind of games can you play on the computer without buying the xbox, etc. can you buy disk that you can play games with and can you maybe buy the xbox games and play them without having the xbox, also if that works must you have a dvd player on the comuter. sorry so many questions, just tring to make a little boy happy on christmas. thanks

 

xbox games and the PC are not compatible.
Can you give us some more information about the computer.. hardware, operating system etc.. all of this is very important.. especially the video card.

 

Nobody uses the Game Port for joysticks any more - the only thing I've ever used it for recently is connecting up my MIDI keyboard. Most controllers these days are USB.

 

I JUST DELETED EVEREST BUT THIS IS BEST I CAN REMEMBER.

Emachine etower 500is
Micro Tower
Intel Celeron 500 MHz
256 SDRAM pc100
Windows 2000 Pro plus all updates--its a legal program
Word Perfect Suite--legal program
Motherboard bus speed 66 MHz
Video output interface AGP 2x
20 GB Maxtor hard drive if spelled correct
DVD/CD burner (forgot what kind ( in ) something i think)
3D AGP Graphics 4 Mb video
2 usb ports, one in back and one in front
dsl modem
dialup modem
all the other normal ports, printer, speaker, mic, two game serial ports, one front one back. most is intergrated in motherboard, only pci cards i have in it are modems dsl and dialup

Things i done to it.
Installed new hard drive upgraded to 20
Installed two sticks of 128 memory total 256
Put new dvd/cd burner
Installed new windows and word perfect programs
Installed dsl modem

If i need to update the video card, give me a recommendation.

Thanks to all

 

things I would suggest:
More RAM if possible
and a better video card: http://majorgeeks.pricegrabber.com/.../popup2[]=1:596/sortby=priceA/popup1[]=30:387

There's a list of decent AGP cards that won't break the bank but should be able to play games several orders of magnitude better than the 4MB card currently in the box.

Can you give us some background on what kind of games this child is looking to play?

 

My house lacks a game console too. I've upgraded my kids Emachine to play PC games and it has worked well. However for the cost of Ram, video card and two USB controllers... it would be better to pick up a PS2 or Game Cube. Plus game titles would be cheaper. For younger kids they have more game avail over XBox (and 360).

 

im not sure, its a family of five kids, two boys and three girls, i fixed two computers up one for the girls and one for the boys. they are a poor family so im sure whatever games they get i will buy, so im gonna go to walmat and just look. i already know the girls are into music and the boys games, so i bought a few dvds, cd and thought i would get a few games. thanks all for the help.