For Love

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jenny42895
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For Love

Post by jenny42895 »

Alternatively titled "Because I Can".

Backstory:

So my main laptop I used for school runs Windows 7. It was originally designed for the express purpose of playing Sims (I'm an art major and honestly don't use it for much else). This has been nothing but trouble. My Ultimate Collection only worked for a few months; I had to get it fixed through EA and after that it only worked for a week, so I went back to discs.

Somewhere, sometime, Win 7 stopped recognizing the existence of the discs. Limited translation of error message is: "This is not hardware. This is salami. No."

I was devastated by the lack of access to my fantasical freeplay empire. I still don't know exactly what went wrong, but I suffered for months of technical troubleshooting, exchanging around CC, and hardware tweaking, to no results.

Solution: Downgrading.

My dad nearly through me (back) out of the house when I came home for the holidays and immediately demanded a second laptop. Apparently his memory is worse than either of us thought, and I had to explain the details of what I wanted, as well as locate the box of "scrap" laptops that have been living in the garage. The end result? The conversion of an old, outdated hodge-podge of a machine with a brand new copy of Windows XP.

As such, I now own a computer exclusively for Sims (and certain other old games I have on disc). It's not connected to the network, it's missing a good half of its drivers, and is a completely isolated relic that has no idea what century it is (being still convinced it's 1998). TS2 and the original Sims game are installed and working perfectly, and the whole thing runs like a dream due to a complete lack of program distractions. The 300-individual strong freeplay empire lives on, completely unaware of any interruption.

So here's my question... how far would you go for your Sims?
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shannonagins
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Re: For Love

Post by shannonagins »

I bought a brand new laptop for "school" *cough*sims*cough* and have my desktop up and running again too... I've also dug out all my old games so I could play on the desktop. Meaning digging thru a storage unit full of stuff. lol
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Re: For Love

Post by Gryffindork »

jenny42895 wrote:Limited translation of error message is: "This is not hardware. This is salami. No."
This actually had me in stitches at work. Thanks a lot. :tongue:

That is some serious dedication though. I wish I had explored the option of downgrading. It wouldn't have even occurred to me that the background programs would make such a difference! It's genius.

When my laptop got too chuggy to run TS3 (and looking back now, most lag issues with TS3 are more the game's fault than the computer's...) I vowed to create a supermachine. I justified it to everyone as "Oh, I'll use it for... schoolwork... and photo editing... and a massive hard drive to keep my things on... and maybe I'll branch out into other games?" but in reality, this thing exists for The Sims and only The Sims. I sank hours of research, $1,300 and a ton of frustration into building Overkill, my grand simming machine. It was actually the second time I'd built a PC for the Sims - the first one was more like $800, back in 2005 when I was sick of sharing a computer with my siblings. Did I actually know how to build a computer when I was 12? Hell naw, but tutorials (and tech-savvy fathers) exist for a reason, right? :sarcastic: Anyway, Overkill is almost 4 years old now because I have a laptop for writing and an iPad for Netflixing, he really only gets used for simming. He's my baby though, and if he ever fails me I'll probably go all out again to tune him up to my simming standards. :)
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Emily Whalers
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Re: For Love

Post by Emily Whalers »

I'm not even going to lie - I am actually considering getting a computer exclusively for Sims. My Macbook is getting up there (it will be 4 in October of this year) and Sims 3 is quite laggy. I also can't play Sims 2 on this laptop without dropping 35 bucks in the App Store because Apple is stupid - and I say that as someone who is total Apple/Mac trash. I have the Ultimate Collection just chilling in my Origin account whenever I can get my hands on a computer that can play it. My boyfriend's laptop is also dying, so he and I are considering splitting on an iMac (with a Windows partition) or a desktop of some sort for games and using my laptop for Netflix/streaming, since we don't have cable. I just need to save up some money before I can put any of these plans into action, which is going to be slow going because my student loans just entered repayment. *sigh*

Basically, I know all the feels in this thread. And I have found my people. :hugs:

Also - "This is not hardware. This is salami. No." made me laugh harder than it should have. Sadly, I also know that feel all too well.
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Scribal_Goddess
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Re: For Love

Post by Scribal_Goddess »

I've been keeping my 2008 Windows Vista laptop alive via power cord and disabled internet for the last four years because I couldn't install University Life from my discs onto my windows 8 laptop. All other discs worked fine, but that one was in an old format or something. (Error message went along he lines of "I'm 95% installed - OOPSABANNANAPEEL*CRASH*)

... Of course, I also use the hard drive as a dropoff spot for word documents (spanish assignments, even) from college and other crud that I may someday want again.

If I ever need a new laptop I'm gonna be very specific about making sure I can install sims to it and that the graphics card won't be the pile of swiss cheese that my Vista's card is. (My most common glitch is that the grass is randomly scalp textures. I've almost stopped noticing it.) :sarcastic:
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