Cheap laptop for GM?

Toque

Member
Im a mac guy. I only have macs. I am looking to pick up a cheap lap top (the least cringing response to answer the question from my wife "and how much did that cost") Honestly I would only use it for generating a exe for game jams and playing others jammers /GM games. A have no room for another desktop unless its the size of a mac mini.

(edit) GM requirements are a quad core. Seems pretty minimal.

Something like this?
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/i5-Laptop-D...hash=item5943aeb9b9:m:mtpU-D29TRkvgcFDNQAqRkg
 
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TsukaYuriko

☄️
Forum Staff
Moderator
Where did you get these system requirements from?

The official system requirements are the following:
For the Windows platform you will need to have the following basic setup:

  • 64bit Intel compatible Dual Core CPU
  • 2GB RAM
  • DX11 compliant graphics card
  • Microsoft 64bit Windows 7
  • At least 3GB free Hard Disk space
However the recommended specifications are:

  • 64bit Intel compatible Quad core CPU
  • 8GB RAM
  • DX11 based graphics card
  • Microsoft 64bit Windows 10
  • SSD Hard Disk [sic, lol]
 

O.Stogden

Member
That has Intel integrated graphics, which can't really run GM games unless you get a later model.

Really an Intel HD 4000 or above is what you'd want to be able to run most GM games at a decent speed.

If you grabbed a laptop with an Intel i3 or i5 4th or 5th gen (that laptop is 1st gen i5), that should run most GM games fine, and should work for compiling games for Windows easy. An Intel i3 5005U for example, that has Intel HD 5500 graphics in and should be fine.

But couldn't you just use Bootcamp on your Mac to run Windows and play Jam games? It's an officially supported and viable way of having a Windows PC on your Mac, and Windows licenses are dirt cheap nowadays. I run an old MacBook with OS X Lion on it (yes, it's very old, 2006 model) and I run Windows 7 32-bit through Bootcamp on that.
 
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Toque

Member
That has Intel integrated graphics, which can't really run GM games unless you get a later model.

Really an Intel HD 4000 or above is what you'd want to be able to run most GM games at a decent speed.

If you grabbed a laptop with an Intel i3 or i5 4th or 5th gen (that laptop is 1st gen i5), that should run most GM games fine, and should work for compiling games for Windows easy. An Intel i3 5005U for example, that has Intel HD 5500 graphics in and should be fine.

But couldn't you just use Bootcamp on your Mac to run Windows and play Jam games? It's an officially supported and viable way of having a Windows PC on your Mac, and Windows licenses are dirt cheap nowadays. I run an old MacBook with OS X Lion on it (yes, it's very old, 2006 model) and I run Windows 7 32-bit through Bootcamp on that.
Im not a tech wiz but as someone explained to me. I can play windows games but can not create the exe with boot camp.

I would like to enter jams but also play and rate the games as well.

But your specs give me a place to start looking. Searching now. Thanks

Well there are some reasonable i3 5005u options thanks!
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Acer-Aspire...378341?hash=item5d9d70de25:g:F~0AAOSwFZNePGSY
 
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If you're just going to use it to generate exe's, and your Mac has enough of RAM (8GB is workable, 16GB+ I would recommend), you could just get some virtual machine software and run it on your Mac. Probably around $200 or so. I think there might even be some free alternatives, but I can't remember them off the top of my head.

Bear in mind, Bootcamp is not officially supported by Yoyo, but I have used it to install Windows 7 running on my Mac mini late 2012 with no problems. Much faster than a virtual machine. I even managed to upgrade it to Windows 10 recently and its running like a charm.
 

O.Stogden

Member
Im not a tech wiz but as someone explained to me. I can play windows games but can not create the exe with boot camp.

I would like to enter jams but also play and rate the games as well.
My knowledge isn't great with Mac's, but it was my understanding that Boot Camp is just Apple's method of dual-booting operating systems. Same as you can install Linux on a system alongside its main OS.

I believe Windows should perform the same tasks whether it's on a Windows PC or via Boot Camp? You should look into it before making a big purchase like a laptop though. :)

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201468
 

Toque

Member
If you're just going to use it to generate exe's, and your Mac has enough of RAM (8GB is workable, 16GB+ I would recommend), you could just get some virtual machine software and run it on your Mac. Probably around $200 or so. I think there might even be some free alternatives, but I can't remember them off the top of my head.

Bear in mind, Bootcamp is not officially supported by Yoyo, but I have used it to install Windows 7 running on my Mac mini late 2012 with no problems. Much faster than a virtual machine. I even managed to upgrade it to Windows 10 recently and its running like a charm.

I was told that I could not create a EXE on a virtual machine. But you or someone could confirm that is not correct.

I will look into bootcamp. I might be able to pick up a windows lap top for 200$ so I will have to do some thinking whats better first.....

Thanks for you time and input.
Much appreciated.
 
I was told that I could not create a EXE on a virtual machine. But you or someone could confirm that is not correct.
I can confirm that in the past I've managed to run GMS 2 on a Windows virtual machine from my Mac, and it created EXE's no problem. However, that was about a year ago. I've been running Windows natively via Bootcamp since then because its more convenient/faster to test and build for Windows that way. I presume its still possible though.
 

Toque

Member
I can confirm that in the past I've managed to run GMS 2 on a Windows virtual machine from my Mac, and it created EXE's no problem. However, that was about a year ago. I've been running Windows natively via Bootcamp since then because its more convenient/faster to test and build for Windows that way. I presume its still possible though.

Thanks again.

Just been reading about boot camp. Will need a windows key.... Microsoft sells it for almost 200$.
I have lots of time to look at it.

Thanks
 

Toque

Member
If anyone is curious I ordered......


Dell Latitude E5440 Laptop - i3 4th GEN 8G 128G SSD W10P laptop

Thanks everyone for your input.

HOPE it gets here before the next JAM>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
 

otterZ

Member
I use a Mac as well and I have Parallels installed. I am running Windows on it and did not need to buy a Windows key / licence (you just have some mildly annoying text in the lower right hand corner, but you can still use GM on it and play Windows Steam games - but Parallels is not great with very high end graphic games though. I loaded up Gamemaker2 on Parallels - so I'm guessing you could even move the project file over and build a windows exe on it.
I am not sure if Parallels can be used as an actual VM on your Mac - I've yet to experiment with this but I'm sure it will be good for testing on Windows. Parallels is about $80.
I'm at the same stage as yourself - I want to test my projects next month on Windows but I'm looking for the least expensive and effective option.
 

Toque

Member
I use a Mac as well and I have Parallels installed. I am running Windows on it and did not need to buy a Windows key / licence (you just have some mildly annoying text in the lower right hand corner, but you can still use GM on it and play Windows Steam games - but Parallels is not great with very high end graphic games though. I loaded up Gamemaker2 on Parallels - so I'm guessing you could even move the project file over and build a windows exe on it.
I am not sure if Parallels can be used as an actual VM on your Mac - I've yet to experiment with this but I'm sure it will be good for testing on Windows. Parallels is about $80.
I'm at the same stage as yourself - I want to test my projects next month on Windows but I'm looking for the least expensive and effective option.

Yeah I did think over the options. The computer was only 140$ US dollars. I know parallels would probably work. At first I wasn’t sure it would build an exe but I believe it would.

A cheap windows machine just makes more sense for me and least hassle.
 
Z

zendraw

Guest
Does autosaving really take any time? I've never noticed it take more than half a second or so, even when editing 80 or so resources at once.
autosave shuld be an option, not everyone has an ssd and ssd is not the standart. and making autosave an option is a 1 liner solution, and its not a feature that requires testing, its just theyr bs policies. half a second here, half a second there with constant saving it can waste 1 hour worth of work.

not to mention the irritation that comes with the constant lag in the workflow. im sure no1 wants to play a game that lags every few seconds.
 
D

dragonsaurstudios

Guest
I got a really old Lenovo that i sometimes use - However, it's not even capable of running the AVM, so only limited to programming on it or testing in Windows. The laptop, absolutely stinks though, doesnt reach minimum requirements or anything - but for Programming only - it's perfect
 

Toque

Member
I got a really old Lenovo that i sometimes use - However, it's not even capable of running the AVM, so only limited to programming on it or testing in Windows. The laptop, absolutely stinks though, doesnt reach minimum requirements or anything - but for Programming only - it's perfect

I saw lots of cheap Lenovos. But I wanted something that I could play jam games as well. For an extra 80-100$ I could get something that should play games too.
 
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