Is a modern browser as powerful as a high-end gaming PC from more than 20 years ago?
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(Image credit: Jowi Morales/Tom's Hardware) Share Share by: Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Flipboard Share this article Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google DOS Zone, a browser-based platform that lets you play old PC games, has just made the full GTA: Vice City game available for play online. The platform runs the game entirely in the browser, although you need to upload an original game file to prove that you own the game to save your progress. You’ll also need to pay for a js-dos 8.xx subscription if you want to upload your save files to the cloud.
What’s interesting is that this game recommended an Intel Pentium IV or AMD Athlon XP processor with more than 256MB of memory, a 64MB video card, and at least 1.55GB of storage when it launched. The Definitive Edition, which dropped in 2021, has even more demanding requirements — an Intel Core i7-2700K or AMD Ryzen 5 2600 processor, 16GB of memory, Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 4GB graphics or equivalent, and 45GB of drive space. However, the team behind DOS Zone was able to make it run straight from your browser, requiring only 56MB when you launch the game, with the rest of the world loading dynamically as you move through the map.
Even though it’s browser-based and you’re essentially streaming the game online, it performs reasonably well. Thankfully, the game initially loads much faster compared to when it first came out in 2002. Although the game world sometimes fails to catch up with your character, especially if you’re driving a pretty fast vehicle, you can fix this by going to the game’s settings and setting map memory usage to high.
Retro PC Gaming the Easy Way with DOSBox Pure Unleashed
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/gta-vice-city-is-now-playable-straight-from-a-browser-requires-upload-of-an-original-game-file-to-save-progress-2002-title-that-once-demanded-pentium-3-now-runs-in-chrome#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.