Games

The answer is.... it depends on the game, and especially on your host computer.

There are several factors to consider:

1. Some games won't run at all and will freak out if it can't either detect its registry settings, InstallShield uninstallation files, or if it can't create new registry settings when it realizes they aren't in place. In other words, you can put in all of these things if you have the proper access rights to your host system.

2. Some games will install their DLLs or other files to C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32, C:\Program Files\Common Files, etc. If you don't have access to these folders, or you don't want files to have to reside there, you may or may not be able to tweak the application's configuration files (or registry settings) to point to a local copy of the files it installs. Use the installation log, if you can find it, as a guide to which files the app depends on.

3. Some games depend on protected OS files, especially DirectX 9.0. If it has to update the DirectX on your host machine, and your host machine doesn't give you administrative privileges, you are stuck.

4. Some games (though not many) depend on the latest JRE to be installed. If you don't have the JRE in a path it can detect, you may be stuck.

5. Some games assume that your system has the latest version of other system components, such as the Microsoft .NET framework or MSXML or Jet. It may dynamically update these during an installation, but if you just copy the files out of the game's directory, your host computer will have to have these installed before you launch the game.

6. Some games use a folder in your user directory for savegame files. Examples: Galactic Civilizations 2, Civilizations 4, Deus Ex 2. If you plan to finish your game when you go home, remember to copy files out of your user folder onto your portable drive, or find a way to tell the app to use a folder on the portable drive.

7. If you're like me, you're trying to run your games on a computer probably geared more toward work, a lab computer, or even an e-machine or minimal web machine. Not all of these have the hardware requirements to run higher-end games.

The best way to find out if you can run a game off of a portable drive is to copy all of its files from its base directory onto your portable drive, take it to another computer (or uninstall the game completely for your current computer), and run the executable. If it works, cool. If not, try to troubleshoot the error and find out which of the above impedances is stopping it.

Some games are so very adamant that they must be *installed* (perhaps a way of copy protection) that they will check a protected InstallShield registry. If that's the case, you may be stuck even if you have administrative privileges on your host machine. You could, under the right circumstances, install the game onto that machine, but you'd need the CD, and then it's not really portable, is it?

In the end, it really, really depends on the game. For the game Space Hack, all I did is copy the contents of the game's base folder (C:\Program Files\Space Hack) onto my portable drive, and everything works flawlessly -- from save games to sound to graphics. Of course, I'm running it on a relatively fast lab computer with a better than average integrated graphics chipset. But I didn't have to even attempt to work around protected OS files like DirectX -- they're sufficiently up to date for this game.

Hey, speaking of games, when will the games be on *this* webiste? I mean, is has said coming soon for months now... ( no offense John T. Haller, I'm sure you're extremely busy...)

you can also play Transport Tycoon Deluxe (windows version) with TTDPatch (it makes TTD WIN not using registry)

I'd love to try and see if the classic Grand Theft Auto works on a USB stick..

..And maybe some mods for the in-game radio (audio cd) as MP3s?