Quoted: What if I upgraded mine?  Is my computer easier to upgrade?  How do I find out?  Patty

What kind of computer do you have?
Is it a store bought brand and a model number?

Quoted: Quoted: What if I upgraded mine?  Is my computer easier to upgrade?  How do I find out?  Patty What kind of computer do you have? Is it a store bought brand and a model number?

I have a HP Pavilion 753c Patty

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: What if I upgraded mine?  Is my computer easier to upgrade?  How do I find out?  Patty What kind of computer do you have? Is it a store bought brand and a model number? I have a HP Pavilion 753c Patty

Yours looks doable patty.

h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?dlc=en&lc=en&product=215486&lang=en&cc=us&docname=bph07843

According to the HP website it has an AGP port.

It has an AGP 4x slot which would allow for most AGP cards.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: What if I upgraded mine?  Is my computer easier to upgrade?  How do I find out?  Patty What kind of computer do you have? Is it a store bought brand and a model number? I have a HP Pavilion 753c Patty

According to this
h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?cc=us&docname=bph07908&lc=en

Your computer should run that video game as it is.

According to that website, the HP Pavilion 753c comes with a Pentium 4 2.53 Ghz processor, standard is 512 mb 2100 DDR, and a GeForce4-MX420 64 mb AGP video card.  If that's true, while your computer isn't the fastest one out there, it's pretty decent.  

But, your video card is close to some of those that are not supported by the software makers
Unsupported 3D Chipsets
The following 3D chipsets are not T&L and/or VS/PS capable and do not meet the minimum specification necessary to play Star Wars Republic Commando:
.....
• NVIDIA GeForce 256
• NVIDIA GeForce 2
• NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX
• NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX 200/400
• NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX

So maybe it wouldn't work without a new video card.  But AGP video cards are a lot easier to find than an old PCI card.
My advice would be to install the game on your machine and see if it runs, if not than we'll (you and ARFCOM) could talk about what and where to get a video card.

Patty,
I checked ebay for your particular computer. I only saw one and it gave the specs.  If yours is

P4  2.53 mhz
512 mb
120gb HD
GeForce 64mb video card
cd
dvd


then yours should play the game I believe.  I don't game on the computer and I didn't look back for the sys requirements.....but yours is a decent computer for a home user.

I built my store computer (w/donated monitor) for about 400 including XP. First time build and it doesn't use a pentium (AMD instead) but its fine for most games I see around and I put in a decent video card.  As your kids get older, if interested , they may take to building one.  And its like a  AR15...you can kinda buy a  piece at a time til you have all the components for a finished product.  Lots of web instructions but Tigerdirect.com has some instructions for how to bascially go about it.  Just takes some reading up and probably not a bad profession if kids take an interest

Essayons

Alienware is over priced
I just put together a decent gaming rig for around $700 including a 17in LCD

specs I found look like there's an AGP slot in the HP, and it has fairly decent (for gaming) processor, ram, and videocard

h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?dlc=en&lc=en&product=215486&cc=us&docname=bph07908#top

Building one is a good way to go.  Difficulty level is about the same as stripping an AR-15 down including the bolt assembly.  Pricing might be something like this...

Case w/400w power supply - $30
motherboard/CPU combo - $90 (say an AMD 3000)
memory - $90 (1GB)
optical drive - $40 (DVD-RW)
hard drive - $40 (120GB)
video card - $140 (GeForce 6600GT)
monitor - $100 (19" CRT)
keyboard/mouse - $15
Windows XP Home - $90

That's $620 and it'll play any game out there at a very good quality.  The prices are either straight off PriceWatch.com, or a current/recent deal that isn't some weird/freaky price-matching thing, but may have a simple rebate.  For example, people are getting 120GB hard drives for $20 after a pricematch/rebate, but just the rebate is about $40.   If you already have a monitor, there's some savings.  The case isn't anything fancy and may need an extra $5 for an extra fan.  

A difficult part is if something goes wrong, you have 7 different vendors (and 7 different warranties) and you'd have to send the right part back to the right person if something was wrong.  However once the thing is running, it's pretty much going to be fine.

My first computer at home (not the first I worked on):
Atari 400 - $599
Atari 410 tape drive - $90
Old B&W TV set - from grandma
We later got Star Raiders, Asteriods, Defender, Jumpman, Caverns of Mars, etc.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: What if I upgraded mine?  Is my computer easier to upgrade?  How do I find out?  Patty What kind of computer do you have? Is it a store bought brand and a model number? I have a HP Pavilion 753c Patty According to this h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?cc=us&docname=bph07908&lc=en Your computer should run that video game as it is. According to that website, the HP Pavilion 753c comes with a Pentium 4 2.53 Ghz processor, standard is 512 mb 2100 DDR, and a GeForce4-MX420 64 mb AGP video card.  If that's true, while your computer isn't the fastest one out there, it's pretty decent.   But, your video card is close to some of those that are not supported by the software makers Unsupported 3D Chipsets The following 3D chipsets are not T&L and/or VS/PS capable and do not meet the minimum specification necessary to play Star Wars Republic Commando: ..... • NVIDIA GeForce 256 • NVIDIA GeForce 2 • NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX • NVIDIA GeForce 2 MX 200/400 • NVIDIA GeForce 4 MX So maybe it wouldn't work without a new video card.  But AGP video cards are a lot easier to find than an old PCI card. My advice would be to install the game on your machine and see if it runs, if not than we'll (you and ARFCOM) could talk about what and where to get a video card.

Not a bad line of thinking there...swap out computers.  He could run with the MX video card for awhile until money's saved up for an easy to find AGP card.

Can you put that into terms I can understand?

FWIW My computer did run the game for a while then stopped.  I have no idea why.

I would be happy to swap computers with him if mine is better for gaming as I just need word processing capabilities so I can surf ARFCOM!
Patty

Quoted: Can you put that into terms I can understand? FWIW My computer did run the game for a while then stopped.  I have no idea why. I would be happy to swap computers with him if mine is better for gaming as I just need word processing capabilities so I can surf ARFCOM! Patty

What he basically said was the chipset your vid card uses, is borderline on being able to run the game.  Some software makers don't support certain chipsets.  The one currently in there is on the edge of being supported/not supported.

Quoted: Quoted: Can you put that into terms I can understand? FWIW My computer did run the game for a while then stopped.  I have no idea why. I would be happy to swap computers with him if mine is better for gaming as I just need word processing capabilities so I can surf ARFCOM! Patty What he basically said was the chipset your vid card uses, is borderline on being able to run the game.  Some software makers don't support certain chipsets.  The one currently in there is on the edge of being supported/not supported.

Is my pc more compatable to being upgraded?  Patty

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Can you put that into terms I can understand? FWIW My computer did run the game for a while then stopped.  I have no idea why. I would be happy to swap computers with him if mine is better for gaming as I just need word processing capabilities so I can surf ARFCOM! Patty What he basically said was the chipset your vid card uses, is borderline on being able to run the game.  Some software makers don't support certain chipsets.  The one currently in there is on the edge of being supported/not supported. Is my pc more compatable to being upgraded?  Patty

Your HP is, yes.  It will allow for some modest upgrades.  

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Can you put that into terms I can understand? FWIW My computer did run the game for a while then stopped.  I have no idea why. I would be happy to swap computers with him if mine is better for gaming as I just need word processing capabilities so I can surf ARFCOM! Patty What he basically said was the chipset your vid card uses, is borderline on being able to run the game.  Some software makers don't support certain chipsets.  The one currently in there is on the edge of being supported/not supported. Is my pc more compatable to being upgraded?  Patty Your HP is, yes.  It will allow for some modest upgrades.

For example, today Outpost.com has a deal for a 9600XT for $59 (after rebate) that would work quite well with the HP (since it has the AGP slot) and also provide a very good gaming experience.  This deal is better than normal and we'll probably see it again, but probably not for several weeks.  

Quoted: For example, today Outpost.com has a deal for a 9600XT for $59 (after rebate) that would work quite well with the HP (since it has the AGP slot) and also provide a very good gaming experience.  This deal is better than normal and we'll probably see it again, but probably not for several weeks.

Humm....I can swing that! [idea] Patty