A well equipped laptop is key

Another update for you travellers out there on how to prepare not just yourself, but also your laptop before travelling. This can also apply for all you University go-ers that are heading off this week. Now, if you plan to take a form of entertainment with you, I.e A gaming console or your DVD collection then you may not find this guide as life saving, but merely as another source of entertainment.

See when most people go travelling or go off to university they automatically accept that when they arrive at their residence they will have instant internet access. However, depending on your halls/residence/hotel, it can take several days or even weeks to set up a decent internet connection.

Depending on how sociable you are or how much of internet addict you are, this may not be a problem. But if you do crave the internet and are not guaranteed a connection upon arrival, I suggest the following tips.

Project64

This was probably the biggest life saver for me. For those of you that aren't aware, Project64 is a N64 emulator. In short, it's a program available for free download that allows you to play your favourite N64 games on your laptop. The games, referred to as ROMS, can also be downloaded from a separate website.
I must have spent countless hours rejoicing my childhood moments on these games. Although the gameplay can be a little difficult to get used to at first (the fact that you laptop lacks a analog stick and you have to make  do with the direction keys), it is definately worth downloading this program.

Most games will run on just about any generic laptop, I.E you don't need to have amazing computer specs to run this program efficiently. But I do recommend you close down any programs which take up a large amount of the CPU for smoother gameplay. EG Virus scanners etc.

Project 64 can be downloaded here:

http://www.pj64-emu.com/downloads/startdown/34/

Although there are a variety of websites that boost Project64 ROMs, I prefer this site:

http://www.freeroms.com/n64.htm

The program itself is dead easy and straightforward to use. Simply download the ROM ( I suggest keeping them together on a file located on your desktop) Then open up Project64,

File > Open Rom > Find Rom

It's as simple as that. You can also change the default control (Options > Controller Plug In) to suit your gaming needs.


On another note, if you do find gameplay to tedious using your keyboard, you can buy N64 controllers with USB adapters for quite cheap online these days.

That's all I have on Project64, any questions feel free to post below.


DVDs


Now, to most of you this may seem like an obvious one, but depending on your suitcase space and dvd collection itself, you may be limited to bringing dvds upon your travels. For this, I recommend you try to find a way of ripping the DVD to your laptop. Failing that, download it. Although I do not recommend either of these methods as they are illegal, it can be down and there are plenty of guides on how to do so out there.

When I got bored of exploring Hyrule on Project64, I simply loaded up my favourite film, Memento, and an hour and a half soon flew by.


Last but not least, an obvious but often taken for granted:

Solitaire

A very simple, yet EFFECTIVE way of killing time. Not much to say about this one. Pretty much everyone know's how to play it, and it can be found by clicking Start > Games > Solitaire.




That's pretty much it from me guys. If you can think of anything I've missed then let me know! But make sure you do a bit of research before you leave guys as life without internet and be killer!