Anyone play Star Wars Galaxies back in the day? Then became really pissed off when SOE patched the Combat to something horrible and everyone quit?
Well my friends, I've come across
www.swgemu.com which is a free to play Emulation of SWG before they updated the combat and it's glorious.
For all of you who have computers that are a little outdated, this hardly requires anything to play. System Requirements in the Spoiler below.
[SPOILER:be42cf180c]DirectX 9.0 compatible computer
Operating Systems
Windows 98 SE, Millennium, 2000, and XP
CPU
Required: Intel PIII 933 MHz or AMD Athlon 900 MHz
Recommended: Intel P4 1.5 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1500+
Memory
Required: 256 MB RAM
Recommended: 512 MB RAM
Graphics Card
Required: 32 MB 3D Graphics card with Hardware Transform and Lighting (T&L) Capability
Recommended: 64 MB 3D Graphics card with Vertex Shader and Pixel Shader (VS/PS) Capability
Monitor
1024x768 capable monitor required
Sound Card
Required: PCI, USB or Onboard Audio Device
CD-ROM
Required: Quad Speed CD-ROM drive
Input Device
Required: Keyboard and mouse
Connectivity Requirements
Required: 56K modem or faster Internet connection
DirectX
Microsoft DirectX 9.0 is included on this CD. NOTE: DirectX may require the "latest" updates for your operating system. This may also include the latest drivers for your particular motherboard, sound and video hardware.
Installation
Installation requires 2.0 GB of free hard drive space. It is recommended that you have at least an additional 500 MB of free space available after installing the game for the Windows swap/page file and additional patch downloads.
Supported Chipsets at the time of release:
ATI Radeon 7200/7500
ATI Radeon 8500/9000
ATI Radeon 9500/9700
Matrox Parhelia
NVIDIA GeForce 256
NVIDIA GeForce 2 family
NVIDIA GeForce 3 family
NVIDIA GeForce 4 family
NVIDIA GeForceFX family
Additional Chipsets supported.[/SPOILER:be42cf180c]
The catch here is that the website claims you need a legit CD copy to play. I can tell you that is not true. I'm not promoting piracy, but if one were to check a site that involved a Pirate and a Bay, you could find a PRE-CU copy that works just fine with this. If one looked elsewhere, It needs to be a PRE-CU. If you want to buy the game, you can find used copies on ebay for 10-15 bucks roughly.
Also, the server right now is in Beta mode. They expect to wipe the server by the end of the month, in which case they'll move onto one more phase of testing, then a final wipe. Then the server will be 100% live.
I'm still playing it and loving it. There is also a Test server that you can log onto and spawn skills, items and whatever to get a feel of what character you want to build. You can also play care free on there until the wipe happens and not care if you lose your stuff.
Lastly, for those unfamiliar with the game, it's IMO one of the best MMOs around (at least it was before SOE messed it up which is why they have this before it was patched). It has a healthy player economy. Don't want to go out and kill monsters or players? Become a Cook or maybe a Droid Engineer. That not your flavor? Maybe you want to play an instrument or dance in the Catina which buffs players.
If combat is your flavor, become a Bounty Hunter and follow bounties. Become a Smuggler and be able to perform "dirty moves" and slice player's gear for bonus stats. Maybe you want to be a Creature Handler and tame monsters to do your fighting.
There really is a lot to do. You won't see 1,000 jedi's either. It's freaking HARD to become a Jedi in the game. They are serious game changers and if you see one, you respect the hell out of them.
I could keep talking forever about this game, I'm very passionate about it. Also, IT'S FREE TO PLAY. If you have any questions about it or want more info, just let me know!