Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on a Intel Celeron 700MHz and 256MB of RAM

[@WinXP_SP1]

If this gets 1k views ill attempt to beat the main story with this rig. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pKPQeWurnd-Al5Y it is done. Edit: Thank you for the views and likes! As promised I will attempt to beat this game on this rig, I will play at lower difficulty, I will try to beat it in one sitting. I did explore some of the open world and yea.....its going to be something.

[@russellsanders4535]

You're gonna wish the algorithm hadn't chosen you..

[@idipped2521]

You're done. Nip it in the bud. You should just start filming now, 1k is gonna happen

[@PumninBake]

you fool

[@amylutece8533]

Please don't do that, it doesn't sound fun to do or watch 😅

[@PhantomBoy7]

2 days and already 700 views. I'd be thinking of a build if i were you ^^

[@JacobNax]

You can't even open a browser tab nowadays without it using 250mb of ram

[@Shorty_Lickens]

Well the memory usage is based on how much RAM you have available but yes, you cannot do it with 256MB.

[@apparatushappy736]

This needs to be a speedrun category

[@WinXP_SP1]

celeron%

[@BobbyRunout_KingWalk]

fewest total frames, any%

[@WinXP_SP1]

@@BobbyRunout_KingWalk I did submit the video on Speedrun.com, but the video was declined.

[@yolkonut6851]

I can feel my life force slipping away for every loading screen

[@bertranwalker]

Amen, brother

[@lapizza7175]

I like how the loading screen didn't even take that long

[@harleyhunt6073]

Can even happen in the modern day. Assassins Creed Valhalla on PS4 slim, lol loading screens could take 2 minutes, compared to PS5 it's horrific!

[@AshleyPomeroy]

It's like playing Skyrim on the PlayStation 3 - which also had 256mb of memory.

[@mahatmagandhi2628]

it took me 30 minutes to load into a match that i got to play the last to minutes of on halo infinite

[@cattysplat]

People forget, this is how it used to be back in the day. We loved every moment of it. Because it was even worse before that!

[@WinXP_SP1]

sometimes just had to make due with the hardware you had.

[@WretchedRedoran]

​@@WinXP_SP1 I wish people made mods like this for modern games.

[@RaTcHeT302]

Graphics: *Yes*

[@James-sz9qo]

Actually no, it wasn't worse. Before that there was Morrowind. Which worked perfectly on a similar configuration and produced a beautiful picture (which really was a merit not so much of the graphics, but of the game design as a whole) which was even better than that of the Gothic game that was released a little later. The fact is that Bethesda took a careless approach to the creation of Oblivion. At that time, the computer components market needed excitement to sell more hardware. Bethesda deliberately left many technical errors and errors in Oblivion so that people would upgrade their hardware. For example, the water in the game is everywhere underground and all of it processes surface reflections, which leads to additional load on the system. And there are a lot of such intentional mistakes. They did the same thing later when developing Fallout 4. Although the game engine is such that the game could easily run on the configuration of the Skyrim LE version. But the thing is that in F4 there are practically no blunt or sharp edges on objects. Most objects, even the smallest ones, have intentionally rounded corners; this increases the number of polygons in the 3D model in the most imperceptible way, but this has a catastrophic effect on performance. Or, for example, the fact that in F4 it is impossible to disable shadows in the game, not even through a configuration file. Such technical errors are made on purpose to spur demand for new hardware, because in modern industry everyone is connected. Developers and hardware manufacturers.

[@theforgeryttv6449]

Ain't that the truth. Before I got a gaming PC, I used to play games on a laptop and desktop PC NOT meant for gaming (just office stuff). My experience was pretty much like this video.

[@mpg272727]

People laugh now but back in 2006/2007 this was THE Oblivion experience for a ton of people who were using a 2001-2003 windows XP PC myself included, good times

[@eklipsegirl]

Smart people just wait until the hardware necessary to play the game normally becomes affordable. There are still plenty of games to play from the era your PC is from.

[@greengum_p]

​@@eklipsegirl sometimes you just really want to "play" the game and that ain't stupid.

[@xkai7546]

@@eklipsegirl and not many of them were as interesting as oblivion, mind you i liked morrowind more and daggerfall most. but i used to be in love with oblivion.

[@marioprawirosudiro7301]

@@eklipsegirl No, in this case the hardware necessary was already available, for a few years in fact. The 3gigs Pentium 4 launched in 2004, so a few years before Oblivion launched. That was the first Pentium with hyperthreading, and was the recommended CPU for Oblivion. AMD was still very competitive back then, with their Athlon lineup, and I think you can easily play Oblivion on those too.

[@pierreo33]

@@eklipsegirl My pc at the time had the recommended specs for Oblivion and it still performed like ass. Maybe you're not very smart.

[@santana2358]

Some random fool told me once nobody should play games on notebooks, he doesn't know how true gamers are: if the machine runs, it is supposed to be played.

[@meyague]

you mean laptops

[@ivewonyhk21]

This is how Skyrim runs on my laptop.

[@WinXP_SP1]

I actually tried to see if Skyrim would work, but wouldn't launch due to low memory.

[@ivewonyhk21]

@@WinXP_SP1 not a surprise there XD

[@deesnutz42069]

@@WinXP_SP1 just download some more RAM

[@erreesser]

This is how daggerfall runs on my calculator.

[@Anas7ergun]

This is how I played Skyrim on launch, my PC was a dual core, 2gigs of ram and a 8500gt. Barely getting 30fps on 800x600

[@qwopiretyu]

This is how pc games are meant to be played. Not max settings on the newest hsrdware, but barely getting by on an outdated rig

[@mteley]

Truer words were never said.

[@utfigyii5987]

That's the beauty of it, you play with what you have, and compromise everything in the name of getting what you call a playable experience

[@RetroPixelLizard]

That Ironicly still applies to today's triple-A games with no optimisations on launch.

[@jackthefrog80085]

My pc looking at me downloading the Witcher 3 again

[@thomasgraham5840]

From an emulation perspective, unironically this. If you want to replicate an experience as most people had it back in the day, this is the way to go.

[@temari2860]

I fast forwarded 2 minutes to get into gameplay and was staring at a frozen frame thinking "damn, that's really slow". Then I decided to skip some more to see at least another frame I realized the video was paused.

[@strogonoffcore]

feels ADHD man

[@huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhn]

the fact that this game even runs and doesnt just die immediately due to a memory exception or something like that is astonishing in itself.

[@Axodus]

This is because programmers actually did their jobs, nowadays they don't even do basic compression on textures, they leave it all raw.

[@firstnamelastname-oy7es]

It's because this game was designed for ps3 and 360, and the ps3 and 360 had only around 512 mb of ram, so this PC with 256 mb of ram and 512 mb of vram has more than enough memory for the game at console like settings. The lag is coming from the week cpu and outdated gpu.

[@Anesfy]

It just works

[@wind2536]

​@@firstnamelastname-oy7eslmao, you know nothing, it looks FAR worse than on the PS3/360.

[@loserville-citizen]

I had 256 ram GeForce 5200 128 vram celeron pc and oblivion worked only in prison dungeon - when you go out it crushed

[@jake_leg]

This exact experience is what taught me that computers had different parts that needed to be upgraded

[@zoltier]

Fascinated by how there are simply no shadows whatsoever

[@WinXP_SP1]

Shadows may be elusive, but they can never escape the light of day.

[@hohohodrigues]

no shadows, no shaders, no lighting, all you get are polygons, pixels and textures

[@RaTcHeT302]

lighting is for NERDS

[@paleface171]

It made the dungeons and under water caves a lot less scary since no enemy could hide in the dark.

[@Sh0tgunJust1ce]

I love how in the thumbnail, the Emperor has a look of disgust at you for even attempting to render him.

[@WinXP_SP1]

@@Sh0tgunJust1ce best part that was the auto thumbnail that KZbin chose lol.

[@nickyninetoes8577]

This is like content aimed directly at me. this is exactly my type of thing

[@Pinwheelsystem]

Me too!

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Look up the Doom 3 on a Voodoo 2 stuff

[@oliviafalk5879]

my mom used that desktop background on our home pc when I was a child in the early 2000's. she died almost 2 years and this reminded me of her :(

[@frogman72davitto94]

I'm so sorry 😔

[@ARokanten]

No wonder with desktop background like that...

[@TheAilmam]

M8 have some respect....

[@ShadowsandCityLights]

You mean one of the default backgrounds.

[@vadimc2144]

Hang on there.

[@Bjarmid]

Oh my goodness this brought me back! I had an old 2004 hand-me-down windows XP machine when Oblivion came out, and I remember having to install a program to force the graphics lower to optimize fps. It looked exactly like this with that completely flat lighting! I had forgotten about that, thanks for uploading this.

[@nora-bee]

Was it Oldblivion? I remember researching a way to get my dinosaur late 90s budget PC and coming across that. I bought a 360 instead 😂

[@Bjarmid]

@@nora-bee Yes! That sounds right

[@littlekmc1493]

yeah i had a 2008-9 rig that handled the game pretty well. My papaw had the windows xp machine, actually. flatout demo and all😅

[@cevothy]

The dancing with the mouse while waiting for the game to load is the realest shit

[@GrossePause271]

And everyone would swear it loads faster if you did so... 👍

[@BananaGatorProds]

Watching at 240p for maximum authenticity

[@ipsomlurkan5955]

😂

[@Garroh]

This is pretty close to my first experience with Oblivion. My laptop was so bad in 2007 that I had to install Oldblivion to make it work. That was when Oblivion’s graphics were state of the art

[@heusstefan4075]

I swear to god i thouth my internet was just lagging after 10 seconds

[@karma6061]

good god it looks perfect!

[@ChaotiX1]

it plays flawlessly for a 2006 title, even with potatoe settings

[@WinXP_SP1]

GPU is doing all the heavy lifting, but yes

[@JediMediator]

Many, many years ago, I was so determined to play Oblivion on my home PC that I downloaded something called "Oldblivion" that forced the game to look just like this. It was the only way the game would run at all. Those were the days!

[@marcelodourado8001]

Yep, you needed Oldblivion because of the Shaders that some vga's weren't compatible. I used that on my old 9200se 64bit

[@_Cetarial]

This is what playing Skyrim on PS3 felt like.

[@derekchirinos5629]

Unless you had a huge save file, it played fine most of the time

[@rlf9444]

It had 256mb of ram too

[@ryan.1990]

Reaaaaal

[@Fraggusnonlaggus]

ps3 skyrim is the reason i never bought a console again

[@arnantphongsatha7906]

Back in 2011? No. Now? Definitely.

[@moxenial]

Take me back to playing Oblivion on my old 2008 Vista family laptop. I still miss the pink water. Good video!

[@YoYoknots]

This looks so crunchy, I love it.

[@rustylasagna]

No joke, I have that wallpaper on my desktop right now. God, I wish I was on a beach now… playing Oblivion, obviously.

[@EchinoStarefish]

That stuttering during the opening Bethesda splash screen reminded me of something I had forgotten for years and years -- when I was little I got one of the first rounds of the Xbox 360 for Christmas, which had awful Red Ring of Death crashes. I only had Oblivion (and I really only wanted to play Oblivion because I loved Morrowind so much). I would restart the console every time it crashed and just hope it got through the opening screens so I could get into the game and play for a little bit before it crashed again. Just hearing the stuttering during the Bethesda sound brought those memories rushing back. Thanks for uploading this lol

[@roleplayingpain4349]

Man am I getting old. Xbox360 and 'when I was little' in the same sentence

[@EchinoStarefish]

@@roleplayingpain4349 lol I get that now when people talk about the 3DS. It hurts

[@roleplayingpain4349]

@@EchinoStarefish it's a very strange feeling man. I guarantee one day in the fairly distant future you will be like 50, still watching gaming vids, and some young guy will be 'reviewing' Elden Ring 20 or 30 years late and will talk about it like it is some long lost ancient relic. When that day comes you will remember this convo ;p

[@jackieboyborden]

Honestly something about Oblivion makes more sense on the lowest possible settings

[@edplat2367]

That beautiful texture pop-in.

[@rainydayhype]

The intro video audio stopping is so relatable, especially with an extra 300mb of mods and this is how vanilla played 🤣

[@akkakushiji5264]

Eastern europe 2000 kids will probably cry for a bit. (As i do)

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

Why Oblivion when you can play Gothic

[@Toxin___InterHalfer]

@@HappyBeezerStudiosew nobody stooped that low

[@ArniesTech]

​@@Toxin___InterHalferGothic series was my childhood and to this very day I play it actively 😂

[@Toxin___InterHalfer]

@@ArniesTech 😒

[@vladimirrodionov5391]

Not really, we knew how to o/c.

[@TannuWannu]

i played with a huge intergraded graphics laptop back in the day. MEMORIES!

[@bestintheworld4850]

I remember I first played using the “Oldblivion” mod because my old GPU couldn’t run HD graphics, over 15 years ago.

[@lcfe7436]

这让我想起了我的童年，尽管它不完美，但浪漫的回忆往往比现在更让人向往。

[@vulcanitu2578]

Bing chillin

[@lcfe7436]

@@vulcanitu2578 😅how old are you kid?

[@vulcanitu2578]

@@lcfe7436 tf is your problem

[@lcfe7436]

@@vulcanitu2578 You replied "bingchilin" to me after reading the Chinese language, which makes you look like a robot. It is very disrespectful for a concrete rather than abstract and unfamiliar person to make such a joke.

[@vulcanitu2578]

@@lcfe7436 robot? wtf. Can't you be more of a crybaby?

[@DougWIngate]

ah yes, I remember 2007 scouring the internet in search of a motley crew of hacks and fixes to enable Oblivion to run on my Dell

[@brandonkirk5236]

Oh man. That black square in the upper left corner and the choppy Bethesda intro is giving me PTSD of trying to pirate games my PC couldn't handle.

[@CaptScrotes]

You always knew you were in for a bad time when the opening credits lagged 😅🎉

[@ravenstrongwinds6777]

Ah the potato is potatoing. I love it so much, the way the rooms load and unload right in front of you. it's gorgeous. It doesn't even look like the shaders are even attempting to load lmao

[@Talondrone]

I have never in my life seen Oblivion run like this, but It resonates with me on a spiritual level. Reminds me of trying to get Skyrim running on an old eMachine I had as a preteen, all the janky workarounds - but you worked with what you had. Good times.

[@ImperialDiecast]

omg i had that exact background on my pc back in the mid 2000s. i believe it was from a set of wallpapers that came with windows xp

[@WinXP_SP1]

You're correct

[@AvariceOverlord]

Reminds me of when me and my mam tried modding Oblivion back in 2008 and my Laptop could hardly even run this or World of Warcraft, but I never even cared because... well, it was Oblivion.

[@Suwako__Moriya]

>mam Cumbrian?

[@markmartin2819]

The ps3 port of Oblivion ran on 256mb of ram though.

[@WinXP_SP1]

True, but the Ram in this machine is from 2000. The ram in the ps3 is six years newer. PS3 ram would be faster and just overall better. www.qvc.com/hp-pavilion-6830-w-celeron-700mhz%2C-20gb%2C-monitor-%26-printer.product.E101960.html That is the PC I am using.

[@cattysplat]

PS3 ports almost universally ran like trash too.

[@jackmackenzie8870]

PS3 oblivion is also just about the most infuriating game I've ever played

[@DaviAreias]

I remember there was a modded version called "Oldblivion" for lower specs, I had a bad computer so that was how I first played the game

[@WinXP_SP1]

Interesting, I was not aware about this mod. I didn't use any mods for my test or my playthrough on this rig.

[@blazi2293]

This setup yassified Uriel Septim

[@dsbmode]

that desktop wallpaper though 🖥️ 🔥 🏝️

[@halfbakedvidja]

5:03 Lol! Pop-in inside of a dungeon is insane.

[@oneblacksun]

Reminds me of Half Life 2 with full bright turned on.

[@metazare]

All things considered, it looks and runs better than I'd expect.

[@WinXP_SP1]

The GPU is carrying.

[@Valaryantion]

this video is so beautiful, thanks for making it, it really makes you understand that this is how people used to play many games 20 years ago from now, it seems oddly comfy but at the same time frustrating since we're now used to really fast shit, real awesome

[@Kaedevirus]

These days you'd need top notch specs plus DLSS/FSR and whatever else to get a new game running like this. I remember running San Andreas on a garbage PC when half the graphics wouldn't even load properly and I still had plenty of fun, unfortunate how companies don't care about optimization anymore.

[@dag_gamercave]

This brings me immense joy. I grew up on this kind of hardware, and games like this. As of next week, I'm going to pick up a 'new' Fujitsu celsius w410, with i5 2400, 8gb ddr3 RAM, and Ati Firepro 3800. You better believe I'm slapping XP SP2 on it. I already have 360gbs worth of games and magazine cover CDs ready.

[@imabrahamdc2464]

I find it humorous how the low quality of it makes Uriel seem much younger than he actually is.

[@Xenoforge78]

Oh god this is how I used to play it back in the day... but at 15 or usually less frames. Thanks for the nostalgia trip. I also remember not being able to exit the sewer without disabling specular lighting entirely (As seen here.) It really is crazy to think how advanced Oblivion's graphics were when it released.

[@Jakobos]

This is better than how I played it on my crappy laptop in 2007

[@Taima]

Holy shit I completely forgot about Everest!!! That program was one of the coolest things ever when I first learned about it like 20 years ago lol.

[@DepressedLemur9]

This was my life back then. I never left the sewers because of the low FPS.

[@WinXP_SP1]

@@DepressedLemur9 I was brave and ventured out.

[@windy8544]

this... unlocked... a memory...

[@SilverX95]

Reminds me playing oblivion for the first time 15fps to 20fps on a bottom of the barrel slow hard drive on a Pentium 4.

[@boglordswampmaster]

The machine spirit crying in the background of the audio, ahhh, I love XP.

[@legendofsonic3979]

Wow gaming is evolving at a rapid level. Cannot believe this is ingame!

[@ichibanmanekineko]

One word to describe this is Excruciating

[@bignumbers]

That 15 ft draw distance

[@comparedcrib996]

the backround static makes this even better lol

[@Resursator]

Wow. This video is a real gate into my childhood.

[@tatuira93]

As soon as the game starts I thought "Holy shit, it actually runs at a stable 60 framera-" Then you turned around.

[@DerBlitzReiter]

From Desktop to gameplay in less than 3 minutes and loading screens under 30 seconds? Truly the golden age of gaming

[@James11111]

Beautiful. Brings a tear to my eye.

[@BattleCattleSA]

1:04 I know this dance

[@jdcp8976]

Moving the cursor until the damn program finally loads, good old times

[@guineapig5858]

This brings back such nostalgia, i was too young to play oblivion so i use to sit on my dads knee as he played it. This aswell as age of mythology and the sims. I remember at 12 i finally played oblivion with my dads supervision but after a few months i was finally free. I never completed it, I got it again for the xbox and finally completed it, but it doesn't feel the same as pushing different keys on the keyboard

[@akunformalitas]

I may be as old as your dad now and still play oblivion occasionally

[@guineapig5858]

@akunformalitas are you in your late 50s? My dad also played morrowind when it first came out. And some star wars game I can't remember on a dingy computer and it would crash constantly. He's observed same as me though I'm a lot younger (early 20s) that games are a lot easier now, even oblivion minus lag is I would say harder than skyrim was and I replayed oblivion after finishing skyrim. Red dead redemption I'd at least say rdr2 is close in difficulty to rdr1

[@mutetyk]

My friend Adam brought me here. Amazing work.

[@WinXP_SP1]

@@mutetyk I try.

[@bob_bobsen]

Bumping for the algo so you end up doing this

[@WinXP_SP1]

😱

[@TrusteftTech]

I don't remember what I had when Oblivion was out, but I am pretty sure it was more powerful. Well done on making it play.

[@phdonny]

can it run crytis

[@noha112]

What is crytis?

[@MonstertruckBadass]

@@noha112 it's a joke about if it can run crysis, a game that had damn amazing graphics for the time, and it it still most likely holds up today

[@WinXP_SP1]

I'll try to run Crysis at some point tho :)​@@MonstertruckBadass

[@AlexGorskov]

That wallpaper, man... super nostalgic.

[@mrtoast244]

I had Oblivion Collectors Edition installed (the one that came with two discs, a guide, a map and a Septim coin) on the family computer, which had Windows 7 and 4 GB of RAM. It was glorious. I thought Shivering Isles was the peak of gaming (it's still my favourite DLC of all time)... then Skyrim came out which hit 9 year old me like a truck. We got an Xbox 360 with Skyrim and Fable 2 and I... was happy.

[@Shorty_Lickens]

By the way the Xbox was not fast enough. They had to put it on the 360.

[@ListersHatsune]

Played Oblivion recently and was constantly jumpscared at how fast the loading screens were compared to when I was young

[@mysteriumxarxes3990]

ah, just like by brother used to play. The caves were all lit and the world ground textrues were square limited, no blending transition

[@DirtyFrigginHarry]

I got my first PC in 2003. Until that point we had a family mac from 1996 that could only play Humongous Entertainment games. I was blown away when I got my PC and found out I could play Halo Combat Evolved on it.

[@ProjectBarcodeError]

wow, that draw distance XD

[@finnbc4836]

This is absolutely how I played Oblivion on my shitty Vista laptop in uni dorms in 2009. When I could finally afford an Xbox 360 in 2011 for Skyrim it was mind-blowing

[@frogdeity]

This was my Oblivion experience back in the day. I didn't mind it as a kid.

[@muszyn.]

this is how i experienced it back in 2007 oldblivion was really a blessing

[@enemywithin1295]

Now this is fucking GAMING

[@fmertdemir]

This is my first time with the game. This exact experience. But, it was still fascinating.

[@booyaa86]

This was just like my first experience with Oblivion! My, how far we have come…

[@realkingofantarctica]

Runs better than Starfield on PC.

[@WinXP_SP1]

Good

[@Tabmaster94]

This takes me back

[@Knobbler]

This is the way you're supposed to play the game. Todd Howard shed a single tear in heaven.

[@theodorurhed]

I remember running this game on windowed at the lowest resolution, but with high settings otherwise, getting around 10fps, just to get a taste of the mindblowing graphics this game was able to offer.

[@Tito_michi]

Yes! This is exactly how Oblivion looked on my PC in 2006. Good times, tbh. Because we used to have hope.

[@dimkacracker]

that desktop background, holy nostalgia.

[@Cohnex]

Reminds me of how I grew up playing the game on PC. The 2D trees and zero rendering distance made it sometimes feel like a horror game.

[@ayylmao9598]

Honestly I think this rig is strong enough to run starfield

[@RootVegetabIe]

Starfield Starfield what if I bring up Starfield. Starfield Starfield. Starfield.

[@TheTehcChannel]

Back when Skyrim was new, and a few months before that, I had yet to build my first gaming PC. I ran Oblivion on lowest vanilla settings with similar if kot worse perfornance like this. Maybe 35-40 fps indoors and 20-25 fps outdoors. I used to look up to the sky when healing to gain more fps and heal faster lmao. My specs were as follows: Intel Pentium 4 2.4 or 2.6 ghz single core Nvidia Geforce 6600GT 128 mbyte vram, pixel shader 3.0 2 gb RAM. I ran minecraft beta with only about 15 FPS tiny render settings. All this back in 2011. Then I built my first pc, launched oblivion and got about 300 fps in highest settings. I was in awe, ju jaw dropped to the floor! Specs on the new computer was: Intel core i5 2500k 3.4 ghz quad core Nvidia gtx 580 direct cu2 1.5 gb vram 16 gb ddr3 ram

[@stevewalsh1935]

This is exactly the experience I remember having the first time I played this game on my PC at the time.

[@HaonProductions]

I miss the days when you could crank down the graphics so far on AAA games that they looked like they were running on a Dreamcast, to get them to work on your dad's old Dell tower that maybe had a dedicated graphics card.

[@paveleduardobarzagadelapaz6292]

OMG I used to play this game like this on my first laptop, good old days. I didn't care about graphics, I was there for the story and the fun. Now, ten years later, I finally have a decent pc and I can play Oblivion at full but I miss those days haha