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This doesn't even mention small, independent games, (like any of Reflexive's stuff) which almost always use Vorbis files for the audio. I assume that's because the game can have a decoder without having to pay a distribution fee to someone. No matter the reason, .ogg is huge.

Download: http://crimsonland.reflexive.com/?menu=downloads [6.4M]
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimsonland

QUOTE wikipedia:
"The player must defend himself against thousands of aliens that surround him. This objective is accomplished using a variety of weapons, perks and bonuses."
ENDQUOTE

Top-down view, gorgeous DirectX 8.1 graphics. Must try.

But frankly this is pretty much in line with what you'd pay for incredibly comperable 'indie' games, the likes of which are available for $20 a pop at places like http://reflexive.com/ and http://gamehouse.com/

$24 for lumines is quite in line with the market.

Small, indy games exist and are a lot of fun...
For example the games here (free):
Aba games
Hizoka Chi's games
Or Cave Story, japanese indy game translated by fans.

Or various other indy games such as Ballance or Chronic Logic's games, or CrimsonLand.

Ofcourse, hardly anyone ever heard about these games, but it doesn't mean they don't rock. Just download the demos and see for yourself. None of these games are "GTA, Halo or Everquest clones", but rather truly original ideas (playing a ball??) or fun ideas that somewhere disappeared (shooters, platformers)...

I don't even bother with games that are less than about a year old. The market is so ruthless that after that much time, the price is down to $10-$20 and there's a much better chance it will run on my hardware.
Pardon my curiousity, but why would a game run worse today on your hardware than it would after a year? Do system requirements drop over time? Do drivers improve SO much in performance? Have you found a way to increase the speed other than to upgrade?

at the end of the day, you'll be running around brown labyrinths shooting demons. I'm sure it will be cool, but it really doesn't interest me.
You probably have some psychological problems. What's wrong with running around and shooting demons? I played the original Wolfenstein, but I am still going to buy Painkiller in a few weeks. At this point in time we are still humans and we still enjoy things that remind us of what our ancestors did - running around shooting at stuff. I enjoy innovative games, but at the end of the day nothing beats some good old demon killing mayhem. One of the best games I played this year (besides UT2004, Beyond Good and Evil and FarCry) was CrimsonLand - demon (zombie/spider) killing at its best. :)

Oops, missed a couple of good ones: Polygon Worlds lets you drive around on Mars. Planet's Orbits and Partiview are great for general Astronomy education.

...and some more general linkage, because I'm bored:
Educational -
Tuxtype and Droid Battles.
Board/puzzle games -
MahJong (the real four player thing, not the solitaire version), Settlers of Catan - versions here or here, JTEG, a Risk-alike, and Tetrinet (networked T*tris).
General Fun -
Armagetron (definitely have a look at this - I can imagine it being popular with kids), Search and Rescue, Astrobattle, Tower Toppler, MyLink (UpLink clone), Airstrike, XRick, Vegastrike, Stoned (curling simulation), CarWorld, Cannon Smash (virtual Table tennis), Sentry, Noiz2sa, rRootage, PowerManga, Spheres of Chaos, Warblade, Epiar...

More possibilities.

You might also give Nethack or one of its many derivatives a shot.

That enough to keep you busy? (=

As another fellow said, Sundog was awesome. Also, Autoduel.

I'd also love to see someone remake Ikari Warriors with the Crimsonland engine.

Crimsonland is a cool little shareware action game developed by 10 Tons. I've had a lot of fun with it :)