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What (And Where) Are The Classic Free Games?
An anonymous reader asks: "I'm flying from the US to Europe in a few weeks and am taking my iBook along for the ride. With a seven hour flight looming, I'm wanting to take some games along to play. But I don't want to download a bunch of freeware that may or may not be junk; I just want the classics. What are the classic free games? I've already downloaded Nethack and am looking into Freeciv. What else is there? I need something that's multiplatform (or at least has a Mac port), something that's stable and has stood the test of time, and something that is more complex and engrossing than a Tetris clone. Thanks!"
TUX RACER!
have you checked out www.theunderdogs.org ?
That probably means that all my Windows classic games are useless to you?
http://www.angband.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/
many variants to play with, all take a good long while to complete. Think of 'em as nethack extended.
Personal favortites are pernband & cthangband, psiband isn't bad either.
MAME
All you need and tons more:
http://www.the-underdogs.org/
'Nuf said...
-- Cheers!
Is that possible? I'm having a hard time taking a break to even write this. I've been playing Tetris for the past 10 years with very few breaks for eating, sleeping, etc. Gotta go! Straight line block coming!
read a book!
Digger is the best game ever.
Whats wrong with Tetris?
It's still playable... =)
Still can't get enough of it sometimes
then there's always xbill when tetris has gotten the best out of you.
so there. thats what I'd bring.
c0w goes moo.
Doom?
;)
(Although you'd better not let a stewardess see you madly running around with a gun, on a computer, whilst on a plane.. it might make you look conspicuous..
You were expecting a sig?
www.gamehippo.com has a bunch, I forget if they're mac or not.
"It's even worse if you're locked into a proprietary operating system." -http://www.wehavethewayout.com/scale.asp?rew=0
SNOOD
Perhaps the most addictive game ever.
i don't know if there's a mac port, but zzt is one of the greatest classic games. plus if you get bored you can design your own levels. it's an old dos game made by epic, i don't know if mac has a dos emulator, but if so, then i suggest zzt.
I haven't used a Mac in a while, but there were some cool shareware games out.
Off the top of my head, some great games were Lode Runner, Beam Wars, Hazardous, Taskmaker, Tetris, and a few more I can't remember the names of. Check for one of those shareware CD-ROMS they used to sell and the ones listed in bold are probably going to be pretty good.
The future isn't what it used to be.
Perhaps you have an old 8 bit system in a closet?
If you do (and its complete with games) this would make it legal for you to download an emulator with the rom (disk) images
definitly the way I'd go anyway...
I'd say download an NES emulator or SNES emulator if you don't mind emulation. How about some of the Monkey Island games? I think the firstone might have been released as freeware...
Why not get quake and a couple of bot mods? That should keep you going for a long time, at least until your battery runs out?
Alternatively, mame and some free (but illegal) roms could be pretty fun as well
Why not install MAME and borrow some roms?
The classics are everywhere.
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
This place has thousands of mac games. Some are shareware, but most are abandon ware.
.
Mac Gamer
I'd advise against Freeciv(on the mac at least), it doesn't have a good feel on the Mac, and uses X11. I think there is or was an Aqua port, so it may be worth checking out. Also, Freeciv is mostly a multiplayer game, although there is limited single player play.
Companies who give shit away for free go out of business. Period. Just look at LNUX. Are we clear? Crystal.
SNOOD!
"Bold as Love"
One place that I find to be quite reliable for finding old games is
http://www.freeoldies.com
(And yes, I know, it does sound like a porn site)
.noitacidem deen uoy siht daer nac uoy fI
IN a word: ROMS
In two words : NES ROMS
In 3 words : Custom NES ROMS
Metroid x, super butt bros, strange mario brothers. There are MANY TCs/updates/ refits of loads of old games begging to be played.
There is nothing wrong with being gay. It's getting caught where the trouble lies.
Mame might work. It's a popular emulator for arcade games. I'm not sure if it runs on a Mac though. I do know that it runs in Unix with X, so maybe you could use the Mac OS X X server.
It can be tricky getting ROMs for Mame. Most websites that used to carry them have been shutdown. I think most people use chatrooms now to share them, or perhaps P2P.
bobobot ..
snes/nes emulator (if you own those games ofcourse)
tuxkart (uhm, that is not an clasic game)
look at happypenguin.org
Escape Velocity. The original runs perfectly on a 3400, as does EV: Override. EV:Nova, the lattest version, is supposedly great. Really, no shareware game compares to these three gems from Ambrosia. They have a 30 day trial period with a popup at startup being the only real annoyance.
"Upon attaching the waterblock to my penis, I began to notice that I know nothing about computers." -- JRockway
Absorbing solitaire type of card game. A true classic.
Although free, in the gray area.. emulators and roms gives you access to thousands of wonderful games. You can find many good NES, GB, Genesis, SNES, and Arcade emus for both MacOS 9 and X. I would personally reccomend RockNES, Snes9x (MacOS X version really shaping up lately with gamepad support), gnuboy (simple but quite powerful and compatible), Generator, and MacMAME (Same as Snes9x).
Remember there Aces Of The Pacific, Monkey Island, Hero's Quest? Where are theses games. It's a shame that classic software is not given the same respect as classic film and movies. It's not that any of these games need to be updated with flashy graphics, they just need to be available for people to enjoy. The simplicity of these games where what made them amazing.
I think the best you're going to get are Rogue-like games. I'd recommend ADOM. You might also try shockwave.com, they actually have some pretty interesting puzzle games.
If all else fails, there's always the Playstation Portable...
The Incredible Machine (TIM)
Bridge Builder 1 and 2 (from Pontifex)
Other great games are:
Blockout
Sokoban
UGH!
At least, these are the only games which I am still not bored.
I dont know about Mac games, but some of the real classics on the PC were the likes of : Heros Quest [I & II](aka Quest for Glory) ; Master of Magic, one of the true greats, Master of Orion is also of note ; Space Rouge and Elite are the two space trading games of mention ; Day of the Tenticle and Sam and max hit the road are two great adventure games, as well as some of the Indy games by Lucas Arts; or if you feel like punishing yourself there is always Commander Keen I - VI.
Gamespy site with classic ROMs and emulators.
Some old DOS games.
More recent games at Kev's Classing Gaming.
dopewars, its the ultimate!
----
12" ibook, G3 700, 640MB RAM, 20GB HD
These aren't really games, but some of the coolest data for rendering 3-D virtual reality is available at this site. No batteries required, and they won't want you to turn them off during takeoff and landing either.
I must agree with the person who wondered what was wrong with it. But where is a decent Tetris game for Windows to be found? There seems just to be dozens of clones around that lack the charm of the Tetris I once had on my old Macintosh SE (the Uspensky cathedral, the cosmonaut, the Russian folk melodies in plink-plonk version...). [*nostalgic sigh*] Is there a tetris for Linux (if I only get my Linux install to work...) A good Tetris version could be the killer app that Linux needs.
I have a life. I really do. I've just chosen to ignore it.
Get a book (dead tree) and suck it up. Try 36 hours from Chicago to Cape Town, 8 hour layover in Frankfort, 2 hours on the tarmac in Johannesberg, all with a crappy 2nd rate novel and nothing to fall back on, and then you can gripe about a long flight.
But my favorite game of all time was Spacestation Pheta for Mac. The game was a great puzzle game, you also had the ability to create new puzzles for other people.
Pron is in fact the most popular classic game ever.
All of their games are excellent.
I would especially highly recommend the Escape Velocity series, Chiral, and Barrack. They have enough games, of enough different styles, that you can just download all of them (they are all shareware) and try each one in turn until you find one you like.
...where you have to build a bridge and a train has to drive over it. Anyone knows how to get it?
You really should try that!
The last time I loaded up nethack on my Mac, I was stuck in front of the computer for about 30 hours straight.
If you can't get through an eight hour flight with that, you've got bigger problems than finding free games...
Master of Orion II!
if you're flying around you're obviously able to afford a few bucks for a shareware or some type of game. how about supporting developers and BUY something. if more people bought software from developers and companies we like, we wouldn't see so many open source and developers go away. cheap-ass go buy something, you get what you pay for.
there is a very cool freeware game out there for the mac called 'abuse'
its pretty neat actually, and i'd definately say its a classic.
go over to http://abuse2.com/downloads.php3
and get ! its for Windozes as well.
Maelstom is classic Mac game, now ported using SDL to many platforms and released under the GPL.
Lasers Controlled Games!
So you're going to find that damn amulet and build a civilization in less than 7 hours?
Dark Castle
Strategic Conquest
Armor Alley
Not exactly free but very good.
The only game besides Sim City and Boom I ever (!) played.
Nearly every platform has an interpreter for the old Infocom text games. Zork I, II, and III are available for free legally from ActiVision,
and once you have a z-machine interpreter for your Mac, you can use any of the other Infocom games you can find. There are also many (legal) free z-machine games available on the net, and I think that Activision recently sold a CD-ROM with most of the old Infocom collection, including Hitchhiker's Guide, Enchanter, and the others.
Any one of these will keep you busy for the whole flight and taxi ride to your hotel, and you'll probably stay up and keep playing once you get there instead of sleeping off the jet lag. Just remember to bring a pad of paper, pencil, and eraser for drawing maps and working out mazes.
Frozen Bubble. Is that game ever addictive. The music is a bit repetitive but very fitting. And the cute little noises it makes when you shoot the little spheres.. delightful. An easy way to kill a few hours. It's Perl/SDL so I'm sure you could compile it on OS X.
"Caffeine is not an option. Caffeine is a way of life."
If you can nab the Amulet of Yendor in under 7 hours, pat yourself on the back and take a nap!
The best Gnutella front-end I know of is Bearshare.
As for IRC, I tend to like MIRC as a front-end.
For Usenet, I've used News Binary Extractor.
Corewars is a great game! You must program an assembly code (actually redcode, but it's like assembly) program which will compete against other codes running in the same "virtual machine". Run a google search for "corewars" and you'll get loads of info. I can't decide which is the best link so I will not post any links this time.
Admitedly, I stole this from someone else - but their credits are in the flash file, so it should be ok ... (they did an excellent job with it, it's a neato web game)
Way of the Exploding Stick
I know it's not Mac, but Zelda Classic is a great, in fact identical from what I can tell, remake of the original Legend of Zelda for NES. It comes with a level editor so you can also find homebrew quests. The same team is also working on an engine based on the Zelda 3 (SNES) engine, but with a "powerful scripting engine" built in. Also in the works are a remake of Galaga and a new "drug dealing simulation." Just some things if you don't want to use an emulator.
How's my typing? Call 1-800-eta-shut
gnugo
gnuchess
Go get some Ambrosia Software! It's all shareware, though most can be pirated straight up with Surfers' Serials or the like (I didn't tell you that!). Many of the games are based on arcade games (Swoop=Galaxian, Apeiron=Centipede, Maelstrom=Asteroids, etc), although some of them, such as Harry the Handsome Executive or the Escape Velocity/EV Override/EV Nova trilogy, are not at all like arcade ports.
I hereby place the above post in the public domain.
Im assuming these work on a mac.
The combination of these two programs let you play pretty much any old sierra adventure game.
Oh and if you like lucas arts games like Day of the Tenticle & SamnMax look for scummvm.
when everything is working perfectly.. BREAK SOMETHING before something else FUCKS up!
3 of those little bottles of jack daniels, Close your eyes, turn on a long play list on your nomad and wake up when the wheels hit the ground.
The original Doom.
Hell, I even have it running on my Jornada 680, runs for about 7 hours on the regular battery, or 20 hours on the fat boy battery.
Doom. Accept no substitute.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
Of course, Mame is the best answer to this question, as many have pointed out.
On that topic, does anyone know what happened to mame.dk? All the roms get removed with just a mysterious message that a copyright holder complained. One copyright holder and they ditch everything?
Fortunately, I had written a program to download all roms from the site (heh) not long before it closed, but are there any other places that are as complete as mame.dk used to be?
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Before I make some suggestions I should say that as a longtime Civ II and Civ I player I am tremendously impressed with the latest (1.13) release. Bravo, it is great! It lacks a little "Microprose polish" but play-wise it is terrific. The previous versions didn't really cut it for me but the current one is just fine. (Now, how about alpha centauri, spaceward ho, and/or masters of orion.)
If you like Nethack you should try Angband, or perhaps just (u)moria. Or from another Cygnus old-timer (umoria was from Jim Wilson), try xconq (Stan Shebs). Although umoria is ancient it has the advantage that it doesn't take incredibly long to play, which unfortunately vanilla angband does.
You can finish a game of nethack in a few hours or a few days (depending on your determination and experience level) but vanilla angband can take, gee, hundreds of hours (during any of which you can suffer an insta-death from hitting a key one too many times). It's still enjoyable but in a more serious and perverse way than nethack.
If you just need a good game to take care of a couple hours of the twitchies on an airplane, I recommend kshisen, which is a thoroughly addictive timed mah-jong-like game.
-joseph
It is the year 2002. Where are the classic free games? I was promised classic free games.
My roommates and I, in the end-of-summer boredom lurch, just set up a computer running MS-DOS 6.22 just to play the old games! Man, back in the day...
Anyway, I'm only 21, so I never did much with dos, so despite what I think I know about "computers" and windows or other microsoft products, etc, I know exactly crap about EMS and XMS and EMM386 and HIMEM and SMARTDRV. We've run into problems with wing commander running at the speed of light because it counts clock cycles, not seconds, and with some games not liking the fact that the machine has 160 megs of ram. One of the games suggested we make $ExtraRam sized cache with smartdrv so the game thought we had less memory, except instead of $ExtraRam being 5,341 KB, it was 157,325,210 KB...
But anyway, here's my list of games I have installed:
Doom 2
Mechwarrior 2
Wing Commander
Wing Commander II
Wing Commander III
Privateer
Jazz Jackrabbit
Rise of the Triad
Duke Nukem I
Duke Nukem II
Duke Nukem 3D
Warcraft I
Command and Conquer
Command and Conquer: Red Alert
I don't know how many of these have mac ports - Doom2 did, I use to own it...
I also didn't know that windows 3.1 wasn't an operating system. That bugged me - when you install windows, it doesn't install any OS files, just the interface to dos... Despite saying "Windows Operating System" on the floppies.
~Will
sig?
A HREF="http://www.libsdl.org">SDL has hundreds of free and excellent games which are written in C. They compile for any platform that has the library available for it. Why not try Project Starfighter, a good example of fun games written with SDL.
Summation 2
There is a lot of abandonware these days, including many older games. I would suggest looking for something at an abandonware site.
The best site I've found in my travels has been Home of the Underdogs. This site has many levels of classification, and attempts to stay legal by asking develoeprs if it is OK for them to put these files up for download - something rare in the 'free-for-all', file-sharing and copyright-infringing attitude of the Internet these days.
I'd give them (or another site like them) a shot.
-Matt
Robocode. Yeah it takes "work" but nothing finer for a geek game. A modern classic. ;
~~ What's stopping you?
i don't know if they're all classics, but they all run under Classic.
http://mac.the-underdogs.org/ has everything you want. I recommend Armor Alley in particular.
Step 2) Search for "mame" or maybe give this a go.
--
Power to the Peaceful
home of the underdogs
these sites have archives (or links to) many (thousands) of old/classic games. even lots of IF (interactive fiction).
"The majority is always sane, Louis." -- Nessus
http://slashdot.jp
Best free game ever.Utopia.
It's a massively multiplayer game where you build up a province, wage war against other kingdoms, cast protective, and harmful spells with your wizards, steal gold, spy, and assasinate stuff with your thieves, invade and conquer with your army.
Great game, mad strategy, no download at all, and it's free!
http://games.swirve.com/utopia/
Why not pick up an old copy of Civ II? With III out, I've seen Civ II for 10 bucks in stores. That's one game you can play forever.
As for free/shareware, there are some nice arcade games:
Glypha III homepage.mac.com/quirinus
Cyclone (?)
Asteroid Storm homepage.mac.com/zarkonnen
Glider is fun too, as are MacChess and SigmaChess (if you're into chess, obviously).
have fun!
I just got back from a trip half way around the world (and a 16 hour plane trip). I would actually suggest DVDs as opposed to games, I find them a bit more relaxing and you tend not to move as much (coach is cramped). The Simpsons Series 1 was great, watching short 20 minute episodes with commentaries really ate up the time.
:)
If you REALLY want games to pass you by, I would suggest emulation. Mame, zsnes and all that are supported under OS X (what I use, not sure about you).
Other tips would be, turn your brightness all but one square down and make sure airport is turned off. This will save your battery. And after about 10 minutes you get used to the low brightness anyway. I would also suggest getting some noise cancelling headphones. They don't work perfectly (you still hear noise), but they dramatically improve your ability to hear (and therefore you can turn the volume down lower on the iBook).
Regardless, enjoy your trip. 7 hours isn't so bad, between snacks, trying to catch a nap, and maybe a little playing around on the computer you should be OK. It's not till 12 that I start to feel cabin fever "Can't we just stop the plane now?"
A couple years ago there was a somewhat cool sim city "clone" called Lincity. I searched for it and Freshmeat has a copy to download. It wasn't a full blown sim city clone but I did get quite a few hours of enjoyment out of playing it. I'd suggest checking it out.
I'm still playing a really great 2d space shoot'em up called Subspace / Continuum made by Virgin Interactive Entertainment in the mid 95's.
VIE then dropped the game just after going retail.
It has really strong community supporting the game.
Now a new version of the game called Continuum has been reprogrammed from scratch to emulate the orginal version with added features.
Some links below.
Early precusor xpilot
Brief background history of the game
More History
Main subspace / continuum news site
Main subspace / continuum download site
With all of the Sept 11th "security measures" I would recommend that you have your laptop ready to turn on just in case at the airport terminal. Also, they will ask you take your machine out of its case and then they'll pass it through their x-ray machines. Make sure you don't have it stuffed at the bottom of your carry-ons. I don't know how good your battery life is, or what class you will be flying but if you are going in economy make sure you bring at least two batteries. If you are in first or business class, you can always buy their on-board power cords that hook up into the plane (depending on airline). As for games, I would suggest the old simcity, tetris, pinball, etc. You don't want some massively 3d game sucking up your battery power. Also, I don't know what kind of rechargers come with your laptop but be ready for an inevitable bump in line voltage in europe (220v). And, you can save your on-board modem some trouble by buying a line testing kit/adapter. This saved me from frying my modem on a trip to Saudi many years ago (their teleco line voltage is much more than it is here).
Back in '92 I remember spending my Jr High lunches in the science room playing the Lunatic Fringe screensaver that came with More After Dark on the school's LC II's.
Those were the days...
Did that ever get released anywhere else, or was strictly a module only?
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
Or a Game Boy Advance? For use on an airplane, laptops have the following problems:
1.) Size: It's not comfy to use a laptop actively on an airplane. Either you have to rest it on your lap (horrible ergonomics), or the guy in front of you will lay his seat back and make you panic for a mo.
2.) Battery life: I realize Macs are efficient and all, but it IS an issue. With a GBA, just bring an extra set of batteries. You shouldn't need more than 4 AA's total on your trip. (Psst tip: Don't bring more than 4 AA's on an airplane trip. I did that on a trip recently and one of the security personell mentioned that looked supsicious and recommended I carry no more than 4.
3.) Startup/shutdown time: May not seem like much, but there's a big difference between 60 seconds of bootup or shutdown, and 'click' your GBA is off.
4.) Control: Control is horrible on a laptop for most games. If the ergonomics don't get you, the lack of space for a mouse to move will.
5.) Carry on: I find it to be a nuisance to unpack and put away a laptop on a plane. I can imagine most people who've tried this have the same sentiment. Not like a GBA where you just slip it in your pocket.
I know my suggestion doesn't meet all your requirements. I thought I'd mention it though because I had a similar problem myself a couple of months ago. Despite the fact that I have a teeny weeny laptop, I came to the conclusion that a GBA with a couple of games and a couple of Douglas Adams books were far more suitable and comfortable than a laptop. My laptop didn't turn into an interesting game machine until I got to the hotel. The nice thing about a GBA is that it plays nearly all GB games (dirt cheap), it's efficient with batteries, and it's form factor is quite suitable for a plane.
"Derp de derp."
Nothing is more engrossing than Tetris!
Higher Logics: where programming meets science.
http://www.ifcomp.org
Start grabbing the winners from previous years... they're almost always fantastic. There are links to interpreters for almost every platform... I know for a fact that my personal favorite (Frotz) isn't available for Mac, but ZIP is.
Enjoy!
-jf
Try Armagetron. It's a very nice 3d clone of Tron. Probably, it's best is when you play it in a fast network, but it's fun also when played against the AI.
-- Matteo
Fatal error: out of dynamic memory in yy_create_buffer() in Unknown on line 0
I think www.freeciv.org has suffered enuf
Chromium BSU is a wonderful shoot-em-up game. It 's faster and more colorful than anything I've ever seen in the same genre.
-- Matteo
What a wimp. Try flying to the other side of the planet! 20+ hours! Now that's a flight! ;)
I just about wore out the batteries in my Handspring Visor playing all the little games on there. I even downloaded a copy of Adventure to play on the flight. That would be a good travel game and it runs on ANYTHING. I'll second any of the comments about the arcade games (MAME) as those are really engrossing and can keep you occupied.
Don't forget to bring some kind of backup in case your batteries don't last or you get tired of being so cramped on the plane.
My name fits again.
Theres only one game you should take.
PONG - the original and the best!
Pixels keep you awake!
I don't know whether it's a classic (probably not), but http://egoboo.sourceforge.net has a 3D nethack inspired game that looks pretty good.
This game is hot, fast, and FREE!
If you're going to be sitting around for a while playing, you might like a good text adventure. There are a number of games that tell interesting stories and would be good for a long trip. See www.ifarchive.org and try Photopia, Anchorhead, or (if you want a real challenge) So Far. At 100-300k/game you should be able to bring a lot of games with you. Check out http://www.wurb.com/if/ to see what you might like.
Platform independant since 1981...
...will keep you engrossed for long hours. A friend of mine rented it and ended up missing a week of school! It's a political/war simulation based on a novel set in 2nd century China.
One of the oldest arcade puzzle games; still a lot of fun, aka Lode Runner. Check out here for scavenger for X; and here for Lode Runner. Not sure about Mac support though.
Speaking of old mac games...anyone remember Mac Playmate? I remember it was a game where you would get a virtual girl naked by charming the pants off of her. Then she'd open a toy box...filled with sex toys. You'd then just stick random stuff in random places.
It may not be the best game, but its a classic. Anyone know where that could be found today? I've looked, but I can never find it.
Lets not take things too seriously. After all, its just a game...
ADOM(Ancient Domains Of Mystery) FYI it's the same sort of text-based thing as Nethack, but a bit harder
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=105 21&db=mac
...We had to walk that.
Uphill.
In the snow.
If we wanted a "mid-flight snack", we had to grow the peanuts from seeds first.
Kids these days...
http://bishop.mc.duke.edu/bolo/
Bolo is perhaps the best mac game created. However, it generally requires a network and people to play against, but I think there are some bot versions availiable.
...aka "text adventures".
Go to the Interactive Fiction Archive and look around. My personal favorites include Spider and Web (a really excellent game -- starts out beginner-friendly but with a healthy but not impossible challenging bit near the end), Photopia (more of a story than a game), Varicella (beautifully written, and hard to get right within the allowed time -- but short, so replaying is possible, and even intended), and The Meteor, The Stone And A Long Glass of Sherbet.
Most of these are written for Infocom's Z-Machine (remember them?) so they'll run on any platform which has a Z-Code interpreter available (which is darned near anything, down to almost every major palmtop). For that matter, if you're willing to deviate from the "free" thing, many of Infocom's originals (remember the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy computer game?) are also still available.
Have fun!
Damn, this is a time-sink: Angband
Look, it's trying to think - Albert Rosenfield
I first played Maelstrom, an excellent, free Asteroids clone, on a Mac 7+ years ago. It's still excellent, and has Windows and Linux ports. Its raytraced graphics are very attractive. See http://www.devolution.com/~slouken/Maelstrom/ .
What ever happened to that free Mac game, NetTrek. The Star Trek like game where you'd go around and shoot people in Star Trek ships. That used to be free.....
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
Sheesh. GET A LIFE.
Is it wrong not to want to pay for games, and just find some decent free ones?
Not every game needs to be as complicated and expensive as WarCraft III to be fun.
The classic space game, Elite.
There's a portable version at www.newkind.co.uk if your platform can run Allegro (don't worry about Allegro barfing during the build on the x86 assembler bits - they are't actually required for things like X. I've got Allegro working happily on my Sun.) Elite: The New Kind runs happily on Solaris, Linux, Windoze and anything that's supported by Allegro.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
How can he be so poor as to not...but be flying to Europe with a Mac laptop?
:-)
It's because he OWNS a Mac laptop and is flying to Europe that he hasn't got enough left to afford payware games
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
As of EV:Override, Cap'n Hector shoots at you after the 30 days. For those who aren't aware of the game, Cap'n Hector is one fast, deadly ship. Only a few ships (in the unmodded game) can even pace it.
The other nice thing about the EV series is the gobs and gobs of mods ranging from blatant cheats to full game conversions. (The Babylon 5 mod for EV:O is still my favorite with Star Wars a close second.)
So yes, EV is a true fun timewaster, and since it doesn't depend on a mouse you won't get finger-cramp from the pad on the iBook.
One warning is that it's a cross between a trading game and a top-down space combat shooter, but with a great number of branching plots and sidequests. If you don't like elements of either of these, try something else.
Another warning is that EV:Nova uses 3-d effects which can kick the fan into high mode and eat up battery.
As for my opinion, EV:Override is my favorite of the three Escape Velocities to date.
This now concludes our broadcast day.
http://www.happyweed.com/
Mac (classic) OS only... but it rules!
You might want to read this to get started. Some excellent games in the archive include:
- Curses!, a zork-like puzzle romp;
- Jugsaw, a chase through the 20th century;
- Photopia, an interactive bedtime story;
- Spider and Web, a spy thriller;
- Anchorhead, a Lovecraft hommage.
That should get you started. There are hundreds more to choose from to suit all tastes. One of the best ways to explore the archive is baf's guide. For some really top picks, also be sure to check out the top few of each year'sIF competition here for short games, and the XYZZY's here for longer ones.
Kind Regards,
Bruce
underdogs.com
Magic Candle series were classics. I played them when I should have been learning to program.
The statement of your question gives no information about why you are so interested in 'free' games.
I'll go out on a limb here and propose that the 'free' part of his question is actually very meaningful and provides important information.
The gaming industry moves very quickly, and game value plummets astonishingly fast. Games now start at 50+ $US and usually drop to half of that in a year's time. Within two years, they're generally unavailable, and after that things get even worse.
There are exceptions, but overall that's the trend.
Thus, to ask for free classic old games sets a timeframe on things of sorts: it's like saying "a game that's so old that it's free at this point". Free because it was always free (Nethack?), free because the devs made it free (Quake), or free because the devs aren't around anymore or haven't indicated they don't want such games being passed around (some, like Sierra, do indicate they don't want their old games passed around; others have indicated it is okay).
It probably has nothing to do with the guy being cheap, just that he's trying to fix a certain timeframe so he doesn't get responses like "Half Life!"
It probably also has to do with the fact he doesn't want to decide, and would like to put a bunch of them on, forget about it, and play around with them en route.
Ambrosia Software makes super games, as others have posted. A small Mac game house that makes really great games is Delta Tao - Spaceward Ho! and Strategic Command are great timewasters. If you have a Mac, you probably already have a sample version of their 'Eric's Ultimate Software' on your drive. Another fun Mac program: Knot .
NetHack Falcon's Eye http://www.hut.fi/~jtpelto2/nethack.html ;)
I'm aware that you are looking for Mac OS versions, and Falcon's eye is not yet available for Mac, but I still think you should take a look (or maybe even port it
This site is devoted to the games of the good old days. It even has Legend of Zelda ported to windows from the NES. If anything, it's good for a read, I was lost on this site for hours.
Speaking of Warcraft, I slpiied Warcraft II BattleNet Edition into my mac one day to grab some files (probably maps) off it one day (the pc cdrom broke) and Warcraft started installing. I didnt know they done a dual CD when I bought it - I think that was very cool. =)
Pixels keep you awake!
Yeah, yeah, the bastard! He wants free games, eh? I'm sure he realizes perfectly well that he is depriving poor game writers of the money he would otherwise pay them. What if everybody suddenly decides they will only play free games? Our economy will lose the delicate balance. We must fight desire for free games, in fact, I'm going to write to SPA right now.
It's even worse than piracy. Can't think how though, but I'm sure it's worse.
Because companies that do make free games tend not to stay in business for very long. There was one company that cloned Pacman, Centiped, Donkey Kong, and others and had a free DOS version and an enhanced version with more levels and an editor for like $30USD each. It was called Champgames or something. It sank faster than the Titanic when the makers of the video games they tried to clone came back and sued them. Nicely done DOS based games, no Windows or Mac or Linux ports that I knew of. Plus when MAME came out, nobody was interested in playing them when they could play the real thing for almost nothing anyway.
Abandonware sites have some of the classic games for download, but get shut down real quick as soon as they get popular.
You might be able to find some from Gnutella clients; however, that is being cleaned out as well. Better hurry.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
Of particular note is "empire", a multiplayer Civilization-type game originally from the 1970's (!), complete with nuclear war at the end.
Maybe because he's only going to play them for the few weeks he's in Europe with his laptop.
Maybe he doesn't play that many computer games, or maybe he has a PC at home and that's his gaming machine.
Either way, if he doesn't have any games for the Mac, and he wants to play some games on the Mac for some hours but he doesn't want to pay 50 bucks for a 2-week entertainment value that's he's never going to touch again, why not get some free games and delete them later?.
Freedom is the freedom to say 2+2=4, everything else follows...
I need ... something that's stable and has stood the test of time, and something that is more complex and engrossing than a Tetris clone.
How 'bout chess? Or go? That might keep you occupied for a plane ride. And maybe for the rest of your life.
--Lawrence Lessig for Congress!
Game of Thrones thru Storm Of Swords
I was ripping the pages I was turning so fast and yelling AT the book.
Take the whole series - it reads quick
i would kill for a craft port to osx right about now. sorry for being offtopic.
I can imagine plenty of reasons:
strategy only ...
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/07/29/145420 9&mode=thread&tid=127
.5 mb to legally download using the service.
If you're using a airline that provides cheap internet access you can use the client mentioned in the story above. The NES roms are generally around
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
Sue me, I'd just bring my collection of SNES Roms...
You went to all that trouble and didn't install Master of Magic?
Enjoy Freenet & Frost while you can.
Why, yes, I AM a Pagan Libertarian.
How about buing some old games on eBay? At least Sierra has some collections. And then installing some really cool opensource interpreters, line ScummVM, Sarien, FreeSCI. The downside is, that some have become collectible and people are willing to spend nearly $200 on Space Quest Collection. But such is a price for greatness. --Harri
Most of the ROMs used by MAME are copyrighted and are NOT free.
Depends on how you look at it. Since you can't buy the ROMs (for arcade games at least), and the games are no longer available, therefore there is no price. If there is no price, therefore, the price is "free".
http://www.the-underdogs.org/
Here is a download site for Zork for Mac OS X.
Enjoy.
nuclear iraq bioweapon encryption cocaine korea terrorist
There's a ton of stuff for Gameboy, Super Nintendo and many other systems out there. Head over to emulation.net to get the emulator of your choice and then hit Usenet's emulation newsgroups for the ROMs. Legal? Not hardly. Fun? Yah, shure, youbetcha!
Spiderweb Software makes some great games, most noteable are their RPGs, you should give the Avernum (remakes of their Exile games) series a go, they are really great.
http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/
Did none of you have an Amiga?
The Amiga had/has EVERYTHING game-wise, and usually beter than the PC counterparts.
You need a ROM for UAE to work (get one from a real Amiga or pay for Amiga Forever from www.cloanto.com), but if/when you have one you can go to back2roots.org and download tons of stuff.
Mostly commercial games. The website has got permission from all of the relevant software companies to host the games on the site.
All the old ID software games are available for download. In particular, Quake 1 offers a good balance of modern-ish graphics with decent speed on a laptop. The mod community has had its fun with Quake, so even though only the ID demo levels are available from ID, there are some good player created levels as well.
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
Go here: http://supermame.by-a.com/
:)
There are over 3000 ROMs.
Oh, and only download the ROMs that you are legally allowed to play.
Having no price is not the same as being free.... It's the same as being priceless.
You could always visit my site ;o) I can't remember if we have any Mac stuff listed though. If not you could suggest a few additions to the archive should you find any.... save me some work anyway =o)
[JJ]
"Insert Dead Smart n Clever Sig Here So I Look Brainy"
Get an emulator here and almost everything that was ever written for a C-64 from arnold.c64.org (ftp site). You can fit damn near everything on a single CD-R, in fact. Amazing how much wonderful stuff was available on the 64.
"I adore my 64, my Commodore 64!"
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
from
http://aluminumangel.org/attack/
you can get a Linux and a Windows version, im not 100% sure it works on linux/PPC but...
its OpenGL, puzzle style logic/pattern game... really addictive.
I didn't do this, now did I?
I have Searched and teste all the free 3D TRON lightcycle games I found (which are pretty much like ages-old nibbles). After all this, I found that Armagetron I the best one. The first one I met was GlTron, which I liked, but when I fount Armagetron, I got completely addicted. as of version 0.1.4.9, the game is very stable, but A.I. of the other lightcycles is somewhat unchallenging (stupid). But the game features networking, which makes it good for human vs. human games. Version 0.2.0-pre has improved a lot, making the game VERY challenging when playing aginst the A.I.
If you still have those old Lucasgames/LucasArts classics somewhere in the attic, check out ScummVM - an amazing project that allows you to run your old favourites (Monkey Island, Day Of The Tentacle, etc.) on your modern box (windows,unix,dremacast!).
Of course, if you don't, you can go buy the old dos games for cheap money on the next corner.
I have Steel Panthers: MBT and Steel Panthers III running on freedos on a Linux machine. No sound, and the mouse is kinda jerky, but it does work. Have been exchanging PBEM games using tar and gzip. The advantage is that while the AI is running or the opponent replay is running, I can iconify the window and check mail. Can't do that with Steel Panthers and Windows or even DOS. On Windows install programs, I have used Wine. Getting at least this game to run has been a strong factor in my chucking of Windows in favor of (another more stable, less expensive) operating system.
Dawn of the Dead
Too bad netrek is multiplayer only
try Progress Quest!
Download a at Z-Code interpreter and you'll be able to download neat little interactive fiction games written in Inform. Those things can be absorbing for hours.
Note to M1-ers: a curt but otherwise insightful message is not "Flamebait" or "Troll".
I used to play SSG's Warlords2 like a crack addict. I recently found an open source project to clone it, much like freecraft did for warcraft. It's still in development, but projects like this are the bread and butter of classic gaming (sans emulators, of course.)
evolution IS god.
I'd say sokoban is one of the most involving puzzle games I've ever played. Levels can take anywhere from minutes to hours to days. You have to push rocks around and get them in their correct goal spots without getting them stuck.
Sokoban was originally created by Hiroyuki Imabayashi in 1982 for a computer-game design contest. You might have seen it as Boxxle on the GameBoy, or Sokomind on Windows, or MacSokoban on your classic macs. Its also got versions out on NES, SEGA Genesis, PlayStation, and probably even ports to the new gen consoles.
So.. Anyway.. I've got a MacOS X/OS 9 w/Carbon version of my own if you wanna try it out... www.sloppydisk.com/software/sokoban.html
Having just flown to and from London from Sydney (20hours in the air each way) I can say that between those options there's enough there to at least keep you vaguely entertained for most of the journey. They may not be freeciv, but for a mere 7 flight as yours is then they're enough.
Honestly, if you're going economy laptops are annoying and cumbersome. You're much better off pricing airlines that look after their passengers.
It came out in 1994, was later released by Sierra as freeware, and is still one of the best CRPG experiences I've had.
"Emacs would make a good operating system; the only thing missing is a good editor." ;-)
You've got 7 hours during which you can't be interrupted. Seven hours free from your boss. Seven whole hours of entirely interruption free bliss. And you want to use it to play games? Dammit man! Code, or work, or do something productive... those 7 interruption-free hours are worth a week of "normal" work!
There's no $$$ in 'team'...
www..--..net - for incisive, w
Hmmm... seven hours of flight eh? Well assuming your iBook is up to it, you could try "REAL" classics head over to http://www.mame.dk
download the MAME for your Apple but you'll need to hit the newsgroups for the ROMs. You can get the information from the above site as well
A great (and funny) game where you have to destroy all koules. Check it out and grow an addiction
"It's too bad that stupidity isn't painful." - Anton LaVey
The persistence of Subspace continues to amaze me.
The amount of time that people have spent reverse-engineering and recreating a closed-source game, when there's a staggeringly similar open source project (which predates it by years) is crazy.
I haven't seen Subspace in some years, but given that major Subspace sites are still providing the old zipfiles, I doubt it's changed at all. Given the fracturing would go on when a closed-source game changes its protocols, I doubt it *can* change much. Meanwhile xpilot continues to be played and further developed by the community that enjoys it, plus the occasional newcomer.
Perhaps the reason I haven't looked at Subspace in some time is that I don't run Windows (nor does the original question asker), and the reverse-engineers haven't made other platforms a priority.
Never fear, xpilot has you covered. Windows versions are available (with source if you want it), and the game was born and raised on X11.
If you enjoy Subspace, or liked Asteroids, or Thrust (on the C64), you owe it to yourself to check out Xpilot. And if something bugs you about it (like the spartan graphics), get the source and hack away. It's encouraged.
The main page is www.xpilot.org, and a fine beginner's guide with Windows binaries can be found at www.j-a-r-n-o.nl/xpilot.html.
Enjoy.
This is a very good version of mario brothers I found earlier on today while looking for graphics for my website. Full source is included and there's an intresting story there about how someone took one of the beta's and modified the exe and attached some documents and made it shareware.
very like the movie,
pain that the game doesn't end when you die and you have to wait for the computer controlled characters to die, but it is multiplayer and a great dupe of the movie.
-- it's ridiculous how many people misspell ridiculous... (damn, damn, damn...)
another good place to try if you want to take a real step back in time is ftp://ftp.apple.asimov.net/pub/apple They have an almost complete range of old games for the apple ][, ][e, Apple III etc along with emulators to run on most OS's
If you don't remember it, never mind.
/ for the current SDL port.
It's actually a pretty addictive game. My personal best is level four, 8225 points.
http://fraggle.despayre.org:81/stuffage/sopwith
Barclay family motto:
Aut agere aut mori.
(Either action or death.)
MYST MYST
its not free but its a classic and its awesome
You can also go to emulation.net and pick up some emulation software of your choice. You'll have to be willing to break copyright law to get the ROMs, though.
BlackGriffen
For long flights, I depend on my Visor Deluxe. Palm eBooks (such as the ones in the Baen Free Library), plus various Palm games: Rally 1000, Kyle's Quest, Taipan, etc. Kyle's Quest isn't free but there are a ton of levels for it that are free, and there are dozens of good free PalmOS games.
A PDA fits well on the tiny tray table, extra AAA cells are easy to bring, and battery life is excellent.
A Visor Deluxe is about $100 these days.
If you bring an iBook, you might want to look into a cable that will let you power it from the airplane somehow.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
You can't buy the Mona Lisa, and the artist is no longer available, therefore there is no price. There, the Mona Lisa is "free".
"Marathon" was around on the mac just slightly before quake, but its more interactive (Like Half Life)... Buttons, Doors, triggers and stuff....then you can blast'em up, rocket launcher, grenades all th egood stuff.
Also
Check out http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com !!! The best new versions of the classic games
http://homepage.mac.com/csfacc/index.html
The first rouge clone I played was Angband, I that was pretty good, so I looked into some other clones. Next, I saw Nethack which I didn;t like to much. I don't know, I just........ didn't. Then my friend told me about Adom. It's the best one I've played. It has alot more races and classes then other clones I've tried. You should try that, and hey! it's under a meg ;)
Since we're talking about software and different counties, does anyone know of any software for the Mac (or unix) that would allow you to view DVD's between the two regions? If i bring an iBook or PowerBook to the UK, from th US, with a DVD player, it would be setup for region 1 where the laptop was purchased. Could I then play DVD's from Region 2 and if not, what (if any) software is available could do this?
It was ported, but pretty much no one ever played it. Every mac FPS player had marathon. Doom was a quality game, but after playing marathon i just couldn't stand it after the first couple episodes. The gap was just too great.
More sublime then Circle of Iron: Go here.
They make some addictive Mac games. Escape Velocity with the Star Wars plug in is really addictive. The latest version is Escape Velocity Nova.
There is an ancient, very playable, very fun, version of Risk for Mac (only). Search for "risk sit hqx mac" or "riskii sit hqx mac". There are several Risks out there for Mac, but the oldest one is the best.
Does anyone remember the old Apple II game Snack Attack? I surprised and delighted my dad on his 6oth birthday by making Snack Attack run on the Apple II emulator. Soon we were dueling each other, just like it was 1982 all over again! The grin on his face was unbelievable.. kinda like the grin on mine as I recall it!
;-)
ANYway, is there a port of this one? I thought of writing a GPL port of it, but I can't program to save my life...
-- haaz.
How about some URLs?
http://www.berighteous.com/euphoria/2a.html
One of the screen shots looks a *lot* like the first level from the Apple II version of it.
-- haaz.
maim is great I remember putting like 5 dollars in that at my local 7-11 when they used to have U.N. Squadron and Street fighter, both of which are capcom maim arcade games. I guess they got rid of them in 7-11 because they had people like me hanging out for 3 hours, i actually got my one bike stolen cause i didn't have it locked up which really sucked, yes i know offtopic
http://www.vanillaafro.com - take me seriously and I will shoot you
i am a firm believer in roms. they are free to me because i downloaded them (hotline back when i was without a cap on my net and had a different provider).
i own over 600 nes roms and they are the way to go. nintendo can't actually give a sh|t whether or not i play them as they can't make any money off of them anyways. and after all, the greedy companies that do it for money (otherwise they'd be free right?) aren't making it so i am not hurting them.
and eventually i WILL have every rom for nes,snes, gameboy or any other outdated system. i was a loyal fan of them when they were big and i can't say i deserve them but i'll take them as my guilty pleasure cause i'm not hurting their business.
it's kinda like how blizzard abandoned diablo II and starcraft when the newer game came out. starcraft got destroyed by diablo II (the servers got a sh|t kicking) and now diablo II isin't as fast (im guessing they take the servers and use them for the new game and leave one or two left for the old ones, then bitch when another company/group of people want to make their own servers)
greedy companies saying that no one should have the good old games.
-proud pirate person
Yes, you can jerk off several times in your 7-hours fly. It's not going to be hard to find 'goals' to inspire your 'head', you can even use that funny magazines most air companies let in the big sit pocket right behind you. And, sure, your ibook can be useful too, you can download lots of pr0n in the internet and use it in the airplane's bathroom - just remember to set a low sound volume.
:)?
Anyway, I always wonder why some buttheads like to plan everything in their lives, even which games they'll play in a damned 7-hour flight. What if a nice girl sits in your side and starts a conversation? Or a good movie starts playing? Or if you feel asleep (that's the best thing to do in airplanes
WarBirds has always been free for offline play. If the iBook has a decent enough video card, you can play WarBirds III. If not, there's still WarBirds 2.77.
Both versions have missions to fly against the built-in AI, and unless you're in the top echelon of WarBirds freaks, it's good enough to kick your ass if you set the AI to ace level. http://www.warbirdsiii.com
Also, the Combat Mission demo is two years old, but still a fantastic full-fledged minigame in its own right. http://www.battlefront.com
It's all about the abandonware. Check Google for some sites.
Some of my recent favorites were Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, system shock, lode runner, and even Below the Root.
Of course it is free. Everything is free as long as you have the ability to not get caught making off with it. It is on a need to have basis and if you lack the skills than you don't need to have the painting.
It is "free." You will not be legally liable if you were to print up an exact duplicate. Likewise, if no company no longer owns the IP, then that too is "free." However, many companies sell off their IP right before they go under. Nevertheless, there are some arcade games out there which are, technically, free.
gcc rocks.
Speaking of bubbly games... does anyone know where I can get a Win32 binary of SameGnome?? Please??!
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
For remakes of sierra games you can check out Tierra at: http://www.qknowledge.net/royalquest/ :) Now they are working on KQ2 and QFG2. I already finished KQ1 again :)
They already remade the Kings Quest 1 to look like Kings Quest 5
Good initiative!
Is a great game if you are into tiny strategy games with a pinch of humor. Spent many hours on this little thing, it is as classic as can be. Supported multiplayer waaay back then. The AI is prety good too. A game with a galaxy size set to humongus should just last about 7 hours :-)
is a great puzzle game. It used to be shareware, and now it's freeware. Available here.
Try www.gltron.org for a great , playable game and the inform (or TADS) text adventure engines. these are great too.
Don't bring more than 4 AA's on an airplane trip. I did that on a trip recently and one of the security personell mentioned that looked supsicious and recommended I carry no more than 4.
That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. Do they not sell batteries in the gift shops past the security checkpoints? What if I bring those batteries by putting them in my gameboy, cd player, shaver and digital camera? Does that make it better? Seriously, what sort of Macgyver device can I build with 8 batteries that I cannot build with 4? These so-called security checks simply provide more inconvenience and a false sense of security to travellers.
Get "Day of Defeat" a free fps Half-Life mod.
Rev up some Sturmbots and start overheating that MG42.
Idunno, the atari (Hasbro) rereleases are about $7.00 each and you can get, eg, in "Arcade Hits 1" Centipede and Tempest (and some other games) with the trackball games reconfigured for a mouse (a latency built in to compensate for the weight of the arcade ball). There's not a lot of room for a mouse in a plane, but these games are worth it for when you land. Asteroids works with the keyboard, though one can only play it for so long (unless it's 1982 and you're a high school student). I never use the MAME versions of these games now; the bells and whistles are worth the price, though I guess I could have bought a burrito instead.
grammar-lesson free since 1999. (rescinded - 2005)
Here's where you go to download those golden oldies, including classic games
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Softwar
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Angband + variants
Rogue games, much like nethack and Diablo 1.
Moria as its predecessor.
Specially multiplayer versions are very nice.
http://thangorodrim.angband.org/
I'm a member of a 15 year old computerclub, and when
some of the old members came visiting, one of them
cried out:"My God, are you guys STILL playing Moria?"
The Fool's Errand is a classic Mac game the author (Cliff Johnson) has made available free of charge. He even has a FreeBSD port.
This is one of the most ingenious and difficult puzzle games ever made. Interestingly, perhaps because it plays out at times like an illustrated story, the game has also aged very well. A classic - but many people haven't heard of it since it was a Mac-only game.
BotsnScouts is platfrom independent as it runs on Java. And it's a cool game - keeping in mind that it's a computerrized shameless rippoff of the Robo Rally Boardgame from Wizards of the Coast. :-)
It's got hot seat, network multiplayer and a solid AI if you're lonely and/or need an extra opponent. Definetly check it out.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
The Mac OS X version is still in the works but if you've got Linux on your IMac, it should run fine with Mesa (Software OpenGL). Oh - it's a Tron Game. ;-)
Check it out.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
My favorite repository of classic abandonware is The Underdogs. Most of their games are classics from the mid- to late 80s and each features a review by the submitter or the site's creator, who has his own idiosyncratic & slightly old-fashioned ideas about how games should be made. Just as important, games can be searched by company or creator. Almost all are available as free downloads.
Not to just quote the front page of the site, but it really is simple to throw together simple but addicting games like the old classics, in Python. I find it frustrating that more of these fun games arent written. The tool is available and several attempts at games made. The kit runs on just about every platform and with what the guys over at Twisted Matrix Labs have done, networking these games couldnt get easier. I myself am slowly working on at least two of these games, we need more! Never can we have too many games! NEVER!
Imagine network frogger, the whole pond is out and racing to cross the road! How about zoomed out and multiplayer digdug? Pump em till they pulp! Sidescrollers are doable, how about Karnov, anyone remember the old bald guy? I know I lost many a silver coin to that cat. I :really: want a top down, Gauntlet style mutliplayer game.
How many of you would love to play d0pe-warz with an actual realtime multiplayer backend, knife fights in the alleys, buying pimp cars for faster neighborhood/city->city navigation, and real market fluctuations based on supply and demand!?
Granted, many of these games are copyrighted materials but look how simple some of the these games were, compared to todays games. We all miss this flavor of game, having been saturated with yet more and more realistic games. The game designers of today are shooting for blockbuster titles, maximizing on the latest graphical hardware innovation.
Someone has even gone to the trouble of simulating old led based games from WAY-back. We miss these games!
Pygame is the best tool to get us these games. Any of you with a half baked idea and patience to learn a little Python, get to crackin! We NEED you!
-=C=-
US -> Europe flights are generally overnight. Get some shut-eye, you're going to need it. And don't piss off all those around you who *are* trying to get some sleep by tapping away for hours on end.
Not free as in speech, but Elite was one of my favourite '80s games, and is now freely available. Though there appears to be no Mac version, so you'll need an emulator for one of the dozen or so platforms it ran on (c64, Amiga, Atari ST, NES, Spectrum CPC, Archimedes, BBC, Apple ][, Electron, PC). Classic first-person-3d space combat & trading sim. Oh yeah, and it got better framerates on a C64 than my 300mhz PC does with GL under X.
Click here if you just like to click on shit.
nobody seems to have mentioned freeloader, get free slightly old games for just clicking on a few links....
If you like graphical adventures, and own some old Lucas Arts titles (check on eBay) even PC versions.
SCUMMVM is an interpreter for these games and it work really well : (under X and Classic)
scummvm.sourceforge.net
Other interesting site for emulation on the Mac :
www.emulation.net
"Not for commercial use". Does that mean not allowed to be on TV advertisements? Not allowed to be played at work? The dozens of authors probably each have differing ideas. The GPL, verbose as it is, at least has enough explanation (and unity) to be understandable (and hopefully stand up better in a court of law, which is not geared up for contracts that don't involve "consideration" (usually money)).
You can get the Total Annihilation: Commander pack at your local MAC store. It kept me busy for 1.5 years and I'm still a little addicted. I think there is a discount too. =)
Girls are strange. They don't come with a man page.
-- Michael Mattsson
I'd highly recommend Star Control 2, by Toys for Bob, as a classic game. In fact, I consider it my favorite game of all time. It has some RPG elements, a great real-time space combat system which can even be played human vs. human, instead of a lame Final Fantasy battle system, and totally non-linear storyline progression. The majority of the game is conversation with aliens.
After leaving your colony and returning to Earth in a mysterious alien ship, you find that in the 20 years you have been cut off from what's going on outside the colony planet, the Alliance lost the war, and the human race is now imprisoned by a slave shield surrounding Earth.
There is a starbase in orbit of Earth. After your first task of making contact with them, it is up to you to find out how you can defeat the Ur-Quan. Not knowing anything about the spheres of influence yet, you just look at your starmap, and plot a course in any direction, hoping the alien races you meet are friendly...
Most tasks aren't necessary to complete the game, but instead get you something that will help you out a lot, like a useful device or an alliance with a race, allowing you to build their ships and use them in combat, or even just information.
Originally created as a PC DOS game, it was later ported to the 3DO console where they added 12+ hours of speech, CG opening and ending sequences, and a few other enhancements.
The 3DO version with all the enhancements, voice included, is now being ported back to Windows, Linux, MacOS, etc, and will be released as freeware. So the freeware version isn't available yet, but you'll want to keep checking the fan site for updates.
nice selection of games at the boot disk guys website http://dos.li5.org/ he makes my favorite boot disks too, the WORMdisk with addonpacks, sucker has saved my butt on the job a few times ;)
In most European countries the voltage has been raised to 230V(!) about 10 years ago.
Most 220V equipment can handle it (and "newer" equipment, say, for the last 10(!) years, is specified for 230V), but for older equipment, be prepared that it might get hotter if it's specified for 220V. Remember that it's an almost 5% increase.
42. Easy. What is 32 + 8 + 2?
Perhaps my favourite game is elastomania. It's got 18 levels for free (I soon registered) and it may not be for mac (Windows or BeOS). There's loads of fan sites with plenty of free levels as well. I had everyone playing it where I used to work and I've been looking for similarly simple but fun games since. If you think you're getting good at it, just check out the world records for the levels, some people seem to have dedicated their life to it.
It's actually a remake of Action Supercross, but I think it's pretty much a modern classic.
Other games I've found are PocoMan, Pontifex and Triptych
If anyone like these and has more similar suggestions then let me know!
Ok, "boxworld" is a great puzzle game. Not sure if there's a mac version - go google.
:)
HOWEVER: Get a SNES emulator (snes9x is good, there's heaps out there) and grab the "Legend of Mana". This game ROCKS, and will keep you entertained for hours.
One problem: You may not want to get out of your seat to leave the flight.
It's a pity you want free games.. because I played "Dungeon Siege" for 20 hours straight when I first installed it.
It's true that windows 3.1 is commonly thought of as merely a shell for DOS, however later revisions of it worked increasing amounts of OS-like behavior.
If I recall correctly, Windows 3.x was one of the first bits of software that allowed access to the extended mode of the 386 architecture. With the exception of memory mangers like himem and EMM386, DOS ran strictly in real mode.
Later versions such as Windows for Workgroups also had a 32bit disk access driver that allowed them to bypass the system BIOS entirely for improved performance.
So while it might be easy to think of 3.1 as just a shell for DOS, it did incorperate plenty low-level features typical of advanced operating systems.
-Chris
--an unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys--
No need to be bothered with controlling your character.. .just play http://www.progressquest.com
Live web cams
I think my favourite free-as-in-zero-dollars computer game of all time is Curses. This game will keep you up late at night and get you up at all hours of the morning. Eventually you'll find yourself searching google groups (rec.games.int-fiction) for solutions to some of the trickier bits. (Like that %$#! flashlight battery hidden right under your nose where you can't get it without the [spoiler ommitted].)
You'll also need a z-machine to play it. For the classic MacOS, the obvious choice is MaxZip, though there are of course numerous others.
OS X can probably run frotz (though you may have to compile it). Anyway, whatever platform you need it for, you should be able to find something here. They've got z-machines for everything, including certain brands of pocket toasters, or so it seems. (The z-machine was originally developed for Zork.)
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
Everyone who posted on this discussion is evil.
It's 7:30 am. I've been up all night playing games. I grew up thinking my Mac Plus was the ultimate gaming machine (Crystal Quest!!!), and I'm glad I can still play a ton of those games on my PowerBook G3 in Classic mode. And now since it's all abandonware, I can finally play the games my friends and I didn't have and never got. woo!
Oh, and JewelToy is bloody addictive... take it on your trip.
I recommend glTron (http://www.gltron.org) by Andreas Umbach.
If Nethack is a little to retro for you then checkout Nethack Falcons Eye
http://falconseye.sf.net/
All the gameplay of Nethack and a fancy 3D interface. It is real pretty.
I have not played it much, once you have played for a bit it is hard to beat the interface and controls of the standard Nethack interface on an old monochrome screen.
Such as the classic, Bungie's Myth: The Fallen Lords. You can run the demo under Wine if you're on Linux.
Mac OS X version of GNU Go is distributed by Sente Software.
It works pretty good on my iBook 500. Supposedly computer Go players arent' all that good, but I'm worse, so it kicks my ass all the time.
Go is way more of a classic than anything else mentioned here. It's tied with backgammon for oldest game still played in its original form. The strategy is astonishingly deep, though each new layer of strategy you can appreciate brings a new level of enjoyment, and you don't have to grok it all at once to have fun.
For the mac, check out sente software's Goban program. It's an interface to gnugo (an AI engine), and I believe they've added an interface to IGS, the Internet Go Server, useful on a plane only if you have an internet connection (low bandwidth is fine).
I don't have a mac, but my Dad has one, and he seems to like Goban quite a bit.
Oh, and don't forget to bring a book about beginning go rules and strategy, like Iwamoto's _Go_for_Beginners_, and Janice Kim's series of 4 books (soon to be 5 I hope).
I have a web page full of intro go links at http://nis.acs.uci.edu/~strombrg/go-start.html. You could conceivably download some of these for offline viewing instead of a book, though some are interactive with java (and those tend to be the best ones, especially the kiseido tutorial).
http://fools-errand.com/01-the-fools-errand/index. htm
The great little game from the late eighties is being offered up by the author for free. And it's a Mac game. The engaging story line made me forget that I don't really like word puzzles.
All I can say is SNOOD! This is the most addictive game I've seen since Tetris came out all those years ago. Go to http://www.snood.org to get it. There is a small reg fee, but the freeware version of it is just fine.
I just picked up a copy of Starcraft for $10, and a patch from Blizzard lets it run natively in OS X
Spin Doctoro ctor-dem o.hqx
ftp://happypuppy.com/pub/gamage/mac/spind
Flippant (can't find the URL)
Snakes Alive!
-- Ender, Duke_of_URL
Hit Google for a quick search for 'Ishido' "The Way of Stones" It's a great timekiller, very meditative and tricky, a tile game with background tunes.
can't believe nobody has mentioned this one..
GNU version of (one of*) the oldest and best board game there is. it is already on your ibook!
*yes yes i know all about go
They may or may not be junk. What do you want for free? Download a bunch and sort through them on your flight.
Eat at Joe's.
For crying out loud, it's the vi movement keys with reasonbly obvious extensions for diagonal movement!
hawk, fully aware that netack is the *only* game that matters
LMAO
You said "Mac" and "Games" in the same sentence!
Crossfire brings in the best combination of Gauntlet, Nethack, and a storyline RPG. It's evolved and grown into one heck of a game over the years. I can't remember the exactly URL right now, but they've got a link up at Happy Penguin.
----
PCBurn.com Reviewer
I play Doom (shareware wad) ported to the WinCE handheld (Jornada 680). It is bit for bit perfect, even the cheat codes work. No sound (I think that the sound code was never 'ok' to port without renumeration, id licensed the sound code from someone else so couldn't just give it away) but other than that it plays great. Good for memories :)
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
A few years back, I used to play a LOT of Realmz, available through Fantasoft, which is a role playing game with lots of plug in scenarios developed by the company and by independent game afficionados. It's not free, but it's not too pricey, and some of the scenarios were free if you were willing to be a Beta tester. You could get a good few hours out of the demos without paying anything.
Fantasoft used to be a Mac only developer, although they have ported to PCs now. They also have some other games with pretty extensive demos.
I have it some where .... on a floppy, ahhhh.
[nintendo] can't make any money off of [old games] anyways.
Not even if Nintendo or Konami or Acclaim or Capcom or somebody ports old games to the new hardware? Besides, Nintendo still makes money off Mario(tm), Donkey Kong(tm), Kirby(tm), Zelda(tm), Pokemon(tm), Metroid(tm), Earthbound(tm), Star Fox(tm), F-Zero(tm) even if the new releases aren't exact ports of the old ones. (And those are just the franchises included in the first version of Super Smash Bros.)
eventually i WILL have every rom for nes,snes, gameboy or any other outdated system.
Game Boy is NOT outdated. Commercial software, virtually all of which is proprietary, is still being produced for the 8-bit Game Boy Color system and the 32-bit Game Boy Advance system.
i'm not hurting their business
The fact that you're playing Super Mario Bros. 2 on LoopyNES or FCE Ultra, or Super Mario All-Stars or Super Mario World on SNES9x, means that you're probably not buying copies of games in the Super Mario Advance series (which currently includes SMB1 for GBC and SMB2 and SMW for GBA; Yoshi's Island and SMB3 are coming soon).
Will I retire or break 10K?
because it applies to windows instead of mac but some people might appreciate a site with alot of content: www.freeware.com
Beware blue cats moving at
So by your definition, Internet Explorer is free software?
No, Microsoft Internet Explorer for home computers is not free, because it is available only to those who have purchased copies of an operating system that either integrates it (Microsoft Windows OS) or bundles it (Apple Mac OS).
(Yes, I know that Microsoft offers unsupported binary sparc-solaris and pa-hpux ports, but they represent an insignificant portion of the IE user base. Many times more Sun and HP workstation owners use either NS4 or Mozilla than use IE, and such machines aren't priced to the home or small business market anyway.)
Will I retire or break 10K?
http://www.the-underdogs.org/ is fairly good for games. it has freeware and shareware, as well as proper published games that you could see in stores. Some of the games aren't actually available for download, but it gives you links to where you can buy the games. My favourite has to be catch the sperm 2, have a look for it
Pfft - Sorry, what?
How about ADOM. Its a great Rogue like game. Addictive as heck as well. Here it is
Cthulhu for president!
I know that there are at least two linux versions. There is Frozen Bubble and there is another one called Hex. Just go to The Linux Game Tome (Happypenguin) and search for them in the search box at the top.
if you want a couple simple (but challenging) arcade-style games, try NS-Shaft and NS-Tower from NAGI-P Soft. I prefer NS-Shaft, of the two.
The fact that as I write this 1587 people are playing this game speaks for itself.
That the game fails to live up to particular ideals is irrelevant. Those ideals have thus far failed to produce anything of similar notoriety within the genre. Could they? Well of course they could - but it's been tried with Subspace. Perhaps not seriously, perhaps not by the right people, but attempts were made to gather a posse for the sort of effort suggested by Keith Maniac and they simply failed to gather momentum.
Subspace nearly and fully kicked the bucket in late 1998. This combined with a balkanization of rules used by different servers (not unlike what we saw in Tribes) and a couple of threatening sequels produced by Sony have created a community that likes centralized power and a private development process. Support for those running the operation is so near to unanimous that they managed to move the entire community from the abandonware Subspace client to the merely copyright-violating Continuum clone with a minimum of protest. In fact for some time mine was among the loudest voices of opposition. That literally every such voice eventually crossed over and supported the effort may speak both good and bad of the Subspace community, but I think it serves to explain why that community endures. One could argue such consensus is Not For Export, as it were - but it's served us well.
Color me stupid - color all 1587 of us stupid, if you like - but back when I first became interested in XPilot I never managed to get it working. If I recall correctly, I was instructed to compile it, set up some kind of runtimes, and telnet to a directory listing which refused to answer. Maybe I'm getting this confused with Freenet, but the point is: XPilot is a game whose installation process at least one person managed to get mixed up with that of Freenet.
I accept as fact based on the good word of decent folk that XPilot is a lovely game, but I don't notice it stomping the other games of its generation by a similar margin or commanding such a high degree of loyalty and dedication from so many people. The game benefits from simpler design, tight presentation, a painless setup process, a specialized and well organized creative and administrative community, a centralized chat and statistics server which is inseparable from the game, an interface that for clarity and ease of use still hasn't been beat by any game (including its successors), and a tradition of classy ship replacements & tile art and sophisticated level design. That little baptism of fire back in '98 didn't hurt matters either.
Balance of Power
l
http://www.erasmatazz.com/free.html
System's Twilight
http://www.eblong.com/zarf/twilight.htm
Seconds for Ambrosia Software (Ambrosiasw.com) and Spiderweb Software (Spidweb.com)
all in one handy Finder shot: the macintosh garden
accept no substitute.
warning: this game swallowed me. it took all my will power and then some to escape it's grasp.
I'm 21 and I remember before that!
Jees', I remember Windows 1 coming out... And installing it on our old IBM with it's 20MB hard drive.
We used to play classics like "Janitor Joe" and some other stuff I can't remember.
Half the games of course came on floppies (not FAT) which you just stuck in your drive and booted from, perfect clones of arcade games like Ms Pacman and Dig-Dug.
But I'm off-topic... ;)
he flies a rapier, which isn't the best ship in the game. i dodged him with a clipper and only once in a while did i need the afterburner to escape him.
All three work in the Classic environment on OS X. At the Carnival and 3 in Three only work in 256 color mode, Fool's Errand will work with any color settings.