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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!"
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
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
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
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
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.
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...
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."
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."
This game is hot, fast, and FREE!
I suspect you'd get even more odd looks if you were playing a flight sim.
Way back when me and a buddy always carried a 50 foot coax cable when we traveled. We'd deathmatch at 30,000 feet even when we weren't sitting side by side.
Nobody ever complained.
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 !