Slashdot Mirror
Great Games To Put On a Free PC?
Lumpy writes "I am giving several new PC's to a local charity that will be giving them to needy kids this Xmas. They are not powerful, basically baseline Dells that have Intel graphics and Celeron, but more than enough to do homework and other studies on. They are going out with XP on them, an Ubuntu CD, and a bunch of OSS software like OO.o and the others. I would like to include some games for the kids. Strategy, fun, etc. Great freeware games that are fun to play. What would be the best games that a 13-16 year old will like to play that are free and legal to give away, and will run on this lower-end hardware?"
Gorillas
Nibble
You never expect irony, do you?
Want to be a professional wrestler? Visit www.iyfwrestling.com
@iyfwrestling
And the charity will be ever so grateful for the massive copyright liability you've donated!
A challenging puzzle game that can provide hours of brain-bending entertainment. Linux has a similar program called "emacs" where you have to guess strange combinations of keystrokes, and get rewarded with an odd text adventure called "man".
... and then they built the supercollider.
"Reply to This" and "Parent" are actually four words. Maybe you meant to say "Two buttons;"?
I'm not sure how much mileage you'll get out of installing nethack when the recipient of the PC is a typical 14-yo girl.
14-yo girls should love Nethack. First, it has ponies which you can ride, and feed apples. Second, it has vampires for reenacting Twilight. Finally, it has dwarfs that they can name after their little brothers and sacrifice on an altar. What's not to love?
Don't think of just entertainment, choose games that will teach the children valuable life skills. For example:
Teach them to Rule the World: Freeciv
Teach them the value of running over hookers: GTA 1&2
Teach them the awesomeness of fighting robots: One Must Fall 2097
Teach them to conquer the world in a different way: C&C Red Alert 3
And finally, teach them to conquer the world of worms (you never know): Wormux
Mod my comments down. It'll be fun.
I second that. Mod parent up.
I don't want to!
I couldn't help myself from laughing... You want to give Doom for Christmas?
I'm not up on the details, but I've heard that ther is this program called "bittorrent" is extremely popular with gamers.... If you don't install it yourself, I'm sure your average 15 year old PC user will figure it out pretty quickly.
I second that. Mod parent up.
I don't want to!
And now you can't.
Reversi/othello Checkers Chess Go
instead of mind numbing violence and graphic eye candy, maybe it is a better idea to switch gears and provide something that actually cultivate the mind?
I think you're probably overstating the developmental capacity of checkers.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
"you have a 42.36% chance of causing 3 units of damage with the weapon you've chosen, and a 26.64% chance of causing 4 units of damage. Here is a table describing the probabilities of every outcome for every combination of weapons..."
Do you really want that stuff interfering with the gameplay? Wesnoth is like doing math homework
You missed a classic in there:
Global Thermonuclear War
Shall we play a game?
I second Wesnoth.
OpenArena, Bzflag, and Armagetron would also be top picks.
Please, for the love of god and country, DO NOT PUT FROZEN BUBBLE ON THERE.. Frozen bubble has stolen days..weeks.. years? of my life. Please, stop the madness. End the addiction cycle. Do not further the spread of Frozen Bubble.
On second thought, frozen bubble would be fine. A little couldn't hurt right? I think I'll go play right now. Just one game? One game won't hurt. I can quit after one game.
-ellie
The first rule of checkers fight club is that you do not talk about checkers fight club.
Reversi/othello Checkers Chess Go
instead of mind numbing violence and graphic eye candy, maybe it is a better idea to switch gears and provide something that actually cultivate the mind?
I think you're probably overstating the developmental capacity of checkers.
...and chess. I play chess well yet I'm functionally retarded when it comes to talking to women. My excellent slashdot karma doesn't seem to help either. I don't know where I went wrong in life but I couldn't get laid underwater with the only SCUBA tank in swimming distance.
Do the kids a favor and install an instant messenger, Skype, and help them sign up for Myspace and FB accounts so that they develop some social skills before they die alone in an apartment with too many cats, a great chess ranking, a lot of slashdot posts, and too many high scores.
My favorite quote doesn't fit into 120 characters. Now no one will like me.
I've got wood for sheep!
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.