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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?"
http://www.wesnoth.org/
When his defense asked, "Which computer has Jon Johansen trespassed upon?" the answer was: "His own."
its a great choice and will run on almost anything.
The greatest game that's less than a meg. http://www.dosgamesarchive.com/download/game/144
Frozen Bubble
Great for all ages and skill level
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
FreeCiv is a freeware version of Civilization that I still play. They have linux and windows releases.
http://freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/Download#Windows_Packages
Armagetron - its a great game based on the Disney movie Tron, very fun and addicting. Even better is that it is available with fully networkable clients for Mac, Linux and Windows so anyone can play with anybody given they have the game for their platform and a network switch.
The game is a clean, competitive one that can be monitored via server. Comes in the Ubuntu package repositories by default.
Gorillas
Nibble
You never expect irony, do you?
Want to be a professional wrestler? Visit www.iyfwrestling.com
@iyfwrestling
OSSWin Games List
Take a look at the Platform and First Person Shooter games.
Doom 2 (Dunno if it's free yet) & Starseige Tribes.
That's all you need to make any needy kid's Christmas 'super specail'.
But clearly you have something better to say...
Ur-Quan Masters (Star Control II, but free)
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (great role-based strategic shooter, inexplicably free)
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
Free-as-in-beer, or free-as-in-speech?
If you know the kids, you can tailor the games to their interests... 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.
If they have a good internet connection, all they need are links to decent flash games sites. I'm fond of recommending Kongregate, since they also have great tools and tutorials for creating your own games, and I've yet to see malware there. (Doesn't mean it doesn't exist).
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Oolite - Elite clone. Aaaaa... the memories :)
"It would be wrong to refuse to face the fact that everything is fundamentally sick and sad."
Very worthwhile, for both the strategy and melee modes.
ICQ# : 30269588
"I used to be an idealist, but I got mugged by reality."
Urban Terror is basically counter strike. It is based on the Quake III engine. I was surprised that it was both free and very well done. Available for windows, mac, and Linux. Lots of servers hosting games with lots of players. Free download http://www.urbanterror.net/news.php
Great game with cute robots. Can't go wrong.
I seem to remember there being quite a number of older titles released as freeware. Older iD titles, some of the earlier GTA titles, Tribes 1/2. With the number of mods available just for Quake 3, there will be tons of playtime just in one title. Red Alert was also released free, if you want to include some variety (as opposed to endless FPS games).
There are also current (ish) titles that might run on them. IIRC, Enemy Territory has a Linux port as does America's Army.
There's also the free games usually available for Linux that have Windows ports, such as FreeCiv.
I traded all my mod points for these magic beans.
While a great idea, I'm sure "legal" is a requirement as well, so unless he's willing to buy licenses for these hundreds of games, forget it :-/
...in bed
I've wasted more than enough time with this recently: Java risk: http://domination.sf.net. The implementation seems to be pretty good, it has some basic AI players, and can be played over a network. Good, classic strategy game, without the overhead of sorting out all the little army pieces. -- Paul
OpenSource.MathCancer.org: open source comp bio
And the charity will be ever so grateful for the massive copyright liability you've donated!
I vote for X-Moto. It's a 2-D motocross simulator game. Lots of fun and challenge from easy to nigh-on impossible, and very addictive.
There is also a simplified version more suited to kids.
Stop the Slashdot Effect! Don't read the articles!
I suggest a couple multiplayer shooters. Warsow http://www.warsow.net/ and Urban Terror http://www.urbanterror.net/ They're both free and based on the open sourced Quake engine (2 and 3). The Intel cards in those Dells should be enough for them. Plus they both have Linux and Windows clients.
The original Red Alert is free now. http://www.ea.com/redalert/news-detail.jsp?id=62:.
Kilroy was here.
None of those options are legal. Whether or not they should be is a different question.
and then...
You are dreaming right? None of those are in public domain, not with copyright laws 90 years after death of the creator. They're abandonware at best, and that most certainly isn't legal.
I though of fl0w and Plasma Pong. However Plasma Pong seems to be down :-(
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
Never mind willing to buy, no one is selling.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Angband http://rephial.org/ is all the kids will ever need. Just kidding, but it is an awesome game if kids get past the fast that it is ASCII character-based.
TripleA is free. The older kids may appreciate having a more complicated board game like A&A on there. It even goes beyond the classic maps
And bookmark a few good flash gaming sites while you're at it. Some of the best games are online
FreeCiv, a freeware implementation of the Civ and Civ II rules - http://freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
Dwarf Fortress is a fantastically complex game, like a cross between SimCity, NetHack, and Oregon Trail - http://www.dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/Main_Page
NetHack is a classic dungeon crawler with ASCII graphics - http://www.nethack.org/
Command & Conquer is an old but awesome RTS, now available for free from EA - http://www.commandandconquer.com/intel/default.aspx?id=62#NewsMain
Abandonware is murky but you can find install files for many abandonware titles online as well.
As much as I love playing Freeciv, I worry that it's not quite ready for people who have never played either it or some other version of Civilization. It is not at all intuitive, and it's not engaging to somebody who isn't already a known quantity at the whole getting sucked into the game thing.
How about OpenArena (a.k.a. Quake III) or Extreme Tux Racer? TetriNET/Blocktrix, a good multi-player Tetris game, is also a winner. Finally, there's a really good list of "open source" games over on Wikipedia.
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
Blob Wars : Metal Blob Solid
Project: Starfighter
Virus Killer
All are 2D software rendering with screen modes of 640x480 or 800x600. They've proved fairly popular in the past...
THE HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS - CC Licensed Sci-Fi Novel
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.
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.
This might be too "old and moldy" for a young teen but: http://www.scummvm.org/downloads.php Scroll down to "Extras, game downloads". Beneath a Steel Sky is entirely worth the time it takes to download and play. Definitely a staple of my childhood gaming. There are a couple other gems in the free downloads as well.
I don't think the FSF would classify it as 'Free' but it's close enough for what you want it for. I enjoyed the game a great deal.
Well, it has never been successfully tested.
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.
BZ FLAG! Ahh the countless hours spent pwning classmates in CS lab....
in Ubuntu as deb but oldish website has rc2 - quite fun.
www.bzflag.org Free, Open-source, multi-player tank battle ala Battle-Zone.
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?
Where is the "Ignorant" mod tag?
Xmoto is great, available from Ubuntu repositories, and non-violent. Apart from when the bike falls on top of the character that is! hehe
You should check out Edubuntu, it was designed the sort of thing you want to do in mind.
Star Control: The Ur-Quan Masters. One of the absolute best games I've EVER played for ANY platform - ported from the 1990's as free software.
Seiklus. One of my all-time favorite action/adventures: simple, colorful, evocative.
Within a Deep Forest. Really fun and neat game where you play a bouncing ball.
Spheres of Chaos. INCREDIBLE trippy Asteroids clone with lots of power-ups.
flOw. Of course.
Overgod. Very fun 2D arena shooter with upgradable ships.
ROM CHECK FAIL. Old-school craziness. =)
Cave Story. Metroid-style old-school side-scroller.
- David Stein
Computer over. Virus = very yes.
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?
To be pedantic, the emulators are perfectly legal; the pirated ROMs are not (although there are a few good original distributed-as-free-software ROMs.)
Depends. Some of them require an illegal copy of the bios.
Many of the open source Linux games also have pretty good Windows ports:
Take a look for "Linux Game" sites and follow the links to the homepage of the games. Most times the Windows ports will be included. Here's a few good examples:
At getdeb.net you can get Super Methane Brothers. If you go to the homepage of Super Methane Brothers you find a Windows Exe.
You can take a look at LinuxGames, playubuntu.com and probably find more via Google.
Games that I would recommend specifically:
Tux Math Command
gridwars 2
OpenAlchemist
Hedgewars
Game Maker
Frets on Fire
Secret Maryo Chronicles
CAPS LOCK: ITS LIKE THE CRUISE CONTROL FOR AWESOME
Unless you have the Kilrathi Saga pack, you'll need dosbox to make it work.
Wing Commander isn't free though, so I doubt it could be packaged with these computers. Maybe Vegastrike or one of it's mods would be a better option.
I personally never get sick of Chip's Challenge. Great old school puzzle game that fosters the development of problem solving skills.
one of the funner games i remember playing as a child was AT-Robots. i'm not sure if it was free back then (i might have gotten it at a swap meet or something), but it's certainly free now.
basically, it's a robot battle simulation. you use a text editor to write the AI for your bot(s) in ATRA (Advanced T-Robot Assembly), a simplified assembly-like language used in the game, and then you load your custom-made bots up in the game and run battle simulations against other types of robots.
even if you don't assembly or don't have any programming experience, it's relatively easy to open up one of the pre-written robots that come with the game and figure out what different instructions do by altering different program parameters and then seeing how this changes the robot's behavior.
it's a great way to get kids interested in programming (and perhaps robotics/AI) while having lots of fun. one of the game's best qualities is that it encourages experimentation and creativity. once you get into the game you're always trying to tweak your robots and experiment with new techniques to improve their battle performance. it's largely a process of trial-and-error when you first start, but it also encourages deductive reasoning and other analytical skills.
No one has mentioned "Savage, Battle for Newerth". Has windows, Linux, and MAC downloadable binaries.
"BSD is about people pissing each other.." (Moid Vallat)
Install the GameTap client. While they have a pay service. They also have 150 free games. These are real commercial games including:
Tomb Raider Legend
Metal Slug 2
Bubble Bobble
Sensible Soccer 2006
King of Fighters '96
Robotron 2084
Elevator Action
Burger Time
Commandos 3
Warlords Battlecry III
Cannon Fodder
Hitman
More...
While the pay part of the service is worth the money, the free part has a suprisingly high number and quality of available games.
While I used to beat my dad at chess starting from my high school years (15 to 18 years for those not from the U. S.) he kicked my ass at checkers up until the weeks before he died.
Ditto for my Uncle Obie.
I'll bet there's a bunch of old coots sitting around just waiting to teach you a thing or two about checkers.
Oh, and for what it's worth, Go is really simple too.
We have always been at war with Eurasia!
On the educational side, TuxType, TuxPaint and TuxMath are all great programs that teach spelling, typing/speed, basic geometry/colors, and basic math problem solving.
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
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.
BZFlag is a fun multiplayer tank game that you can jump right into and have fun but also has a lot of potential for skill growth. It works well on even crappy video cards.
Why? So they'll be competing with us for women? We need to make a socially illiterate next generation, so there will be young women available for us!
For fans of the board game Settlers of Catan, there is a similar online version which is quite nice:
Sea3D (here are some screenshots)
That one is a bit old, but stable (it is similar to Settlers plus the seafarer expansion), and the S3D Connector website can match up players.
The newer version in devel is Cities Online (similar to cities and knights expansion).
Those are pretty good board games.
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/
'Net' is my favorite puzzle in the set, but there are 27 different puzzle games total including Mastermind, Minesweeper, a number sliding puzzle, and Sudoku.
Available for PC, Mac, Linux, and Palm.
http://bzflag.org/ There are plenty of servers rated "PG", "PG-13", and even "G" suitable for children of all ages. The servers for kids tend to be very heavily monitored with strict language and behavior rules.
Cheers!
Sean
Micropolis is the official SimCity for Linux I do believe, but Lincity-NG is an even better clone more akin to SimCity 2000.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
I've got wood for sheep!
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
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
IM, Facebook and MySpace are as useful to the development of social skills as a horse is to playing water polo. Sure, some of the syntax is the same, but it's just a really bad idea.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
And here is a list of FPS and MMOs. While you didn't list what kind of Intel graphics chip it shouldn't take you very long to pick a few out of these lists that will work. Basically anything pre 2003 should work with a 915. I haven't tried the newer GMA chips but I heard they are even better. Personally I like any of the free FPSs based on the Quake engine myself. You just can't go wrong with a little Quake style blasting to help relieve that schoolwork stress ;-)
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Similarly, Logo can be a great way to educate programming skills, as well as artistic and problem solving skills. Logo can make spirograph-type art, and puzzles such as mazes can be navigated. I'm not sure if Logo has been developed as far as having AI, but it seems possible.
Logo may be more appropriate for younger audiences. Something with a similar artistic/programming approach for teens would be interesting. Maybe sodaplay or processing, although these maybe a bit too difficult.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language)
On that note - we have a 4 year old at home (soon to be 5) who is hooked on GCompris. Most of the mini-games there are too difficult, but she loves the ones she can figure out.
She switches on the PC and logs on herself (with her own password) to get to it.
While I thought about giving her Sugar as the DE, she seems very comfortable with GNOME.
DXball (MegaBall based breakout game) runs OK on basic machines, you can still get the free version on cnet:
http://www.download.com/DX-Ball/3000-2099_4-10155579.html
Also, NoNags has a lot of games, all free. I would think anything saying it is Win9x and XP compatable would not be too demanding. At Nonags you want the 6/6 rated software, though some of the 5/6 stuff is OK too.
http://www.nonags.com/
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
You're right, why hasn't this been modded to +5???
..don't go for Crack Attack or Tetrinet.
Why do you need to bring the "holier than thou give them something useful" nonsense if the poster is not asking about that?
IANAL but write like a drunk one.