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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.
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...
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
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.
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.
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.
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 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 couldn't help myself from laughing... You want to give Doom for Christmas?
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.