Great Games To Put On a Free PC? 634
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?"
Battle for Wesnoth (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.wesnoth.org/ [wesnoth.org]
Re:Battle for Wesnoth (Score:4, Informative)
Yep - great game in a format a lot of teen gamers will already know. I love playing it and the ability to download new scenarios and make your own is pretty cool. It is very well done - and a lot of fun.
Re:Battle for Wesnoth (Score:5, Informative)
Might also look into Teeworlds [teeworlds.com], World of Padman [worldofpadman.com] TORCS [sourceforge.net], Neverball [icculus.org] and OpenArena [openarena.ws].
Re:Battle for Wesnoth (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Battle for Wesnoth (Score:5, Informative)
On the subject of freeware, open source and Free games, I wonder why no one checks Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_freeware_games [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabetical_list_of_open_source_games [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_commercial_games_released_as_freeware [wikipedia.org]
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
singularity [emhsoft.com] is also good
and freedriodrpg [sourceforge.net] can be played on intel (i think)
widelands (may not be playable), adonttell & Einstein [flowix.com] are also worth a shot
Hell the kids/games metapackage for kubuntu kept me amused for a while.
Re:Battle for Wesnoth (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
funny doesn't count for karma anyway.
Re:Battle for Wesnoth (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Battle for Wesnoth (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Battle for Wesnoth (Score:5, Funny)
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
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
You think that's bad.
Crack attack...http://aluminumangel.org/attack/
You start playing and then next thing you know..
What? It's tuesday??? It was just saturday!!!!?!
Although thanks for reminding me about frozen bubble. With the posts here I already have enough games on it that will keep the kids happy for at least a year.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Chuzzle [popcap.com] stole my life away. Much more addictive than Frozen Bubbble especially when you get a high score of 190,000 on the first game. Then there is TAGAP [tagap.net], but that's too hard, even for a 15yr old.
If you think Frozen Bubble is bad.. (Score:3, Informative)
..don't go for Crack Attack or Tetrinet.
FreeCiv (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
With the upcoming SDL user interface of FreeCiv it even looks like a modern game (was unfinished when i checked a couple of months ago).
http://freeciv.wikia.com/wiki/Screenshots [wikia.com]
Some freeCiv players also like freecol, a similar game written in java. I never got into it so I can't say much about it.
Scorched earth (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Scorched earth (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Scorched earth (Score:4, Interesting)
Scorched 3D ran on old 3Dfx cards.
Current intel graphics would more than handle it.
Frozen Bubble (Score:5, Informative)
Great for all ages and skill level
Re:Frozen Bubble (Score:5, Informative)
I'll put this here, since these are kind of arcadey games.
ABA games [asahi-net.or.jp] has a number of free arcade shooters that are tons of fun to play. Most of them are available in Debian's repository, so they should be available on Ubuntu too. You can get windows binaries at that link. In particular, check out rRootage, Torus Trooper, and Tumiki Fighters. But they're all excellent games.
Freeciv (Score:5, Informative)
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 [wikia.com]
Re: (Score:2)
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 [wikia.com]
I second that. Great version of a classic game, and highly addictive. I've lost more hours than I care to count playing this one...
Re: (Score:2)
I second that. Mod parent up.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
I second that. Mod parent up.
I don't want to!
Re:Freeciv (Score:5, Funny)
I second that. Mod parent up.
I don't want to!
And now you can't.
Freeciv is non-intuitive. Here are some others. (Score:5, Informative)
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 [openarena.ws] (a.k.a. Quake III) or Extreme Tux Racer [extremetuxracer.com]? TetriNET/Blocktrix [blocktrix.org], a good multi-player Tetris game, is also a winner. Finally, there's a really good list of "open source" games [wikipedia.org] over on Wikipedia.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
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.
Armagetron (Score:5, Interesting)
The game is a clean, competitive one that can be monitored via server. Comes in the Ubuntu package repositories by default.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Same games we had (Score:4, Funny)
Nibble
Here's a link.. (Score:3, Informative)
Take a look at the Platform and First Person Shooter games.
The originals... (Score:2)
That's all you need to make any needy kid's Christmas 'super specail'.
Re:The originals... (Score:5, Funny)
Couple ideas... (Score:5, Informative)
Ur-Quan Masters [sourceforge.net] (Star Control II, but free)
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory [wikipedia.org] (great role-based strategic shooter, inexplicably free)
Re: (Score:2)
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory [wikipedia.org] (great role-based strategic shooter, inexplicably free)
I second the vote for WolfET too... It's free pricetag made it very popular. There were plenty of servers back in the day, so it should still be pretty easy to find somewhere with a decent ping for an online rumble.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Another free game with good production values is Allegiance [freeallegiance.org]. It's a multiplayer space simulation with quite deep gameplay and focused on teamplay.
From Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]:
FreeCiv comes to mind (Score:2)
Fun to play, engaging, they might learn something...
If you could cough up a few bucks I'd say go for one of the paid Civilization games as well (probably II or III) which are likely cheap on the secondhand market these days, or maybe you could write the publisher and ask really nice for some free licenses (doubt though, but they are older games...)
Please elaborate (Score:3, Informative)
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).
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Please elaborate (Score:5, Funny)
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?
OpenDisc, Quake & FreeDoom (Score:2)
Are these primarily for kids? I'm also confused why you're installing XP but giving an Ubuntu CD? Live disc? That has a ton of great puzzle games you can start with and even a few decent starting learning games.
Oolite (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Interesting. Thanks for the link. I've always been an elite fan and it appears that an online space sim community has finally implemented landing on planets [aegidian.org], which will make it the first game, to my knowladeg, to have done so since Frontier First Encounters back in 1995.
Urquan Masters/Star Control 2 (Score:4, Informative)
Very worthwhile, for both the strategy and melee modes.
Urban Terror (Score:3, Informative)
Cave Story (Score:5, Informative)
Plenty of older games have been release as freewar (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Java Risk (Score:3, Informative)
I've wasted more than enough time with this recently: Java risk: http://domination.sf.net [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
Oregon Trail (Score:2)
I mean, isn't that the quintessential first 'educational' game that we all played at one point or another?
Game! (Score:2)
Technically you wouldn't put it on the laptop per se, but you could add a link or desktop shortcut to Game! [wittyrpg.com]. It'll play on anything with a browser.
X-Moto (Score:3, Informative)
I vote for X-Moto [tuxfamily.org]. 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.
Wing Commander (Score:2)
I love that game.
And if you figure out how to make it work on XP, please let me know. I'm stumped. ;-) I also recommend an Atari VCS/2600, Commodore=64, Sega Genesis, and Nintendo 64 emulators since classic games are always fun!
quake engine games... (Score:2, Informative)
Pocket Tanks (Score:2)
C&C Red Alert (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Oh I completely forgot about this, yes! This is perfect for this kind of project
Spiderweb Software (Score:2)
You'd have to check, but I think their older Exile series has been released to some extent as free. Not Avernum, but Exile. Direct link to their older games: http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com/productsOld.html [spiderwebsoftware.com]
They are fun adventure RPGs, story-driven, and will run an old [as in Pentium I, I think...] hardware. I believe their Exile series can be downloaded for free, and Blades of Exile's code has actually been GPL'd recently. I highly recommend the games. Great fun.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Angband (Score:4, Informative)
TripleA, Axis and Allies simulator (Score:3, Informative)
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
A few more... (Score:2)
If you really want free, a couple of games come to mind:
- NetHack/Angband/etc. Yes, these are text-based, but they formed the basis and inspiration for the Diablo series of games, which were frankly, watered down. I've played Angband off and on myself for nearly fifteen years and have only come close to beating it once. Plus, there are a zillion variants out there as well.
- I'm amazed that nobody has mentioned MAME. True, the legality of having the ROM images is suspect, but I doubt if a video game comp
Re: (Score:2)
True, the legality of having the ROM images is suspect...
If by "suspect" you mean "blatantly runs afoul of copyright law", then yes, the legality is "suspect". Just because there's no one to press charges doesn't mean it's legal or OK, and the OP obviously wants stuff that's undeniably redistributable.
A Few of my Favorites (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Dwarf Fortress is a bit easier to get into with a good tileset like DFG [staszic.waw.pl].
I made a few... (Score:3, Interesting)
Blob Wars : Metal Blob Solid [parallelrealities.co.uk]
Project: Starfighter [parallelrealities.co.uk]
Virus Killer [parallelrealities.co.uk]
All are 2D software rendering with screen modes of 640x480 or 800x600. They've proved fairly popular in the past...
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Windows Registry (Score:4, Funny)
Valuable Life Skills (Score:5, Funny)
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 [wikia.com]
Teach them the value of running over hookers: GTA 1&2 [rockstargames.com]
Teach them the awesomeness of fighting robots: One Must Fall 2097 [omf.com]
Teach them to conquer the world in a different way: C&C Red Alert 3 [ea.com]
And finally, teach them to conquer the world of worms (you never know): Wormux [wormux.org]
ScummVM + Free games (Score:2, Informative)
powermanga (Score:2)
Very nice little asteroids/space invaders game.
Freespace 2 (Score:5, Insightful)
Some more OSS goodies (Score:2)
Found entirely in Ubuntu/gNewSense package repos:
Which Way Is Up? (wwisup) - 2D platformer with a "twist"
Pathological - pattern matching madness
gPlanarity - Untangle planar graphs
Fish Fillets NG (fillets-ng) - box pushing with hilariously witty fish
Bittorrent (Score:3, Funny)
Visual Pinball + Vpinmame (Score:2)
Most of the VP only tables should run and if the systems are not too old then you should be able to get some of vpinmame games working as well others may end up running too slow.
http://www.vpforums.com/ [vpforums.com]
Free games (Score:3, Informative)
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
GameTap (Score:4, Informative)
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.
Simon Tatham's Puzzle Pack (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/ [greenend.org.uk]
'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.
BZFlag (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Nintendo Emulator (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Nintendo Emulator (Score:4, Informative)
Never mind willing to buy, no one is selling.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
And the charity will be ever so grateful for the massive copyright liability you've donated!
Re:Classic console emulators: (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
They shouldn't be. In my opinion, you should have to pay the price asked if you want a game or whatever. What I don't subscribe to, is having to pay extra just because you want it on a different platform - that should be free (or cheap, so as to cover only the cost of actually getting it to you).
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
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.
Re:public domain (Score:4, Informative)
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 [usc.edu] and Plasma Pong. However Plasma Pong seems to be down :-(
Re:FP? (Score:5, Interesting)
one of the funner games i remember playing as a child was AT-Robots [necrobones.com]. 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.
Why noone mentioned some of the classical games? (Score:4, Interesting)
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?
Re:Why noone mentioned some of the classical games (Score:4, Funny)
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.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:Why noone mentioned some of the classical games (Score:5, Funny)
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.
Re:Why noone mentioned some of the classical games (Score:5, Insightful)
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!
Re:Why noone mentioned some of the classical games (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why noone mentioned some of the classical games (Score:4, Informative)
For fans of the board game Settlers of Catan, there is a similar online version which is quite nice:
Sea3D [s3dconnector.net] (here are some screenshots [s3dconnector.net])
That one is a bit old, but stable (it is similar to Settlers plus the seafarer expansion), and the S3D Connector [s3dconnector.net] website can match up players.
The newer version in devel is Cities Online [settlersonline.net] (similar to cities and knights expansion).
Those are pretty good board games.
Re:Why noone mentioned some of the classical games (Score:5, Funny)
I've got wood for sheep!
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Why noone mentioned some of the classical games (Score:4, Informative)
Micropolis is the official SimCity for Linux I do believe, but Lincity-NG is an even better clone more akin to SimCity 2000.
The question is about games only. (Score:3, Insightful)
Why do you need to bring the "holier than thou give them something useful" nonsense if the poster is not asking about that?