The Escapists' favorite free games

[Bongo Bill]

Sometimes, like food, a game is just better when you don't have to pay for it. Share some of your findings here.

The Ur-Quan Masters [http://sc2.sourceforge.net/], which is what they call the open-source version of Star Control 2, set so many different bars so high that everybody else who ever made games just ignored that it ever existed, rather than suffer the shame of existing in its shadow for eternity, unable to match it and frightened to try.

Sumotori Dreams [http://web.t-online.hu/archee83/sumotori/], a 96kb drunken sumo simulator, always makes me laugh. Always. Especially the hidden mode.

ChessRogue [http://chessrogue.sourceforge.net/] is hard to describe. You're a lone chess piece, taking down the entire enemy army (including fairy pieces) as revenge for your side's defeat, and fortunately there's terrain you can use to your advantage. Capture enough enemy pieces and you gain their powers. I find practice difficulty much more fun, just because you don't have to return to the tedium of the first few stages every time you die, but harder-core Roguelike players will scoff at such concessions.

I've got quite a collection of free games going, but I wouldn't want to overload you. Let's hear what you've run across.

 

[TomBeraha]

Angband [http://www.thangorodrim.net/], And all of its wonderful variants (including a couple multiplayer ones!) deserve a mention - It's a wonderfully detailed roguelike. For those who don't know, think graphically minimalistic top down RPG.

Castle of the Winds [http://www.exmsft.com/~ricks/] Probably my favorite windows 3.1 Game. The author, Rick Saada, later released his game for free. It's not as detailed as angband is, but is certainly prettier, and has more of a story to speak of.

One Must Fall: 2097 [http://www.omf.com/faq/misc.html] A great fighting game with RPG elements. You can upgrade your character's stats and you're mecha's stats. I loved it and still do.

 

[Goofonian]

<a href=http://www.flashstash.com/media/swf/dicewars.swf>Dice Wars has taken more hours of my life in recent times than most other games. I'm sure most have you will have heard of it, but basically its single player risk cut back to its very essence with a simple AI. Not very challenging, but enjoyable (and timewasting) in a minesweeper/solitaire sort of way.

<a href=http://www.harveycartel.org/metanet/n.html>N is also brilliant, although it can be extremely difficult at times. Physics based ninja simulator. Need I say more?

Also, The Incredible Machine came for free with a magazine I bought once so I suppose that counts. I must have spent nearly 100 hours on that.

 

[Nordstrom]

I'll second Dice Wars [http://www.flashstash.com/media/swf/dicewars.swf] and say that there are times when Dice Wars is challenging, like getting reduced to one pile of dice and fighting back to win the game. I find it interesting to see how a simple set of rules can result in complex dynamics. The board is randomly generated which means some games are a walk in the park and some are impossible, like getting wiped out before making a single move.

[I forgot to say that this thread is evil. I have work to do.]

 

[Virgil]

Dwarf Fortress [http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/] - If you can, on any level, bring yourself to play a game that is rendered in ASCII, you really owe it to yourself to play this. It's phenomenal, and the absolute pinnacle of the 'graphics don't matter' philosophy.

It has the ability to suck out days or weeks of time though, so consider yourself warned

 

[Andy Chalk]

Logan turned me on to Dice Wars a few nights ago, and I have to agree, it's pretty cool.

Cloud [http://intihuatani.usc.edu/cloud/flowing/], an artful piece with a distinct Magic Carpet influence.

And finally, while it's not "free" in the strictest sense, Fate [http://games.wildtangent.com/fate/]offers a free demo that's worth playing even if you refuse to spring for the full game.

 

[Bongo Bill]

Time to dump a few more, I think.

Armagetron Advanced [http://armagetronad.net/] is the light cycle game from Tron. In 3D!

The Ultimate Chex Quest [http://www.doomlegends.com/chexquest/] should bring back memories for more than a few of you.

Liquid War [http://www.ufoot.org/liquidwar/] is a very minimalistic strategy game, if it can be called that. The map is tiny, the only action is to move your cursor, and few matches last longer than two minutes.

We can't forget Kenta Cho's shooters [http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/index_e.html], which, for fans of shmups vertical or horizontal, are very free and very inventive.

And, of course, we have Zelda Classic [http://zeldaclassic.armageddongames.net/], some of whose quests aren't even terrible.

 

[Cibbuano]

I have to concur with Virgil... Dwarf Fortress is captivating... it's free, ASCII, and layered with so much complexity that it's awe-inspiring to behold.

For example, I've made a fortress with 33 dwarves, absorbing the previous spring's immigration. Unfortunately, one of the masons had no workshop to make rock items in, and no bedroom, so he went a little batty. He went beserk and killed one of my best hunting dogs and several other dwarves. Finally, they put him down and ransacked his stuff.

The craftsdrawf took his skeletal remains and fashioned crossbow bolts out of the bones. A hunter took the bolts and tried to hunt a pack of wild elephants. The elephants gleefully trampled him. One of my peasants ran out to recover the body and got killed as well. A passing caravan thought they'd take on the elephants, and lost all their bodyguards, and I've run out of plants to brew Dwarven wine with - and it's winter and I can't plant crops.

How can you not love that level of complexity?

 

[Goofonian]

Personally I find dwarf fortress a little overwhelming. I can see how it would be captivating, but there is just too much of a learning curve for the little free time I have right now.

 

[LxDarko]

Recently I have been playing an online fighting game called Kwonho.

The game itself is fun for the most part and it cost nothing to play. There are some lag issues because most of the fights are peer to peer.

In this game you create a persistent character (you can make one character for each style) and can chose from five different fighting styles, Muay Thai, Tae Kwon Do, Judo, Tai Chi Quan, and Bi Jian Quan.

Each style plays differently and allows for personal tactics. If you have some free time it's not a bad game to play every now and then. Also I suggest playing with a gamepad just makes things easier on your fingers.

 

[Andy Chalk]

If you happen to be an old-school Colour Computer owner (remember those?) you really must check out this: http://members.cox.net/javacoco/

 

[Lord_Jaroh]

DTD [http://www.handdrawngames.com/DesktopTD/game.asp] is the only free game that I play religiously. It's just way to damned addicting.

 

[jlaakso]

I always need to bring up Kenta Cho in these discussions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenta_Cho. Of his shmups, Parsec47 is probably my favorite, along with the undervalued noiz2SA.

Recently though, I've been playing Travian and Sim Exchange. The latter especially is very interesting, because I get to use my videogame knowledge and there's a great real world dynamic there. Someone might argue that a prediction market isn't really a videogame, but I'd argue that point. Travian's a basic "conquer the land" browser game, but things get rather hectic in the endgame. Perfect for gaming on the job.

Travian: http://www.travian.com

Sim Exchange: http://www.thesimexchange.com/

 

[Ajar]

I dig Plasma Pong [http://www.plasmapong.com/], but that may just be because I have a chemical engineering degree and therefore some understanding of the underlying fluid mechanics.

 

[Penty]

If you like Dice Wars, try KDice [http://www.kdice.com/] the multi-player version.

I'm also a big fan of Onslaught [http://onslaught.playr.co.uk/] a turret defense game.

 

[Bongo Bill]

Globulation 2 [http://www.globulation2.org/] has solved most of the things I dislike about real-time strategy.

 

[Mr. H [deprecated]]

Prelude to Darkness [http://www.zero-sum.com/index.html] - A kickass free indie rpg with the best charcter development system ever, use based + skill based with no levels. I think the main link to download is broken, so go to the forums and ge the 1.8 version from the 1.8 thread.

 

[LyonLee]

To be honest, I find myself playing a lot of the free trials on MSN or Yahoo games. Admittedly, you can only play them once, and are supposed to stop after an hour, but they keep playing as long as you keep the window open. I've killed many hours just playing one of those things through to its completion (since you download the entire game). I particularly find myself enjoying the childrens' I Spy type games. That probably says something about me, but I don't want to know what...

 

[Samurai Goomba]

I just started getting into freeware, and I have to say I'm impressed. Of course, starting with Kenta Cho it's hard not to be. I'm also quite fond of flOw, and N is brilliant.

I think my favorite Kenta Cho game is either Titanion or Mu-cade, although Tumiki Fighters (think horizontal shmup meets Katamari Damacy) and Gunroar are also great. rRootage's Ikaruga mode is also great.

 

[Sycker]

I play Urban Dead a lot.

Takes 10 minutes of your time each day and has a lovely meta-gaming community.