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Games Entertainment

What (And Where) Are The Classic Free Games? 432

Posted by timothy from the beep-beep-beeeeeeep dept.
An anonymous reader asks: "I'm flying from the US to Europe in a few weeks and am taking my iBook along for the ride. With a seven hour flight looming, I'm wanting to take some games along to play. But I don't want to download a bunch of freeware that may or may not be junk; I just want the classics. What are the classic free games? I've already downloaded Nethack and am looking into Freeciv. What else is there? I need something that's multiplatform (or at least has a Mac port), something that's stable and has stood the test of time, and something that is more complex and engrossing than a Tetris clone. Thanks!"
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What (And Where) Are The Classic Free Games? More

What (And Where) Are The Classic Free Games?

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  • angband, cthangband, etc (Score:4, Informative)

    by ShogZilla ( 136264 ) on Sunday August 04, 2002 @04:19PM (#4008972)
    http://www.angband.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

    many variants to play with, all take a good long while to complete. Think of 'em as nethack extended.
    Personal favortites are pernband & cthangband, psiband isn't bad either.

  • oh, c'mon... (Score:5, Informative)

    by swein515 ( 195260 ) on Sunday August 04, 2002 @04:20PM (#4008973) Journal
    MAME [macmame.org]
    • that's the way to get the classic arcade video games.... though i suggest playing around with them before you fly away. some games seem to lack decent controls through the keyboard. they kept me entertained on a trip to Orlando a few years ago during the off season. the only laptop with us was an older Mac powerbook, but of course it still runs MAME just fine.

    • Re:oh, c'mon... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by CMiYC ( 6473 ) on Sunday August 04, 2002 @06:30PM (#4009434) Homepage
      I believe the stipulation was "FREE" games. Most of the ROMs used by MAME are copyrighted and are NOT free.

    • For all of your ROM needs... (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Go here: http://supermame.by-a.com/

      There are over 3000 ROMs.

      Oh, and only download the ROMs that you are legally allowed to play. :)

  • More ngrossing than a Tetris clone? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 04, 2002 @04:20PM (#4008976)
    Is that possible? I'm having a hard time taking a break to even write this. I've been playing Tetris for the past 10 years with very few breaks for eating, sleeping, etc. Gotta go! Straight line block coming!
  • read a book!
    • Seriously, the flight's only 7 hours. How many different games do you normally play in a 7 hour period (including meal breaks, the odd television show or movie, short walks, &c)?

      Anyway, I could play nethack for 7 hours straight, so I'm already set :)
    • here's some killjoy suggestions!

      assuming you're flying e-w or w-e, 7-8 hours will take you through a few time zones. so: on getting on the plane, set your watch for the target time zone and try to synch your body clock asap - either take caffeine if you're supposed to stay awake, or something like melatonin if you are supposed to be asleep. try and be either awake or asleep according to the clock of your destination time zone.

      if you play games, watch movies, eat the shitty food, blag all the free drinks (which are cheap shit), you will generally feel like crap after doing any combo of us-eur-jap. seriously! this is a pain if you have a connection or will be spending any time on ground transportation at the other end ...

      anyway if you are in coach there's hardly room to use a lappy anyway. hopefully you're in business!

  • What? (Score:2, Informative)

    by TriCCer ( 591321 )
    Whats wrong with Tetris?
    It's still playable... =)
    Still can't get enough of it sometimes
    then there's always xbill when tetris has gotten the best out of you.

    so there. thats what I'd bring.
  • Doom?

    (Although you'd better not let a stewardess see you madly running around with a gun, on a computer, whilst on a plane.. it might make you look conspicuous.. ;)

  • old mac shareware games rule (Score:3, Informative)

    by MiTEG ( 234467 ) on Sunday August 04, 2002 @04:22PM (#4008986) Homepage Journal
    I haven't used a Mac in a while, but there were some cool shareware games out.

    Off the top of my head, some great games were Lode Runner, Beam Wars, Hazardous, Taskmaker, Tetris, and a few more I can't remember the names of. Check for one of those shareware CD-ROMS they used to sell and the ones listed in bold are probably going to be pretty good.
  • Why not get quake and a couple of bot mods? That should keep you going for a long time, at least until your battery runs out?

    Alternatively, mame and some free (but illegal) roms could be pretty fun as well

  • MAME? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by randomErr ( 172078 ) <.ervin.kosch. .at. .gmail.com.> on Sunday August 04, 2002 @04:23PM (#4008990) Journal
    Why not install MAME and borrow [slashdot.org] some roms?

    The classics are everywhere.

  • Try here (Score:4, Informative)

    by Joel Ironstone ( 161342 ) on Sunday August 04, 2002 @04:23PM (#4008991)
    This place has thousands of mac games. Some are shareware, but most are abandon ware.

    Mac Gamer [macupdate.com].

  • one word (Score:3, Insightful)

    by The Electric Messiah ( 591306 ) on Sunday August 04, 2002 @04:24PM (#4008997)
    SNOOD!

  • Old games search engine (Score:5, Informative)

    by Xtraneous ( 594376 ) <Xtraneous.comcast@net> on Sunday August 04, 2002 @04:26PM (#4009000)
    One place that I find to be quite reliable for finding old games is
    http://www.freeoldies.com
    (And yes, I know, it does sound like a porn site)
  • IN a word: ROMS
    In two words : NES ROMS
    In 3 words : Custom NES ROMS

    Metroid x, super butt bros, strange mario brothers. There are MANY TCs/updates/ refits of loads of old games begging to be played.

  • EV! (Score:5, Informative)

    by zaffir ( 546764 ) on Sunday August 04, 2002 @04:27PM (#4009008)
    Escape Velocity. The original runs perfectly on a 3400, as does EV: Override. EV:Nova, the lattest version, is supposedly great. Really, no shareware game compares to these three gems from Ambrosia [ambrosiasw.com]. They have a 30 day trial period with a popup at startup being the only real annoyance.
    • As of EV:Override, Cap'n Hector shoots at you after the 30 days. For those who aren't aware of the game, Cap'n Hector is one fast, deadly ship. Only a few ships (in the unmodded game) can even pace it.

      The other nice thing about the EV series is the gobs and gobs of mods ranging from blatant cheats to full game conversions. (The Babylon 5 mod for EV:O is still my favorite with Star Wars a close second.)

      So yes, EV is a true fun timewaster, and since it doesn't depend on a mouse you won't get finger-cramp from the pad on the iBook.

      One warning is that it's a cross between a trading game and a top-down space combat shooter, but with a great number of branching plots and sidequests. If you don't like elements of either of these, try something else.

      Another warning is that EV:Nova uses 3-d effects which can kick the fan into high mode and eat up battery.

      As for my opinion, EV:Override is my favorite of the three Escape Velocities to date.

  • Emulation! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by NeoOokami ( 528323 )
    Although free, in the gray area.. emulators and roms gives you access to thousands of wonderful games. You can find many good NES, GB, Genesis, SNES, and Arcade emus for both MacOS 9 and X. I would personally reccomend RockNES, Snes9x (MacOS X version really shaping up lately with gamepad support), gnuboy (simple but quite powerful and compatible), Generator, and MacMAME (Same as Snes9x).

  • Great Games (Score:5, Informative)

    by vstanescu ( 522393 ) on Sunday August 04, 2002 @04:28PM (#4009020) Homepage
    I enjoy a lot physics games, like:

    The Incredible Machine (TIM)

    Bridge Builder 1 and 2 (from Pontifex)
    Other great games are:

    Blockout

    Sokoban

    UGH!
    At least, these are the only games which I am still not bored.

  • Some resources (Score:3, Informative)

    by SkipToMyLou ( 595608 ) <b@b.b> on Sunday August 04, 2002 @04:29PM (#4009023)
    Gamespy site [classicgaming.com] with classic ROMs and emulators.

    Some old DOS games [dosgamesarchive.com].

    More recent games at Kev's Classing Gaming [cjb.net].

  • nethack (Score:5, Insightful)

    by majcher ( 26219 ) <slashdotNO@SPAMmajcher.com> on Sunday August 04, 2002 @04:31PM (#4009042) Homepage
    The last time I loaded up nethack on my Mac, I was stuck in front of the computer for about 30 hours straight.

    If you can't get through an eight hour flight with that, you've got bigger problems than finding free games...
    • If he has never played nethack before, it will take him over 8 hours just to learn how to use the thing. The game has a horrible user interface (and I have tried them all). Spending a flight frustrated with a game is probably not what he has in mind.

      And I am not trying to trash nethack. I like the actual game behind the bad interface.

      • Re:nethack (Score:2, Informative)

        by a_n_d_e_r_s ( 136412 )
        You are right, sir.

        It actually forces one to use the arcane thing called a keybord to play the game.

        Nethack normally does not contain a point-and-drool user interface - unless one compile in such support. (Its available)

        Most players however seam to prefer the old interface since it's makes it faster to play the game.

        I've spent far to many hours playing nethack.
      • I much prefer the nethack interface to the commercial equivalents. I find the graphical monsters ridiculous and the mouse-based interfaces laborious and tedious.

        Yes, it will take him 8h to learn how to use the game, and that's just fine. It takes a lot longer to learn how to play chess.

  • Fits the bill (Score:3, Interesting)

    by drodver ( 410899 ) on Sunday August 04, 2002 @04:32PM (#4009046)
    Master of Orion II!

  • Maelstom (Score:3, Informative)

    by John Harrison ( 223649 ) <johnharrison@[ ]il.com ['gma' in gap]> on Sunday August 04, 2002 @04:34PM (#4009059) Homepage Journal
    Maelstom [devolution.com] is classic Mac game, now ported using SDL to many platforms and released under the GPL.

  • Infocom games (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dpm ( 156773 ) on Sunday August 04, 2002 @04:38PM (#4009070)

    Nearly every platform has an interpreter for the old Infocom text games. Zork I, II, and III are available for free legally from ActiVision [csd.uwo.ca],
    and once you have a z-machine interpreter for your Mac, you can use any of the other Infocom games you can find. There are also many (legal) free z-machine games available on the net, and I think that Activision recently sold a CD-ROM with most of the old Infocom collection, including Hitchhiker's Guide, Enchanter, and the others.

    Any one of these will keep you busy for the whole flight and taxi ride to your hotel, and you'll probably stay up and keep playing once you get there instead of sleeping off the jet lag. Just remember to bring a pad of paper, pencil, and eraser for drawing maps and working out mazes.

  • It might not be a classic, but... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Sir Joltalot ( 66097 ) on Sunday August 04, 2002 @04:38PM (#4009072) Homepage
    Frozen Bubble [frozen-bubble.org]. Is that game ever addictive. The music is a bit repetitive but very fitting. And the cute little noises it makes when you shoot the little spheres.. delightful. An easy way to kill a few hours. It's Perl/SDL so I'm sure you could compile it on OS X.

  • Of course, Mame [mame.dk] is the best answer to this question, as many have pointed out.

    On that topic, does anyone know what happened to mame.dk? All the roms get removed with just a mysterious message that a copyright holder complained. One copyright holder and they ditch everything?

    Fortunately, I had written a program to download all roms from the site (heh) not long before it closed, but are there any other places that are as complete as mame.dk used to be?

    • If you're looking for ROMs, visit http://www.tombstones.org.uk [tombstones.org.uk], which will burn the ROMs for you for free, or for the price of materials/shipping.

      And as for you, Mr "I had wrote a program to download all roms from the site (heh) not long before it closed" people like you are one of the reasons it stopped serving ROMs.

      The first reason being that, being contacted by a copyright holder to remove one ROM, they elected instead to remove them all (well, almost, Robby Roto (I think) and two other 'legal' ROMs are still available) thinking that since they were contacted by one, likely they'd be contacted by more.

      So, to avoid legal hassle, they all went.

      The second reason, I suspect, is because of the massive bandwidth requirements to serve all those ROMs. They operated almost soley on donations. I contributed what I could, when I could. Can you say the same?

      Innocent_Lamb, are you reading this? Can you offer more insight?

      • they elected instead to remove them all (well, almost, Robby Roto (I think) and two other 'legal' ROMs are still available) thinking that since they were contacted by one, likely they'd be contacted by more.

        Sorry, but that's just stupid. Most of the manufacturers knowingly did NOT take legal action. They could have just taken down the couple that were in question, and moved on. If they got a flood of legal activity, they could have delt with it then.

        The second reason, I suspect, is because of the massive bandwidth requirements to serve all those ROMs. They operated almost soley on donations. I contributed what I could, when I could.

        Now that's a reason I could have respected. If they didn't have the money to support it, then just say so, but don't give us a cock-and-bull story about "one mfg complained, therefore we have to take the WHOLE DAMN THING DOWN" which just doesn't ring true.

        Can you say the same?

        As a matter of fact I did, so take your take your nose in the air elsewhere.

        • As a matter of fact I did, so take your take your nose in the air elsewhere.

          Hardly a nose in the air. Most people didn't give money, as they figured they'd get the money from somewhere else. But since you did contribute, then more kudos to you.

          And as for taking everything down for a single ROM? Hey, it's their site, it's their choice.
  • Before I make some suggestions I should say that as a longtime Civ II and Civ I player I am tremendously impressed with the latest (1.13) release. Bravo, it is great! It lacks a little "Microprose polish" but play-wise it is terrific. The previous versions didn't really cut it for me but the current one is just fine. (Now, how about alpha centauri, spaceward ho, and/or masters of orion.)

    If you like Nethack you should try Angband, or perhaps just (u)moria. Or from another Cygnus old-timer (umoria was from Jim Wilson), try xconq (Stan Shebs). Although umoria is ancient it has the advantage that it doesn't take incredibly long to play, which unfortunately vanilla angband does.

    You can finish a game of nethack in a few hours or a few days (depending on your determination and experience level) but vanilla angband can take, gee, hundreds of hours (during any of which you can suffer an insta-death from hitting a key one too many times). It's still enjoyable but in a more serious and perverse way than nethack.

    If you just need a good game to take care of a couple hours of the twitchies on an airplane, I recommend kshisen, which is a thoroughly addictive timed mah-jong-like game.

    -joseph

  • Hah! How interesting... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by zerocool^ ( 112121 ) on Sunday August 04, 2002 @04:49PM (#4009115) Homepage Journal
    My roommates and I, in the end-of-summer boredom lurch, just set up a computer running MS-DOS 6.22 just to play the old games! Man, back in the day...
    Anyway, I'm only 21, so I never did much with dos, so despite what I think I know about "computers" and windows or other microsoft products, etc, I know exactly crap about EMS and XMS and EMM386 and HIMEM and SMARTDRV. We've run into problems with wing commander running at the speed of light because it counts clock cycles, not seconds, and with some games not liking the fact that the machine has 160 megs of ram. One of the games suggested we make $ExtraRam sized cache with smartdrv so the game thought we had less memory, except instead of $ExtraRam being 5,341 KB, it was 157,325,210 KB...
    But anyway, here's my list of games I have installed:

    Doom 2
    Mechwarrior 2
    Wing Commander
    Wing Commander II
    Wing Commander III
    Privateer
    Jazz Jackrabbit
    Rise of the Triad
    Duke Nukem I
    Duke Nukem II
    Duke Nukem 3D
    Warcraft I
    Command and Conquer
    Command and Conquer: Red Alert

    I don't know how many of these have mac ports - Doom2 did, I use to own it...

    I also didn't know that windows 3.1 wasn't an operating system. That bugged me - when you install windows, it doesn't install any OS files, just the interface to dos... Despite saying "Windows Operating System" on the floppies.

    ~Will

  • i know where they are (Score:2, Informative)

    by hypnos ( 156403 )
    i don't know if they're all classics, but they all run under Classic.

    http://mac.the-underdogs.org/ [the-underdogs.org] has everything you want. I recommend Armor Alley in particular.

  • Step 1) Download the eDonkey [edonkey2000.com] P2P app.
    Step 2) Search for "mame" or maybe give this [sharereactor.com] a go.

    --

  • Some suggestions (Score:2, Informative)

    by Tar-Palantir ( 590548 )
    Why not pick up an old copy of Civ II? With III out, I've seen Civ II for 10 bucks in stores. That's one game you can play forever.
    As for free/shareware, there are some nice arcade games:
    Glypha III homepage.mac.com/quirinus [mac.com]
    Cyclone (?)
    Asteroid Storm homepage.mac.com/zarkonnen [mac.com]
    Glider is fun too, as are MacChess and SigmaChess (if you're into chess, obviously).
    have fun!

  • Some advice... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Critical_ ( 25211 ) on Sunday August 04, 2002 @04:58PM (#4009155) Homepage
    With all of the Sept 11th "security measures" I would recommend that you have your laptop ready to turn on just in case at the airport terminal. Also, they will ask you take your machine out of its case and then they'll pass it through their x-ray machines. Make sure you don't have it stuffed at the bottom of your carry-ons. I don't know how good your battery life is, or what class you will be flying but if you are going in economy make sure you bring at least two batteries. If you are in first or business class, you can always buy their on-board power cords that hook up into the plane (depending on airline). As for games, I would suggest the old simcity, tetris, pinball, etc. You don't want some massively 3d game sucking up your battery power. Also, I don't know what kind of rechargers come with your laptop but be ready for an inevitable bump in line voltage in europe (220v). And, you can save your on-board modem some trouble by buying a line testing kit/adapter. This saved me from frying my modem on a trip to Saudi many years ago (their teleco line voltage is much more than it is here).
    • Also, I don't know what kind of rechargers come with your laptop but be ready for an inevitable bump in line voltage in europe (220v).

      Most "soap on a rope" laptop transformers can handle 220 V, but it's worth checking.

    • If you are in first or business class, you can always buy their on-board power cords that hook up into the plane (depending on airline).

      I know the submitter is going to Europe from the US, which makes it astoundingly unlikely that he's flying on Qantas, but I just wanted to chime in here and say from experience that Qantas does not, as far as I know, have DC power in any of their planes. I flew to Sydney recently, which is 14 hours from LAX. No power anywhere, not even up in First, according to the sexy stews-- er, I mean flight attendants. And that was on a relatively new 747-400!

      Fortunately I knew in advance and I was able to expense five new batteries for my iBook. I watched five or six DVDs on the way down there.

      (Oh, one more thing. If you pack a bunch of batteries, get to the airport extra early. Those things show up as solid white rectangles on x-ray monitors. The security people don't like that, especially when you're carrying half a dozen of 'em.)

  • Back in '92 I remember spending my Jr High lunches in the science room playing the Lunatic Fringe screensaver that came with More After Dark on the school's LC II's.

    Those were the days...

    Did that ever get released anywhere else, or was strictly a module only?

  • What about a Game Boy? (Score:5, Informative)

    by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Sunday August 04, 2002 @05:01PM (#4009163) Homepage Journal
    Or a Game Boy Advance? For use on an airplane, laptops have the following problems:

    1.) Size: It's not comfy to use a laptop actively on an airplane. Either you have to rest it on your lap (horrible ergonomics), or the guy in front of you will lay his seat back and make you panic for a mo.

    2.) Battery life: I realize Macs are efficient and all, but it IS an issue. With a GBA, just bring an extra set of batteries. You shouldn't need more than 4 AA's total on your trip. (Psst tip: Don't bring more than 4 AA's on an airplane trip. I did that on a trip recently and one of the security personell mentioned that looked supsicious and recommended I carry no more than 4.

    3.) Startup/shutdown time: May not seem like much, but there's a big difference between 60 seconds of bootup or shutdown, and 'click' your GBA is off.

    4.) Control: Control is horrible on a laptop for most games. If the ergonomics don't get you, the lack of space for a mouse to move will.

    5.) Carry on: I find it to be a nuisance to unpack and put away a laptop on a plane. I can imagine most people who've tried this have the same sentiment. Not like a GBA where you just slip it in your pocket.

    I know my suggestion doesn't meet all your requirements. I thought I'd mention it though because I had a similar problem myself a couple of months ago. Despite the fact that I have a teeny weeny laptop, I came to the conclusion that a GBA with a couple of games and a couple of Douglas Adams books were far more suitable and comfortable than a laptop. My laptop didn't turn into an interesting game machine until I got to the hotel. The nice thing about a GBA is that it plays nearly all GB games (dirt cheap), it's efficient with batteries, and it's form factor is quite suitable for a plane.
  • http://www.ifcomp.org

    Start grabbing the winners from previous years... they're almost always fantastic. There are links to interpreters for almost every platform... I know for a fact that my personal favorite (Frotz) isn't available for Mac, but ZIP is.

    Enjoy!

    -jf

  • Armagetron (Score:2, Informative)

    by della ( 213034 )
    Try Armagetron [sourceforge.net]. It's a very nice 3d clone of Tron. Probably, it's best is when you play it in a fast network, but it's fun also when played against the AI.

  • Egoboo (Score:2)

    by Wumpus ( 9548 )
    I don't know whether it's a classic (probably not), but http://egoboo.sourceforge.net has a 3D nethack inspired game that looks pretty good.

  • Some great AbandonWare sites... (Score:3, Informative)

    by bc90021 ( 43730 ) <bc90021 AT bc90021 DOT net> on Sunday August 04, 2002 @05:13PM (#4009199) Homepage
    Check out: They have some really cool games on those sites.

  • DOPEWARS! (Score:5, Informative)

    by andrewski ( 113600 ) on Sunday August 04, 2002 @05:14PM (#4009202) Homepage
    This game is hot, fast, and FREE!
  • If you're going to be sitting around for a while playing, you might like a good text adventure. There are a number of games that tell interesting stories and would be good for a long trip. See www.ifarchive.org and try Photopia, Anchorhead, or (if you want a real challenge) So Far. At 100-300k/game you should be able to bring a lot of games with you. Check out http://www.wurb.com/if/ to see what you might like.

    Platform independant since 1981...

  • Mac Playmate?! (Score:2, Insightful)

    by bdm99 ( 461871 )
    Speaking of old mac games...anyone remember Mac Playmate? I remember it was a game where you would get a virtual girl naked by charming the pants off of her. Then she'd open a toy box...filled with sex toys. You'd then just stick random stuff in random places.

    It may not be the best game, but its a classic. Anyone know where that could be found today? I've looked, but I can never find it.

  • ADOM [www.adom.de](Ancient Domains Of Mystery) FYI it's the same sort of text-based thing as Nethack, but a bit harder
  • ...aka "text adventures".

    Go to the Interactive Fiction Archive [ifarchive.org] and look around. My personal favorites include Spider and Web [wurb.com] (a really excellent game -- starts out beginner-friendly but with a healthy but not impossible challenging bit near the end), Photopia [wurb.com] (more of a story than a game), Varicella [wurb.com] (beautifully written, and hard to get right within the allowed time -- but short, so replaying is possible, and even intended), and The Meteor, The Stone And A Long Glass of Sherbet [wurb.com].

    Most of these are written for Infocom's Z-Machine (remember them?) so they'll run on any platform which has a Z-Code interpreter available (which is darned near anything, down to almost every major palmtop). For that matter, if you're willing to deviate from the "free" thing, many of Infocom's originals (remember the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy computer game?) are also still available.

    Have fun!

  • Angband! (Score:2, Informative)

    by apuku ( 576996 )
    Damn, this is a time-sink: Angband [angband.org]
  • What ever happened to that free Mac game, NetTrek. The Star Trek like game where you'd go around and shoot people in Star Trek ships. That used to be free.....

  • Elite! (Score:3, Informative)

    by Alioth ( 221270 ) <no@spam> on Sunday August 04, 2002 @05:48PM (#4009324) Journal
    The classic space game, Elite.

    There's a portable version at www.newkind.co.uk [newkind.co.uk] if your platform can run Allegro (don't worry about Allegro barfing during the build on the x86 assembler bits - they are't actually required for things like X. I've got Allegro working happily on my Sun.) Elite: The New Kind runs happily on Solaris, Linux, Windoze and anything that's supported by Allegro.

  • HappyWeed! (Score:2, Funny)

    by tarkap ( 234141 )
    http://www.happyweed.com/

    Mac (classic) OS only... but it rules!

  • Ambrosia, Delta Tao, Flaming Pear (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Ambrosia Software makes super games, as others have posted. A small Mac game house that makes really great games is Delta Tao [deltatao.com] - Spaceward Ho! and Strategic Command are great timewasters. If you have a Mac, you probably already have a sample version of their 'Eric's Ultimate Software' on your drive. Another fun Mac program: Knot [flamingpear.com] .
  • Because companies that do make free games tend not to stay in business for very long. There was one company that cloned Pacman, Centiped, Donkey Kong, and others and had a free DOS version and an enhanced version with more levels and an editor for like $30USD each. It was called Champgames or something. It sank faster than the Titanic when the makers of the video games they tried to clone came back and sued them. Nicely done DOS based games, no Windows or Mac or Linux ports that I knew of. Plus when MAME came out, nobody was interested in playing them when they could play the real thing for almost nothing anyway.

    Abandonware sites have some of the classic games for download, but get shut down real quick as soon as they get popular.

    You might be able to find some from Gnutella clients; however, that is being cleaned out as well. Better hurry.
  • There is a list of such games here [yourlinux.co.uk].

    Of particular note is "empire", a multiplayer Civilization-type game originally from the 1970's (!), complete with nuclear war at the end.

  • I need ... something that's stable and has stood the test of time, and something that is more complex and engrossing than a Tetris clone.

    How 'bout chess? Or go? That might keep you occupied for a plane ride. And maybe for the rest of your life.

  • http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/07/29/145420 9&mode=thread&tid=127

    If you're using a airline that provides cheap internet access you can use the client mentioned in the story above. The NES roms are generally around .5 mb to legally download using the service.
  • All the old ID software games are available for download. In particular, Quake 1 offers a good balance of modern-ish graphics with decent speed on a laptop. The mod community has had its fun with Quake, so even though only the ID demo levels are available from ID, there are some good player created levels as well.
  • Download a at Z-Code interpreter [mac.com] and you'll be able to download neat little interactive fiction games written in Inform. Those things can be absorbing for hours.

  • Betrayal at Krondor (Score:2, Interesting)

    by plaurila ( 243726 )
    It came out in 1994, was later released by Sierra as freeware, and is still one of the best CRPG experiences I've had.
  • If you don't remember it, never mind.

    It's actually a pretty addictive game. My personal best is level four, 8225 points.

    http://fraggle.despayre.org:81/stuffage/sopwith/ for the current SDL port.
  • Go [sente.ch] is a classic board game from Japan, China, and Korea. It is extremely strategic, and from what I understand, there still isn't an AI decent enough to beat even mildly skilled characters. This program consistently beats me, though :(.

    You can also go to emulation.net [emulation.net] and pick up some emulation software of your choice. You'll have to be willing to break copyright law to get the ROMs, though.

    BlackGriffen

  • For long flights, I depend on my Visor Deluxe. Palm eBooks (such as the ones in the Baen Free Library [baen.com]), plus various Palm games: Rally 1000, Kyle's Quest, Taipan, etc. Kyle's Quest isn't free but there are a ton of levels for it that are free, and there are dozens of good free PalmOS games.

    A PDA fits well on the tiny tray table, extra AAA cells are easy to bring, and battery life is excellent.

    A Visor Deluxe is about $100 these days.

    If you bring an iBook, you might want to look into a cable that will let you power it from the airplane somehow.

    steveha
  • Does anyone remember the old Apple II game Snack Attack? I surprised and delighted my dad on his 6oth birthday by making Snack Attack run on the Apple II emulator. Soon we were dueling each other, just like it was 1982 all over again! The grin on his face was unbelievable.. kinda like the grin on mine as I recall it!

    ANYway, is there a port of this one? I thought of writing a GPL port of it, but I can't program to save my life... ;-)

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