Freeware Game Recommendations

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GLACIER · #1 Post by **GLACIER** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 1:30 am

Here're some of the most recent, higher profile ones. In particular, some publishers have begun distributing older games free of charge, so there're several quality options.

Doukutsu Monogatari
http://agtp.romhack.net/doukutsu.html

The English translation (Aeon Genesis) was released late last year. The game is a masterpiece.

Eye of the Kraken
http://www.absurdus.net/kraken/game.htm

This is a hilarious graphic adventure. It's short and easy (I finished it in about five hours without hints), but a lot of fun.

Marathon, Marathon 2, Marathon: Infinity
http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org

Bungie's first major hits; Mac users raved about them ten years ago.

Five Magical Amulets
http://offstudio.fabry.cz/index3.html

A Czech-developed graphic adventure.

StarGunner
http://www.apogee1.com/index.shtml

A side-scrolling shooter published by Apogee. I played the shareware episode on a CGW demo disc; it seemed okay.

Another World/Out of this World (GBA)
http://www.foxysofts.com/index.php?l=co ... nworld.inc

Hmm.....a fan-made port of a classic platformer. The original designer, Eric Chahi, acquired the rights (and authorized this release), so it's all good.

Battlecruiser Millennium
http://www.3000ad.com/downloads/bcm.shtml

The 2nd-gen iteration of Derek Smart's infamous series......I've never touched a Battlecruiser game, and they're usu. dismissed as astonishingly complicated, unfinished products (crash bugs, too many unimplemented features), but a fanbase does exist! It's a free download now, so if you're on a fast Internet connection, it couldn't hurt to try it out, right?

GunRoar
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/windows/gr_e.html

Kenta Cho's latest release. I haven't tried it yet, but his games are usually quite good.

ArmJoe
http://armjoe.hp.infoseek.co.jp/ArmJoe.htm

The game (built with Enterbrain/ASCII's Fighter Maker) itself is at least a year old, but it has supposedly gone through a MAJOR overhaul.

MindArms has also received a significant update, so it might be worth checking out.
http://hb8.seikyou.ne.jp/home/fjj/page30.html

ShadowFlare: Episode One
http://www.shadowflare.us/

OK, the game was released nearly three years ago, and only the 1st of four episodes was released for free. However, it's a pretty fun (albeit clunky) Diablo II clone that was completely ignored by gamers.

I helped edit parts of the English script, and looking back, I wish I had done a much better job. I'm not sure how many of my corrections were incorporated (having finally tried the final version yesterday, I can only say that the most glaring mistakes have disappeared), but the text remains stilted, unclear in places, and awkwardly jumbled. Oh well.

Guest · #2 Post by **Guest** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 8:35 am

GLACIER wrote: Marathon, Marathon 2, Marathon: Infinity
http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org

Bungie's first major hits; Mac users raved about them ten years ago.

THOSE ARE FREEWARE?!? I STILL HAVE THE DEMO TO ONE OF THEM! (quickly considers downloading after a reformat... too much crap on hard drive)

Megaman Z · #3 Post by **Megaman Z** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 8:35 am

Anonymous wrote:
GLACIER wrote: Marathon, Marathon 2, Marathon: Infinity
http://trilogyrelease.bungie.org

Bungie's first major hits; Mac users raved about them ten years ago.
THOSE ARE FREEWARE?!? I STILL HAVE THE DEMO TO ONE OF THEM! (quickly considers downloading after a reformat... too much crap on hard drive)

that was me.

papillon · #4 Post by **papillon** » Sat Jun 25, 2005 10:20 am

an English script edited by hpapillon

... That's something of an exaggeration, really.

Very little of me went into that game, for a long tangled list of reasons.

Megaman Z · #5 Post by **Megaman Z** » Sun Jun 26, 2005 9:50 am

I just noticed: "Marathon 2" should be "Marathon 2: durandal". it doesn't seem to be noted on the site, but I still refer to it by either that name or "Marathon: durandal". now if I could only get Aleph One to run the game in full screen...

Megaman Z · #6 Post by **Megaman Z** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 3:39 pm

found another good one.

Star Control 2 (remake)
http://sc2.sourceforge.net/

there are a few differences between this and the original PC version, the first being that this will run perfectly with sound on a windows 2000 PC. the second is that, once you figure out what the filenames needed are, you can essentially "replace" the in-game music and victory "fanfares".

the install size can vary depending on what you want to install: speech files and alternate music (the "Remix" packs) are optional.

(to back out of Hyper Melee [called "Super Melee" in this version], hit F10)

Admiral Styles · #7 Post by **Admiral Styles** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 8:46 pm

Megaman Z wrote: Star Control 2 (remake)
http://sc2.sourceforge.net/

Heh, I played Star Control 2 a while ago. It's really quite good, well made, with great aliens to meet, befriend, and destroy should they prove evil (or just unfriendly to humanity in general). Shame that the sequel didn't maintain the same quality...

(to back out of Hyper Melee [called "Super Melee" in this version], hit F10)

*palm to forehead* Wish I had known that back then...

Megaman Z · #8 Post by **Megaman Z** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 12:33 pm

yeah, well I'm doing better this time around than eight or so years ago, but I was essentially illiterate at that time. I also had Wolfenstein 3D with barney's instead of the usual guards, but that's a different story. (I never really cared for that purple... dino-bear thing)

12th_Nightmare · #9 Post by **12th_Nightmare** » Thu Oct 06, 2005 12:42 am

For fans of the Elder Scrolls series, you should know (if you don't already) that Bethseda put Arena up on their site as a freeware download.
http://elderscrolls.com/downloads/downloads_games.htm

lordcloudx · #10 Post by **lordcloudx** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 1:45 pm

kinda dead thead but... freeware games eh? Here's something even the people from gamehippo's forums missed.

http://freegame.on.arena.ne.jp

It lists all the popular doujin freeware games with links to their homepages. The site is in japanese but it's not that hard to navigate.

I'd reccomend Shadow Arts from the fighting games section. Kinda big download with the latest version, but relatively worth it.

Beta · #11 Post by **Beta** » Sun Apr 30, 2006 9:38 pm

lordcloudx wrote:http://freegame.on.arena.ne.jp

It lists all the popular doujin freeware games with links to their homepages. The site is in japanese but it's not that hard to navigate.

(this is why http://www.eigo-navi.com exists...)

[edit: hey! a Paca Paca Passion remake! YES! (waits for DL...)]
[edit2: darnit... can't seem to load the data files...]

monele · #12 Post by **monele** » Mon May 01, 2006 7:31 am

This Eigo-Navi seems pretty good compared to english based translators

. Or maybe I'm just willing to ignore all the translations mistakes because it's japanese XD

GLACIER · #13 Post by **GLACIER** » Mon May 01, 2006 2:30 pm

This Eigo-Navi seems pretty good compared to english based translators

Actually, it's not a unique translation service. They merely licensed the Amikai engine, which is probably the most commonly used translator right now, along with BizLingo (currently licensed by Excite Japan, among others. It's more suited for business writing) and WorldLingo.

None of them are great solutions, but they're generally better than the Systran engine licensed by Altavista (which is still viable in its own right due to the multitude of languages it covers).

monele · #14 Post by **monele** » Mon May 01, 2006 3:38 pm

I was indeed comparing to Systran ^^

lordcloudx · #15 Post by **lordcloudx** » Thu Jun 01, 2006 3:21 pm

I don't know if they can be considered freeware or not but there are some great anime-style games available for download from the underdogs

My favorites would be:
Queen of Hearts 98
VG Custom
VG Max
Valkyrie Fight Tag and Valkyrie Fight
g-darius
popful mail
raystorm
raycrisis

and of course the shooters listed on shoothecore
one of my favorites is Twin Seeds DX

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