Free games/freeware thread - No piracy, no logins, no catches

[Xarpho's Return]

This thread is to discuss and share free games, either made and designed free, or released as freeware later.

First comes this chart from /v/ (outdated somewhat):


Most of these I haven't played but a few I have, here are a few that are popular that you either have already played or definitely need to give a shot:
Barkley Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden: Released in 2008. "The year is 2053. Basketball is dead. My name is Charles Barkley. I am one of the last b-ball stars alive..." Sadly, the sequel, Barkley 2: Revenge of Cuchulainn was canned a number of years ago.
Cave Story: Released in 2004, a classic platform-adventure game that can get ruthlessly hard. (Again, you probably played this already).
Eversion: Released in 2008. The original website is no longer active, likely following a long period of neglect (and to promote sales of Eversion HD on Steam)
Façade: Released in 2005, an "interactive drama" with Trip and Grace. The parser is limited and the characters are as ugly as their personality but it's fun to fool around with at least once.
Yume Nikki: Released in 2004. RPG Maker 2003 game where a weird girl explores her dreams. Definitely weird but there are some goals to it. (Get it on archive.org).

On the flip side of things, there's also games that were once commercial products but now freeware (officially, not abandonware). A few of my favorites:

Bugdom: Released in 1999 and received a lousy PC port back in the day. 3D action platformer with some difficulty curve issues but definitely worth a try. Link here.
Glider PRO: Released in 1994 as a Macintosh exclusive. It's an arcade game where you fly around a paper airplane through a large house filled with hazards. There's lots of houses and a level editor. Ported to modern systems as an open-source titled as "Aerofoil" (but that's only the package, inside is the full game). link
Power Pete: Released in 1995 as a Mac exclusive and later renamed as "Mighty Mike". Great little arcade/action title but kind of short. Link here.

I'll be updating this OP with others' suggestions as this thread continues.

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

Glace, a fun little 2004 freeware platformer. Not insanely good, but fun to play on a slow weekend. Looks like it may even be getting a remake.

 

[BiggestKai]

I've played a few of those as well. Also making this post I've realized that search engines have gotten even shittier in the past 6 months.

La Mulana(MSX) - Note that this isn't the remake or its sequel that are paid games. Ballbusting 2d puzzle platformers where the puzzles are all about reading tablets and then dicphering what the fuck they're supposed to mean. All three are some of my favorite games that are really difficult to recommend because puzzle difficulty borders on constantly baffling and actual platforming/combat difficulty is up there as well, with strict Castlevania type jump arcs.

Iji(not sure where to get it because remar(the dev)'s site keeps timing out for me - A great 2D rpg platformer. Famous for having multiple endings and a pacifist path that changes a few things in the game.

Toribash - One of my fondest multiplayer memories. It's a simultaneous turn based game where your characters, segemented into approximations of joints and muscle, get to contract or relax each joint/muscle in order to do cool shit.

Wesnoth - I'm convinced just about everyone's played this game. Apparently still updated to this day(just updated one month ago with a new campaign, although I have not played it so I cannot comment on its quality), it's a turn based tactics game.

Not on the chart

Nitronic Rush - Predecessor to Distance. Car parkour(carkour?) game where you can do cool flips, boost and fly through obstacle courses.

Undefeated - Japanese indie game that was pretty popular on its release. It's a superman game where you play as buff Serious Sam more or less. Has a sequel that is still a year from release.

Total Chaos - A standalone horror game running off the GzDoom engine. Has an unreal engine remake in the works.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Do various "openX" games count?

People swear by OpenTTD, but I didn't care for it.

Doom is basically free thanks to Freedoom and Freedoom Phase 2. This opens a world of Doom mods like Brutal Doom. There's a bunch of total conversations that are good too.


There is a shit ton of game jam games that qualify. The Haunted PSX Demo Disc compilations come to mind, as do various PS1 inspired horror games by Puppet Combo. Most are not my thing, but if you're into short hide and seek horror games, they might be worth a look. They can pretty much all be found on itch.io.

There are various free games on in my backlog I've not played yet.
Stratospear is a PS1 style action game.

The dev would later become famous for Pseudoregalia, which has a free and paid version.

https://rittzler.itch.io/pseudoregalia-jam

Chitin, an insect themed horror FPS.

A favourite dev of mine is called MutantLeg. He got famous for his paid FPS Zortch, but I know him from his free FPS Lab (the Flash version was better, but died with Flash) and the fact he releases the assets for free.


One that is up in the air. MechWarrior 4 Mercinaries. It was released as Freeware a while ago, then unreleased as freeware? It's hard to say.

Hi-Res bought the rights to Tribes and released a bunch of the games as Freeware, but I don't know if they were unreleased at some point.

 

[Rotollo 2]

it might be a fan game but if you are talking about it, there's also a fan remake in the works titled "cave story encore"

 

[Relinquish]

SPACE STATION 13

Obligatory

 

[hawkisnight]

Widelands is a free Settlers 2 clone. It's pretty good. If you want to play strictly settlers 2 but modernized there's also Return to Roots - a mod that requires settlers 2. It has an active online community.

Knights Province is a remake of the old Knight's and Merchants game. It's in alpha for 10 years but it's completely free and playable. Like with Widelands there's also a mod that lets you play the old game modernized - KaM Remake. It has active multiplayer community although I think it's mostly German and Polish players.

 

[Gatdam Animal Person]

Java4K was a series of game jams from 2005-2014 where the goal was to create Java games with a maximum size of 4096 bytes.

Since the Java applet's discontinuation, it's no longer usable in it's intended purpose. Luckily, we now have a downloadable launcher, allowing you to play them at your leasure.

Spoiler: A few games of note

4Kanabalt (2011)

Based on the classic Adam Atomic creation Canabalt. Run across the top of buildings - try not to fall off.

Boing 4K (2011)

You have 60 seconds to go from one end of the course to the other. Pay attention to the time remaining bar displayed at the bottom of the frame. If you run out of time, you'll have to restart the course.

Burning Man (2010)

(artist's rendition)
You seem to be on fire; you probably should fix that.
30 level puzzle/platformer.
Very cool!

Pipe Extreme (2007)

Jump and roll your way along the pipe. Score points for speed and for "picking up" yellow squares. Watch out for those other coloured squares though (and the holes)!
A cool 3d tunnel platform game!

 

[Punished Mirabeau B Lamar]

One that is up in the air. MechWarrior 4 Mercinaries. It was released as Freeware a while ago, then unreleased as freeware? It's hard to say.

The files are up for download from My Abandon Ware but you have to do some voodoo magic to get it working. Mektek, the developers, came back after their standalone game flopped and are doing compatibility patches for modern hardware but a lot of this news is ancient so I am not sure about the status of some of this.

Sarna article on the subject

https://www.myabandonware.com/game/mechwarrior-4-mercenaries-3ak (The mech paks can be downloaded as well on the site, they aren't included all in one)

A post from the MechWarrior 4 Rebirth website detailing how to get the game running on modern hardware


In other less contrived news, Mech Commander 2, a real time strategy game based in the Battletech setting, was released as freeware by Microsoft in 2006 and you can download it here.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

I belatedly found out that there was a freeware thread that was several years old. Still, it has a few good ideas including Tyrian. The problem is that I can't find the Tyrian 2000 version easily anywhere because MyAbandonware is a bunch of cucks who just try to route you through GOG instead.

Do various "openX" games count?

People swear by OpenTTD, but I didn't care for it.

Doom is basically free thanks to Freedoom and Freedoom Phase 2. This opens a world of Doom mods like Brutal Doom. There's a bunch of total conversations that are good too.

I wouldn't say so since they require you to acquire copyrighted assets or force you to essentially play a bootleg version of the real thing. It's the same reason I'm not listing the ports of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time or Super Mario 64. They're not emulation, the copyrighted portions are easy to get, but because of the copyright portions I'm leaving it off.

I've played a few of those as well. Also making this post I've realized that search engines have gotten even shittier in the past 6 months.

I didn't verify everything on the chart, but just to make things easier I'm leaving out Steam-required stuff (which I didn't realize the chart had).

 

[The Ghost of Kviv]

Pretty much any FOSS game.

https://tremulous.net/

Tremulous is a free and open source asymmetric team-based first-person shooter with real-time strategy elements. The game features two opposing teams: humans and aliens. Each team must attack the enemy’s base and team members while defending their own base.

Similar to Natural Selection 2.

https://www.urbanterror.info/home/

Urban Terror™ is a free multiplayer first person shooter developed by FrozenSand, that will run on any Quake III Arena compatible engine. It is available for Windows, Linux and Macintosh.

Urban Terror can be described as a Hollywood tactical shooter; somewhat realism based, but the motto is "fun over realism". This results in a very unique, enjoyable and addictive game.

Technically only the source is FOSS.

https://www.redeclipse.net/

Fun for everyone, young and old, noob or expert
Available for Windows, GNU/Linux, BSD, and macOS
Parkour, impulse boosts, dashing, and other tricks
A huge amount of mutators and game altering variables
Create maps with other players in realtime co-op edit
Over ten years of active development, and still going!

Built on the old-times-favorite Cube 2 engine. For those looking for and upgraded Sauerbraten, check out http://tesseract.gg

https://www.beyondallreason.info/

An actual effort to build Supreme Commander inside the Spring engine. The Spring engine started as a FOSS clone of Total Annihilation.

https://github.com/yairm210/Unciv

A Jew remade CivV in Java, targeting both the desktop and Android.

Minetest - Open source voxel game engine

www.minetest.net

An open source voxel game engine. Play one of our many games, mod a game to your liking, make your own game, or play on a multiplayer server.

It's FOSS Minecraft.

https://play0ad.com/

A FOSS re-creation of the original Age of Empires. As in: it's not a clone, but heavily inspired by.

https://www.vintagestory.at/

Vintage Story is an uncompromising wilderness survival sandbox game inspired by eldritch horror themes. Find yourself in a ruined world reclaimed by nature and permeated by unnerving temporal disturbances. Relive the advent of human civilization, or take your own path.

Never played it, but it's popular.

https://veloren.net/

Veloren is an action-adventure role-playing game set in a vast fantasy world.

• Explore enormous mountains, arid deserts, dense jungles, and many more environments
• Discover many different weapons and play styles with dynamic and fast-paced combat
• Interact with NPCs and craft equipment in towns to help you on your way
• Encounter menacing bosses and fearsome monsters in dungeons and hideouts
• Experience a complex and interconnected procedural world, fully simulated as you play
• Delve deep beneath the earth to mine ore and gems in sprawling cave networks
• Tame wild beasts as companions and mounts to aid you in your journey
• Adventure with friends on multiplayer servers, or host your own over LAN
• Discover the source code and contribute to the project yourself

Never played it, but it's supposed to be some mix of Minecraft, Zelda BotW and generic MMO.

https://endless-sky.github.io/

Endless Sky is a 2D space trading and combat game similar to the classic Escape Velocity series. Explore other star systems. Earn money by trading, carrying passengers, or completing missions. Use your earnings to buy a better ship or to upgrade the weapons and engines on your current one. Blow up pirates. Take sides in a civil war. Or leave human space behind and hope to find friendly aliens whose culture is more civilized than your own.

https://naev.org/

Main features:
A large galaxy with hundreds of planets and moons to explore.
Real-time, semi-Newtonian gameplay reminiscent of the Escape Velocity games.
Many different ships to buy and pilot, and many ways to customize each of them.
Multiple factions, each with unique ship designs and personalities.
Open-source, meaning ultimate freedom of modding, although plugins are also supported.

Freelancer, No Man's Sky, etc.

Source-available:

https://www.epicgames.com/unrealtournament/en-US/

Was supposed to be the showcase platform for UE4, with a lot of good ideas. Unfortunately millennials and zoomers played Fortntie and ruined gaming.

Not FOSS:

Stabyourself.net - Mari0

What happens when you mash Super Mario Bros. and Portal together?

stabyourself.net

Two genre defining games from completely different eras: Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. and Valve's Portal. These two games managed to give Platformers and First-Person Puzzle Games a solid place in the video game world. But what if Nintendo teamed up with Valve and recreated the famous Mario game with Portal gun mechanics?

https://songsofsyx.com/

Songs of Syx is a retro base/city builder inspired by "Pharaoh", "Dungeon Keeper", and "Rome Total War". It aims at fusing those genres, while also adding to the experience. Its uniqueness comes from having huge populations, while still simulating each individual in great detail and providing big maps with 1:1 scale buildings. It's set in a low-fantasy universe and the gameplay is mostly automated where you let the AI do the mundane tasks, while you focus on greater, more kingly things.

The game can be downloaded and played for free. You'll find the free version on itch.io or on steam (demo). It's not limited in any way other than being 3-6 months behind the payed version in terms of development. If you like it and have the means, consider purchasing it to support development. In any case, don't forget to join the a community to follow development and bombard us with suggestions.

 

[Gender: Xenomorph]

Bloody Hell

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2056220/Bloody_Hell/

Lotsa fun

 

[August Levasseur]

Open Arena is an open source clone of Quake 3 that doesn't require Quake 3 assets to play. The main website has been inactive for a while, although there are several addons used by the community such as Ratmod and OmegA that keep development alive, even if the main branch has basically died. There is still a small but active community surrounding the game and it's even fun to dick around with bots for a little bit. There are also

Along similar lines there is Xonotic, a game that runs in a modified Quake engine, although it has innovated significantly in terms of gameplay. Lots of fun, very free and fast movement, it's basically built for bunny-hopping and rocket jumping. It also has a small but sometimes active community, and a much more active development team.

 

[and and and and]

The only real answer here is Team Fortress 2, because that's good enough to entertain you for a solid decade at least. However the better answer is every videogame because if you own a PC then every game is already free

 

[Aztec Death Squad]

One of the hold ups I have about buying some games is that they hardly rise above the quality and length of flash games that I distinctly remember playing for hours for free.

My favorite website for flash games used to be Jay is games. It's sad to see it resort to doing reviews of cookie-cutter mobile games and AI generated content to barely stay alive. A lot of links don't work anymore, but that's where archives like Flashpoint come in. Some websites like Nitrome, Armor Games, Newgrounds, and Kongregate converted their catalog to work after the death of flash. itch.io is in many ways the practical successor to these websites.

Instead of one and done time wasters, modern games are wallet-devouring time sinks.

 

[Migraine Box]

The original Marathon games were open-sourced right before Microsoft bought out Bungie and you can download them for free from a page buried deep on their website. The files are for 68k and PPC Macintoshes, however there are modern source ports like Aleph One, though I haven't tried them tbh, I'm a retard who uses vintage Macs for that.

Cookie Clicker is still the king of idle games (the Steam version has music by C418, the og Minecraft composer. Worth the spare change imo)

FlashPoint is an obscenely huge archival project for Flash animations and games. Pretty much every flash game you remember playing as a kid is on here. All for free. Get Infinity and download games as you go, Ultimate is over 1TB and fucking insane.

Total Chaos is an amazing survival horror game that is somehow, fucking SOMEHOW built off GZDoom. 100% the most visually impressive total conversion I've ever seen, you genuinely cannot tell this thing has roots in Doom.

 

[Jerry1337]

OpenTTD - Free open-source remake and expansion of Transport Tycoon Deluxe.

OpenRa - Open-source project that "recreates and modernizes classic real time strategy games, like Red Alert, Command & Conquer, and Dune 2000."

Total Chaos - Technically not a free "game", but a very good survival horror mod for Doom 2. The standalone release of this mod is being planned.

Yume Nikki - Classic Rpgmaker walking simulator. Very interesting music and visuals.

Cry of Fear - Psychological survival horror game based on source engine. A cult classic.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R Anomaly - Standalone stalker mod that "aims to be the most stable and customizable experience for fans of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games."

SCP Containment Breach - Free community made game based off of SCP Foundation.

I know that most of the titles here were already mentioned and are very well known, but I rather be safe than sorry. I just really hope some newfag reads this and plays some of those dope ass games.
ALL HAIL FREE VIDYA GAMES

 

[Soggy Floppa]

https://pioneerspacesim.net/

Pioneer is a spiritual successor to the Frontier Elite games and is a fully open space sim with trading, planets with landing and cities, combat, all the good stuff.

https://oolite.space/

Oolite is the same idea but taking more inspiration from Elite Dangerous.

MechWarrior: Living Legends | official website

MWLL is a free award-winning multiplayer Mech/Combined Arms game set in the BattleTech universe. Will you be a forgotten casualty or a Living Legend?

mechlivinglegends.net

MechWarrior: Living Legends is a free fangame that started as a Crysis total conversion. It's really cool, but I don't know how active the servers are these days.

https://www.eldewrito.org/

Eldewrito is a total conversion mod of the short lived russian only Halo Online, bringing it more in line with Halo 3 but also further opening it up to mods. It was originally C&D'd by microsoft and lead to the PC port of MCC, but just the other day received a massive update and is now the best option to play Halo on PC with its server browser and mod support with automatic downloads.

 

[Georgio Cocklord]

I'm happy someone mentioned wesnoth, I've had that on my harddrive but haven't actually played it ever.

I've mentioned this guy before, Locomalito is a Spanish dev who puts out retro freeware titles on his own website. These are like old arcade nes games, tributes to gradius castlevania ghosts and goblins and the like. They're very very good, so good that he released upgraded versions on steam for some of them. I really really like the ghosts and goblins and castlevania clones, they play really well.
locomalito.com

There's also freeciv which is open source civilization. Knock yourselves out.
freeciv.org

Forgot to mention
Opengeneral which is an open source implementation of the panzer general 2 engine used in old warhammer strategy games

OpenRA which is the best rts game package out there right now. Open source implementations of red alert, tiberian dawn and dune 2000 with great graphics, great ai, smooth gameplay and active servers. Tiberium sun is on the way. It's better than og StarCraft, fight me.

My favorite website for flash games used to be Jay is games. It's sad to see it resort to doing reviews of cookie-cutter mobile games and AI generated content to barely stay alive. A lot of links don't work anymore, but that's where archives like Flashpoint come in. Some websites like Nitrome, Armor Games, Newgrounds, and Kongregate converted their catalog to work after the death of flash. itch.io is in many ways the practical successor to these websites.

Flashpoint removed the nitrome games after 1.8 cause of a cease and desist. Some guy on reddit had 1.7.10 with the nitrome games intact.

 

[Shig O'nella]

The Dark Mod.

Thief, but better. It's spectacualrly well done and highly enjoyable (and that's from someone who doesn't really like much of the genre.) and just keeps expanding and expanding. 15 years old and counting now.