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Fun and Games
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ACTION / ARCADE
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ARMAGETRON 0.2.5.2: An excellent, free Tron clone in 3D. Just like the movie,
you ride a "light cycle" in a large enclosed arena battling other
riders. The light cycle runs only in straight lines, turns
only at 90 degrees, can't stop and leaves an impenetrable wall of
light in its wake. When any light cycle collides with
one of these trails, BOOOM... it's vapourised. The game has
an interesting addition to the movie - If you can skillfully
place your light cycle to run closely alongside another
trail, it will accelerate, reaching dizzying speeds. The
Linux source code version is 1,074KB in tar.gz format and requires
these libraries and the GNU C++ compiler. The Windows version
is 1,242KB and is a self installing executable. Find out more
from: http://armagetron.sourceforge.net/
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ARMAGETRON 0.2.5.2: Windows version of the
above.
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DEMONSTAR: This is the ultimate vertical
scrolling shooter from the same stable that brought us the classics
Zaxxon and Raptor. Beautiful 3D rendered graphics, explosive
sound effects and a thumping soundtrack, Demonstar supports single
and multiplayer modes and Force Feedback joysticks. Works on
Windows 95/98, NT (with SP4 or higher) and 2000. Needs a
minimum of a Pentium 133, Direct X 6.1, 16MB RAM and 20MB HDD
space. Get the shareware version by clicking the picture
alongside (V3.0 - 4254KB). Buy the full version here
http://www.mking.com and check out http://www.stratosgroup.com who have an excellent free
Demonstar Mini Guide. Space Invaders will never be the same
again!
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JS FALCON:
A beautifully designed horizontal scrolling DHTML
shooter by K.
Moriyama that you can play on-line. It's no holds barred as
you leap into the cockpit of your F16 and do battle with hordes of
enemy aircraft and ground targets with your missiles and bombs ,
only to meet the Big Boss at the end!! Click the image
alongside to play on-line now, but be warned, it ain't easy.
(N.B. be sure to let the game fully load before pressing "S" to
start) (IE4+ only, at the moment) |

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JS FLANKER:
Another superb DHTML offering from
K.
Moriyama. This time you're the pilot of an F15 jet engaged in a
fierce aerial dogfight with enemy jets and helicopters.
You're limited to 10 heat-seeking missiles and 500 bullets so use
your ammo sparingly and pick your targets wisely!! Light
those afterburners by clicking the image alongside and play on-line
now. (N.B. be sure to let the game fully load before pressing
"S" to start) |
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WHEN CLONES
ATTACK!: A great freebie from the
folks at Midnight
Synergy. The clones are attacking and you are the
only one that stands between them and, ... well, ... the rest of
the galaxy. Use your trusty cannon to eliminate the clones,
avoid asteroids, and collect extra weapons. How far can you
get? Use your mouse to aim and fire. Use the keyboard to
control your ship. Use the right mouse button to fire one of your
smart bombs, which will damage or destroy all enemies on
screen. Written in only a day and only a 608KB download, When
Clones Attack draws on such arcade classics as Asteroids and
Gyruss! |
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STRATEGY
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CLICKOMANIA: A rather neat
variation on Tetris. You start out with a full screen of
randomly coloured blocks. Click on adjacent blocks of the
same colour and they disappear. Gravity then causes the
remaining blocks to fall towards the bottom of the screen,
redistributing the pattern. Your aim is to completely clear
the screen. Strangely addictive and much harder than it first
appears. Version 4.2.1 supports English, French and German
languages, seems to run on any Windows 32 bit platform, is small
enough to fit on a floppy disk and is now freeware. Click the
picture to download (444KB) or find out more
here http://www.clickomania.ch
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CLICKOMANIA NEXT GENERATION: A new version of the ever-popular game of logic which you can
download from the author's website (just click on the picture
alongside - 940KB)
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TETRIS: Oh so cool DHTML version of the
classic arcade game, which needs no introduction! Play
on-line right now by clicking here >> Play Tetris!
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CHESS
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If you
fancy something more traditional, why not try these great chess
programs? There are hundreds of chess programs around, some
free, some commercial (a few being very expensive.) Some are
good whilst others are downright awful and some are so complicated
to set up and get working that, by the time you've done so, you
don't want to play anymore! Below is a selection of my
favourite free chess programs. All of them play a good game
(good enough to beat the pants off me anyway!) and are relatively
easy to set up in that they either have their own GUI or run
through Tim Mann's WinBoard interface. Download by clicking the images
alongside each featured game but make sure you visit the links to
the author's web sites where new versions are released regularly
and where you'll find support for many other
platforms.
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ARASAN 8.4 for 32 bit Windows/WinBoard:
Nice program by Jon Dart that has its own GUI or, if
you prefer, can run through WinBoard. To run via
WinBoard, install both WinBoard and Arasan, then create the
following example shortcut:
"C:\Program Files\WinBoard\winboard.exe" -cp -fcp "C:\Program
Files\Arasan\arasanx.exe -H 8000".
WinBoard only, Linux and 16 bit versions (2.2) are
available from the author's website at http://www.arasanchess.org. Versions of Arasan have been hosted on
a couple of Internet chess servers and it has participated in several computer
chess tournaments. (February
2005 - 5,162KB exe file)
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CHENARD 1.040 for 32 bit Windows:
A good, basic chess program from Don Cross that has
its own GUI. Chenard is not as strong as some of the
commercial programs but still gives the average player a good run
for their money (well, not money exactly, it's completely
free remember!) and is a very small download
(117KB zip file) DOS and Linux versions were available from
Don's website at http://www.intersrv.com/~dcross/chenard.html
as were speech support for the
32 bit windows version, but when I last tested the link (October
2003) it was broken :-( ???
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TCB (The Crazy Bishop)
0052:
(July 2004 - 206KB zip file) is a chess engine by Remi Coulom that
is perhaps best used with WinBoard. To do this, install
WinBoard and then unzip the Crazy Bishop files into their own
directory. Then, create a shortcut something like this:
"C:\Program Files\WinBoard\winboard.exe" -cp -fcp "C:\Program
Files\TCB\tcb.exe" Detailed instructions on other ways to
use TCB are included in the zip file. Other engines including
Linux versions are available from Remi's web site at
http://remi.coulom.free.fr/
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DER BRINGER 1.9 for 32 bit Windows:
This is one of my personal favourites. A very
comprehensive chess program by Gerrit Reubold that has it's own
very informative GUI or can be used as a WinBoard engine if you
prefer. I've never used it in the latter way but, if you
wanted to, the instructions as shown above for Arasan and TCB might
work. But Der Bringer's GUI is great so why bother?
English support is perhaps a little limited (it's a German program)
but who cares, it plays good chess, it looks great and it wont cost
you a bean. (1,114KB zip
file.)
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EXCHESS 4.03a for Windows: An experimental chess engine by Dan Homan. Additionally,
source code which can be compiled to run on Windows or UNIX
platforms is available from Dan's website at
http://home.earthlink.net/~econerd/EXchess.html
(blimey, another broken link?
December 2004 :-( ) Install WinBoard first, then run the
setup program for EXchess. It configures a shortcut to run
the engine through WinBoard for you. Double-click and away
you go :-) (741KB)
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GROMIT 3.8.2: By Frank
Schneider, this is a strong chess engine that has performed very
well in several computer chess tournaments. It is best used
with WinBoard and can be set up as per the instructions for TCB
shown above. (160KB zip file)
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WINBOARD 4.2.7 for 32 bit Windows:
Originally developed by Tim Mann, this is the GUI front end that you'll need to run
the "engine-only" programs above and others that have no graphics
interface of their own. Comprehensive instructions on how you
can configure WinBoard are included, but, generally, a basic
shortcut like the ones described above will get you up and
running. Lots of other versions (for UNIX (Xboard) and Amiga
(AmyBoard)) and heaps of information are available from
http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum. WinBoard comes with two chess
engines built in - GNU Chess 4.0 and GNU Chess 5.0. so it's worth
downloading in its own right. (5,498KB)
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ADVENTURE / RPG / ROGUELIKE
GAMES
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What we have here
are some of the most addictive adventure role-playing games available for the
computer. Incredibly, their origins date back well over a quarter of a
century and yet they're still being played and developed today - for practically
every platform you can think of. And what's more they're all free :)
We're not talking mindless hack'n'slash here - the vast range of characters,
creatures, weapons, armour, objects, artefacts and magic is far too broad for
that. Furthermore, no two games are ever the same as the environment
is generated randomly every time you start afresh. To do well you're going
to need skill, patience and plenty of favours from your chosen deity. I've
been playing variations of these games for thirty years
and I haven't won a single one yet! It's easiest to start out
as a warrior and use brute force in the early levels. But
don't forget to learn that magic or, in the later levels, you're
dragon fodder!!
They mostly combine text with ASCII graphics to represent a "map"
of your character's surroundings, but some of the latest versions
now support picture "tiles" to give a more attractive graphical
representation. In one case - Utumno - the tiles are animated
so that you can manoeuvre your character around and fight "arcade
style" without losing the richness of the underlying game.
I've provided links to what I believe are the current maintainers
of the games and I encourage you to go there to get the latest
versions and any extra info you may need. Download by
clicking on the pictures (by Dee
Dreslough)
alongside each featured game.
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ANGBAND 3.0.5 for
Windows: Your quest is to descend
into the Pits of Angband, there to seek out and destroy the
Dark Enemy, Morgoth. Play in original ASCII mode or
choose from two different sets of picture tiles (which you can
download here in
the original 312KB zip file, or here for David Gervais' new 32x32 tiles in a 541KB zip
file). Supports sound too. (23rd. May 2004 - 1355KB exe
file)
Find out more from:
http://rephial.org/ |

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ANGBAND 3.0.3 for
Linux:
X11 and console version of the above. (17th.
February 2003 - 950KB rpm file) A separate (243KB) rpm file
for RedHat Linux 8.0 on i386 with glibc 2.3.1 with optional
graphics support is available here.
Find out more (and get the graphics files if required) from:
http://rephial.org/ |

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MORIA (umoria) 5.5.2 for i386: Descend
into the Dungeons of Moria and defeat the Balrog that is rumoured
to inhabit the lower levels... if you ever get that far!!
(8th. September 1997 - 308KB zip file)
Find out more from: http://www-math.bgsu.edu/~grabine/moria.html |

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MORIA (icmoria) 4.85.19 for Linux:
Linux version of the above. (27th. October 2000 - 414KB gz
file)
Find out more from: http://www-math.bgsu.edu/~grabine/moria.html |

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NETHACK 3.4.3 for Windows: Journey
beyond the Valley of Gehennom with your (sometimes) trusty canine
or feline pet, and plunder the Mazes of Menace. Will you
retrieve the Amulet of Yendor and be granted immortality by the
Gods? Or will some vile creature add your head to his trophy
collection!! Contains both TTY and graphics versions.
(8th. December 2003 - 1999KB zip file) You can also download
an optional 152KB zip file of large tiles here.
Find out more from: http://www.nethack.org |

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NETHACK 3.4.3 for Linux: Linux version
of the above with TTY and Athena-Widget-based (traditional X11)
graphics interfaces suitable for almost all Linux systems.
(8th. December 2003 - 1228KB gz file)
Find out more from: http://www.nethack.org |

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UTUMNO 1.0a5 Alpha: Utumno uses the Angband 2.7.9v6
engine but has a marvellous animated graphical front end making it
the best looking variant I've found.
(30th. December 1997 - 468K zip file)
"Officially" dead, but you might try http://web.mit.edu/craighea/www/utumno/
19th. January 2010: I found out today that Utumno is now officially "undead".
Find out all the latest information about Project Utumno / Shards of Asaria at
http://utumno.medicinestorm.com/ or visit the archive to learn about
the origins of this great game:
http://utumno.medicinestorm.com/archive/.
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© J. R. Haythorne, 2000-2017. All Rights Reserved
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