Author Topic: Best free games to play online?  (Read 8638 times)

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Bad2DaBone

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Best free games to play online?
« on: April 18, 2015, 06:45:17 PM »
So what are the best free games you can play online?  By free I don't pirated (that technically includes EVERY game :P) but games that were made for non-profit.


1. HEROINE'S QUEST
http://crystalshard.net/?g=16

2. BEN JORDAN SERIES
http://www.grundislavgames.com/benjordan/ (The 4th one especially!)

3. SPACE QUEST 2 VGA
http://www.infamous-adventures.com/sq2remake/

4. QUEST FOR GLORY 2 VGA
http://www.agdinteractive.com/games/qfg2/

5. KING'S QUEST 2 VGA
 http://www.agdinteractive.com/games/kq2/about/about.html

shmerl

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Klytos

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Re: Best free games to play online?
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2015, 05:13:52 AM »
That hasn't been taken down yet?
"Any statements made by this member of Infamous Quests is his own personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Infamous Quests. Any official statements made about Infamous Quests by this member will be clearly identified as such."

shmerl

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Re: Best free games to play online?
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2015, 01:08:03 PM »
That hasn't been taken down yet?

I'm sure DRM lobby like ESA and Co. doesn't like it, but so far fair use still applies to libraries (which Internet Archive is). So they can't so easily take it down. And since the site only offers to play those games there without downloading, it fits into what's permitted for libraries.

The DRM lobby tries to undermine fair use of course. A recent example:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/04/videogame-publishers-no-preserving-abandoned-games-even-museums-and-archives

Bad2DaBone

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Re: Best free games to play online?
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2015, 03:26:30 PM »
Try this :) https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos_games/


That's a great link, thanks!

Though, I consider it "legal pirating," games in legal gray zone.  How does that work?  Basically there's games so old that it's not worth it for whoever own the IP to enforce copyrights on something there's littler monetary demand for these days?


7. http://www.gog.com/game/beneath_a_steel_sky


NOTE- FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DO NOT PLAY TEENAGENT!  It's free on Gog.com because nobody wants it!  That game is freakishly horrible!  Sure the first level is moderately good, but it goes straight into the shitter with puzzles that make zero logic afterwards and a plot that's fairly dull.  The game has a great premise but it fails to live up to it at all.


8. CONQUEST OF THE LONGBOW

http://www.christymarx.com/writing/robin.htm

shmerl

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Re: Best free games to play online?
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2015, 10:11:16 PM »
That's a great link, thanks!

Though, I consider it "legal pirating," games in legal gray zone.  How does that work?  Basically there's games so old that it's not worth it for whoever own the IP to enforce copyrights on something there's littler monetary demand for these days?

I already mentioned it above. It works the same way you can read a book in a library without buying it. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

I.e. it's a legal application of the copyright law. Of course if you can buy some of those games - you can own the purchase. Internet Archive doesn't give an option to download them, they are only playable while you are on the site. So it's not the same as Abandonia and the like, which are indeed questionable.

Klytos

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Re: Best free games to play online?
« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2015, 10:45:43 PM »
I will disagree on this as libraries pay a royalty or a one off payment to a book publisher (although it's a lot smaller than purchasing the book retail or even wholesale). Some of those titles are still for sale (Leisure Suit Larry for example), and others are in catalogs that are certainly owned by active corporations (Lemmings, Wolfenstein, Conquests of the Longbow).

Fair Use clauses generally don't allow for an entire book to be copied. Amount and substantiality are the key words and the point for copyright law (at least in the US) is that fair use is a defense against infringement, not a roadblock to being sued. I absolutly promise that if the IP owners knew of that site they would demand their games be taken down. At the least the big companies like EA, Activision etc. I think it far more likely they don't know about it than they are ignoring it.

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Klytos

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Re: Best free games to play online?
« Reply #7 on: April 19, 2015, 10:46:35 PM »
Teenagent rocks!

Ok, no it doesn't. It's the worst adventure game made. Ever.
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Bad2DaBone

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Re: Best free games to play online?
« Reply #8 on: April 19, 2015, 10:55:27 PM »
I played through it.  Forced myself to.  Some of the puzzles make no sense like, why is a shotgun the only thing capable of scaring away some dumb birds?  It does have some pretty graphics though and a promising premise, I'll grant it that much at least.

But it goes downhill after the first chapter and the bad guy's pretty generic, just an old fat guy who's not particularly menacing.  It's worth playing if you consult a FAQ constantly (the puzzles aren't worth playing), get it for free and literally have absolutely nothing better to do.  If you try to actually play the game seriously then you'll be sorely disappointed.

3.5/10



As for Longbow, you can't buy it anywhere at all anymore (except Ebay?) so I'm perfectly okay with the creator giving it away for free.

Klytos

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Re: Best free games to play online?
« Reply #9 on: April 19, 2015, 11:33:50 PM »
I'd have given it 2 out of 10 and that only for graphics.

I don't have too much of a problem with Cristy Marx giving away her games, her choice. I was really referring to the DOS "Museum".
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shmerl

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Re: Best free games to play online?
« Reply #10 on: April 19, 2015, 11:35:48 PM »
I will disagree on this as libraries pay a royalty or a one off payment to a book publisher (although it's a lot smaller than purchasing the book retail or even wholesale). Some of those titles are still for sale (Leisure Suit Larry for example), and others are in catalogs that are certainly owned by active corporations (Lemmings, Wolfenstein, Conquests of the Longbow).

Fair Use clauses generally don't allow for an entire book to be copied. Amount and substantiality are the key words and the point for copyright law (at least in the US) is that fair use is a defense against infringement, not a roadblock to being sued.


Whatever "affirmative defense" means, fair use can be viewed as a right, i.e. part of the copyright itself. Though that's some debatable subject, and has different opinions in the legal system. Regarding full or partial copying - in case of libraries fair use allows full copying, otherwise you won't be able to get full books in any library archive (which defeats the purpose of the library). Recent case with Google Books confirmed it: http://www.lawdownunder.com/google-books-project-covered-fair-use-doctrine/

Internet Archive case is a library, but I'm not an expert on how exactly they operate, so I don't know about how they deal with owners and etc. Who said they didn't pay for those, same as you said other libraries do?

About if some games are sold or not - surely, buying it is better, since you get something that you own (i.e. the purchase). When you borrow a library book, you can't own it. Same here. Personally I always prefer to buy games when they are sold (DRM-free). If some game is available for sale on GOG - I'd surely buy it rather than access through such site.

I absolutly promise that if the IP owners knew of that site they would demand their games be taken down. At the least the big companies like EA, Activision etc. I think it far more likely they don't know about it than they are ignoring it.


I'm not expecting anything else from EA. They are part of the ESA who are in general very hostile to fair use (see my link above about the recent incident). I.e. they'd sue even if it would be for sure legal. Just because.

About ESA, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_Software_Association

Not surprisingly they also supported SOPA and the like.

Bad2DaBone

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Re: Best free games to play online?
« Reply #11 on: April 20, 2015, 12:21:36 AM »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkGKY0Ygn8w

Gotta admit, it is quite fun to watch at least.  Makes for a decent enough playthrough video. :)

Bad2DaBone

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Re: Best free games to play online?
« Reply #12 on: April 21, 2015, 08:18:54 PM »
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1kWsQcfTPFjfz9sdxfTGFhC/our-world-war-interactive-episode

Dunno if this one's any good but it certainly does look promising. :)

shmerl

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Re: Best free games to play online?
« Reply #13 on: April 21, 2015, 09:32:38 PM »
Some more fun on-line games:

Sesame Street Fighter (HTML)
Hellorun (HTML)
You can't do binary under pressure (HTML)
Banana Bread (HTML)
Canabalt (HTML, using Shumway to run a Flash game).
First person tetris (Flash unfortunately)

Bad2DaBone

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Re: Best free games to play online?
« Reply #14 on: April 22, 2015, 12:48:07 AM »
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkGKY0Ygn8w

Gotta admit, it is quite fun to watch at least.  Makes for a decent enough playthrough video. :)

Looking at this game, the graphics are fairly dated for the time it came out (it was released after Day of the Tentacle) and there's not much going in the music department.