MrFlibble wrote on 2025-05-26, 16:08:

Kerr Avon wrote on 2025-05-26, 12:47:

Alien Armageddon, a huge standalone mod (running on the Duke Nukem 3D engine) that contains so much content, such as other playable characters with their own weapons, many new single player and multiplayer mods (and bots to play against in the multiplayer modes), RPG/upgrage elements, a co-op mode, etc.

https://www.moddb.com/mods/duke-nukem-alien-armageddon

Last time I checked, Alien Armageddon required Duke Nukem 3D to run.

I've just downloaded Alien Armageddon, and installed it, so I can see what steps I need to do to get it to run, i.e. do you have to copy over the .GRP file from DN3D, and no, it doesn't need any files copied across or anything, everything is already in the downloaded zip file. And the DN3D .GRP file isn't in there, unless it's been broken up into lots of little files. So I don't know, plus I would have thought that Moddb themselves would have refused to host Alien Armageddon if it contained copyrighted data, but if you think it's best then I will delete the link.

Kerr Avon wrote on 2025-05-26, 12:47:

Carmageddon Special Edition, a fan made compilation with many new levels and vehicles. You can either play the game as a racing game, or instead win the game by destroying your oponnents, Demolition Derby style. You have to run over pedestrians (it's not exactly a realistic game!) and also hit barrels to gain more time (the race ends when your time runs out) and you can pick up various useful/worse than useless temporary power ups.

This one looks like outright software piracy? I know ModDB may sometimes get lenient on this kind of "mods", but if this one really does not require the base game, it very likely amounts to piracy, so I suggest you remove it from your post before mods do.

There is a project to fan-rewrite Carmageddon's game engine and its either nearly complete, or complete by now (the last time I checked it was stated to be something like 96% complete. I thought that that would be legal, but I don't want to rock the boat, of course, so I will delete the link, too.

Kerr Avon wrote on 2025-05-26, 16:31:

I've just downloaded Alien Armageddon, and installed it, so I can see what steps I need to do to get it to run, i.e. do you have to copy over the .GRP file from DN3D, and no, it doesn't need any files copied across or anything, everything is already in the downloaded zip file. And the DN3D .GRP file isn't in there, unless it's been broken up into lots of little files.

Let's put it like this, I've never tried to run AA without DUKE3D.GRP before, and the documentation says that you need it:

To install and run: […]
Show full quote

To install and run:

• Unpack the folder alien_armageddon_566 from the AA566.zip file.
• If you are upgrading from a previous version, copy the files eduke32.cfg and settings.cfg from the old folder into the new folder. But DO NOT attempt to install the new version into the old folder; do a clean install first and then move the .cfg files.
• Run eduke32.exe to start the game.
• In the startup window, *make sure that AA.grp is selected*, then press the Start button
• EDuke32 should be able to find your DUKE3D.GRP game data on your hard drive. If and only if there is a problem starting up, go ahead and copy that file into your Alien Armageddon folder.

Kerr Avon wrote on 2025-05-26, 16:31:

There is a project to fan-rewrite Carmageddon's game engine and its either nearly complete, or complete by now (the last time I checked it was stated to be something like 96% complete. I thought that that would be legal, but I don't want to rock the boat, of course, so I will delete the link, too.

I don't know, the download for this is over 800 MiB, whereas a fan rewrite of the same game that I know of offers binary releases of about 5 MiBs, which suggests that there must be a lot of other data included in that ModDB file (I haven't bothered to check).

I might be wrong, but even by the way the project description is worded on the ModDB page it looks like this must be the full game there, maybe with additional levels.

Not sure how well this qualifies for inclusion, but I have randomly stumbled upon a Spanish DOS mech wargame Mechforce.
It was included with PCMania issue 47 cover CD under shareware category, but with a name like this I was not able to easily find more information about it on, say, MobyGames. The games seems to be a loving tribute to the Battletech universe, and does not list a firm, only individuals responsible for its creation.

Mechforce es posiblemente uno mas de los juegos de guerra existentes, si
exceptuamos que su punto fuerte no es el despliege de unos cuantos soldados de
infanteria y algun que otro tanque, sino donde las unidades de combate basicas
son gigantescos robots, con pesos oscilando entre las ligeras 20 Toneladas y
las 100 Toneladas, aunque excepcionalmente algunos llegan a pesar 200 Tm., con
una altura media entre los 8 y 12 m.

Now, I have not run it yet, but could be something curious to try.

Here's something cool. The Technical University of Vienna has been holding computer visual arts/games contests since 1994, and they keep a Hall of Fame celebrating the best entries. There seems to be some pretty interesting stuff there for anyone who cares to take a dip:
https://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/courses/CG23/Hall … Fame/index.html

Several free games for Windows:

• 5star Free Lines -- Color Lines clone, did not work under Win10 for me
• ABC Free Solitaire -- solitaire collection, the ZIP can be downloaded here
• Double Klondike Solitaire

I was browsing itch.io the other day and stumbled upon this page that offers the full version of Maelstrom (the 1992 strategy game). The page claims to offer the files with the permission from the creator, without specifying any further.

Does anyone know if this is legit?

On a similar note, I learned recently that a Reddit user contacted the author of the game Dschump! Peter Hinz, and also found the full registered version of that game, which Peter was no longer in possession of. The Reddit user claims that Peter gave permission to distribute the full game, although nothing in the provided screenshots from e-mail exchanges between them and Peter contains an explicit permission. UPD: So I found Peter's current website here, there's an email address which hopefully works.

MrFlibble wrote on 2025-08-24, 21:23:

UPD: So I found Peter's current website here, there's an email address which hopefully works.

Peter promptly replied and confirmed that both Dschump! and 3D CyberPuck / 3D Ball Blaster are now freeware.

I'm attaching the registered version of Dschump!, extracted from this CD. Please note that the date/time stamps should be correct in this archive and point to 1 January 1994, 1:20:00am, with the timestamp indicating the version number (1.20), as per the shareware convention of the 90s, similar to the shareware version of the same game.

Note that there are two shareware versions of this game, 1.20 and 1.4, and both seem to have different levels and different music from what you get when you start the full game.

Found several interesting resource sites via the Wayback Machine:
DrLoad -- a German free games website with many working links to game homepages, plus some downloads
SOMSER -- a Spanish freeware website (discovered via the Runt Time links page)
Free Gaming -- another site dedicated to free games (also linked to from Runt Time)

Thanks to Free Gaming, we now know the author of an obscure RPG game called Gladius: E. J. Thayer. The game itself is available from Completely Free Software, a website which I believe is no longer active but well-preserved by the Wayback Machine. The game itself did not contain any information about the author or its distribution model.

I was just browsing shareware CDs and stumbled across an allegedly "freeware" release of Battle Chess, supposedly dating back to 1992. The included readme file goes as follows:

BATTLE CHESS by Interplay […]
Show full quote

BATTLE CHESS
by
Interplay

With the advent of BATTLE CHESS II(tm) last year, we launched
what is perhaps the most intriguing style of chess play
since this, the original BATTLE CHESS swept the computer
gaming world in 1988.

As our way of saying thanks, we are setting BATTLE CHESS loose
upon the world as FREEware! Yes, that's right - FREEWARE.

Because BATTLE CHESS was such a success, it appears that its
successor, BATTLE CHESS II(tm) is following rapidly in its
footsteps. To celebrate that fact, you now have in your
possession one of the most sought after experiences in software;
a truly remarkable computer chess game that will challenge as well
as entertain and ASTOUND you!

This freeware version is unprotected, unlike the commercial
version. After installing the files in an appropriate directory,
just type CHESS at the DOS-prompt. When the introduction screen
appears, press any key and you will be presented with three
dialog boxes in sequence expecting some arcane chess knowledge.
Since it would be unfair for us to believe that a normal person
would actually have this trivia in their brain-boxes, we made
matters simple; just press return at each prompt.
It is highly recommended that you play using your mouse since
it is much easier (not to mention faster) to select your moves
by pointing and clicking. All game options can be selected from
the menu-bar across the top of the screen. Also, unless you
elect to play exclusively in the 2-dimensional mode it is further
suggested that the game be installed upon your hard drive. The
extensive use of animation in 3-d mode necessitates frequent disk
access. Accessing that from a floppy drive impedes enjoyment of
the game as well as being just plain slow and silly.

Feel free to distribute this software to any BBS you like. All
we ask in return is that you do not alter or remove this text
file (what you are now reading) in the process.

What do you think, was that a legit release or some hoax by a hacker that cracked the game? I don't remember Interplay doing any similar freeware releases for anything else, and no information seems to be found elsewhere (like Google Groups), but I think there's at least a certain degree of likelihood that this was indeed an official release from Interplay.

MrFlibble wrote on 2025-09-27, 15:27:

What do you think, was that a legit release or some hoax by a hacker that cracked the game? I don't remember Interplay doing any similar freeware releases for anything else, and no information seems to be found elsewhere (like Google Groups), but I think there's at least a certain degree of likelihood that this was indeed an official release from Interplay.

For what it's worth, in this wikipedia discussion it is regarded as "probably not freeware anymore", although that release appears to have been real: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:List_of_co … ware#A_lot_more

konc wrote on 2025-09-27, 15:57:

For what it's worth, in this wikipedia discussion it is regarded as "probably not freeware anymore", although that release appears to have been real: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:List_of_co … ware#A_lot_more

Thanks, it did not occur to me to look at the talk page of that article, because I checked it for the "no longer freeware" games to see if Battle Chess was mentioned. I remember there was a good deal of investigations at places like Liberated Games in 2000s concerning various promotional releases, such as Sierra's Caesar or Red Baron, but I believe that Sierra for example never intended them to be permanent in the first place -- whereas the readme in Battle Chess clearly tells the user to "[f]eel free to distribute this software to any BBS you like". Even with the limited BBS systems of the day they couldn't have expected to easily stop redistribution of the game with such a clause if they intended the promotional period to end at some later point in time.

The fact that later on Interplay continued to sell the game in various compilations (including the currently available Steam bundle and GOG versions) does not in itself invalidate the original freeware release nor make it, retroactively, a temporary promotion. It is also worth noting that the commercial releases still include both the VGA version of the game and the SVGA enhanced CD-ROM re-release/remake, whereas the "freeware" version is EGA only. However, there are still general doubts over whether this alleged freeware release is authentic or not.

It's a pity that an Interplay employee could not provide a definite answer, even though they had apparently been working at the company about the same time the alleged freeware release occurred. The fact that the copy protection has been cracked in itself is not a strong indication against authenticity, although in many similar cases the developer would provide a list of code words instead, like with The Elder Scrolls: Arena or the Polish game Rooster. On the other hand, some developers were known to use and distribute user-made cracks if they considered them useful, like you could download several third-party hacks for the Carmageddon demo straight from the official website.

A German software developer called AquaSoft had some free DOS games for download here. Sadly the Wayback Machine has not preserved the files (duh), but I think this file contains the Classic-Games-Pack, this is AquaBall and this is Mampfi-Pack.