Shouldn't Spelunky and Cave Story be in this topic too? They are both apparently excellent games (I've not yet played either game), and they were originally released as freeware. The freeware versions of both games are still available, though if your prefer then you can purchase graphically enhanced (and maybe more feature-rich, I don't know?) versions, too.

https://spelunkyworld.com/original.html

https://www.cavestory.org/download/cave-story.php

Also, there are several free first person shooters listed here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_freewar … person_shooters

MrFlibble wrote on 2020-11-19, 15:06:

At this point I'm mostly interested in DOS games,

Well, I'm certainly not limiting myself exclusively to DOS games of course (in fact, I've thrown quite a bit of Windows titles into the list in the first post). It's not simply nostalgia, but thanks to DOSBox they're much easier to run than a lot of early Windows stuff in current Windows iterations, and I've not got a Linux machine currently to use WINE, which I found to be in some cases a good solution for early Windows games.

I have heard about Cave Story but never played it. In fact, I thought that at some point the free versions were discontinued, or am I mixing this up with La Mulana? (it's a different game, isn't it)? Anyway, thanks Kerr Avon for clarifying this!

EDIT: Updated the first post, added more developer pages.

EDIT2: Discovered this site with several stylish games: HiVE.

Rocks'n'Diamonds A Boulderdash clone Which I believe is open source too, if I am not mistaken.

Boulder Remake Which is a pretty bloody spiffy Bolderdash clone, and if I recall correctly it is even compatible with older (C64 ?) level sets.

This old site shows a fantastic knowledge about old Boulderdash clones. http://www.bd-fans.com/index.html

leileilol wrote on 2022-12-07, 23:19:

MrFlibble wrote on 2020-11-19, 15:06:

At this point I'm mostly interested in DOS games,

Oh, sorry.

Warscape Alpha (hovertank game) for Windows 32/64 and Apple OSX.

Kerr Avon wrote on 2022-12-08, 20:50:

Oh, sorry.

You needn't be, as I explained above, I'm not limiting myself to DOS stuff only. Your information about these two games is quite useful! So if you know about more free games (especially something obscure), keep 'em coming!

liqmat wrote on 2022-12-09, 16:07:

Warscape Alpha (hovertank game) for Windows 32/64 and Apple OSX.

Nice, thanks!

WolverineDK wrote on 2022-12-08, 19:48:

Boulder Remake Which is a pretty bloody spiffy Bolderdash clone, and if I recall correctly it is even compatible with older (C64 ?) level sets.

I don't think I've heard about this one, but there are so many BD clones and remakes out there...

Looks like Kurt Dekker/PLBM Games offers free registered versions of their old games for download:
http://plbm.com/oldsite/index2.htm
The site is exactly as it used to be in the early-mid-2000s, but the downloadable files are registered copies, not shareware.

MrFlibble wrote on 2023-01-16, 13:48:

Looks like Kurt Dekker/PLBM Games offers free registered versions of their old games for download:
http://plbm.com/oldsite/index2.htm
The site is exactly as it used to be in the early-mid-2000s, but the downloadable files are registered copies, not shareware.

i like finding websites unchanged from 20 or so years ago (or longer)

the games themselves look like the kinds of games made for free in the old atari st / amiga public domain days though rather than shareware

gerry wrote on 2023-01-16, 20:45:

MrFlibble wrote on 2023-01-16, 13:48:

Looks like Kurt Dekker/PLBM Games offers free registered versions of their old games for download:
http://plbm.com/oldsite/index2.htm
The site is exactly as it used to be in the early-mid-2000s, but the downloadable files are registered copies, not shareware.

i like finding websites unchanged from 20 or so years ago (or longer)

the games themselves look like the kinds of games made for free in the old atari st / amiga public domain days though rather than shareware

That website takes me back to when amateur programmers used to create versions of popular arcade games, such as Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, etc! Do many new programmers still do this, or did the easy availability of ways to play the original arcade games at home (such as via MAME, and other emulators first on PC, then on jail-broken consoles, tablet, and mobile phones, Raspberry Pi, etc) kill of the "Here's my homebrew version of Pac-Man" type creations of the 1980/90s?

Starcom - former shareware side-scrolling shooter
Crillion '97 - Allegro-based Crillion variant

Dr. Lunatic Supreme With Cheese - this game is weird, but also kinda good?
Nibbler Valley - Puzzle Bobble clone in Unity

Cannon Balls (Puzzle) - Puzzle Bobble clone in DarkBasic

UPD: A bunch of DOS former shareware games:

TechnoVenture (Adventure)
SPISPOPD (Shooter)
Marbleicious (Puzzle)
XOP Ultra (Shooter)
XOP Black Ultra

Carser -- a really nice DOS top-down racing game (race through obstacles against time). Its development started back in 1997, but in 1998 the author took a break which lasted till August 2022, and version 1.0 was released to the public on 10 February.

MrFlibble wrote on 2023-02-13, 21:43:

Carser -- a really nice DOS top-down racing game (race through obstacles against time). Its development started back in 1997, but in 1998 the author took a break which lasted till August 2022, and version 1.0 was released to the public on 10 February.

i liked his updates/story of the development, a long break. Many folk will have unfinished games from years ago when their enthusiasm and free time combined in creative output

MrFlibble wrote on 2023-02-13, 21:43:

Carser -- a really nice DOS top-down racing game (race through obstacles against time). Its development started back in 1997, but in 1998 the author took a break which lasted till August 2022, and version 1.0 was released to the public on 10 February.

That's very impressive. Most developers would have left a project like that abandoned, having lost interest during a long break.

Edit: It appears that the version 1.0 hasn't been tested on real hardware as there are sound problems like in DOSBox-X.

Somehow the official Battlecruiser 3000AD website no longer lists places to download the freeware releases of the game, but a bit of Googling found useful mirrors:
Battlecruiser 3000AD (DOS)
Battlecruser 3000AD v2.0 (Win)

Gmlb256 wrote on 2023-02-14, 13:38:

Edit: It appears that the version 1.0 hasn't been tested on real hardware as there are sound problems like in DOSBox-X.

Wish there was an option to disable sound entirely. Who needs 6+ MB of .wavs cluttering up the game? They should be optional, and the game should run silently, even if they've been deleted to reclaim the space. Otherwise, the game looks excellent, and I'm glad the author finally got it done after 25 years.

I'm trying to run it on real baremetal DOS, and the game hard freezes the system immediately after running the .exe. I'm pretty sure a -nosound option added to the .exe would solve this. It seems to have hardcoded SB IRQ settings, which isn't good. Those without a SB would like to be able to run the game, especially on baremetal DOS systems (the *only* way to drive).

zyzzle wrote on 2023-02-15, 12:11:

I'm trying to run it on real baremetal DOS, and the game hard freezes the system immediately after running the .exe. I'm pretty sure a -nosound option added to the .exe would solve this. It seems to have hardcoded SB IRQ settings, which isn't good. Those without a SB would like to be able to run the game, especially on baremetal DOS systems (the *only* way to drive).

I suppose the author will appreciate this feedback, you can send him an e-mail to the address at the site.

Meanwhile I put together a small list of liberated PC games (with a handful of non-PC titles) as an OpenDocument spreadsheet. The list can be sorted by platform, year of release, genre, original distribution model, source code license (if available), programming language, engine, and includes working download links. A separate page lists the sources that I used when compiling the list.

The games I omitted from the list are temporary Sierra giveaways from the early 2000s, Cinemaware and Rockstar games (I think in both cases these are no longer freeware in any form), and multiplayer-only titles. Also, apart from directly liberated games I've included a small numbers of unofficial conversions and remakes that have been retroactively authorised by game owners, in the absence of the respective original games being freeware. There are over 400 games on the list.