Cash Free Gaming Doom Servers

If you are looking for some doom or doom 2 coop action, check out our new servers on zdaemon We have put together a decent couple of servers to play with your friends over the net with no mods or upgrades so you can enjoy that 1994 feeling of a lan party all over again. All you need to do is install zdaemon, have it find your wad files for doom/doom 2, and then connect to our server on the server list. You can use the steam version of the doom games on zdaemon aswell.

Only 2 days left! 5 games, name your own price Linux/Mac/Windows

http://www.wolfire.com/humble

If I told you you could buy 5 indy games for 0.01 US Dollar, you would say I was nuts. But you can. They are calling it the Humble Indie Bundle. 5 games, name your price and you can download every single full version game for all the operating systems.

Games included:

World of Goo [linux flavor includes binaries in rpm, deb and tar.gz]
Aquaria
Penumbra 1: Overture [includes a code to get the other 2 games for 5 dollars]
Gish
Lugaru

Better hop on this opportunity folks. But I do suggest backing up your games to dvd when you get done (and getting all the versions in case you get another pc/mac/linux setup). I also don't suggest paying a penny as you can donate the money to charity aswell, since this is a charity drive aswell. Keep up the good fight indies, and THANK YOU for the cross platform goodness.

Perfect World International

Perfect World International is a Free mmorpg that could be considered a "WoW Killer". So far while playing it I've noticed that it is driven by quests. You can almost be certain that you will have enough quests to keep you busy and leveling through most of the game. Like most free mmo's there are elements you can pay for, but unlike most, these items are far from required.

Graphics

The graphics are great for a free mmo with nice sparkling water effects, blur, and hdr style lighting. It is quite customizable though if you have an older system. The characters are nicely detailed as well.

Races

What this game has over other games is the variety of races. You have your standard human and elves, add in a mix of the "Untamed" a collection of various animals. As a male you can have the head of a wolf, panda, tiger (white or Bengal). If you are a female untamed you can be a fox, cat or rabbit. The Tideborn Race are like fish men of sorts with very good jobs of Assassin or Psychic (which happen to be considered the most powerful in the game yet on the way of damage).

Travel

Travel in the game consists of either you standard fast travel to cities/towns or flying. You get a free flying ride or wings when you hit level 30 (via quest). If you are a elf, you start out with a set of (natural) wings that use mana when you are in the air. Also if you are questing, most quest locations can be "auto-piloted" to making travel really easy. There isn't too much searching for stuff for quests.

Downsides

Specific jobs require a specific race/sex combos. Like if you want to be a venomancer you must be a female untamed. If you want to be an archer you must be a male winged elf. So you really can't say, "I want to be a untamed, assassin" or male elf cleric.

Final Thoughts

If you like fantasy mmo's with lots of quests and a good diversity of races this game is for you. This is an A+ game, with a price point you can't argue.

Imagine Online

If you owned a Playstation 2, you might remember a game developer called Shin Megami Tensei, creators of the Digital Devil Saga, Nocturne, and a few other games of the sort. This game plays alot like Nocturne, in fact most of the monsters and animations and a lot of the gameplay is just like it except now it’s in the real mmo format instead of the standard rpg turn based format.

Basically you have some choices of how you take on battles, you can do the standard, run up and hack and slash them, or you can talk to them. When you talk to them you can try to intimidate them or be friendly to them and they might give you some loot, or just leave, or even attack you depending on how you treat them. Another thing they can do when you have a “chat” with them is they could decide to join you. If they join you they will be like a pet in most mmorpg’s and they will level up along side of you. Once you get a selection of different demons (as they are called) you can combine them at a temple to make new, bigger and badder demons to fight with you with a fusion style (you lose the original 2-3 demons you fused) interface. Some demons work as mounts aswell as you can ride them around town.

The game is hosted on Aeria Games servers so you can login with your Aeria account if you have one. If you are a fan of the Shin Megami Tensei games, you should check this one out, as it is a good compliment to their series of games.

Website: http://megaten.aeriagames.com/

Switched to Windows 7/News on Google Chrome

Well, time to switch it up some, I will still be posting free games, except the games might not run in linux. I personally switched because I like the interface of windows 7 and I was having rather bad luck with wine and virtualbox for some software. I never thought I’d see the day where I would want another windows operating system, but it’s not bad. I’m not saying it’s perfect by any means though, there are always a few issues with microsoft products that get my goat sometimes, but I always switch back and forth (depending what I think is better at the time) between linux and windows.

This week also was the unveiling of the new Google Chrome OS, which is basically linux, and the chrome browser. Would be nice for a little net appliance (a cheap atom mini pc build perhaps, or a netbook). The preview has been getting mixed reviews from people all over the board but personally all I have to say is, we’ll see how it works when it’s done. I of course will probably buy a new arm based netbook to test it on when it comes out to show on here since it is a free operating system and all. I think the best we can look forward to in the way of gaming though would be stuff like java/flash based games so far from what we can see. All in all microsoft shouldn’t feel all that threatend unless they worry much about the netbook market. Google is in talks with almost every big netbook manufacturer at the moment working out deals, and the os has been quoted to be free, so it should drop the prices back down on the netbooks again to their original linux prices. Aka 199 netbooks should be the norm again.

Getting every last drop out of your linux game

Alright, say you want to play a fullscreen game in Ubuntu, one that's hardcore on the system resources, and you want a totally lag free game (or at least as fast as possible).

Window Manager/Desktop:

Here's something I do to make sure almost nothing else is running (well, nothing I don't need for a gaming session). First off, on your initial ubuntu login screen (gdm), click select session and go with like failsafe terminal. This way, not even a window manager is running. In this terminal type in: "nm-applet &" so you get your networking (if you use wireless anyway like I do). The & lets you execute another command. Then just run your game from the terminal, and you can be pretty sure that it's going to run smoother since you aren't running anything practically. Another thing to try is to pickup a "lightweight" desktop/windowmanager solution. Such things save you alot on memory. From my testing the most light desktops would be fluxbox/blackbox, lxde, or icewm. If your wireless networking isn't coming up in those, just run nm-applet. Whatever you do, do not run compiz (desktop-effects), and you should notice a big difference when you are gaming. And try to stay away from kde aswell, as it is pretty, but it does eat resources. Try to stick with something simple, no SVG wallpapers if any, I suggest just a plain color for a background.

Drivers:
Make sure you have the latest and greatest drivers for your videocard even if you have to download and even compile them yourself. Be carefull with beta drivers that aren't tested well yet, keep a backup on hand of the old drivers in case you run into issues. Get your nvidia drivers directly from nvidia as soon as they are released and I also suggest their beta drivers if you are a more advanced user. If you are building a system for gaming, do yourself a favor and do NOT buy anything but nvidia hardware for linux. ATI drivers are just a joke. Do not put yourself through the pain of being an ATI owner. Stay away from laptops with intel or ati video chipsets, you will just regret it, trust me. My wife has a new radeon HD card that has better specs/reviews in windows than my nvidia 8200M G on my laptop, yet mine smokes hers in ubuntu 9.04 at litterally everything.

Memory:
You know, I have 4 gigs of ddr2 in my new laptop (on ubuntu AMD64), and while running a memory intensive game (secondlife), firefox, thunderbird, my twitter client, pidgin, and a couple other things, it uses about 1.5 gigs of it, and my swap partition remains empty most of the time. Try to have at least 2 gigs of ram for gaming, though I always max out my systems for the motherboard specs myself so I don't have to worry about it later.

CPU:
I strongly suggest at least a dual core cpu at least, at least rated at 2ghz, with this kind of power you should run just about anything linux games wise just fine (until maybe rage comes out, since it's IDTech5, we don't know what it will require).

Linux Gaming Vs. Windows Gaming:
Unlike windows, you notice a gaming machine for linux doesn't require much in the way of an expensive system. My linux gaming rig costed me total of 500 dollars after memory upgrade and a *good* cooling pad. The reason you don't need as much is linux doesn't use as much resources to run, and you aren't running any virus software or anti-malware software at all. That virus software eats up resources, and is practically a virus itself in the way of it always sitting there slowing down your computer scanning every file before you click it, scanning your emails and websites. Between that and windows memory managment is why you need to build a 1000 dollar machine that runs as hot as an oven just to squeeze out a few fps in a game. And not to mention, most linux games tend to be coded in C, C++, etc, and run rather fast compared to say some crytek engine that most likely has sloppier code than a first year programming student at some unaccredited online college. Then you play a game like Doom 3, on linux or Quake Wars, and watch how with doom 3, you don't even need a dual core, and it runs like silk, on quake wars, you don't need a 1000 dollar machine, it just works.

Why aren't there many (commercial) linux games?
Alot of people say linux isn't for gaming, and why they say that is, many commercial games are only made for windows. Why is that? Well, more people currently run windows. If more people ran linux, there would be more games. If you want to get more commercial games on linux, show them, and buy linux games. If Tuxgames.com or Linux Game Publishing start cranking out big money from linux game sales, they can get more money to get rights to port more games, and it would also show the market that linux people want games too. You would be surprised at how many companies sit on the fence on linux, they want to, but they don't know how much it's going to pull in. If you show them buy buying out tuxgames's supply of games like hotcakes, this will send a loud message to the companies. It will be something like, "Hey, we PAY for games if you make them. We are a market here too! We pay for quality!!". ID Software keeps porting our games because we keep buying them. They know we keep buying them because we are always hitting their FTP's to get our linux installers and patches. They know we appreciate them, and we pay for our games. It might not work into your ethos about paying for a game, but, if you don't, you can't complain that we don't get any.

Nexuiz

Alright, Nexuiz is a FPS based off a HIGHLY modded version of the quake 1 source (darkplaces engine). This fork of darkplaces is a full standalone game with an extremely good lighting and graphics engine overhaul, ragdoll physics, the works. It is overall a very nice and pretty game to play in general. In ubuntu you can simply install this with "sudo apt-get install nexuiz", and that will get you going, and put the game on your menu. Alot like quake 3, the only single player is playing against bots, but if you like that sort of thing, you will like this.

Frozen Bubble

Frozen Bubble is a puzzle game similar to Bubble Bobble that features little penguins instead of dinosaurs. It has pretty good graphics and music, and online multiplayer. I do like the ingame editor for making my own boards since alot of the ones they include are really a little too easy, but still fun time waster. To install in ubuntu linux just, "sudo apt-get install frozen-bubble" and there it is :) If you wanna play a game sometime lemme know, I love this game online.

Crack Attack

Crack Attack is a puzzle game with the same idea as Tetris Attack. By moving colored blocks from side to side, you line up 3 or more in a row to pop the blocks. This game has internet multiplayer so you can play it with your buddies as a fun time waster. It is available in Linux, Mac, and Windows. In ubuntu you can install it with "sudo apt-get install crack-attack" as it is already in the repo.

The Mana World

The mana world is a mmorpg that is opensource. It is a 2d anime'ish style game that reminds me alot of good older 16 bit games like chrono-trigger or phantasy stars 4, without the turn based gameplay. In Ubuntu Linux you can install this game with a simple "apt-get install tmw" without quotes. They have ports for windows, mac, linux, freebsd and netbsd (and probably whatever else you can compile it on). Their website is http://themanaworld.org/. Come check out this great game.

Sauerbraten AKA Cube 2 SVN update

Sauerbraten is a FPS game with a real decent engine that is known to have a real good ingame map editor which you can even do team map editing online with friends, allowing for rapid development with help from your friends. It has ragdoll physics, a good single player side, and is updated almost constantly. This last svn update added a slew of new weapons and content you can check out. (Click for their website here)

Blood! The original

Well, this is one of those games you might remember unless you are a kiddo. There was a game released a little while after duke nukem 3d on the same engine, that was started by the same company over there at "when it's done (aka never)" 3d realms. Luckily monolith finished the game, and well, went under. But it was a good game (the second wasn't though). So now it's abandonware YAY! You can download it with all of it's expansions and play it on dosbox, but please please set your memory to 32 megs in dosbox else you will get random crashes (it requires like 24 megs or so). http://www.abandonia.com/files/games/103/Blood_4.png

Here's a video I made in ubuntu linux of the gameplay.

SecondLife (alternative clients)

Alright, This game isn't really a game per say, it's more like a 3d player made online community. Basically Secondlife is a 3d online mmo sandbox where you can use a in word 3d modeler to make objects (houses, clothing, hair, whatever your heart desires) using primitive objects (called prims). It is kind of like the sims though you use real money (you can model for free, but it costs 10 lindens to upload a texture/sound/animation. 10 lindens equalling out to 1 cent. Though there are tons of ways to get free lindens in the world really. And there are alot of freebie textures/sounds/animations already in the game. People can buy and sell things in shops in the game, rent out their land for others to live/build on... The game has Streaming Audio and video. This game is Free Open Source, and has many alternative clients out there if you want to try something different. There are even a few alternative "grids" or servers out there. From my time in secondlife (2 years now), I have seen many different creations people have made to make the game their own, it's a site to see really, and it doesn't cost you a thing. Who knows you might even fing a group of people you like to hang out with, with all the millions of places there are on secondlife, and millions of groups. Here's my suggested SL clients for different os'es...

Windows 32/64 bit/Mac - Snowglobe (http://www.secondlife.com/)
Linux 32 bit - Snowglobe (install all gstreamer packages you can find)
Linux 64 bit - omvviewer (http://omvviewer.byteme.org.uk)/
(if you want streaming video/audio), or snowglobe if you don't.

With omvviewer, I find it works the best if you don't go fullscreen but just stretch the window to the fullest screen possible for they have a really bad font setup for fullscreen.

FPS/Sports: Digital Paintball 2

This game started as a quake 2 mod, but when the quake 2 source code became opensource they ported their entire game onto a highly modified version of the quake 2 sourcecode with new effects and revamped the entire game enough to call it Digital Paintball 2. It plays like real paintball as in if you get shot by one paintball you will be out of the game until the next round (or in some cases for a little while at least). It has many good community built maps and a decent playerbase to play with. They have a wide assortment of real paintball weapons including the tippman and a few others. You can customize your hoppers and co2 canisters and barrels in the game, and like real paintball, when your co2 runs out, you will spend a little time changing out the can until you can shoot again, and you have to spend a little time to refill your ball hopper after it empties. Graphically and gameplay wise it's very good for a quake 2 engine game, some of the effects even supercede it's quake 3 engine counter-parts. Check out their website >>here<< for more info.

FPS: Urban Terror

This game is a bit like counter-strike. It goes for the realism and uses realistic weapons. There are many options to choose from in the way of weapon loadouts and has a few game modes and many maps. This game started as a mod to quake 3, but since the quake 3 source went GPL they now released the game as a legal standalone that uses no quake 3 media files. It runs very well most pc's and is available for both windows and linux. Check it out >>here<<

Online FPS: F.E.A.R Combat

Fear Combat is basically a free version of Fear 1's multiplayer side. You can download it and get your free key from >>Here<<

Xbox360 Shooter: Aegis Wing

If you were a big fan of scrolling shooter titles like galaxa, you should check out this game. It was made by some microsoft interns and they offer it as a free download on xbox live arcade. It has both offline and online modes. The cool thing about online mode is the ability for multiple (player) ships to connect to each other and equal out to more damage, if you get 4 players all connected as 1 ship 1 guy flies, and the other 3 shoot off their cannons and they can even do shots that can take out the entire screen of baddies. It's a real fun game, and adds a new twist to the world of sidescrolling shooter titles. Download it for free from xbox live arcade

FPS: Wolfenstein Enemy Territory

The wolfenstein series has been around for quite some time, before doom or quake, but this game is a more modern game of course in actual 3d using the quake 3 engine. The game was developed by Splash Damage as a freeware online multiplayer game that was based off objective gameplay like Return the Castle Wolfenstien. The game supported the ability for mods and was typically very well recieved. It is able to run on windows, mac and linux, and completely free to download and play. If you like world war shooters, you will like this game. It's no call of duty, but it is rather nice for the price tag.

Game info:

Website: http://www.splashdamage.com/wolfet

Stradegy: Warzone 2100

Warzone 2100 was a classic ps1 game that recently went open source, released by eidos. The source code has been developed into a full free version of the game that is on many platforms including windows and linux. In fact you can get the game in ubuntu linux with: sudo apt-get install warzone2100 since it is in the main repo. What warzone is all about is building and designing different type of veicles and claim resources from your enemy. It's alot like starcraft except it has alot more customizing options for building your own units. It is pretty fun to play offline or online. The game also has all the original artwork and music. A nice touch to it is the updated graphics and high resolutions you can achieve compared to the old ps1 game.





Game info:


Warzone 2100 ressurection project: website


Original Developers: Pumpkinhead Studios


Original Publisher: Eidos

Here's a video I made in ubuntu x64:

FPS: Quake Live

Some of you might remember quake 3, a deathmatch driven game by ID software, the company that many concider to be the father of the first person shooter. Quake Live is pretty much quake 3 with some updates and free to play via advertising bilboards in the game. There are many updates including the fact it actually plays from your browser. It is loaded with online matches with other people, so it should keep you busy for some time. If you loved quake 3, but can't find that cd hanging around your house, or you want an intense game of deathmatch/ctf from the people that coined the phrase deathmatch, check this game out.

Game Info:

Developer: ID Software

url: http://www.quakelive.com/

Genre: First Person Shooter, online only

MMORPG: Anarchy Online

Alright, if you want to play an mmorpg that doesn't suck and you don't have the cash to spend every month, check out Anarchy Online. It has free "froob" accounts that doesn't have level caps. You get the original game and the first expansion for free. Anarchy Online takes place on a distant planet of Rubi-Ka, it's a 3d futuristic mmo that has 3 races and a ton of jobs that you can do. The game has been around for quite some time, and has a rather large community maintaining the game. If you decide you want to try some other expansions for the game they have special pricing for converting your froob account into a shadowlands account or you can get all the expansions for 20 dollars a month, and special rates if you pick a whole year of the game. To play the game, just download the client and make your account on their website, set it to free account and you are all set. There is no time limit, no set months, just play to your hearts content.

Game Info:

Type: Free to Play mmorpg

Site: http://www.anarchyonline.com/

Operating Systems: Windows 98 or newer

about Cash Free Gaming

This blog is dedicated to bringing you the best in legally free games. Games that are either freeware or abandonware. Here at cash free gaming, we know that in today's economy people can't afford to go out and spend 60 dollars for a video game, and we aim to please with a surplus of games that you can feel safe downloading as they are legally free. If you like the game, please comment, if you hate the game, do the same. We will try to keep this site in line with the latest free games as soon as they come out. And post some old favorites aswell.