Wolfenstein Enemy Territory, or the modernized remake, ET Legacy
UnReal World is a free, survival-focused roguelike rpg that came out in 1992 and is still actively being developed and improved. It’s got a lot of depth and a very cool fantasy setting heavily inspired by Finnish folklore (the developer is Finnish).
I highly recommend it if you’ve got the patience for an in-depth roguelike rpg.
For the longest time I thought Minecraft was free because I only ever pirated it. Lol
PlanetSide 2 is the free-to-play I keep going back to
Irisu Syndrome! is a favorite of mine. It's only from 2008, so I personally don't consider it retro. It's tricky to learn at first since it doesn't tell you anything about how to play and I don't recall there being a manual. It's also one of those games that you can't really say too much about without spoiling things.
If we're sticking strictly to free, I'm not sure Doom mods work if you only have the free version installed. Either way, people basically never stopped making wads since the game came out, and I try various ones out from time to time.
There are tons of them, so if you're interested you can see what won the annual Cacowards throughout the years and start there.
Squarez Deluxe
Makes Tetris seem like a children's toy
Super Crate Box. An incredibly addictive, simple 2D shooting game! It's free on Steam!
Haven't played recently, but this one came to mind'
I missed the original, but Scorched 3D was a big hit at my high school.
"Einstein puzzle" by Flowix games, copyright 2004-2005
I play it from time to time, to see if I can still complete it in under 4 minutes and my brain isn't slowing down too much with age.
Technically, Dwarf fortress is the oldest game I still play, but I only got fully into it thanks to the non-free Steam version.
Frog Fractions
I don't play it regularly, but it's fun to tell people about it.
Beneath A Steel Sky (though I kinda prefer the grungier aesthetic of the Amiga floppy version)
Available free on ScummVM!
Has an excellent plot and wry sense of humour. Fun game.
Tyrian is still fantastic 30 years later!
Love this game!
I've probably played this game for over a hundred hours. Great soundtrack too, by Alexander Brandon. I also loved the minigame hidden behind the DESTRUCT cheat code.
And it's open source too!
Beyond All Reason!
I don't know if it technically counts as freeware, but Space Cadet Pinball. Back on XP it was my go-to for something quick to play on the offline computer, and I just brought it with me to every new machine. Also it's now been decompiled and will run on pretty much anything!
Something about Castle of the Winds really seemed unique and even today it's distinct from most roguelikes. I liked the fact that items could be enchanted or cursed. Simplistic graphics, but fun! I also liked the 3D pinball game (demo) that came with an old version of Windows...
I got it working on Mt last computer by running it through win 3.1, but I haven't been able to make that work since I changed. How are you running it these days?
Wow holy shit I've literally never heard another person speak of this game. I came here thinking, "it's a shame Castle of the Winds is never mentioned in these kinds of threads" and here it is. I wasted a summer of my youth playing this game and listening to Blues Traveler Four every day.
We never had the sequel so the game just ended. I thought of it about fifteen years ago and found it! Beat the game and it was every bit as much fun as I remembered it being as a kid.
Random dungeon levels, traps, hidden doors, magic, monsters, treasure - this game is an absolute blast.
Dozens of us! I even bought the sequel as a kid (I think the first was shareware)
i also really fell into this game as a kid, it was included on a disc of free games for pc that my dad got at some point in the 90s. it was the first game i personally played with any sort of exploration mechanic, and it really hooked me. cool to see a couple of other people on lemmy have fond memories about it as well!
OpenTTD is open source, so not sure that fits.
Older? Check.
Free? Check.
Software/game? Check.Checks out in my book!
I happened upon the original for $20 in Wal Mart in 1995 and I’ve been playing it on and off ever since!
One of the best games ever made.
Dwarf Fortress, since 2008
ASCII no questions, I'll tell you no lies
I always have to have Hover! on my PC. It's hella dumb that it doesn't just come with Windows as it did originally.
Am I crazy or is there a browser based version now that had online multiplayer?
I can't believe someone else just mentioned Hover! I haven't played it in decades lol but I did spend a lot of time on it as a kid
Was it not part of the entertainment pack? I do remember spending so long on it and just never getting past one of the levels, turns out there was a platform that required a spring to get to.
The powder toy. It's a physics simulator. I fire it up during meetings
I've been playing it off and on since maybe 2016-18 (somewhere within that range), so a pretty long time for me, but Pokemon Rejuvenation.
If you don't mind swearing, death, and generally kinda edgy stuff, it's a fun enough game with a lot of content. 15 out of 18 badges (one per type) are currently available, with a very long story to go with it.
Just started over on my Steam Deck, making this my umpteenth time starting over, because I felt like it and wanted to do a grass only run, similar to my fire only run. Also, unlike just about every other RPGMaker XP fangame, the devs have a Linux version available, which has an appimage instead of the .exe file to run the game and have made a bash script to update the game to replace the .exe file for that. Wine not required to play at all!
Every time I mess with a Mac emulator I play some Snood. I think it was only free on that platform though.
They're shareware but I think Pocket Tanks and Super DX Ball have been on every computer of mine since 2002
bubble tanks
SRB2 !
Sonic Robo Blast 2 is one of the best Sonic games ever!
Man, I found this in 09 a few months before the 2.0 update. And it had a decade behind it even then. Man I miss those days of looking through random wads on 4shared. I couldn't even begin to figure out how to find some of that stuff nowadays if I wanted to find it.
Desert strike? Not sure if it was free tho. Also road rash
The SNES game published by EA based loosely on the Gulf War? I'm pretty sure that one was payware.
Neither were free, both were amazing
The Chzo Mythos games. Point and click adventure series made in AGS.
I first played 5 Days A Stranger when it was out, and it was my favourite adventure game.
Then 7 Days A Skeptic, which was basically more of the same and I thought it was very cool.
After that is Notes, which is a text parser instead of point and click. Still a lot of fun, but I always use the guide to help myself in parts.
Last one was 6 Days A Sacrifice, which I don’t remember very well, I haven’t played it as much as the other games.
Also the same guy made a game called 1213, which I loved. It played more like Flashback, cinematic platformer style.
Not freeware, but currently $2.39 on GOG:
Master of MagicIts like Civilization with wizards and dragons.
