This is a carefully hand-picked list of games, both classic & new & software, completely free and legal, that work on a variety of low-end computer systems.
This is actually for a project I’m working on called Software4Soldiers, that’s made to fit on a single DVD. Just thought I’d share.
http://www.facebook.com/software4soldiers
-Adventure & Action Adventure
King’s Quest I - a classic adventure game
King’s Quest II - a classic adventure game
King’s Quest III - a classic adventure game
Quest for Glory 2 - a classic adventure game
-Arcade & Action
Celestial Mechanica - an action, puzzle, exploration & adventure game
http://www.celestialmechanica.com/
Chromium - A sci-fi shootemup game, similar to R-Type
Hedgewars - A Worms clone
Icy Tower - An arcade tower game
http://www.freelunchdesign.com/icytower/
Tyrian 2000 - a sci-fi shootemup game, similar to R-Type
Shoot First - an action game with randomly generated levels
http://teknopants.com/games/shootfirst/
Hydorah - a horizontal shootemup game
-Classic Board Games
Backgammon Classic
Domination - a Risk clone
DreamChess
100% Free Chess
http://download.cnet.com/100-Free-Chess/3000-18516_4-10451840.html
Monopoly Here & Now
Scrabble3D
Solitaire Settlers of Catan - the classic board game, playable against the computer
-Fighting
Beats of Rage - a 2D beatemup game, similar to Streets of Rage/Final Fight
Wrestling MPire Career Edition - A 3D Wrestling Game, similar to WWF/WWE
-FPS Action & Adventure
Marathon - classic FPS by the creators of Halo
Marathon II - classic FPS by the creators of Halo
Marathon Infinity - classic FPS by the creators of Halo
http://source.bungie.org/
Lifted - a puzzle/action FPS game similar to Portal
LiftedGame.com is for sale | HugeDomains (play in browser only, download coming soon)
Gravity Bone - a spy-themed first person action/adventure game
http://blendogames.com/
-Music
Frets on Fire - A Guitar Hero clone
http://fretsonfire.sourceforge.net/
Stepmania - A Dance, Dance Revolution clone
http://www.stepmania.com/wiki/Downloads
-Platformer
Cave Story (w/ English patch) - an award winning platform game
Hydra Castle Labyrinth
Iji - a sci-fi platform/shooter game with role-playing elements
http://www.remar.se/daniel/iji.php
Momodora 2 - a 2d “metroidvania” game
http://www.pixelprospector.com/momodora-2/
N: Way of the Ninja - a running/jumping platform/puzzle game
http://www.thewayoftheninja.org/
Spelunky - a 2d procedural exploration/action platformer
Umbrella Adventure - a hand-drawn exploration adventure game
http://www.wearehive.com/games/umbrella-adventure/
Eternal Daughter - an epic platform game, an homage to Castlevani/Super Metroid
-Puzzle
Desktop Dungeons - a quick play, puzzle RPG
http://www.desktopdungeons.net/media/
Pingus - a Lemmings clone
http://pingus.seul.org/download.html
Wind and Water - an arcade/action puzzle game
http://db.tigsource.com/games/wind-and-water-puzzle-battles/
-Roguelike
DoomRL - a dungeon crawler/RL game based on the Doom series with graphic tiles/optional ascii/music
Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup - a classic roguelike
http://crawl.develz.org/wordpress/
Dwarf Fortress - a classic roguelike where you rule and manage a kingdom of dwarves
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/
Tales of Maj’Eyal - a #1 voted graphical roguelike
http://te4.org/download
Vulture (Nethack/UnNethack/SlashEm) - a graphic client for Nethack, UnNethack and Slashem, classic roguelikes
http://www.darkarts.co.za/vulture
-RPG
ElderScrolls Daggerfall (requires DosBox) - a classic, massive RPG game, part of the Elder Scrolls series
Guardian of Paradise (w/ English patch) - a zelda inspired game
http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=rakuga
Laxius Power I - an award winning RPG series
Laxius Power II - an award winning RPG series
Laxius Power III - an award winning RPG series
http://www.laxiusgames.org/phpbb3/index.php?sid=718f20d9a3528a840ea6cbc719fa48d3
Ahriman’s Prophecy - a rpg similar to Dragon Warrior with 50+ hours of gameplay
http://www.amaranthia.com/downloads/games/Ahrimans_Prophecy.exe
Ark22 - a sci-fi themed rpg with fast-paced action, puzzle elements and more
http://www.wearehive.com/games/ark22/
Dink Smallwood - a game similar to Zelda
Ardentryst - an action/arcade role playing game
http://jordan.trudgett.com/
StarWars Bloodlines - a RPG based on the Star Wars universe
The Spirit Engine 2 - a 2d side-scrolling, hand-drawn RPG
Zelda Classic - a remake of the classic Zelda with updated graphics, enemies, items, features and more
http://www.zeldaclassic.com/downloads.php
Barkley Shut Up and Jam Gaiden - a humorous basketball themed RPG
http://www.talesofgames.com/related_game/barkley-shut-up-jam-gaiden/
-Simulation
Celestia (starviewer) - a simulator/star/universe viewer
-Strategy
FreeCiv - A free Civilization clone
FreeCol - A free Coloinzation clone
FreeOrion - A free Masters of Orion (sci-fi) clone
Kingdom Rush - A colorful tower defense game
http://download.cnet.com/Kingdom-Rush/3000-2119_4-75699726.html
Naev - A sci-fi themed 4x, strategy game
Survivors of Ragnarok - a city building/management survival game, inspired by Dwarf Fortress
The Ur-Quan Masters - A free remake of the classic sci-fi strategy game, Star Control 1/2
Software
-Audio & Video
–Editors & Converters
Audacity 2.0.2 - simple audio editing software
AviDemux 2.6.1 - simple video editing software
http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/
Freemake Video Converter - convert videos to various formats
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/download/Freemake-Video-Converter,0305-31690.html
HandBrake 0.9.8 - convert videos to various formats
http://handbrake.fr/details.php
–Player
VLC 2.0.5 - award winning, universal media player
WinAmp 563 - award winning, media/stream player
–Recorder
CamStudio 2.6 - webcam/desktop recording software
-Browser & Web Tools
Firefox 17.0.1 - award winning internet browser
Free Download Manager - manages/resumes files downloaded from the internet
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/download/Manager-Free-Download,0305-1345.html
Google Chrome Portable - a portable internet browser
Skype - webcam/computer call software
http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-full
Thunderbird 18.0 - a multi-email management client
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/download/Thunderbird-Mozilla,0301-2723.html
Trillian 5.2.0.13 - a multi-Instant Messenger client
UTorrent - torrent management/downloading software
http://www.utorrent.com/utorrent-plus/index/frmrvh
-Ebook Tools
Calibre Portable - manages, converts ebook libraries
http://calibre-ebook.com/download_portable
ComicRack - a digital comic book viewer
http://comicrack.cyolito.com/downloads
-Graphic Tools
–3D Tools
Blender - award winning, free 3D modelling software
http://www.blender.org/
Sculptris - 3D surface/clay modelling software, similar to Zsculpt
http://www.pixologic.com/sculptris/
–Editor
Gimp 2.8.2 - a free Photoshop alternative
http://www.gimp.org/
Inkscape - a free Illustrator/vector alternative
http://inkscape.org/download/?lang=en
Picasa - photo/image editing
http://picasa.google.com/
Zoner Photo Studio - photo editing/management software
http://download.cnet.com/Zoner-Photo-Studio/3000-2192_4-75186165.html?part=dl-&subj=dl&tag=button
-Office & Home Tools
Libre Office (w/ help files) - a free, cross-compatible alternative to Microsoft Office
http://www.libreoffice.org/download
HomeBank 4.4 - finance/money management software
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/download/HomeBank,0305-45319.html
Nitro PDF Reader - PDF Reader/Converter
http://www.nitroreader.com/download
Notepad++ - an advanced alternative to Notepad, popular with programmers
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/download/Notepad-,0301-833-18287.html
PDF Reader - PDF Reader/Converter
http://www.adobe.com/products/reader.html
-PC & File Utilities
Ultimate Boot CD (iso) - a CD/ISO image that can be burned to disk and used to recover/repair any PC
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html
Glarysoft PC Utility Collection - a collection of PC utilities
http://www.glarysoft.com/glary-utilities/
Virtual Box - an Operating System virtualizer
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/download/VirtualBox,0305-7671.html
–Burn Tools
CD Burner XP Pro - cd/dvd/image burning software
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/download/Pro-CDBurnerXP,0305-2069-16979.html
IMGBurn - cd/dvd/image burning software
http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download
–File Management
Absolute Uninstaller - single/batch program uninstaller
http://www.glarysoft.com/absolute-uninstaller/
FileZilla FileManager - a free FTP/file-sharing client
http://filezilla-project.org/
FreeUndelete - used to undelete/recover deleted files
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/download/FreeUndelete,0305-7447.html
Recuva File Recoverer - used to undelete/recover deleted files
http://www.piriform.com/recuva/download
TreeSize - allows you to quickly analyze disk space useage
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/download/TreeSize-Free,0305-33662.html
Unlocker - a utility to unlock/delete locked files
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/download/Unlocker,0305-5549.html
WinDirStat - disk space analyzer/clean up tool for Windows
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/download/WinDirStat,0305-1542.html
–Security Tools
Avast Antivirus Free - Free Antivirus software
http://download.cnet.com/Avast-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10019223.html?part=dl-85737&subj=dl&tag=button
CC Cleaner - PC cleanup utility, erase history, unused files and fix registry problems
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
Microsoft Security Essentials - helps guard your PC against viruses, spyware, etc.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29942
TrueCrypt - file encryption utility
http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads
Zone Alarm Firewall - free internet/network firewall software
http://www.zonealarm.com/
-RarZip Tools
7Zip - free archive/zip/unzipping software
http://www.7-zip.org/
AlZip 7 - free archive/zip/unzipping software
AlZip 8 (w/ free serial) - free archive/zip/unzipping software
http://www.altools.com/Downloads/ALZip.aspx
