The Best Free Online (in-browser or downloadable) Games

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If there, feel free to link to it here. I couldn't find it, at least.

By "online" I don't necessarily mean games that you play online with other people (although, I'm not ruling that out).

The best two free games available on these intarnets that I've found are:

Grid Wars 2 and Grow RPG. The former has staying power, while the latter just provides a really fun 30 minutes, or however long it takes you to beat it.

Zachary S (Zach S), Monday, 22 January 2007 01:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Grid Wars OTM. Was it me that originally pointed you in its direction on ILE? I think I've finally got the hang of farming, to the extent that I'm now bothered by the fact that I haven't worked out how to stop shooting. Am I missing something, or do you permanently fire from when you first shoot until you die? I'm using hybrid controls (i.e. keyboard and mouse).

http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/grid/gw18.jpg

Interested people, please see http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/grid/wars.htm

caek (caek), Monday, 22 January 2007 02:57 (seventeen years ago) link

It was you who guided me there. Thanks!
I haven't played in a while, but I'm pretty sure if you go into options, there's an auto-fire mode which is turned on by default. How does the mouse-keyboard hybrid setup work?

Zachary S (Zach S), Monday, 22 January 2007 05:19 (seventeen years ago) link

Grid wars = too hectic for me. I don't know how you manage to survive long enough to reap the benefits of yr farming, I could only ever manage to fill up and then explode one, maybe two black holes, before getting blindsided by some little blighter, or just overwhelmed by numbers.

Great link to a g'drillion online games (ok, only 20). http://www.zanorg.com/prodperso/jeuxchiants/doublejeu.htm and http://www.vivalagames.com/play/cursorthief/ two of my faves, both v simple and quick and "just one more go" type addictive.

ledge (ledge), Monday, 22 January 2007 10:12 (seventeen years ago) link

www.minijuegos.com

You need never work again...

Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Monday, 22 January 2007 10:35 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm pretty sure if you go into options, there's an auto-fire mode which is turned on by default.

Ah, cheers. Under hybrid setup your keyboard controls movement and the mouse controls shooting direction, a la Quake, etc.

Grid wars = too hectic for me.

I never survive longer than about ten minutes, which I see as an advantage. It's a proper game, but you only need ten minutes for it.

caek (caek), Monday, 22 January 2007 12:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Flow -- designed for maximum taskflow and really beautiful and relaxing about it
Tactics Arena Online -- D&D chess, basically
Hyperframe -- favorite puzzle

nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 22 January 2007 21:43 (seventeen years ago) link

Whoa, Hyperframe is a good time.

Zachary S (Zach S), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 02:18 (seventeen years ago) link

my god that sand falling game/toy. i couldn't tear myself off it last night.

Ste (Fuzzy), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 09:21 (seventeen years ago) link

Hahaha, if that's the sand falling thing I'm thinking of, I've spent HOURS on it.

melton mowbray's APOCALYPTO! (adr), Tuesday, 23 January 2007 18:36 (seventeen years ago) link

More please.

nabisco (nabisco), Thursday, 25 January 2007 18:02 (seventeen years ago) link

Seriously. I'd suggest some, but you guys are blowing me out of the water so far. Mine are too obvious, like this.

Zachary S (Zach S), Friday, 26 January 2007 04:58 (seventeen years ago) link

As far as little widgety games go, this one's really terrific -- basic concept, but you can actually improve / develop skills / etc.

http://addictinggames.com/extremeheliboarding.html

nabisco (nabisco), Friday, 26 January 2007 05:32 (seventeen years ago) link

Might be an oldie, but ULTIMATE BLAST BILLIARDS!!!

ledge (ledge), Friday, 26 January 2007 10:44 (seventeen years ago) link

As far as little widgety games go, this one's really terrific -- basic concept, but you can actually improve / develop skills / etc.

It would be nice to get past a log for once grrrr

Kv_nol (Kv_nol), Friday, 26 January 2007 11:16 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.1up.com/do/feature?pager.offset=0&cId=3156339

101 free games (with hardly any comments on any of them. there's moaning on a.n.other forum that the list is an amalgam of other lists which were better but...)

Koogy Bloogies (koogs), Friday, 26 January 2007 18:28 (seventeen years ago) link

three months pass...
http://www.acrobots.net/ !!!
This thing is so addicting. At first it's fun to just mess around with the physics and feel of it, then you can play the "try to keep your core triangle standing" mini-game, but when that gets dull you can always just throw 20 more creatures in and then mess with whatever that slider on the right does. It's great!

Z S, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 22:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Damn, also this String-Spinning thing. Someone should include it in a system performance test application as a measure of how much your computer can handle, because you can add as many lines and shapes as you want, and it overloads if you go bat-shit crazy as you make the lines. But rein it in your string-spinning ambitions a little, and you can get a nice little lampshade.

Z S, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 22:44 (seventeen years ago) link

what's a.n.other forum?

Anyway, I am going to pimp this game... Acrophobia. It's "free" on some other site, but you need to sign up. That guy found a way around it, though, so you can just stick a name in and it puts you in the game automatically :D

It was made in the 90s, and released by the same guys who were doing the You Don't Know Jack Netshow... basically it follows a similar game show vibe, and you have to play against real people. Think Balderdash, but with acronyms, and you vote for the funniest, not the "realest" or whatever. Every person who votes for you gives you a point, etc. Bonus points for being the fastest answer to receive a point, and bonus points for voting for the winning answer (to encourage people not to throw away votes).

There's a room called "The Couch" which is even better, because they have a house rule that instead of picking a topic from the list (boring shit like animals, science, etc) you make a specific topic up, like "Why are you so addicted to ILX?"

Fucking seriously, we NEED to get an ILX game of Acrophobia going on.

Will M., Thursday, 3 May 2007 14:23 (seventeen years ago) link

That link doesn't work anymore, it seems... LAME.

There's a more IRC-looking version of it too but that's slightly less fun... acrowars.com

Will M., Thursday, 3 May 2007 15:09 (seventeen years ago) link

three months pass...

gimme new ones

chaki, Wednesday, 29 August 2007 22:15 (seventeen years ago) link

About a month ago, I used the Stumble Upon "online games" channel so often that I actually got a message telling me that I had viewed every single recommended Stumble link on the topic, and to chill out for a while. I haven't played a free online game since. Thanks for fucking up my self-esteem, Stumble Upon.

Z S, Thursday, 30 August 2007 03:16 (seventeen years ago) link

www.minijuegos.com

Can't pimp it enough people.

kv_nol, Thursday, 30 August 2007 08:31 (seventeen years ago) link

BUT WHAT GAME ON MINIJUAGOS

chaki, Thursday, 30 August 2007 21:57 (seventeen years ago) link

^srsly

Z S, Thursday, 30 August 2007 23:27 (seventeen years ago) link

http://zetaflow.skylogic.ca/

El Tomboto, Monday, 10 September 2007 21:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Lazy bastards! (xxpost)

kv_nol, Tuesday, 11 September 2007 09:22 (seventeen years ago) link

Tombot, that is a fantastic game.

kv_nol, Tuesday, 11 September 2007 12:28 (seventeen years ago) link

puzzler: http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/games/bloxorz

caek, Thursday, 20 September 2007 23:44 (seventeen years ago) link

hte best free online game: http://www.foon.co.uk/farcade/ssb/

sleepingbag, Friday, 28 September 2007 04:26 (seventeen years ago) link

bloxorz roxorz! Something surprisingly counter-intuitive about it. (Or, I'm dense.)

ledge, Friday, 28 September 2007 13:01 (seventeen years ago) link

This might be a better place to get La Mulana

No pop ups.

Penguin USA Paper, Friday, 28 September 2007 21:17 (seventeen years ago) link

desktop tower defense!

pj, Sunday, 30 September 2007 04:57 (seventeen years ago) link

Damn, I forgot all about Cave Story! I can really, really recommend that one. That one was obviously a labor of love for whoever developed it. It also has replay value because depending on the way you proceed, you can get different weapons and endings. A+ would play again etc.

Knytt Stories looks intriguing, I may check that out later today.

Z S, Sunday, 30 September 2007 17:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Knytt Stories looks intriguing, I may check that out later today.

It took forever and never seemed to go anywhere. I stopped playing.

kv_nol, Monday, 1 October 2007 11:58 (seventeen years ago) link

The original Knytt is even more low-key than most of the Knytt Stories levels. I'd agree that they don't really 'go anywhere' -- the appeal is mostly in exploring the weird mysterious world and seeing the tiny little sprite animals hop around, which is compelling enough for me but I can see how it could seem boring.

Penguin USA Paper, Monday, 1 October 2007 19:48 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.yoyogames.com/games/launch/11956

Just going to give it a try.

http://jayisgames.com/images/kaipuu.gif

kv_nol, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 12:36 (seventeen years ago) link

Kaipuu has a memory leak. (and Seiklus is better)

abanana, Tuesday, 2 October 2007 21:48 (seventeen years ago) link

I couldn't get Kaipuu to work.

kv_nol, Wednesday, 3 October 2007 09:49 (seventeen years ago) link

God help me, I just discovered Peggle.
Crack.

forksclovetofu, Thursday, 4 October 2007 05:36 (seventeen years ago) link

I really like Peggle and I've considered thought about buying the full version, but I bet it isn't much better than the free one.

abanana, Thursday, 4 October 2007 05:56 (seventeen years ago) link

thought about

abanana, Thursday, 4 October 2007 05:56 (seventeen years ago) link

But more levels! MORE LEVELS

forksclovetofu, Thursday, 4 October 2007 19:55 (seventeen years ago) link

o hi dere, its a download, but how does online kart racing grab you http://kart.nexon.net/Download/Client.aspx

stevie, Friday, 5 October 2007 11:55 (seventeen years ago) link

I played KongKongSEA for a long time. It is a jump racing game with attack items and tiles on the ground that give you boost and direction changes.

CaptainLorax, Monday, 8 October 2007 04:39 (seventeen years ago) link

as for rpgs I found:
The Spirit Engine
Triglaw -only works in certain browsers
flash rpgs: Sinjid Shadow of the Warrior, Swords and Sandals 2 (need full version to save), Bleach Training 2

CaptainLorax, Monday, 8 October 2007 05:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Everyone should play the Knytt Stories level "Don't Eat the Mushroom"
http://www.box.net/shared/5ju8b2232v

abanana, Sunday, 14 October 2007 06:13 (seventeen years ago) link

http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/1171/pathpixss7.png
PathPix and more. The demos will take you several hours to complete each.
http://krispixton.com/PathPix/
http://www.kaser.com/

abanana, Saturday, 27 October 2007 21:08 (seventeen years ago) link

Question:

Is the music for this game the worst music of all time?

HINT: Wait until the programmer's 15 year old girlfriend starts singing before you make your final decision.

Z S, Friday, 2 November 2007 17:57 (seventeen years ago) link

this reminds me too much of my "back porch situation", i will have to bow out

Bruce Stingbean (Karl Malone), Friday, 20 May 2022 15:14 (two years ago) link

two months pass...

been doing the brain bashers daily tracks for a while now (the 10x10 take about 3 minutes each generally - https://brainbashers.com/tracks.asp )

but looking around he has others and these are a similar kind of fun, but longer:

https://brainbashers.com/3inarow.asp

(colour the boxes, avoid runs of 3 in a row, equal number of each colour in each row / column)

koogs, Saturday, 13 August 2022 11:32 (two years ago) link

Thanks koog, those are fun...
I suspect a bunch of them use the same underlying math just with a different visualization...

m0stly clean (Slowsquatch), Saturday, 13 August 2022 13:25 (two years ago) link

i have thought about the train tracks thing and the random walk for generating the tracks is easy enough but i can't get a handle on how you'd decide which squares to reveal to make it solvable and distinct.

the three in a row, again, trivial to write a solver that looks for two in a row and puts an opposite square on the end, or for two with a gap and full that gap, but when you've exhausted those, recursively, there's still a way to go.

koogs, Saturday, 13 August 2022 16:03 (two years ago) link

three months pass...

https://nandgame.com/

ciderpress, Sunday, 20 November 2022 01:03 (two years ago) link

Man that’s homework

G. D’Arcy Cheesewright (silby), Sunday, 20 November 2022 01:07 (two years ago) link

things i haven't really thought about since ~1989.

iirc a combination of NAND gates can do anything, NOT and therefore AND is trivial and de morgan's law says !(A AND B) = !A OR !B so OR is easy enough. i am thinking about XOR... (it's not a great experience on a phone...)

koogs, Sunday, 20 November 2022 15:06 (two years ago) link

Fun Threes / 2048 / slider game with corn and poop of farming -- feels less like homework because there are no numbers!
https://kryogenix.org/farmbound/

Philip Nunez, Sunday, 20 November 2022 16:05 (two years ago) link

six months pass...

https://grimacesbirthday.com

formerly abanana (dat), Thursday, 15 June 2023 03:13 (one year ago) link

one-button game
https://seudonimm.itch.io/hold-space-to-fly-straight

Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 28 June 2023 20:22 (one year ago) link

that is nifty but i agree with the comments that you should never actually try to fly straight

, Wednesday, 28 June 2023 22:12 (one year ago) link

https://kloonigames.com/wordsolitaire/

ledge, Monday, 3 July 2023 14:41 (one year ago) link

got within five letters of clearing it today.

ledge, Wednesday, 5 July 2023 15:12 (one year ago) link

I've played this a couple of times and managed to clear it both times, but it took me ages. It's a good game but it doesn't feel addictive like a wordle or semantle.

emil.y, Wednesday, 5 July 2023 15:31 (one year ago) link

yeah i definitely don't have the patience to backtrack and try again and again.

ledge, Wednesday, 5 July 2023 15:36 (one year ago) link

i wish there were an "appeal to the judges" feature
https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/j7mmcopj3k7.png

Philip Nunez, Wednesday, 5 July 2023 16:58 (one year ago) link

https://corru.observer

formerly abanana (dat), Sunday, 16 July 2023 19:45 (one year ago) link

holy fuck.

Nhex, Monday, 17 July 2023 02:39 (one year ago) link

four weeks pass...

Someone ported wipEout to the browser
https://phoboslab.org/wipegame/

Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 15 August 2023 17:28 (one year ago) link

wow! despite being a huuuuge fan of 2097 and wip3out i've never actually played the original, maybe now is the time. though i'd have to get a controller, is that even possible for browser games on macos? and maybe it's not the best use of my time...

crutch of england (ledge), Wednesday, 16 August 2023 09:08 (one year ago) link

one month passes...
three months pass...

pac-man having a minimalist renaissance!
https://abagames.github.io/crisp-game-lib-11-games/?pakupaku

Philip Nunez, Thursday, 4 January 2024 18:31 (eleven months ago) link

Ha I love it

Jordan s/t (Jordan), Thursday, 4 January 2024 18:35 (eleven months ago) link

paku paku is very fun. i think it would reach flappy bird levels of stupid/addicting viral simplicity by adding mute and pause buttons

z_tbd, Thursday, 4 January 2024 23:51 (eleven months ago) link

i know this is extremely beatable (even by me!) but after playing 10 times or so my hi score is about 3100. you get multipliers every time you pick up a power pellet so staying alive for an additional 30 seconds or so would probably quadruple that

z_tbd, Friday, 5 January 2024 00:01 (eleven months ago) link

4723

The Yellow Kid, Friday, 5 January 2024 06:12 (eleven months ago) link

Does anyone else like these stripped down versions better than the originals? I don't remember actual Pac-Man being as instantly fun.

Philip Nunez, Friday, 5 January 2024 21:21 (eleven months ago) link

6269

z_tbd, Wednesday, 17 January 2024 00:44 (eleven months ago) link

This is dumb but I keep coming back to it to try to make Doctor Who: https://neal.fun/infinite-craft/

Selune Gomez (Leee), Monday, 5 February 2024 21:54 (ten months ago) link

I played it a few days ago and got some firsts pretty quickly. seems like there aren't nearly as many now.

time + unicorn = time machine
time machine + captain = doctor
time machine + doctor = doctor who

formerly abanana (dat), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 08:27 (ten months ago) link

Looks to be heavily indebted to this: https://littlealchemy.com/ / https://littlealchemy2.com/

organ doner (ledge), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 08:44 (ten months ago) link

There's a few predecessors, Doodle God and it's versions are others

wang mang band (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 6 February 2024 10:49 (ten months ago) link

If you somehow get goku, you can perform "his power level is increasing!" by continually plopping goku on top of goku
goku + time machine = trunks naturally.

Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 6 February 2024 20:18 (ten months ago) link

free game 20 Small Mazes
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2570630/20_Small_Mazes/

adam t. (abanana), Saturday, 17 February 2024 12:06 (ten months ago) link

Infinite Craft is hilarious

Nhex, Friday, 1 March 2024 16:13 (nine months ago) link

two weeks pass...

Eldritchvania, a free PC game that dropped last month: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2423710/Eldritchvania/

maybe the most La-Mulana-inspired game ever? i'll take whatever scraps i can get.

adam t. (abanana), Thursday, 21 March 2024 02:02 (nine months ago) link

https://downpour.games/~terry/a-proper-cup-of-tea

gene besserit (ledge), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 08:29 (eight months ago) link

I love that every combination is the perfect cup of tea. Amazing.

emil.y, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 14:49 (eight months ago) link

spoilers??

Bitchin Doutai (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 15:39 (eight months ago) link

You know what, yes, that was totally spoilery. Hidden now.

emil.y, Wednesday, 3 April 2024 15:55 (eight months ago) link

aw cheers tbf i was half and half whether i'm gonna play it at all but i read your post before i'd got home and thought "ok that's the punchline" lol

Bitchin Doutai (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 16:02 (eight months ago) link

playing it now, still worth it, 5.0/5.0

Bitchin Doutai (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 3 April 2024 16:04 (eight months ago) link

another good one from the samr site
https://downpour.games/~holly/where-s-madeleine

formerly abanana (dat), Thursday, 4 April 2024 08:28 (eight months ago) link

(the downpour thing is from the same person that did Cheap Bots Done Quick, the twitter bot meta thing that let people like me write twitter bots. that's their thing - tools to enable other people to create things. so Downpour is the platform and each individual game is just uploaded by pretty much anybody - you can make such games on your phone)

koogs, Thursday, 4 April 2024 10:50 (eight months ago) link

Oh god I assumed based on the url that it was going to be some awful Madeleine McCann thing. Thankfully it's not.

JimD, Friday, 5 April 2024 14:52 (eight months ago) link

two months pass...
two months pass...

https://kultisti.itch.io/juurru

master of the pan (abanana), Wednesday, 14 August 2024 16:52 (four months ago) link

two months pass...

I remembered a point & click game demo set in ancient Greece that I played in the 90s and looked up what it was.

The creator made it free on the web and it is a trip
https://www.wrathgame.com

master of the pan (abanana), Friday, 1 November 2024 17:32 (one month ago) link

lol this rules. Incredible acting.

Jordan s/t (Jordan), Friday, 1 November 2024 17:54 (one month ago) link


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