Gone Ashore: Freeware

Showing posts with label Freeware. Show all posts

DynDNS has been a staple of DNS routing for years now. Routers have had support included in their firmware for so long you'd be hard pressed to find one without it. Gamers and small business owners have been using it for years to host servers for things like Teamspeak, Ventrillo, FTP or VNC access across the web. The free service was fine for 99.9% of the internet because you didn't need any of the services that the paid model offered. Dyn finally smartened up, first building in annoyances such as having to log in to your account once a month through the website to finally just killing off free service altogether. The alternatives such as NO-IP are following suit, adding annoyances and just making transparent service impossible. Whats Joe Average to do?

DuckDNS is a goofy named DNS server that is hosted on Amazon VPC and offers exactly what users want; simple integration. While setting it up via routers can be a bit problematic, gamers such as myself just want a simple solution. Their website, which can be logged in to with Twitter, Facebook or Google+, has some software solutions to update your IP. For Windows there is the standard background utility that constantly updates or a Powershell script and a VBS script that you can set up as a recurring task. None of these solutions are to my liking, unless you are on DSL or dialup (egads!) your IP will almost never change without you forcing it to do so. Also, allowing Powershell or VBS scripting through your firewall is a serious security risk.

I decided to create my own using AutoIt3, a simple shell scripting language that I use for many things. The program does exactly what I need it to do; tries to update your IP until it is successful or you click cancel, then terminates. Simple, easy and transparent like it should be.

The program is available here and the source code is included so you can modify it to your liking. It works by either hard coding your domain and token into the program or by adding them to the commandline. You could also add it as a recurring Windows task if you wish but a simple run at startup works for me. The program itself does not require internet access, it uses Internet Explorer to update so IE will require net access for this to work.

This. Is. Awesome.

Seriously, I almost wet myself when I watched the video. How I have missed the creation of this fantastic piece of amazing is a mystery to me. Imagine, if you will, a fighting game with some of the most iconic horror baddies in history? Now imagine that it's free, final and can be downloaded today. Can I get a F**K Ya?

Now you may want to not watch this video as it shows almost all of the characters, half the fun is seeing them materialize in the game. You have been warned.

Story? Who needs a story when I can pit the Tall Man against Pinhead? Not me, that's for damn sure!

A classic from the past, built by the Warcraft smithy's known as Blizzard, Blackthorne creeps back up from the abyss to your awaiting hard drive. Back in the DOS days, platformers were pretty abundant with titles like Commander Keen and Jazz Jackrabbit heading the pack with their cartoony and mostly violence-free gaming that were a staple of the consoles. PC owners on the other hand were still slavering after a small shareware title called Doom that was most likely still on their Multi-Megabyte MFM hard drives after a year of being released.

A large distinction that separated the PC from the consoles was a bigbrother-free market. This allowed what would be called an AO rated game such as the Shareware version of Doom to be freely downloaded from any BBS and enjoyed without anyone's approval. Doom employed blood, gore, violence and satanic symbols with wild abandon and the PC market was in love with the sheer brutality of it all. Cute characters on the consoles only inflamed the scorn PC users felt towards being treated like a child watching Saturday morning cartoons and helped sowed the seeds of the PC vs Console debate that has raged ever since.

Blizzard surely noticed the attention that Doom had attained and while smart platformers such as Prince of Persia existed on PC, it lacked a certain bloodlust that had grabbed the PC market. Enter a marriage of the two: Blackthorne.

Now Blackthorne is not the wanton carnagefest that Doom happily propagates, but having a shotgun that visually inflicted bloody damage was new to platformers. Killing things such as your own people, who are chained to a wall, backhanded blind fire ala Evil-Dead style was taboo and a guilty pleasure for the time.

Very old schooly, Game of Thrones 8-Bit is a throwback to the NES world. The game doesn't go through the entire story so far but instead plays through key moments of four of the characters from the books.

You can expect some hard gameplay here, as in you'll die trying to make the first jump, but if you are a fan of these types of games you will come expecting.

The website is in spanish, so those non-Latino can use this link instead.

Unnng! Yes that's what I thought as well. At the time, Donkey Kong on the 2600 was sure as hell better than spending quarter after quarter in the arcade but let's be honest - it sucked! Not casually, but on an almost Pac-Man level of suckage here. Two Levels of awful leaving you to hope maybe, just maybe, there'll be another level if I grind enough - Nope!

Now after 30 years is the game that could have been. Well not really as the cartridge would have been 32k and likely cost more than the console, but this is an impressive feat to say the least.

The Original 2600 Game

The Updated Version
Pretty impressive wizardry going on there, I think I would have wet myself if that's the game that came home with me back in the 80's. You can download the rom and play it to your hearts content using the fantastic Stella emulator.

Continuum is a free adventure puzzle game done in the third person. Fans of a older and almost unknown gem called Cursed Mountain may recognize some similarities, but that's ok by me. The game consists of solving environment puzzles to continue on your quest to find a lost expedition member. Some supernatural elements exist in the form of deja-vu moments where you see what previously happened. This is not a new design element, but it adds some needed depth to the game.

A word of warning, the game can be glitchy and hitchy and you will find yourself stuck if you try to break the game. There is also no way to save your progress, so be careful where you step. I will share one helpful hint here, many puzzles require you to press the mouse button repeatedly, not just once. I was stuck in the first chamber watching what appeared to be an onscreen indicator to press and move my mouse to get a lever to work. Nope, just mash until it clicks. That said, you should have no problem continuing afterwards.

I would have really liked to see this game polished and expanded, it has some excellent design elements and graphics that could make a fantastic game. Maybe some press and attention is all it needs.

Another site has popped up that bundles free games to showcase new talent. The Freebie Bundle is now up to bundle 5 and has brought to light some very interesting games I'd never heard of before. Out of the current crop of four games, three are from my favourite game school DigiPen. These guys produce some fantastic content that is generally fresh and exciting to the discerning pallet but their site is painful to parse looking for new projects to check out. This site will help alleviate that for many as their choices in selection is excellent.

My only gripe is that they ask for donations to help pay for the site, I understand that bandwidth costs money but they use MediaFire for downloads which costs them zero bucks. The only funding required here is for the sparse webpage content that could be easily hosted on a free site. At the very least they could split the donations with a game-related charity, but I'm willing to give them a pass in favour of the limelight they are putting on some talented developers.

Here is a video from my favourite game in the current bundle.

The site also accepts submissions for game bundles but so far they are perfectly proficient in their choices and I anxiously await their future submissions.

Bruce Lee, BRUCE LEE! Say it with reverence, whether it's the man or the kick-ass game for the Commodore 64. Bruce is the bad ass that even beat Chuck Norris! The original game for the C64 had everything: action, platforming, adventure, ninja's, green sumo wrestlers, even exploding bushes. Every level was different, bizarre and above all - punishing! No continues, no idea how far the rabbit hole went down, just you, your joystick and endless hours plugging away. Don't waste time hunting it down, a pixel-by-pixel remake has already been released.

Now, after a painfully long wait, we get a sequel that is truly worthy of the original. Bruce Lee II is free and available for download in a true testament to the originals spirit and design. In other words, expect to die a lot! Featuring CPC or C64 color and sounds for your nostalgic pleasure, Bruce Lee II serves up some whoop ass with a key ingredient that was missing from the original; I'm talking about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of course. The team behind this game understood the original very well and their attention to detail (pitch-perfect loading screen anyone?) makes it a trip worth taking.

No, this is not some new Dubstep album I have lost my hearing to. It is instead a game from a small developer that I had purchased back in 2008. The game itself was very reminiscent of another small game I love you may have heard of called System Shock. It has an old school charm with some of the classic tropes you had come to expect from that time period. I wanted it, but to get it I would have purchase it through the website. This was something I just didn't do. Not because I didn't want to spend the money, but because it seemed like a one-shot purchase that would disappear if I lost the download.

I succumbed to it's charms and Tecno - the Base became my first online purchase, ever. Many followed afterword, but Tecno took my virginity and I have never regretted the relationship it started. It has a special place in my heart and after some reminiscing, I decided to take a peek at the website to see how my old flame was doing. I had thought about the services that exist now in a more prominent state such as Desura, GamersGate and, of course, Steam Greenlight. How would Tecno fare on those services? Would it's creator get enough interest to see a second game? If nothing else, an email of encouragement may brighten a few days.

The website is still live and kicking, nothing new to report except one small thing: Tecno is now Donationware. You can, for free, download the game and play it in it's entirety. All that's asked is a Paypal donation if you liked it. As much as I would have rather seen a Greenlight campaign, I'm not sure the niche nostalgia target market would be enough to get a go ahead. This way at least, people get to experience the game and hopefully contribute a few bucks for their enjoyment.

(Sorry for the grainy trailer, it's the best, non-spoilery one I could find.)

You'll want to check out the support page and use it's guide for altering the INI configuration. This allows you to use any screen resolution, turn on mipmapping and enable 32 bit color so the banding is reduced.

Many were nonplussed about Gearbox's final take on the industry's longest running joke known silently, but appropriately as Duke Nukem Whenever. I for one enjoyed it for what it was and can appreciate their attempt to preserve as much of the 12+ years of random development contained in the game. That doesn't mean that those with a dislike for what was can't make their own version of what should have been and give us what they believe is the game we were meant to play.

Modders Gambini & Mikko Sandt have released their take on Duke Nukem Forever in the form of a mod for the original Duke Nukem 3D. This will then require that you own the original to play the game, but anyone interested in a mod like this will definitely own the original, likely multiple times. What makes it special is that it attempts to incorporate scenes from the official videos released over Dukes extended development time. These touches are nice but likely completely missed by those not familiar with the original work. What is important is that the mod is (mostly) well designed and ultimately fun to play.

Expect lots of wanton carnage and unforgiving gameplay, but as a Duke fan, you want that.

The Indie Bundle? Bah! The Free Bundle! Now you're talking! The Free Bundle website is dedicated to bringing you some of the best free indie titles that you may not be aware of. No flash games here (well, no browser-dependant games anyway), only downloadable and enjoyable-at-you-leisure freebies! Some of the titles have been mentioned on this blog before, but author's keep working on thier projects and stuff just keeps getting better. For instance, the fantastic Abobo's Big Adventure is now browser independant, I can stop trying to explain how to download and launch SWF files now... Yes!

The folks who run the website do not accept donations, if you want to contribute, then do so directly to the authors - how great is that? They plan on releasing more bundles, that is to say more links to free games, in the future and welcome your suggestions on what should be added next bundle.

Spread the word, free and fantastic games are a click away.

Capcom has released a worthy Mega Man game, for free. Capcom, Free, WTF? Yea, that's what I said too but it seems it's actually a fan game created by Seow Zong Hui and published by Capcom for Mega Man's 25th Anniversary. Well, screw 'em, free's free and I'll take it. New powers await you and, spoiler alert, you fight characters from Street Fighter. The site is being bombarded by the fans and the cheap so you may want to try the direct links instead.

Been a while, but here are some goodies I've been using recently:

Flutter is an app that allows you to use hand gestures to playback movies and music. Needs to be expanded but it can be handy.
Coolbarz allows you to have up to four hotbars, one at each side of your monitor. Can be set to desktop only so it won't interfere with gaming.
WinMetro is your chance to see what the Windows 8 experience will be like without installing the operating system. Not a complete makeover, but enough to get the idea across.
Immersive Explorer is a Metro-inspired file explorer to go along with your WinMetro experience.
Free Editor will allow you to edit a dizzying array of file formats such as Word, Excel, epub, graphics, coding and even direct EXE modification and hex editing without having to install anything else.
PotPlayer is the new KMPlayer hotness now that the original is nothing more than a crapware installer.
Volume 2 is a visual volume control with intuitive mouse interactions and hotkeys. Includes the ability to also control a second sound source such as a mic or USB Headset.
Sound eXchange (SOX) is a command-line sound file converter and processor. Perfect for batch-file conversion of music-file types.
TYPO3 is a free all-in-one suite for hosting your own web server. Multiple packages including an enterprise-level option. Open source.
Booktype is a web-based, online, collaborative book-writing platform you can host yourself - No third-party accounts necessary.

Having gone through a nostalgic trip down 2600 lane, I came across some interesting stuff regarding one of my favourite Atari titles: Adventure. It seems that not only has Adventure had a (pulled) reboot but has had two (unofficial) sequels. I'm not talking a flash game look-alike or a newly encoded engine to appear like a 2600, but an honest-to-goodness Atari cartridge rom that will play on a vintage 2600, complete with box, manual and an overworld map for you to use.

(+2 internets for those of you who can tell me where the box cover art was ~~stolen~~ liberated from.)

The Swordquest Series was touted as the official sequel to Adventure, but anyone who has played both games knows that was just cash-in marketing BS. Swordquest is nothing like Adventure in any way, shape or form and while it had it's charms, we wanted the real deal.

Here is a shot from the original Adventure to refresh your memory:

Evil Magician Returns on the other hand is an Adventure sequel that would be made today. That is to say it's more of the same, even lifting existing assets and making modifications to call it new. This isn't a knock on the game, if anything it's a compliment as this is what big businesses do, and get rich. It's familiar while being new, adds new things and makes you remember what you liked about the first game. This title can actually be burned to an eprom and played on a 2600 if you wish, but the easier method is the fantastic Stella emulator. The graphics are actually updated to look better (it's a 2600 remember) and the fun factor stays intact.

Evil Magician Returns II on the other, other hand is more of an evolution of EMR. With even more advanced graphics (really) EMR2 really just builds on what EMR did. It plays the same but looks better and has more, um, just more. You could skip EMR completely and go to this version, but you'd be missing the steps that made this one better. The forum post has the skinny on everything that has changed, so check it out for more info.

See? Better! Both roms were available as cartridges through the author, but made in limited quantities. Another production run is promised if enough interest is generated but I for one haven't had an Atari in longer than the author has been alive I'd wager.

Another UDK indie project, this time from Sweden's Södertörn University. A Story About My Uncle is a first person platformer (Wait!! Don't run away just yet!) that centers around dear old uncle Fred, his amazing inventions and his fantastic journeys as told through a bedtime story by a narrating father to his daughter. Consisting of eleven programmers and artists, it has been nominated in the Swedish Game Awards which would dole out 10,000 kr for a first prize win.

The crux of the gameplay is a glove which allows not only super jumping, but grappling hook lasers to propel yourself around the floating rocks of a cave. There is a story present, complete with characters and non-interactive dialogue, told in a setting that is reminiscent of a Longest Journey or Myst otherworld. The graphics are decently realized and the level design is well thought out, with some more polish it could be quite breathtaking.

The game is treading familiar ground in gameplay for the indie market, but it does control well. When you fail it's because you messed up, not because of clipping or shoddy map design. The storybook aesthetic is pleasing enough and it would be interesting to see this expanded into a multi-world, Myst-like full-featured game. So here's to hoping they get the chance.

Even wanted to know how Portal might be if it were written by Lewis Carroll or maybe Team Silent? Forget Me Not Annie may just be that LSD-induced answer. Though not currently complete, this game shows promise with it's nursery-rhyme-come-nightmare story if not it's object manipulative gameplay. You play Annie who, one assumes, is in a mental institution along with her childhood friend, a teddy bear named Howard. You can see where the story is going pretty quickly with some disturbingly interesting dialogue from Howard but getting there looks to be an interesting ride.

The game uses the Unreal engine, but currently the graphics are a little sparsely modelled considering the limited room space required and the small amount of objects within each area. A few jump scares are included which completely failed to engage even a blink, but it's the story I'm interested in here. The game stops at a certain area to explain that what follows is very beta and may not work correctly, it doesn't but don't let that deter you from going on. I look forward to seeing this game completed.

Yes, standalone, as in no Crysis required, just download and play. Wreckage is a seriously fantastic piece of modware that Crytek gave their ok to distribute without requiring the original game. When the hell does that ever happen? All the PC masses give me a Booyah!

There is one caveat though, it's in German. There are subtitles and it is an action game but this may deter some from an otherwise fantastic experience. The download is around 2GB and comes from MODDB so it's legit and will be updated as required. You can also use Desura if that is your thing, but there is no indication on the webpage that it is the standalone version and is labelled as a Mod.

COD fanboys and action junkies alike need to check this game out, it comes across as a truly professional piece of work and is a blast to play.

Of Light and Shadow is a fantastic little free puzzle platformer where you control two protagonists, each of a different element. Mr. Light and Dr. Shadow, each with their own abilities and require that your movements constrain within their respective names. Light for light, Shadow for shadows and the opposing element will hurt and eventually kill.

Mr. Light has the ability to jump and run while Dr. Shadow can walk on all non-destructive surfaces, move objects and drop from the current surface. The artwork and animation is fantastic with only a few minor glitches in the controls where Dr. Shadow was concerned. I would occasionally not be able to walk off a surface onto it's side but this can be patched easily enough.

While you are there check out their other free game The Balloon Quest, another platformer with a twist containing some truly amazing Disney-esc music and full voice acting.

This mod came to my attention through Desura and I had never heard of it before. Watching the trailers and looking at the screenshots made it look too good to be true: A battlefield-like mod that will work on even the demo of Crysis Wars, patched up to 1.5 with multiple, epic-sized maps, different map modes, vehicles and multiple character roles. Where's the catch?

Well, it's getting no play would be the biggest problem. Jumping on the game will net you maybe five servers and no one playing on them. When I have been lucky enough to find a populated server, it's been with people from Europe on early mornings and weekends. This mod needs more attention!

The maps are well thought out, different in style and design - futuristic to jungle to classic WWII to apocalyptic maps that you might see in a Stalker game. There is little of the race track mentality that CoD maps suffer from where there's no place to get your back to the wall for some serious stand-offs. Some of the most epic firefights I have been in all year come from this mod: Racing to the top of a huge building to provide sniper support for a flag capture across the street within a burned-out office with one other sniper, a medic and support crew had me grinning like a mad man. Then on the same map, I was routing out an enemy sniper who had dug himself in and was picking off the team before they could reach the front. The large map allowed me to circle around behind him and crawl (prone for the win) along the bushes beside a large building and finally spot his position - Satisfaction +100 Achievement Unlocked!

The fact that the Mod works with the trial is a little questionable but as Crysis Wars isn't really topping the charts in multiplayer or head space, it's not really hurting much as the servers are self-serve anyway. The whole system-killing Cryo engine requirement may be an issue, but the servers seem to force DX9 anyway and anything but onboard graphics should get a reasonable framerate while looking decent. I'm left with simply thinking that no one knows about it, hell I didn't until the Desura mod-crawl unearthed it for me.

There is nothing stopping you giving it a spin and if you have the rig to support the engine, it shines like BF3 in many respects. Just come early, and bring friends.

I've come across two very excellent writing tools that put many payware titles to shame while competing quite nicely with the most expensive of the lot. To be clear these tools are mainly for creative writing, not creating your resume or writing emails. Both are flexible and cater to a niche of the creative individuals out there of which I am one.

FocusWriter by Graeme Gott

First off we have FocusWriter which is directed at the writer wanting a distraction-free environment. While there are other similar freeware titles out there such as Q10 and WriteMonkey, they don't offer the flexibility of FocusWriter. The ability to create and change themes which consists of a background wallpaper, size of writing area and the font you wish to use can really make a positive impact on the atmosphere and focus of your writing environment. The only addition I could possibly suggest would be a music player with playlist/loop/repeat function. This can, of course, be solved with other software but having it as part of a theme would be nice. Also available within the program is in-line spell checking, no F7 to scan through the document but actual Office-style spell checking. The positives of quick glances versus the tedium of a unnecessarily manual process need not be stated. The interface is what you would expect but autohides until you mouse-over, leaving you with a clean, full canvas in which to fill. Source code for FocusWriter is also available, so if you have a great idea or Graeme happens to fall of the planet, the program can continue. Format handling is limited to TXT, RTF and Open Office's ODT format with support for multiple open documents but that's as flexible as I need anyway. The basics such as bold, italic, etc and justification are all available but no advanced features such as image insertion, fonts or font size - the font you choose for the theme is all you can have. Though I can understand the typewriter-esce aesthetic, I'm ok with the modern computer and wish to take full advantage of it's features. This issue aside, I could completely uninstall Open Office now without a care if not for the necessity of reading or editing other document formats. Creatively though, FocusWriter will be my mainstay for the foreseeable future.

Trelby by Osku Salerma and Anil Gulecha

Next up we have Trelby which is directed at a specific subset of wordsmiths out there called screenwriters. Final Draft is most probably the know-all and be-all of screenwriting software available but $250 is a little steep for many. Freeware solutions are few and far between, mostly requiring you to be online in some way or joining a cult for access, Trelby has no such requirements. The features are a little lacklustre when it comes to Final Draft, the formatting is spot on and almost automatic but utilities such as character, dialogue and scene breakdown are limited to reports. Having a handy scene breakdown with jump points and especially a character list is crucial and needs to be added. A fine piece of accompanying software you can use for this is yWriter by Spacejock Software. Built for novel writing, yWriter supports the character and scene breakdown with places for some additional information if you require. Two other handy features Trelby includes are a regional name database containing the common names of people for the area you specify and script version comparing. The comparing feature is a great idea but requires you save multiple versions separately, a much better idea would be to save them internally within the same file and add a snapshot feature. Trelby supports importing of Final Draft or Celtx file formats with exporting to HTML, RTF, Final Draft as well as PDF files with optional watermarking. For those interested in getting to know screenplay writing more intimately, the resource page on Trelby's website has some linkage for you. Trelby is also open source but unfortunately requires you to contact the authors directly for access.

Gone Ashore

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