The Freebie Files – Classic PC Freeware

I wrote this article about two years ago, but never published it – please excuse poor sentence structure, terrible jokes and generally horrible writing. I’m digging it up now because BritishGaming.co.uk is lacking content and we’re all a little busy with real life stuff. Apologies for that – we’ll kick off things next month with Eurogamer Expo, a preview of Epic Mickey and an interview with Warren Spector.

Imagine a world where games were free.

Well, if you include the humongous archive of classic PC titles, that’s not such a rare event. Old PC games commonly grab devout fan bases, but it’s tough to share in their cult-like status when you have to trudge through eBay and boot up DOS-Box to get anything running. When a game sinks into nostalgic obscurity, perhaps the most effective way of expanding the community is to release it for free.

Between appeasing old and new fans alike, or just getting some buzz before the developer’s next big release drops, this article concentrates on just a few of the once commercially released computer games that eventually dropped into the realm of freeware for everyone to enjoy.

Enter… the Freebie Files.

The Elder Scrolls: Arena
Download

That number IV squashed between “The Elder Scrolls” and “Oblivion” on your Xbox 360 case isn’t a joke or an unfortunate typo; Bethesda was making old timey magic and dungeon games back when Dragons and Orcs actually roamed the earth.

The very first in the series is Elder Scrolls: Arena, a first person RPG set in familiar continent of Tamriel. Thanks in part to its randomly generated dungeons and simple world structure, Arena is one of the biggest Elder Scrolls games; second only to Daggerfall. The story itself, featuring an emperor trapped in another dimension (which, yes, turns out to be Oblivion) can be found in “The Real Barenziah”; books scattered throughout all three later games in the franchise

As part of the 10th anniversary of The Elder Scrolls, Bethesda saw fit to release the game for free in 2004. (Editor’s Note – Daggerfall was also released for free download in 2009).

Lure of the Temptress
Download

When thinking back to the age of Point and Click Adventures, the tyrannical rulers of the genre get all the limelight nowadays – Monkey Island, Leisure Suit Larry and Space Quest, to name a few. But back in the nineties, when the genre was prevalent and totally unaware of its impending death, point and clicks were released more feverishly than Guitar Hero games (Editor’s Note – this was a pretty prophetic gag for 2007, eh?)

British company Revolution saw first success in Lure of the Temptress where you play as a peasant trying to rid your remote village of Turnvale from the evil “Enchantress”. In August 2003, Revolution released the game for free, playable through point and click emulator, SCUMM VM.

Beneath a Steel Sky
Download

Their second release was Beneath a Steel Sky. Set in a dystopian Australia, you (Robert Foster) and your robot friend Joey are forcibly taken from the outback land you grew up in and crash land in the cyberpunk world of Australia’s conflicting city states. Beneath a Steel Sky garnered extremely high review scores for its engrossing and captivating storyline. In August 2003, Revolution released the game as freeware and playable in SCUMM VM.

Revolution went on to produce their most popular franchise yet, Broken Sword; a globetrotting duo, trying to uncover the mystery of a secret cult.

(Editor’s Note – a remastered Beneath a Steel Sky is also available for iPhone and iPod Touch, but the PC version is still free).

Hidden & Dangerous
Download

Coming directly off the coat-tails of Ubisoft’s immensely popular Rainbow Six in 1998, Illusion Softworks’ Hidden & Dangerous is a tactical shooter set in World War II and featuring a four man British SAS team. As a promotion for the game’s sequel the publishers and developers of Hidden & Dangerous put the game out for free, fully updated with patches, named Hidden & Dangerous Deluxe.

Flight of the Amazon Queen
Download

My personal favourite game on this list is the obscure and rarely remembered Point and Click, Flight of the Amazon Queen. The clever puzzles, the interesting locations and a hefty dose of nostalgia drops Interactive Binary Illusions’ second (and last) video game as one of my favourite titles of my childhood.

Amazon Queen tells the story of Joe King (pilot for hire), his buddy Sparky and famous movie star Faye Russell whose planes crashes in the middle of the Amazon Rain Forrest. Joe then finds himself in the centre of an evil scheme to turn Amazon Women into Dinosaur Warriors… the game doesn’t exactly take itself seriously, but as a light-hearted, Indiana Jones inspired point and click, it’s superbly memorable.

Now free and totally compatible with SCUMM VM, it’s never been a better time to fly the Amazon Queen. (Editor’s Note – God I hate that line).

Grand Theft Auto
Download

Back when Rockstar games was titled DMA and was more interested in guiding Lemmings through puzzles than getting their games banned across the globe, they set the cogs in motion for their eventual typecasting by releasing Grand Theft Auto.

The open world experience of GTA was loved and acclaimed by fans and critics, but wasn’t as intensely emulated until GTA 3 hit Playstation 2. Never the less, DMA’s GTA is an awesome history lesson and a comparing it to the Grand Theft Auto 3 trilogy is a great example of faultless conversion from 2D to 3D.

You have to submit your details to Rockstar and grab the download link in your email, but it’s worth the hassle. You can also nab Grand Theft Auto 2 and Wild Metal Country while you’re at it.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Text Only – Java
Image Based – Flash

When people say “remember when games were funny?” they are probably talking about this game. “The Guide” has an impeccable grasp on comedy and never delivers a dud gag. It’s self referential and a parody of the genre, not years after the fact, but when Text Adventures were in full swing.

Inspecting your inventory lets you know you have “a splitting headache” alongside your collection of screwdrivers, toothbrushes and dressing-gown pocket fluff. The game hops between addressing you as Arthur Dent and a computer game player on a whim, perhaps to ask you to shut up because you’re dead and you need to concentrate on rigor mortis.

The adventure is full to the brim with text as the designers at Infocom (and Hitchhiker’s author Douglas Adams of course) anticipate your every move with witty dialogue and reactions (Pick up the Bulldozer – are you serious?) (Editor’s Note – Looking back, that isn’t exactly a “witty reaction.” Trust me though, that game is very funny).

The game can be played in its original text-based form at Douglas Adams.com but The BBC remade the adventure in flash with a graphical interface (designed by Hitchhiker’s TV series artist Rob Lord) for the 20th Anniversary.