Yes, it's really free! (Legal, too.)

The Free Game. Yes, the elusive critter does actually exist. And sometimes is quite good. Other times, perhaps, it's old.

Again, I'm not talking about "warez." Sure, they're available, and people will come up with some shoddy excuses as to why they steal games and other programs, but regardless - it's stealing, and costing the rest of us money.

But sometimes... sometimes... someone releases a game "into the wild." Free, and free. Why do they do this? Sometimes it's for advertising. Sometimes it's just to show off what they can do. Sometimes it's just a hobbyist letting their code free. There are may possible reasons.

There are a few ways a game becomes "free," though.

The Truly Free Game

I know, "Get to it, already!" Some games (such as Zork 1, 2, and 3) are old, old classics. There's no way they could be sold these days outside of "nostaliga" packs - and even then, the CDs would be wasted space mostly. (Some of these games come in under half a *meg* in size!) There may not be any graphics, or nothing to really write home about - except that you played them for hours on end.

Some are emulated game packs - I don't mean like MAME or Stella, which you (legally) are supposed to own the actual game ROM (or cartridge, depending on what you're emulating) to download the info and play it. I mean actual, free emulators, released to the public - the ones I'm thinking of right offhand as I write this are releases of old Intellivision games, one of the 8-bit consoles (if even that advanced) that competed with Atari. Some of the games have been legally released - again, in a "nostaliga" pack of 2-3 games per emulator. They're fun, and can show that a lot of fun and challenge can be had even without 3-d texturemapped dynamic lit graphics.

But, once in a while, something unexpected happens - America's Army, for example. A full, first person game, modern, and released by the US Army. I hesitate to call it a "First person shooter," because if you just go in and blast everything, you lose. It's there to recruit for the US Army, give a taste of "a soldier's training," and - well, is just fun. It's also a huge download - several hundred meg. (It's also available on CD from your local recruiter.) Others, sometimes equally impressive, are released as shareware (not really "free," but many authors don't cripple unpaid versions,) freeware, or something like "postcardware" (Clickomania, a highly addictive, fun little game, used to be like this - send in a postcard if you like the game. It's freeware now.)

Then there's sort of a free game, but... well, let's look at mods.

Mods - Free, but not -->