Over 30 games in one
Dozing Cat Software has the plainest of vanilla websites, but possibly one of the most generous freeware games ever. Gridlock is a collection of over 30 grid-based games, including Ataxx, Reversi, Checkers, Gomoku, Connect Four and Breakthrough. You can play against another human or one of four computer-intelligence levels. I got my butt kicked by the computer in Reversi even on the Easy level, but you may have better luck.
Thanks to a thriftmac reader for sending in this great tip. If you know of some freeware and want to share it with the world, drop us a line.
Posted Thursday, January 1, 2009 in Suggestions
Japanese gaming madness
From the suggestion box comes a hot tip for freeware games at a Japanese website. There’s 13 of them available, but if you can’t read Japanese, the information is skimpy. We tried one called Titanion. It’s like Space Invaders, but with wild music and the invaders coming at you in crazy patterns. The graphics are hard to describe — flat and two dimensional but with some nice shading.
Apparently the same developer has done a couple of other games for Windows: NOIZ2SA and rRootage.
And, yes, we do like tips from readers.
Update: The Mac version for NOIZ2SA can be found at MacUpdate. The link to the developer doesn’t work, but you can download directly from the site.
The Mac version of rRootage is at Pure Mac. Scroll down the page to find it. By the way, if you do a search on “freeware,” you’ll find several free games on the page.
(By the way, Pure Mac was established on March 9, 1996. If there were an independent Mac website hall of fame, Pure Mac would surely be a member. I would also nominate MacSurfer.)
And finally a game play tip for NOIZ2SA and rRootage: use the arrows keys, Z and X only.
Posted Sunday, December 21, 2008 in Suggestions
Three free games
Stephen Lavelle dropped us a line to let everyone know about three free games he has written that have Mac versions: Endless Cavern, Portile, and Lady Boy Love Collection.
We love suggestions, so keep ’em coming.
Posted Wednesday, November 19, 2008 in Suggestions
Do online apps count as freeware?
An increasing number of free programs are being offered in tandem with online services. A couple that came in as suggestions are Dropbox and Evernote. While it’s true you get a free app in the bargain, you also have to sign up for an account in order to take advantage of their file-sharing capabilities. (Although Evernote can be used independently on the desktop.) And the accounts themselves are free.
Bearing this in mind, we’re thinking of creating a Online category for the thriftmac collection, or possibly just mixing the online apps in with the others based on their functionality. One thing I’m leery about is their business model. Can they possibly make money by providing free services? Or are they hoping to get people hooked, and then offer a “pro” version that you have to pay for. This is the route that Google took with its online apps, and it appears people are happy with it.
Let us know what you think in the comments.
Posted Wednesday, November 12, 2008 in Suggestions
Video downloads and Blobby
We really appreciate your freeware suggestions so keep them coming. The latest from the suggestion box includes a video downloader and a game called Blobby.
iSkySoft downloads FLV videos from YouTube and other video-sharing sites, and plays them on your Mac. This could come in handy if you wanted to watch a video at a later time on a Mac that doesn’t have an Internet connection. I was put off, though, by the app’s insistence that I provide it with my administrative-level password. The security bells and whistles went off in my head, and I never did try it out.
Blobby is the type of game we normally don’t cover at thriftmac, because it’s played online only. That said, there is a Mac version of the software needed to play, which is always nice. And it looks like it could be a lot of fun, with opponents playing volleyball matches on the Blobby league servers. There is a chat function and a forum, so players have a chance to take part in the Blobby community.
Posted Tuesday, November 4, 2008 in Suggestions
Convert those audio files
From the suggestion box comes praise for a freeware audio conversion program called Switch:
It’s a great piece of software because if it doesn’t have the codec you need to convert the file, it will download it on the fly. I love it.
In a brief tryout, we found it simple to use. Add the files you want to convert, decide which format you want, and click on the Convert button. You can choose one of 16 output formats, ranging from .aiff through .mp3 to .wpl — each of which has its own encoder options. You can set preferences for conversion and overwriting. And, of course, you can play the files to hear what the sound like.
Posted Monday, October 20, 2008 in Suggestions
Props for Blender
From the suggestion box comes a vote for Blender, a free open source 3D content creation suite.
Blender 3D! It is an OpenSource 3D animation and modeling program available for nearly every platform with an smart interface. (It takes some getting used to, but there are many support communities.)
We already had Blender in the thriftmac collection, but it didn’t have its own entry — instead it was an “also try” under the Wings 3D entry. I did some checking, and discovered that Blender is indeed a worthy app. An active group has created a foundation to support it and provides a lot of education and help.
You can also see some wonderful examples of the work people have done with Blender not only at the website, but also at YouTube. For an amazing example of a movie, check out Big Buck Bunny — a tale of a bunny, rodents and revenge.
Posted Saturday, September 27, 2008 in Suggestions
Down to the dungeons
Here’s a great game from the suggestion box, especially if you like old-style dungeon games:
Angband is a free single-player dungeon game with roots going back to Moria and Rogue — games that were around well before the Mac made its appearance. I’ve been playing Angband since my first Mac — a Mac Classic :-) Angband can be downloaded from: http://rephial.org/. There are also many variants of the core game, which can be downloaded from http://angband.oook.cz/. Not all variants of the core game have Mac releases, though nearly all are open source and free. The universe of Angband is quite large — so folks new to this game may find it easiest to first play Angband (http://rephial.org/) as that has a nice Wiki-based manual.
Posted Tuesday, September 16, 2008 in Suggestions
Seven free utilities
Double H Software has pointed us to a slew of freeware they have available. These apps are specialized utilities, so you’ll know right away if they’re something you really want. Among them are:
Force Quit All Applications, Activate Screen Saver, Close All Open Applications, Text to Audio File, Batch Delete, Zippy, and Dock Changer.
The names are all self-explanatory, with the exception of Zippy, which lets you zip multiple files into a single archive, and Dock Changer, which allows you to toggle the dock’s 3D-look on and off.
Posted Thursday, September 11, 2008 in Suggestions
Simplify your stats
From the suggestion box comes a request to review Plainstat, a simplified freeware program for analysing small and medium statistical datasets. We downloaded it and were impressed by the wealth of features and extensive documentation.
It should be pointed out that Plainstat appears to be geared toward people who know what they’re doing. Statistics is, after all, a mathematical science, and thus not for the faint of heart.
We can claim no expertise in this area, but we can describe some of the features: simple workspace, statistic definition and navigator, data editor, output list, data and variable inspector, and statistical analysis.
If any of this makes sense to you, and you’re looking for a simple statistics program, we suggest you have a look at Plainstat.
Posted Wednesday, September 3, 2008 in Suggestions
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