Our top 10 Mac freeware games

We rolled the dice, shuffled the deck, spun the dial, and came up with 10 irresistible Mac freeware games. Find these and plenty of others in thriftmac’s games section.

The undisputed king: Quinn
For sheer beauty and wonderful game play, Quinn stands head and shoulders above the rest. In fact, if you believe our Mac Freeware Idol survey, it’s the best freeware app ever. They say it’s a version of tetronimo, but we all know that means etris-Tay.

Sure glad they made an OS X version: Glider Pro
One of the most popular pre-OS X games continues to win hearts and minds with a combination of puzzles and strategy. Fly your paper airplane through a house of many rooms, being careful to avoid candles, air drafts and other nasties.

Me, my Mac and a deck of cards: MacSolitaire
Anyone who uses a Mac is undoubtedly so popular that they never find themselves alone playing solitaire. But sometimes alone time can be good. And if you’d like to pass that time playing solitaire, you won’t do much better than MacSolitaire.

Endless arcade action: Pac the Man
Sure you could waste countless hours playing Pac(ahem)Man at the local arcade. But why do that when Pac the Man allows you to do it in style with the comfort of your Mac?

Firing up the old brain cells: Aquatomic
You know what they say about your brain: use it or lose it. Keep that grey matter limbered up with a game where you have to piece together atoms to create molecules. It starts off easy, but soon gets hard. Update: Check here for how to download Aquatomic. The link above hasn’t been responding for ages.

The ultimate Penguin adventure: SuperTux
This penguin is on a mission to save his beloved penguinette. But he has to do a lot of jumping, running and shooting to attain his goal in this side-scrolling adventure.

For those who would rule: The Battle for Wesnoth
Go on a flight of fancy limited only by your imagination as you put together an army that can battle for your rightful place on the throne. And that’s just one of the adventures that awaits you.

Getting bombed multiplayer style: Bomberman
Escape from a maze using bombs to blast your way through doorways that lead to other levels. You can find helpers along the way, but watch out for enemies.

A gardener’s nightmare: Bullfrog
Insects can be pesky at the best of times, but when there’s a full-scale invasion, the only thing to do is fight back with your trusty bullfrog. But remember: time is of the essence.

The riddle of the stones: Enigma
On the face of it, Enigma should be easy: uncover pairs of identically colored Oxyd stones. But it’s not so easy when you have to deal with hidden traps, vast mazes, laser beams and other hindrances.

What do you think? Are these games winners or losers? Which games would you pick for a Top 10?

date posted Posted Thursday, August 30, 2007 in

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  1. You should’ve mention Enemy Territory

    http://enemy-territory.4players.de:1041/download.php?view.360

    if you can’t get to the downloads section, you’ll just have to register at the ET site.

    nowhereman

  2. “…have to piece together molecules to create atoms”

    Piece together atoms to make molecules, I would hope.

    Jimbob

  3. You’re absolutely right! I’ll fix that. Don’t let my mistake stop you from trying the game, though.

    Mark

  4. Ever tried nexiuz? If not, then nexuiz.com. It rocks!

    fengshui

  5. Nexuiz looks like an awesome game along the lines of Quake. Be prepared for a 273 MB download.

    Mark

  6. Oberin

    www.oberin,com

    MACinTUTOR

  7. Don’t forget about the Marathon trilogy (marathon.bungie.org).

    Matthew

  8. It does my heart good to see Marathon has gone open source. I have the box set, including the predecessor, Pathways Into Darkness.

    Mark

  9. I don’t know how a list like this could be complete without mentioning Oolite.

    The game is addicting, fun and challenging.

    It’s the best spaceflight sim I’ve played!

    http://oolite.aegidian.org/

    Tiger

  10. Better than macsolitaire i think is solitaire XL.

    Brock

  11. try Doukutsu, great adventure game with multiple endings and many different weapons

    Alex

  12. try Sauerbraten

    TEH SAUERBRAT0RZ

    mathys

  13. I love Donkutsu (aka Cave Story) it is a platformer/shooter with very good controls, and a very interesting gameplay system.

    Archwright

  14. Er….we’ll you’ve got the atoms to molecules now, except for spelling.

    molecultes?

    Happens to the best of us.

    Dezi

  15. I not only fixed the spelling, but put in an update about the download link. Sadly, Aquatomic may not be with us much longer.

    Mark

  16. Cave Story.

    I came here searching for games to play after completing Cave Story too many times to count, with different weapons each time. I even completed it with the Mimiga mask and the little man.

    verysecretusername

  17. Wesnoth is a great game, good choice.

    I think the best freeware game is Nexuiz, found at www.alientrap.org/nexuiz/
    It’s an FPS based on the quake engine. Awesome.

    Beeb

  18. Urban Terror is awesome

    SAMM_47

  19. I’ve developed a freeware game on the mac platform. If you guys would like to check it out, just go to my site at marnica.com/martinjr or else just click my screen name as I have linked it there as well.

    Lectronix

  20. Also worth checking out is OpenArena . It’s a GPL Q3 clone, but still in beta.

    feidi

  21. As a side thought Cave Story (not sure where i got it) is a great game though you have to download another patch for it to be in english.

    Fred

  22. try Spark, many of the community have been playing for 5 years plus! Spark

    John

  23. This site is updated daily with freeware and open source games OSX Freeware & Open Source Software

    boomer

  24. OMG, at school me and my friends think that ninja game is the best-it is soooo edicting and I got everyone in my class to play it-now we can never stop playing it!!!!!

    SO I VOTE #1 NINJA GAME-FLASH PLAYER

    gymnasticsbabe97

  25. Urban terror is another awesome game.

    luca

  26. How could Cave Story not make it on here?

    Me

  27. Supertux really kicks ass.HAHHHHHHHHHHHHAAHAAH

    Dontneedtoknow

  28. Yeah nexuiz should have been mention but then again the download has Linux Mac and windows data/software in the one file

    Dude

  29. Woah, missing a few great ones here.
    Torus Trooper – 3D arcade shooter based on Tempest
    Bitfighter – Online multiplayer top down shooter
    Assault Cube – Multiplayer FPS
    ADOM – Roguelike
    Open Liero X – Realtime Worms clone
    You’re welcome.

    Rocky

  30. Thanks for the recommendations. I’ll check ‘em out.

    Mark

  31. you should add minecraft.. its a sandbox game, so fun. but to get the full you have to pay, but there is the old (and free) version on the site, or you could just get a free launcher..

    Kid

  32. Minecraft is actually quite popular here at thriftmac headquarters. I didn’t realize there was a free version.

    Mark

  33. what about sierra lighthouse game? or myst or riven. grim fandango was awesome. are any of these games out there for a mac? or out there at all?

    mia

  34. @ Mark

    The free version of minecraft is just playable online and you are not able to save your actual progress. So I think you’re right by not having it on this list.

    Good Luck and keep up the good work!

    Free Mac Games





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