Free Geek Gear

Ivory Mahjong - A casual ancient puzzle.

2009-12-06T12:46:00.000-05:00

Remove titles by matching them in pairs! Can't be any simpler than that. :P I snagged the screenshot from brothersoft because I was too lazy to do any photo manipulation. lol.

3D graphics
Good looking tile sets and graphic themes
Secret messages

Download it for Linux, Mac and Windows for free Open Source HERE.

Assault Cube - I love this game

2009-12-06T12:34:00.002-05:00

It's hard to explain this one. It's sort of like Call of Duty except really, really fast game play. There are a selection of weapons, armour and grenades. It's how I spend 20 minutes every morning. Better than a cup of coffee (although not quite) at getting the mind moving. Games are quick and range from keep the flag, capture the flag and one shot one kill and of course team death match. Par for the course.

Nice thing about it, it is a small download, useful for modem players (seriously), the graphics are semi-realistic and it's available for Windows, mac and Linux.

The main fun about it is the channel chat. It's not all in english btw. Guys are speaking french, german, english, dutch, italian, everything. However there are macro tags like "get the flag" and "found the flag" so everyone understands what is going on. My favorite activity is sniping. Lots of fun hiding and picking offf targets.

If you download and play, look for Albino. That's my handle while playing. After a while you'll be picking my sorry butt off from 500 yards. Hope to see all of you there.

The software/media can be downloaded HERE.

Virtual Box - Handy tool to have to test and learn

2009-12-06T12:19:00.000-05:00

I love virtualization. So do you even though most people don't release that they are using most of the time. Virtualization allows multiple versions of a operating system to run on a single computer. That is you can run Windows and Linux on a Mac. And if you fool around with the Mac installation disks, it is possible to run a Mac on a Windows box.

Confusing? Yes. Useful. Absolutely. I run Ubuntu linux and I need to use Windows for tax software like Quicken because Quicken needs Internet Explorer. Since I don't want to sacrifice the stablity and security of Linux, I create a "virtual machine" built with XP that runs on top of my regular Linux so I can do things I otherwise couldn't do.

Download and Installation

The VirtualBox 2.2 62MB download is larger than version 2.1 (36MB) but, unlike VMware, installation is very quick and it does not install quite so many RAM-hogging device drivers and services.

A step-by-step wizard is provided to create your first virtual machine. You enter a name, choose the amount of RAM, and create or select an existing virtual hard disk. The settings can then be tweaked before you boot for the first time, e.g. to choose an OS installation disk image in the virtual CD drive (I recommend using the excellent nLite to prepare a cut-down XP SP3 ISO).

Operating System installation is identical to installing on real hardware except that each virtual machine opens in its own window. Once complete, you can click the guest OS window and operate it as normal. By default, the right Ctrl key returns control back to the host. Like other solutions, VirtualBox provides guest OS software that installs various device drivers and automatic mouse capture/release (choose Devices > Install Guest Additions).

Virtual disk images are saved as .vdi files. You can either choose a fixed size drive or one that dynamically expands as the guest requires it. Unusually, VirtualBox allows you to run more than one virtual machine from the same disk image. You could therefore experiment with different hardware configurations, but I cannot think of any other practical use. Virtual disks can also be cloned so you can easily create a new guest OS from an existing installation. A command line tool is required for disk cloning but full instructions are provided in the help.

Other Features

Runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. Even has some packages for "odd" operating systems.
Shared folders: permanently or temporarily connected folders that appear as a network drive in the guest OS. Super handy to transfer files easily between my Linux Operating system and Windows XP.
Snapshots: a snapshot of the guest OS can be taken at any point. This allows you to experiment with software installations or trash the whole system and revert back instantly (if only Windows Restore points did that!)
State saving: when you close the OS window, you are given the choice to send a shut down signal, power off, or save the current state.
Speed: VirtualBox feels much faster and responsive that VMware or Virtual PC.
Seamless mode: like Parallels on the Mac, this integrates the guest OS on your standard desktop. It works well, although I could not get it to operate on a second monitor – which would be even more practical.

Virtual box can be downloaded HERE.

Eclipse Trader

2009-11-20T17:34:00.000-05:00

Eclipse Trader is an Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP) application focused to the building of an online stock trading system, featuring shares pricing watch, intraday and history charts with technical analysis indicators, level II/market depth view, news watching, and integrated trading. The standard Eclipse RCP plug-ins architecture allows third-party vendors to extend the functionality of the program to include custom indicators, views or access to subscription-based data feeds and order entry.

Features:

    * Realtime Quotes
    * Intraday Charts
    * History Charts
    * Technical Analisys Indicators
    * Price Patterns Detection
    * Financial News
    * Level II (Book) Market Data
    * Trading Accounts Management
    * Integrated Trading

It is free to use and distribute and I have been using it as a trader for over a year.

It can be downloaded for OSX, Linux and Windows here.

RG Hockey

2009-04-12T14:29:00.004-04:00

Mr Don Cherry to the bleachers please...

A 3D simulation of professional level hockey (in regards to game play). It focuses on providing intense and realistic action geared towards those that would prefer to play hockey rather than just watch it. It's slapshot-tactular!!!

Download it for Linux and Windows here.

Xmoto - Dirt bike racing...kind of reminds me of Nintendo for some reason

2009-04-12T14:08:00.006-04:00

Kids were playing this a couple of weeks ago. Sport platform game for motocross fans. Meh I can take it or leave it honestly.

Xmoto can be downloaded from here.

Pingus - Lemmings a la Carte

2009-04-12T12:52:00.004-04:00

I had an Amiga a zillion years ago and I went stark raving mad trying to get those little buggers to build faster and stop dying. Lemmings and now Pingus has been a stable addition to all my computers since then. It's a great way to kill ten minutes while waiting on people to get their boots on and then change their mind and change their clothes for a third time.

Great for all ages and comes for every platform out there.

You can download it from here.

Wormux - Blow stuff up for fun and profit

2009-04-12T11:51:00.004-04:00

Its hard to explain this one. You basically blow up your opponents in a turn based system. I love using the hand grenades and rockets.

Available for OSX, Windows and Linux.

Download it here.

2009-04-12T11:17:00.002-04:00

Again another simulator, but from talking with sim folks in gaming forums they LOVE this. Totally expandable, tonnes of planes and locations to pick and it's what NASA appearently used to train people with. In fact it's developed with real flight training in mind from government trainers so pilot can become better pilots.

It's available for all Major Operating systems:OSx, Windows and Linux.

For Windows and Linux it can be downloaded here.

For OSX it can be downloaded here.

Bonez Adventure - Sort of like Tomb Raider but better graphics

2009-04-12T11:09:00.002-04:00

You're an Indiana Jones kinda guy set to solve the mystery of something...I didn't finish it. Lara Croft games annoy me. Graphics and the sound rock. The engine is based off of the Elder Scrolls physics and rendering, basically it kicks ass for that. I found the controls buggy though. The kid thing, I think over 12 is a good age for this one. Story and plot is a little complicated for a 8 year old.

Comes for al major platforms.

Bonez Adventure can be downloaded here.

Danger Deep - The Hunt for Purple June!

2009-04-12T11:04:00.002-04:00

I'm not much for sub simulators, I did download it and realised I had no clue as to the operation of a sub marine and it's really not my bag. The graphics were excellent and the sound was enough to make me hit the can a couple of times .

The website and download for linux and windows can be found here.

Scorched 3D - Like the phoenix it rises again stronger and faster

2009-04-12T10:46:00.003-04:00

This a game I can honestly say is totaly original. My brother wasted bits of his life during second year Computer Science playing this as a 2D strategy game. The 3D version is just as challenging. basically you position your tank and calculate arc and position then let your opponent have it.

Available for every major platform and a tonne of fun to play.

Download it from the developer website here.

Neverball - Monkey Ball Pro!

2009-04-12T10:31:00.001-04:00

A whole afternoon of playing with my balls...dur

I love this game. I loved the original Monkey Ball as well, used to play it while waiting for snacks at the Lebanese restaurant after pints with the lads. The goal is to roll the ball around a selection of mazes at not fall off or get whacked. Sound easy? Sure the first couple of levels are gimmes, but after level 5 it requires the aforementioned 8 year old with the reflexes of a viper. It is a lot of fun and kid approved.

Again it's available for every major platform and its a small download. The code is tight yo!

Download it here.

Frozen Bubble - Bubble Bobble with a Tux

2009-04-12T09:50:00.001-04:00

Like Bubble Bobble? This is one awesome port of the original with internet game play support. 1, 2 and many player support. However, it only runs under OSX and Linux so far. The guys that put this together have a great website explaining how they tag teamed to make such a clean version of bubble bobble. This is one example I will always refer to on how people that have never met in person can come together on an idea and make it shine.

BTW the game play is highly addictive and you'll find yourself prone to ignoring your life for a couple of hours with this one.

Here is the team webpage and you can find the downloads for OSX and Linux there as well.

Correction...there is a universally playable JAVA version that can be found here.

Frets on Fire - Guitar Hero and then some

2009-04-12T09:30:00.001-04:00

I had no idea this existed until a couple of months ago and the song lists are wicked. There are tonnes of great song titles from the original guitar hero game line plus a huge collection of stuff done by the community that loves to extend this wicked waste of a sunday afternoon.

You might be wondering how you get a guitar hooked up to this. You dont. You use a keyboard. I map my frets to the F keys to keep it easy. Oh yeah it has online multi-player so you can jam with folks around the world.

It comes in flavors for all major operating systems. The installation packages can be found here.

Tremulous - Aliens versus Marines

2009-04-12T09:04:00.001-04:00

Here let me help you...

Tremulous is an open source game that blends a team based First Person Shooter with elements of an RTS. It is based on the Quake 3 engine and the graphics are awesome. It reminds me of Aliens 3. There are Marines versus Aliens that are wicked fast and crawl around the walls like lighting.

Personally I found playing the aliens a lot more interesting than the human marines.

Windows users, use this.
Mac OS X, get it here.
Linux download this package and run sh tremulous-1.1.0-installer.x86.run to install.
Ubuntu users can install it via apt-get

apt-get install tremulous

True Combat Elite - Open Source Call of Duty Clone

2009-04-12T08:42:00.001-04:00

Peek-a-Boo, I see you...

There are so many first person shooters in the commercial arena that occasionally the company says "Meh, give away the old stuff and put it under the open source banner". The folks that developed Wolfenstein Enemy Territory did that. The open source community then reacts quickly and gets super inventive with the free source code. This is one of those ports.

It's a first person shooter and offers a serious arsenal of weapons. Reminds me of Call of Duty 4 pvp. Its smooth running on older machines under Windows and OS X and can be heavily tweaked. linux, for me anyways not so much. I'm positive the people compiling the source for linux are doing it on high end machines. So if you have less than a P4 1.5 GHz machine, forget it. I tested it on both the P4 2.0 and P4 1.4 with 2 gigs in each laptop and the same on board video card. Huge difference. I'm betting that a desktop system with a decent video card would kick ass, but since I haven't owned a desktop in years, I go with what I have.

True Combat Elite can be downloaded here.

Yo Frankie! - Looking really good for a free platform game

2009-04-11T18:43:00.001-04:00

It's sort of like Mario World but wont set you back 50 bucks.

I'm not really a big platform game guy, I find they drive me insane. My belief is they are built for 8 year old boys with the reflexes of vipers.

Download it here.

Simutrans - Allllll abord!!!

2009-04-11T18:25:00.001-04:00

Awesome Transportation Simulator

Now the rules to this are pretty simple, build a transportation system that people use and is profitable. Sounds easy? Ummm, so far I've bankrupted every transportation enterprise I've started, although the one thing that strikes me about this is how relaxing it is. It's just like having a train set. My son didn't mind fooling around with it, my daughter couldn't care less.

Download Simutrans here

LinCity NG - SimCity Revamped and Open Sourced

2009-04-10T17:06:00.001-04:00

The sweet smell of a city with a trailer park...that's classy

I blame this game solely for my failure on my Fortran 77 course in University and possibly my OS design course. Or it might have been I was stoned most of the time while wondering if there were any insomniac dyslexic atheists in my virtual city staying up all night wondering if there really was a doG.

Now my kids are playing this and it's my lure to bribe them to do things. For beginning parents you use this tool as such: "Clean up your room or you can't play LinCity NG". Either case I have a small city myself which I allow to fall prey to my over zealous taxation and inability as a Mayor to control the floods, hurricanes and monster attacks. My goal is to see if I can get the entire town to revolt in my accident prone socialist paradise in under 15 minutes.

It comes for every major OS platform out there and as a parent it is SUPER approved.

The Download page is here.

Armagetron - Tron Light Bike Raing Game

2009-04-10T16:08:00.001-04:00

Anyone see Tron, anyone slobber over the light bikes. The sad thing is Tron came out in the 80s and the games that were spawned from it sucked ass. Ranging from an "O" dropping "+" signs racing against an "X", other than the packaging most of the Tron franchise came in. The games were just awful. Until this.

The guys that put this together did such a wicked job of capturing the movie and creating a zillion other types of games around the original tron light bike race idea. If it were for sale I would buy it. But since it's open source, it's free, at least swing around to their web page and check out the large community that plays and develops this little gem.

Armagetron website

and

Download it here.

Comes for all Major platforms and is fairly light weight so it's playable by many older systems.

BZFlag - Like the 1979 Atari tank game but fun

2009-04-10T15:57:00.002-04:00

My wasted youth involved this game considering it was the game that came with the Atari 2600, now as an adult I have wasted precious seconds of my life playing this again.

BZFlag can be downloaded for all major platforms here.

Aqua Dock - OS X Floating Menu bar for Windows

2009-04-10T15:20:00.000-04:00

OSX Flavor Without the Mac

Originally from the Mac OS, that wicked task bar comes in so handy at times. Plus as a free piece of eye candy that takes up little or no resources, this is a tool I end up installing on any and every XP install I have done in the last six months.

Aquadock download can be found here.

Open Office 3.0 - AWESOME!

2009-04-10T14:58:00.000-04:00

This is what love looks like...well not really

I am a huge fan of OO. The fact is since Open Office started the last version of Microsoft Office I purchased was in 2000 with Office 2000. With the release of OO 3.0 it now has caught up with the Microsoft offering of Office 2007. Mainly because it's incredibly flexible and much like the iPhone has a million little widgets to extend it. Plus its about 1/20th the size. Amazing how good design works wonders.

Download for

In most cases current Linux distributions come with OO 3.0 and there is no need to download it as OO 3.0 is pre-installed with most Debian distributions like Ubuntu.

Planeshift - MMORPG on a quake engine

2009-03-29T15:50:00.001-04:00

Planeshift

The folks at Atomic blue did a really good job.

9/10

Nethack - The original with a GUI

2009-03-29T15:43:00.001-04:00

Nethack

One of the originals that started every computer RPG under the sun. It's awesome.

Freedroid - Mario RPG clone with an XCOM flavor

2009-03-29T15:32:00.000-04:00

Freedroid

Fun game, good graphics, addictive game play. Has some XCOM elements that I personally hate, but a lot of people enjoy.

7/10

Exult - Ultima Clone

2009-03-29T15:28:00.001-04:00

Exult

Most of the times these games are garbage, but the developers actually sat down and thought about it. Graphics are updated from the Ultima of yore (which I wasted every waking hour in my youth playing). I like it a lot.

8/10

Eternal Lands - Nice MMORPG for starters

2009-03-29T15:21:00.001-04:00

Eternal Lands

Quake engine with a MMORPG fantasy flare. Very very neat implementation and since it's pvp there is no questioning the AI, there's an actually person on the other end.

2009-03-29T15:13:00.000-04:00

Egoboo
It has its moment, basically a nethack clone with a cartoony GUI.

Daimonin - MMORPG or Hmmmmm?

2009-03-29T14:58:00.000-04:00

Daimonin

I wish that sometimes people would understand that X-Com wasn't that good of a game and sticking more than two people in the realm plus adding swords doesnt make it any better. But for a student project I give it an A-.

Crown and Cutlass - Yarrrrr!

2009-03-29T14:43:00.000-04:00

Crown and Cutlass

Way too cool of a game and has all the maxi pirate flavor that a free game should have. It killed an afternoon. Story could have been tighter.

7/10

Adonhell - Open Source RPG

2009-03-29T13:44:00.000-04:00

Adonhell

It is a little dull and really needs quite a bit of work. The story is solid though. Can't say much about it otherwise. Graphics are incredibly dated but if you are stuck for something to do for a weekend and there is nothing else around it'll do.

4/10