On a lighter note...

Occasionally I find myself with a few minutes to spare, or just the desire to not do anything constructive for a couple hours.

What are the best sites out there for free online games? I don't mind a simple download, but I'd rather avoid that. As well, shareware games are right out. I'm not interested in playing the first 3 levels out of a possible 197.

Flash/Shockwave games are fine, but I haven't seen any that interest me for more than a minute.

Are there any out there that could entertain me for a couple hours?

Nigel
Tuesday, March 2, 2004

lilgames.com

Yo
Tuesday, March 2, 2004

Try Continuum (trenchwars.org).

B.Y.
Tuesday, March 2, 2004

I second Continuum...  I just started playing it a few months ago and I'm quite hooked.  When I want a short break I load it up and play around until I'm killed.

http://www.subspacehq.com/

Almost Anonymous
Tuesday, March 2, 2004

Trogdor.  Definately Trogdor.

Aaron F Stanton
Tuesday, March 2, 2004

A different kind of game, but I've recently become hooked on Arimaa ( www.arimaa.com ).  It was designed (very roughly) because chess and go are too easy for computers to play.  It's a similar kind of game to chess, games can last 20 to 90 minutes depending on how quick you are and who (what) you're playing against.  They have a good progression of bots to play against, and they also have pretty good support for playing against other human players.

And if you're interested, try writing your own bot - if you write one that can beat the best human players before the year 2020, you could win $10k...

schmoe
Tuesday, March 2, 2004

zone.msn.com

Jeff
Tuesday, March 2, 2004

www.freearcade.com

Plenty of java games... try collapse

//jorge
Tuesday, March 2, 2004

Or games.yahoo.com.

Actually, you probably need look no further than a game of Bejeweled. Warning: it's addictive, to the point that you can't stop thinking about it even when you're not playing.

Or maybe that's just me... but I've been good, haven't even looked at Bejeweled since last year.

Martha
Tuesday, March 2, 2004

Wow, subspace is still around.

I played it during the open beta period and had to give it up due to impending carpal tunnel.  Very addictive.

Steve Barbour
Tuesday, March 2, 2004

Thanks Schmoe for Arimaa. I'd never heard of it before but I have to say, it is absolutely brilliant if you have a friend to play with.

The extremely intuitive and elegant rules are extremely easy to pick up by themself but they actually provide a pretty nice flash tutorial that teaches you it in no time ( http://arimaa.com/arimaa/learn/flash/vs/new/ ) I'm surprised it hasn't been commercialised (not that I'm complaining:-))

Anyways, as quoted from their site:
> "Arimaa was designed so that it could be played with a standard chess set and would not require any special equipment. However the rules of the game are not at all like those of Chess. The rules of Arimaa were chosen to be as simple and intuitive as possible while at the same time making the game interesting to play and yet difficult for computers."

SC
Tuesday, March 2, 2004

www.popcap.com ...

TyperShark ...

Beware the Sybol Piranha !

VP
Tuesday, March 2, 2004

cartoonnetwork.com

http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/play/index.html

T-90
Wednesday, March 3, 2004

Hours of endless fun
http://www.addictinggames.com/

Mark Pearce
Wednesday, March 3, 2004

"because chess and go are too easy for computers to play"

Chess, maybe.  Go, definitely NOT.  How to effectively program Go is one of Computing's great unsolved problems.

David B. Wildgoose
Thursday, March 4, 2004

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