Some good free games playable on low-end notebooks or older systems

[Bossy Monkey]

Being a noted rocket scientist, I bought a cheap Acer notebook a couple of years ago with Vista installed. This as you can probably guess was a ticket to not being able to play many games. (Hey! The Sims Complete Collection works on it! The Sims 2? Well, no.) So I sought and searched and eventually found some decent, or at least marginally entertaining, games that would play on this piece of cra-- this wonderfully economical machine I have. So I thought I'd share.

The first two games are practically twins: Taipan and Via Galactica. The former is an ooold game originally for the Apple 2 in which you are a 19th century trader based in Hong Kong. The latter is very similar except you're in space. Both are available at download.com as well as from many other sites.

I crazy mad loved Dirty Split, a stylized point-and-clicker whose only shortcoming was that it was short. It's also at download.com See if you can spot my review. (Hint: it's the one with the 5 stars.)

A game I enjoyed a lot in spite of its dopiness was the fan-created Broken Sword sequel, Broken Sword 2.5: Return of the Templars. I dug all three Broken Sword games that I've played, and look forward to the day when I have a machine that will handle the fourth one. In the meantime, there's this. The fact that it's in German might seem to be a deal-killer, but the subtitles are well-translated (I think an English person wrote the game) and it's good silly fun, if a little overdedicated to the plot twist. Download it here: http://www.brokensword25.com/

Out of Order is just plain silly. I enjoyed the heck out of it, though I recall hitting a lot of dead ends and running to the walkthrough maybe a little more than usual. The game is fun and almost as funny as it wants to be. Also British, if that helps, and you can get it here: http://outoforder.adventuredevelopers.com/

Cult II: Federal Crime is a terrible, godawful, bone stupid game with childish graphics that I could. not. stop. playing. Just basically a big maze game where you run around throwing switches (and sometimes doing favors for people) to get to new places. Also features the worst ending in gaming history. Still a total hoot, for reasons that are beyond me. Also found at download.com

A Tale of Two Kingdoms is more or less a reimagining of the old King's Quest series. I found it to require more eye-hand coordination than what I like my point-and-click games to ask for, but if you have, unlike me, more manual dexterity than a grape, you shouldn't have any trouble. Another one at download.com.

I also found a couple of demos that deserve mention, though I wish it were a more enthusiastic mention. Twenty years ago, I was mad for KOEI games on the original Nintendo system, and was crushed that they seem to have withdrawn from the Western market. However, there's a demo out for Return of the Three Kingdoms XI, in English and everything. Uhhh, either their programmers and writers have changed a lot or something was, as they say, lost in translation. The demo is a colloquy between the warlord and his chief adviser with lots of witty banter that I didn't find noticeably witty. Anyway, if you're interested, you'll probably find it here: http://www.koei.com/rtkxipc/ (I'm back on dialup, and didn't feel like waiting for the page to load, but I'm pretty sure that's where I got it back in heady broadband days.)

The other demo is The Sting, and looked way cool in a Wallace and Gromit kind of way. Unfortunately, I couldn't control the character very well with the touchpad; I think this is the one for older PCs rather than for notebooks. On the other hand, you're a thug who somewhat resembles Ronald Reagan, so there's that. If anyone's interested, I got it at download.com. For an old game (and a demo at that) it's a big download at 42 megs. Seemed kind of promising, at least.

A stinkburger? Teudogar and the Alliance with Rome. Malwarebytes says it boasts two trojans. (Also it was terrible, with graphics to match.)