Budget Games Mega Thread

megabyte

Not really a mega thread

Post your favorite budgetware, shareware, or freeware games!

The last thread was over 7 months ago, so it's about that time again.

Be sure to include links, pictures, and a description. I'll start:

Grid Wars:

Everyone loves gravity wars on Xbox Live, it's about time PC guys got their shot at it. While grid wars isn't an identical copy, its very close. The game is infact so much like geometry wars, microsoft asked the creator to remove the game, however various mirrors still exist. For those of you without Xbox Live, the game involves an asteroid like experience but with challenging swarms of enemies and very exciting neon-esque graphics. The steady increase of pace will make the game challenging for newbs or pros. Check it out!

Echo

Somebody missed a memo.

And that's more "indie game" than "budget game".

However, I'm all for a "discover new non-megabudget games" thread.

LewieP

Warning Forever

A great little vertical boss-run Shmup.
The developer has made quite a few cool little experimental games, this is my favourite. Everytime you defeat a boss, it analyses what tactics you used, then it makes the next boss less suceptable to these tactics, everytime you play you will end up with different bosses.

The bosses grow on every iteration, and eventually they fill the whole screen.

Very cool tron-esque graphics, and all completely free!

I have lost hours to it.

Echo

What annoys me about WF is that Fraps can't capture it.

JJ

Yeah it's pretty cool all the screenshots show spider looking bosses while on my play they evolved into long spear-like ships.

mausmalone

Are we counting games that are ridiculously cheap when you buy them used?

Arcibi

Cave Story

Echo

Arcibi wrote: »

Cave Story

There, un-steaming turdified your post.

Silpheed

I hope that this thread survives since I could use some help with perusing indie games. I've been looking at Escape Velocity:Nova and the SpiderWeb Software games and I wouldn't mind hearing some thoughts about how they play and if it's worthing plunking down some cold hard cash for them?

Pussum

I always liked those games that came packaged with cereal and stuff. Lame as they were, they killed a lot of time if you were bored enough.

LewieP

I also recomend anyone in the UK look at the thread UK bargains/Buying Guide

Nerdtendo

Cho Ren Sha - freeware


A nice little verticle scroller bullet hell game. I guarantee you'll die horribly in the first level on your first play through.

----

Gunroar - freeware


Another great verticle scroller. The interesting graphics are a nice bonus.

----

Mucade - freeware


Something like geometry wars meets smash brothers. You try to use your attacks to knock enemies off the stage while staying on yourself. Loads of fun.

ArcticXC

Copying old post because I'm lazy.

Blue Wish Resurrection
http://www004.upp.so-net.ne.jp/x_xgameroom/bw_re_link/bw_re_main.htm

Just came across this on the shmups.com forum and after playing through easy mode once, I had to tell you homps about it. Apparently it plays a lot like Ketsui (not that it really matters if you know of it or not) and it's awesome. Music is a bit weak, but I couldn't really even hear it most of the time.

There are 4 buttons:
- (Z) Regular Shot
- (X) Auto Shot
- (C) Bomb
- (A) Options

Apparently space and ESC do stuff but I didn't bother figuring out what.

Download (~56 megs)
http://my.vector.co.jp/servlet/System.FileDownload/download/http/0/413558/pack/winnt/game/shoot/BWR1.02.lzh

Screens

AlienCowThatMoos

I absolutely love my copy of Castle Shikigami 2 for the PS2. It was a budget title when it was released, but I think ebay would be your only chance now. It's a two player shump in which you don't control a ship to combat the invading alien hordes, you fly up there and do it yourself! You can choose from a dozen or so super-powered humans with various powers (all with flight of course) and personalities.

It's a pretty fun Shump, but what kicks it up into pure gold is the translation. Half the time you're not even sure if they had any intention of telling a story at all. When you play two player, the two characters will argue with each other in different ways depending on the combination. An of course the bosses have to get in on it too!

Here's an example in which you're playing as two male characters and fight the first boss (a woman in a frilly pink dress):

Boss: "Young men in love."

Guy 1: "I'm not!"

Guy 2: "I don't buy that. We both like girls."

Boss: "Is that so? How dull. Who wants to dance?"

Guy 2: "What kind of dance?"

Boss: "Dancing fist to fist!"

[After you beat her]

Boss: "Nice dance."

Guy 2: "I enjoyed it."

Guy 1: "I'm NOT LIKE THAT!"

Guy 2: "Ok, Ok."

Did I mention it takes place in the distant future of 2006? I've played played a ton of this game and still have no idea who the invaders are. Buy this one today!

Reynolds

Gunbird/Mobile Light Force, Gunbird 2, Castle Shikigami/Mobile Light Force 2, and Castle Shikigami 2 are all awesome. From CS2...the 'buds in the next life' quote is one of my favorites.

I think we mentioned it in another one of these threads, but the Chex cereal game, a Doom ripoff, was tons and tons of fun.

The PS1 games in the super generic series are all great too. They have names like Shooter, Puzzle, etc. with a subtitle that's the real name of the game.

Nerdtendo

ArcticXC wrote: »

Copying old post because I'm lazy.

Blue Wish Resurrection
http://www004.upp.so-net.ne.jp/x_xgameroom/bw_re_link/bw_re_main.htm

*snipped*

Downloading that when I get home. That just looks damn sexy.

Steel Angel

Silpheed wrote: »

help with perusing indie games. I've been looking at Escape Velocity:Nova and the SpiderWeb Software games and I wouldn't mind hearing some thoughts about how they play and if it's worthing plunking down some cold hard cash for them?

You can grab demos for every Spiderweb game from the official site.

Avernum plays like old school PC RPGs like Ultima. Geneforge is like a mix of Ultima and Fallout since it focuses more on one person and choosing sides.

Both series can be really fun but really unforgiving at times. Some areas become death traps in Geneforge if you don't have the right skills to get through, ie enough mechanics to deal with a minefield. Usually that's a sign that you should find another way to get to your destination.

And since you only have one main character in Geneforge (though potentially many, mutant underlings depending on your skills), you occasionally can hit a rough spot if a fight or area happens to involve a strategy that is your class weakpoint (ie, the strong magic classes typically do best alone due to low minion making skills and hence can get reamed if they go into a fight with enemies that can easily stun or slow you since you don't have someone to take up the slack).

Duchess Prozac

Crimsonland is an excellent top down shooter. It's a pay title now but it's relatively cheap last time I looked and there is a freeware version still knocking about the internet.

Brutletoy

So after playing Warning Forever about 12 times thru, I've now figured out how to aim the gun, yeah I'm that good...

BTP

Man, I've been playing games on consoles for so long that I've forgotten there are such things as freeware and shareware games. I only remember a Commodore 64 and some stuff on a 386.

Please hook me up with some games that can support this Thrustmaster Firestorm Digital 3. I've had this thing for years, sitting in a box, feeling neglected. If you can't get to the link, it's essentially a PS1 controller, no analog sticks.

Can any of the above shumps work with it?

JJ

Nerdtendo wrote: »

Cho Ren Sha - freeware
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a278/SpiralSage/cho86_2.jpg[/img]

A nice little verticle scroller bullet hell game. I guarantee you'll die horribly in the first level on your first play through.

----

Gunroar - freeware
http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/files/images/Gunroar.jpg[/img]

Another great verticle scroller. The interesting graphics are a nice bonus.

----

Mucade - freeware
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/mucade.jpg[/img]

Something like geometry wars meets smash brothers. You try to use your attacks to knock enemies off the stage while staying on yourself. Loads of fun.

Post fails without links.

"Hey guyz free awesome games, look! Fuck you, find it yourself!"

emnmnme

I enjoyed the Dink Smallwood freeware game on this site. The appeal is in all the mods floating around on the internet. Also, try the demo for the lawnmower game.

http://www.rtsoft.com/

ben0207

Gorramit! Start posting links to Mac games, too!


I'm stuck typing my CV.

BTP

So, in my quest to learn how I can use the controller I mentioned in my previous post, I learned about something called JoyToKey. Being able to take keyboard controls and apply them to a controller sounds like the perfect solution to me.

How reliable/safe is it? Because if this works as awesomely as it sounds, then it would seem I'm going to enjoy some SHMUP action in the near future.

slash000

Fuck yes! Thank you, Alien, for mentioning Castle Shikigami 2. Definitely an excellent shmup for PS2, and only $10 at EBStop.


OK, so my second favorite "budget title" would be:


Serious Sam: Next Encounter



It's definitely a budget title, and wasn't even made by Croteam:




It still captures the craziness of the SS games, but it is very weak graphically (like Dreamcast or early PS2-era). However, the framerate is rock solid.

If you can stomach the graphics, and enjoy Serious Sam, I'd recommend it. It should be $10 or $15 at most places.

For PS2 and GCN.

Zombiemambo

Battle for Wesnoth - Strategy gaming at its finest. [FREE]

Linked for H-scroll rape:
http://www.wesnoth.org/images/sshots/wesnoth-1.2-c.jpg

Nerdtendo

JJ wrote: »

Post fails without links.

"Hey guyz free awesome games, look! Fuck you, find it yourself!"

Didn't even realize... Let me take roughly thirty seconds with google to do that for you.

edit:

Cho Ren Sha
http://www2.tky.3web.ne.jp/~yosshin/my_works/index.html

Gunroar
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/windows/gr_e.html

Mucade
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~cs8k-cyu/windows/mcd_e.html


Whew! Worked up a sweat there!

Zombiemambo

JJ wrote: »

Post fails without links.

"Hey guyz free awesome games, look! Fuck you, find it yourself!"

If only there was some kind of website where once could enter in a string of words and it would give you the best results...


...I'll use Google and find one.

Nerdtendo

It's one thing if finding it would be difficult.. Such as an older freeware version of Crimsonland. Googling that might be hard.

Speaking of which, I think I know where to find the old Crimsonland, brb...

http://gamehippo.com/download2/download2_1467.shtml

Yep! Gamehippo is a pretty great site if you've never been by there. Good one to bookmark. Updates have been coming slowly recently though.

JJ

Hey, I'm a lazy bastard, what can I say?

I found cave story by myself

BTP

BTP wrote: »

So, in my quest to learn how I can use the controller I mentioned in my previous post, I learned about something called JoyToKey. Being able to take keyboard controls and apply them to a controller sounds like the perfect solution to me.

How reliable/safe is it? Because if this works as awesomely as it sounds, then it would seem I'm going to enjoy some SHMUP action in the near future.

Anyone?

The controller in question, if it matters, is this one. Thrustmastser Firestorm Digital 3.

Dirty

Wow, that's the TFD3? What a step back from the TFD2.

BTP

Maybe they were going backwards and the "1" is the ultimate?

Anyway, someone tell me all about JoyToKey, please.

BornToHula

On Gamehippo there's a crazy Roguelike by the name of I.V.A.N. which is an acronym for the Latin words for a long hard road to death. Crazy monsters, bleeding out of crotches, and landmines all feature heavily in this game. Well worth that eight meg download.

Also my favorite budget game of late has been the insanely awesome Survival Crisis Z. Former shareware game turned freeware where it's essentially an action RPG with zombies. Can be found here http://skasoftware.com/files/scz.exe. I heartily recommend a download also I think Zombie Smashers X, a River City Ransom clone, recently went freeware as well. Check their main page though, at http://blog.skasoftware.com, for more details on that.

slash000

BTP wrote: »

Maybe they were going backwards and the "1" is the ultimate?

Anyway, someone tell me all about JoyToKey, please.

Joy2key will allow you to take any gamepad and assign any keyboard keystroke to any button press on the pad.

That's all I know about it. I know that it's straightforward and simple and effective, though.

I don't know how it maps the directional pad though, but I assume in the same manner as it maps the rest of the buttons.

BTP

slash000 wrote: »

BTP wrote: »

Maybe they were going backwards and the "1" is the ultimate?

Anyway, someone tell me all about JoyToKey, please.

Joy2key will allow you to take any gamepad and assign any keyboard keystroke to any button press on the pad.

That's all I know about it. I know that it's straightforward and simple and effective, though.

I don't know how it maps the directional pad though, but I assume in the same manner as it maps the rest of the buttons.

Well, I figured that much. No fuss, no muss, no interfering/interference with other programs?

slash000

BTP wrote: »

slash000 wrote: »

BTP wrote: »

Maybe they were going backwards and the "1" is the ultimate?

Anyway, someone tell me all about JoyToKey, please.

Joy2key will allow you to take any gamepad and assign any keyboard keystroke to any button press on the pad.

That's all I know about it. I know that it's straightforward and simple and effective, though.

I don't know how it maps the directional pad though, but I assume in the same manner as it maps the rest of the buttons.

Well, I figured that much. No fuss, no muss, no interfering/interference with other programs?

From what I recall, it simply runs in the taskbar with low resources. The only way it might interfere with other programs is if the other programs need to use the gamepad in some manner, which is doubtful.

It really is just about the most straightforward little program there is. Install, set some keys, and you're good to go. It does what it does, nothing more, nothing less.

BTP

Awesome. Coming home after writing my midterms next week = HAPPY FUN TIME!

JJ

WF and Cho Ren Sha are the best free things ever.

love the sprite work in CRS and the evolving bosses in WF.

Infinity>Infinity Returns> Infinity Hell> Infinity OMG IM GONNA RAPE YOU

wacky naming.

BTP

I don't know why, but my comp's going slow when it comes to YouTube.

What is Ray-Hound? All I can see from the description is that it's made by the same guy that made Warning Forever.

ArcticXC

BTP wrote: »

I don't know why, but my comp's going slow when it comes to YouTube.

What is Ray-Hound? All I can see from the description is that it's made by the same guy that made Warning Forever.

It's a game set up as a 360 shooter of sorts, but you have to capture bullets shot at you then use them on stationary enemies. I couldn't get into it at all.