DRM Free/ Lan games

Elimination · March 2012

Having a gaming party, lots of consoles and people are bringing computers. Not everyone's PC is up to par so I'd like to keep things on the low/Medium end of the graphics spectrum.

DRM free would be great or free in general. A lot of newer games i'd have to purchase multiple copies to make this work. Some of us obviously will have multiple copies of some things (Like SC2 likely.) but some suggestions would be great.

Page- · March 2012

Quake 3 + mods (threewave, cpma, excessive, bid for power, whatever people like), or Warsow if you're into that. Fun deathmatch or team games that anyone can run.

dispatch.o · March 2012

Warsow is free and it's quake on hardcore crack. It is perhaps the fastest fps ever it makes skiing in tribes look like nothing. It's like comparing a NASCAR sim to Wipeout XL and it's epic fun.

Edit:

The original Diablo also let you create spawn copies and lan it up. You could go at it iron man style. It's great fun. You go in the dungeon and you don't come out. No selling, no vendoring, you survive on what you find. With multiple people you can turn it into a pretty great time.

SteevL · March 2012

Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory is completely free and should run on anything these days. I haven't played it in years, but it seemed ahead of its time.

sportzboytjw · March 2012

You'd need an internet connection ofc, but League of Legends runs on pretty low-end rigs too.

ceres · March 2012

Warzone 2100 is amazing. Play that. It's completely free and even continually updated by a third party, and the tech tree is marvelous. It can take up to 8, I believe.

Foomy · March 2012

mechwarrior 4: mercenaries is free now, that can be some good times. even better if you can find some joysticks
http://www.mektek.net/projects/mw4/download.html

Elimination · March 2012

awesome suggestions. I've never even heard of Warsow. and completely forgot about Wolfenstein.

ceres · March 2012

Another nice thing about Warzone: the computer AI has "i r dum" difficulty, "supergenius with a head start and also probably cheating" difficulty, and everything in between.

Sir Carcass · March 2012

http://www.artemis.eochu.com/

What is Artemis?

Artemis is a multiplayer, multi-computer networked game for Windows computers.

Artemis simulates a spaceship bridge by networking several computers together. One computer runs the simulation and the "main screen", while the others serve as workstations for the normal jobs a bridge officer might do, like Helm, Communication, Engineering, and Weapon Control.

Artemis is a social game where several players are together in one room ("bridge") , and while they all work together, one player plays the Captain, a person who sits in the middle, doesn't have a workstation, and tells everyone what to do.

mastman · March 2012

Soldat
it's free, it's awesome

Elimination · March 2012

Sir Carcass wrote: »

http://www.artemis.eochu.com/

What is Artemis?

Artemis is a multiplayer, multi-computer networked game for Windows computers.

Artemis simulates a spaceship bridge by networking several computers together. One computer runs the simulation and the "main screen", while the others serve as workstations for the normal jobs a bridge officer might do, like Helm, Communication, Engineering, and Weapon Control.

Artemis is a social game where several players are together in one room ("bridge") , and while they all work together, one player plays the Captain, a person who sits in the middle, doesn't have a workstation, and tells everyone what to do.

Oh god this sounds so awesome.

Sir Carcass · March 2012

Elimination wrote: »

Sir Carcass wrote: »

http://www.artemis.eochu.com/

What is Artemis?

Artemis is a multiplayer, multi-computer networked game for Windows computers.

Artemis simulates a spaceship bridge by networking several computers together. One computer runs the simulation and the "main screen", while the others serve as workstations for the normal jobs a bridge officer might do, like Helm, Communication, Engineering, and Weapon Control.

Artemis is a social game where several players are together in one room ("bridge") , and while they all work together, one player plays the Captain, a person who sits in the middle, doesn't have a workstation, and tells everyone what to do.

Oh god this sounds so awesome.

One copy (I think it's $40) gets you enough licenses for a whole bridge crew. You can even use multiple copies to have multiple ships! And you don't need enough people to have a full crew to play the game. I think 2 or 3 people is the minimum you can get away with, but the more people, the more fun it is. I haven't personally played it, but several people in the space sims thread had a lot of good things to say about it.

ceres · March 2012

NOTE FROM THE MODERATOR: Asking for cheap or free-to-play LAN games is NOT the same as asking for something that's easy to pirate. All future reports of the OP will be met with serious infractions for reading comprehension fail.

TychoCelchuuu · March 2012

When he asks for "DRM free" games he's asking for games he can buy one copy of and share with the rest of the LAN party. Whether that's "piracy" or "spawning" or whatever you want to call it is sort of up in the air, but he didn't just ask for cheap or free to play games, which is probably why you're getting reports.

dispatch.o · March 2012

Well the original diablo had the actual option to install a spawn copy, it was intended. It wasn't an uncommon thing with older lan games. I recall the original command and conquer came with a second disc that would allow you to play with others but not have access to the campaign.

You could also try Allegiance. I believe freeallgiance.org is still running. It's like an space strategy rts with pilots and upgrade trees and all sorts of stuff, it's pretty crazy and complex though. It was originally a microsoft game that ended out having way too much going on for it to ever be "mainstream" but it's a pretty damn fun game, microsoft just gave up on it and released the source and it's been running free and somewhat strong ever since, though I have no played in a while.

Edit:
You have a commander, everyone else has ships to pilot and probes and things that you use to chart your starmap out and find zones to take over. Eventually you've claimed all the resources and get into conflict with the other team. I dunno, it might be too complicated for a quick lan time.

Edit2: Might be a good time to get people to chip in on buying some games that come in 4packs on steam, depending on what is on sale at the time of the lan party you could get a bunch of copies of defcon or borderlands and just go fucking crazy.

MrDelish · March 2012

Sir Carcass wrote: »

Elimination wrote: »

Sir Carcass wrote: »

http://www.artemis.eochu.com/

What is Artemis?

Artemis is a multiplayer, multi-computer networked game for Windows computers.

Artemis simulates a spaceship bridge by networking several computers together. One computer runs the simulation and the "main screen", while the others serve as workstations for the normal jobs a bridge officer might do, like Helm, Communication, Engineering, and Weapon Control.

Artemis is a social game where several players are together in one room ("bridge") , and while they all work together, one player plays the Captain, a person who sits in the middle, doesn't have a workstation, and tells everyone what to do.

Oh god this sounds so awesome.

One copy (I think it's $40) gets you enough licenses for a whole bridge crew. You can even use multiple copies to have multiple ships! And you don't need enough people to have a full crew to play the game. I think 2 or 3 people is the minimum you can get away with, but the more people, the more fun it is. I haven't personally played it, but several people in the space sims thread had a lot of good things to say about it.

My roommates and I just played a couple rounds of the demo which is pretty good. The full version looks to be way better, but is $40. However, you can make a video with two friends and get the game for free, assuming the developer is still doing that.

Elimination · March 2012

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

When he asks for "DRM free" games he's asking for games he can buy one copy of and share with the rest of the LAN party. Whether that's "piracy" or "spawning" or whatever you want to call it is sort of up in the air, but he didn't just ask for cheap or free to play games, which is probably why you're getting reports.

Yes I am not looking to pirate. I am looking for games where I dont have to buy a copy for me, and then 10 more for all my friends. I don't mean easy to pirate. Games like that Artemis look perfect, its DRM free and pretty much designed with a LAN party in mind. I don't know why people would report me for asking about LAN party games.

I know some of us all have some games, like Starcraft 2. I miss the old days when games were built with LAN capabilities in mind. It's a lot to ask for someone to buy multiple 50 dollar + games to have a LAN party. Artemis I might be able to get a few people in on buying it, so we all pitch in to purchase the game (Maybe 10 bucks each?) The Dev says on his site that he is OK with this, and has built the game in a way that its meant to be shared with up to 6 people. So that makes the 40 dollar price tag a lot easier to swallow.

I also like that idea with everyone making a character in Diablo and going on hardcore (permadeath) mode and trying to live as long as possible. That's not bad. I think most of us probably have D2 as well.

I heard somewhere that the old command & conquer games were now free somewhere as well? Kind of like MEchwarrior 4 merchs and Mech Commander? These might work out as well if rumour is true.

amateurhour · March 2012

Freelancer is pretty cheap now and you can set up a LAN to have your own space pirate adventures. It's still a great game.

edit: everyone would need a copy, but I think you can get it for under $10 now.

Also if you haven't yet, check out GOG.com. There's a whole library of sub $5 games everyone could pick up to play.

SammyF · March 2012

You've totally been around long enough that I trusted you weren't asking for help to actively pirate a game, but asking about DRM free specifically did sort of sound like 'I want something where it's easy to violate the EULA." And even if you specifically aren't looking to pirate a game, it's not necessarily the case that someone who is willing to pirate a game might read this thread. Which is why I'd been reticent to respond.

I will totally second Allegiance as a good, free LAN party game, though, and Artemis is fantastic, particularly if you and your friends are a bunch of gigantic nerds. It's almost as much fun to watch people play Artemis as it is to play it yourself. Observe:

This is quite possibly the nerdiest group of people that ever managed to get two relatively attractive girls to dress up and LARP Star Trek with them. I've watched this video four or five times, and it makes me roll my eyes every time. I'm pretty sure a couple of the guys in the video are rolling their eyes a bit, too. But it also looks like they're having fun, and if you can get five other people to show up at your house, put on a costume and play this game with you -- and let you record it! -- you know you have some really good friends.

Elimination · March 2012

amateurhour wrote: »

Freelancer is pretty cheap now and you can set up a LAN to have your own space pirate adventures. It's still a great game.

edit: everyone would need a copy, but I think you can get it for under $10 now.

Also if you haven't yet, check out GOG.com. There's a whole library of sub $5 games everyone could pick up to play.

I own a lot of games on gog.com actually. Allegiance I looked up and it sounds almost like an MMO, does it really work well with only about 6 or so people on it at once?

TychoCelchuuu · March 2012

Don't go with Allegiance. It's not an MMO in any sense of the word but it's totally not a game for a group of people who have no idea what they're doing.

Ruckus · March 2012

Elimination wrote: »

I heard somewhere that the old command & conquer games were now free somewhere as well? Kind of like MEchwarrior 4 merchs and Mech Commander? These might work out as well if rumour is true.

The original C&C was released as freeware, you can get both discs here. Unfortunately it's damn near impossible to play via network on anything newer than Windows XP.

Elimination · March 2012

Ruckus wrote: »

Elimination wrote: »

I heard somewhere that the old command & conquer games were now free somewhere as well? Kind of like MEchwarrior 4 merchs and Mech Commander? These might work out as well if rumour is true.

The original C&C was released as freeware, you can get both discs here. Unfortunately it's damn near impossible to play via network on anything newer than Windows XP.

Ah thats too bad. =(

Also on the allegiance thing yeah, I looked really complicated I don't think it's really going to work when none of us have ever played it before.

dispatch.o · March 2012

The original Ground Control was released as a free game when GC2 came out. It's a nifty RTS.

Elimination · March 2012

dispatch.o wrote: »

The original Ground Control was released as a free game when GC2 came out. It's a nifty RTS.

Ground Control has no multiplayer though.

TychoCelchuuu · March 2012

Yes it does.

Elimination · March 2012

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

Yes it does.

Well the second one doesn't so I just assumed.

TychoCelchuuu · March 2012

The Empire Strikes Back is lacking a Death Star but that doesn't mean Luke blew up a giant pumpkin in the first movie...

Figgy · March 2012

Elimination wrote: »

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

When he asks for "DRM free" games he's asking for games he can buy one copy of and share with the rest of the LAN party. Whether that's "piracy" or "spawning" or whatever you want to call it is sort of up in the air, but he didn't just ask for cheap or free to play games, which is probably why you're getting reports.

Yes I am not looking to pirate. I am looking for games where I dont have to buy a copy for me, and then 10 more for all my friends. I don't mean easy to pirate. Games like that Artemis look perfect, its DRM free and pretty much designed with a LAN party in mind. I don't know why people would report me for asking about LAN party games.

Well, to be perfectly fair, asking for a game where you only need to buy a single copy for an entire LAN party because it's DRM-free is pretty much what piracy is. Except for the very, very rare case where the game specifically allows you to share it with your LAN party.

But in the effort to continue to help you, you can get a free copy of ARTEMIS from the devs:

http://www.artemis.eochu.com/?page_id=46

pacbowl · March 2012

There's FreeCiv, basically a remake of Civilization IV but freeware. It has LAN support and it fully moddable but it sure can eat up gaming time.

Red Alert was also released for free when C&C 3 came out. I think it supports multi.

Elimination · March 2012

Figgy wrote: »

Elimination wrote: »

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

When he asks for "DRM free" games he's asking for games he can buy one copy of and share with the rest of the LAN party. Whether that's "piracy" or "spawning" or whatever you want to call it is sort of up in the air, but he didn't just ask for cheap or free to play games, which is probably why you're getting reports.

Yes I am not looking to pirate. I am looking for games where I dont have to buy a copy for me, and then 10 more for all my friends. I don't mean easy to pirate. Games like that Artemis look perfect, its DRM free and pretty much designed with a LAN party in mind. I don't know why people would report me for asking about LAN party games.

Well, to be perfectly fair, asking for a game where you only need to buy a single copy for an entire LAN party because it's DRM-free is pretty much what piracy is. Except for the very, very rare case where the game specifically allows you to share it with your LAN party.

But in the effort to continue to help you, you can get a free copy of ARTEMIS from the devs:

http://www.artemis.eochu.com/?page_id=46

I dont think installing a game I bought onto 3 PC's, all of which I own, with a game I legitimately bought is piracy, but hey, im not here to pirate, as I said. So lets drop it? And someone already posted about the free thing but that wont really help me out as getting a free game -after- the party is kind of pointless.

Though if we like the demo, it wont be hard to justify paying for it.

I just want legally obtainable lan games that wont cost a million bucks to obtain. I think one or two other people will be bringing their own PC's though. I can't believe it's so hard these days to find LAN games that work. It's kind of sad.

Ruckus · March 2012

It is sad, most games these days are aimed more at the barely literate PC or Xbox user, all the connectivity is internet based and dumbed down to be as easy as possible for the bro-tards to get their Halo on. Back in our day we had our dedicated servers and Cat5 strung all over the garage. We had to wait like an hour while everyone got their Age of Empires or Starcraft all patched up to the proper version and IP's manually set. Those were the glory days.

Melinoe · March 2012

Goldeneye Source is pretty fun and I believe it is LAN friendly, although I've never done it so you'd have to read up on it. Either way you should get whoever is going to play it to download it ahead of time, as it's distributed via torrent and can take a little while to download. It also requires some sort of Steam Dev Kit thing but it tries to install that on Steam when you open the game so it makes it pretty easy.

Sir Carcass · March 2012

Another option would be to set up a Terraria server. It's not DRM free, but the game is only $10 or you can buy a 4 pack for $30.

Elimination · March 2012

Sir Carcass wrote: »

Another option would be to set up a Terraria server. It's not DRM free, but the game is only $10 or you can buy a 4 pack for $30.

Actually I didn't think of that. I think a lot of us already have Terraria, thats a good idea.

Fubear · March 2012

Melinoe wrote: »

Goldeneye Source is pretty fun and I believe it is LAN friendly, although I've never done it so you'd have to read up on it. Either way you should get whoever is going to play it to download it ahead of time, as it's distributed via torrent and can take a little while to download. It also requires some sort of Steam Dev Kit thing but it tries to install that on Steam when you open the game so it makes it pretty easy.

Goldeneye Source Wiki: Install

You need to have purchased a Source-based game and Steam already installed. YMMV on whether it would be worth it. (It probably is. I played Beta 3 (it's at full release 4.1 now) and much fun was had.).

List of games with Source Engine

edit: It's a 1.2 GB download from a direct DL site. Might want to have some flash drives handy.

Rook · March 2012

Demigod can be installed on multiple PCs at a LAN, it's even in the license agreement that this is fine. I think Sins of a Solar Empire is the same.

Ruckus · March 2012

Total Annihilation or TA: Kingdoms is onsale at GOG.com for $2.99 right now.

Prime · March 2012

Didnt want to start a new thread for this as its related, Im having a hell of a time finding good 3 player PC games, I've got a few mates coming over next week for a long weekend and our 4th man dropped, basically blowing all our 2v2 competitive games out the water too. DRM is fine, we have no problem buying mid priced games. Co Op would be best but we are not against comp stomping too, but the AI would need to be hard, no fun in thrashing the computer without a challenge.

So far we have:

Diablo 2
Dungeon Defenders
Swat 4
LFD2

Whats the AI like in:
Warcraft 3?
Dawn of War (1/2)?
Company of Heros?
Supreme Commander 1

MechMantis · March 2012

The AI in most/all of those RTSes isn't anything to write home about if you know what you're doing. However, you can easily compensate by having more computers attacking you than there are players.

Penny Arcade

DRM Free/ Lan games

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