Matrix Games Forums

http://whitedoggames.com/freegames00.html

They have Knights of the Sky WWI dogfight game. [for Joel Billings]

AND! HANNIBAL VS ROME! FREE!!!!

The Battle of Isandlawhana ZULUS!

Several others I'm sure many of you will enjoy.

It's like DVG computer games but it ain't.

diablo1, you sound like a spambot.[:D]

EDIT: Interesting site thanks for the link.

Welcome. Amazing little games. These remind me of the good old days when you got games 25mb or less with a lot of play value. Knights of the Sky is sort of like the game I've been looking for "Eagles" done by SSI way back in the 80's.

I wonder if "Fighter Command" is a ported version of the old SSI game for the Apple II? (And arguably the best wargame ever written for that platform.)

ORIGINAL: Capt. Harlock

I wonder if "Fighter Command" is a ported version of the old SSI game for the Apple II? (And arguably the best wargame ever written for that platform.)

It's not.

Well it's a close 2nd as you assign squadrons just like in Fighter Command, stand down fatigued ones and have to take on the Germans with reduced forces. It's actually quite fun I just played it. The little chits with the numbers on them are simular to Fighter Commands only FC had plane icons on their chits as well as the numbers.
 
Another fun one is the Waterloo game it reminds me a lot of Avalon Hills Waterloo. These games are really simple to play yet can be hard to master. I got my butt shot off already in Knights of the Sky.

Sorry - but how the hell can you go back to games like this for any length of time?

I understand the memory value to some people, but once that's gone (very shortly) - what's the point?

Those days were days of innovation - but I can't see any replay value in these. That Fighter Command - clicking a single button and reading boring text. Assigning patrols to protect airfields, cities or radar - is that it? Really? And you're going to get how many minutes enjoyment out of that?

It's fair to say some games from the past have great mechanics programmed into them. It's also fair to say that some newer games (disappointingly) either don't expand on those great features or actually drop some features already developed 15-20 years ago - and that's is rather depressing.

But you seriously can't sit and play these for any length of time, can you?

ORIGINAL: diablo1

Well it's a close 2nd

You're kidding right?

ORIGINAL: E

ORIGINAL: diablo1

Well it's a close 2nd

You're kidding right?

Nope I played it and it easily reminds me of Fighter Command only on a much smaller simple scale which I like as I never finished a single game of Fighter Command because it just took too long.

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

Sorry - but how the hell can you go back to games like this for any length of time?

I understand the memory value to some people, but once that's gone (very shortly) - what's the point?

Those days were days of innovation - but I can't see any replay value in these. That Fighter Command - clicking a single button and reading boring text. Assigning patrols to protect airfields, cities or radar - is that it? Really? And you're going to get how many minutes enjoyment out of that?

It's fair to say some games from the past have great mechanics programmed into them. It's also fair to say that some newer games (disappointingly) either don't expand on those great features or actually drop some features already developed 15-20 years ago - and that's is rather depressing.

But you seriously can't sit and play these for any length of time, can you?

I could say the same about chess, checkers, monopoly, and the many other old games of the past from Avalon Hill or SPI etc. It's by "choice" and among other things "time factors". These games from this site play out quickly, simple rules, simple play. For those with very little time on their hands these can be great choices for a quick gaming session.

Fighter Command can't be any more boring than ACW or those other AGEOD games where you read "boring text" and click a few buttons each turn assiging orders and deployments. Just depends on what one likes.

Right now I can sit and play Knights of the Sky for a length of time as it's quite fun and has that one more turn experience for me. I'm also eyeballing Hannibal against Rome.

Well one of my beefs about current games is that there is alot of boring text to read - quite often I'm jumped upon by grognards when I suggest that some sort of video introduction/mission briefing should be available. Makes it less boring, much, MUCH more interesting...throw in some java graphical stuff and hey presto - game is transformed.

And it is objective - I agree. But I find the idea of going "backwards" - especially to this level - abhorrent. It's especially annoying when they can get away with "going backwards" in newly released games.

ORIGINAL: diablo1

These remind me of the good old days when you got games 25mb or less with a lot of play value.

Now put that in perspective of what size a "normal" harddrive was back then

My Apple IIe didn't have a hard drive but I did have two floppy drives.

Yeah you were rich if you had two floppy drives back in the good ole days so you didn't have to play swap the floppy when games came with 2 floppy disks. I remember when those floppy drives were as much as the computers to. I couldn't wait till I could afford my first one and I still have it to this day. And ohhhh the day I got my first Amiga 500 man those were the days. 8 glorious years of the Commodore 64 though without having to buy a new video card or more ram was the best. I did have to buy a new power supply once though man that $24.99 was such a hit to my pocket book lol. Games were still $30-$40 pretty regularly though unless you found Chips & Bits and later Software Botique that had some pretty good discounts. Then later there were outlet stores that sold games for $5 like today and you could get atari, intellivision and commodore 64 games from them.
 
So the old games and graphics don't bother me as long as they are still fun and challenging. Most of todays gigabyte stuff is graphics anyways and code for real time animations vs pretty much everything was turn based back in the good ole days.
 
On a different note one new game that's come out recently "Guardians of Graxia" is pretty good buy for $8.99 with very nice graphics and solid gameplay and challenging ai. No random maps but they are selling map paks for like $2.98 DLC @ Steam I believe. You can also get the main game from Gamersgate but not the map paks yet.

Day of Spears is very tempting for less than $7. I've always been fascinated by the British and Zulu wars. 

Well it depends on the game. I still play Age of Rifles and the Great Battles series of ancients.

Sulla that's great I've played those two as well recently. 
 
I've never understood somes thinking that just because a game is several or many years old that one shouldn't want to play it anymore because of all the new stuff. Or that if someone wants to program today with older graphics technology with pretty good ai and wants to give much of it away for "free" I don't see anything wrong with that or playing it for awhile. Most of the stuff today anyway is just reincarnated older games with a new skin and an overpriced price tag.

Thanks for the link. Down loaded some freebies and looking forward to playing.

Welcome Alan I hope others find this thread and get some enjoyment out of those little games. It's nice to be able to play something simple and easy without having to pay $40-$50 for it from time to time.