Free Games

[Unregistered]

man i am one of those poeple who spend their money on good hardware but hate buying any software at all, i do endless searches just to find one game on the net, does anybody know places where u can get free games that dont suck?!

[ZekeSulastin]

www.freewarepalm.com

Maybe you should search somewhere other than your dumb rear.

[jeebus]

:confused: Perhaps you should reread the post. I don't recall him mentioning anything about looking in his dumb rear... :confused:

Anyhow my good man, are you looking for freeware, shareware, warez or wares?

[Ptah]

I smell a troll

[smoothjordan]

I like igzo. It runs mega fast on OS5, but on any other device it's great. You can just keep installing demos. I used to do that until I bought some software.
Smooth

[zamanakhan]

where can u get warez because there is no good shareware of freeware

[RyanBruner]

Perhaps, then, you could try BUYING some software? What a novel idea!

[zamanakhan]

Why would you want to pay for something others get for free. Take piracy for example more than 75% of the country. Nobody wants to pay for anything that u can just get for free i know i wouldnt and i am pretty sure you fell the same way.

[RyanBruner]

No, I don't. Piracy is stealing. Companies and individuals spent precious time developing software. If you are going to use it, they deserve compensation for it. Just because someone figured out how to steal it without much effort for you doesn't make it any less wrong.

Just because no one wants to pay for it doesn't justify stealing it. If no one really wants to pay for it, they shouldn't use it!

I'm a developer, myself. Not of games...but I spend many hours developing a tool I think will be useful. I don't expect a lot...but I do expect that if people are going to use this software, they will pay for it to make it worth my while to continue developing it. Even though I make very little from it relative to the amount of time I spend...without that financial incentive, I would have better things to do with that time. I have, after all, a full-time job, a wife and 4 kids, and am actively involved in other things. The developers of other software are in similar boats...some may even be making a living off of that software.

PAY THEM FOR IT!

[smoothjordan]

Well put Ryan. I suggest paying for any and all software. Warez isn't really that safe if you ask me. If they are going to do something illegal and hack it what makes you think they wouldn't put a virus in it and try to destroy your pda? Just a safety precaution.
Smooth

[zamanakhan]

I see your point ryan but there is no way to actually stop piracy, i am not saying that every software i own is off the net. when i see that iam always paying for my stuff and my friends just got the samething for free off of the net, i feel like a sucker thinking i just spent over 200 dollars for this software and i just could of as easily of downloaded it. It doesn't seem like stealing because so many people do it (i never saw it in that perspective) and people who do it are just normal people. Still i dont think i will stop because most of these companies overcharge for their products.

[RyanBruner]

Originally posted by zamanakhan
I see your point ryan but there is no way to actually stop piracy, i am not saying that every software i own is off the net. when i see that iam always paying for my stuff and my friends just got the samething for free off of the net, i feel like a sucker thinking i just spent over 200 dollars for this software and i just could of as easily of downloaded it. It doesn't seem like stealing because so many people do it (i never saw it in that perspective) and people who do it are just normal people. Still i dont think i will stop because most of these companies overcharge for their products.


Here's some more to think about:

1. You aren't a "sucker"...would you feel the same way if all of your friends got cars or CDs or something else by simply stealing it from the store, where you actually paid for it? You aren't the sucker in that case...but you are doing what is right, and they are not. With software, it is hard, because unliike physical objects, it exists as data...and as such, can be copied. That doesn't make it any more right...it is just a fact of the digital medium that can't be avoided. Despite all attempts to prevent copying, people still figure out ways around it. Just because it can be done, however, NEVER makes it okay.

2. People who do it are not normal people...they are thieves who are lying to themselves to justify stealing. Sounds harsh, I know...but it is true. I even have a brother-in-law who finds no problem with doing it despite all my "sermons" about it to him. He is stealing, no matter how "normal" he is in every other regard.

3. How many software applications do you actually pay $200 for? Not many...and those that are tend to be VERY complex pieces of software, such as Operating systems, or Office suites, etc.

4. How can you say that a company overcharges for software? If that were the case, people wouldn't pay for it. They own the rights, they can charge what they want. If people don't feel that the software is worth that amount, they won't buy it. As a result, the software company will not sell enough to stay alive. They will likely sell it for a lower price until they get the right balance to keep a steady income to pay for further development (and even make a bit of a profit, for commercial companies). Perhaps you aren't aware of how much it actually COSTS to develop software...at least at the commercial level. There is, of course, the developer's paycheck, as well as those who might be involved in marketing, sales. There are tool costs, etc. If a lone developer does it all, and they want to make a modest $60,000 a year off of some software at, say, 1,000 purchases a year...that would mean they need to sell at a minimum of $60. That would be hard...so, they likely sell for more like $30, and hope for 2,000+ sales a year. $30 may seem high to you...but it is not really a lot. Plus, if they sell through a play like PalmGear or Handango, they take a MINIMUM of 25% of every sale...and potentially up to 50%.

We all get used to free or shareware software written by people who either just do it fo the fun of it, or just on some spare time they have. But, unfortunately, most developers don't have that luxury! And those developing software that is sold shouldn't have to lose out on their money just because others manage to write software for free. Of course, they will have to remain competitive to the free software...offering things that the free software doesn't in order to make it worth their customer's while to purchase it!

[zamanakhan]

like you said that your brotherinlaw has no problem doing it even through yer lectures, iam not saying that you little speech doesnot effect me, but i probably will commit piracy once in a while its not in me to spend too much money partly because i am unemployed and i dont want to spend to much of my savings, plus i havent done it in like 3 years because i hate downloading on 56k (i moved to a place where you cant get better speed than dialup) and it is very difficult to find sites on 56k, i dont think i'll stop completely but maybe i'll just stop downloading as much.

[yorrick]

Apart from the simple maths - how about "do to others as you would have done to yourself"?

If you put a lot of time, effort and money into developing software or songs to make a living and to feed yourself, then to have someone rip it off - what incentive is there to write software?

Your assumption that every software developer is successful like Microsoft or music seller like Sony is sadly misplaced. For every successful software developer, there are hundreds trying to survive.

Just because "most people" pirate software does not justify it's practice. It's like saying "more people kill each other today than 20 years ago, so it is now okay to kill someone" is a facetious argument.

[smoothjordan]

Good point yorrick. I believe that piracy is wrong, but as stated before, it will ALWAYS happen. There are many who cannot afford the software so they turn to different means. Piracy is the only way some people would get the software they have. I, as well as probably everyone on this board, is guilty of some sort of piracy. My major one would be all the music I had downloaded sometime ago. It's not right, but I went along with the crowd.
Smooth

[RyanBruner]

And, of course, the next question is why someone feels they have a right to something that they cannot afford? PDAs are, after all, LUXURY items...and games even more so. Why would one feel that he "can't afford it" (though, that is rarely actually the case) and therefore should be able to download it for free, illegally?

Does one get the right to steal cable from the cable company if they can't afford it?

:-)

[smoothjordan]

Ryan,
I agree with you 100%. I'm just saying that some people seriously cannot afford software, not only palm software. Most, if not all students, need Microsoft Word or Office, or Corel. The memo pad just won't do. Now what if someone really can't afford it. Would it be right for them to just deal with it, or find it free on the internet? I'm not saying it's right, but generally this is what happens. However, the main cause of piracy is cheapness (is that a word) and the unwillingness to support anything that requires money.

[cbulock]

I think another reason for such high levels of people stealing software is how easy it is to do. I imagine if stores didn't have any kind of security and it was easy to take items like PDA's or whatever, they would. Kind of a sad fact.

[RyanBruner]

Originally posted by smoothjordan
Ryan,
I'm just saying that some people seriously cannot afford software, not only palm software. Most, if not all students, need Microsoft Word or Office, or Corel. The memo pad just won't do.

Of course, I could counter that by pointing that that all Windows OS versions that I'm aware of come with WordPad, which will perform most basic word-processing necessities in a pinch. Most PCs come bundled with productivity software. There are several open-source/freeware applications to fill the hole as well. Again, no need to steal even in those cases that students don't have money. On top of that, you can use computers at libraries or schools themselves to get work done. Inconvenient, yes...but such is life.

We have 200+ CDs in our collection...paid for each and every one of them...many during times when we had to scrimp and save to pay for them. It infuriates me, truly, when I see people just download music off the internet and given upteen reasons why it is "okay" when none of them are truly valid reasons. Same with software. Hence, why I have trouble walking away from this discussion. :-)

[yorrick]

This is wandering off topic from Palm software ...

Microsoft produces academic versions of the software which is the same as the fully fledged software, but it is for students and tutors.

They now rely on your honesty on purchasing the software that you are a legit student or tutor/lecturer without any forms to fill out.

The fact that it costs 20-30% of the full price, I feel is a huge step in making software affordable to students and they have taken a huge step of trust on the consumer.

It still isn't cheap, but it does make you prioritise your money - whether you will fritter it away on luxuries or necessities....

[benji]

An interesting debate with valid arguments from both sides. Just thought I would ad my opinion.

The downloading music analogy is a good one, but not quite as straight forward. Music CDs are distributed and published by huge corporations like Sony etc, and as such make most of the money per CD sold, very little actually goes to the artist. But, as a result of the HUGE number of sales made due to the marketing and distributional powers of these mega-corporations the artists can still make the big time.

As we are all aware this happy (although unbalanced in that the distributers make more money than the artist because they make money from ALL of the artists) situation was undermined with the online music downloading revolution started by Napster. The same things is around the corner with movies too - but thats another story.

My point is that as a result of this uprising of peer-to-peer music downloading the market has been forced to either adapt or loose sales. So it adapted. The result? iTunes Music Store and the new Napster (now owned by I think?) equivalent. This, in my opinion is a huge leap forward as it takes away some of the unfair profits reaped by the distributors whilst ensuring that the artists are paid their dues. Of course the distribution firms will still make multi billion dollar profits from the online music stores because they are still the copyright owners of the tracks and it is still them who makes the money from the purchases. However, the point is, you are for the first time legally granted the freedom to pay for the music that you actually want. We have all been buying albums with 10-15+ tracks on them and paying the associated price, but do we actually LIKE all of those tracks?? Of course not!! Online music stores allow you to make the choice by only paying for the tracks you want. This means your money goes further because you can have a greater variety of music for the same amount. Anyway, this combined with other advantages such as the sheer convenience of online downloading, guaranteed quality and knowing you are still supporting the artists means that they have succeeded in tackling the problem of illegal music downloading, keeping everybody happy.

No back to the discussion topic! In areas such as software there has ALWAYS been a problem because software, as someone mentioned early, is by nature copyable. Music hasn't always been available in digital forms. So there is less room for adaptation in the realms of software, you cant move away from an old format.

As mentioned before the tangibility of the products plays an important part, you are happy to pay $300 dollars for an item of hardware but struggle to justify $20 dollars on software. If you take the actual physical costs of manufacturing the hardware out of the equation you are still left with a hefty profit margin, larger, no doubt, that $20 on a $300 piece of hardware. Which means you should be equally doubtful about paying that money for the item of hardware. Would that make you steel it? Id hope not! And you wouldn't get very far if you did! There would be a pack of police on you in no time.

And there is another difference between hardware and software sales, it is practically impossible to police the internet, whereas it is very easy to police the high street. But just that still doesn't make it right. The point is, though, without policing people DO steel, in situations where there are no police on the high street people do just go and steel products, look at Iraq after the war, with no police force people looted the hell out of everything, but once some sort of law and order was restored by the US military the looting stopped. And the point is we cant blame them because we do it with digital content. There are few ways to police the internet and people take advantage of it - so maybe we are all wrong, no amount of persuading will persuade people to stop illegally downloading content, and no amount of persuading from the downloaders will convince the developers to offer the software for free, for obvious reasons!!

The solution can only be to increase levels of security on the internet and infringe the rights to privacy of its users, no doubt people will also oppose this, and I am also unhappy about the idea of a "Big Brother" reading my emails and monitoring the files I download. But, I have nothing to hide so I suppose I cant really say much - and if it is necessary to stop terrorists and pedophiles then I must say I am in favor of such moves. And if the technology is used to prevent terrorists and pedophiles then why not extend it to prevent theft of software and music too. It is after all no different to security cameras in shops, cities and over highways.

Anyway, I know I haven't really come to any conclusions but I hope I have made everyone think a bit!! I personally do purchase software for both my computer and my palm, I have spent about £3000 ($6k?) on software for my business, and this is why if I was a developer I would certainly need to make money from software I make, because the software to make the software costs money too!

Fairly off-topic I know so I will say there are some excellent game demos available (with no time limits just feature limits) available at popcap.com. Insaniquarium is especially good! So much so in fact that I went and paid the $14 for the full version! (But the demo is still fun!)

Ben

[benji]

In fact the registration code for Insaniquarium has just been emailed to me so I'm off to play it now!!

[benji]

Oh, "cbulock", just read your post, must have missed it - I agree totally and would have referred to your comments if id noticed, so ill do it now! everybody, cbulock said it first!!! ;-)

[zamanakhan]

I have nothing more to say except the fact that you will not be able to stop piracy, and the fact that if stores didnt have any means to stop people from stealing, most people that use piracy will not steal, beacuse it is a proven fact that people are diffrent when they are on the net they are more open and use termenology that they would not use in real life, they are more open. therefore they are ok with stealing on the net then in actual stores because they feel that no one is watching them and they can do what ever the hell they want.

[benji]

Yeah but what if they were being watched?....

[cbulock]

Originally posted by benji
Oh, "cbulock", just read your post, must have missed it - I agree totally and would have referred to your comments if id noticed, so ill do it now! everybody, cbulock said it first!!! ;-)
I might have said it first, but you certainly went into much more detail. :)

[fssia]

Originally posted by benji
[BInsaniquarium is especially good! So much so in fact that I went and paid the $14 for the full version! (But the demo is still fun!)

Ben [/B]Hey u should have got it during mid - end of Dec 2003. Insaniquarium & Cubis were offered at almost half the price. So do look out for special offers from Astraware. Best of all, subscribe to their e-newsletter. ;)

To the original poster, try SpaceTrader. It's a cool game that is absolutely free & it is not a warez. Other free games I have come across are Nono & Marbles2. And the demos for sharewares like Bejeweled, Cubis, Dynomite are fun enough to get u hooked for life! :D

[smoothjordan]

Benji
I agree with you almost the whole way, except for one thing. You were talking about giving up rights to "Big Brother" to make you feel safer from pedophiles and terrorists. This I would like, but there is no way, if you give that freedom up, to get it back. This is a simple concept we have been learning about in History class. As soon as someone gives up a little of their freedom, they don't get it back, and soon they have given up all their freedom for total safety and we have a Nazi party. That's all I gotta say bout that.
Bejeweled, Cubis, and Insainaquarium... MY all time fav games

[benji]

Smoothjordan,
yeah, good point. but like i said -- im not really in favor of such an invasion of privacy, in fact I'm usually pretty anti such things at all, but there have been quite a few things on the news recently about pedophiles on the internet and the forces are basically saying there is no way to stop it because of how the internet is so untouchable. I think maybe tighter security on the actual website side of things might be appropriate here - for example to have a website you must be checked out first perhaps, and must be identifiable to law enforcement. But no - on an individual citizen level I don't think its right to have to give up basic levels of privacy where emails, faxes and phone calls are concerned. The question is have we already unknowingly given up these rights? There are plenty of sources that say the government security forces already have this power and use it, but that really is another story.

[zamanakhan]

Originally posted by benji
Yeah but what if they were being watched?....

There is such a thing as an ip blocker

[smoothjordan]

Benji
Thanks for all of your positive insights on this matter. I wasn't sure what you meant, but you cleared it all up. Anyways, my favorite free game is Rick Dangerous!
Smooth

[mailrail]

You know...there are actually SOME people in the world who ENJOY developing programs, etc. that they put out for free for their community of friends to use. Anyone who flightsims gets 99.9% of the add-ons they use for free - mainly because those who build the stuff get off by seeing their work downloaded and put to good use.

Not everyone in this world is out to make a buck. Some people do it for the enjoyment of others. Imagine that...

[fssia]

I guess that is why Palm OS still have a lot of freeware. I wish I have learn programming while I was in Uni. :(