Free alternatives to classic games

[MrFlibble]

Not long ago I've become interested in freeware games whose authors seem to consciously imitate well-known classics, or at least closely follow them in design. If a commercial game of this kind could be considered a "clone" (made to repeat the original's success on the market), freeware games usually aim for accurate recreation of the game's atmosphere and mechanics, as people behind them are more often that not dedicated fans of the originals. Many of these are open source games, but not all of them, so there's only a partial overlap with Open Source Game Clones.

Update from 2023/05/02: Another complete overhaul of the lists, with simplified groupings and presentation.

Clones and similar games

A-Train - FreeTrain
Abuse - fRaBs
Advance Wars - Tanks of Freedom
Age of Empires - 0 A.D., The Fertile Crescent
Alien Breed - Alien Assault II
Alien Shooter - Theseus: Return of the Hero
Anno 1602 - Unknown Horizons
Another World, Flashback - onEscapee (MajorGeeks.com)
Arcade Volleyball - Hairy Harry
Arkanoid - PopCorn
Asteroids - Roxx
Astrosmash - Cosmosmash
Atic Atac - The Burps (TheBurps.zip)
Atomix - WAtomic, Atomic, Moleculix, Atomix (NiMuSi Software)
Bard's Tale Construction Set, The - Bt Builder
Bard's Tale, The - The Bard's Lore, The Bard's Quest, Tower of Fortune
Battle Isle II - Advanced Strategic Command, Crimson Fields
Bejeweled - Freegemas
Bomberman - Mr.Boom, Fracas, Bombs and Bugs, I Can't Believe It's Not Bomberman (Wayback Machine)
Bombuzal - Bombzuka
Boulder Dash - GDash, Rocks'n'Diamonds, RockRush
Bouncing Babies - Gargoyle Revenge
Breakout - Mega Breakout
Bubble Bobble - Acter World
Bust-a-Move/Puzzle Bobble - Bobble Puzzle, Frozen Bubble, Zorx
Carrier Command - Thunder&Lightning
Castlevania - Silver Night's Crusaders
Catacomb Abyss, The - The Vigilance of Nephthys
Centipede - Megapede'95, Crawly-Pede, The Rustic Classics
Chaos - Anarchy, Chaos Reborn
Chip's Challenge - Tile World
Choplifter - Airlift Rescue (rescue.zip)
Chuckie Egg - Chickie Egg
Clonk - OpenClonk
Columns - Bref, Columns (Brian Boese)
Command & Conquer - Dark Konflict, Future Conflict (fc_101pm.zip), Arrakis, Eudora, Dark Konflict (caiman.us), OpenHV, Annex: Conquer the World
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun - Fractured Realms
Commander Keen (second trilogy) - Planet Cloudius IX
Connect 4 - Velena
Contra - iiChantra
Crayon Physics - Numpty Physics
Crillion - HitBlock, Crillion '97
Crimsonland - Bloodworks, Violetland
Crusade - Conquests
Crystal Quest - XQuest
Daedalian Opus - Puzmania
Defender - Defendguin, Abductor, Glook
Defender of the Crown - King Arthur's KORT (download), Knights of War
Deflektor - Mirror Magic, Reflektor
Descent - Sublevel Zero (Prototype) (mega.nz)
Diablo - FreedroidRPG, FLARE, Summoning Wars
Doom - Freedoom (Phase 1), Harmony, Shaw's Nightmare, Anarch
Doom II - Freedoom (Phase 2), HacX, Shaw's Nightmare II
Duke Nukem 1 - Dave Gnukem
Duke Nukem 3D - Mr The Killer, Shadow Warrior
Dungeon Keeper - OpenDungeons, Dwelvers (Alpha), OpenDungeons Plus
DX-Ball / MegaBall - SDL-Ball
Elasto Mania - XMoto
Elite - Oolite
Empire Deluxe - GEMpire
Escape Velocity - NAEV
Fantastic Dizzy - Giddy 3: The Retro Eggsperience
Flight Sim Toolkit - OpenFly
Forgotten Realms: Unlimited Adventures - Dungeon Craft
FreeCell - Bolitaire
Freespace 2 - Wings of Dawn
Frogger - Revenge of Froggie, DIV Frogger, Toad
Frontier: Elite II - Pioneer
Galaga - Cosmic Ambush
Galaxian - Galaxi
Gradius - Hydorah
Grand Prix Legends - Dolphinity Racer
Great Giana Sisters, The - Akiko and Minami
Guitar Hero - Frets on Fire
Gun - Guns and Spurs
Heretic - Blasphemer
Herzog Zwei - Herzog 3D, RAD - Rapid Aerial Deployment
Hovertank 3D - Robot Redemption (source code)
Jetpac - Jetpak (JETPAK.zip), Jetman (jetman.zip)
Knights and Merchants - Knights Province
Kula World / Roll Away - Cubosphere
Lemmings - Lix, Pingus, Hamsters, Lemmis
Lethal Tender - Industrial Killers (ikillers.zip)
Lode Runner - Infiltrator, Scavenger
Lords of Midnight, The - Lords of Midnight PC, The War of the Solstice
Lost Vikings, The - freeVikings
M.A.X. - M.A.X. Reloaded
MadTV - TVTower
Magic Carpet - Ogrian Carpet
Master of Monsters - The Battle for Wesnoth
Master of Orion - Star Lords, Remnants of the Precursors, FreeOrion
Mastermind - Dr. Mind
Mechwarrior - Linwarrior 3D
Mega Lo Mania - Gigalomania
Mega Man - Rockbot
Minecraft - Manic Digger, Minetest
Mortal Kombat - Open Mortal
Natural Selection - Tremulous, Unvanquished
Nibbles - Zmiy, The Rustic Classics, Nibbles (George Tzoumas)
OutRun - 'GhiniRun, RunOut
Oxyd - Enigma
Pac-Man - Paku Paku, Greedy, Open Greedy
Pang - Pang Zero, PANGG!
Panzer General - LGeneral + K.u.k. General
Panzer General II - Open General, OpenPanzer / Panzer Marshal
Paradroid - Short Cut
Paratrooper - Ack-Ack Attack!
Pengo - WetSpot 2
Pong - Emeritus Pong
Populous - Reprisal Universe (Beta)
Pulsoids - Pulsoid
Puzznic - Brix, Wizznic!, Japure
Quake - LibreQuake, Open Quartz, Open Quartz 2, Nexuiz Classic, Rexuiz, Xonotic
Quake II - CodeRED - Battle For Earth, CodeRED - The Martian Chronicles, Alien Arena, D-Day Normandy, Warsow
Quake III Arena - OpenArena, Acid Arena, World of Pandman
Quest for Glory - Heroine's Quest
R-Type - GazerStar
Raptor: Call of the Shadows - Kraptor, Rafkill
Repton 3 - Rock 'n' Spin
Rescue! - Rescue! Max
Rick Dangerous - Lao's Quest
Rise of the Triad - Rise of the Wool Ball
Robbo / The Adventures of Robbo - GNU Robbo
Robotron - Llamatron
Rogue - Rogue Clone IV, TileRogue
RPG Maker - EasyRPG, Open RPG Maker
Scorched Earth - Atomic Tanks, Scorched3D
Scramble - Zeroth Zone
Secret Agent - Special Agent
Sensible (World of) Soccer - YSoccer, Tux Football, Open World Soccer
Sentinel - Sentry
Settlers II, The - Widelands
Settlers of Catan, The - Pioneers
Sid Meier's Civilization - Freeciv, Great Nations, Kingdoms, Conquests
Sid Meier's Civilization II - Freeciv, C-evo
Sid Meier's Civilization V - Unciv
Sid Meier's Colonisation - FreeCol
SimCity - Lincity, LinCity-NG, OpenCity
SolarFox - SolarWolf
Sonic the Hedgehog - Open Surge
Sopwith - Sopwith (The Author's Edition), Sopwith 3
Space Hulk - Alien Assault
Space Invaders - Spaced-Out Invaders, XInvaders 3D
Space Quest - Cosmos Quest
Spit Wad Willy/Pea Shootin' Pete - Bubble Jeopardy (dpdl_bubble.zip)
Star Castle - Star Fortress
Star Wars: TIE Fighter - Space Combat
StarCraft - Priority: Survive, Bos Wars (latest Windows build), Astroseries
Starion - Starion 2010
Stars! - Stars! Nova
Street Fighter II - Super Fighter, Tough Guy
Stunts - Ultimate Stunts
Super Hexagon - Open Hexagon
Super Mario Bros. - Secret Maryo Chronicles, SuperTux
Super Mario Kart - SuperTuxKart
Super Monkey Ball - Neverball
Super-VGA Harrier - Jaguar GR1: Strike Force Delta Zulu, Tornado Squadron, Skyhawk Attack
Terminal Velocity - TerraScape: Breakdown Velocity
Tetris - Super ACiD Block Attack, Falling Block Game, Ptakovina, Tetris QUEEN
Thief: The Dark Project - The Dark Mod
Thrust - Thrust
Titan - Colossus
Total Annihilation - Zero-K, Robotic War, War Machines, Beyond All Reason
Tower Toppler - Tower Toppler
Trailblazer - Blazing Trails
Transport Tycoon Deluxe - OpenTTD, Simutrans
Tron - Cycles 3D
Trugg - Heartlight PC
Turrican II - Hurrican
Ugh! - CaveExpress
Ultima I-III - The Kingdom of Syree, The Kingdom of Syree 2
Ultima IV-V - Haxima
Ultima VI - IRE
Ultimate Doom, The - Freedoom (Phase 1), REKKR
Warcraft II - Aleona's Tales, Wyrmsun, Dark Oberon, Astroseries
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos - Glest, MegaGlest, Loria
Warlords - Hostile Takeover
Warlords II Deluxe - LordsAWar!
Wing Commander - Flight Commander
Wizardry VII - Escape from the Maze, Wizardry Legacy
Wolfenstein 3-D - Zillion 3D
Worms - Hedgewars, WarMUX
X-COM: Terran Defense Force / UFO: Enemy Unknown - X-Force: Fight for Destiny, UFO: Alien Invasion, UFO2000

Official/authorized remakes, source ports and fangames


Abuse - Abuse for Windows
Alien Breed - Alien Breed: Obliteration, Alien Breed Remake (Rob Farley) (1980-jeux-pc.com)
Alien Breed 3D - Project Osiris
Amulets & Armor - Amulets & Armor (Windows)
Anacreon: Reconstruction 4021 - Anacreon v2.1
Arcade Volleyball - GAV
AstroMenace - AstroMenace
Atomix - Atomiks
Blades of Exile - Open Blades of Exile
BlockOut - BlockOut II
Blood - Transfusion
Boppin' - Boppin' 2.0.5 (Windows)
Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - Broken Sword 2.5: The Return of the Templars
Buzz Aldrin's Race Into Space - Race Into Space
C-Dogs - C-Dogs SDL
Castlevania - Castlevania 2: The Lecarde Chronicles, Haunted Castle II
Chex Quest - Chex Quest 3
Command & Conquer - OpenRA, Dawn of Tomorrow, Tiberian Aurora
Command & Conquer: Renegade - Renegade X: Black Dawn
Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun - Twisted Insurrection
Cyberbox - The Continuing Adventures of Cyberbox
Cybernoid - Cybernoid I
Cylindrix - Cylindrix (Windows)
Cytadela - Cytadela
D/Generation - rE/Generation
Death Rally - Death Rally (Windows)
Deflektor - Deflektor X4
Der Clou! - Clou! Open Source Project
Digger (Alexander Lang) - Digger 2, Digger (Lutz Roeder)
Digger (Windmill Software) - Digger Remastered
Dink Smallwood - GNU FreeDink, Dink Smallwood HD
Duke Nukem 3D - Demon Throne, The AMC Squad, Hectic Realms
Eat the Whistle - Eat the Whistle GPL
Elite - Elite: The New Kind
Escape Towards the Unknown - Escape Towards the Unknown GPL
Fish Fillets - Fish Fillets NG
Gladiator - Openglad
Gravity Force 2 - Gravity Force 20
Great Giana Sisters, The - The Great Giant Sisters, Giant Worlds, Giana's Return
Greedy - Open Greedy
Gunocide II - Gunocide II EX
HacX - HacX 1.2, HacX 2.0
Homeworld - House Globe
Jet Set Willy - Top Hat Willy
Joe Snow - The Rustic Classics, Joe Snow
Ken's Labyrinth - LAB3D/SDL
King's Quest I - King's Quest I VGA
King's Quest II - King's Quest II Enhanced Edition
King's Quest III - King's Quest III: To Heir is Human, King's Quest III VGA Remake
Laser Kombat - Laser Kombat (Wouter Wijsman)
Liero - OpenLieroX
Maelstrom - Maelstrom 3.0
Marathon, Marathon 2, Marathon Infinity - Aleph One
Mercenary, Damocles, The Dion Crisis - MDDClone
Mindbender - Mirror Magic
No Gravity - No Gravity (Classic)
PopCorn - PopCorn 1988
PowBall - PowBall Deluxe
Power Pete - Mighty Mike
Prince of Persia - MININIM
Quest for Glory II - Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire
Ragnarok / Valhalla - NorseWorld: Ragnarok
Rick Dangerous - xrick
Rise of the Triad - Return of the Triad
Robbo / The Adventures of Robbo - Robbo (JavaScript)
Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries - Seven Kingdoms Ancient Adversaries
Space Quest II: Vohaul's Revenge - Space Quest II VGA Remake
Star Control II: The Ur-Quan Masters - The Ur-Quan Masters, The Ur-Quan Masters HD
Steel Panthers - SPWW2, Steel Panthers: World at War
Steel Panthers II: Modern Battles - SPMBT
Styx - Styx Remastered
Supaplex - OpenSupaplex, Supaplex Online, Rocks'n'Diamonds
Telengard - Telengard Remake
Triplane Turmoil - Triplane Classic, Triplane Web
Turrican II - T2002
Tyrian - OpenTyrian
VGA Civil War Strategy Game - Civil War Strategy Game
Warzone 2100 - Warzone 2100
Wolfenstein 3-D - Wolfram

[leilei]

OpenArena - a free data set to be used with the Quake III Arena engine.

My favorite!

[MrFlibble]

OpenArena - a free data set to be used with the Quake III Arena engine.

My favorite!

Right, how could I forget, you're on the team

In other news, Leylines is a turn-based medieval fantasy strategy game influenced by Master of Magic.

[MrFlibble]

A new 0 A.D. Alpha release, codename Geronium, had been made available for download recently. New additions include:

• All-new dynamic territory design. Territories change throughout the game based upon the structures built by the players. Each structure has a "weight" given to it and a radius within which this weight has an effect based on the importance of that building, and these values affect borders proportionally. If one of a player's buildings falls into enemy territory due to shifting borders, then that building is planned to slowly lose loyalty until finally converting over to the enemy's side. (In the meantime, in 0 A.D. Alpha 7 it loses health instead, until it is destroyed.) This can be stopped and slowly reversed if the border shifts and the building comes back to the player's side.
• An all-new and unique Carthaginian civilization, including:
  • Revamped and rebalanced units.
  • A completely remodeled navy from the ground up.
  • New docks, Iberian, Celt, and Italian embassies, walls, and civic center.
  • Dozens of new shields, helmets, and props.
  • New Easter Egg objects, including a Tophet structure, Samnite warriors, and the Sacred Band of Ba'al.
• A brand new main menu design with new dynamic background, depicting the Spartan tradition of mothers sending off their sons to battle, telling them to come back either with their shield or on it. (Thanks, dashinvaine!). The menu and UI graphics have all been converted to the new style.
• Music and Sound:
  • Several new tracks, all composed and directed by Omri Lahav, most featuring live percussion and flute segments (Thanks, percussionist Dror Parker and flutist Marta Mc'cave!):
    • Brand new 0 A.D. main theme, "Honor Bound", to go with our new menu.
    • Carthaginian peace tracks "Peaks of Atlas" and "Mediterranean Waves", featuring live percussion with a North African feel.
    • "Dried Tears" defeat music track.
    • Re-done Hellenic peace track, "Forging a City-State", with awesome flute improvisation segment.
  • 100+ new sound effects from the DynamiteSoundBytes team, dozens of them audible in-game.
• New maps: Carthaginians Sandbox (Demo Map); Siwa Oasis; Cycladic Archipelago IV; Gallic Fields; Migration (Thanks, SMST, NOXAS1, and Yodaspirine!)
• Miscellaneous: New Palisade objects, including wall segments, gates, towers, and spikes; Lion, Lioness, Infant Giraffe, and Giraffe death animations (Thanks, Athos!); A new "Islands" Random Map Script (Thanks, howlingflute!); An all-new Roman Triumphal Arch Easter Egg object (Thank you, Brightgalrs!); A LOTR-like Elven ship Easter Egg object (Thanks, Shield Bearer!).

[MrFlibble]

Found a nice page: List Of Open Source Programs.

[Edit] Here's another nice resource: Open Source Game Clones. It lists both engine recreation projects (original game data files required) and "games inspired by classics" to

[MrFlibble]

Stefan Hendriks' Arrakis had been known to be incompatible with DOSBox for a long time, but recently I found out that it runs just fine under DOSBox v0.74 The only thing to remember is that by default (at least, in v1.12) Arrakis is set to low speed to match the high-end computer configuration of the day (which was Pentium II). This might turn out somewhat slow in DOSBox, so it is recommendable to switch to 486 or Pentium I in the game settings (accessible from the main menu).

In other news, I did not realize until now that there's a Star Wars Total Conversion for C-evo.

[MrFlibble]

Continents is a turn-based strategy game written in Java that was heavily inspired by Master of Magic.

The project was abandoned back in 2003, being very close to completion. The most recent version is beta v0.98, downloadable from the links below:
Archived copy of the Continents project page at Oocities.org
Archived copy of the Continents project page at ReoCities.com
Download Continents at FilePlanet

[MrFlibble]

Browsing through cd.textfiles.com while looking for something completely different, I've found an interesting game called Antiquity. It's a rather old open source clone of Sid Meier's Civilization which was intended to focus on the history of the Ancient World. Unfortunately, the project was abandoned early into its development, but the game (v0.27) is rather playable, although many features are lacking. You can get it here:
http://cd.textfiles.com/superozsw/FILES/06/ANTIQ027.ZIP

You can take a look at Antiquity screenshots at Svatopluk's DOSBox.

[Edit] Here's an archived version of a Geocities page dedicated to the project, with downloads of both the game and the original source code:
http://web.archive.org/web/200910280600 ... iquity.htm

[MrFlibble]

Special Agent - a classic platform game inspired by Apogee's Secret Agent. Thanks to Scpm of 3D Realms Forums for mentioning this one! ^_^

[MrFlibble]

Having taken an interest in the Q3A and UT type games, I've checked out Nexuiz and Warsow (old builds of both since my slow PC probably won't run newer stuff decently).

I was a bit surprised to learn that Nexuiz actually uses the Quake engine (and not Quake II or 3). There must have been lots of improvements in the code though, as it requires a lot more resources than its "parent" game Also, it is my understanding that the Nexuiz project has evolved so much over time, that an updated Classic version is effectively a separate game compared to the "current" Nexuiz version.

[MrFlibble]

While not being freeware, these games are sure worth mentioning:

Laser Squad Nemesis - a game heavily reminiscent of the X-COM series, made by Julian Gollop who was the designer of both the original Laser Squad and X-COM.

Palm Kingdoms 2 Deluxe (a.k.a. Palm Heroes 2) - a sequel to what was originally a Heroes of Might and Magic remake for handhelds, now available on PC and Mac. The game has an uncanny visual resemblance to the original HoMM games, but uses custom graphics. There's a playable demo available .

[MrFlibble]

Updated the list in the first post with some new links.

[MrFlibble]

Added a few more titles to the list:
Alien Assault
Flare
Guns and Spurs
La-Mulana
Lao's Quest
Summoning Wars

[MrFlibble]

A couple of oldies:

Hostile Takeover - a turn-based strategy game that borrows a lot of elements from the Warlords series. This one has a random map generator and both single-player against an AI opponent and two player hot-seat mode. Download: HOSTIL11.ZIP

Screenshots:



The Kingdom of Syree - a role-playing game that is obviously modelled after the early Ultima games. This game is free but its sequel is already shareware. Download: SYREE102.ZIP

Zorak: The Mountain of Terror - another Ultima clone. Download: ZORAK100.ZIP

[MrFlibble]

A neat site dedicated to free gaming alternatives:
Free alternative games