Chris Pirillo » freeware

What Cross-Platform Freeware Games Can You Download?

Chris — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 23:24:32 +0000

What Cross-Platform Freeware Games Can You Download? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I was trying to play Capture the Flag. It’s a cross-platform game that you can get for free! You can battle with up to 16 players in a variety of game modes. Teeworlds includes Team Deathmatch and Capture The Flag. You can even design your own maps!

No matter what operating system you’re using, you can play along. I asked you guys to send along awesome resources, and this is one of them! The graphics and audio are excellent, and the game is fun. It’s free and works on all platforms – so what more could you want?

Check out Teeworlds… maybe even set up your own Geeks server for all of us to play together!

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News Flash: New Environmentally Friendly Font Reduces Ink Consumption

coupons — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:25:36 +0000

News Flash: New Environmentally Friendly Font Reduces Ink Consumption is a post from Chris Pirillo

Are you someone who composes documents and prints a lot? Are you concerned about your ink consumption? Well, worry no longer – I’ve found a font for you that takes care of this! It is called the Ecofont, and works for both Mac and PC.

Recently developed by SPRANQ, this font was created with the hopes to increase environmental awareness; the font is said to use 20% less ink. Now if we can just use 20% less paper… we’d be set!

The font has an interesting look to it – almost giving the impression of bling.

Hey, you can print bling?!?

This font omits part of the letter, effectively reducing the amount of ink on the page. Best of all, Ecofont is freeware and they accept donations. This font works best when you use OpenOffice, AppleWorks or Microsoft Word 2007 with a laser printer.

Are you ready to download Ecofont yet? What about other printer-friendly fonts, do you know of any? Do you know of any more fonts that look bling-ish? Feel free to share!

Top 5 Most Insane Freeware Games

coupons — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 10:01:51 +0000

Top 5 Most Insane Freeware Games is a post from Chris Pirillo

This is GeekofTodd submission for the HP Magic Giveaway. Feel free to leave comments for this article as you see fit – your feedback is certainly welcomed! If you’d like to submit your own how-to, what-is, or top-five list, you can send it to me. Views and opinions of this writer are not necessarily my own:

There are tons of free games on the web that can be accessed at any time and the best thing is that you don’t lose anything if you want to try it! Some of these freeware games really are true gems that are unique and fun to play. Others are… more an “experience”, making yourself question who was the crazy fool who made this game and laughing at the ridiculousness.

These kind of games are the games you tell your geek friends about and the games that make you play for an hour even though most say you probably shouldn’t . The best part about this list is that you can go out (depending on the operating systems you have available) and get each of these games. So I hope you enjoy my personal list of the most insane games for free on the internet.

5. Toribash

I think a lot of us can say we enjoy a good fighting game. I also think a lot of people enjoy a good strategy game, so… why not combine them!!! Toribash fuses these two genres into a unique game, mixed in with good old blood and dismemberment.

You take control of a man and you are able to control the action of his body parts with a set of commands. Your commands include stiffing, relaxing, contracting or retracting which can be done to the arms and legs for example. You can then construct a series of actions that can cause your guy to jump, bend down, and much more. Where the strategy really comes into play is after you are happy with your actions, you hit the space bar and your character moves for one second then stops again. You can then make changes to what actions you want or keep it the same. This allows you to create a large list of some awesome Kung Fu moves that you can use to kill your enemy!

It takes a bit to get used to, but they make it pretty easy to see what your doing thanks to having a ghost-like onion skin displaying the action that would happen with that certain combination. It is a lot of fun to mess around with, and very satisfying when you perform a cool looking move, decapitating your enemy with bloody goodness.

4. M.U.G.E.N

I have no idea what the acronym is, but I do know there is a strong intrigue in crossover games. Kingdom Hearts, Marvel vs Capcom 2, and the recent Mortal Kombat vs DC Comics are just a few examples. This game takes it a bit further by being a fighting game that allows user-generated content into the game, so there is an infinite number of characters from an infinite number of creative venues.

The game is a 2D fighting game with a lot of special moves and what-not, but have you ever wondered weather Homer Simpson could beat Peter Griffin in a fight? Now you can! Many of the most insane scenarios can be constructed and there are always new packs being added to this game. It’s fun, wacky, and completely modifiable.

3. I Wanna Be the Guy: The Movie: The Game

People who played old Nintendo and Super Nintendo games know that they were generally harder then today’s crop of games. Well, this game beats both generations for game difficulty hands down.

You play “The Kid” who goes questing to become “The Guy” and you set off in a platforming, shooting adventure of pure death. I’m not kidding that this game is ridiculously difficult, 90% of the ground you will cross will have the direct desire to kill you. There are split-second jump sequences that require perfect positioning and timing. You die in one hit, and the bosses have an extremely large amount of life and horrid attack patterns.

This game makes its gameplay philosophy more obvious by creatively using many old Nintendo characters as bosses for the game. Nothing beats having to fight a giant Mike Tyson for the NES game Mike Tyson’s Punch Out. The Nintendo characters are used creatively throughout the game, creating many reactions from the player. Some will love revisiting these characters but most will hate having to fight them.
This game is not for the casual player. I’d go as far to say it isn’t even for today’s hardcore crowd who play first person shooters. This game works as one of those masochistic games that will require dozens of retries per level and may take months to beat, but it is all worth it in the end.

2. Off-Road Velociraptor Safari

In this game you play a velociraptor driving a jeep with a giant dragging flail at the back of the car. Your goal is to drive that jeep and earn as many points as possible doing tricks off of ramps, collecting orbs, running over other velociraptors, and hitting velociraptors with your flail.

It is not the most complex game in the world but it is a game called Off-Road Velocirator Safari. This game is one of those games where you wonder who was on crack when they made it, but your so glad they were.

1. Desert Bus

A name like “Desert Bus” is one of those titles that sounds like it is some obscure but fun game that most who stumble upon it will love, and that is just the case. You are a bus driver driving from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada. There is no one in your bus except you. There are no cars or obstacles on the road at all. The road is a straight line and the bus veers slowly to the right, so you have to keep tapping the controller to straighten it. If you get of the road, you will be transported back to Tucson.

The actual driving of the bus is in real time so it takes about 8 hours one way, the game cannot be paused. Once you reach Las Vegas you have to quickly decide to drive back to Tucson or the game will end. Each time you drive one way to the location, that is 1 point.

This game is so much fun, people play it for charity. A charity group played the game for over 5 days straight to raise money for the organization Child’s Play. The highest record I’ve heard for the game is a score of 24 points (to Las Vegas and back 12 times, about 192 hours). You can find the game here. It is so much fun and it is one of the most innovative games I have played in a long time.

Do you have a favorite freeware game? Please post comment on what you thought of the list, reactions to games, or freeware games you think are great or would be better suited for the list.

What’s your Favorite Mac Freeware?

Chris — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:44:46 +0000

What’s your Favorite Mac Freeware? is a post from Chris Pirillo

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I like free. Do you? Did you know I like free things? Free RULES! Ok, so you get the point. We all love things that are free. I wanted to pass along a free program to you. Not only is it free… it’s an index of MORE free stuff.

FreewarePub KidiFree is a free utility you can download right to your desktop. You will discover free software that probably never knew existed. There are currently 546 different programs and applications listed in the index. You can see each program’s icon, description, file size, ratings and even screen shots. It even gives you the ability to make lists of your favorite programs… and submit more freeware programs to them.

The only issue I know of is that the programmer is French. You can switch to the English language, of course. You may still have some difficulties getting around, but each program has links for their website. If you cannot understand what the description translation is telling you, just go check out that program’s website for more information.

KidiFree is very well designed, and simple to use. I’d love to see something like this for Windows. It’s a vetted list of software. In many cases, you’ll even get a screenshot. This is really, really cool. So if you’re using a Mac or thinking about using one… be sure to check out KidiFree.

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Unique Mac OS X and Windows Freeware

Chris — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:37:57 +0000

Unique Mac OS X and Windows Freeware is a post from Chris Pirillo

You’ve likely seen hundreds, if not thousands, of “top 10″ lists of Mac OS X freeware floating around. Everybody seems recommend the same titles, which doesn’t make it easier for you to discover equally free, unique software. Popular titles are usually popular for a reason: they’re good. But obscure binaries can be just as nice to use.

MacOSaiX: From a source image, create mosaics easily with image searches from Google, Flickr, etc.
CosmicPainter: Spin art for your desktop (without the clean-up). Export still images and movie compositions, too!
QT Sync: Correct audio / video sync, ratio issues on-the-fly.
Sloth: There’s no easier way of discovering which files are open on your system at any given time (like, to the geekieth degree).
Tunatic: Identify a song simply by playing a sample of it into your microphone. Also available for Windows!
Bricksmith: Virtual Lego modeling. Try it, if only for the minifigure generator!
Mario Paint Composer: Eat your heart out, GarageBand. Also available for Windows!
RGB MusicLab: What does an image sound like? Find out by importing pixels and exporting sound bytes with the least amount of fuss and maximum amount of customization. Also available for Windows!

Not quite a list of 10 unique apps, but I’ve struggled to find items that aren’t listed “everywhere” else. Do you have any suggestions for me? Like, truly suggesting programs that “nobody” has heard about before?

Mac Freeware to Help you Deal with Windows Files

Chris — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:05:14 +0000

Mac Freeware to Help you Deal with Windows Files is a post from Chris Pirillo

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My hard drives, much like yours, are full of files collected over the years. I’ve used every operating system you can think of. Sometimes, I create files that are only available for one operating system or another. This, of course, creates headaches at times. How do I deal with this? OS X is my primary operating system now, and there are thankfully several free programs available for a Mac that make accessing and using my Windows files much easier.

First up on the list: if you’ve ever had to view a .prn file (printer file), you can use something called GhostPCLX.

Secondly, we have OLEExporter. You remember Object Linking and Embedding, right? The OLEExporter will allow you to extract those embedded objects out of documents, spreadsheets or .pdf files.

What about those CHM files? You know, the Windows Help File in the CHM format? Enter chmox. Chmox allows you to open and read those pesky Windows Help Files on your Mac with ease.

This next one, I found on accident recently. I was in need of reading an MHT file. If you’re using Internet Explorer and you wish to save that entire page out into one small file, it will create an MHT file. The only thing I have found that is easy and free to use is called unmht. It’s a simple plugin for Firefox.

Last, but not least, is UIF formats. UIF stands for Universal Image Format, and it is a compression image file format for backing up CDs and DVDs. UIF2ISO 4 Mac will allow you to be able to use these files right on your Mac. Just drop the file into UIF2ISO for Mac and it will convert it into a standard ISO format. You can then use the ISO on your Mac to burn to a CD or DVD.

What other applications or tools do you know of that is free and can be used to deal with this mess of files we have, no matter what operating system it may be on?

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How and Where to Find Free Software

Chris — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 22:01:18 +0000

How and Where to Find Free Software is a post from Chris Pirillo

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Software can be expensive these days. Thankfully, most types of software have excellent alternatives that are either free, or Open-Source. Here are some tips sent in by Chris G to help you find these alternatives.

Google is a geek’s best friend. We use Google to find everything in our geektastic lives, so it makes sense to use it to find our free software. However, this must be used with extreme caution. Googling “Free Photoshop” may not lead to Open-Source/Freeware… but to torrents. With torrets, you may certainly get a free version of Photoshop… just not legally. Refining your search to something like “Free Photoshop Alternatives” will help a great deal.
Indexing sites are also a good option, allowing you to search inside of all the applications available as Open Source/Freeware. This, again, should be used with extreme caution. Only download from trusted and reputable sites, as not doing so may lead to malware installed on your PC. This is bad.
There are also many websites whose sole purpose is to find good software to recommend to their readers, as well as tips and other bits of content. Such sites are Lifehacker and 43Folders are particularly good for offering productivity tools. They also recommend other software. Whilst not everything is free on here, I have found many good pieces of freeware here.
New/Social Media/Podcasting or whatever in the world you want to call it. Whilst these may not be the best option if your specifically looking for a bit of software, they are great for just picking up bits of advice and tips along the way…. and most importantly: providing entertainment.
Communities. Real people are your best option. Having had real experience with the application, they will know which they think is best. This will allow you to bypass the downloading, installing, using, not liking and uninstalling of the countless apps you need to try in order to find the best one. Communities like Chris’ do amazingly well for this kind of thing. With the extremely friendly and well-educated people there, you’re to get hooked up with a few sites for the software you need.

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Top Ten List of Free Windows Programs

Chris — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:54:40 +0000

Top Ten List of Free Windows Programs is a post from Chris Pirillo

Josh sent in an excellent list of his top ten recommended Windows programs… all of which are absolutely free! Here they are, for your use if you wish.

Audacity is a free program that allows you to edit your music and sound files. It is open source and it is very to use. For someone looking to start podcasts, this program is for you. You will get used to the features it has in a matter of minutes. This is perfect for starting off in editing music and sound files.
Winamp is a great music player for those looking for a alternative to the common “iTunes” software. It comes with many features and plug ins as well. You can play all your music files and save play lists as well. It also plays many music files that other music software cannot normally play.
Trillian is an all-in-one messenger that uses very little resources. It includes, MSN, AIM, ICQ, JABBER(G-Mail Chat), YAHOO, and even IRC. This is for you if you are a person that always has at least 4 messengers running at a time. There is a Pro edition to this, which is sightly better, but the basic one is just as good because it is free.
CPU-Z is a small program that displays your current computer specs. For example, it can show you your Motherboard name and even how much RAM you have. This is good to know when you are looking for those drivers and you forgot the name of your motherboard.
WinRAR is a great program that allows you to compress your files to a smaller file size. I suggest using this as a default compression program. There are others such as Win7, but this does the same job.
UltraVNC is a client to server based program that allows you to access another computer. Just start the server on the computer you want to gain access to, and then use the viewer on another computer to view that computer. I suggest getting UltraVNC and not RealVNC. It seems to be faster and overall more robust.
TrueCrypt This software allows you to encrypt any drive you want to and as you move files to that drive, the files encrypt automatically. I suggest using this if you need to keep important information away from people that want to know things.
Skype is a voice over IP program that allows you to communicate for free for pc to pc calls. The only downside to this of course is that you need credit in order to call to land line phones. However, the price is cheap to do so.
HiJack This will search your registry for errors and possibly anything that could be wrong with it. Not only that, it logs all of the information it changed or found.

EDITOR’S NOTE: be VERY careful when using HiJackThis. It can be a very powerful tool, and do serious damage to your computer if you don’t know what you’re doing. NEVER fix “everything” that HiJackThis finds… most of it is harmless, and even essential system files.

SuperAntiSpyware scans your computer for known Spyware, Adware, Malware, Trojans, Dialers, Worms, KeyLoggers, HiJackers and many other types of threats, and allows you to remove or quarantine them. It offers daily (manual) definition updates, as well as home page hijack protection and customizable scan options. Furthermore, the program includes a Repair feature that allows you to restore various settings which are often changed by malware programs, but usually not corrected by simply removing the parasite. The free version lacks real-time blocking and protection as well as several other advanced options.

Windows Freeware

Chris — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 08:16:08 +0000

Windows Freeware is a post from Chris Pirillo

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ComputerNerd called in to ask what IM client I used when I “used to use Windows”. I had to remind him I haven’t switched away from anything. I still use Windows every day. In short, I use Miranda on Windows. Miranda IM is an open-source multi protocol instant messenger client for Microsoft Windows. It’s smaller, faster, easier! My first IM client was Trillian, but I got tired of it after awhile, because I felt it was running too slow. Miranda is fast on Windows, let me tell you. I really love this program. It’s sleek. It’s configurable.

If I am on the road, I tend to use Meebo. If it ran as a desktop widget, I’d be thrilled to death. meebo.com is a website for instant messaging from absolutely anywhere. Whether you’re at home, on campus, at work, or traveling foreign lands, hop over to meebo.com on any computer to access all of your buddies (on AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ and Jabber) and chat with them, no downloads or installs required, for free!

I know a lot of people use Pidgin. Pidgin is free software. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2. This means you are free to use it and to modify it, but if you distribute your modifications you must distribute the modified source code as well. It supports a wide variety of IM clients, making it quite popular.

However, I choose my IM client based on what works the best for me. At this point, it’s Miranda FTW.

The caller also asked me about andLinux. andLinux is a complete Ubuntu Linux system running seamlessly in Windows 2000 based systems (2000, XP, 2003, Vista; 32-bit versions only). This project was started for Dynamism for the GP2X community, but its userbase far exceeds its original design.

I just think anyone who can run more than one Operating System should be doing so. I do… every day. In this day and age, you shouldn’t be arguing over which OS is better, or which OS you should choose. You should be exploring what is out there, and running as many as you possibly can.

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How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

You need these network tools, no matter which operating systems and networks you have to support. SolarWinds ipMonitor: Affordable Network Monitoring for SMBs. Get turnkey network, server and application availability monitoring with SolarWinds ipMonitor v9.0. This easy-to-use, reliable solution for SMBs delivers out-of-the-box availability monitoring so you always know exactly what's up with Active Directory, DNS, Exchange, FTP, Web, IMAP, MS SQL Server, and SMTP. Download your free trial today. Or, try their totally free tools! And, through 2/29, save 20% when you purchase ipMonitor 9.0.

Get Your Own Web Site

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

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Plus, as a friend of Chris Pirillo, enter code CHRIS7, that's C-H-R-I-S and the number 7, when you check out, and save an additional 10% on any order. Get your piece of the internet at GoDaddy.com.

VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

This feed is fueled by Lockergnome Online Shopping and Coupon Codes

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