I am simply a cheapskate, and I hate to spend money on things that I know that I won’t use very long. Computer games are one of those things, so in the late hours of the night I scour the web for open source games. I’ve found two that are noteworthy and work on Windows and Mac OS X alike.

First we have Armagetron Advanced, a Tron-like cycle game that lets you duke it out against computer or human players. Simple and playable for hours, this game is just plain addictive. It’s almost reminiscent of the old arcade games that you would spend all your tokens on, then crawl around on the gum-covered floor to find two more, at wich point you would race back to the machine, only to find that another child is in the process of losing the $5 that his parents gave him. An interesting aspect of Armagetron is its cameras. You can adjust the camera to be a first person view, which allows you to watch a light-wall come racing towrd you at 150mph and then turn at the very last second to avoid certain doom. The feeling of motion in first person is so realistic, it’s replaced my “falling” dreams with “Light-wall racing toward me” dreams.  The game allows full Internet and LAN gameplay, something few games of the open source variety do. The beta allows you to insert a link to a .M3U playlist, after which it plays the playlist in-game (MP3 files only).

The second game is Cube, a far more noteworthy game. It’s a fully 3D FPS that I would definitely pay for. Recently the developvers have begun working on an RPG version of Cube that ... I guess is RPG… I don’t know. Anyway, the game is like a 3D Quake (original) and totally beats the socks off solitaire anyday. Playing the game comes easier than any other FPS I’ve ever played; so easy, in fact, that I often find myself pressing the “e” key to open doors that open automatically. I also keep hitting the darn “r” key to reload, even though there are no clips in the game; I always feel so stupid. Despite being primatively easy to control, Cube busts the balls of any other free FPS I’ve ever seen. Allowing you to create you own maps in game while defying the laws of in-game gravity, Cube also boasts one kicking soundtrack, with songs that are as heavy as metal gets, all without lyrics so you can hear those aliens scream when their heads explode. I’ve found myself addicted to this game ever since it was just me running around in a partially 3D world. The stunning water efects and visuals justify the time it takes to download the 100+ MB installer package.