Retail games that are now FREE!!!
Rob
United States
New York
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Just like the Title says.
This geeklist is about games that were once $$$ but are now free.
Please add to this list...
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The Ravensburger game Richelieu has been out of print for a couple of years, so Michael Schacht has been all of the Richelieu materials and rules available for download on his website, Spiel aus Timbuktu. As is his habit, Schacht has tweaked the game a bit and includes rules for playing with 3 or 4 players in addition to the standard two-player rules.
http://www.spiele-aus-timbuktu.de/richelieu.html
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Aaron Tubb
United States
Fuquay Varina
North Carolina
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Talisman (2nd edition), along with all the expansions for it, are available in one big download on Talisman Island:
http://www.talismanisland.com/downloads.htm
The package is called "Tal-is-poor" and it has everything you need to print and cut out to play Talisman with any of the official expansions you want.
The rules for each expansion are individually listed here:
http://www.talismanisland.com/rules.htm
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Learn to swim, learn to swim, learn to swim, learn to swim..
United States
Cleveland Heights
Ohio
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This was published but now is freely downloadable. See thread in game entry. It is, for all intents and purposes, Star Fleet Battles. To illustrate relationships:
Star Fleet Battles: Fine Bourbon.
SFB Cadet: Small Batch Microbrew.
Federation Commander: Light Beer. (I may be being a bit flippant here)
Anyways, you can print and play a complete game of SFB. You can play the included scenarios to your hearts content (also includes rules for solo play) and there are enough ships included to either hold your interest long enough to get sick of SFB or to get addicted and buy the entire game. The rules are suprisingly comprehensive.
I apologize if I am going against the spirit of this list, but to me this is a previously published free version of a complete game.
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P.D. Magnus
United States
Albany
New York
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This print-and-play game was originally sold by Microtactix. Having recently regained rights to it, I made it available under an open license.
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The Soldiers and Vampyres sets are free to print and download on the Cheapass Games website, and the Brom expansion is coming soon. They've been re-releasing a bunch of their old games like this, relying on donations instead of charging for the downloads.
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Interesting miniatures rules for historically oriented wargamer.
Now the rulebook and all expansions are free downloads from the publisher's site.
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After publishing new fifth edition in 2004, the designer released the previous edition ($24.95 retail) as free download for personal use only.
I must warn this is NOT a game for beginners. Probably THE MOST maniacally detailed simulation of naval warfare, in particular in its gunnery resolutions. Some historical knowledge and experience in naval wargaming is strongly recommended.
http://www.seekrieg.com/Seekrieg4DownloadPage1.htm
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Eagle River
Alaska
Further, a great number of games (mostly roleplaying but dwarfstar is a good example in Boardgames) are being released on the net with explicit permissions, but retention of the copyrights. And, as for Metagaming's Melee, well, that's 1982. so, given the term at registry, that would be expiring in 3 years. Of course, I've got it all on dead trees... so having a digital backup is no issue for me.
Cheektowaga
New York
They are not the same
Here is the actual US Government site regarding games
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl108.html
and just a glimpse as to what it says (you can go read the whole thing if you want)
Without getting in too much detail Copyright law does not forbid you from creating a clone of a game. Granted the scanning and downloading of images and rules does in fact violate US copyright laws but to print out and exact clone of a game is not a violation and if you go on to read the site
So for me to create my own version of "Dune" as long as I use my own images for the game board and cards I have every right to do so. I can even market my own game baring the use of any copyrighted materials (see below)
Now this may not hold true in other countries but here in the US the Government has made it pretty cut and dry that "Games" here are not copyrighted only that some materials (ie rules layout and artwork) are.
If there are any US attorneys that wish to clarify something from that site lets here it but to compare the RIAA's and MPAA's fight against pirating and game copyrights is like comparing Talisman to Caylus. Just not the same animals.
Unspecified
Unspecified
Pardon but I now must start casting my Hirst molds to create a plaster-built 3D version of Fearsome Floors.
New York
New York