The free version of the game you actually wanted
Full games, free forever, that scratch the same itch as the ones everybody plays. Not demos, not trials, not thirty days. Every link below goes straight to the people who made it.
Luanti (Minetest)
Build, mine and survive in an infinite voxel world. Thousands of community games run on it, so it is really a hundred games in one download.
Download from luanti.org →SuperTuxKart
A full 3D kart racer with weapons, split-screen for four players locally, and online servers. The closest thing open source has to a console kart game.
Download from supertuxkart.net →0 A.D.
Historical RTS with base building, huge armies and eighteen civilisations. Visually it stands next to games that cost money.
Download from play0ad.com →OpenRA
Rebuilds Red Alert, Tiberian Dawn and Dune 2000 with modern controls and online play. It downloads the original freeware assets for you.
Download from openra.net →Beyond All Reason
Enormous free RTS — thousands of units, real-time physics, and matches that end in mushroom clouds. Actively played and updated.
Download from beyondallreason.info →Warzone 2100
A commercial RTS from 2000 that was open-sourced. Deep campaign, designable units, still maintained a quarter of a century later.
Download from wz2100.net →Xonotic
Blisteringly fast arena shooter with rocket jumps, a grappling hook and real servers. Runs on almost anything.
Download from xonotic.org →AssaultCube
Team shooter with realistic weapons and tiny system requirements — the whole download is about 50MB and it plays online.
Download from assault.cubers.net →OpenSpades
Voxel shooter where the map is fully destructible and buildable. Dig a tunnel under the enemy base, then collapse it.
Download from openspades.yvt.jp →Teeworlds
Fast 2D multiplayer with a grappling hook and a physics engine that rewards showing off. Instantly readable, very hard to master.
Download from teeworlds.com →DDraceNetwork
The co-operative spin on Teeworlds: enormous community maps you clear as a team. Thousands of players, completely free.
Download from ddnet.org →Hedgewars
Turn-based artillery with absurd weapons and destructible terrain. Local hotseat is the point of it.
Download from hedgewars.org →The Dark Mod
A complete standalone stealth game in the Thief mould — light, shadow, rope arrows, and well over a hundred fan-made missions.
Download from thedarkmod.com →GZDoom
The modern way to play Doom and the tens of thousands of mods for it. Needs game data — pair it with Freedoom below.
Download from github.com →Freedoom
A complete free replacement for Doom’s data: original levels, weapons and monsters. Drop it into GZDoom and you have a full game with nothing to buy.
Download from freedoom.github.io →SuperTux
Side-scrolling platformer with tight controls, a level editor and a big pile of community worlds.
Download from supertux.org →Armagetron Advanced
Light-cycle arena where you wall in your opponents. Simple, brutal, and superb with friends.
Download from gitlab.com →Veloren
Multiplayer voxel RPG with real exploration, crafting and combat. Free forever, and there is nothing to buy inside it.
Download from veloren.net →Mindustry
Factory-building crossed with tower defence: route materials, automate everything, then defend the whole thing. The GitHub build is free.
Download from github.com →OpenTTD
Transport Tycoon Deluxe rebuilt and hugely extended. Ships with free graphics, so the original is not needed.
Download from openttd.org →Widelands
Slow-burn economy strategy: supply chains, expanding borders, and four very different tribes.
Download from widelands.org →Endless Sky
Space trading and exploration with a genuinely good hand-written story. Light on hardware, enormous in content.
Download from endless-sky.github.io →Shattered Pixel Dungeon
Short runs, huge depth, and probably the best-regarded free roguelike on any platform.
Download from shatteredpixel.com →Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead
Absurdly deep survival roguelike — build a base, mod a car, survive the winter. Hundreds of hours is not an exaggeration.
Download from cataclysmdda.org →Unvanquished
Aliens versus humans, FPS on one side and RTS on the other, in the same match.
Download from unvanquished.net →Red Eclipse
Arena shooter built on parkour — wall-run, dash and slide while fighting. Includes a live map editor.
Download from redeclipse.net →Speed Dreams
Serious racing simulation with real car physics and a long career. The free answer to a paid sim.
Download from speed-dreams.net →FlightGear
A full flight simulator with the whole planet, real weather and hundreds of aircraft. Free, and taken seriously by real pilots.
Download from flightgear.org →Pioneer
Open-universe space sim: trade, fight and land anywhere in a Milky Way modelled to scale.
Download from pioneerspacesim.net →The Battle for Wesnoth
Turn-based fantasy tactics with hundreds of community campaigns and an in-game downloader for them.
Download from wesnoth.org →Zero-K
RTS with thousands of units and physics-driven terrain you can permanently reshape. Free, with online matchmaking.
Download from zero-k.info →Vega Strike
Space trading and combat across a large procedural universe, in the Elite and Privateer tradition.
Download from vega-strike.org →Questions
Are these actually free, or free trials?
Actually free, and complete. Almost all are open source, which means the licence permanently allows anyone to download, play and share them. No trial, no paid tier, no account.
Are these pirated?
No. Each one is an independent project built from nothing by its own developers — inspired by famous games, not copied from them. That is exactly why every link here points at the developer's own site rather than a file locker.
Do I need the original game?
No, with one labelled exception: GZDoom is an engine, so it needs game data — and Freedoom, listed right next to it, is a free replacement for that data. Everything else is standalone.
Will they run on an old laptop?
Mostly yes. Open-source games tend to target modest hardware, and several here run happily on machines that cannot open a modern commercial title.