Happy Birthday, MeFi, here's a fun free* game! Ikariam is sort of like a Skyrates version of Civ, with the real-time MMO combat and diplomacy that might bring to mind. Also, it's set in Olympian Greece, but only kind-of. Enjoy! *Batteries not included. Some registration required. Suggested age: 8-and-up. Some implied violence and consumption of alcohol (wine). Expansion materials may be purchased but are not necessary to enjoy the game and are, by the judgment of this MFGA (MetaFilter Gaming Authority) member: "some kind of bullshit."
posted on Jul 14, 2008 - View this thread

Harpooned: Japanese Cetacean Research Simulator
posted on Jan 22, 2008 - View this thread

M.U.G.E.N [wikipedia] is a 2D fighting game engine, originally developed by Elecbyte and released in 1999. The engine is highly customizable; characters, backgrounds, and sound files -- whether from existing games or original works -- can be easily integrated. Some examples of the engine in action [youtube]: Homer Simpson vs. Peter Griffin, Ryu vs Popeye, Green Power Ranger vs Osama Bin Laden, Fat Albert vs Juggernaut, Marvin the Martian vs. Duck Dodgers. Also, game crossovers: Homer in NES Land, Thunder Force III vs. Duck Hunt. [mi] WARNING: some of the videos are very loud.
posted on Jun 17, 2007 - View this thread

Bible Fight [Flash game]
posted on May 7, 2007 - View this thread

Super Columbine Massacre RPG (previously discussed here) has been dropped from the Slamdance games festival, after being selected as a finalist by the jury. The festival's organizer cites "moral obligations." In response, at least 6 of the 14 other finalists and one of the festival's sponsors have withdrawn in protest. Ongoing coverage can be found at watercoolergames (1 2). Art games and game arts are proliferating in the videogame era. For those with an interest in this subject, the beautiful new Italian volume GameScenes: Art in the Age of Videogames is a must-read.
posted on Jan 10, 2007 - View this thread

Fun Motion - a blog dedicated to physics-simulating games, currently with 49 reviews (and counting) of well known favorites like Stair Dismount and Truck Dismount, Towers of Goo, Toribash and many, many more. (A follow up to my previous YouTube post.) Kiss your precious, fleeting motes of productivity goodbye, cube-farmers!
posted on Oct 19, 2006 - View this thread

Games by Tony Pa. jayisgames just reviewed tony pa's new flash game, Geartaker. Geartaker has you leaping from cog to wheel to gear in a precise ballet of timing and angles, completed by an eclectic, interactive retro-synth soundtrack. After a good 30 minutes of that, I explored Tony's site more thoroughly, enjoying Trinks, Nelinurk (haunting soundtracks both), the othello like simplicity and complexity of Shooot. There's also the fiendish puzzler Gemsmith, the shocking anti-consumerist geometry of Save the Shoppers, and the fun is rounded out by the tiny retrolicious BoatRider. Unfortunately, there are no links straight to the games, and trying to link to them directly results in getting redirected to the home page. Suffer through the start page, and you'll be rewarded with a treasure trove of novel and engaging flash entertainment.
posted on Aug 5, 2006 - View this thread

NES Zidane A fairly accurate recreation of the World Cup final. Also, ze headbutt explained.
posted on Jul 10, 2006 - View this thread

This game sucks. Courtesy of the experimental gameplay project.
posted on Apr 26, 2006 - View this thread

DotQuest Can you survive the deadly ghosts in this text adventure? via languagehat's blog in an oblique fashion.
posted on Mar 24, 2006 - View this thread

Concerned (Half-Life 2 comic)
posted on Feb 27, 2006 - View this thread

Mario Adventure - SMB3 hacked into an entirely new high-quality game
posted on Feb 17, 2006 - View this thread

Man spends $100k on imaginary nightclub to tax those who hunt its native dinosaurs. Man is likely to make a profit. <bgsound>
posted on Nov 13, 2005 - View this thread

Witness the Whiteness as borderline-albino Canadian nerdcore MCs kick it Konami-school [Windows Media/Quicktime; more]
posted on Aug 16, 2005 - View this thread

SMW - The complete soundtrack to Super Mario World, covered by one man using dozens of instruments. Roughly in game order, faithful to the originals, with some bizarre artistic license thrown around. A private hobby made public. Dedicated to Koji Kondo.
posted on Aug 13, 2005 - View this thread

I always thought Bruce Campbell would be perfect to play the guy from Doom. And yeah, Howie Long is a dead ringer for Duke Nukem. But looking at how much Mr. T looks like Barrett from Final Fantasy 7 and Winona Ryder looks like Vice from King of Fighters I have to wonder how much of this is on purpose? Of course there are the exceptions.
posted on Aug 4, 2005 - View this thread

It's Pac-Man's 25th birthday and it's quite clear that some obsessed fans out there are much happier about it than other extremely obsessed pac-players. Maybe that guy needs to unwind for a bit?
posted on Jun 16, 2005 - View this thread

On the trail of The Collector comes The Game Room. What a rubbish television.
posted on Apr 16, 2005 - View this thread

BOG LEECH! Game sprite horrors! Lovecraftian nightmares!
posted on Jan 13, 2005 - View this thread

Princess Maker 2 - Stressed out from current events? I doubt the game is as much fun to play as it is to be bewildered by, but either might help. "...is basically a perverse sports management simulation where your entire team consists of a single ten year old girl that you have to raise to adulthood. Much like any decent sports manager game you have to keep track of a nearly overwhelming number of statistics that fluctuate based on training. In Princess Maker 2 these run the gamut from the mundane like "strength" and "charisma", to the droll like "cooking" and "conversation", to the bizarre like "sin" and "temper". "
posted on Oct 28, 2004 - View this thread

September 12: A Toy World
"September 12 is a free Shockwave game where players try to solve the terrorist problem - a sort of editorial cartoon rendered in simple simulation." It's not really much of a simulation, and the 'argument' is simplistic to the point of inanity. But as a new medium, interesting. (via gamegirladvance)
posted on Oct 2, 2003 - View this thread

Video Gaming: it's a Dumb, Dumb, Dumb, Dumb Industry.
posted on Jun 13, 2003 - View this thread

"In the game, the player plays the role of a character called The Postal Dude. He lives in a town where there are all kinds of people, white, black, skinny, fat, straight and gay. You can play the game in a passive role without killing anyone," Desi said.

"We are not political," he added.
posted on Jan 23, 2003 - View this thread

Neverwinter Nights is out!!! After waiting 4 long years and wading through a fetid quagmire of let-down rumors and whatnot, I finally have a copy installed on my laptop right now! Run, don't walk to your local Software Etc. and see if they have a copy. Our local WotC didn't have a copy, and neither did our local Electronics Boutique or Best Buy.
posted on Jun 19, 2002 - View this thread

Relive all your favorites from the demoscene. This project, headed up by nearly all of the team that maintained the old hornet.org demoscene archive, is committed to bringing those old classic demos ... to a DVD player near you. Now you no longer have to fret because you gave up your Gravis Ultrasound and DOS! Can I get a w00t from ya? I knew I could.
posted on May 14, 2002 - View this thread

"Hey there, sport! What's all the racket?" "It's The Stupid SIMulated Human Pet Tricks, Daddy!" No really this is good. Stupid. But good. If anyone's ever wondered what some of the characters from The Sims would look like in hokey live-action Not Ready For Television commercials, now's your chance!
This site requires the Quicktime and Flash Player plug-ins. Be careful. This site crashed my computer once.
posted on Dec 11, 2000 - View this thread

Curiouser and curiouser... They are talking of making a movie based on the new game, of which some of us enjoyed the recently released demo. Since I thought the mood of the game was better than its playability (granted, I have yet to find a game whose playability satifies me), this could be pretty cool.
posted on Dec 7, 2000 - View this thread

Alice demo (Download, 78MB) has been released. Even if you're not big on video games you might want to give this one a try. *Requires a PC with 3D graphics accelerator and fast connection to download in sane amount of time.
posted on Dec 2, 2000 - View this thread

Tired of Doom clones? Send this to your favorite game designer.
posted on Jul 7, 2000 - View this thread