Video gaming has been around for several decades now, and many users are interested in how to get free video games. A multitude of games exist, from the first tic-tac-toe game developed in the 1950's to the extravagant and realistic graphics and complex storylines of modern games, such as those in the Final Fantasy series.http://www.pong-story.com/intro.htm http://www.ffonline.com/ Along the way, there have been hundreds of thousands of different games released, on many different platforms. Games which are newly released can be very expensive, which reflects the time it takes to make them, the high levels of technology involved and the many talented people who have put work into them, as well as other factors such as measures against piracy.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3078404/ However, while buying such expensive games may be out of the price range of some gamers, there are other options.

While many people associate the idea of finding free games with illegal piracy, it is certainly possible to legally find high quality games for free. Freeware is any type of software, including games, which is available for free to the public, while shareware is similar, but users are expected to pay a fee after a trial period of using the software.http://web.archive.org/web/20080202033436/http://www.paulspicks.com/history.aspMany games that were originally commercially released have been made into freeware. Other games have been developed specifically as freeware, especially within open source projects.

It is also possible to make your own games, using free software available online and to play games made by other people using the same software. Finally, there are many high quality, free massively multi-player online games (MMOGs) available to play.

There are many Internet sites which have huge numbers of freeware games available on them. They include commercial games that were re-released as freeware and games that were originally developed as freeware. Many of these games, particularly those originally developed commercially are classic, or high quality games. However, as anyone can develop freeware, these games are not always up to such high standards.

It's possible to play games directly on a PC that were originally developed for other platforms, such as Atari and Sega Genesis, although in some cases you will need to download an emulator program. Some of these games, such as Doom, can even be played on smartphones.http://handheld.softpedia.com/get/Games/Action/Cell-Doom-14139.shtml

Some of these sites will list the official websites of the released game (such as some pages on Mahalo which are included in the list of related Mahalo pages), or will allow you to play the game online in the browser. However, most will allow you to download the full game.

There are sites that specialize in free, legal torrent downloads, such as YouTorrent and LegalTorrents, which list many available games. You can also sometimes find free games directly from commercial video game developer sites (often released for publicity) or through game review sites, or even as gifts from computer magazines. There are also sites that provide newly released games for a trial period, before requiring payment, or provide demo or beta versions of games.

There are several free programs available which allow you to make your own video game without learning programming languages. These include downloadable programs like Genesis 3D and The Reality Factory. These programs enable you to create Quake style games.

First you must download and install the program. As with any game or program check out the sites you download from and make sure you have up to date anti-virus software installed on your computer before downloading anything.

Once you have installed the program you can use different templates and textures to create your own dungeons and other 3D environments which your character can explore. You can also customise the games by wth options like creating your own textures from photographs.

Other downloadable programs such as Scratch, are aimed more at children and have a simpler interface, but can also be used to create games, as well as other programs and cartoons.

There are also websites like Sploder and PlayCrafter, in which users can create and publish games online using a browser based application. Sploder currently allows users to create platform and shooter games, while PlayCrafter has a wider variety of game types. You can also play games that other users have created for free. These games are limited to the building blocks and items provided by the website, however the site provides a lot of choice in type and texture of objects for the games.

The websites that host these programs all also provide excellent forums for discussing the games that are made onsite, as well as providing opportunities for gamers to share links to other free games.

There are different types of browser games that can be played online. Some, like those already mentioned, can be developed by the users of a website and published for other users to play.

There are also websites that provide free, single player games of different sorts in browsers, including browser versions of freeware games. Sometimes these games will have an aggregate high score, so you can compare and compete with other users. Other games will allow more than one person to play on separate computers.

There are also MMOG games, where many users play together, whether in competition or in cooperation to advance in a game. Runescape, the most popular MMOG game in the world is an example of this. MMOG games come in many different varieties, including text based games, strategy games, RGP games, and games based around different themes, like the Dark Ages, or space travel. Many of these games are free, or allow users to create a basic account for free, with additional options, or in game currencies for sale.

There are also a wide variety of games available through sites like Facebook and Myspace, which are usually strategy games that may rely on how many friends a user has on their account, or puzzle games which can be played in competition with other users.

To use these games, generally you only need to enter a few details to create an account, such as your email address. Then you can create a character with which to interact with the world.