★ Featured classic
The shareware phenomenon that took over offices, dorms, and the entire PC industry. Episode 1 — Knee-Deep in the Dead — is all here: nine levels of shotgun diplomacy against the hordes of Phobos. This is version 1.9, the final shareware build, exactly as id gave it away.
Hand-picked from the shelf — every one free to play, forever.
NES · 2011 · Puzzle platformer
You and your phantom double move in mirror image. Swap places, dodge enemies, and thread impossible rooms in this elegant puzzle-platformer — an NES remake of a ZX Spectrum gem, ported with the original author's blessing.
Free homebrew · via PDRoms
▶ Play now
Game Boy · 2018 · Arcade
A woolly little climbing game: bounce from sheep to sheep, higher and higher, and whatever you do, don't look down. This is the 'Free ROM' edition of the Game Boy homebrew hit — the author literally tells you to pass it around.
Free ROM — author invites distribution
▶ Play now
DOS · 1995 · Vertical shooter
The vertical shooter that set the bar on DOS: a full campaign, hundreds of weapon combinations, a shop between levels, and a soundtrack people still hum. This is the complete version 2.1 — author Jason Emery set the full game free.
Freeware — full version, freed by its author
▶ Play now27 classics, each one public domain, freeware, shareware, or homebrew — with its source and license on the play page.
DOS · 1993 · First-person shooter
The shareware phenomenon that took over offices, dorms, and the entire PC industry. Episode 1 — Knee-Deep in the Dead — is all here: nine levels of shotgun diplomacy against the hordes of Phobos. This is version 1.9, the final shareware build, exactly as id gave it away.
Shareware episode — free to share
▶ Play now
NES · 2010 · Shoot 'em up
A two-minute score-attack shoot-'em-up built to squeeze the NES dry — huge sprites, screen-filling explosions, and a ticking clock. A love letter to the classic Caravan shooters: no levels to finish, just two minutes to prove yourself.
Free homebrew · via PDRoms
▶ Play now NES · 2011 · Puzzle platformer
You and your phantom double move in mirror image. Swap places, dodge enemies, and thread impossible rooms in this elegant puzzle-platformer — an NES remake of a ZX Spectrum gem, ported with the original author's blessing.
Free homebrew · via PDRoms
▶ Play now Game Boy · 2018 · Arcade
A woolly little climbing game: bounce from sheep to sheep, higher and higher, and whatever you do, don't look down. This is the 'Free ROM' edition of the Game Boy homebrew hit — the author literally tells you to pass it around.
Free ROM — author invites distribution
▶ Play now
Game Boy Advance · 2010 · Puzzle
A puzzle game with shoot-'em-up DNA: match, chain, and blast your way through a hand-drawn underworld. One of the GBA homebrew scene's most polished puzzlers — easy to start, devilish to master.
Free homebrew · via PDRoms
▶ Play now
Sega Genesis · 2018 · Bullet-hell shooter
A Genesis bullet-hell shooter that has no business running this smoothly on 1989 hardware — dense patterns, big bosses, and a pounding pace. Homebrew from 2018, vintage where it counts.
Free homebrew · via PDRoms
▶ Play now DOS · 1995 · Vertical shooter
The vertical shooter that set the bar on DOS: a full campaign, hundreds of weapon combinations, a shop between levels, and a soundtrack people still hum. This is the complete version 2.1 — author Jason Emery set the full game free.
Freeware — full version, freed by its author
▶ Play now
DOS · 1994 · Fighting
Giant robots, a future where corporations settle their scores in the arena, and one of the finest one-on-one fighters the PC ever produced. Declared freeware by its makers in 1999 — the full game, every robot, every arena.
Freeware — full version (1999)
▶ Play now
DOS · 1990 · Platformer
Billy Blaze — eight years old, genius, owner of a spaceship built from soup cans — defends Earth before bedtime. Episode 1 of Invasion of the Vorticons: the shareware episode that launched id Software, shared exactly as Apogee intended.
Shareware episode — free to share
▶ Play now
DOS · 1994 · Role-playing
Where Tamriel began: a vast first-person RPG spanning a continent, built around the quest to reassemble the Staff of Chaos. Bethesda released the complete game as freeware for the series' tenth anniversary — this is that full release.
Freeware — Bethesda's anniversary release
▶ Play now
DOS · 1992 · Platformer
Epic's answer to the console platformer, built for the PC: swing vines, morph into animals, and fight through the jungle. Episode 1 was the shareware hook that sold a generation on PC gaming.
Shareware episode — free to share
▶ Play now
DOS · 1992 · First-person shooter
The grandfather of the first-person shooter. Escape from Castle Wolfenstein across the full ten-level first episode, rendered in id's revolutionary raycast engine. Shareware version 1.4 — the episode that started a genre.
Shareware episode — free to share
▶ Play now
DOS · 1991 · Platformer
Before the sunglasses and the one-liners, Duke was a pink-shirted hero battling Dr. Proton through the techno-lairs of Shrapnel City. The original shareware episode — Apogee's platform hit that made Duke a household name.
Shareware episode — free to share
▶ Play now
DOS · 1993 · Platformer
Bigger, louder, and meaner: Duke battles the Rigelatins across alien worlds with a flamethrower, laser cannon, and his bare fists. The shareware episode of Apogee's VGA showcase sequel.
Shareware episode — free to share
▶ Play now
DOS · 1991 · Platformer
Goodbye, Galaxy! — Billy Blaze rockets to the planet Gnosticus IV to rescue the Oracles and learn the secret of the Shikadi. The Keen 4 shareware episode: id Software's smoothest scrolling yet, and a complete adventure in its own right.
Shareware episode — free to share
▶ Play now
DOS · 1994 · Run-and-gun platformer
Epic's supersonic answer to a certain hedgehog: a green rabbit with a big gun, blasting through the turtle empire at speeds the PC wasn't supposed to manage. The free shareware episode — Turtle Village and beyond.
Shareware episode — free to share
▶ Play now
DOS · 1994 · Platformer
A young wizard's apprentice hops through jewel-box castles, solving switch puzzles and zapping goblins on his quest to join the Council of Wizards. The shareware episode of Apogee's prettiest platformer.
Shareware episode — free to share
▶ Play now
DOS · 1992 · Platformer
Little Cosmo's birthday trip to Disney World goes sideways when his parents vanish on a strange planet. Suction-cup hands, hidden bonuses everywhere, and Apogee charm to spare — the full first episode, free as shareware.
Shareware episode — free to share
▶ Play now
DOS · 1994 · Kart racing
Hedgehog-launching, bomb-dropping zoo-animal kart chaos — on the PC, the same year the consoles thought they owned the genre. The shareware edition packs a full cup of tracks and the infamous Wacky Shoot-Out.
Shareware edition — free to share
▶ Play now
DOS · 1994 · Vertical shooter
The DOS shooter's shooter: earn cash blowing up MegaCorps' air force, then spend it on bigger guns between sorties. This shareware edition includes the complete Bravo Sector — and its bundled VENDOR.DOC begs you to pass it around.
Shareware — distribution encouraged by its VENDOR.DOC
▶ Play now
DOS · 1993 · Platformer
Archaeologist Malvineous Havershim, a mysterious ruin, and a talking eagle statue: Epic's sprawling answer to the Apogee platformers, with a world map and secrets in every wall. The complete trilogy — author Allen Pilgrim set the full game free in 2008.
Freeware — full version, freed by its author (2008)
▶ Play now
DOS · 1993 · Run-and-gun platformer
CIA operative Snake Logan parachutes into a mutant-overrun Metro City in Apogee's hardest-hitting platformer — built on the Keen engine, tuned for combat. All three episodes: Apogee released the complete game as freeware.
Freeware — full version, freed by Apogee
▶ Play now
DOS · 1993 · Vertical shooter
Earth's last hero flies three full campaigns against the Kretons in Apogee's EGA-defying vertical shooter — rescued POWs, triple lasers, and screen-filling bosses. The bundled release notes say it plainly: Apogee re-released it as freeware in March 2006.
Freeware — full version (Apogee, 2006)
▶ Play now
NES · 2012 · Action platformer
Throw a streamer, climb your own ribbon, and scale Master Y's floating fortress one impossible screen at a time. The NES port of the Flash cult hit — precision platforming where your grappling hook is made of party supplies.
Free homebrew · via PDRoms
▶ Play now
NES · 2018 · Platformer
Your best friend has been kidnapped and taken to the top of the Mega Mountain. A compact, heartfelt NES platformer about the climb — one screen at a time, all the way to the summit.
Free homebrew · via PDRoms
▶ Play now
Super Nintendo · 2008 · Party brawler
A deathmatch minigame built for the crowd the SNES could actually gather: plug in two multitaps, hand out eight controllers, and kick your friends off the arena. A legendary piece of SNES homebrew — small, loud, and endlessly replayable.
Free homebrew · via PDRoms
▶ Play now
DOS · 1996 · Role-playing
The Elder Scrolls at its most sprawling: a first-person RPG across the kingdoms of High Rock and Hammerfell, with a landmass the size of Great Britain, hundreds of dungeons to delve, and a main quest of courtly intrigue undertaken for the Emperor himself. Bethesda released the complete game as freeware for the series' fifteenth anniversary — this is that full release, patched to the final official build.
Freeware — Bethesda's anniversary release
▶ Play nowNothing on that shelf — try a different search or system.
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