When I posted Still Bomber over a month ago I didn't realize there was a Still Bomber 2 availble otherwize it would have been posted in the same link. Anyway, here it is now. It includes 10 new ships with other skills, more than 100 aliens, 250 Weapons, Mega Bombs and nucler bombs, about 20 different Upgrades, Generators(something like Rings in Diablo), Maps, with up to * players in MULTIPLAYER; AND lots of other stuff includig better graphics:

Go to download page for Stillbomber 2

Thanks albesir. You are probably right. I'll try again later--I decided to try something else first (Star Sword) and it takes so long on dialup.

The fourth file is probably the one I want. It being smaller in size than the first one kind of threw me--you would think if it was a combination of the first and second file, then the size would be bigger as they are all compressed. I guess it takes more space to say something in Japanese than it does in English, lol.

Papakid, I think it's referring to different versions of the games. The numbers at the end of the file (20081118) are the same as the latest version, so I'm guessing that's it. I'm guessing the j and e in the 3rd and 4th files is for japanese and english, though I'm really not sure what the first 2 files are. .lzh is a type of file compression like .zip(I had to find it cause I'd never seen that one before), so maybe that file and the first are the same, just with different compression, I don't really know without downloading them and trying them(but I probably wont since I can't read Japanese so it would do me little good). The second file could be a patch to translate the game into english, but that seems a little redundant to me as there is already an english version. So, I'm guessing go for the one that says English only on it, and if there's a problem (like if it's still in japanese) try the second file listed and see if it's an english patch. Also, if anyone likes to see version notes, you can just translate the page using translate.google.com or another web translator, Babelfish has a huge list of them. There's a box near the bottom of the page where you can copy the website url to it and it will automatically translate it. Hope this helps.

Hi Whiterabbit thanks for all you do. I'm new here and have already learned too trust your judgement.

I had some problems getting Fraxy to download at the alternate download.chip.eu site so I went to the main Japenese one. But there are four different files to download:

>> fraxy_20081118.zip (1.74MB)
>> fraxy_eng_20080617.zip (28.0KB)

>> fraxy_20081118j.lzh (1.61MB) (Japanese only)
>> fraxy_20081118e.zip (1.66MB) (English only)

I know I probably don't need the one that says Japanese only, but what are the others and do I need them?

Hey Albesir, no need to apologize. Schools important and life outside of this forum must go on, lol.

Interestingly, there were several other free schmup's to be found by following the link you provided. All were around 1Mb to 5Mb in size, so are easily downloaded by everyone. I'm going to post the names here, but not the links as they are all easy to get once you go to the page Albesir linked to. he file was the full version of the game, which is fabulous. you're right, I should upload it to filefront.

Lazer Age Gold
Blast Noodle
Galactic Patrol
Lazer Baron
Space Cyber
Demon Star
Sion 2K
GD2000

Anyway, the following is definitely the last addition from me to this post unless it's to help someone. It's the only commercial product I'm going to mention (though I could recommend a couple of space shooters, but that's going to be part of another idea I have , which is going to be called something like Whiterabbits Game Recommendations - yeah I know, we all have different preferences, but I thought it would be nice to try the thread out. Though it's a work in progress at the moment Anyway, less of the chit chat................

If you check out the latest old games that Good Old Games (GOG) are selling, they have an exellent 3D Space shooter with amazing graphics called DarkStar One. Considering most of GOG's games are pre-millenium, this one is only 3-4 years old and retails at $9.99, which is amazing as the quality of the game is fantastic. I've just bought a recently released arcade game that's got similar graphics, but not the breadth of game play that this has {called Dark Horizon (2008)} and that cost me $19.99. I bought a copy and am really pleased with the immersivness of the game. You have a massive galaxy to explore. It's similar to Universal Combat (the abandonware title I mention in my first post) but much better. The first promotional video below gives a good account of the game. My first foray into space was to an asteroid field. You had to avoid collisions otherwise you'd damage your shields. I burnt up in the atmosphere of a nearby planet while day dreaming though, lol. You can read about the game here:

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/darkstar_one

Be careful though because it's so easy to get sucked it. I've already bought six games from them and have only known of the site for a couple of weeks. (For example you can get the earlier Fallout titles for $5.99 each, though in the UK you can buy all three in one package for £3.33p {from Game.uk})

Video's:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lAXP_V-RqQo

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kFRVsrN8GWk

The only downside to this game is it's massive download size. Though you can download it in several smaller chunks. The full download size is 4.2Gb. For the price this is one of the best space shooters I've seen. I do have a couple that were released over the last couple of years that I paid full price for which for DVD based games retails at $50 to $70 on first release(Genesis Rising (2007) and Spaceforce: Rougue Universe (2007)), and I can honestly say this game is as good despite being a few years older and a lot cheaper. (Actually it's better than Genesis Rising IMO) Most of the following images are game play images and are not taken from cut scene videos. (Well a few are, but generally, what you see here is actual game play images:

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=Darkstar+one&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2

I'm looking forwards to seeing what games you'll be posting next Tuesday to Thursday. :)

I only posted the above games because of the celebratory nature of the post (even though it was tongue in cheek). Normally I wouldn't include gametop, Freegamespick and others of that ilk in the Free games for the week project unless they are just a support to the main game (even if they may actually be better. (not that all of the ones above are better than some of the freeware ones. :)

your reason for posting this collection was purely genious lol. I may have to look into dates as well before posting my games =p

Here are the links to the free commercial quality games that I spoke of above. I've just copied them over from the schump's thread. There's loads of other freeware and abandonware titles as well as online multiplayer and browser based games to be found in the thread.

Star Sword:

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/star-sword/download.html

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Star Gunner:

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/star-gunner/download.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Star Rage:

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/star-rage/download.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Star Shooter:

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/star-shooter/download.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Galaxy Strike:

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/galaxy-strike/download.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alien Wars:

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/alien-wars/download.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Deadly Stars:

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/deadly-stars/download.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Galaxy Invaders:

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/invaders/download.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RIP3:

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/rip3/download.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Crimson Road:

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/crimson-road/download.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Absolute Survival:

http://freegamepick.com/en/games_absolutesurvival.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Forbidden Galaxy:

http://freegamepick.com/en/games_forbiddengalaxy.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Forbidden Galaxy 2:

http://freegamepick.com/en/games_forbiddengalaxy2.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Machine World:

http://freegamepick.com/en/games_machineworld.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Star Drone:

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/star-drone/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zenon online

http://www.gametop.com/online-free-games/zenon-online/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

lol! (to the last bit)

I didn't realize you'd deleted the post, and have just spent the last half hour or so editing the above post because I think it was initially a lot more negative and also badly written.

regards

Whiterabbit

p.s.

Did you like my excuse for posting several games? :)

p.p.s.

Thanks Albesir, I'll check that out. Liberation Army looks very interesting. I'll have to refind the link to the patch which fixes some issues and adds some new stuff. There are two versions. The Japanese and a later one that someone converted to English. Watch this space for the link to the patch:

okay found it:

http://agtp.romhack.net/project.php?id=libarmy

Well said Rabbit, however from here on no one will know what we speak of because I have deleted both of her posts. She was already warned when she started a thread about that topic. At said time her screen name was blocked and she created a second one to post further in this thread. Her new name has been reported, and should be taken care of promptly.

As for the games, I'm not a big fan of shmups but I must say that liberation army looks like it could be a pretty fun game so I will give that one a go. Thanks for all you have done thus far this week. I say thus far because I know you can't help but add more =P

Regards,
AH

Hi Midori, I meant to post an addendum with respect to the Ur-Quann patch. It's not necessary, but I believe it adds a whole lot of new stuff. For example if you select Super Melee rather than just start game, you come to a screen with two grids almost filled to capacity with different space ships. One grid is for the human player and one is for the computers AI. You can add or subtract ships to make the game easier or harder as well as give you a variety of different space ships. The combinations are virtually endless. Each ship you use has different characteristics. It may have more powerful shields, but weaker fire power etc. I don't know yet whether you have to earn money to buy upgrades. I've not played it long enough to discover.

I like the novel way that when you're just moving through space the view is a distant one, so you can see ships that are nearby. When you come into close proximity to a ship the view automatically zooms in so you can see a better image of both ships. There are lots to explore with this game. It's still under development,, so you should check back for updates. Maybe they will add a graphics upgrade eventually.

I believe the game was first started in 1999 and has slowly evolved. I'd certainly consider allowing the patch to be installed if you are able. I realize that if you're on dial up; even if you get the top download speed from your modem, it's going to take quite some time to download.

Whereas the downloads for the extra bosses for Fraxy only take seconds.

There's actually some more additions apart from Enemy bosses to add to Fraxy that you can download from the same address I've given you above. There's drones and something else that for the moment I've forgotten the name of? (My morphine’s kicking in, lol).

=====================================================================

Hi Lady Luck,

I'm not sure whether we are allowed to state in such blatant terms that such things can be done because I think the project is really about having an extended demo and not a game licence for life? As we all know when you inevitably have to reinstall windows either because your system has locked up, or you're upgrading to a newer OS; under normal circumstances you would lose any programs given away via the Giveaway of the Day and Game Giveaway of the Day project because the licence details written to the registry are overwritten when installing a new OS. Unless of course you use a program such as Acronis True Image or other imaging applications that enable you to save a complete picture of your hard drives and registry, so that you can have a clean install of windows and then activate the saved image to bring back all the applications and games; (btw, when I say this project I don't mean the Free games for the weekdays project, which are permanently free)

Not all games can be saved in the way you describe. Most are free standing, which means there's no activation code written to the registry. It is these that you are able to save and transfer as full versions to other computers.

You will find that games from distributors like Alawar will no longer be the full version if you do what you suggest, but for the most part, you’re absolutely right.

I've been doing the same thing since the project began, but only for those games I probably wouldn't buy, but decide to keep 'just in case' I change my mind. If I find one that I really like I 'always' purchase it because I think it's important to support the games developer and the games industry; though if you can't afford to that's fine. If we all took every game for free there'd be less money available to the game developers, which would (IMO) impact on game quality and probably lead to fewer original games being released. Thankfully that hasn't happened yet, but with all the free commercial games that are being given away for free at the moment (just check Gametop, FreegamesPick and Gamehouse where you can get commercial quality games ‘totally’ for free) it may happen sometime in the not to distant future, especially as the practice seems to be escalating. There are other sites that give away free commercial quality games as well, but I won't mention these because they tend to have some unwanted side effects like hijacking your browser and installing toolbars in your browser and you can’t play the games without allowing it to happen. Some of Gametop’s games now have this packaged in with the installer, but you can still uncheck the boxes to prevent them from being installed.

Regards

Whiterabbit

p.s.

Sorry if I come over as a little stroppy over this issue. I don't mean to. I just felt it was important to mention these things. I'm a bit of a hypocrite in some ways with respect to what I've just said above because although I do buy all my games I have passed on some to friends for free and have received a few games as well via those same friends; though I do still intend buying the ones I really like.

Thank you, LadyLuck... I know that a lot are "standalones" that you can copy to a disk. But don't you have to activate the game before the giveaway date is over?

I think I found a place for Liberation Army.

http://www.worldpcgames.net/game_list/list_view5.html?num=3585&method=index

And it seems to already be in english(though the documentation in the file isn't, so you might still want to download the patch file cause I think it has an english manual in it)
From what I saw, it looked like the game was supposed to be in Japanese, and the patch was supposed to translate it into english, but it looks like the file there is already in english, so I don't know if you'll need it. Anyway, that was the only site I could find, and that was after several searches and the 5th page on one of the searches, so maybe you should see if you or someone else can put it on filefront or somewhere like that. I'm not much into shmups so I don't know how much I'll play it myself, but thought I'd look around for it a bit. I also looked at siteadvisor and WOT, and it looks like a clean site. Well, there was no info on it at all on WOT, but siteadvisor gave it a clean review, so hopefully that'll do for now.

Sorry I haven't been around in a while, school just started back and I'm getting back into that, plus it's been a little busy besides that, so I haven't had a lot of time to spend here. Hopefully things will settle down and I'll be around a little more. Hope this helped.

Boy, Grumpy1... that was a mouthful! LOL! @|:-D

Hi, Stephen... thanks for all the goodies, AND the history lesson. I'm downloading Ur-Quann now and didn't check that fourth box. Are you familiar enough with it to say that the remix patch is a necessity for the game? Thanks for all the time you spend on these details.

A few notes I need to add to the above.

Some of the links to the downloadable enemy levels (from the compendium of downloadable bosses)that you can add to Fraxy are dead. The first two sections are dead, but then there's at least 50 that work after that. I've not downloaded any more yet.

I also neglected to include the path where you put all the extra custom made levels. You'll find 41 levels come with the game. With the ones you can download. Taking into account the ones I've found dead already, you're going to have nearly 200 bosses to fight off and there are probably lots more elsewhere. Then you can make your one. Do let us know (and upload them so that we can share them with you)in this thread if you do. :)

C:\..............\fraxy_20081118e\enemy\

You can download the files directly into the correct folder (enemy) if you wish as they are not zipped.

====================================================================

When you install The Ur-Quann Masters there will be four boxes, three of which are checked. If you check the fourth box, it will open a link to a download site where the remix patch will be added to the game. It takes about 10 minutes on a broadband system to complete the download. The original installation file was only 1.16Mb, but once the patch was applied the installed folder was 284Mb in size.

regards

Whiterabbit

It’s another space themed day today. Transcendence which I posted on Sunday was supposed to be included in today’s post, but I decided to post in on Sunday to make up for the lack of a game with a small file size because many couldn’t download Hope Shines Eternal. I thought the game would at least be a consolation game, though I appreciate not everyone likes Shmup’s. I will endeavour to post more puzzle games when it's my turn again at the beginning of February.

I said I wouldn’t be posting such large collections of games again until there was a suitable festival date to celebrate. Well it seems that the 22nd of January is quite a special date for space exploration so I thought it appropriate to post some great freeware space orientated games to mark the date:

In no particular order all on the 22nd January:

STS89 (Endeavour 12) launched into orbit in 1998

Landsat 2, an earth resource technology satellite launched in 1975

Space Shuttle Atlantis returns to earth in 1997

Space Shuttle Discovery 5 (STS42) launched into space in 1992

Apollo 5 was launched to the moon to test an unmanned lunar module (I remember this one) in readiness for the big one the following year. The launch took place in 1968 (the same day that The Rowan & Martin Laugh-In premiered on NBC)

The USAF concluded that less than 1% of UFO’s were unknown objects; a statement made in 1959

The Tiros 9 weather Satellite was launched in 1065

The Orbiting Solar Observatory 5 was launched into earth orbit in 1969

reference: http://www.brainyhistory.com/days/january_22.html accessed 22nd January 2009

Though you could argue that since the first satellites were launched in the mid 50’s there has been several thousand 'plus' satellites and manned missions launched into earth orbit or space; which would make the day slightly less auspicious; however it’s a great excuse to post a bundle of great games in readiness for the coming weekend.

I’ve had some of these games in my to post folder since I first started the project back in September last year, so it was about time I posted them. I’ve still got a bunch of good Asteroid style games to post yet, but I’ll save those for a few months. (Maybe Easter when I intend posting a couple of Specials over the Easter weekend) :)

I have five (plus another one if you count Universal Combat and even more if you consider all those available via the link I've posted below that number 66 not counting the browser based games, some of which, such as Platypus are worth playing) small space games for you today called Fraxy, Ray-Hound, Still Bomber and The Ur Quann Masters. None are big enough to stand alone (in my opinion), though they all come close :) pavid PM’ed me details about Ray-Hound and Still Bomber, so please thank to him for the time he’s taken letting me know about them (and others). I decided to add a fifth called Carpe Universum at the last minute. It's a good little shooter that I thought complimented the rest.

I’d hoped to also post another freeware space shooter game called Liberation Army, but the only download links I could find were either those sites that have freeware games for download, but you have to pay a minimal charge for doing so, and another site that had an update patch but not the actual game. If anyone finds a download site please post it here. I almost decided to pay the download fee and then upload the file to my Filefront account because I think it’s quite a good game. It’s is supposed to be freeware. The developer is Japanese and I bet he doesn’t know someone is making money of the back of his and other developer’s freeware projects.

Check out the video of Liberation Army:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1MkiNuE_VcM

To those community members who are either new to the forums or have only recently joined the giveaway community, there’s a great Space Shoot ‘Em up (Shmup’s) thread elsewhere in the games discussions thread that lists at least 8 or more free commercial quality space shooters as well as loads of freeware, abandonware and browser based games. I highly recommend Universal Combat a 445Mb download, a 3D strategy space shooter that was commercially sold until Jan 08 when the developer decided to make it free. You can find the download link under the abandonware section of the Space Shoot 'Em ups thread:

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2724
.

Here’s a taster video:

http://www.universalcombatgame.com/images/uc_movie_11-18-03-01.wmv

Update: You can find a download link via albesir's post below:

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/4648#post-49697

======================================================================

Fraxy: (1.66Mb)

Fraxy is a fast paced 2d shoot 'em up that consists entirely of boss fights. Each boss consists of a "core" and various other pieces, much like in Warning Forever. The basic game doesn’t have a great many bosses to fight but thankfully you have two options, make your own bosses using the editor that’s included, or download from quite a large stock of fan made levels – theres at least 150+ downloadable from the link I’ve provided below (see link below).

The editor:

While it is harder to pick up, mostly because you can't click and drag pieces, the editor rewards those who learn how to work the basic functions with a plethora of possibilities. Moving parts, multiple cores, and appearing and disappearing parts are all available and relatively easy to learn how to create. The game even has an event system allowing you to program in specific actions for the AI or the parts of the ship to follow. Overall fraxy's editor is harder to get into but once the initial learning curve is overcome, the ability to create your own bosses is very satisfying. You just have to check out the last video link I’ve posted or the custom made levels link to see that this game has a large following.

You can import your own images to use as backgrounds so knowing a few good download sites for images is useful. (You’ll find loads in the forums, but the one I recommend is the Hubble Telescope, if you can’t find it in the forums, just Google it, or you could opt for fantasy style images such as those from Digital Blasphemy - again, just Google it or check out the fan made levels link below. Towards the bottom of the page there are several good resources for images that are already fixed to the correct resolution for the game). Most of the images have a price, but the author has a regular free images gallery and I suspect that you could use screen captured images because the maximum screen resolution for this game is 460 x 600.) You can also import your own music as well.

The game is very easy to pick up with several key bindings and the mouse required, much like most commercial shooters that you can buy from the growing number of game sites. When you first install the game and boot up you can select from a list of languages. This only pops up the first time you play the game. It’s set to English as default and I stupidly didn’t think to check the other languages that are available.

Key Bindings:

Cursor key and mouse are used in default setting. -The key bindings can be changed using the 'config.exe'. file found in the games folder.

Cursor key……………….….Move
Mouse Cursor………………Turn
LMB………………………..Shot/OK
RMB………………………..Boost/Cancel
Shift key / Mouse wheel …..Weapon change :
Enter key……………………View change :
ESC key…………………….Pause

Draw options can be changed by the following keys.

F2 key……………………….Background
F3 key……………………...Draw type
F4 key……………………..Window size

The editor:

Pro's:

much much deeper and more rewarding. Allows for insane amounts of creative freedom. Easy enough to pick up but deep enough to keep you engaged for a long time.

Con's:

The initial learning curve may turn some gamers off the game, there are no weapon modification unless you use the events system.

Fraxy Compendium:

http://fraxy.kafuka.org/wiki/Main_Page

Compendium of downloadable bosses – (Boss Repository):

http://fraxy.kafuka.org/wiki/Boss_Repository#TekTo

Images:

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=fraxy&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2

Video:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wWgrexYq0jQ&feature=PlayList&p=F807D35E0C1A00ED&index=1

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UWDqCEJR9nY&eurl=http://video.aol.com/video-detail/fraxy-soul-cage/3611030238/?icid=VIDURVENT11

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=y_6P-Dx0TnA&feature=related

loads more Fraxy Video’s:

http://uk.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=Fraxy

.

Download link:

http://mokeron.hp.infoseek.co.jp/zg/fraxy_main.html (Japanese site - links at top of page)

or

http://download.chip.eu/en/download_getfile_en_3105105.html?s=http://dl01.chip.eu&f=/139514/fraxy_20080505ae_en.zip&t=4977b33a&sign=8b4a664dd01660d07cbc7ffd3b19fc95&dl_type=dl_hs

======================================================================

Ray Hound (<1Mb)

Here’s another gravity orientated game that’s got some similarities to the game I posted earlier this week called Strange Attractors. Instead of shooting your enemy to attack them, you use their own firepower against them. That's accomplished by controlling a gravitational field that returns enemy fire.

Here’s what the author said about the game</e>:

This is an ongoing project, so there will be updates with additional content.

.

Download Link:

http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?groupname=sc2&filename=uqm-0.6.2-installer.exe&use_mirror=heanet

http://sc2.sourceforge.net/downloads.php

======================================================================

Carpe Universum (18.1Mb)

An intense shooter with an interesting combo system and a roll mechanic, which lets you dodge incoming bullets. It was designed to encourage players to move across the whole board. The download link also takes you to the game developers web site, where you can read more about the game as well as see several images and another video of the game play.

Video:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq4PXqmcxWw

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ol1cgyBBans

.

Download Link:

http://www.wyrdysm.com/carpegame.php

======================================================================

PS, Whiterabbit, do you have a British accent? do you call a flashlight a torch? Sorry, I had to ask...
LOL.
-Webmaster

Wonderful indeed; and Whiterabbit, I'm sure you're very happy with the arrangements. I genuinely am. I'm certain you've had a moderately long rest.

I desire that this will continue to transpire, and that you and wizzard will have the on and off week phenomenon endlessly.

Yet, I know sooner or later that you will get sick of doing the phenomenon, and then hopefully someone else will come about...

-Webmaster

GREAT idea, on both your parts. I'm sure it's easier on you, tho you were grand to even undertake it in the first place. You both do a superb job, much appreciated by all.

Hi Midori,

I'm sharing the responsibilities of posting free games with Wizzard now, that's why you haven't seen me post any games. He offered to help a few weeks ago, so we are now doing a week on week off rotation. It makes life much easier, and I'm all the more rested for not doing it every weekday.

Regards

Stephen

Whiterabbit! Have been wondering where you've been! Aw, yeah... a worried lil mama-type... but good to see you post. Tho wizzard has been keeping us chock full of games, was truly hoping you were okay. So smiling to "see" you, and thanks for pulling up the review. :)

Just bringing this back to the front page for today's game giveaway, with some editing from the original post (I removed several links to free games because they can all be found in the space shoot em ups thread), and to repeat what I've mentioned above:

If you miss today’s game, lose it to a format or decide you want it after the giveaway has finished, the good news is that it’s available for free 365.25 days a year over at Gametop, though its had a name change to Star Gunner, via the link below. For those who are not familiar with Gametop games, your browser is always opened when you shut the game down, though there’s no malware and the browser is easily closed by using the X button, with no come back. Though be wary when installing any game top game now because Gametop have recently been adding a toolbar and or asking if you want your home page changed to Gametop; so keep an eye out when installing because these can easily be avoided by ensuring the appropriate boxes are unchecked. Please don't let that put you off downloading the games though as they are genuine full version commercial games. You can see all the space games by following the link I've posted in the first post above:

Download link for free version:

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/star-gunner/

Last Galaxy Heroes was originally given away back in Dec 06 and then again earlier this year. It’s a space shooter reminiscent of a 3D space invaders clone , though in reality its nothing like space invaders. It received a positive 85% of 149 votes the first time it was given away shortly after the game giveaway project started. Then 51% of 330 votes the last time it was given away back in January of this year. You can check out all the comments by following the links below:

Jan 08:

http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/hero-last-galaxy/#comments

Dec 06:

http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/last-galaxy-hero/#comments

Get ready for the galaxy mission! Hard times fell upon the galaxy and you are the only one to save it. The problem is that you have only one space tank to destroy the attacks of space shooters. The planets wait for you to save them!

Reference: http://www.realore.com/lastgalaxyhero Accessed 28th Nov 08

Installation:

This is a 10.6Mb download that installs to 21.3Mb. It unpacks to a read me file and a combined activation and set up file. During the installation wizards progress you are given the opportunity to select your own download path if you wish (highly recommended, especially if you have a second HDD or a partitioned drive as it will help to keep your system running smoothly) and also a desktop icon which can be deselected. There’s a folder installed into the start up menu that gives you access to the games short cut and an uninstaller shortcut as well as a link to Realores home page (you can delete whatever links you wish from the start menus program list as they wont affect the running of the game).

The Game:

Once installed you are presented with a hard to see main menu options and help menus, well that is if you are red – green color blind. I can see it okay, but my son who inherited the condition from his maternal grandfather said he couldn’t see the menu very well. It doesn’t help that it’s superimposed over a screenshot of an in game image. That said the game is quite enjoyable; at least from my point of view.

The main options menu allows you to change the screen resolution from 640 x 480, 800 x 600, 1024 x 768 and finally 1152 x 864 in both 16 and 32 bit formats, as well as the music and sound effects. The music is okay if turned low and the sound effects are what you would expect of such a game as this. You can also select the difficulty from this window as well as choose to play the game in windowed mode. The second options menu is accessed while in game by using the Esc key, which brings up a menu that allows you to abort the mission and restart, exit the game or enter a second options menu that again allows you to change the music and sound effects volumes and also allows you to change the X and Y axis speeds of the mouse as well as select between two control modes. Both use a combination of Mouse and Keyboard, though with the standard control you can use both mouse and keyboard, though you have to use the arrow keys when using the keyboard. The second option called A D and Mouse utilizes the A and D keys as opposed to the arrow keys for left and right. Both modes have their advantages, which is probably personal to each of us.

The help menu is basic, but that’s all you need. It details the power ups you can collect and bonuses of which there is a limited number, these comprise of weapon upgrades (as you would expect from a space shooter) and armor improvements as well as bonus points of various sizes. Bonuses are gained when you destroy one of the 12 different enemies that you will find in this game. There’s a simple HUD (heads up display) that shows you your weapon and armor strength as well as the number of lives (repair droids) you have at the bottom of the screen (plus a few others detailed in the help menu) as well as the number of bonus points and your score, which are found at the top of the HUD. To progress to a new world you have to attain a specific number of bonus points; for example, to get to the second world you require 15000 bonus points and to get to the third world 20000 bonus points etc. (I’ll let you discover the rest); before you enter a new world though you have to fight one of the five bosses that you’ll meet on your journey to becoming the last galaxy hero :lol: You must move your gun emplacement to capture the bonuses and power ups. The enemies shoot back at you and only need to hit you a few times to destroy your emplacement unless you’ve collected plenty of armor bonuses. These are easily missed though as they move towards you from the lowest axis of the guns vertical movement, which you are usually pointing at the sky, so watch out for those bonuses. You start with 3 lives on all difficulty settings, but there are power ups in the form of repair droids that you can collect, which give you extra lives. You lose a life when your shields are reduced to zero, see the help pages which are accessible from the main menu when you first start the game up, for details of each power up and bonus There are three difficulty settings Easy, Medium and Suicide. The differences between these are how fast the enemy shoots back at you. :lol:

The game is quite easy for the first few levels, but can then get quite hard thereafter, that is unless you are a seasoned galaxy hero, :lol: especially when playing it on the suicide mode.

The game controls include mouse, keyboard and joystick. You can use a combination of each one or individually, which makes the controls very versatile. There is an option to change the control keys, but this is very basic I’ve detailed the differences in the second paragraph of the ‘intro and game section’ above. There are 5 different worlds to explore (see the Googled images below to get an idea), and at the end of each world you encounter a boss. I've taken about 15+ screen captures, but as the Googled images show some excellent in game images, I've concentrated on the menu's.

If you miss today’s game, lose it to a format or decide you want it after the giveaway has finished, the good news is that it’s available for free 365.25 days a year over at Gametop, though its had a name change to Star Gunner, via the link below. For those who are not familiar with Gametop games, your browser is always opened when you shut the game down, though there’s no malware. Gametop have recently been adding a toolbar and or asking if you want your home page changed to Gametop, so keep an eye out when installing because these can easily be avoided by ensuring the appropriate boxes are unchecked:

Download link for free version:

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/star-gunner/

Screen captures:

All on one page:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Last%20Galaxy%20Hero/

As a Slideshow:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Last%20Galaxy%20Hero/?albumview=slideshow

Googled:

http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=Last+Galaxy+Hero&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2

System Requirements:

o CPU………………………………..........Pentium III 700
o Operating System…………….……Win98/2000/XP/Vista
o 3D emulation………………………....DirectX 8.0 or higher ….
o Computer memory…………………128 MB RAM
o Video Card memory………………..32 MB Video RAM

Conclusion:

This is a reasonable 3D space shooter on the lines of a three dimensional space invaders, where you have to destroy wave upon wave of oncoming space craft, though some may find it a little retro in its graphics and design when comparing it with many other games that have been released over the last few years, despite it only being about four years old.

I had loads of fun playing this the first time it was given away and was pleased to see it in the first rerun as I’d lost it to a format. It’s worth 6.5 out of 10 for its game play, which is very basic. Despite it being fun I did find it soon became a little stale if I tried to play it for long due to the lack of anything really interesting.

Other similar games:

There are loads of other space themed shooters that you can get for free from Game top and FreeGamePick, (there were 11 full version commercial games at Gametop the last time I looked)which are linked to via the free shoot ‘em ups thread posted over in the forums. Make sure you check out all the posts in the thread though because I’ve posted several in different posts, plus others have posted suitable games as well. Most are in my opinion much better than today’s giveaway, but if you like space invaders, it’s a great 3D version. My favorite free space game is Universal Combat, which was converted to abandonware at the beginning of this year by it’s developer. It’s a 3D space shooter of epic proportions which is well worth the download if you like space orientated games. You can find details and a link to the download page via the space shoot ‘em up thread that I’ve linked to below:

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2724?replies=33