Giveaway of the Day Forums

1. 

   Anonymous
   Unregistered

   Fill your USB stick with great games, so you can play even on computers that don’t allow you to install software.

   Whether you’re at work, the library or even someone else’s house, sometimes you cannot – or simply don’t want to – install a game on a computer. But what if you could take some games with you on a USB drive, and play them on any Windows computer? Turns out you can with a wide variety of software – all of it portable.

   Find below my humble attempt to outline some of the best portable games out there. You’ll find shooters, strategy games and platformers – there should be something for everyone. Please note: most (not all) of these downloads requires the Portable Apps Suite, so be sure to look into that software if you’re confused by the .PAF files you’ve downloaded.
   AssaultCube: First Person Shooter

   You can put a first person shooter on your flash drive, right now, and take it to work. Don’t believe me? Download the portable version of AssaultCube.

   Our own Ryan claims this game combines some of the best features from a variety of shooters, and it even offers a LAN multiplayer mode – so you could get your entire office in on the whole “not working” thing.

   games you can run off usb
   Cave Story: Perfect Tribute To 8-Bit

   Prefer your shooting games to be two-dimensional? You’re not alone, and this beauty of a game is one of the best. Cave Story’s been around since 2004, but it looks, sounds and feels at least a decade older than that. But it’s not derivative – there’s a lot more here than meets the eye. You’ll be hooked.

   games you can run off a flash drive

   Read more about Cave Story, or go ahead and download the game. Everything you need to run this game is in a single folder, so you can easily run it off your flash drive (though you’ll need to apply a language patch – see the site for instructions).
   FreeCiv: Empire Building

   Strategy games are great fun, and Civilization is among the best. FreeCiv isn’t a perfect replica of Microsoft’s classic, but it comes pretty close – and is completely free.

   games you can run off a flash drive

   Games like this are a lot easier to get away with playing at work – turn your monitor away and you’ll basically look like you’re focusing. Not to encourage time theft, but you get the idea.

   Read more about FreeCiv, or go ahead and download the portable version of the game from Portable Apps.
   Battle For Wesnoth: Turn-Based Strategy

   Take your time to think. Battle For Wesnoth is a turn-based adventure game with fantastic music and an immersive plot. It’s a game you’re going to want to take with you everywhere once you have it.

   games you can run off a flash drive

   Read more about Battle For Wesnoth, or download the portable version of the game from Portable Apps.
   Hedge Wars: Worms-like Strategy

   Remember Worms? It was a classic in the 90′s, combining slapstick with realtime strategy. Hedge Wars takes that concept and runs with it – and it’s a blast.

   usb games

   Read more about Hedge Wars or download the portable version of the game from Portable Apps
   OpenTTD: Transportation Simulator

   Transit Tycoon Deluxe is, over a decade later, an absolute favorite game for many – but not update seems to be coming. Luckily there’s OpenTTD, a free version of this classic available to everyone. Managing a public transportation doesn’t sound like fun, but the challenge of it is strangely addictive.

   usb games

   Read more about OpenTTD, or download the portable version of the game from Portable Apps.
   Grab The Windows XP Classic Games

   Windows 8 denies you even the basic games that came with Windows by default. Don’t panic, though, because if you’re got a Windows XP CD lying around you can grab Minesweeper, Solitaire and the rest quickly. Even better: once you have the files you can run these games on any computer, from your USB drive.

   usb games
   Stick Minecraft On Your USB Drive

   Do you wish you could play Minecraft as school, but can’t because you cannot install software? You’re in luck, because there’s a tutorial for putting Minecraft on your USB key over at MineCraftForum.net. It’s long, but it just might be worth it.
   Retro Gaming Made Portable

   Love retro gaming? Fill your USD drive with retro emulators, then.

   games you can run off usb

   We’ve outlined major emulators for three eras of gaming, and most of these programs are portable as-is. Fill your USB drive with ROMs and these pieces of software and you’ll be good to go. Check out these articles for more details:

   10 Retro Emulators To Play Early 80s Home Consoles On Your PC (1981-1986)
   10+ Emulators To Play Old-School 16- And 32-bit Consoles On Your PC (1987-1993)
   8 Great Emulators To Play Modern Home Consoles On Your PC (1994-2001)

   What Did We Miss?

   Using this list and you can play pretty much any kind of game directly from your USB drive.

   I’m curious, though, what else can we add? Let me know what portable games you find in the comments below, and together we’ll build the ultimate USB of portable games for Windows!

   article plus visuals

   Posted 10 years ago #
2. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   It's not that huge of a deal to make most games portable, at least the casual games as offered by GOTD on weekends. I did a Bunch a while back [something like 50 or so I think] for my wife. I like the portableapps.com format because the launcher with menu is handy for someone who doesn't want to browse folders, & the only real requirement is that the app's folders are arranged a certain way inside a PortableApps folder that the launcher knows to scan -- that's how the menu's populated or filled in. That said, I'll modify my 1st statement -- it's easier if you have both XP & win7, real or VMs. The game has to be monitored in XP when it's run to see where it stores its data, then step 2, the game is set up to copy or use that data when run, updating the data stored with the app [e.g. on a USB stick] when the game's closed down. Step 3, it has to be tried in XP & win7, and things get tweaked if it doesn't work properly in one or the other. When I was doing it I could average around 4 games in a couple of hours. If anyone's interested I'll try to put something down that's step-by-step.

   Posted 10 years ago #
3. 

   Campy
   Member

   mikiem2, yes please. Also, why can't you monitor in Win7 to see where things are stored?

   Posted 10 years ago #
4. 

   ringo2312
   Member

   Thanks Mr Magoo.

   I'm quite impressed with AssaultCube, for something that's run entirely from a flash drive. My son and I are going to enjoy this one :)

   Posted 10 years ago #
5. 

   mikiem2
   Moderator

   "mikiem2, yes please. Also, why can't you monitor in Win7 to see where things are stored? "

   Great question...

   You don't have to use XP or VMs -- if you've got them set up & ready to use it helps to make it easier & faster. If you want to make a lot of apps & games portable there's a decent chance that taking the time to set up a minimal XP &/or win7 32 VM will be worth it in the long run -- the time & effort spent up front will be paid back & then some. If you just want to experiment with making a couple of GOTD games portable, depending on stuff like if you have an XP license available, it might be overkill.

   Using a separate app or script for a portable launcher, the way it usually works is that launcher copies everything the app or game needs to run to the hard drive, starts the app or game, then removes everything once you close the app or game. So, you need the program's or game's folder with all the files, minus any uninstall files, unneeded language files etc. -- on a USB stick a lot of small files takes up an inordinate amount of storage space, so anything you can get rid of helps. You need any other files/folders & registry entries that the app or game uses when it runs -- the launcher will copy these to the hard drive so they're available. And if you want everything removed when you exit the app or game, you need any files, folders, &/or registry entries that the app or game adds but doesn't really need in order to run properly -- I list this stuff separately because some people don't care about removing everything afterwards [actually a lot of apps that claim to be portable leave stuff behind], and that can make things easier. The most common example I've come across is a lot of apps add a folder to My Documents where by default anything you do is stored -- you obviously don't need that [the app will run just fine without it], but every time you fire up that app it will add a folder to My Documents if there's not one there already. If you wanted it removed you'd have to add it to the launcher -- if you don't care if it's left behind that's something you don't have to worry about.

   One of the main ways XP makes it easier is that XP itself is simpler -- run the same app or game or otherwise do the same things in XP & win7 [or win8], & XP will add fewer Windows-generated registry entries. By Windows-generated I mean more-or-less garbage registry entries that have no bearing on if or how an app or game runs. Maybe the hardest thing at 1st was learning what sort of registry entries are garbage & which ones matter. The way I learned was by monitoring app/game installs, &/or monitoring what happens when they run without being installed, e.g. if 2 apps each add a lot of ...\ShellNoRoam\Bags entries, then it's likely not app specific but something Windows generates, which can be verified by the app or game starting without those registry entries in place. Vista/win7/8 adds a lot more of that sort of thing, often in addition to new entries for things like Readyboost, Tracing, VSS [for system or file restore], and so on. -- BUT -- the typical GOTD game that just gets unpacked to a C:\Games folder doesn't use the registry, & neither does the average Playrix game installed to Program Files or Program Files (x86) [the Playrix games may add uninstall entries, but since you're making it portable you don't want/need those].

   Where VMs can make it easier is that the way you tell if a game or app you made portable actually works, is to run it & see what happens. To do that the game or app can't already be installed, so you either have to restore everything to the way it was before installation, or remove any changes manually. Something like TimeFreeze works in a regular Windows install to put stuff back the way it was, or you can shut down a VM & copy/paste a baseline VHD with the VM on top of the one where you installed the app(s) &/or game(s). With most GOTD games it's not difficult to manually delete 1-3 folders the game added.

   To give you a better idea of why I use VMs & do things the way I do, here's an overview of the process I use... First I monitor the install of every app &/or game in the XP VM using InstallWatch Pro -- when I'm done I have .reg files with any added or modified registry entries, & separate .7z files for any files/folders that were added. Some time later I'll restore that VM, & copy the folders with all the files & details for 4-6 apps/games to that VM to work with them. Once I'm done I'll restore the VM again & test the portable versions, & assuming they work, test them in my win7 32 VM. At that point maybe 1 out of 12 portable apps/games will need to have something tweaked -- I'll stick the one that needs more work back in line for when I do the next batch, putting the rest in the folder where I store my portable apps. By working in small batches it's very manageable, but I don't suffer too much hassle or delay constantly restoring VMs or taking before/after snapshots & such. It also divides things up into discrete tasks so I can spend a 1/2 hour or a few hours, whatever I feel like & have available.

   Posted 10 years ago #
6. 

   Campy
   Member

   Thanks mikiem2.

   Posted 10 years ago #

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