Sudoku is back
While doing some maintenance, I realized that we’ve been falling down on the job when it comes to a good freeware version of sudoku. We had two links, but one of them was dead. The other worked, but the game it led to was impossible to figure out.
So we apologize to sudoku fans and hope to make it up to you by introducing you to the recently released SudokuAdept from HexCat. It’s pleasing to the eye, and offers intuitive gameplay. There are plenty of preferences to tweak things the way you like them — and the developer promises more features are coming.
Posted Friday, November 21, 2008 in Playtime
A message from Scrimpy
Just imagine how a loved one’s eyes would light up after receiving the gift of a thriftmac T-shirt featuring Scrimpy the worm. Of course, we can only hope that glint would be from delight — not horror or outrage.
Still, a thriftmac T-shirt is something to consider for this year’s Christmas shopping. Maybe for that person who has the ultimate worm collection. Or maybe it could be something . . . what’s that word I’m looking for? . . . special! . . . for yourself. Just click on Scrimpy, and he’ll take care of you. Four styles to choose from.
Posted Thursday, November 20, 2008 in Site-News
Three free games
Stephen Lavelle dropped us a line to let everyone know about three free games he has written that have Mac versions: Endless Cavern, Portile, and Lady Boy Love Collection.
We love suggestions, so keep ’em coming.
Posted Wednesday, November 19, 2008 in Suggestions
VoodooPad Lite 4.0
VoodooPad Lite was already one of the coolest freeware apps out there for the Mac, and with version 4.0 it gets even better. The new interface is a delight to use, and somehow seems more intuitive than ever.
While you’re at the Flying Meat website, you might want to check out their other free stuff.
Posted Tuesday, November 18, 2008 in Updates
The MOApp freeware stash
MOApp, a developer based in Germany, has a total of 14 free programs you can rummage through — and some of them are actually worth downloading.
We especially recommend Pluto, which puts a collection of text snippets and a to-do list in your menubar. Each snippet has its own title, and a search function lets you easily find them. The to-do’s have priorities and checkboxes. All in all, Pluto is very nice and very handy.
Another good one is Schnippselchen Pro, which is designed to keep track of code snippets for programmers. You get code categories in a sidebar on the left. Titles and descriptions of the snippets are in a list at the top. In the bottom, of course, you have the snippets themselves. And if that’s not enough, there is the option of placing comments on the right. This is indeed oriented toward programmers, but there is no reason it couldn’t be adapted for general purposes. (By the way, Google translates Schnippselchen as “trim elk.” Can that possibly be right?)
Other free programs at MOApp include a diary, a password wallet and a feed reader.
Posted Monday, November 17, 2008 in Cool-stuff
Discover free Mac games with macgameshuffle
We’ve got a great list of free Mac games here at thriftmac. And if you have the patience, you can scroll through it and find lots of good stuff. But the fact remains that it is a list of apps like any other.
So we decided that since games are about having fun, why not provide a fun way for people to discover Mac games. And so was born macgameshuffle. This new website has nice big icons and screenshots along with full descriptions of each game. You can use the console at the top to leaf through all the games in each category — or best of all you can hit the shuffle button and surprise yourself. To borrow a phrase from Apple’s iPod touch campaign, the “funnest” way to use macgameshuffle is with Safari 3.1 — the shuffle button actually spins.
We’re starting out with 20 games, but we plan to gradually add more until the total is more like 50 — and we won’t stop there. The sky’s the limit.
Just one caution: Because we wanted to make the site as fun as possible, we used some advanced techniques that don’t work in Internet Explorer. If you’re stuck with IE for some reason, the site will function, but we recommend you come back soon with the latest version of Safari or Firefox.
Most of all, macgameshuffle is about having fun. Please enjoy!
Posted Thursday, November 13, 2008 in Site-News
Do online apps count as freeware?
An increasing number of free programs are being offered in tandem with online services. A couple that came in as suggestions are Dropbox and Evernote. While it’s true you get a free app in the bargain, you also have to sign up for an account in order to take advantage of their file-sharing capabilities. (Although Evernote can be used independently on the desktop.) And the accounts themselves are free.
Bearing this in mind, we’re thinking of creating a Online category for the thriftmac collection, or possibly just mixing the online apps in with the others based on their functionality. One thing I’m leery about is their business model. Can they possibly make money by providing free services? Or are they hoping to get people hooked, and then offer a “pro” version that you have to pay for. This is the route that Google took with its online apps, and it appears people are happy with it.
Let us know what you think in the comments.
Posted Wednesday, November 12, 2008 in Suggestions
The crisis continues
While looking around for cool, new Mac freeware, I came across a game under development called Amoebax. I downloaded it, just to see how it was coming along. As soon as I started playing it, I was reminded of . . . what?
It took awhile, but I finally figured it out. This one is a lot like a shareware favourite from years ago called Candy Crisis — a cute twist on Tetris where dropping candies glom together if they are the same colour, and explode if they gather in a group of four.
Candy Crisis was originally named Skittles and seemed to enjoy a lot of popularity until the makers of the candy likely stepped in and demanded that the developer stop appropriating their name. As Candy Crisis, the game gradually faded from view.
It turns out, though, that it lives on as an open source project. You can download and use it freely — with the only catch being that you must insert a supplied registration code. Amazingly, it still works, even on Intel Macs. In some cases, the graphics are a bit rough around the edges, but otherwise it looks and plays as great as ever.
Amoebax, on the other hand, is only at version 0.2, so it has a long way to before any fair comparisons can be made. The developer seems to be trying some innovations. For example, there is a tournament mode. The graphics, while cute, could do with some improvement, and the game play is way to easy at this point. With any luck, though, Amoebax will take this game concept to the next level.
It should be noted that both games have their origin with a Japanese game called Puyo Puyo that dates back to 1991. It in turn was apparently inspired by elements of Tetris. So there you go — everything old is new again.
Posted Monday, November 10, 2008 in Playtime
Drawing conclusions
First there was Paintbrush, then it was iPaint, and now Vanilla Draw. What’s going on?
Paintbrush is (or was) a simple painting program designed by Mike Schreiber to be similar to Microsoft Paint and MacPaint. It is indeed simple. You can draw lines, make shapes, add text and colour them. It’s not exactly Photoshop, but doesn’t pretend to be.
Paintbrush is open source, which means anyone can download the source code and tweak it, or even use it as the basis for their own program — which is exactly what happened with iPaint. The developer, Danny D, notes that Paintbrush “hasn’t been updated for almost one year and it was time to do something.” After a series of rapid .1 upgrades, iPaint is now at version 2.0. Unfortunately, something broke along the way and it won’t launch. (Or has it gone back to version 1.0? It’s hard to tell . . .)
But lo and behold, along comes Vanilla Draw from Giza Products — which is also based on the Paintbrush open source code. It at least launches. As I write this, I have Paintbrush and Vanilla running at the same time. As far as I can tell, their interfaces and features are pretty much identical.
So what on Earth should you do if you want a good, solid drawing program for free? There’s nothing wrong with any of the programs we’ve mentioned here (that launching problem will likely be fixed soon), but our recommendation is to try DrawIt Lite. It comes from developers dedicated to selling a pro version, so you can be fairly certain they’ll keep it in good running order as a way of encouraging you to upgrade. Or just keep it for free.
Posted Saturday, November 8, 2008 in Reviews
Bye-bye, Chopper
We just noticed that the makers of Chopper are now charging $9.99. That’s too bad, because it was one of the more popular games we have listed on thriftmac. We wish the developers the best of luck, but it’s not freeware so it’s no longer in the collection.
Posted Thursday, November 6, 2008 in Site-News
Dive into the collection
Most visited
Recommended
Stuff we like
