Best Free Software for Mac OS - As a Single Page Best Free Software for Mac OS - As a Single Page New and Updated Software Check out what's new: About This list of Best Free Software for Mac OS now includes 283 applications in various categories. To read brief descriptions of the applications, select a Software Category on top of this page or use the box below to view all software items in one massive list. See all apps in one massive list With the advent of "iDevices", OS X has arguably become one of the fastest growing user bases in the last decade. Not only for graphic design and audio/video editors anymore, OS X, with its simplistic design, has caught the appeal of many more common users who want a system that just works. One of the largest shortfallings, however, is that enhanced functionality comes at a cost. Many software solutions for OS X are paid options that allow certain functionalities. The goal of this group is to break down that barrier and provide a large database of free software for OS X to enhance your Mac experience. Ranging from comic book readers to programming editors, chess to media centers, our team has taken the time to review and recommend the best free software for Mac OS.

Traverso DAW "Traverso Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) is a cross platform multitrack audio recording and editing suite, with an innovative and easy to master User Interface. It's suited for both the professional and home user, who needs a robust and solid DAW. Traverso is a complete solution from recording to CD Mastering. By supplying many common tools in one package, you don't have to learn how to use lots of applications with different user interfaces. This considerably lowers the learning curve, letting you get your audio processing work done faster. A unique approach to non-linear audio processing was developed for Traverso to provide extremely solid and robust audio processing and editing. Adding and removal of effects plugins, moving Audio Clips and creating new Tracks during playback are all perfectly safe, giving you instant feedback on your work." fre:ac "fre:ac is a free audio converter and CD ripper with support for various popular formats and encoders. It currently converts between MP3, MP4/M4A, WMA, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, AAC, WAV and Bonk formats.

More Info: With fre:ac you easily rip your audio CDs to MP3 or WMA files for use with your hardware player or convert files that do not play with other audio software. You can even convert whole music libraries retaining the folder and filename structure. The integrated CD ripper supports the CDDB/freedb online CD database. It will automatically query song information and write it to ID3v2 or other title information tags." SimplyBurns "SimplyBurns is a Mac OS X application with a GUI, which allows the user to burn CD / DVD media. Good burning program ..." Sea Mac's note: Works on Mac OS X 10.9.5 - now my #1 pick for Best FREE CD/DVD Burning Software for Mac!!!!" HandBrake "The program has a relatively small file size for all the features that it offers. The transcoded video is surprisingly good quality for the amount of time it takes to rip. Handbrake produces an MPEG-4 file which is compatible with a wide range of media players, and has a very great feature with preconfigured profiles for Apple iPhone, iPad, iPod and Apple TV.

It also provides numerous video and audio parameter settings for advanced users to alter the file size and video quality accordingly." ( Review ) DetectX "DetectX 2 can: – Remove MacKeeper and other apps that can cause unexpected performance problems – Detect Keyloggers and Adware – Track changes to your system – Show/Hide invisible files. DetectX 2 remains free for home use. Commercial and Institutional users are required to buy a Commercial Use license. You may run DetectX WITHOUT the Optional $10 home License! Requires OS X 10.7 or higher. (Note for Snow Leopard users: Cos’ you’re special, we’ve made you your very own ‘DetectX for Snow Leopard‘ app - but only 64-bit Intel macs are supported. Please consider this as beta software and report any bugs directly to us. Our ability to test on 10.6 is limited!)" Objektiv is a Mac App that lets you switch your default browser with ease. This software may be handy for web designers or those who work with multiple browsers. Features include a status-bar icon for quick access to settings such as black-listing browsers that are incorrectly detected. You can also set up a quick key to allow acess to an overlay.

EasyFind "An alternative to (or supplement of) Mac OS X's Spotlight and find files, folders, or contents in any file without indexing. EasyFind is especially useful for those tired of slow or impossible indexing, outdated or corrupted indices, or those just looking for features missing in the Finder or Spotlight." DasBoot "DasBoot is so easy to use that any Mac user can make their own boot device to maintain the health of their computer. It’s so powerful that it’s used by computer repair and industry professionals to keep their customers computers running great and to recover lost data. You no longer need to carry around countless boot disks for each of your recovery, repair, and maintenance applications. With DasBoot you can keep all your disk tools in one convenient place where they’re ready for whatever problems may arise with your machine." Mac Linux USB Loader "The Mac Linux USB Loader is a tool allowing you to take an ISO of a Linux distribution and make it boot using EFI. It requires a single USB drive formatted as FAT with at least 2 GB free recommended. Mac Linux USB Loader is available under the 3-clause BSD license. The tool is necessary to make certain Linux distributions boot that do not have EFI booting support.

Many common distributions are supported, like Ubuntu and Linux Mint." AppCleaner "A small application allows you to thoroughly uninstall unwanted apps. Installing an application distributes many files throughout your System using space of your Hard Drive unnecessarily. AppCleaner finds all these small files and safely deletes them." DuckCapture "DuckCapture allows you to capture a window or region on your screen, or the contents of a tall web page that scrolls. You can change your captured area or add more areas to one image, add annotations. When finished, you can to file, copy to clipboard or print out directly." Jing "Select any window or region that you would like to record, and Jing will capture everything that happens in that area. From simple mouse movements to a fully narrated tutorial, Jing records everything and lets you share your SWF videos with anyone. Jing videos are limited to 5 minutes for instant, focused communication." SuperDuper "An easy-to-use disk copying program available for OS X for you to make a full backup, or clone your system disk. You can completely duplicate your boot drive to another drive to make a bootable backup.

The free version doesn't support scheduling, smart update and other advanced features." VirtualBox "VirtualBox is a cross-platform technology and has a wide subset of features including a more advanced network stack, unlimited snapshots, some OpenGL and DirectX support, and more. It is quite simple to install and use. You can also use command line for automated deployments. One sore thing is that you cannot take screenshots of your guests. Disk management is somewhat convoluted. You can install Guest Additions to gain USB 2.0 support, shared folders and to boost performance." ( Review ) Wally "A good wallpaper changer running on multi platforms. It allows the wallpaper position to be set to centered, tiled, center tiled, centered maxpert, tiled maxpert, scaled, center auto fit or scale and crop. The setting of positions applies to all wallpapers in the folders. Other supported features include time intervals, choosing images from folders or online resources, displaying EXIF data, saving downloaded photos, run-time folder change detection." ( Review ) JFileRecovery "JFileRecovery is a free Java Web Start application that can copy files from damaged storage devices and media, skipping over problematic regions that typically cause copying to fail.

If the file is listed, there is a good chance that JFileRecovery can salvage much of the data with minimal corruption. For many media files such as MP3, MPEG, AVI and JPEG, corruption is often not even noticeable. JFileRecovery is a Java application that recovers files from damaged hard drives, CDs, DVDs and Flash media quickly and efficently. JFileRecovery will run on Windows, Linux, Mac and other operating systems supporting Java 1.5 or higher. " GrandPerspective "GrandPerspective is a small utility application for Mac OS X that graphically shows the disk usage within a file system. It can help you to manage your disk, as you can easily spot which files and folders take up the most space. It uses a so called tree map for visualization. Each file is shown as a rectangle with an area proportional to the file's size. Files in the same folder appear together, but their placement is otherwise arbitrary. 27 Sep 2014: GrandPerspective has been downloaded more than a million times! I should again apologize though for the recent lack of activity on the GrandPerspective front. I have simply been too busy with too many other things.

All good though, no worries." "jFileCrypt encrypts and decrypts files and directories fast and secure. It is written in Java 5 and uses the Java Cryptographic Extensions. It supports the following algorithms: Blowfish, DES, 3DES, AES and RC4." Ultracopier It's free and open source software licensed under GPL3 that acts as a replacement for files copy dialogs. Main features include: play/pause, speed limitation, on-error resume, error or collision management. "It has some pretty exciting features but what speaks most about it is that it has an excellent file resume option." ( Review ) iSwiff "iSwiff is a Stand Alone Shockwave Flash file Player for Mac OS X. Full Screen Flash outside the browser. Play Flash files without a web browser. iSwiff will let you play Flash from your own hard disk & let you enjoy a full screen experience. You have to provide an email address: but you will NOT be spammed." FileSync "FileSync is a file synchronization utility originally created in 2003. Synchronization is fast, threaded and cancelable. Synchronization lists for each volume or server are created, stored and selected from a convenient drawer window.

It updates only recently modified files, and copies any new or orphaned files on one location that are not on the other location. Hasher "HashserGUI is a GUI interface for Jacksum. It is intended to provide a graphical tool to create hashes for files within a directory, and check the hashes generated. It works with many hash functions: md5, sha1, sha256, sha512, md4, sha0, sha384, md0, and sha224. This project works on Mac OS X 10.9.5 - while the latest JackSum Does Not seem to! This is my #1 recommendation for a Hash Utility on Mac OS X systems. " Racer "Racer is a free cross-platform car simulation project (for non-commercial use). Racer is a free car simulation project, using real car physics to get a realistic feeling. Cars, tracks, scenes and such can be created with relative simplicity in mind (compared to other driving simulations). The 3D and other file formats are, or should be, documented. Editors and support programs are also available to get a very flexible and expandable simulator. It uses OpenGL for rendering.

It attempts to do well at the physics section, trying to create life-like cars to emphasize car control and doesn't cut back on realism in the interest of fun. If you've played Grand Prix Legends from Papyrus, you'll know what I'm talking about. #1 Pick in Racing Simulators. Some Assembly Required IF you want to add cars or tracks. Easiest to drive ... Mouse Control is Highly Sensitive and Intuitive." YS Flight Simulator "YS Flight Simulator is a fully featured lightweight flight simulator. As well as basic functionalities, it has network feature that allows you to fly with or against your friends. You also can fly a formation leader, dogfight, intercept, attack ground, take off and land on an aircraft carrier and so on, and you can choose your airplane from more than 50 airplanes, and there are several maps as well. Easier to get Flying than with FlightGear " SuperTuxKart "SuperTuxKart is a kart racing game featuring Tux and friends for Windows, Linux, and Mac Systems. It is a fun-racer game, focusing on fun and ease of play. Features: Race with Tux and Friends. Explore several tracks.

Play against AI or in split-screen mode against your friends. Play in various modes, including Time Trial, Grand Prix and 3 Strikes Battle. Mac OS version SuperTuxKart 0.8.1 is still working on Mac OS X 10.9.5 . (The newest version, SuperTuxKart 0.9.1 , CRASHED ... )" Musicracer "Musicracer is a rhythm game that creates 3D racing tracks from your MP3, OGG, WAV or FLAC files. About Musicracer: In the year 4600 the musicracer league is one of the most prominent racing leagues in the galaxy. The racing tracks are created based on a spectrum analysis of ancient music from long forgotten cultures. You are hereby granted access to a classified training simulation. Prepare yourself for the league. Musicracer is a free music based game that lets you race all the music living on your local harddisk. Just select an arbitrary .mp3, .ogg, .wav or .flac file from your computer and Musicracer will generate an unique track for any song. What's New in this Version: - fixed keyboard control and improved mouse control sensitivity. - added FLAC support.

- added keyboard navigation to the filechooser. You can now jump to folders by simply typing the first few characters of a band or folder name. Music Racer System Requirements: * Mac OS X 10.5 or later / * Window XP or later. Still works on Mac OS X 10.9 - one of the editor's favorite games" Rigs of Rods "Rigs of Rods is an open source cross platform simulator for soft-body physics. What makes Rigs of Rods different to most simulators is its unique soft-body physics simulation: Objects are simulated in real-time as flexible soft-body objects, resulting in a very realistic simulation which entirely depends on the physical construction of the object. The community contributes greatly to the game, giving it a vast selection of vehicles and terrains from which you can choose. Rigs of Rods is mostly used for simulating vehicles but it is flexible enough to be suited for other tasks as well." "Features: Soft-body physics based on mass-spring-damper model. Advanced flight model based on blade element theory allowing accurate simulation of any airplane, based entirely on its physical dimensions and wing airfoils, similar to X-Plane.

Accurate buoyancy model based on elemental pressure gradients, allowing boats with complex hulls to move realistically through waves. Supports scripting using AngelScript. Multiplayer. Support for Wheels, gamepads and joysticks including Force Feedback. Advanced graphical effects thanks to OGRE3D engine. 3D positional audio and HRTF support thanks to OpenAL Soft. The last Mac OS version released RoR-0.35.dmg is still working on Mac OS X 10.9.5" Red Eclipse "Red Eclipse is a fun-filled new take on the casual first person arena shooter. Red Eclipse is a single-player and multi-player first-person ego-shooter, built as a total conversion of Cube Engine 2, which lends itself toward a balanced gameplay, completely at the control of map makers, while maintaining a general theme of agility in a variety of environments. Features: Single-player and multi-player first-person ego-shooter, built on Cube Engine 2. Balanced gameplay, with a general theme of agility in a variety of environments. Parkour, impulse boosts & dashing, and power jumps. Favourite gamemodes with tons of mutators and variables. Available for Windows, Linux/BSD and Mac OSX.

Builtin editor lets you create your own maps cooperatively online." AstroMenace "AstroMenace is a Cross Platform Hardcore 3D space shooter with spaceship upgrade possibilities. Description: AstroMenace is an astonishing hardcore scroll-shooter where brave space warriors may find a great opportunity to hone their combat skills. Gather money during the battle to spend them on turning your spaceship into an ultimate weapon of mass destruction and give hell to swarms of adversaries. Enjoy the wonderfully crafted 3d graphics and high-quality special effects along with a detailed difficulty adjustment and a handy interface of AstroMenace. Features: 22 playable ships with unique characteristics. 19 unique weapons with the easy drag-and-drop weapon mount mode. 15 missions with 100+ unique enemies and 40+ space objects. Simulative and arcade ship control mode. Flexible difficulty control. Works on Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows systems." GridBike " This aim of this game is to rescue every man on each level. But it isn’t quite that simple: you aren’t allowed to cross the trail left by your bike, and you need to avoid the mines scattered around the grid. To succeed you’ll need sharp reflexes and an eye for picking a path.

All levels are created randomly for a fresh challenge every time you play — perfect for whenever you have a spare minute or two. Requirements: OS X 10.5 or later (Intel only). Windows XP or later. (OS X 10.8+: If OS X refuses to launch GridBike because it is from an unidentified developer, right–click on the app icon and select Open from the pop–up menu.) " The Battle for Wesnoth "The Battle for Wesnoth is a turn-based tactical strategy role-playing game with a high fantasy theme. Build up a great army, gradually turning raw recruits into hardened veterans. In later games, recall your toughest warriors and form a deadly host that none can stand against! Choose units from a large pool of specialists, and hand-pick a force with the right strengths to fight well on different terrains against all manner of opposition." "Wesnoth has many different sagas waiting to be played. Fight to regain the throne of Wesnoth, of which you are the legitimate heir... step into the boots of a young officer sent to guard a not-so-sleepy frontier outpost... lead a brutal quest to unite the orcish tribes...

vanquish a horde of undead warriors unleashed by a foul necromancer, who also happens to have taken your brother hostage... guide a band of elvish survivors in an epic quest to find a new home... get revenge on the orcs by using the foul art of necromancy... There are at least two hundred unit types, sixteen races, six major factions, and hundreds of years of history. The world of Wesnoth is absolutely huge and only limited by your creativity — make your own custom units, create your own maps, and write your own scenarios or even full-blown campaigns. You can also challenge up to eight friends—or strangers—and fight in epic multiplayer fantasy battles." "Features: Build up a formidable fighting force, starting from a single leader and a small amount of gold. Over two hundred unit types in six major factions, all with distinctive abilities, weapons and spells. Experienced units gain powerful new abilities as they advance. Several multiplayer options available, including Internet play. Scores of different custom-designed map and unlimited random maps. Hundreds of campaign scenarios available for download through a simple in-game dialog. Fog of War feature available for a true test of generalship.

Sophisticated markup language lets advanced users make their own maps, factions, or campaigns. Excellent language support — 54 different languages currently available. Compatible with Windows, OS X, and GNU/Linux, as well as BSD distributions such as FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, and DragonFly BSD. " StepMania "StepMania is a timing/rhythm game featuring 3D graphics, keyboard and "dance pad" support, and an editor for creating your own steps. What do I need to play it? * A computer running Windows (XP+ or newer), Mac OS X (10.6 or newer), or Linux * A computer with a 3D-capable graphics card. (If your computer or video card was manufactured in the last 4 years, it's likely that it can run StepMania). StepMania can be played with a keyboard or with dance pads. The game is much more involved and fun with a dance pad though. " Performous "Performous combines SingStar, Guitar Hero, and dancing all in the same game! Many extra songs can be downloaded! This Game requires that your computer have Peripherals attached (Usually through a USB2 port) for proper, or BEST, Gameplay.

Devices recommended, that you SHOULD have already attached to your computer, when you start Performous up, include one or more of: Microphone (or Headset with Mic) for "SingStar" or "UltraStar Deluxe" type Singing Contests / Guitar Controller, or Drum Pad (a Keyboard is used as your Guitar controller in a pinch) for "Guitar Hero" or "Frets-of-Fire" type Play-offs / and a "Dance Pad" controller spread out on the floor (so you can 'hit your marks' while dancing) to do a "Dance, Dance Party" type Dance-Off. Now with Live Mic Playthrough!" FoFiX "FoFix (Frets on Fire X) is a cross platform fork of Frets on Fire with extra features added. FoFiX is a multi-OS rhythm game similar to Guitar Hero or Rock Band. Play guitar, bass or drums along with your favorite songs on your computer using either your keyboard or instruments. You can use your Guitar Hero or Rock Band instrument controllers. Separated audio tracks will mute when you fail to hit or sustain the required notes correctly to simulate a real concert-playing experience. " Nuncabola "Nuncabola ...

A cross platform rolling ball arcade game similar to the wooden box type puzzles where you must maneuver a ball along a maze by tilting the playing field itself! As avid readers of (the Neverball) forum may know, the lockstep graphics never worked for Nuncabola's developer. That's why (he) was disappointed to see Neverball 1.5 released with the "very apparent and quite disturbing" judder left unfixed. This, among other reasons, motivated (him) to finally start (his) own, personal version of Neverball. The result is a Java application he calls Nuncabola, and he's sharing it here with anyone who is interested. In order to enable productive work, he decided to redesign the entire code structure. Internally, this is a complete rewrite. Externally, Nuncabola is still rather faithful to Neverball in terms of design and features. However, a number of changes have already been made, and more may be introduced as development continues. " Coblyn "In Coblyn you explore a cave system in search of diamonds. When you’ve collected enough the exit will be unlocked, giving you the chance to escape with your treasure… if you can reach it in time!

Along the way you’ll need to set off avalanches, dig traps for deadly creatures, and tunnel through unstable piles of boulders. Coblyn comes with 100 levels built-in, and another 200 are available in the Classic Level Pack. Thousands more can be found by searching for level packs in the BDCFF format. The controls for the game are listed in the Help screen. To get an idea of how to play Coblyn, wait at the main title screen and it will cycle through a set of demo games. Requirements: OS X 10.5 or later (Intel only). Windows XP or later. (OS X 10.8+: If OS X refuses to launch GridBike because it is from an unidentified developer, right–click on the app icon and select Open from the pop–up menu.)" "New in Version 3.1.0: Improved the appearance of the boulder (roughened), the diamond (transparency and random sparkles), and the butterfly. The Start screen now allows the cave and level to be set by pressing the appropriate letter key (for the cave) or number key (for the level).

Bonus caves now become selectable on the Start screen once the preceding cave has been completed at all difficulty levels. For example, bonus cave Q appears after D–1 through D–5 have been completed. Improved support for BDCFF level packs. [Windows] Fixed a problem where full–screen mode wasn’t always restored when the app was restarted. Lots of small improvements and fixes." YSoccer "31st May 2014 ... Yoda Soccer is now out of beta phase! The production version will be developed as a new project called YSoccer. Description: A new soccer game which intends to give a continuation to the funny and easy playable series of Sensible World of Soccer (aka SWOS). YSoccer is written in BlitzMax. Features: Multiplatform (Linux, Windows, OS X). Custom competitions: leagues, cups. Automatic and fixed player(s) control mode. Weather effects: rain, snow, fog, wind. Multiple screen resolutions, zoom and rotation. Replay and slow-motion. Highlights. Training mode. Worldwide database. Teams and players editor. Team customization: 21 standard kit styles, custom character sets. Player customization: 10 skins colors and more than 40 different hair cuts.

Tactics editor. " Fish Fillets NG "Fish Fillets - Next Generation is strictly a puzzle game. Works on Windows, Linux, or Mac systems. The goal in every of the seventy levels is always the same: find a safe way out. The fish utter witty remarks about their surroundings (In Dutch with English Subtitles), the various inhabitants of their underwater realm quarrel among themselves or comment on the efforts of your fish. The whole game is accompanied by quiet, comforting music. " Pingus "Pingus is a free Lemmings®-like puzzle game covered under the GNU GPL. It currently features 77 playable levels, and runs under a wide variety of operating systems (Linux, Windows, MacOSX, etc.). Pingus was started at the end of 1998 with the simple goal to create a Free (as in freedom, not as in free beer) Lemmings® clone. The Free means you get the sources and are allowed and encouraged to change and distribute them. You basically get everything that I used to create this game.

In the years it has grown than quite a bit over the original goal and become something more than just a clone, we have original artwork, a built-in level editor, new actions, multiplayer and a few other features." "If you don't know about Lemmings®, here comes a short introduction. It is a puzzle game developed in 1991 by DMA Design. The player takes command in the game of a bunch of small animals and has to guide them through levels. Since the animals walk on their own, the player can only influence them by giving them commands, like build a bridge, dig a hole or redirect all animals in the other direction. The goal of each level is to reach the exit, for this multiple combination of commands are necessary. The game is presented in a 2D side view. While Pingus is based on the idea of Lemmings®, it however doesn't try to be an exact clone, it has included a few ideas of its own, like the worldmap or secret levels, which might be familiar from games the Super Mario World and other Nintendo games.

It has also a few new actions, like the jumper which weren't presented in the original game." Stellarium "Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go. System requirements: Minimal ... Linux/Unix; Windows 7 and above; OS X 10.7.4 and above / 3D graphics card which supports OpenGL 3.0 and GLSL 1.3 / 512 MiB RAM / 250 MiB on disk. Recommended: ... Linux/Unix; Windows 7 and above; OS X 10.8.5 and above / 3D graphics card which supports OpenGL 3.3 and above / 1 GiB RAM or more! 1.5 GiB on disk." "Extensive Features: Sky Features include: default catalogue of over 600,000 stars. extra catalogues with more than 210 million stars. asterisms and illustrations of the constellations.

constellations for 20+ different cultures. images of nebulae (full Messier catalogue). realistic Milky Way. very realistic atmosphere, sunrise and sunset. the planets and their satellites. Interface Features include: a powerful zoom. time control. multilingual interface. fisheye projection for planetarium domes. spheric mirror projection for your own low-cost dome. all new graphical interface and extensive keyboard control. telescope control. Visualization Features include: equatorial and azimuthal grids. star twinkling. shooting stars. eclipse simulation. supernovae simulation. skinnable landscapes, now with spheric panorama projection. Customizability Features include: plugin system adding artifical satellites, ocular simulation, telescope configuration and more. ability to add new solar system objects from online resources ... add your own deep sky objects, landscapes, constellation images, scripts... Editor's Choice for the Category!" Flare "FLARE is a Action RPG that's easy to mod. Description Flare (Free/Libre Action Roleplaying Engine) is a simple single-player Action RPG engine. Instead of being a general engine that handles many game types, this focused engine is small and easy to mod.

Included is a demo game featuring dark atmosphere and fast-paced combat. Features: Easy to mod with plain text files. Basic translation support. CC-BY-SA licensed core assets to create new campaigns. Platforms: AmigaOS4/BSD/Linux/Mac OS X/Windows. Editor's note: one of the best RPG D&D Games I've ever played!" Lego Digital Designer "Lego Digital Designer (LDD) is the official Lego CAD-like program. For many this smart toy will be a clear first choice. The graphics and controls are excellent. If you're accustomed to Google Earth, then you'll probably soon feel at home navigating in 3D on the virtual grid, moving building blocks and turning them through 90 degrees. A child-friendly user manual is provided, and there’s also a series of brief video tutorials on the LDD site to help you get started. It's up to you to mix the build and thrill. For some children, this free toy might be a fun first step towards the world of creative 3D computer graphics and CAD." ( Review ) FreeCiv "FreeCiv is an Open Source clone of Civilization® by Microprose.

Freeciv is a free turn-based multiplayer strategy game, in which each player becomes the leader of a civilization, fighting to obtain the ultimate goal: to become (or subvert) the greatest civilization. Freeciv is a Free and Open Source empire-building strategy game inspired by the history of human civilization. The game commences in prehistory and your mission is to lead your tribe from the Stone Age to the Space Age... Get the Lion GTK2 version and Run the Lion GTK2 Installer Package before running FreeCiv itself ... on the Mac OS X 10.7 - 10.9 System" Numpty Physics "An excellent open source and multi-platform with 35 built-in levels. It has more to offer than the free prototype of Crayon Physics Deluxe. You're able to draw custom shapes and have access to all levels at once, so you don't have to worry if you get stuck at a level. The sketches look more like what a 3 year old has drawn and don't have the professional feel of Crayon Physics. But who cares? I'm also not an artist!" ( Review ) CrosswordEditor "CrosswordEditor is a Java application for creating, editing and solving crosswords.

It is free software, distributed under version 3 of the GNU General Public License. Features: You can create and edit a crossword grid that has either blocks or bars as separators. The grid may have one of several kinds of rotational or reflectional symmetry. The grid must be rectangular, and only horizontal (across) and vertical (down) fields are supported. You can write and edit clues for the fields in the grid. A clue may encompass more than one field, and a single field may even have more than one clue. A crossword may have a title as well as multiple paragraphs of styled text before the grid and after the clues. You can enter your answers to clues in the grid. You can complete a crossword over several sessions by saving and loading the crossword document between sessions. A solution to a crossword may be included with the crossword document or it may be loaded from a remote location. A solution may be encrypted, allowing the publication of competitions in which the solution is made accessible by publishing its password after the closing date. A crossword can be imported from an external source (eg, a web page or a PDF file) by "capturing" its grid and clues. A grid is captured by selecting its region in an image (eg, a screenshot).

The detection of the grid within the image can be automatic. A crossword can be exported as an HTML page, allowing it to be printed from a web browser. To conserve printer ink or toner, the blocks of a blocked grid in an exported HTML file may consist of diagonal lines of a specified density instead of a square of solid color. The program requires JRE 8 or later. Mac users download the file crosswordEditor-2_0.zip and unzip it. Then, double click the file crosswordEditor.jar to run it. There are 2 games provided in the examples folder: ready to play." Nurikabe "Nurikabe is a cross platform puzzle game of mental development. Description: Nurikabe is a game of mental development, which consists of a board where you have to put "buildings" and "streets" so that all the "streets" are reported, and the "buildings" does not come together. The "buildings" are defined by a number indicating the number of squares occupied by the "building" on the board. The application shall propose such boards, to assist the player to solve, explain step by step how to solve it and make the resolution of the board. Features: Simple and Fun.

Powerful and Portable. Over 100 puzzles available. You can solve your own puzzles without its solution. Very soon you can create your puzzles graphically. Compatible with all platforms supported by Java7. Now available for Java6 (only 1.0 version). " The Powder Toy "The Powder Toy is a free physics sandbox game, which simulates air pressure and velocity, heat, gravity and a countless number of interactions between different substances! Have you ever wanted to blow something up? Or maybe you always dreamt of operating an atomic power plant? Do you have a will to develop your own CPU? The Powder Toy lets you to do all of these, and even more! The Powder Toy is a free physics sandbox game, which simulates air pressure and velocity, heat, gravity and a countless number of interactions between different substances! The game provides you with various building materials, liquids, gases and electronic components which can be used to construct complex machines, guns, bombs, realistic terrains and almost anything else. You can then mine them and watch cool explosions, add intricate wirings, play with little stickmen or operate your machine. You can browse and play thousands of different saves made by the community or upload your own – we welcome your creations!

" "Description: JSoko is a Java program for playing the Sokoban game. It features path finding, auto push, auto solving, undo/redo, deadlock detection, and more. Features: Automatic path finding. Level solver. Solution optimizer. Different skins. " Best Free Ball Redirection Puzzle Game for Mac OS BallPlay Genius "Welcome to BallPlay Genius. A very easy to understand, yet challenging. The object is easy. Some balls roll over the screen and you can change their course by setting up plates or walls, or by removing plates. The concept of the game is pretty easy.... The balls go back and forth. They roll, as soon as they hit the wall, they'll turn 180 degrees and go back until they hit a wall. Now that's no fun now, is it? Therefore you can place plates in the puzzle. They change the direction of the balls. The number of plates you can put into a puzzle is limited, so check your limits before you start puzzle it all out. You can also remove plates by selecting the empty tool in the tool menu. Some puzzles allow placing walls, but that's a rarity. Now you can do something with the balls.

What you got to do depends on the task the puzzle gives you. When you get your task in the puzzle done without getting too many balls destroyed you win the puzzle. The game is great due to it's simplicity. Anyone can understand the rules, yet the game DOES offer a challenge. The game also features a puzzle editor so come up with whatever creativity you have in mind. Features: Challenging puzzles, but still easy to understand. A puzzle editor so that more puzzles can be created and swapped. A random order feature so no problem if a puzzle doesn't get solved. A tracker that tracks which puzzles you've done and not done. You can use multiple "accounts" for that (with password if you wish) so all players on your computer have their personal data." Open Sonic "Open Sonic is an open-source game based on the "Sonic the Hedgehog" universe. It introduces a different style of gameplay called cooperative play, in which it's possible to control 3 characters simultaneously. Unlike most similar games, Open Sonic provides a greater level of interaction between the player and the levels. It's more than just a jump'n'run; the user must come up with some strategy in order to get through the levels.

Open Sonic is available for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. Features: It's portable! No installation is required! Sonic-style physics (360° movement engine). Available in 9 languages: English, Portuguese, French, Polish, German, Czech, Dutch, Indonesian, & Italian. 2 levels + innovative items + extras. You can create your own levels using the built-in level editor. You can make your own custom items, enemies and bosses using our object scripting system. MODdable capabilities." Tripod "Description: Tripod is a color matching tile board game for one to four players. Works on Linux, Windows, and Mac Systems! Tripod is a strategy game where you can only place your tiles in spaces with matching colors for your tile. Play proceeds in order until no more moves are possible by any player - then high score wins. It SOUNDS Easy ... but even the Dumbest AI Player will challenge you. Normal AI Plays VERY Strong - Simple AI plays well." Minesweeper for Java "This is a Minesweeper clone written in Java. Minesweeper is a single-player puzzle video game.

The objective of the game is to clear a rectangular board containing hidden "mines" without detonating any of them, with help from clues about the number of neighboring mines in each field. This project works on Mac OS X 10.9.5 running on a MacPro3,1 and is the best free Minesweeper game I can find for Apple Mac OS X!" Pix TD "Description: A tower defense game developed in Java. Based on the famous concept from Warcraft 3 and inspired by VectorTD. Unlike other tower defense games out there here the players have the ability to build their own maze of towers and even create their own maps. Download file PixTDv1.7.rar and unpack it. Find the file PixTD.jar and double click it." jnetwalk "jnetwalk is a cross platform Java clone of that great KDE game KNetWalk. Requires Java 1.5 or Later. In the game of Netwalk, you are a network administrator, and someone has scrambled your network. Your job is to rotate all the pieces so that every computer is connected to the server by pipes and there are no lose ends in your network.

Of course, the less work you need to do to complete your network the better, so Netwalk is scored by the number of clicks it takes you to rotate everything into place. Find useful tips for solving Netwalk puzzles in this Netwalk tutorial " Jigsaws Galore Free "A free jigsaw puzzle game comes with 64 beautiful puzzles for you to solve. Each puzzle can be played many times over by changing the number of pieces or the style of pieces. Simply right-click a completed puzzle icon to start it over." Senku "Senku is a cross platform, free, and fun board game: also known as English peg solitaire. The peg solitaire game, also known as English peg solitaire or Senku is of uncertain origin. It is a board game played with pegs: in the classic mode, the board has 33 positions and 32 pegs because the center position starts off empty. The game is to remove the pegs by jumping over one - into an empty hole, removing the one jumped - but only with horizontal and vertical movements. To solve the game is to leave only one piece on the board AND to leave it in the center position (which was initially empty).

In the reverse modes, initially there is only one piece on the board: with the movements (jumping from one empty position to another position to get empty) tokens are added to get only one position is vacant on the board. Copyright. © - The Peg-Solitaire program was created by I. De Marchi, which owns the copyright of the program. The program (binaries, source files, documentation, help files and images) are distributed under GPL v. 3.0." PIECES "PIECES is a cross platform program to play the traditional Tangram, game of Chinese origin. It consists on constructing shapes with some polygonal pieces. Traditionally the game has seven pieces, but there are also variations with 5 pieces, 14 pieces and others. Works on Mac OS X, Linux, Windows, and more systems. The program PIECES allows you: To play the tangram in 39 different modalities. To create your own shapes. To elaborate more than 18,000 shapes proposed by the program. Generate automatically new figures. To preserve your personal records. And, to customize the pieces colors." Jetris "JETRIS is a Java 7 based Tetris clone for the desktop.

JETRIS is focused on a fast gaming, so a game usually takes about 10 min. Jetris can be run on any Operating System which has JAVA Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.7.0 or above. How to Play: Use the following keys to play JETRIS: A or Left Arrow - Move the figure to left. D or Right Arrow - Move the figure to right. W or Up Arrow - Rotate the figure. S or Down Arrow - Move the figure quick down. Space - Drop the figure immediately. P or 'Pause' Button - Pause. R or 'Restart' Button - Restart. H - View HiScore. Esc - Exit " Java Fabled Lands (JaFL) "Java Fabled Lands (JaFL) ... (formerly known as FLApp) ... Java Fabled Lands is an adaptation of the Fabled Lands gamebook series: travel through a fantastic world, amassing skill, wealth, and fame, while avoiding sudden death. Presents the complete text to preserve the spirit of the original Choose Your Own Adventure type books of the same name. (Do you remember Fighting Fantasy? No? What about Choose Your Own Adventure?

A few heads are nodding.) The basic concept is an interactive story, written in the second person, cut up into short numbered sections; at the end of each section you're given a choice as to which section comes next, based on your 'action' within the narrative. A gamebook adds some RPG-ish rules to the mix. Essentially it's a solo role-playing game with a lot of reading. This project is an adaptation of the six published books for the computer. Note the word 'adaptation': I've tried to stay as close as possible to the original text, handling all the rules and leaving the player free to read and enjoy without the (sometimes tedious) record-keeping. The player is faced with something very much like a web-page, and other windows displaying a map and the character's abilities. Requires Java 6. " Blackjack Game "Blackjack Game with AI lets you Play blackjack against the dealer or an AI player. Description This is one of the few blackjack games that has a computerized opponent that plays very effectively. In teaching mode, you can learn how to play blackjack in the mathematically ideal way, and win more than 50% of the time.

Blackjack is a card game in which you try to get a combination of cards greater than the dealers hand but not greater than 21. Going over 21 is called busting and you loose the hand. This application lets you play blackjack on an account you can create that keeps track of your settings and your money. There is an AI player to play against and try to beat, and a learning mode where you can learn how to play blackjack perfectly, and make money. Editor's note: ALL cards are shown as Spades. I complained to the developer that I never saw a Heart: and he pointed out that suits are irrelevant in Blackjack, and it does not affect game play. The AI Teaching System is a nice, and unique, touch: so you might want to try this one despite the jarring visual appearance of it." Hardwood Hearts "One of the recommendable free products for the Hearts game though it requires you to upgrade to a full version if you need additional features. Learn to play with its in-game tutorials if you are new to the game. This application comes with unique graphic design, full of color, sound and visual effects, such as flip-and-turn of the playing cards, etc.

You choose to play with computer opponents or with people from around the world over the Internet connecting to its online game server." ( Review ) Best Free Backgammon for Mac OS zonBackgammon "zonBackgammon is a simple Backgammon game. As all the applications developed by zonSoftware, the main focus is the ease of use. This is a test, not a full working game. Do not expect the AI to be good. Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 or Later." jGammon "JGammon - Backgammon for Java JGammon is a Backgammon client with nice graphics written in Java. It allows a TCP-based network-game. It supports saving and loading of board setups, undoing moves, "secure dice" and has got an own chat client and a help system. A computer player is included, stronger ones are being worked on. Features Nice java-swing user interface, intuitive usage board setups can be saved in case you want to finish a started game at a later date. The players can not cheat. The dice values are negotiated with a secure dice protocol Connection to a gnu backgammon server is possible, so external AI is present.

An integrated chat-client that announces new messages visually instead of audibly. The ability to undo moves till the other player has thrown the dice The board can be turned and flipped as you wish Moves of the remote partner are animated The history of the game can be displayed." "Play 8-ball pool against computer or your friend. Game features include one or two players modes, for left and right hands, real 3D ball animation and hints for precise aiming." Bordeaux1 Chinese Checkers "Description: Bordeaux1 Chinese Checkers is a playable Chinese Checkers simulator with GUI and AI. It was developed for a master's project and thesis at the University of Sciences and Technologies of Bordeaux 1, France, by a group of four computer science students. As of Christmas 2015 this is still the best open source Chinese Checkers game I can find. Still works on all platforms that support Java 8. A.I. Player is is still masterful." CrozzSum "Crozz Sum (Kakuro), A simple cross platform Kakuro puzzle generator, written using Java Swing. Kakuro is a kind of logic puzzle that is often referred to as a mathematical transliteration of the crossword.

The canonical Kakuro puzzle is played in a grid of filled and barred cells, "black" and "white" respectively. Apart from the top row and leftmost column which are entirely black, the grid is divided into "entries"—lines of white cells—by the black cells. The black cells contain a diagonal slash from upper-left to lower-right and a number in one or both halves, such that each horizontal entry has a number in the black half-cell to its immediate left and each vertical entry has a number in the black half-cell immediately above it. These numbers, borrowing crossword terminology, are commonly called "clues". The objective of the puzzle is to insert a digit from 1 to 9 inclusive into each white cell such that the sum of the numbers in each entry matches the clue associated with it and that no digit is duplicated in any entry. It is that lack of duplication that makes creating Kakuro puzzles with unique solutions possible, and which means solving a Kakuro puzzle involves investigating combinations more, compared to Sudoku in which the focus is on permutations.

There is an unwritten rule for making Kakuro puzzles that each clue must have at least two numbers that add up to it, since including only one number is mathematically trivial when solving Kakuro puzzles." FreeNono "Description: FreeNono is a cross platform open-source implementation of the Nonogram game — a logic puzzle in which cells in a grid have to be colored or left blank according to numbers given at the side of the grid to reveal a hidden picture. FreeNono is distributed under the terms of the GNU GPL. Features: Solve a logic puzzle and uncover the hidden picture. Includes more than 1000 nonograms. Generates random nonograms. Different game modes: Against the time, with a maximum number of allowed errors. Available as Windows Installer, Debian/Ubuntu package and Jar Zip file. " Goban "Use Goban 3.2.12 to play the game of go against the program. Play with people on the Internet go servers or your local network. Observe live pro and amateur games on IGS, the Internet Go Server. Review and analyze games. Browse through joseki or fuseki libraries... Goban is a powerful, simple, fast go board for Mac OS X.

Goban 3.2.12 - Still Works on Mac OS X 10.9!" Reversi "Reversi (a.k.a. Othello) is a game based on a grid with eight rows and eight columns, played between you and the computer, by adding pieces with two sides: black and white. At the beginning of the game there are 4 pieces in the grid, the player with the black pieces is the first one to place his piece on the board. Each player must place a piece in a position that there exists at least one straight (horizontal, vertical, or diagonal) line between the new piece and another piece of the same color, with one or more contiguous opposite pieces between them. The program requires JRE 6 or later." Scotland Yard "This is a game of Scotland Yard, which has been coded in Java. The moves of Mr. X are made by the program, while the human player makes the detective moves. This version features enhanced AI and black tickets for Mr. X, i18n support and German translation. Features: Enhanced GUI with detective positions shown on the map Greedy strategy for Mr. X.

Java program that tested OK on Mac OS X (10.9.5) IF you go into the bin folder and launch "sy.jar"... When you start the game Mr. X moves first and you are left to move to catch him." "An intuitive comic reader on the Mac with a clean interface gives you full control of your viewing experience. Features include archive handling, page ordering and scaling, text notes, page capture, full screen thumbnail view and more." Scribus "It's the real thing; a professional quality page layout program capable of producing press-ready output. The feature list is impressive; basically everything you want is there including "CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation. Graphics manipulation is handled via an interface to Gimp. Scribus can also import from and export to programs in the OpenOffice suite.

The user interface is highly functional and the documentation is excellent, with lots of support from the user community." ( Review ) Calibre "An open source eBook library management application supports extensive file conversions, with the ability to convert over thirteen document formats into EPUB, PDF and MOBI formats for use on popular eBook-readers like the SONY PRS 500/505/700, Cybook Gen 3, Amazon Kindle (1 and 2) and the iPhone (with the stanza reader software). You can also set up Calibre to fetch news from websites and RSS feeds and convert it into a compatible format, so you can load up your eBook-reader with information from your favorite sites. There's even a built-in web server so you can access your eBook collection remotely. It even has a cover-flow browsing feature for your books." ( Review ) "FreeMind is a premier free mind-mapping software written in Java. The recent development has hopefully turned it into high productivity tool." LibreOffice "A prime choice when it comes to freeware office suites. For both the average and the more advanced user the writer is easy to use and very productive, and it offers all the tools they will ever need.

The spreadsheet editor, just like the writer, is very easy to understand. All modules of LibreOffice are spectacular alternatives for those who don’t wish to fork out the big bucks. (Warning! All Apache OpenOffice versions 4.1.1 and older are affected by CVE-2015-1774 and have a serious security vulnerability/DoS fault that requires you to MANUALLY remove a library from deep within your installation in order to repair it. LibreOffice does not have that same vulnerability. You are advised to switch from OpenOffice at once!)'" ( Review ) OpenProj "OpenProj is an open-source desktop project management application similar to Microsoft Project. OpenProj has a familiar user interface and even opens existing MS Project files. OpenProj is interoperable with Project, Gantt Charts and PERT charts. OpenProj is a free, open source project management solution. OpenProj is a complete replacement of Microsoft Project and other commercial project solutions. OpenProj is ideal for desktop project management and is available on Linux, Unix, Mac or Windows. It even opens existing Microsoft or Primavera files.

OpenProj shares the industry's most advanced scheduling engine with Project-ON-Demand and provides Gantt Charts, Network Diagrams (PERT Charts), WBS and RBS charts, Earned Value costing and more. There is literally no time or effort involved in switching to OpenProj, and your teams can manage projects on any platform for free. " Vuze "The Vuze Bittorrent Client is an end-to-end application for all your torrent needs. Although it is a complete bittorrent downloader, Vuze maintains a lightweight footprint, doesn't slow your computer down, and quickly downloads torrents. Vuze makes it easy for you to find torrents anywhere, whether you are downloading torrents from a tracker site or anywhere else on the web. Once you find a torrent the Vuze Bittorrent Client makes it simple to download torrents and automatically optimizes torrent download speeds. Once your downloaded torrents are finished Vuze makes it straightforward and simple to watch and listen to the content you downloaded.

Vuze simply covers anything you'll run into when downloading bittorrent torrents." ( Guides for Optimizing Vuze ) "Collaborative screen sharing allows both users to have a mouse and easily take turns using applications from a distance." RSSOwl "RSSOwl can be used on all major platforms like Windows, Linux (32 Bit and 64 Bit) and Apple Mac OS X. You can even run it as plugin inside Eclipse. With RSSOwl it is easy to keep your list of subscriptions and articles synchronized with your Google Reader account. Every feed that is synchronized will keep its article unread state, labels and starred state in sync with RSSOwl. RSSOwl is available in many languages including English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Traditional Chinese and Chinese Simplified." Apple Safari "Apple's new Safari, along with the release of the God phone I-Phone 4, are certainly good news to browser fans. Not much has changed in version 5 except for some neat features. With a slight improvement in performance and standards support, Safari is still the best browser for MAC. Safari STILL supports Plugins (AND JAVA Also!) ... Chrome no longer does ...

so I switched back to Safari." ( Review ) SiteCapture "SiteCapture is a software application for Mac OS X that creates image representations of web pages. With the click of one button SiteCapture loads a set of web pages and creates images in the format you want. The pages are rendered using WebKit, the browser engine used by Safari. What for? Fill your website portfolio page with screenshots, effortlessly. And because you can create them with one click, it's very easy to keep such a page updated with the latest screenshots. What pages? Choose a Safari bookmark folder and SiteCapture will process each single bookmark contained in it. Or manage your own list of web pages within SiteCapture. Or synchronise the web addresses with a server. What size? Choose which size the virtual browser window should be and specify a thumbnail size — you can either save only the thumbnails or keep the original sized images too. The supported image formats are JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF or BMP. What then? Use Automator to streamline your workflow: Append a date to the image file names or upload them to your web server or do whatever you want." Hexels "Hexels is a new kind of art tool based on patterns and tessellations instead of pixels.

Use it to create beautiful works of art, hex-based maps for games, or anything in between. Start with the default hexagons and experience a cool new way of drawing. Switching shape modes lets you work with multiple shapes, as well as a choice of several different "glow" overlay styles, a wide range of art styles is possible. The free version of Hexels features a totally new way of creating art, standard hexel shape mode plus 6 bonus shape modes, standard and other glow maps and export .png files up to 1280x1280." Picasa "A superb choice for those who want an organiser which will take control of the way in which you organise your images. Once installed it will offer you several ways of organising your image collection, adopting by choice a 'timeline' which places your most recent images at the top of the tree. It is ideally suited for easy integration with web albums and on-line sharing of images. Simple highly automated features offer image correction, full-screen slide shows and you can now see your pictures arranged on a global map." ( Review ) Inkscape "The application uses W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format.

Supported SVG features include shapes, paths, text, markers, clones, alpha blending, transforms, gradients, patterns, and grouping. Inkscape also supports Creative Commons meta-data, node editing, layers, complex path operations, bitmap tracing, text-on-path, flowed text, direct XML editing, and more. It imports formats such as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and others and exports PNG as well as multiple vector-based formats." ( Review ) WaterRoof "A more powerful graphic frontend for Mac OS X built-in IPFW firewall. You can build ipfw rules easily, scan your mac for running network services and filter open ports with one mouse click, list and ban remote hosts connected to your mac, and more." WOT (Web of Trust) "WOT (Web of Trust) from WOT Services is the Editor's Choice because it leads in many areas: compatibility and integration with seamless operation; flexible options; searching; warning and blocking; and user input. It only loses in areas that it doesn't compete in: meta-rating (combining the results from several raters as in Link Extend) and scanning.

WOT is the best implemented and the best documented rater - you can even view the source code, but it is also the most heavily criticized." ( Review ) LastPass "LastPass is a combination of both web service and software. With the web service you can access your data anywhere, while the software which runs on your computer allows you to view your data even when you're not connected to the Internet. When you install the software, the plugins or extensions for supported browsers are automatically installed. It is as safe as it can possibly get and uses the same encryption algorithm that the US Government uses for top secret data. The key to decrypt the data is only known to you as all encryption/decryption occurs on your computer, and the entire site is encrypted and verified by Comodo." ( Review )

Question: Literally meaning 'seven boards of skill', which Chinese puzzle game's objective is to create a shape using seven non-overlapping flat pieces?
Answer: Tangram