The Internet is alive with free entertainment, and online games are an excellent example. Most are fairly simple-you can play many of them in just a few minutes, which makes them great for a short break during the day. They range from arcade classics to clever puzzles and strategy games, and many choices are geared especially to kids, including educational games that would make any parent or teacher happy.
Fun for the Asking
Thousands of software developers all over the world build creative new games every day, and many end up as freebies on the Internet. Some are just offered as a hobby by the people who host the Internet sites, but more often, the companies that offer them make money either from advertising on the sites or by attracting traffic to their other sites. Any search engine can direct you to dozens of online game sites; here are a few popular ones:
- Shockwave has been around for a long time, with a variety of games to choose from, including old and new favorites.
- Gamehouse delivers a wealth of ways to use up your afternoon, including a number of puzzles that will keep your brain in gear.
- Ninja Kiwi presents a load of well-made games, many of which involve monkeys and balloons for some reason.
Arcade Classics, Without a Pocketful of Quarters
Arcade games are as much an irreplaceable part of the 1980s as Molly Ringwald movies and absurdly large cell phones. Whether you think they're campy and retro or the stuff of lost youth, there are plenty to choose from, and here are a few to get you started:
- Space Invaders* is an old standby-one of the first alien-blaster games. It's actually from the 1970s, making it one of the first highly successful arcade games in history.
- Asteroids*. has perhaps the worst graphics of any arcade game ever built, which only adds to its charm as you blast huge floating rocks to protect your tiny spaceship.
- Frogger* lets you navigate a frog across a busy street and a rushing stream to get to its safe little nook at the top of the screen.
- Pac Man* pits you against the friendly ghosts Inkey, Pinky, Blinky, and Clyde as you chase each other around a simple maze and eat mysteriously appearing fruit. Fun bonus fact: The game was originally known as "Puck Man."
Especially for Kids
While the arcade classics we've just mentioned are likely to be popular with kids, a number of sites offer games built especially for the younger audience. In addition to ensuring parents that the content is kid appropriate, some of the games are educational or include characters that kids will recognize from their favorite television shows and movies. Here is just a small sample of the many Web sites that deliver the goods for kid-friendly online games:
- PBSkids.org is a site run by the Public Broadcasting Service that provides more than 100 games, many of which are educational as well as fun.
- Yahoo! Kids Games is another big collection of online games for kids, although many of the choices are shameless promotions for movies, toys, and other products.
- Funbrain.com offers a wide variety of educational games for kids in Kindergarten through eighth grade, mostly related to reading and math.One final thing to note is that, like anywhere on the Internet, kids need to follow Internet safety guidelines when using online game sites, such as not giving out any personal information. For more information on this topic, see our article Teaching Kids About Internet Safety.
Technical Stuff
As a rule, online games don't demand much from your system, which means that just about any computer with an Internet connection can play them just fine. However, some online games will work only with certain operating systems and Web browsers (usually Windows* and Internet Explorer*), and the site may or may not make that clear.
Many of the Web sites that host online games offer downloadable versions as well, which allow you to play them when you're not connected to the Internet. You should know, though, that some of those downloads have been known to contain spyware. For more information on that topic, see our software tip What Is Spyware, Anyway?
