What PC games can be played off a disc with no installation whatsoever?

January 22, 2005 8:53 PM

What PC games don't require any installation whatsoever? Or put another way, what PC games could I burn to CD/DVD and play on a system that I don't want to copy any files to? Linux-plus-games-on-a-DVD suggestions are also welcomed, although I would prefer games that would run on an existing XP installation.
posted by Jairus to computers & internet (12 comments total)

Tux racer
posted by Nothing at 9:27 PM on January 22, 2005

Pretty much any MAME game. Mame doesn't need to be installed. That gives you about, oh, a gazillion games to choose from (Uprights, Atari, Nintendo, Sega, etc., etc., etc.)
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 9:33 PM on January 22, 2005

Good call, C_D.

Games I have to copy to the hard drive so they don't run like shit off of a DVD are fine, as long as they don't make any changes to the registry or 'install' themselves. If I can delete C:\GameFromDVD when I'm done and the hard drive is otherwise unchanged, then it's okay.
posted by Jairus at 9:36 PM on January 22, 2005

I think pretty much any id software game falls into this category, too.
posted by neckro23 at 10:07 PM on January 22, 2005

yah, orginal doom or quake 1 for sure.
posted by Iax at 10:13 PM on January 22, 2005

Original doom or quake 1 or any other DOS game that'll run under XP.

You could try Carmageddon, Dark Forces, Civilization I, X-Wing, Lemmings, Stunt Island... just hit your favorite abandonware site for lots of stuff.

I don't think Freeciv requires any installation on XP, but I'd have to check again.

I don't know if it does anything behind the scenes once it's running, but you can get Colonization for Windows up and running without running any install software.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:23 PM on January 22, 2005

I'll give those a try. I've also heard that Warcraft 3 can be played fine if the directory is copied from an properly installed version.
posted by Jairus at 10:26 PM on January 22, 2005

I'll third any id software games, including Quake 3 Arena and Doom 3. Also, I'm reasonably sure Unreal Tournament (+2003/2004) can also be run without re-installing. Although I'm not sure how happy these newer titles would be about running directly from DVD.
posted by bruceyeah at 10:51 PM on January 22, 2005

Flash games. Like those you can download at Yahoo Games. My parents are particularly fond of Bookworm which is like Scrabble crossed with Boggle, but you can play it on your own. Only a few megs download too.
posted by wackybrit at 11:52 PM on January 22, 2005

Oh, and other than MAME, almost any emulated games. Just get a SNES, NES, Sega Genesis, whatever, emulator.. and enjoy. I particularly enjoy the Sega Genesis stuff, as it's fast, bright, and always has cool music (Sonic 2!)
posted by wackybrit at 11:53 PM on January 22, 2005

Half Life 2 (you have to apply a game fix, I assume this is legal as long as you own the original game, but IANAL)
posted by tcp at 9:29 AM on January 23, 2005

The one true game Nethack doesn't require installation. You can even run it off CD if you set the config file to write the temp files to your windows temp directory
posted by Mitheral at 10:33 AM on January 23, 2005