Instant online gaming fun

August 31, 2007 1:21 PM

One on one online gaming without fuss.

Right now I am sitting on the couch, laptop on lap. And my best buddy is sitting on the couch, laptop on lap. In different appartments.
We can't meet for a beer due to sleeping kids, so we thought we meet online to do a little gaming.
Are there any neat games we can play online without downloading and other hassle. You know, like totally easy and quick.
Type of game not important. As long as we can play instantly and just him and me.
Thanx!

posted by ollsen to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

All kinds of stuff on games.yahoo.com.
posted by mkb at 1:31 PM on August 31, 2007

Seconding Yahoo Games. I think you can use Yahoo's Messenger application to initiate games with people; couple that with their voice messaging part of Y! Messenger and you're set.
posted by spiderskull at 1:32 PM on August 31, 2007

MSN Messenger has (or had, last time I checked a couple of months ago) a couple of fun built in games. Multiplayer Minesweeper is a laugh. The added bonus is you can heckle/trashtalk in the MSN window at the same time as playing.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 1:33 PM on August 31, 2007

Response by poster: thank you so far. definitely will check out yahoo.
we're on different machines, osx / windows. so msn is out of the question.
posted by ollsen at 1:42 PM on August 31, 2007

tetrinet
posted by white light at 1:55 PM on August 31, 2007

Seconding tetrinet. Yes, it's a small download and some setup, but it's an incredibly awesome game.
I suggest the Tetrifast mod, it removes the 1 second delay between dropping a piece and having a new piece come to the field.

Available here http://www.plibble.com/tfast.htm
posted by PowerCat at 2:15 PM on August 31, 2007

pogo.com - you don't need a paid membership, there are a lot of games available for free as well.
posted by cgg at 2:18 PM on August 31, 2007

If you are down for some pictionary then there is isketch.com
posted by DanielDManiel at 3:33 PM on August 31, 2007

There's a darn fine real time scrabble game here; you will have to do a very small fast download but it's free and fun and very close to the real thing. And you can chat while playing.
posted by fish tick at 9:17 PM on August 31, 2007

64squar.es is not bad (if you want to play Chess). It was a bit buggy when it first launched, not sure if they've worked everything out yet. But it is nice - it plays in realtime if you're both there, or via email notification if not.
posted by Caviar at 7:40 AM on September 1, 2007

If you're quick, you can get Ingenious for free.
posted by fish tick at 6:20 AM on September 2, 2007

Combat Sudoku has changed owners about a zillion times, and it's most recent one totally dismantled it and put it back together again (for the worse), but it's still fairly awesome. Head-to-head race to finish a sudoku grid. It's current home is at the Australian webgame arcade Youplay, under the Number Games heading. There's no way to choose your partner—you're just automatically matched—but it's usually pretty deserted thus easy to play who you want.
posted by carsonb at 2:36 PM on October 27, 2007