Gametap Review: Download Old Console and PC Games Free or for a Small Free

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I have seen commercials for Gametap for years but didn’t give them a chance.  Why would I want to pay a subscription fee to play games that I could just go out and buy?  Well, I was completely wrong.  While looking for a copy of Deus Ex online, I noticed it was listed as available from Gametap.  What really sold me was that this game, along with many other great video games, was completely free to play.  All I had to do was create a free account and start downloading it.  For such a great game to be free caught me off guard a little.  Most companies are heading into the DLC (Downloadable Content) realm so this act of generosity was surprising.  I started digging through their giant list of free games and decided to pay for one month so I could find out what the other games were.  I was very pleasantly surprised.

Gametap is a video game lover’s dream come true.  The assortment of free games available is over 100 titles long with paid subscription holders having access to almost 900 more.  Gametap has the games sorted in a couple of different ways also.  They are sorted by genre and by console.  Every genre is covered from action to strategy and the consoles range from arcade to PC.  Gametap essentially works as an emulator so you are able to play very old DOS games without any problems at all.

Something you will notice immediately with Gametap is that you can download games very quickly.  Classic Atari 2600 games will only take a few seconds and even a 4 gigabyte PC game will only take a couple of hours if you have a broadband connection.  There is a download manager that is very easy to use so you can erase games you don’t like right away.  Many games don’t require that you download the entire game at all so you can save space.

There are two different membership accounts you can set up with Gametap: Free and Gold.  The free one will limit what you can play but is wonderful to try out.  Some of the free games are:  Joust, Rampage, 1943, Burgertime, Hitman 2, Tomb Raider Legend, Final Fight, and Zoo Empire.  Some of the Gold games are:  Civilization 4, Just Cause, DiRT, Overlord, Baldur’s Gate, and tons more. New games are added to both areas each Thursday.

Many people won’t want to subscribe to a service like this but at $9.99 per month, it’s pretty cheap for all that is available.

If you love playing video games on your PC and have experienced the frustration of trying to get older games to work on Vista, Gametap is a great choice.  Whether you enjoy a nice game of Oregon Trail or want to blast someone in Far Cry, Gametap won’t disappoint.