Completely FREE Software - CFS Weekly Newsletter #435 issued June 15, 2007

Home > CFS Weekly Newsletter #435: issued June 15, 2007

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This electronic newsletter is registered – ISSN 1441-6840
Welcome to the CFS Weekly Newsletter.
The programs listed here are completely free for non-commercial use, even though some may be shareware or commercial products. None are time-limited and all are fully functional. If you know any that aren't exactly as specified, please let us know and they will be removed immediately.
If the link below does not work (does not take you directly to the program listing) it is probably because the site has been upgraded and the link is no longer valid. Please use the CFS Site Search facility (above) to locate the program.
COMPLETELY FREE SOFTWARE

Sunset Over Imdahl – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Sunset Over Imdahl is a non-violent RPG set in medieval times where you, as Lohn, go back in time to save your village from a devastating disease that will wipe it out. It features superb graphics, imaginative storyline, various action mini games, windowed & fullscreen modes, up to 3 saved games, and more. This is a storybook game using a standard RPG format. Lohn is sent back in time (Mr Bean style with a light from the sky) and has an opportunity to prevent the disease from destroying the village. At the same time, the village is under siege from an outside enemy. The lack of violence in Sunset Over Imdahl gives it more of a storybook quality, but the story is so compelling it will keep you playing for hours on end. The F4 key switches between full screen and window, and the F5 key switches between a 320x240 and a 640x480 window size. The F12 key restarts the game, and the Spacebar and Z key are the "select" keys. The menu appears if any of the X, C, V, etc keys are pressed. We do not recommend you play the game fullscreen, specially if you have a widescreen monitor, because the well drawn and detailed images become very pixelated, and the writing harder to read. Sunset Over Imdahl suffers from poor English (bad spelling and poor punctuation) and a text font that is very hard to read – sometimes you have to read a passage a number of times to get its meaning. This really spoils a unique RPG which, in all other departments, is superb. Sunset Over Imdahl is an imaginative and artistic RPG that sets a new benchmark in the RPG genre. We loved! Note: we have not been advised of the minimum requirements to run this game and have assumed it will run on a normal Windows 95 computer. Get this 8.00MB download from: Win95 General Games

Light Artist v1.5 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Light Artist is a unique image editing program that adds realistic 3D-style lighting effects to images. It features 3 light-source types, an ambient-light slide control, you can vary the color of the highlight, there are various surface textures, it has 11 presets, it supports JPG, BMP, GIF, TIF & PNG images, there is an instant preview, and more. This is a handy program for adding light-source enhancements to existing digital images, giving them a 3D look 'n feel. It can add warmth and highlights to cold, visually flat images, and is great for enhancing cloudy skies. The download also contains a plugin for creating thumbnails of your photos for web galleries, though this is an optional install. Light Artist is simple to use, and the results are instantly viewable so you can ensure that changes are to your liking. We were impressed with the results that can turn an ordinary digital photo into a masterpiece (well, into a better digital photo!). Light Artist is a "must have" for anybody with a digital camera. Grab a copy now! Access this 5.63MB download from: Win95 Graphic Programs

Apple's Safari v3.0 – WinXP/Vista
Apple's Safari is a tabbed Web browser that loads pages up to twice as fast as IE7. It features pop-up blocker, forms auto-fill, modern user interface, "Inline Find", "SnapBack", built-in RSS, resizable text fields, "Private Browsing", and more. Apple has entered into the Web browser wars with its own entry. Apple's Safari adds some excellent features, like Inline Find which not only finds a word on a page, it also gives you stats about that word. It includes SnapBack which will return you to a search point if you wander too far away. The Private Browsing function allows you to keep your tracks private, as Apple says, it "won't store your Google searches, your cookies, the history of sites you've visited, your download history, or information from online forms you've filled out". Apple's Safari Web browser has lots of great features, including a speed advantage over the other three major Web browsers (IE, Firefox and Opera). Unfortunately, it has some strange habits which may not appeal to everybody. For example, it does not render some HTML tags the same as other browsers and a link which is designed to be opened in a new window, does not. Of course, you can always right-click on a link and select "Open Link in New Window" or "Open Link in New Tab" but many users don't do this automatically and Web authors rely on this code to ensure that you don't lose the starting page (you aren't sending your visitors away from your site). Apple's Safari was also a little unstable on our test computer and it crashed a few times before we could stabilize it. There is no "Home" button to return you to your homepage, even though this is mentioned in the Helpfile. We also missed the huge array of privately created plugins that feature so heavily with Firefox. These and other minor annoyances spoil Apple's Safari and, even though it is reportedly much faster than the other major browsers, its lack of compliance, and the other small things we found, mean that we will not, yet, be making it our default Web browser. However, that may change as Apple's Safari develops. Worth a long look! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 7.97MB download from: WinXP Internet Related

GOM Player v2.1.3.3413 – Win98/ME/XP/Vista
GOM Player is a multimedia player that includes video & audio codecs. It supports popular formats (AVI, DAT, MPEG, DivX, XviD, WMV, ASF, etc), plays broken files, plays files that are locked or partially downloaded, offers screen capture, playlist, hotkey support, and more. This is a superb multimedia player for virtually all your video and audio needs. Its built-in codecs mean that you don't have to go looking for additional files to play your movies. It has lots of little features, like the screen capture, that others don't offer and, if you start playing the first of a multi-part file, and the other parts have a similar name and are in the same folder, it will seamlessly start playing the next file. Cool. It is hard to criticize GOM Player (except its name, perhaps!) because it does what it does so well. It does try to access the Internet, and we are unsure for what purpose, but blocking Internet access does not seem to affect the player. The only thing we would have liked to have seen was it to be able to be minimized to the desktray (next to the clock) for playing audio files, keeping our desktop clear for work as we listen to background music. However, as a multimedia player it has few peers and GOM Player is definitively one to check out. We were most impressed! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 4.08MB download from: Win98 Multimedia Programs

Rotate Puzzle v1.1.0 – WinXP/Vista
Rotate Puzzle is a challenging Flash puzzle where you try to align the pieces of a puzzle using a 4x4 grid but where 4 tiles are moved during each turn. It has a simple picture to restore but, because four tiles are moved instead of just one or two, it becomes very challenging. This is a timed game that also records the number of moves you make. Rotate Puzzle requires an active Internet connection to grab the puzzle details, and you can even put it on your Website for your visitors to play. It is advertiser supported (these appear to be just ads for other games from the same publisher) which is displayed when you close down the game. Rotate Puzzle is a challenging game, more challenging than it appears at first sight. There is some help available on-line which shows you how to use a formula to get the pieces correctly aligned. While challenging, Rotate Puzzle lacks the depth to be a game you would want to keep playing long term. Worth a look if you like challenging puzzles. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 399kB download from: WinXP General Games

Prolix v3.2 – Win98SE/ME/XP/Vista
Prolix is an MDI (multi document interface) ASCII text editor with a clean, intuitive interface. It features 64kB of undo/redo buffer in discrete steps, it can open multiple files up to 16MB in size, offers printer control of margins/headers/footers, offers a split window mode to allows two views of the same file, multiple International date/time stamp formats, search & replace text saved between sessions, word wrap, and more. On paper Prolix has most of the features you would want in an ASCII text editor (Notepad replacement) but, in practice, it does not seem to work as well as the features indicate. It offers word wrap, but not dynamic word wrap (varies as you change the window size) but must be "re-wrapped" if the window is made smaller. It offers support for very large files, but the thumb tab on the right side of the window cannot be dragged to the bottom of a very large file and you must use the PageDown key or your mouse's scroll wheel to navigate "below" the level of the thumb tab. This is awkward and unnecessary. While Prolix can handle all text-based programming files, it does not offer specific support for programmers and it does not offer syntax coloring. While it offers MDI it does not offer tabs to quickly switch between documents. On the other side of the ledger, the split screen views are terrific, as is the undo/redo buffer and the printer control settings. Prolix is a good text editor and a worthy Notepad replacement, but it has some rough edges that need to be cleaned up so that it can take its rightful place as one of the better ASCII text editors. Check it out for yourself. Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95. Access this 507kB download from: Win98SE Text Programs

m9P Zipper v1.0.20 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
m9P Zipper is a ZIP archive manager for file compression (zipping) and decompression (unzipping). It features up to 0.9 compression ratio, quick ZIP & e-mail, built-in tools (e-mail client, ASCII text editor & IE-based Web browser), simple to use, and more. This is a basic ZIP archive manager with some fancy extra tools. The archive manager can unzip large ZIP archives (with multiple files & folders) but it can only create ZIP archives with single files, and no folders. It also cannot create self extracting (SFX) ZIP archives, or allow access to individual files within an archive. Clearly designed for the most common use of unzipping downloaded files from the Internet, m9P Zipper lacks the functionality to be called a good compression tool, even though it can create very small archives, smaller than many other archive managers. The additional tools are handy, but generally they just duplicate existing tools. While we like the idea that a file can be zipped and e-mailed in one operation, it would not have been hard to use existing file associations within Windows to link it to the default e-mail client (Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Eudora, Pegasus, etc) rather than add another e-mail client that must be configured before it can be used. Likewise, all versions of Windows include Notepad, and many users have already replaced that default text editor with a better quality one. Again, using existing file associations within Windows would mean that a separate text editor would not be necessary. The built-in Web browser requires that Internet Explorer is installed (probably at least version 3 but that is not specified). This Web browser (called "m9P Surfer") is a very simple browser that includes only the most basic functions. m9P Zipper has some good attributes but, as a general archive manager, it lacks some functionality to make it really valuable. Good for unzipping archives. Access this 1.98MB download from: Win95 General Programs

Gold Calendar v1.2 – WinXP/Vista
Gold Calendar is a small utility that displays a calendar in the desktray (next to the clock) that appears when the cursor is placed over the icon. It features quick access to other dates, auto-loads with Windows, displays current date in the icon, and more. This is a great way of accessing a desktop calendar. Glide your cursor over the desktray icon and the calendar will popup in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. Hold your cursor either over the icon or the calendar itself and it will remain visible for the period of time the cursor is there. Once the cursor is removed, the calendar will display for a further 5 seconds before disappearing. Of course, if you accidentally run your cursor over the icon the calendar will popup, and this can be annoying, but it is only for 5 seconds so it isn't anything more than a very minor annoyance. You quickly learn to avoid the icon with the cursor if the popup calendar really annoys you. The program includes grayed out buttons for reminders, but we could see no way of activating this feature, if it is even available. Gold Calendar offers no way of modifying its configuration so you cannot alter its look 'n feel, or even the default time it remains visible once it has been activated. It has two other annoyances – first it places itself in the Startup menu so it always loads with Windows (we like to have the choice, though it isn't hard to remove the shortcut), and the other is that it automatically loads itself on to the C:\ drive (we load non-Windows programs on to our D:\ and E:\ drives). These minor issues aside, Gold Calendar is an excellent way to have a desktop calendar that is always available. We liked! Note: we have been advised that this program is not suitable for Windows 95, 98 or ME. Access this 147kB download from: WinXP Desktop Utilities

Adagio v3.03 – Win9x/ME/XP/Vista
Adagio is a 2D side scrolling space shoot-em-up (shmup) with retro graphics, retro game play, and hectic action. It features 2 missionpacks, 12 levels, 4 levels of difficulty, 3 powerups, trophies & rewards to win on each level, good graphics, joystick & keyboard control, and more. This game is a blast. With all the fun of an 80s or 90s shooter, but with modern graphics, Adagio is one of those games you can just keep on playing. It isn't always easy to win, but the rewards are there is you can battle your way through each level. The three powerups are Spread Beam, Wave Cannon and Blade Laser. Each is a weapon enhancement, with the Wave Cannon being the most powerful. You can collect the small, gold trophies that are hidden in each level, and use them to unlock new rewards. Once you buy a reward, it remains permanently unlocked. They can be extra lives, better weapons, and even a new ship. Levels must be finished to unlock them so you must keep playing the same level until you finish it. Adagio can be summed up in one word – fun. It has just enough retro, and just enough modern, to ensure that it will be played again and again. We loved! Note: we have not been advised of the minimum requirements to run this game and have assumed it will run on a normal Windows 95 computer. Get this 16.8MB download from: Win95 General Games
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