I often play Free Cell on my PC while I’m waiting for pages to load. But sometimes I’m on the couch with my PowerBook, and it doesn’t have any games. I know there are RPGs for Mac, but are there any time-wasting games like Free Cell? Are they free downloads? Will they install malware on my Mac?
Ambrosia has released an OSX version of Apeiron. (Best game ever. EVAR) It’s like $15 shareware, but the first 12 levels are free, so you can try it and see if you like it. It’s not a card game, though, it requires intense concentration. But that’s OK because it’s more addictive than crack mixed with sex.
My high score is just over 600,000!
My all-time favorite Mac game was Empire Master, version 1.7 (IIRC). Good for 2 hours of time-wasting.
Snood! Snood! Wasted many a good hour on my Mac.
Time waster, eh?
How bout an in-browser, Flash version of Sonic the Hedgehog?
Burning Monkey Solitaire. More solitaire than you can stand. Not free, but Freeverse does good stuff.
Freeverse’s other titles are just as fun, too.
(Malware? Whuzzat? 
).
There is Eric’s Ultimate Solitare by the same folks who keep promising to release an updated version of Dark Castle. They also make Spaceward Ho, which is a pretty decent time waster.
Check out:
http://games.skunkstudios.com/game_categories/show/Mac+OS+X
QBeez is awesome! I can also vouch for the addictive qualities of Diner Dash, BounceOut and Collapse.
If you don’t want to pay, you can play most of those over at http://games.yahoo.com even though it says that Mac and Unix aren’t supported.
Again, not card games, for the most part but you should find something you life if you give it some time. It will help if you have wireless internet while on your couch.
There’s LexiCastle from Blippygames.
It’s good, but you do have to pay eventually. I forget whether it was limited levels or limited time until you pay… but it is so far the only game I’ve tried that has actually led to me paying for it.
Have wasted HOURS with it.
They have some other stuff too, not as good IMHO.
LexiCastle! Woot!
IMO the best online resource for freeware/shareware (and commercial) games on Mac is MacGameFiles.com.
OB
John, How’s the movie bizz? Here’s a games page you can play on line. Oh, and these, and
This is myfavorite, but the OSX version is still in development. If you’re running 9.2.2, down load the free trial. You might never work again! 
NetHack. NETHACK!
Of course, once you stop dying so much you may find it becoming unsuitable for playing 5 minutes at a time… you’ll need 10 minutes. And then, an hour. And then, several hours. And then, the whole day 
Looks like the first game is to find out what these games are! I haven’t heard of almost all of them!
Haven’t shot anything in a week. We’re waiting for money. We expect to have some this week from a guy who wants to buy three points. And there was a wedding on Saturday, and a phone call or two from people wanting other work done. The Producer was interviewed by someone from a print medium the other day. The interviewer said she chose to interview her about our project because ours is the best work she’s seen locally. Our main Ghost arrived Friday, I think. We have to shoot her quickly, since she’s only here for a limited time.
I was about to come in and suggest NETHACK!!
But CSharp beat me.
So you’d better go download nethack. Now. It’s life-changing.
You Are All On My List! Now I’ll Never Get Anything Done!
Hey, you asked.
Actually, I ascended for the first time in Nethack in the same week that I passed my PhD qualifying exams. I felt more of a sense of victory from the Nethack game than from the exams becasue over the years I’d invested more time toward it. . .
Ambrosia’s games are all pretty sweet. Take a look at the Escape Velocity series, especially the most recent, EV Nova. You can waste hours upon hours, and there’s a pretty high replayability factor since you can run pilots through different storylines.
Not looking to waste hours and hours. Just minutes and minutes as I wait for a page to load.