Computer games are expensive. Even though there have been movements to reduce the prices of older games, many gamers are stuck looking for free online games. Fortunately, there are many sites available that have such games, and most of them are legitimate. If you want to play arcade games online for free, you are in luck – there is a thriving community of independent game makers that provide free entertainment for the masses, often in a manner that rivals fee-based games.

Yes, They Are Legal

The first thing to get out of the way is a simple fact – there are perfectly legal ways to play arcade games online. Most individuals tend to equate “free” on the internet with “pirated”, but many of these games are designed to be played for no money down. One will, of course, have to deal with ads and banners, but it is perfectly possible to spend several hours each day searching for free games on the internet. In fact, one can even find free versions of games that have gone on to be paid apps on smartphones and even downloadable console releases.

Major Providers, Minor Games

Perhaps some of the most popular free games online are the ones offered by major providers like Google or Yahoo. These sites have long offered free games through their own websites, and they have often be quite popular. Unlike some of the options that can be found elsewhere, these games are generally simple time wasters. Popular games like Poppit or various versions of Bejeweled can often be found on these sites, though, so they do make great resources for those that simply want to find a game that can waste a few hours.

Aggregation Nation

The most popular games, though, tend to be found on sites that aggregate online games. Sites like Kongregate or Armor Games tend to have hundreds of games available at any given time, some of which are actually professionally produced. These games are still free, though members are given the option to make donations. Popular games like Alien Hominid, Doodle God and Fancy Pants Adventure got their starts on similar sites before making their moves on to consoles or handhelds, and new games tend to be released at a fairly rapid pace. These sites are often useful for gamers that are simply looking for a fix until the next console release.

What is a Puzzle?

Often definition is:” A puzzle is a problem or enigma that challenges ingenuity.” In a basic type of puzzle you piece together objects in a logical way in order to come up with some shape, picture or solution.

Puzzle games never seem to age, specially today with computer, WWW and online games. Most puzzle games are basic in graphics but are very addictive, sometimes leaving you playing for hours.

There are many types of puzzles. Some of them are very popular, and some are not. Puzzles that have been created until now can be divided into several main categories.

1. Jigsaw Puzzle Games
Everybody knows this one. Jigsaw puzzles are games wherein you have to complete a picture or a portrait from the smaller pieces scattered on the screen. Each piece is intertwined with another. You must find the perfect match in order to finalize the picture.

2. Word Puzzles
Word puzzles like Crosswords and Anagrams are the most popular type. A crossword is a word puzzle that takes the form of a square or rectangular grid of black and white squares. The goal is to fill the white squares with letters, forming words by solving some type of question or clues which lead to the answers. The black squares are used to separate the words or phrases.

3. Color and Shapes Puzzle Games
There are many puzzles over the internet which objective is for you to match the same colors or shapes together. If you are familiar with the popular Tetris, then you would know how to play this type of puzzle games. Some of these can be played in a two-player mode as well.

4. Logic Games
Logic puzzles include many different types of puzzles. Logic puzzles are math-based, like the well known and popular puzzle, Sudoku. Besides Sudoku, other logic-based number placement puzzles include Nonograms (or Pixel Puzzles), Kakuro, Impossible Puzzle, and The Tower of Hanoi.

5. Mazes
Mazes can be considered puzzle games as well. The objective of this type of game is to discover your way towards the goal. You have a starting line and you are supposed to walk your way through the maze until you come out of it. The perfect example of this game would be PacMan, although it could be considered as an arcade game as well.

6. Construction puzzles

Construction puzzles are solved by assembling any puzzle from a given set of pieces in a certain way. This main category includes any of the stick puzzles, many tiling puzzles, and also some mechanical puzzles. In online games puzzles representative of this type are Bridge Builder, The Incredible Machine, and Pipe Dream.