Not putting it explicitly on my list, but technically Darkwood is free in full. Depends on if you wanna torrent. The developers did give away a full legit copy. It just doesnt have any updates.

http://blupi.org/ (platformers, puzzle games; note most are ISO images)

http://hamumu.com/games.php (free games at the bottom; note many were basically created for pre-Vista machines)

There's a bunch of free stuff on GOG that's really good! Stuff like Ultima 4, Jill of the Jungle, Bio Menace etc

OpenRA is another game to check out, it's a remake of Red Alert, C&C and Dune 2000 for modern OSes.

Edit: Btw, for ease of use I'd recommend adding hyperlinks for all the games when you edit/add them to your original post, it makes for a much better user experience.

Not sure how powerful this "potato PC" is, but if it is powerful enough for GBC emulation, I'd suggest Augury Red Code. Available on Itchio, it's a homebrew focused on platforming and, if you're interested, speedrunning.

Wishing Sarah (Game Boy homebrew) should be playable if this potato PC can also handle this sort of emulation. Available for free only on Itchio, it's a puzzle game with horror elements, and it's an interlude between Dreaming Sarah (paid game, Windows) and the upcoming Awakening Sarah.

And if this PC can handle NES emulation, I'd highly recommend the platformers Böbl (Itchio page) and Yun (devs' page).

Phoenotopia (Adobe Flash version) should be pretty light too. It can be found on Bluemaxima's Flashpoint, but it doesn't require the launcher to run, only a working executable of the portable Flash Player (even the one Flashpoint uses should be perfectly functional). The game itself is a sidescroller action RPG, and my first impression when playing that game was "am I really playing a Flash game?". It felt far better than quite a few recent indies I had played.

Added Daggerfall and Arena to the list. As they play on potato machines if vanilla.

Battle for Wesnoth ! (wesnoth dot org)

The geatest open-source TBS ever (one of the great turn-based strategy games, period).

Free-free, will run on half a potato, with a big community that's both rabid and welcoming. Wesnoth might be the best example of open-source gaming done right. Regular official updates, constant fan maps, scenarios, and rule mods.

It's tiny, it will run on a pentium 1, any OS, has rich single player, and pretty good multi-player.

This game is exquisite. Maybe the best free game I've seen. Check it out, unless you hate turn-based stategy. Then it would be a waste of time.

Thus endeth my Sunday Sermon. ;)

Reminds me a lot of Fire Emblem series

https://www.dosgames.com/game/traffic-department-2192

Traffic Department 2192

Good top down mission based shooter with a rather mature story, released in 1994 but was made freeware in 2007.

A unique feature to this game is that you can fail missions but the story will continue and some people will react to some of these outcomes, very impressive for the time period.

Indeed. Somewhat surprised somebody else remembers that one. Wouldn't say that the gameplay still holds up, but the story and Velasquez as a character may still be something. And those aspects definitely stood out back in the day.

https://www.superfighter.com/

Super Fighter Team have acquired the rights to some IP's and have released a few for free on PC/Windows.

Sango Fighter
Sango Fighter 2
Super Fighter
Tough Guy: Fighting Titans

They are pretty decent Fighting games though I'm sure they don't hit top tier.

Thats ok. More people digging and sifting= better.

How about the stranded games especially Stranded 2 it's a survival game on an island stranded of course,Stranded 3 is still in development and there is also Little fighter 2 which i played much a fighting game.

Link to stranded 2:
https://www.unrealsoftware.de/game_stranded2.php

Also little fighter 2 link:
https://lf2.net/

Also i wasted a lot if time on this game from mdickie which is free:
Wrestling MPire Remix (2011)

Hell yeah! I've got a lot of nostalgia for this game and it's tied with Linux as it was the first game I ever played under Linux :)


LF2 is awesome, Firezen ftw!

Another Fighter link:
https://www.openomf.org

One Must Fall 2097
Being a fighting game you can play it splitscreen. Killer soundtrack.

If you don't want to fiddle with installing, the original 1994 can be played in browsers or downloaded for DOSbox at Archive.org, or any Abandonware site of your choosing.

OMF was made freeware 1999

So many GOG ads on that page.