Zafehouse Classic (full game)

Zafehouse (later known as Zafehouse Classic), is a freeware 2008 turn-based strategy game from indie developer Logan Booker and Screwfly Studios, released on the PC. After a long period of on-off development on a never-released direct sequel (originally titled “Deadshed”), the game was finally followed up with the studio’s first commercial game: Zafehouse: Diaries.

I’ve made mods for both games, and they’re both fantastic in their own ways, however while Zafehouse: Diaries can be easily bought on GOG, Steam and the developer’s own webstore, the original Zafehouse Classic is a lot harder to find as its original website was taken down and replaced with the current site for Zafehouse: Diaries. There are still download links for the original freeware game there, but they take some searching to find as they are buried in a short news post from 2012 on the official site.

Since I plan to post my Zafehouse Classic mods here very soon, I wanted to provide easy access to the original game so people can find and play it easily. It may seem a bit dated from its interface, but it’s a lot of fun as a zombie survival sandbox sim.

Download Links:

Zafehouse Classic (official download page)

Left 2 Die (full game)

Left 2 Die is a freeware action shooter from Teardown, the indie developers behind Alien Assault. It was released in 2012 in what was to have been the lead-up to Alien Assault 2, a sequel that has yet to be produced.

Left 2 Die uses the same top-down perspective of Alien Assault, but swaps its turn-based tactical gameplay for fast-paced action, using joint keyboard and mouse control.

Notably, although Left 2 Die is set in the same universe as Alien Assault and features the same enemies and characters, on release a Doom “mod” was also released by Teardown on their forums that allowed players to re-theme the entire game to recreate the iconic first episode of Doom (“Knee-Deep in the Dead”) in Left 2 Die’s engine.

Fans expanded on this official mod to add the “missing” enemies and weapons from other Doom episodes, such as Barons of Hell, Lost Souls, the Cyberdemon, etc. While these won’t appear in the Doom Episode 1 levels as included, these extra monsters and weapons are fully functional for those who wish to create new levels based on Doom.

In 2016, Teardown’s website was shut down, with the company citing lack of funding to pay for hosting as their reason. When the site was lost, so too was the primary source of Alien Assault and Left 2 Die mods. Indeed, unlike Alien Assault, Left 2 Die now has no official download mirror, as far as I know. Even more sadly, the names of those who created the expanded Doom mod linked to here were lost with the demise of Teardown’s forums; if the creators ever reads this, please let me know who you are so I can credit you appropriately.

Unlike like most other mods on this site, the ones linked to from this post are not my own. Instead, I am preserving them here for posterity, and in the hopes that someday I will figure out how to make new levels for Left 2 Die myself!

As far as I know, no other mods were made for Left 2 Die; if anyone knows of any, leave a comment so I can archive them for others to enjoy.

To install the game, simply download all three zip files linked below and unzip them in order to the same folder. Note that the third file is the unofficial fan-made Doom content which can be used to fully replace the “Doom” folder inside your Left 2 Die mod directory; it contains the original files used by the Doom1Episode1 mod as well as extra content too. You can change mods (i.e. between “Alien Assault” and “Doom Episode 1” from the main menu.

Download Links:
Download Left2Die v1.02 (full game)
Download the Doom Mod v1.01 (Official, Episode 1)
Download the Doom Mod Enhancement (Unofficial)

Note: the first link above is unofficial, but is the only working, valid download site for this game that I could find. Please use that one first. The mirror link below is my own personal archived copy that shares bandwidth with my other mods, so only use it if the other link is down.

Alternate Download Links:
Download the full game

Alien Assault (full game)

Alien Assault is a freeware squad-based tactical game for the PC released in 2009 by indie developer Teardown. With its top-down and turn-based style, it was heavily inspired by Games Workshop’s (then long out-of-print) boardgame Space Hulk… in fact, the original release was actually themed as a Warhammer 40,000 game until GW sent a C&D and forced Teardown to re-brand the game as an original IP, without any 40k references.

Of course, this didn’t stop fans producing 40k mods that changed things back.

While Alien Assault is a great game, its lasting legacy (like most PC games that stand the test of time) was that it was moddable. While some things are sadly hardcoded (such as weapons), it is fairly easy to create new missions and squads (the “team” a player uses, that can gain experience and upgrades during campaign play), as well as re-theming the whole game from the graphics to the sound effects. Indeed, one of the best ways IMO to play Alien Assault is with the Aliens (the James Cameron movie) mod that converts the entire game to that theme (I will try to post it here as soon as I can find my backup copy).

Teardown initially intended to update the game to make it even more moddable, but eventually decided that working on Alien Assault 2 was preferable. A lot of work was done but the sequel has yet to appear, however, and although the developers are still active on Facebook, Teardown’s entire website, along with their forum where most mods were posted, was shut down in 2016, with the company citing lack of funds to keep it running. Thankfully, the original game at least was hosted at Strategy Informer (now Gamewatcher), so the download itself is not lost.

Because I plan to post my own mods for it here, I am providing a link to the final official release of the game below.

I also plan to host some of my favorite mods for this game (by other talented people, not just my own) here too. If any of the modders who made these object, I will take them down, but I’d hate to see other people’s hard work just disappear into the mists of time.

For now, though, enjoy playing the superb Alien Assault!

Download Alien Assault (full game)