Sometimes there are freebie games released that are just plain frickin’ awesome and TrackMania is one of them. This is a racing game. While it’s true it has little to no driving realism to it, nobody cares because it’s just a blast to play.

For you old-school arcade gamers out there, remember Pole Position? Think of TM Forever as Pole Position on steroids, just as cool and a whole lot more.

TrackMania runs via the Steam client.

Looks like this once installed:

What does it look and play like? I recorded a solo round that I played, so see for yourself:

(to see a better quality version of this vid, go here)

NOW YOU’VE GOT TO ADMIT – this is pretty darned good for free, right?

Oh, and for nostalgia, here’s what the original Pole Position arcade game was like:

Nothing will slow down your computer faster than bulky apps. Go light and you’ll be able to do stuff faster. Fast is good.

MP3, WAV player: Old version of WinAMP (v2.81)

WinAMP v2.81 is the last version of the player before the introduced video support and then (as far as I’m concerned) it went all downhill from there.

This music file player does the job and does it well. If you press CTRL+D it makes it double-size (suitable for higher-resolution displays).

It’s very difficult to find a music player that’s faster than an old version of WinAMP.

You can download WinAMP v2.81 from here. Windows only.

Note to Linux users: XMMS is basically the same thing as it’s heavily pattered after this version of WinAMP.

Word Processing: AbiWord

Some people don’t feel like paying for Microsoft Word. And some also don’t like it that OpenOffice, while free, it just too big and bulky. There are those who just want a nice fast light word processor that can do Word DOCs.

If that’s you, you want AbiWord. The download is less than 6MB. You will be surprised at how well this software works. Runs on Windows or Linux.

File Archive Utility (ZIP files, etc.): 7-Zip

7-Zip is probably the absolute fastest archive utility next to using the command line itself. It may have a very basic look but wow does it work well.

If you’re wondering “Will this work with my existing ZIP files?” Yes it will. And it can create them too.

Text Editing: Notepad++

If you dabble in programming at all (PHP, Perl, etc.) you’ve probably come to the realization that Windows Notepad doesn’t really fit the bill. You need something more powerful, has some formatting options, etc.

Use Notepad++. I am a long-time user of this software and it runs flawlessly. Tons of options. Tons of features. This text editor gets it done right the first time. Even if you have a massive MySQL database that you need to edit “by hand” that Windows Notepad won’t open because it’s too large, Notepad++ will. Easily.

In addition, it’s one of the few text editors I know of that does macros correctly. “Notepad++ does macros?” Oh yes it does.

Hardware Reporter: Motherboard Monitor

Motherboard Monitor is mainly for those that want to know the nitty-gritty of their computer hardware, like fan speeds, temperature sensing and so on – all from an app in the Windows tray. This software is it.

If you’re the type that likes to custom-build your PC, overclock and so on, it’s highly suggested you get this app.