Software/Game/apps making programs (free)

A long time ago I used to make simple programs in C++ with some Direct X classes and examples I found here and there. Nothing fancy, I made a fighting smashing game, a simple snake game, and a Jeopardy wannabe that I used for teaching purposes.

I have since lost all those files and am wondering if anyone knows of good programs available for designing simple apps/programs. Ideally be able to un on both Win and Macs. If they work on browsers that'd be fine. It's mostly for fun, nothing fancy.

I'm guessing Java and Flash would be good starting points, but iirc flash costs money, and no idea where to start my education in Java.

I learn stuff fast and decent at math, it's finding good resources where I have problems.

Any ideas?

when i was in school, i mostly used netbeans for simple java applications, it is a free application as well and has worked very well for me. i have also used eclipse for java editing which is also free but i feel didnt have all of the same advantages that netbeans had

both of those worked great for java

Check out Sharp Develop.

It's basically a free visual studio.

I can think of a few game development engines available for free (for non-commercial projects). Some are simple and others complex... maybe one of these will fit your needs:

Construct: http://www.scirra.com/
Game Maker (Lite version): http://www.yoyogames.com/gamemaker/windows
Unreal Development Kit: http://udk.com/
Unity Engine: http://unity3d.com/
CryEngine 3: http://mycryengine.com/