Gaming CD Ripper

Although more limited than some competitors, this free CD ripper does boast one pretty neat twist. True to its name, Gaming CD Ripper lets you play a simple Flash-based video game while it extracts tracks in the MP3 or WAV formats. The pale-blue interface is mostly intuitive, though we should note you'll have to maximize the main window if you actually want a decent view of the game (a version of home-run derby in which a bigfoot smacks penguins with a bat). Unfortunately, the addition of this diversion causes the application to consume an unduly large chunk of system memory. It lacks support for additional codecs such as OGG and WMA, but this freebie at least lets you set the audio quality, retrieve track information from the Web, and apply normalization to tracks. Big-time audio enthusiasts probably won't be too impressed, but kids and other casual users will find it an entertaining and functional solution, particulary given its price.