Game Engine

#1 An engine is the part of the Game that makes everything in the game work together.

I kinda see torque as a Boss engine holding several smaller engines together.
[edit]
I forgot to mention im a wrench turner by trade (mechanic)
[/endEdit

#2 An engine drives a car, a game engine drives the game!
a game engine like a regular engine is driven by fuel, for a game engine the fuel is your code.

now a game motor is a different animal all together ;-)

#3 Http://www.geocities.com/fervidfrogger/untitled.JPG

this is kinda the idea...

#4 Yea well do you know where to get a free one? game engine

#5 Well theres a few, take a look in the resources section. In case that you can't get there, heres a few sites:

crystal.sourceforge.net/
www.ogre3d.org/
www.quakeforge.net/

No particular order, some are GPLed, some are LGPLed,
I must admit I've not regretted the $100 I've spent on this
engine ... decent physics, decent frame rate on older hardware
and an active community. Of course there is never enough
documentation - but thats true of all the commercial and
non-commercial projects I've worked on.

#6 There are a lot of free game engines, but not a lot of GOOD free game engines.

Of course compared to $500,000 for Unreal, $100 for Torque practically IS free ;)

#7 Ooh, ooh, unworthy self link. :P

Torque is pretty good - I looked at all of those engines before buying, and ultimately decided Torque was the place to be. And I liked it so much, now I develop with it as my job... :)