Magicor

Title: Magicor
Author: Peter Gebauer
License: Creative Commons License
Website: http://magicor.sourceforge.net/

Magicor is a classic simple platform puzzle game. The objective of each level is to put out all of the fires. To douse the fires, you have to push or drop ice on each one.


You control the linux penguin guy. As is the norm in platform game, you can move left or right. You can fall off ledges. You can also step up but one step at a time. However, the unique feature in Magicor is that you can create and destroy ice tiles. Using the space key, if the space one ahead and one down is open, it gets filled in with ice. If the space one ahead and one down is ice, hitting the space key causes that ice block to degenerate.

The actual rules for the behavior of the ice is a little confusing at first. This raises my biggest complaint with Magicor, the lack of in-game documentation. There is a manual available, but it still takes some time to get use to the rules. The primary rule is that an ice platform connected to a wall will stay in place. But if you destroy the ice block connecting the group to the wall, the rest will fall. If it falls on a fire, it will extinguish the fire.

The other way to put out a fire is to push an ice block onto it. A single ice block can be pushed by your penguin along a platform. It will keep moving until it hits something, like fire, or falls off a ledge.

There are a couple of other twists. One is the tubes. They act like teleporters. There are also spikes, lava, and spider like things to avoid. Some of the levels require some quick figure work. But this raises one of the best aspects of Magicor, you can play the levels in any order. There are sixty levels plus three tutorial levels. The level quality is pretty good, but they could be put in a better order. Some of the hardest levels came early, but again you can play any level at any time.

The graphics and audio in Magicor are good, but nothing special. The program is solid (i.e. no bugs which I could find). I encourage you to download and play it. If you enjoy Magicor, a similar (and maybe better) game is Zep's Dreamland.