PC Logic Games

2009-06-14T21:31:00.000-07:00

Title: HiddenLynx
Author: Mikko A Oksalahti
License: Freeware
Website: http://mayoneez.1g.fi/hiddenlynx/

One of the odder aspects of my childhood was trying to get my friends and siblings in midwest America play games like Chinese Chess (also called Xiangqi). I was fascinated by the game. It seemed so exotic. Playing seemed a way to travel to the other side of the globe. To my friends, it was pure torture. Every none and then, they would humor me. Most of the time, I would just play against myself. These were the days before PCs and the Internet (I am that old).

Chinese Chess is fundamentally different than western Chess. Learning the rules of the game and playing it as a ten year old, I felt I was learning about the Chinese culture. The cannon seemed particularly unique. It moves like a rook, but can only capture by jumping over one intervening piece. I remember thinking this was the strangest rule and somehow mastering its power would give me an insight into the Chinese psyche. Yes, very silly in retrospect.

Today, I could have played Chinese Chess against human opponents on-line. This would have saved my friends some pain, and I might have actually learned something about Chinese culture through my opponents. Also, there are computer opponents. Zillons of Games contains a credible version of Chinese Chess.

Recently, I ran across HiddenLynx, a nice simple Chinese Chess game. This led to a little Chinese Chess revisit. The mechanics are initiative, click and drag the piece you want to move. When you click, the possible destinations are lit up. The graphics are well done. And its free. What's not to like.

HiddenLynx has five skill levels. It took me a little while to find the menu; it appears when you hover your mouse on the right side the screen. The lowest level is easy to beat and a good way to learn (or relearn) the game. The middle level proved too tough for me. Ok, I am not much of a Chinese Chess player.

I do not have anything bad to say about the program. One mystery, to me at least, is the meaning of the small dots on the left side of the screen. I think it is some measure the computer's evaluation of the current position, but I could not quite work it out.

There are many good Chinese Chess programs available. I am not claiming that HiddleLynx plays the best game. Another one is Qianhong. It has more features and plug-in AIs. It is probably a stronger program, but there is something simple and nice about HiddleLynx which I enjoyed. Mostly, I enjoyed the journey to my youth.

Cluster

2009-06-07T21:08:00.000-07:00

Title: Cluster
Author: Edgar "Fast Eddie" Williams
License: Freeware (donation requested)
Website: http://fasteddiessoftware.com/videogames.aspx

Cluster is a simple puzzle game which you might think you have played before, but you haven't. I am not sure where I first ran across Cluster. But I do remember that I almost went right past it thinking it was another sokoban game. Luckily I didn't.

So what is Cluster? Like sokoban, from a top down view, you push crates around with a bulldozer. That is where the similarities end. The objective is not to push crates to certain positions. Instead, you need to push the crates so that they form one (orthogonally connected) cluster.

The other big difference is that once two or more blocks become connected, they stay connected and have to be pushed around as group. This can be a hindrance as the larger group is more awkward. On the other hand, this can be useful. For example, you can attach additional blocks to a block "stuck" along a wall which form a handle and allow you to push the group away from the wall. Learning to use groups in this way to save "stuck" blocks is really the key to solving Cluster levels.

As with any puzzle game, there are a couple of twists. There is a special block type which cannot be moved at all, but must still be part of the final cluster. Nor can any group connect to such a block be moved. There are also special blocks which can only more vertically, and another type which can only move horizontally. Groups containing such a block can only move in that direction. A group containing both a vertical only and a horizontal only cannot move. The final twist is the oil slicks. You cannot move your dozer through a oil slick, but you can move blocks through them.

Cluster contains 25 levels which can be played in any order. The puzzles are hard. No causal gaming here. Even the first "Getting Started" level requires some thinking. There is a level editor for more. The biggest flaw in Cluster is that the game does not record your progress.

If you enjoy Cluster, I would suggest you give Chocolate Castle a look. It has similar mechanics of combining blocks into one group and was my game of the year for 2007.

Don't Save the Princess

2009-05-10T11:42:00.000-07:00

Title: Don't Save the Princess
Author: Alexander Shen
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.shengames.com/pc/dstp/

Don't Save the Princess (DStP) is a routing game similar to my own Puzzle Bunnies and Couffy. The objective is to place the limited number of arrows on the board to that when the knight enters through the door, he does not save the princess. Instead, you have to route him so that he is eaten by the dragon. The arrows work like fans. If the knight passes next to outbound side of an arrow, he gets redirected in that direction. If he is directed off the map, into a wall, or into the princess, you have failed the level.

An interesting twist is that the knight can destroy an arrow block by hitting it on one of its other three sides, thus causing an annoying arrow to disappear. Later on, some additional block types are introduced. The green blocks are initially bad; running into one of them, just as running into a wall, fails the level. However, passing over a green switch causes all the green blocks to be destroyed. The red blocks are initially good; the knight pass right through them. But, pass over a red switch and all of the red blocks turn into solid, and thus bad, blocks.

There are only 24 levels. Most are pretty easy once you understand the rules. Except for the last level, you can play the levels in any order. The graphics and animations are nice and effective. I found the background music annoying and wished I could have turned it off. There is a level editor included.

Browser Games 13

2009-04-26T20:45:00.000-07:00

Lucky thirteen. This is the 13th trio of browser based logic/puzzle games which I have covered. As I have said before, developing for flash, shockwave, and java (one of each this week) is fairly easy and lightweight. This allows a developer/programmer to get a game with a good puzzle idea and some good puzzles out there quickly. On the downside, over time, the ads have gotten more annoying.

This week, all three games involve matching colors (or colours).

Colourshift

Colourshift is an amazing reworking of the classic game NetWalk. By rotating the network tiles, you have to connect each circular light with a power source of the game color. Twist one: there are multiple colors. Twist two: in Aargon style, the power sources come in the three primary colors: red, green, and blue. Sometimes you have to combine sources to produce desired colors for lights. For example, blue and green make cyan. Twist three: starting at level 20, the game is being played on a torus. Using the arrow keys, you choose how to cut the torus and unwrap it into a square.

Twist three, which is call warping in the game, makes Colourshift a much more difficult game than NetWalk. You do not have the crutch of the edge to start.

I believe that there are 200 levels in total which have to be completed in order. I have only personally completed the first 80.

Tantrix

Tantrix is one of my favorite physical puzzles. I have given many sets as Christmas presents over the years. The puzzle is to arrange hexagonal tiles 1 to n so that one color forms a closed loop and any other colors match at any adjacent tiles. It is a very enjoyable puzzle due in large part that the tiles have a nice tactile feel. Later, the Tantrix was extended into a two-player game. It is not a very good game. This is a shockwave version of both the single-player puzzles and the two-player game. It is quite well done.

Socolor

Socolor is a sokoban variant with the goal being to push all of the squares (boxes, crates, whatever term you prefer for the sokoban object) of the same color together. It requires java and comes with 50 levels. If you prefer Flash, try Lightforce.

Tag: The Power of Paint

2009-03-22T20:25:00.000-07:00

Title: Tag: The Power of Paint
Author: The Tag Team
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.thepowerofpaint.com/

I have to admit I did not see the potential of Narbacular Drop. I played it when it was released as a DigiPen student project. Its graphics used a very dark palette. I remember falling into some hole and getting stuck. Completely uninviting. Luckily, Valve did see the potential, and the result was Portal, one of the best games of 2007. In fact, when I played Portal, I did not even recognize that it grew out of Narbacular Drop.

Learning from my past short sightedness, I want to recommend that people give Tag a try. I have to warn you that it has some rough spots. It is short and incomplete. The controls are a little mushy. The interface could use work. Do not play Tag expecting a finish product. Play Tag for the puzzle concept and hope that a really good polished game based it comes out some day.

Tag is a first person 3-dimensional puzzle game. The goal is simple enough: get to the exit. Your only tool is an unlimited supply of spray paint. The great puzzle concept of Tag is that when your character touches a painted surface, the color of the paint caused you to do something. For example, a green pained surface caused you to jump.

A bit more accurately, green causes your character to be propelled off that surface. In the above screen shot, by painting two parallel vertical walls green, you can jump up the walls. It is this sort of innovative thinking that makes Tag special. Note the nice in game hints. Or course, I need to switch to the green paint before commencing to paint that wall.

The two other colors are red and blue. Red surfaces cause you to speed up. Blue causes you to stick to the surface. The combinations yield some good puzzles which require some outside of the box thinking.

I could go into the faults of Tag, but that is not the point. Being student projects, all DigiPen games have huge flaws. This is a demo, and I think it is best to view it as a concept demo. Give it a play. I really hope it a complete game.

Transmover

2009-03-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

Title: Transmover
Author: Polygon Gmen
License: Freeware
Website: http://polig.daa.jp/tmvr.html

It has been almost three months since my last blog entry. Part busy, part no a game has grabbed me in a while. The busy part has not changed, but this week the game Transmover pulled me in and game lock ensued. It has all the requirements for a great puzzle game: simple rules, simple interface, and some really good puzzles. Transmover is a flash based browser game. Normally, I bundle up three such games to make one entry, but Transmover deserves its own entry.

Transmover is platform puzzle game. The goal in each level is to first obtain the key and then make your way to the exit. You move left and right along platforms, climb up and down ladders, and can jump down, but you can only climb up one block or stair at a time. To obtain the key and then get to the exit, you usually have build staircases, similar to Swistakowy Kloplot. Unlike Swistakowy Kloplot, you cannot pick up and place blocks. Instead, by shooting green blocks, you switch positions with the block, called a "transmove". The arrows move your character; the awsd keys shoot. To build a staircase, you have to move to where you want a block to be placed and shoot a green block which is to your left, right, up, or down. Simple rules, but they lead to some interesting puzzles.

To make things interesting, there are several special blocks. Some blocks are green on certain sides. These can only be transmoved when shot from certain sides. The tan blocks can only be transmoved once. The red blocks are destroyed when hit with a shot from your gun. There are special opaque platform and wall tiles which you can shot/transmove through, but cannot run through. The spinning red and blue tiles rotate the direction of your shots 90 degrees. I may be forgetting one or two other special tiles. Each special tile adds depth to the puzzles without adding unnecessary rules. The game designer of Transmover choose well which features to add.

There are 60 levels, split in to three groups. The first 20 levels introduce the various rules and special block types. A simple description is given for each new block along with an easy level which features the new block. The remaining 40 levels make up the heart of the game. There are some really good levels. The level design and pacing is excellent. Kudos to the level designer. I really enjoyed working through the levels. It was a joy to play this game with many a-ha moments. The best feature is that you can play any level at any time. Why other puzzle games do not do this is beyond me.

The interface, graphics, and audio are perfect for the game.

There is also a level editor and over 300 levels available from other players. These are bit of mixed bag. The one and only improvement I would like to see in Transmover is some sort of rating system for these user provided levels, or maybe an "editor's choice" selection of the 50 best.

Any regular reader of this blog should do themselves a big favor and play Transmover, right now.

Sorry to be gone for three months. I will return to putting out a new entry every week or two.

2008 Game of the Year

2008-12-19T22:22:00.000-08:00

Game of the Year: none

2008 has been a tough year for us hardcore logic and puzzle gamers on the PC. No game has grabbed me the way any of my previous Game of the Year winners did. I did not experience game lock with any puzzle game this year. No game stretched my mind or made me think in new ways. So, I decided to not award a game of the year this year. Maybe I am just getting old and crotchety but that is the way it is.

Runner-Up: DROD RPG: Tendry's Tale

I am huge fan of the DROD series, and the latest entry DROD RPG is a great game. The DROD games are some of the best and most demanding puzzle/logic games around. They combine a simple interface with deep puzzles. DROD RPG continues the tradition with some really good puzzles. So, why is it not the game of the year? The RPG elements in the game are lacking. Somehow it should be a better game. The relative lack on fan generated levels is also telling. But ultimately, I have unfairly high expectations for any game with DROD in the title.

Honorable Mention: World of Goo

Another almost great game which could/should have taken the top spot. For three fourths of the game, I was thinking, this is it. It was amazing, and I was having a good time. But then came the final chapter with its bit shooting accuracy levels and odd Jengaesque levels. Thought went out the door and so did game of the year.

Over the holidays, I watched my 11 year old nephew play through the first chapter. It was a challenge for him, but he did it. Based on that, I have to say that World of Goo is a better game for children than I thought it would be.

Honorable Mention: Quadrax IV

Again, this is an almost great game. Why the passcodes? Why not tell us where the caves lead to? Why? There are some really good puzzles mixed in which kept me going.

Honorable Mention: iPhone Apps

Maybe the most telling fact about the state of puzzle games for the PC is how much time I spent playing puzzle games on my iPhone. It is a good platform for small puzzle/logic games and always available when an extra five minutes appear. My current favorites: Enigmo, Monster Masyu, Vexed, and Puzzle Maniak.

Previous Winners:

2007 Game of the Year: Chocolate Castle

2006 Game of the Year: Hex-a-hop

2005 Game of the Year: DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold

World of Goo

2008-12-13T22:00:00.000-08:00

Title: World of Goo
Author: 2D Boy
License: commercial
Website: http://2dboy.com/games.php

Two years ago I played around with Tower of Goo when it came out. Released as part of the experimental gameplay project, it was more of a toy than a game. It was interesting, but I did not see the true gaming potential in it. I figured it might morph into an open ended sand box game not a puzzle game. So, when World of Goo came out four months ago, I was not very excited. But I kept reading these rave reviews. Finally, I tried the demo. Then I paid my $20 for the full version. Now, I am jumping on the World of Goo bandwagon.

World of Goo is a wonderfully produced game. A simple idea combined with whimsy and a bit of love yields one the best games I have played this year. It is clear that the small team of designers, programmers, artists enjoyed making this game.

In a sentence, World of Goo is a cross of Lemmings with Bridge Construction Set. The objective of each level to build a structure using some of the goo balls which reaches the exit pipe and allows the remaining goo balls to escape. The interface simple, select a free goo ball and move it near the current structure. Once close, faint connections will appear. Release the goo ball and it becomes a new node in the structure and those faint connections become permanent.

Depending on the level, you may have to build a tower, a bridge or some thing else to reach the exit pipe. That is the puzzle aspect of the game, figuring out what to build. Also, to complete each level, a certain number of goo balls have to escape. So, you have to plan carefully to have a few unused guys at the end. Oh, the free unused goo balls move around on your structure, moving from node to node via the connections, weighing it down, stress it, and just causing trouble. You have to take this into consideration when planning your next node placement.

As you progress through the game, new goo ball types are introduced. Some goo balls are not permanent and can be removed from a structure and placed else where. Another type is the balloon goo balls which pulls upwards. While there are some helpful hints from "the sign painter", you have learn on your own the properties of each new type. That is part of the game.

There are 46 levels spread across 5 worlds. The levels have to more or less be completed in order. At some points there is a split allowing access to two levels, but you have to complete all of the levels in a world before moving on. On the plus side, you are allowed to skip some number of levels and return to them later. There were enough skips so that I never got stuck. For the hardcore, each level also has an OCD challenge, maybe save an addition number of goo balls or use a fixed number of moves.

The best part of World of Goo is the atmosphere. The back story, artwork, cut scenes, and hints from the sign painter are interwoven to produce a wonderful gaming experience. The interface and menus are simple and well done so as to not distract.

As with any game, World of Goo is not perfect. My biggest complaint is that as a puzzle game, World of Goo is lacking. This is largely a matter of taste, but very few of the of levels require serious puzzle solving skills like most of the games reviewed in this blog. For most levels, it is clear from the start what you need to do. Actually do it is another story. You might have to play around a bit, especially if a new goo ball type is available, to achieve it. This does lead to a frustration factor. One misplaced node can ruin several minutes work. There are these time travel angels flittering about; click on one and go back to some previous state. The actual amount you go back seems a bit random. I would mush prefer a time bar allowing me to go back to any previous time.

Through out the first three worlds (32 levels), the lack of tough puzzles was not much of an issue. I was just enjoying the game. The fourth world took a bad turn. A new goo ball type is introduced which you have to fire from one structure to the next in order to get them to the exit. If you missed, the goo ball would fall into the abyss or get chewed up by a gear and die a horrible death. Now the puzzle aspect is gone. For several levels in this world, it is all about aiming with no or minimal thinking. In practice, I found these levels easy but completely uninteresting.

This leads to my second big complaint: no level editor. This is a odd and glaring omission. I would love to see what challenges others could produce. There is an unofficial Goo Tool which allows includes a level editor and allows for mods. I have not played with it yet.

My last possible issue is the physics model. If you are a hard core BCS or Armadillo Run fan, you might be annoyed at the at somewhat loose physics in World of Goo. I personally was not bothered. Actually, a more accurate model would probably make the game too hard.

A great fan site for World of Goo is http://worldofgoogame.blogspot.com/. It contains walk through for each level in case you get stuck.

Browser Games 12

2008-11-29T11:51:00.000-08:00

Two more browser based games this week. Both are physics based. Both are fun if a little short.

Assembler

Assembler is a simple 2-D platform game. The object is to build a structure in which the green box (or boxes) is (are) placed in the desired position (or positions). You have to move the various crates and beams and whatnot into position. What makes Assembler special is the accuracy of the physics model. It feels right. It matters how you pick up the boxes with your mouse as they pivot on that point. It also matters how quickly you move them around. The momentum, friction, and water are modeled perfectly. At times this is a frustration as you have to move items around and end up knocking over already correctly placed items. Also, you might know what you want to do, but have to move things out of the way to get there. The levels are well constructed and well paced. This is a great game. The only negative I found is that you have to complete the levels in order. But there are only 18 levels. Once you finish those off, there is Assembler2 which some of the original levels, some reworked levels, and some new levels.

The underlying physics engine used in Assembler is the Box2D engine. It is open source, and I took a peek at the API. It appears reasonably easy to use. Maybe more games will come out using it. A commercial game based on the Box2D engine is Fantastic Contraption. It is more of a The Incredible Machine game.

Auditorium

The goal in Auditorium is to redirect the flow of gas particles so a sufficient number pass through each square. Later, as in the screen shot, the color of the gas matters. As the gas particles pass through a target square, a different sound is produced. As more particles pass through, the bars in that square rise and the sound increases. You need to raise each square to its maximum to complete the level. The resulting final solution is usually audible pleasing.

Each level comes with a few items which you must place. A big part of Auditorium is learning how these items effect the flow of the gas. The simplest are the arrows which redirect the gas. You can place them where ever you want. You can also change the strength of an arrow by increasing or decreasing it radius of effect. You do not get to change the direction though. One trick is that you can peal off part of the gas stream by having an arrow's effect radius intersect only part of the stream.

As you progress, new items appear. It is your job to figure out how they work. Two flaws in Auditorium: levels must be completed in order and some levels require very careful placement. Still, this is great little diversion. The site claims that this is a demo, but it is a very polished game, and well worth playing.

Quoridor

2008-11-16T20:29:00.000-08:00

Title: Quoridor
Author: Mirko Marchesi
License: Commercial Board Game

Author: Martijn van Steenbergen
License: Creative Commons
Website: http://martijn.van.steenbergen.nl/projects/quoridor/

It has been a while since I did an entry on an abstract strategy game. So, here is a short one on a different two to four person game call Quoridor. I am only going to focus on the two person version.

The rules are very simple. Quoridor is played on a 9 by 9 board. The goal is to get your marker to other side of the board before your opponent does. The twist is that players can place 2-long barriers on the board. Each turn, you can either move your marker one square orthogonally or place a barrier. But you cannot move through a barrier, neither the opponent's barriers nor your own. You have a limited supply (ten) of barriers; use them wisely. There is a restriction on placing the barriers; you cannot place one which completely blocks your opponent from the other side. One final rule: if your marker is next to your opponent, you can jump over your opponent and land on any neighboring square not blocked by a barrier.

What makes Quoridor interesting is learning what makes for a good position. In A.I. lingo, learning a good heuristic. I really enjoyed the learning possess for this game as the obivious heuristics are flawed. First off, being close to the other side of the board is not always the best place to be. If your opponent has a bunch of barriers left in their pool, they can use them and force you backtrack or zig-zag. Next, I thought that having multiple paths to the other side was a good thing. But oddly, due to the rule that your opponent may not cut off all paths, sometimes having only one path is an advantage as your opponent cannot take it away. The other factor is the value of the barriers, the more in reserve the better, but what is the right weighting of these factors?

To start learning the game, you can play against Martijn van Steenbergen java implementation. It has a very clean and intuitive interface. There are four levels of play. The A.I. is not strong, but the SmartBrain 2 level beat me the first time I played due to my lack of familarity with the game. Level 3 plays a better game, but is slower. Level 4 is too slow to be practical. I would say that the A.I. underestimates the value of keeping barriers in its pool.

One observation I have is that the play balancing of Quoridor is spot on. The choice of using a 9x9 board and a pool of 10 barriers seems to be just right. Reading the wikipedia article on Quoridor mentions some previous incarnations of this sort of game. So, these choices are the result of some trial and error. One of those previous games is Blockage. Another vaguely similar game is Camelot, for which a Zillions of Games zrf file is available.

Puzzle Books

2008-11-01T07:44:00.000-07:00

To wind down after a long day, before going to bed, I like to knock off a few logic puzzles. What might frustrate many is calming to me. Ok, I am a bit odd. Over the years, I have purchased many puzzle books which sit on night stand until finished. Here are few of the better ones.

Title: Mensa Exercise Your Mind Math & Logic
Authors: Dave Tuller & Michael Rios
Website: amazon.com

Title: Brainteasers on the Flip Side
Authors: Dave Tuller & Michael Rios
Website: amazon.com

Back with more, Tuller and Rios produce some of the best puzzle around. Each book includes hundreds of puzzles. The puzzle types vary. Each includes some original Tuller-Rios puzzles, see my post on a previous version for some examples. The puzzles are well constructed and challenging. Another thing which might seem silly, but matters: the paper is of high quality. This nice when you have to erase.

In the interest of full disclosure, I know Dave Tuller and have talked to him about his books. He in no way encouraged me to include any mention of his books in this blog.

Title: Jumbo Book of Number Puzzles
Author: http://www.puzzlepress.co.uk/
Website: WHSmith.co.uk

This is great puzzle book I got at Costco for $5.49 about a year ago, but I have not seen there in a while. It seems hard to find on-line. WHSmith claims to sell it, but but does not have a picture of the cover and lists the availability as 4 or more weeks which makes me suspicious. If you see it again at Costco, grab it. Grab two, one for you, and one for a friend.

It contains many of the standards: Domino Puzzles, Slitherlink, Sudoku, Mind Sweeper, Mastermind, Hitori, Kakuro. It also includes a couple of new puzzle types. One which I found every interesting is called Piecework. It is a set up as nonogram, however there is not enough information given to solve the puzzle. You have to use the additional constraint that the picture consists of the 12 pentomino arranged in the grid so that no two touch. This results in some brilliant puzzles.

Title: Japanese Logic Puzzles
Author: The Times
Website: amazon.com

Here is a book I picked up on my last trip to England. It is a collection Hashi (aka bridges), Hitori, Mosaic, and Slitherlink puzzles. What really struck me about this collection was the quality of the Hitori puzzles. There are only 30, but they are very well done. I had never given generating Hitori puzzles much thought. Is there no good computer method for generating these puzzles? There are 20 Mosaic puzzles, 75 Hashi, and 75 Slitherlink. The only downside to this book is the paper quality is lower than the others.

Title: KrazyDad Slitherlinks
Author: Jim Bumgardner aka KrazyDad
Website: http://www.krazydad.com/slitherlink/

Free slitherlink puzzles in pdf format. Download, print, and solve. The real find here is the puzzles in different grids. I really found the Penrose Tile puzzles a great twist.

Snakoban Dash

2008-10-19T14:12:00.000-07:00

Title: Snakoban Dash
Author: Tom Beaumont
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.retroremakes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=120&t=12126

Tom Beaumont is the author of my 2006 Game of the Year, Hex-a-hop. So, when I saw a new game from him, I got excited, very excited. His new game Snakoban Dash is an interesting mix of sokoban, snake, and boulder dash.

To get a feel for the game, here is a youtube video produced by IndieGames.

The sokoban part: the goal of each Snakoban Dash level is to push a crate to each of the target squares. The usual rules apply. You can only push one box at a time into an empty square. In later levels, some of the crates are ice crates which once pushed keep moving. One deviation from the usual sokoban rule set is that there can be more crates than target squares.

The snake part: instead of controlling a one square character as in standard sokoban games, you control the head of a multi-square snake which slithers along behind. This means you have to be careful how you approach a crate as your own body can block the path. Also, upon eating an apple, the snake grows one square longer. On the other hand, if you eat a mushroom, your tail falls off and you become a two square long snake again. Then there are grapes, you will find out about them.

The boulder dash part: certain items (boulders and toxic barrels of something or another) feel the force of gravity. If you eat out the ground underneath such items, they will fall. Boulders fall in the usual boulder dash fashion, meaning I do not really understand all rules for how they fall and roll. Toxic barrels will blow up upon hits something. Such explosions will destroy brick walls potentially giving access to other parts of the board and freeing up paths for those boxes. Explosions will also kill you if any part of your snake is next to one.

Putting it all together, Snakoban Dash results in some great puzzles. This is due to Tom Beaumont's top notch puzzle construction skills. Many levels combine puzzle elements the three types. One example, you can use your snake body to support a toxic barrel while your head pushes it left or right. Another example, you can use your snake body to stop an ice crate.

There are 40 levels which are divided into groups of three. To gain access to the next group, you have to complete two out of three of the previous set. As you work through the levels additional game items are introduces.

One great feature is that there are unlimited undos. This is a life saver.

There graphics are intentionally bad. The readme file calls it "Retro TV emulation". I am going to say something awful, but I found the graphics distractingly bad. I know ... I know ... I always say the graphics don't matter, the puzzles matter. Here the graphics actually interfere with the game.

Marble Seals

2008-10-09T21:30:00.000-07:00

Title: Ohajiki Azarashi (aka Marble Seals)
Author: Anahara Masataka
License: Freeware
Website: http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~anhr/English.html

About a year ago, I wrote an entry on Crocodile Garden, a good puzzler with simple rules and tough puzzles. At the time, I added two other games from Anahara Masataka to my personal to-play-list. A couple of weeks ago, Crocodile Garden and the other two appeared in the new games list on Caiman Free Games. This pushed me play one of the others, Marble Seals.

I really like Masataka's games. They have simple rule sets, often thoughtful variants of standard puzzles. The key is the good puzzles. This holds for Marble Seals. At first glace, it is just sokoban clone: push a seal to each target circle. However, it adds a few twists which result in a fundamentally different games.

Twist #1: the surface is slippery: ice or maybe marble. Once pushed, a seal slides along until it hits a wall, another seal, falls off the board, or hits a door.

Twist #2: you cannot push seal if the next square is occupied. However, similar to Newton's cradle, when a seal is pushed into a row of seals, the pushed seal stops and last seal in row pops out and keeps moving.

Twist #3: doors. There are 2 by 1 doors which can be pushed open. These can be used to access other areas and form bridges. If there is a seal on the other side on the door, instead of opening the door pushes that seal.

The interface is simple, arrow keys to move and space bar to push a seal. One difference with Marble Seals versus most sokoban like games is not all of the seals are need to arrive at a target square. You can and have to on some levels sacrifice some seals.

Marble Seals comes with 40 levels. The level construction is very well done with many good aha moments. As levels are completed, additional levels become available allowing some tough levels to be skipped. Some levels are tough, but usually a bit of thought will lead you to a solution.

Marble Seals does have some stability issues. It crashed every time I switched users or resumed Windows. Also, an undo feature would dramatically improve the game. Those are the only serious minuses. Some might be put off by the simple graphics, but they are effective do not get in the way. The audio is also simple. The key here is the good puzzles and it's free. There is no reason to skip this one.

DROD RPG: Tendry's Tale

2008-09-25T17:28:00.000-07:00

Title: DROD RPG: Tendry's Tale
Author: Caravel Games
Licencse: Commercial
Website: http://caravelgames.com/Articles/Games_2/RPG.html

Expectations. DROD:JtRH was my 2005 Game of Year. DROD:TCB was a 2007 Honorable Mention. So, any game with DROD in the title sets high expectations for me. Add to that that I am a long time old school RPG gamer. Fallout is one of my all time favorite games. I have also lost many nights sleep playing Arcanum, one damn hard game btw. I also enjoy the modern RPG slashers such as Diablo, Neverwinter Nights, and Guild Wars. Thus, a game title with both DROD and RPG results in sky high expectations.

The question is does DROD RPG meet these expectations? No. Does it come close? Yes, if you focus on the DROD puzzle aspects. No, if you are expecting a fleshed out RPG game.

In case you are not familiar with DROD, it is a turn based puzzle games. You wander around a with your mighty sword. On each turn, you can move to any of the eight neighboring squares or swing your sword 45 degrees clockwise or counter clockwise. Unlike previous DROD games, the bad guys for the most do not move. Also, unlike the original, your sword does not automatically kill anything it touches. Instead, in classic RPG fashion, your character and the opponents have hit points, attack ratings, and defensive rating. When you attack, the battle is resolved by factoring in these parameters. You can right click on a monster to see the effect of any battle before entering into it. There is no randomness.

DROD PRG: Tendry's Tale comes with 13 levels. Each level contains 20 or more rooms. The goal is to find your way to the exit. Besides opponents baddies, there are doors and other movement puzzles. Strewn about each level are power ups, health potions, switches, keys, and the occasional new weapon or shield.

Completing each level is mostly a matter of doing things in the right order. You cannot take on the toughie until you run around the level and get all the attack power ups and find that new weapon. One downside of the game is that it possible to get stuck. After having to redo 20 minutes work once, I got into the habit of saving early and saving often. Scanning the forums, I saw that many players make one pass through a level to learn it and then make another more efficient pass.

Many rooms require solving puzzles. These puzzles are the strong point of the DROD franchise, and there are some good puzzles in DROD RPG. In the pictured room, you need to collect the two keys. To do so, you have to get the mimic to step on the correct switches at just the right time. The mimic will mimic your move if possible. First you have to line him up just right, then circle around and have have him raise and lower the doors in just the right order.

One new puzzle twist in this version is that you have a pet which can be released at opportune times. The little guy can be used to trip switches which you do not otherwise have access to. I really liked these puzzles.

On the other hand, the RPG side of DROD RPG is disappointing. There are no fundamental character decisions to make. No character classes, no distribution of skill points, no purchase choices. The RPG aspects are limited to searching each level for power ups, new weapons, and shields. It really does pay to completely search each level for the hidden rooms. There are occasional tactical decisions to make such as "should I spend 30 gold to gain access to this room which contains a +2 attack power up." And even then as far as I can tell, the answer is always yes. Always get those attack power ups.

I do not know what I was hoping for in DROD RPG. Maybe you could learn a skill which you allow finer control of mimics and/or your pet. With this skill there would be certain puzzles you could complete that others could not. Another skill would allow you see in the dark (several of the rooms are dark and require a depth-first search to solve). Of course, play balancing all of this very hard.

There is huge potental for a well balanced puzzle-rgp hybird. I really enjoyed Puzzle Quest, another example. The puzzles in Puzzle Quest are weak, but the rpg choices did fundamentally effect the game and the way I played it. I actually played through the game three times. I blew through the Tendry's Tale levels and I have no intention of going back.

As with other games in DROD series, there is a level editor. I will be very interested to see if any user generated levels really include RPG choices.

Expectations are curse in this case. If I had not played any of the pervious games in the series, I would be raving about this game. To finish with the best thing I can say about a game: I downloaded DROD PRG at 9pm on night and played it for 6 hours straight, on a school night. I was paying the price at work the next day.

Browser Games 11

2008-09-22T20:56:00.000-07:00

Time for yet another trio of browser based logic/puzzle games. All three of these games are based on a simple idea, but nicely expanded out to an interesting game. The best puzzle games have the simplest rule set. The only downside to browser based games is that you have to put up with some ads.

Light-Bot

Light-Bot is a simple programming game. The goal is to have the robot visit each blue square and turn on his light. You have to write a method (ah, these object oriented kids) for the robot which achieves this. To write this program, sorry method, you drag tiles which command the robot to move forward, turn left, turn right, jump, or toggle the light. The main method contains space for only 12 commands. The interesting twist is that you also have two functions which can contain up to 8 commands. You can then call those functions from the main command. You can also have one function call the other and even recursively call itself.

Shift

At first glance, Shift is just a platform game: jump over the spikes, get the key, and find your way to the exit. All true, but it have one twist. With one strike of the shift key, black becomes white and up becomes down. The whole games turns over. The implications are hard to understand at first. Even after completing all of the levels, I am not sure I fully understand this one.

Contour

Get the ball to the white exit tile. Your only tool: you can raise and lower the ground. Like any good ball, it rolls downhill. You can even get it roll faster raising more ground behind it. Throw in the usual arrows, teleporters, accelerate tiles, decelerate tiles, jump tiles and that is the game. Some levels require careful timing. Also, the ball can get stuck against a wall if you not careful. There is a large number of levels available which can be played in any order. Many levels are quite difficult.

Karoshi

2008-09-14T21:22:00.000-07:00

Title: Karoshi
Author: Jesse Venbrux
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.yoyogames.com/games/show/27431

I recently saw a list of "The Best Indie Game You (N)ever Played". One game on the list is the platform/puzzler Karoshi 2, and I realized that I have never reviewed it or its predecessor. It is time to correct this oversight.

Karoshi is the Japanese word for "death from overwork." This is a apt title the game. The goal in most platform/puzzlers is safely get to the exit. The puzzle is figuring out how to do this, hit the switch, collect the key, etc, etc. Karoshi turns this this genre on its head. The goal is figure out a way to kill yourself.

There are lots of different ways to kill yourself in Karoshi. You can fall on spikes. You can orchestrate to have a box fall you. My favorite, you can electrocute yourself.

Karoshi follows the usual conventions for platform games: boxes to push, switches to activate, gravity causes everything to fall, jumping. But there are many things which you have to discover on your own. This is really the fun part. In the level pictured above, you have to figure out that those yellow lines are electricity and boxes are conductive. In the end, everything is logical, but you have think outside the box every now and then, play experiment, have fun. There are a couple of great "ah ha" momenets in this game.

There are 26 levels plus a "boss" level. The levels are varied, and the design is very good. The levels unfortunately have to be solved in order. This can a little annoying when you do not see the trick and that ah ha moment is still a ways off.

The graphics and audio are simple, nothing special, but fine for the game. The controls can at times be annoying if you have to jump and fire your gun at just the right time. There is one level were I had to jump above the top of viewable area and as I was coming down, fire at just the right time. I still wonder if there was a better way to complete that level. Hmm...

There is an odd psychological aspect to the game. We are trained to survive. Years of playing such game has hard coded in my brain that you avoid spikes. It took me a while to switch my thinking to finding ways to kill myself. Ultimately this is what makes Karoshi a great game. Sadly, it is also what makes Karoshi 2 less of a game. It has better graphics, audio, and a nicer interface. But, it lacked the wonder and newness of the original. The levels in the original are more inventive.

Both are free and well worth playing.

iPhone Apps

2008-08-18T18:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, I know this supposed to be a blog on PC games. But for the last month and a half, I have been playing logic/puzzle games on my iPhone. These games are a great way to kill a few minutes, and the iPhone is a convenient platform. You can get a level or two in anytime or anywhere. Also, the iPhone allows for simple intuitive interfaces.

Here are five games for the iPhone, ordered from great to good. One interesting thing is that many of them are ports from PC versions which I have already reviewed.

Masyu

This is my favorite iPhone game so far. Masyu falls into the class of so called Japanese puzzles. The goal is to form a loop which goes straight at each white circle and makes a turn at each black square. There are some additional constraints so read the instructions. This is my favorite game so far. There are 60 puzzles, they are great, and I wish there were more. There were even two puzzles which I thought were impossible. I highest complement possible for any level designer.

Enigmo

I had previously reviewed the PC version of Enigmo. The port to the iPhone is very faithful. I have not played all of the levels, but it plays very similar to the original. The iPhone interface is perfect and has made this one of the most popular downloads at the apps store. Add to that, the graphics and audio are top notch.

CubicMan

This is a Bloxorz clone. You have to roll a 2x1x1 object to the target tile. They add a couple of twists. For example, there are triggers which raise other tiles allowing passage to the target. The puzzles are good, but you have to complete them in order.

The interface on CubicMan is odd. You zoom by touching the the screen with 2 or 3 fingers. I can never remember which is zoom in and which is zoom out. Panning is similary odd. It makes playing the game difficult. With a better interface, say use the accelerometers to rotate and pinch to zoom, this could have been a great game.

Lumen

Lumen is a puzzle game in the class of Aargon Deluxe and Chromatron. I played the demo version of PC version of Lumen a while back, but did not think it was worth $10. However for $2, I was willing to try the iPhone version. I was underwhelmed with this version. First, the iPhone port supports only 7x7 boards. Second, the colors are hard to make out which can be annoying with games of this nature. Still there are ton of good puzzles available.

PuzzleManiak

PuzzleManiak has ported many of Simon Tatham's Puzzle Collection to the iPhone. Simon Tatham is not directly involved and is not getting any of the money from sales of these games. In a quick email exchange, Simon indicated that this is allowed by the MIT License under which he released his collection, and he does not seemed bothered by it. To be fair, PuzzleManiak gives him credit for the writing the "game engine" on the about screen. However, they did not include a copy of the license as required.

I have only purchased two games from the collection: Galaxies and Unequal. Both are very good ports. PuzzleManiak added a couple of nice features to both game. One being a daily web challenge. Your score on the daily puzzle can be uploaded, and you can see just how good you are. I am not very good at either game.

Magicor

2008-08-10T21:53:00.000-07:00

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.

BUKU Sudoku

2008-08-03T21:15:00.000-07:00

Title: Buku Sudoku
Author: Merscom
License: Commercial
Website: http://bukusudoku360.com/

A couple months ago, Merscom released a version of their sudoku game for Xbox Live. As part of their PR campaign for this release, they contacted everyone under the sun to get the word out. We grass root bloggers are the best advertising possible, you know! They even contacted me. I don't even own a Xbox or Xbox 360, but that did not stop them. They suggested a little interview. I agreed, what the hell.

Not owning an Xbox and having never used Xbox Live, I cannot review this new version of Buku Sudoku. Here is one review. I have played the PC version. It is part of Buku Brain Blast along with a kakuro and mahjongg game which I grabbed out of the bargain bin one day for $10. An aside: I like the Buku Kakuro. I do not know of a good freeware version of kakuro. If you are a kakuro fan, Buku Brain Blast might be worth $10.

My favorite sudoku is Simple Sudoku. Overall, it is a better game than Buku Sudoku, but Buku does offer a couple of interesting features. One is that it supports larger sizes. In particular, it has 12x12 and 16x16 size sudoku problems. The Xbox version adds additional new features including cooperative play. This could result some intriguing new twists to puzzle games. I am not sure exactly sure where this might end up and am curious.

On to the interview. I passed few questions on to Ben Moy, one of the primary developers of
Buku Soduko. Here are my questions and his answers.

Q: Toughest question first. Why should someone pay $6.99 for the PC version of Buku Sudoku when there are many fine freeware sudoku programs such as Simple Sudoku available?

A: We created Buku Sudoku to cater to the market that demands crisp visuals, lots of game options, and endless puzzle boards. Through the Puzzle ID, It's easy to email or verbally send puzzles to friends and family. There are multiple control schemes that fit different levels of mouse or keyboard familiarity. Players choose between three themes, and each has the option to use corresponding shapes instead of numbers. Finally, all these options work well with the 5 different puzzle sizes to offer all ages something to fit the Sudoku experience they are looking for every time they sit down. These are some of the perks you just can't find in freeware games. Also, please keep in mind that the PC product came out over two years ago, and options were much more limited then.

Q: Are any of the interactive features in the XBox Live version going to be ported to the PC version?

A: This is something we would like to offer PC players as well, being able to include HD graphics, the many highly configurable interfaces, the ambient and active animations, fun music, co-op couch and internet multiplayer, the ability to use various USB controllers (in one handed configurations as well) and other features we were able to bring to the Xbox 360. This coming out will depend on a few things, like the launch of Microsoft's PC Arcade and Buku Sudoku Xbox LIVE reception.

Q: Buku Sudoku generates puzzles in three difficulty levels. Can you give some insight on how this is done?

A: Rather than remove or add givens which I've seen various books and software Sudoku offerings do, we analyze puzzles upon generation to be minimally solvable by various technique groupings.

Q: Buku Sudoku generates 12x12 and 16x16 puzzles. It is known that solving large sudoku puzzes is in general NP-complete. Do you have any quantitative data, such as search tree size or average solution time, for these larger sizes? How much harder are they?

A: We lean to the easier side on these, with the average user spending an hour or so to solve. These grid sizes have the potential to be very difficult, but it's more a slight exercise in memory expansion in Buku Sudoku to maintain accessibility.

Q: Any thoughts on generating puzzles with irregular shapes instead of the usual 3x3 blocks? I think these often go by the name Logi-n for various sizes of n.

A: We have non 3x3 blocks in both the PC and Xbox LIVE This is one thing I've wanted to do from the start of doing Sudoku games, and from having areas where users could create their own puzzles. Allowing border and rule changes would be a lot of fun. Similar to PC, XBLA offers updates and content packs that could make these a reality. I also like some of the variations with symmetry and diagonals in their initial layouts or solutions.

Halma

2008-07-29T22:34:00.000-07:00

Title: Halma
Author: Julian Bury
License: Freeware (donation requested)
Website: http://games.julianbury.com/Halma.htm

Halma is strategy game for 2 to 4 players. If you familiar with Chinese Checkers, Halma is Chinese Checkers played on a square grid instead a hexagonal grid. If not, the objective of Halma is get all of your pieces to other side the board before your opponents do. Each turn, you can move one of your pieces to any empty neighboring square. Better, you can pick a piece and start series of jumps. These jumps can be orthogonal or diagonal. The jumped pieces can be either your or an opponents. So long as the next square is open, you can keep jumping.

The secret of the game is to organize your pieces so that you can make a series of long jumps. Thus minimizing the number of turns needed to get from A to B. With a little experience, you start to notice the patterns which allow for long jumps. The real depth comes from noticing and blocking your opponents' long jump paths.

This version of Halma is sweet and simple. The interface with perfect. Click on the piece you want to move. The possible end positions are displayed. Finish your move by clicking on the end position. You can play with any combination of human and computer opponents.

The biggest disappointment with this game is the computer AI. I had never played Halma before downloading this game and almost won my first game. I have won every game since. Still, I have enjoyed playing against the computer, learning good configurations for allowing long jump sequences.

There is a Halma module in Zillions of Games. It plays a much better game, but I do not like interface nearly as much. Also, it supports only the two player version.

Skyscraper

2008-06-28T09:20:00.000-07:00

Title: Skyscraper
Author: James Smith (me)
License: Creative Commons
Website: http://jmsmith.110mb.com/sky.pdf

Recently, cynthia posted a comment to an old entry on Japanese Puzzles asking,

do you know, where i can found the printable version for japanese puzzle?

As It happens I have been working on a set of skyscraper puzzles. For reasons I do not understand, I really like these puzzles, but they are hard to find. So, I wrote a program to generate them. The program produced a TeX document which resulted in the pdf document linked to above. You can download it and print it out.

In a skyscraper puzzle, you have to fill each square with an integer from 1 to n where n is the size of the puzzle. No number many appear twice in any row or column. The numbers along the edge of the puzzle give additional constraints. They indicate the number of buildings which you would see from that direction if the row or column was converted in a series of skyscrapers with heights equal to the entries. For example, consider the row 1, 4, 5, 2, 3.

From the left, buildings 1, 4, and 5 are visible. So, the clue would be 3. From the right, buildings 3 and 5 are visible giving a clue of 2. Here is a completed puzzle.

There are 100 puzzles ranging from 4 by 4 to 7 by 7. I have assigned a one, two, or three star difficulty to each. This is only a rough guide. Have fun.

To further answer cynthia's question, the site http://www.sudoku-puzzles.net/ provides printable puzzles for several puzzle types:

That should be enough for most people.

Rant: Game Reviews

2008-06-14T10:55:00.000-07:00

An interesting news story made the rounds last week. It concerned Electronic Gaming Monthly choosing to not review the prerelease version of Metal Gear Solid 4 due to the excessive limitations imposed by the publisher. The sequence of events does something like this. The review magazines want to get the reviews out about the same time that the game is released. To do this, they need access to a prerelease version. The lead time on publishing most magazines is over a month. In order to gain access, the magazines have to agree to certain limitations. But this time, in this case, the limitations were too severe. Thus the story.

First, a little background on me. Before turning into the cranky old man that I am today, I was once, like 15 years ago, a hardcore PC gamer. And I loved my gaming magazines. Do you remember those four page reviews in Computer Gaming World with more words than pictures? I used to devour those magazines. I used to buy the British version of PC Gamer for a different perspective. I ate it all up. I was so naive.

In reading various accounts of the EGM/MGS4 story and related forum posts, I noticed that no one seemed bothered by the fact that there are ever limitations imposed on the reviewers. Everyone seemed to praise EGM for making a disciplined stand here. All I could think, how could they ever agree to any limitations on any review in the first place. Every review in EGM is now tainted. At the very least they should disclose the limitations at the beginning of the review.

Every game review magazine does this, and they have been doing it for a long time. So, it is unfair for me to single out EGM. Worse, my beloved Computer Gaming World became Games for Windows few years ago and was jointly published by Microsoft. Basically, it became a PR rag for Microsoft and people stopped buying it. The print version died in April of this year. No one shed a tear.

For me, the end of game review magazines came with the PC Gamer review of Diablo 2. The reviewers were only allowed to play the prerelease version at Blizzard's site on Blizzard's computers. They gave it a great review. When the game was actually released. It was buggy. The usual stuff: it would not work with certain video cards, etc. I, and many other people, happen to have one of those cards. It was very standard video card, but I cannot remember which one. At that point, PC Gamer became worthless to me. I quickly canceled by subscription. They forgot who their customer was.

In the end, Blizzard patched Diablo 2, and the patched version is a great game. But the game I purchased would not run on my computer, making it one poor game. PC Gamer took some flack but did not make any real changes.

My other big complaint about the reviews was the lack of information on copy protection. They would have the occasionally have a story about how annoying copy protection is or a fluff piece on the evils of StarForce. But, what they would not do is just list in the info box for each game, along with how much disk space it needs, the method of copy protection. That would have been great for us, but would have pissed off their masters. Once again, they forgot who their customer was.

The lack of objective reviews has really hurt the PC gaming industry. As much as car makers might grouse about a bad review in Consumer Reports, they know that having informed consumers actually helps their industry. Customers feel more confident that they are making the right purchase and thus make more purchases. PC game publisher's failed to understand this.

Maybe I am just bitter that puzzle and logic game fell out of favor.

Next Element

2008-06-08T09:29:00.000-07:00

Title: Next Element
Author: Zielock Games
License: Freeware (donation requested)
Website: http://www.zielok.com/?action=onegame&game=next_element

Next Element is similar to Hex-a-hop and MASRDBE. It is not as good as the former, but better than the later. The object is to find a path from the start tile to the goal tile which passes through each of the numbered tiles that many times. There are two additional twists. First, the arrow tiles can only be entered from the tail of the arrow and exited in the direction of the arrow head. Second, there are teleporter tiles which jump you to another part of the board. An oddity of the rules is that these special tiles can only be used once, but you do not have to use them to complete a level.

There 30 levels which must be played in order. The level design is decent. Most of the levels are easy, but there are a few tricky ones. One key features is an unlimited (I think) undo feature. One minor misstep does not require a restart of the level, just hit 'u'.

The interface for Next Element is straight-forward, use the arrow keys. The graphics are simple but effective. I found the audio a bit annoying and turned it off . These is not much else to say. It is a fun freeware game worth playing if you like these sort of puzzles.

There is no level editor. If you make a donation to Zielok Games, they will allow you download Next Element Deluxe which contains 80 levels.

As I mentioned in my entry on MASRDBE, solving these puzzles comes down to finding a Hamilton path in a certaom graph. In any position, there are at most four ways to move and usually far fewer. Also, it is pretty easy to notice when things have gone bad. For example, the remaining tiles are disconnected, or there is a dead end. So, I am guessing that a depth-first search should do really well on these problems. Maybe a meet-in-the-middle search is needed for some problems. I am curious if a computer search could find some really tough puzzles. I am sure, as the size of the board increases, the problems become exponentially hard, but with 10 minutes thought I could not see a proof that they are NP-complete.

Nimuh

2008-05-30T20:29:00.000-07:00

Title: Nimuh
Author: Canino Studios
License: Creative Commons
Website: http://www.nimuh.com/

Nimuh is one of the oddest games which I have played in a while. The game play is not that unusual; I get to the puzzles below. What is odd is that the game is sort of a promotion for the autonomous community Andalusia in southern Spain. But not in a bad way. Between levels, the history, sights, and food of various cites and provinces of Andalusia is presented in a monitor. Below is one of the screens for Huelva. I could not help but read it. I do not know if this game was funded by the tourist board of Andalusia. If it was, it is a brilliant form of advertisement.

In some ways the puzzles are less interesting than the cultural information. You play the roll of an alien crashed landed on earth. You have to avoid capture by the evil human scientists. The goal of each level it make it to the exit without being caught by the humans. Each turn you move one square, then the humans move. There are three types of humans; each with different movement rules. The key to the game is understanding how the humans move, enticing them into a corner or other trap, and then making your way past them to the exit. The basic human movement algorithm is that they move towards you. Some move one square per turn, others two squares per turn. You have to learn whether they move horizontally or vertically first. However, the humans are not real smart. If there is wall in the way, they will just sit there. Also, if they run into each other, one will destroy the other.

As always, there some additions items. There are trays of food. If a human stumbles upon a tray, they will start eating for some number of turns and not notice as you slip by them. Leading hungry humans to food is good tactic. Ninuh also contains locked gates and keys to unlock them. The old standard teleporter is presented. The final item is special grate tiles which only humans can walk across. If you walk onto one, you are captured.

The production qualities in Nimuh are very high. The graphics, audio, controls, menus, and help are very professionally done. My only complaint is that the isometric view sometimes obscures some tiles making it hard to click on them. I did find one bug: if you minimize the game, it will not reopen when you click on the task bar. You have to use the Task Manager to kill it.

Unfortunately, the quality of the puzzles is not great. They are ok, but not as good as the rest of the game. There are 40 levels which must be completed in order. They get repetitive, but I found myself wanting to complete them just to read more about Andalusia. The rules of the Nimuh just are not deep or dynamic enough to give rise to any great puzzles. That is damning thing to say, but I still encourage people to download and play Nimuh. It is free after all.

There is a nice level editor, but no additional levels on their website.

Quadrax IV

2008-05-18T09:59:00.000-07:00

Title: Quadrax IV
Author: Jozef Kreutzer
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.quadrax4.wz.cz/

Quadrax IV should have been a great game. Unfortunately, it is marred by several small but critically bad design choices. The first, and most deadly, is the using of passcodes to keep track of a user's progress. You have to write these down as you complete levels. When you return to game later, you have enter a code. Additionally, the passcodes are machine dependent. I had the additional unfortunate mishap of retiring the computer on which I had completed first 60 or so levels. My carefully recorded passcodes were worthless on my new computer. I did not actually have the energy to redo those levels. I did resolve a couple of levels for a screen shot.

Before mentioning other flaws, let me quickly describe the game. Quadrax IV is a simple game. The goal of each level is to get both characters to the exit. Each character can move about, but being two spaces high they cannot fix through a one high space. They can climb up on ledges and stones if not too high (one or two spaces). They can jump down off ledges if not too far (three or fewer spaces). The characters can also push certain stones around.

There are special tiles which can only be walked over or under once. There are elevators. There are switches to throw. There are caves which teleport you to another cave. I am probably forgetting something. The rules are simple, and there are in game help messages to explain new items as they arise. The key to most levels is getting the characters to work together.

The interface is simple, arrows, tab to switch characters, space to throw switches and enter caves. One oddity, if you want to climb up a ledge or block, you have to press both the up arrow along with either the left or right arrow. One problem, if you press the left arrow first, even a split second sooner, you might end up pushing a block instead up climbing up on the block. So, be sure to press the up arrow first, then hit left or right. A minor flaw.

A bigger flaw is the effect of caves and switches. When a level first appears up, you cannot tell to where a cave will teleport you. Similar with switches, you do not know just by looking at the level what they do. This results in unnecessary trial and error. This is very frustrating and exasperated by a lack of undos and saves.

Quadrax IV contains 90 levels. I only completed about two thirds of them before my new computer problem. The levels which are not frustrating trial and error are quite good. The level design on those is very good.

The artwork and audio in Quadrax IV are great. Combined with good level design, this should have been a great game. Very sad.

Browser Games 10

2008-04-24T20:31:00.000-07:00

This is my tenth entry on browser based puzzle games. The best new puzzle games seem to be coming out more and more in this format. These flash based games lend themselves to simple interfaces, simple graphics, simple audio, and good puzzles. All it takes is a good idea for a puzzle game and a game designer/programmer can have a good game up and running in no time.

The downside to these games is the ads. To monetize these games, sites embed ads at the beginning of game while it is "loading" and around them on the web page. Some of these sites are quite garish. The web page ads can be dealt with using adblock plus, but you have to put up with the in game ads.

I do not really understand the economics behind this industry. The same game will appear at several sites with different ads. My understanding is that flash gaming sites such as addicting games and miniclip.com pay little or no money for non-exclusive use of a game. The sad part is that designer/programmer do not get much money. Of course, these sites probably are not a making a fortune either.

The other downside is that it easy to make flash based games. For every good game, there are several bad ones. Here are three good ones.

Puzzle Boy

This game is similar to Crazy Boxes. The goal is to get to the exit. Blocking the way are holes and turnstiles. The turnstiles pivot when pushed so long as nothing is blocking them. The holes can be filled using the yellow boxes which can pushed around sokoban-style. There are 30 levels which are divided into easy, medium, and hard. The levels are well designed and well paced.

Open Doors

Again, the goal is to get the exit. You are the square; the exit is the x. The doors move according the circular arcs similar to an architect's blueprint. You can open doors by pushing on them (walking into them). The twist is that you can also close doors behind you. The mechanics of closing doors takes a little getting used to. Whenever to step from square to another which share a pivot point and the door for that pivot point was next you, but not blocking the path you travelled, then you will pull the door behind you. There are 25 levels. After you get used to the mechanics of opening and closing doors, they are not too hard. But, that is not a complaint. This game shows how one simple idea results in great game which I really enjoyed playing.

Magneboy

Once again, get to the exit (the checkered tile). There are several special tiles. The simplest are the blue tiles. If you have clear shot to one, you can use your magnetic powers (i.e. hit the space bar) and be teleported there. Next up are the purple tiles which you pull towards you character to form bridges. In total, there are 50 puzzles which much complete in order. Every couple of levels a new tile type is introduced. Stepping on a question mark tile gives a brief description of the new tile. Later opposing robots are introduced which require some quick finger work and distract from the game. I wish I could have skipped those levels, but there are some good puzzles in here which make up for them.

Chouffy

2008-04-19T13:49:00.000-07:00

Title: Chouffy
Author: Zoglu Productions
License: Freeware
Website: http://zoglu.hostarea.org/

I found Chouffy while scanning through the puzzle games at Caiman Free Games. It is a simple puzzler. The goal is to get all the little red guys to the exit (yellow circle) while avoiding the purple baddies. You also have to make sure that none of the bad guys gets to the exit first.

Each character heads straight until it hits a wall. If it is a dead end, it turns around. If it is a corner, it turns. If both directions are available, it turns right. You can override these rules by placing the green arrows on the board.

Both the red and purple characters will follow those arrows. Your job is to place the arrows so that the red guys make it to the exit. On most levels, you also have use some of the arrows to direct the bad purple guys out of the way. However, the arrows are a scarce resource, choose wisely.

The mechanics are pretty simple, click to place arrows. Once you are ready, hit the space bar and watch. Hold down the space bar to speed things up. If you see things are not going your way, right click to stop the action and return to editing.

The biggest flaw with Chouffy is that the red and purple characters move at different speeds. Most levels cannot be solved with thinking alone. You have to try something, run it, see where things are wrong, change things a little, repeat. It is not very satisfying.

There are only 30 levels. The level design is uninspired, but I still enjoyed working through them. At any time, only the next three levels are available. So, you can skip one or two hard ones. If you really get stuck, the solutions to all of the levels are available on the Caiman page for Chouffy.

One trick is that you can use an arrow to turn guys into a wall. They will then "turn right" upon hitting the wall. In effect, they will turn around. This is quite useful.

Chouffy is similar to my Puzzle Bunnies. I know that I am biased, but ... the puzzles in Puzzle Bunnies are better, much better. I will grant that Chouffy has better graphics and audio. Still puzzle games are about the puzzles.

Hoyle Puzzle & Board Games

2008-04-11T17:14:00.000-07:00

Title: Hoyle Puzzle & Board Games
Publisher: Encore
License: Commercial
Website: http://www.encoreusa.com/product.aspx?ProductID=79564

Every year or two, Encore comes out with a compendium of games under the title Hoyle Puzzle & Board Games. It is huge collection of puzzle, logic, board, and word games. Each version adds a few new items. The big add in the 2008 version is The Incredible Machine. If you have not played TIM, this one alone is worth the price of the collection.

A word of warning to Mac users. On the box, it claims to have both a Windows and Mac version. However, a few games, TIM being one of them, only come with the Windows version.

This is a well done collection. Each game has simple but pleasant and effective graphics. The interface is well done. The audio and music is well done. There is an interface to create an avatar for yourself, and the opposing computer players have a bit of personality which you can turn off. The whole package has a professional look and feel to it.

I have played previous versions on my travel laptop for years. They had always a good way to kill a few in flight hours. Sadly, the Windows version of the 2008 version requires the DVD to be in the drive in order to play. This limits the collection appear. The Mac version does not require the DVD.

A new fun twist is the 2008 edition is "Hoyle Bucks". By winning games and completing levels, you earn Hoyle Bucks. You can then spend this hard earned money to buy additional features such as different background music.

One interface flaw in the collection is the lack of in game help. When you click on help, the program minimizes and brings up a 138 page pdf file. You then have to hunt through to find help for the game you are currently playing.

Here is a quick run through the games included in the collection. For some games, due to trademark and other legal issues, Hoyle uses a different name. I am going to use the common name such as Scrabble instead of their name Wordox.

Board Games: Backgammon, Checkers, Chess, Chinese Checkers, Othello.

Nothing special here. The quality of play is quite low, but still probably challenging for kids learning the games. Adults should stick to Zillions of Games.

Logic Games: MasterMind, Sudoku, Mahjong, Blackbox.

The basics, again nothing special. Better version of each are available elsewhere, but it is still to have them. I hope some day someone would a include a version of Grand MasterMind.

Family Games: Battle Ship, Dominoes, 2 Maze games, Parcheesi, Yahtzee, Sorry, Rummy Squares.

Computer versions of some standard family board games are included along with computer opponents. Some of these I haven't see computer versions of else where.

Word Games: Anagrams, Crosswords, Hangman, Word Search, Scrabble.

The collection of crossword puzzles is quite nice. The puzzles were taken from Dell Magazine. They are pretty easy, and give a nice little ego boost to logophobes like me.

Time Wasters: Tetris, Solitaire.

Like you need more time wasters.

Others: The Incredible Machine, Pool, Runes of Avalon

These are new in 2008 version. TIM is a puzzle game classic. It is one of the best games I have ever played. I enjoyed playing it again here. Pool is a simple virtual pool game. It is not bad. Runes of Avalon is odd mix of match 3 and role playing. I would put it in the same genre as Puzzle Quest not nearly as good.

Blackbox

2008-03-29T10:31:00.000-07:00

I was introduced to Blackbox as an undergraduate many years ago. After exhausting the patience of my roommate, I wrote a computer version. Ah... Turbo Pascal. I spent a lot more time playing the game than I would like to admit. Recently, I decided to see what Blackbox games were available, and here are my findings.

In case you are not familiar with Blackbox, the goal is to deduce the position of four atoms inside an 8x8 grid (or blackbox). You can probe the blackbox by sending in particles at any of the 32 sides and seeing where or if they emerge. The rules for how the probe particles are effected by the atoms is given in the wikipedia article mentioned above. The fewer probe particles used the better.

In the original game, the scoring was one point for any probe particle that reflected or absorbed, two points for a probe particle that emerged elsewhere, and five points for any wrongly placed atom. The fewer points the better. The interesting aspect is that it often pays to guess were where that last atom is located, rather than waste a bunch of probes. Or, try to choose probes which will either be reflected or absorbed.

Web Based

This is a very faithful recreation of the original game. It plays right in your web browser using Macromedia Flash. One feature which I like is that you can click on squares to mark them. This allows you to mark excluded spots for atoms.

Simon Tatham's Portable Puzzle Collection

A stand alone Blackbox program for both the PC and Mac. Again, a faithful recreation of the original. You can also choose different sizes and number of atoms. He also includes a variant were the number of atoms varies. Now where is that last one?

Emacs

There is an implementation of Blackbox built into emacs. M-x blackbox and start playing. Does this mean that any work place that forbids games on the computers has to uninstall emacs?

Aargon Blackbox

This is a combination of Blackbox and Aargon. Instead of atoms, the blackbox is filled with mirrors and other optical items. Instead of probe particles, you send in laser light and have to deduce what is in there based on where the light comes out and what color it is. Randomly placed objects in the blackbox would be too hard to deduce. So, the designers of the game made up levels. I purchased Aargon Blackbox and will review it when I am done.

Pathstorm

This is commercial game loosely based on Blackbox. Instead of atoms, there are hidden bumpers. One odd thing is that you can hear the internal bounces. This gives you way too much information. I played the demo and did not care for it much, but it received high marks from Game Tunnel and James Allen.

Black Cube

If you are a Mac user, there is a 3-dimensional version of Blackbox. The rules are more complicated; at certain points the probe particles can split. It is a deeper game than the 2-D version, but I do not think it is a better version. It also includes the 2-D version.

Black Box+

Recently, a new variant of BlackBox was released. Here the game is played on a hexagonal board. It seems like a good idea, but I have not played the game, so I cannot be sure.

Happy probing.

Crazy Boxes

2008-03-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

Title: Crazy Boxes
Author: Josef Stöckl
License: Freeware (version 1)/Commercial (version 2)
Website: http://www.crazybytes.at/indexE.htm

Back in November, an anonymous comment pointed me to Crazy Bytes. It is the homepage of computer/programming enthusiast who loves writing computer games. The older ones, he gives away for free, while he tries to make a dollar or two on the newer ones. I had never wondered across this site before. It contains 19 games; many of which are puzzle/logic games. I have been playing through the games and will report on the ones I like, starting this week with Crazy Boxes.

At first blush, Crazy Boxes is just a Sokoban clone, and the world does not need another Sokoban clone. Trust me, we don't. But, if you give the game a couple of minutes, you will see that this variant adds a couple of twists which give rise to some good puzzles.

As in Sokoban the goal is to push all the yellow crates to the target areas. Crazy Boxes adds three new twists. First there can be red crates. These do not have to be moved at any particular place; they simply get in the way. Then there are water holes. Neither the yellow crates nor your character can enter the water holes. But now there is a use for those red crates. They can be used to fill water holes by pushing them into the water. This allows your character and the yellow crates to pass. Finally, there are turnstiles which rotate about their pivot point when pushed by your character, assuming that nothing is blocking them.

There are 163 levels. I did not count, but I would estimate that about one in five levels straight Sokoban levels. The other 80 percent contain one or more of the new items. It is amazing how just a few extra items, well used, really breathes some life into Sokoban. The levels on the whole were very good, but not well paced. Some of the later levels were quite easy.

There are several annoying interface decisions in Crazy Boxes. First, you have to play the levels in order. It turns out that this is easy to fix with a little register editing. Usual warnings: if you do not know what you are doing, stop now, do not use regedit, deal with the flaw in the game. If you do know what you are doing, backup your registry first. When the key HKCU\Software\CrazyGames\CrazyBoxes\V1\common\high is set to DHH, Crazy Boxes thinks that all of the levels have been completed. Now using the "One Level Forward" arrow, you can skip any annoying level. I skipped the all levels which did not feature one of the Crazy Boxes specific objects.

Annoying feature number two is that there a scrolling text ad banner at the bottom of the game. This would normally be a deal breaker for me, but luckily, it is just text. Open the executable in your favorite hex editor, search for the scrolling text, and make it all spaces. All gone.

The last annoying feature that there is a click through copyright screen every time the game is launched and exited. Once when the game is installed is fine, but this is crazy. Actually, I am not sure if it a bad translation to English or a bit of a joke on the author's part, but the actual text states, "If you want to use the program, please disregard the following rules:" (my emphasis).
At the author's request, I decided to disregard the rules. I busted out OllyDbg, did a little poking about, and made the pop up screen go away. It was not hard. If you have never done any reverse engineering, this could be a fun project to start with.

The commercial version 2.0 adds better graphics and one new twist. Some levels contain two pushers which have to work together to get all the crates to their targets. There are about 60 levels in demo and over 300 in full version.

A slightly similar flash based game is Puzzle Boy, which a Kwirk remake.

Browser Games 9

2008-03-16T21:16:00.000-07:00

It is time for three more browser based puzzle games. All three games are played in a browser using Adobe Flash. Some of the best puzzle game ideas today are being published in this format. I have never developed a flash based game, but the tools are fairly easy to use. This makes it relatively easy to code up a game given a puzzle game idea.

Sola Rola

The goal is simple: get the red and blue balls to their respective homes (homes look like PC power switches). The problem is that your only tool is to rotate the board and allow gravity to do the rest. There are added complications: colored doors. Doors open temporary when one of the balls passes over the switch of the same color. The balls have to work together to achieve the goal. Other twists are added along the way. There are 48 levels which get progressively harder. There is also a fun little back story. A similar game is Circulate.

Kermix

Kermix is a platform puzzler. The goal is to use the red squares to collect all of the coins and get one red square to each of the yellow exit squares. The catch is that the red squares move in unison. Each turn, you can either roll both to the right, roll both to the left, or have both jump up three spaces. When jumping, the red squares can pass through certain platform tiles and land on the next level. There are a couple of odd rules which you will learn about as you work through the 25 levels. For example, when a red square roll into a yellow square which has already been used, it falls through. Later levels add additions red squares and get much harder.

Hex Vex

Hex Vex is a really simple puzzler. The goal is to move each colored piece to its target hex. Usual rules: once a piece starts moving, it does not stop until it hits the edge of the board or another piece. Completing most levels requires a little planning, having certain pieces block for others. There are only 18 levels, and none are too hard. It is fun while it lasts.

WBridge

2008-03-07T09:40:00.000-08:00

Title: WBridge
Author: Yves Costel
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.wbridge5.com/

Computer bridge programs are starting to come of age. Most top level programs play the cards using Monte Carlo methods. For dummy play, they simulate many random distributions for the opponent's 26 cards which are consistent with the bidding and then use a double-dummy engine to play each hand. The line of play which is successful against the most random deals is taken. This method yields some sharp card play, although not quite expert level.

For the bidding phase of the game, the programs often use flowcharts written by experts. If the programs get off their flowchart, things can go bad fast. The odd psyche bid can really throw them for a loop. However, when the programs have to make a decision such as whether to accept an invitation to game, they again use a Monte Carlo method to make the decision. The programs actually perform better than expert humans in these situations. I expect that by examining these simulations, humans will develop better heuristics for making decisions in invitational bidding situations.

There are several good bridge programs out there. I have logged many hours with GiB and Jack. These two have impressed me, a good flight B player in the ACBL. But both are a bit pricy. On the other hand, the winner of the the last world computer bridge championship is a freeware program called WBridge.

The biggest flaw with WBridge is that all of the menus are in French. There is a help file in English which is great, but the menus are only in French. It is actually easier and would be more helpful to translate the menu resource. There are free editors to do it! You can have it use English card symbols (AKQJ) instead of the French (ARDV). Language aside, this is a great program. I have not played it as much as some others, but believe it is as strong as GiB or Jack. It is certainly better than your average club player for whatever that is worth.

Above is a screen shot during the bidding. There are many helpful tools built into WBridge. One is the info button. With this turned on, the current knowledge of the other three players hand distributions and strengths based on the bidding so far is shown. Also if you hover over a bid, the meaning of that bid is shown. The default bidding system is 5-card majors with lots of gadgets. The meanings of the various bids were not translated from the French help file to the English one. So, it took me a little trial and error and a few disasters to figure things out.

In tournament mode, it replays the hands with computer playing your cards as well. By comparing, you can see how well you did. On this hand, due to substandard defense on my part, 3NT made with an over trick. At the other table, 3NT was defeated. The running state of the match in the lower left corner.

My only complaint about the interface in WBridge is that you need to hit the continue button at the beginning of the bidding and play. It seems like this should not be necessary. Maybe there is some menu entry to turn this off.

Will computer surpass humans at bridge? At on-line, impersonal bridge, of course computers will rule, maybe quite soon. At the table, it may take a while. A big part of bridge is the human interaction. Even at my level, noticing hesitations or that one defender paying more attention than the other is often key to making a hand. Computers cannot see these things.

The one area I expect/hope to improvement is in computer generated bidding systems. Using genetic/evolutionary computing techniques, I foresee computers developing far superior bidding systems and hand evaluation methods than humans use. Such systems will surely not be ACBL legal, but in more liberal tournaments computers could easily out pace us humans.

If you are interested in learning to play bridge, one nice site is Bridge7.

Chromatron

2008-03-01T11:50:00.000-08:00

Title: Chromatron
Author: Sean Barrett
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.silverspaceship.com/chromatron/

Sean Barrett and Silver Spaceshipt Software recently decided to make all four installments of the Chromatron series free. Previously, only the first version was free. They are still hoping that players will make a donation if they enjoy the game. This is wonderful news. I had played the first version long ago, and now am enjoying the other three.

Chromatron is a colored laser and mirror game similar to Aargon Deluxe. The object of each level to shine the correct color or combination of colors through each of the target pinwheels. To achieve this, you have to place the mirrors and other items in the correct positions with the right orientation. The mechanics of the game is straight forward. Each level comes with a collection of items in the box on the right. You drag them onto the grid. A left mouse click rotates the piece counter-clockwise. A right click rotates it clockwise. If you want to start over, the "R" key resets the board.

The level pictured above features several of the key game items. First the one way mirrors split the white light. Then the red, blue, and green filters let only one color through, white = red + blue + green. Finally, the well placed mirrors bounce the light towards the pinwheels. This level has all seven colors. The non-primary colored pinwheels require multiple lasers to pass through them, cyan = green + blue for example. For Aargon players, note that green and blue lasers do not have to combine on the same path.

There are several other items which you will learn about. Unfortunately, there is no manual fully explaining the effect of the various items. Instead, you have to learn as you go. I highly suggest starting with the first episode as the early levels form a tutorial. When an item appears for the first time, a brief message describing it is given.

Each of the four episodes contains 50 puzzles. You do not have to play the levels in order, but only certain levels are unlocked at any given time. As you complete levels, more get unlocked.

The level design in Chromatron is good. The first episode contains some challenges, but is not too hard especially if you familiar with Aargon. The other episodes have some good tough puzzles. Actually, I found the second installment to be hardest. Many levels have a nice a-ha moment to them. I only solved a few of the levels on my first try. Most, I had to work out the what the secret to the level. After a while, the levels do have a repetitive feel, but on the whole very good level design.

The other aspects of Chromatron are well done. The graphics are simple but sharp, clear, and effective. There is no sound which is fine. One really nice feature of the game is that is saves the partial solution on levels you have not finished when you exit.

My usual hint for these sort of games is too keep your eyes open for things arranged on diagonals. If you get stuck there is a forum.

One last note for Aargon players, Chromatron does not contain any TNT or the silly green goo monsters. Thank god.

I highly recommend playing this game and make a donation.

Plasma Pong

2008-02-23T07:30:00.000-08:00

Title: Plasma Pong
Author: Steve Taylor
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.plasmapong.com/

This is the last in my series of not really logic/puzzle games. I am old enough to have really played pong on a tv, and thought it was cool! There are tons of little web based pong clones, but few add anything fundamentally new to the game. Plasma Pong is different.

Plasma Pong adds a fluid dynamics element to the game. It is you versus the computer. Use your mouse to move the paddle up and down. Don't let the ball get past you. The added element is that the game is played in a liquid fluid and you can effect the fluid. With a left mouse click, you send a jet of fluid out from your paddle. With a right click, you suck in fluid. Both effect the motion of the ball.

As you score points against the computer, the rules of physics change. The effects of the fluid become more pronounced. It is subtle, but the game does becomes harder. Once computer scores on you ten times, the game is over. The goal is to see how many points you can score before that happens.

Plasma Pong has beautiful graphics and audio. It is a truly wonderful idea. The one problem is that Atari, the owner of the original pong, had them take down Plasma Pong. So, to get a copy you have to use your mad search skills.

Kumoon

2008-02-10T21:27:00.000-08:00

Title: Kumoon
Author: Mikko Oksalahti
License: Freeware
Website: http://mayoneez.1g.fi/kumoon/

This is the third in my series of not really puzzle/logic games. Kumoon is sort of a 3-D shooter with puzzle aspects. You control the baby chick armed with one of three weapons: revolver, shotgun, or grenade launcher. The goal of each level is simple: knock all of the red blocks down.

This is not a reflex game like Doom. Instead, you have to carefully plan each shot. There is a cost associated with using each weapon, but you gain points for red block that you knock down/move. In order to successfully complete a level, your net score must be positive.

Your goal is to maximize the effect of each shot. First, you need to learn the effect of each weapon. After you master that, you can work on knocking down several towers at once like dominoes. Then you might notice that several levels contain additional objects like balls and ramps. You can use your weapon to get the ball rolling and watch the damage. Finally, there is an additional bonus if you bounce your shot off the wall/ceiling before hitting the blocks.

There are 39 levels. Once you learn how to bounce shots off walls, it is not too hard to complete the levels. The real downer is that there is no save game feature. You have to work your way through the levels in one sitting. Every five levels there is a bonus level.

The graphics in Kumoon are simple but sharp and effective. It has great sound. Most importantly, the physics model is very believable. It also has professional polish. This does not feel like a freeware game. Go play it. Have fun.

Polarity

2008-01-27T23:50:00.000-08:00

Title: Polarity
Authors: Braham, Bryner, Iwaanowski, Rosenbaum, Shrivostava, Spiro, Theus
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.etc.cmu.edu/projects/igf/

Continuing my series on not quite puzzle/logic games, this week I am going to mention a great albeit very short platform game. Polarity starts out as a typical platform game: run, jump, tap switches, avoid the electrical fields. Usual platform stuff.

The catch is that your character has one of two colors, red or blue, and you attract things of the opposite color and repel objects of the same color. The heart of the game is that you control your color. If there is a blue stretch of ceiling, switch to red, jump and walk on the ceiling. At certain points in the game, you have to switch colors at just the right moment.

At other points in the game, you have to push balls around to activate switches. To push a ball away from you, switch to the same color as the color. To pull it towards you, switch to the opposite color. A little thinking and careful keyboard controls are needed.

The graphics and controls in Polarity are great. The biggest problem is that it is so short. You can easily get through the game in 20 minutes. You will definitely be wanting more. This is a student project, and I certainly hope that they are working on a full length game.

One oddity is that there is no save game. Given how short the game is, it is not a problem.

Puzzle Quest

2008-01-16T09:12:00.000-08:00

Title: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
Author: Infinite Interactive
License: Commercial
Website: http://www.infinite-interactive.com/puzzlequest/

I am going to start 2008 with a series of four or five entries on games which are not quite puzzle or logic games. These games contain some puzzle elements, but really fall into other genres. Several of these games fall into the dreaded (to me) casual game category. For the hardcore, go play DROD for a month.

WARNING: The PC version of Puzzle Quest does not run some computers. A Google search on "0xc0000142 Puzzle Quest" reveals some of the issues. It seems to be a problem with AMD64 processors. At least that is one conjecture in one forum, and was the case for me (0 for 1 on AMD64, 3 for 3 on Intel). I highly suggest that you download and test the demo .

RANT1: I could not find one main stream gaming review which mentioned this problem. You guys are not doing your job!

RANT2: I don't normally read the documentation which comes with a game. But, due to the inability to get Puzzle Quest running on my AMD64 box, I did read the insert. It contained the line "Windows XP/Vista requires that all programs get installed from an account with Administrator rights." That is a flat-out falsehood. I do not understand how game publishers get away with saying these things.

Ok, now on to the game. In a sentence, Puzzle Quest is Bejeweled with D&D style role-playing elements. Battles take the form of a bejeweled game. You swap neighboring items to form three or more in a row. When the swap forms three or more skulls, you damage your opponent reducing his/her life points. When you swap three or more colored coins, you gain mana of that color. Given enough mana of the appropriate types, you can cast spells. Some spells damage your opponent. Some give you some healing. Others effect the board.

In the usual role-playing format, Puzzle Quest consists of a series of quests. Most quests consist of battling some foe or another in one of the bejeweled battles. After completing the quests more of the map opens up and even tougher quests become available.

The battles and quests are only part of the game. Completing quests also gives experience which allows access to new spells and character customization. In other words, leveling up. This is the fun part. Do you put your new skill points into earth or fire magic? Should you buy a troll ring or build a forge? Which spells should you bring into a particular battle. Puzzle Quest is a surprisingly deep game. These choices do matter. With some experience, you will be outfitting your character to effectively battle particular opponents. Ultimately, Puzzle Quest has that addictive "with only 100 more gold, I can buy a ..." feel to it.

There is also a back story, undead in the north or something. It is fun the read the dialogue the first time through. Along the way, you will pick up companions and train mounts. There are some choices to make. Should return the king's daughter for an arranged marriage or set her free? Your choice here has only a small effect on the plot. It is not a branching plot. I am on my third time through with different character types and just skip the dialogue now. So far, I have set the king's daughter free twice and turned her in to get married once.

All end all, a very well thought out and executed game, assuming it will execute on your computer at all. The biggest flaw in the game is that you can only have one character at a time. Creating a new character deletes the old one.

2007 Game of the Year

2007-12-30T22:37:00.000-08:00

Game of the Year: Chocolate Castle

I have said it before, and I will say it again: puzzle games are all about the puzzles. The rules and mechanics of Chocolate Castle take only a few minutes to learn, but the depth, breath, and pacing of the puzzles in the game are amazing. The best way to appreciate Chocolate Castle to is play Jelly Blocks, a flash based game with similar rules but weak puzzles. Making good puzzles is hard, and this is what Chocolate Castle does well.

Runner-Up: Block 5

Block 5 is your basic collect the whatever (diamonds in this case) and get to the exit game with the usual assortment of items such as lasers, blocks, one way tiles, and teleporters. The reason it ends up in second place is not the novelty of its rule set, but the quality of its puzzles and its high production values. For a freeware game, the graphics and audio in Block 5 are amazing. There are also a large number of user made levels, always a sign of a good game.

Honorable Mention: DROD: The City Beneath

If it was not the sequel to DROD: JtRH, this would be my game of the year. It might be unfair to hold one game to a higher standard because it is a sequel, but there just was not enough new to push it to the top spot in my mind. That aside, DROD:TCB is a great game. It is also one tough go. This a hardcore puzzle game; the weak need not apply. I also really liked the, at times campy, voice acting.

Honorable Mention: Portal

It might seem odd that I only giving Portal an honorable mention when it is getting mentioned as a possible game of the year in some big gaming sites. But, playing through it again a few a days ago, it felt like a tutorial or sampler. It took me a hair under two hours to complete this time. When are we going to get the full game? At the very least, they should have included a level editor and an easy way to load levels. I sense that the next version will be amazing, and it is great to see main stream gamers raving about a puzzle game.

A look back to my previous Game of the Year posts:

2006 Game of the Year: Hex-a-hop

2005 Game of the Year: DROD: Journey to Rooted Hold

Dotty & Letty

2007-12-26T19:46:00.000-08:00

Title: Dotty & Letty
Author: Jussi Ernsten
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.puffi.cjb.net/

Caiman Free Games is one of the best gaming freeware sites; dare I say the best. The new games list at Caiman is a regular visit for me. That is were I first saw Dotty & Letty. It has since appeared in all the usual places. Dotty & Letty is a fun but flawed puzzle game which can be completed in an hour or two.

The object of each level is to remove all of the blocks from the board. Using the two ladybug looking characters, named Dotty and Letty, you push blocks around. When three or more blocks of the same color form a rook-wise connected group, they disappear. There are rules about which blocks can be pushed. The blocks with an X in them cannot be pushed. Blocks with a single slash in them can only push one at a time, sokoban style. Blocks with neither an X nor a slash can be pushed in groups.

A nice twist is the joker block. This multicolored block can be any color in forming a group. You have to be a little careful when pushing it around as you might accidentally form a group of another color in passing. One great feature of Dotty & Letty is an undo button (backspace) . This saves many a restart when such bonehead moves are made. One logical flaw in the game is when when a joker is pushed into a spot which simultaneously forms two groups of different colors, only one color disappears, and you cannot control which one.

You do control both Dotty and Letty, hit enter to toggle control. The interesting levels require that you coordinate their movement and placement. There are 25 levels in all which must be completed in order. The levels are not difficult, and the level design is on the whole uninspired. I would say about 5 of them, such as level 24 pictured above, are interesting. These five or so levels show that a great game with the Dotty & Letty rules and mechanics is possible. It is worth working through the dull ones to play the fun ones. A level editor would have been nice.

There are also diamonds to collect and a scoring system based on how many diamonds were collected and how few moves were made. The collecting of diamonds is optional, and the scoring system is silly because there are no par scores to shot for. Worse, the game does not record your best score on each level. So, I suggest you disregard the diamonds and scoring and just complete the levels.

Another problem with the game is that it occationally spikes the cpu and freezes for a second or two. Flaws aside, Dotty & Letty is fun, easy, and free.

DROD: The City Beneath

2007-12-18T18:41:00.000-08:00

Title: DROD: The City Beneath
Author: Caravel Games
License: Commercial
Website: http://www.caravelgames.com/Articles/Games_2/TCB.html

I normally do not review games which I have not finished. Well, I have made a few exceptions, such as Enigma and Laser Tank, which each contain over a thousand levels. But, this time I have to admit defeat. I have been playing Deadly Rooms of Death: The City Beneath (DROD:TCB), the latest version in the DROD series, on and off since it was released in the Spring, but have only completed about two thirds of it. I do not know if this version is really any harder than previous ones or if I am getting older and losing it. Doesn't matter, I have enjoyed playing the game, finished or not.

DROD is at its heart a very simple game. The goal is clear every room of various baddies with use of your sword. Each turn, you can move to one of the eight neighboring squares or swing your sward 45 degrees either clockwise or counter-clockwise. If a bad guy happens to fall victim to your sword, it dies. After you move, each bad guy moves. If one of them reaches you, you die. You keep taking turns until they get you or you get them.

The complications come in two forms. First, the movement rules for each baddie is different. The simple roaches simply move towards you. The queen roaches move a way from you and lay eggs which then hatch into roaches a few turns later. The second complication is the objects such as switches, doors, one way tiles, trap door tiles, and what not; there are too many to mention.

The combination leads to some very interesting and tough puzzles. Each room is essentially a self contained puzzle. In order to kill all of the monsters in room, you usually have to think about it carefully. If you die, you start the room over or at a save point. Once you defeat all of monsters in a room, usually a door opens allowing access to another part of the level. Once all of the rooms in a level have been completed, you can move on to the next level.

What is new in this version versus the previous ones? The biggest change is a story, scripting and voice acting. All three are very good for an Indie game. The graphics are a little bit better, but I actually thought the shading sometimes got in the way. There are also many new monsters and objects. Each level introduces a couple of new things and I never felt overwhelmed. Instead of listing them, have a look at the wikipedia entry for a DROD:TCB. Having not finished the game, there are a few things on the list which I have not seen in the game yet.

As with any puzzle game, it comes down to the puzzles. Here DROD:TCB scores well. The quality and diversity of the puzzles is excellent. Some puzzles are hard, I have to say. And you have to experiment with the new objects to understand their effect. You also have to deduce the movement rules for the monsters. Early on, I had a helper who explained things to me, but I accidentally killed her. Actually part of the fun of the game is figuring these things out for yourself.

Another wonderful feature of DROD is the DROD community. There is an impressive list of user generated Holds (a Hold is a collection of levels). Each hold is rated in both its difficulty and quality. This two dimensional rating system is great. Part of the reason that I have not finished the game is that I have spent too much time on the user made holds instead. Many are quite good. There is also a active forum for getting hints and discussing computer games in general.

DROD:TCB has an atmosphere that should not be missed by hardcore logic/puzzle fans. The only downside to the game is that the rooms often must be completed in sequence in order to move on. This caused me to put the game aside for a while. But always I returned. I am sorry I waited so long to review it. Buy it, play it, beat it. I will beat it someday, I hope.

Portal Revisited

2007-12-01T15:19:00.000-08:00

A month ago, I had an entry on Portal. I did not realize at the time how much traction this game would get in the mainstream media, well the mainstream PC computer media. It has gotten many positive reviews. Some examples are in GameSpy, IGN, ShackNews, and GameSpot. The Maximum PC podcast crew even mentioned Portal when talking about possible games of the year. More interestingly, Portal is getting attention outside the usual gaming sources. For example, John Dvorak has mentioned it on Cranky Geeks and TWiT. Ok, he mentioned how much fun his kids were having playing Portal.

Do these people know they are playing a puzzle game? It is great to see so many people enjoying a puzzle game. Over the last five or more years, puzzle games have been equated with casual games such as Bejeweled and Big Kahuna Reef. This has really hurt the puzzle game genre. The developers lost sight of the hardcore puzzle gamers leading to a dearth of such games in the usual distribution chains. The best thing about Portal is that it shows developers that there is money to be made in puzzle games.

My opinion of Portal has not changed, "Portal is a great idea, needs more levels, steam sucks." I have learned a couple of things about the game which I wanted to mention. Basically, I just wanted show my excitement that a hardcore puzzle game is getting some attention.

Steam

I am just not a fan of Steam with all its ads and DRM crap. The website consumerist.com has another example of the dark side of Steam. I realize I am a crank and no one else cares. Still, I have to say it.

Narbacular Drop

The development team at Valve that built Portal largely came from the group of DigiPen students that made Narbacular Drop. It is an impressive if flawed game. As you might guess, the basic idea is the same as Portal: get to the exit by forming portals in the walls, ground, etc. I remember playing it briefly when it was released. It had very dark graphics and was too easy to get suck. So, I did not give it much of a play. Luckily, someone at Valve looked past these flaws and saw the potential of the portal idea. Narbacular Drop is still available for free if you want to take it for a spin.

Levels

My main complaint about Portal is its length. I shot through the game about 10 hours. Admittedly, I did not replay the levels in difficult mode. That is a rookie way to make a puzzle game harder. Many players have spent 30 hours getting through the 17 levels even in basic mode.

I mentioned that a level editor was needed. Despite a lack of a built in editor, people have been generating levels on their own. One repository of these levels is http://www.portalmaps.net/. Now, to access these levels, you have to manually load them using the console. It is a cumbersome process and directories in the directions were not correct for me. Stick with it and you will have a bunch of new Portal challenges. Unfortunately, the quality of the levels at portalmaps.net varies. It would be nice if the levels were rated similar the rating for DROD holds.

To really take off, Portal needs a simple way to load maps. There is some information on how to make Portal levels on Steams development wiki. I really hope this encourages people to make their own levels. Time will tell.

Weighted Cube

The weighted companion cube which plays a special roll in the game has become a fan favorite. A template for paper model of the weighted cube can be obtained at PaperKraft.net and Jetlogs.org. There is even rumors of a plush toy version being available at Steam Store sometime soon. This would make for a nifty stocking stuffer for any Portal fan.

YHexoban

2007-11-26T21:12:00.000-08:00

Title: YHexoban
Author: George Petrov
License: freeware
Website: http://geocities.com/ygp_bg/hexoban.html

I only have time for a quick one this week. A couple of weeks ago ran across this page on hexoban. As the name suggests, hexoban is sokoban on a hexagonal grid. I have never been a huge fan of sokoban, but I did enjoy this variant, maybe even more than the original.

YHexoban is a great implementation of hexoban. Left click to move. Click on a ball and the possible target hexes for that ball will appear. Click on the hex to push the ball to that hex. Right click to undo. Multiple right clicks for multiple undos.

It comes with 5 level collections designed by different authors. There are 48 levels in total. Any level can be played at anytime. YHexoban keeps track of your progress. There are also 5 different skins. Be sure to read the ReadMe.txt.

The auto movement of the balls is really handy. It finds the optimal route to that hex. This saves a lot of tedious clicking. However, a couple of times, I wanted to take a suboptimal route so that my guy ended up in a different area. In those cases, I had to push one at a time. I wish I could also select the end hex for my guy.

Free, no bugs, fun. Unless you are morally opposed to sokoban, download and enjoy.

My favorite sokoban program for the PC is Sokoban YASC.

Block Manouveres

2007-11-17T16:39:00.000-08:00

Title: Block Manouveres
Author: CHEESEtwoK
License: Freeware
Website: http://members.aol.com/CHEESEtwoK/blocks.htm

I cannot explain why, but I love these little old games. Block Manouveres features crappy graphics and annoying music. The website is garish and decaying. But as with such games, it contains some good puzzles, and that is what draws me in.

Block Manouveres is your basic eat all the strawberries and blueberries and get to the exit game. The puzzles contain aspects from sokoban and blocks. The strawberries stay put ready to be eaten. The blueberries bounce about randomly. You have to track them down. Once all of the berries have been eaten, the doors open and allow access to the exit.

The levels contain many of the usual puzzle elements. The blue blocks can be pushed into an empty space or into water to form a bridge. There are one way tiles, and tiles which can only passed over once. There are balls which when pushed keep rolling until they hit something. They can also be used to fill in water.

One interesting twist is the numbered blue and orange tiles. They are like particle/antiparticle pairs. If you push a blue number 1 tile into an orange number 1 tile, both are annihilated and disappear. This gives rise to some good puzzles.

The games contains 85 levels which can be played in any order. Many of the levels contain fire balls, lasers, and these pac-man like enemies which require fine timing. Those levels are annoying, but you know what, just hit the 'N' key and move on. This is way allowing people to play levels in any order is a good thing. Without this feature, I would have deleted this game after 10 minutes. Instead, I had a great time playing the no timing, thinking only levels. And there are some good levels. One complaint is that the game does not record your progress.

Another problem is getting a copy of the game. The website has not been updated in at least two years. It had used a hit counter site SDJL.biz. As a result, the links no longer work. But with a little snooping (mouse over the links), the URL to the .zip file can be found.

A final complaint, the music is annoying. You can turn it off with the '5' key, but the music comes back a few levels later.

MAC Logic Games

2007-11-09T00:16:00.000-08:00

A little over a month a go, Tim at Independent Gaming gave a list of indy Mac Games. The Mac is not known for its gaming, but there are some good games for the Mac. I do own a Mac Mini (typing on it right now), and I had been thinking about doing the same thing. So, here it is, a little late. I ran through all of the games I have reviewed and checked which have Mac versions. I gave each a quick spin my Tiger just to make sure it runs.

Zep's Dreamland	(review) (website)
Enigma	(review) (website)
DROD	(review) (website)
Kiki the Nano Bot	(review) (website)
Robocode	(review) (website)
TubeTwist	(review) (website)
Rocks'n'Diamonds	(review) (website)
Escape	(review) (website)
Enigmo	(review) (website)
StroQ	(review) (website)
GNU Go	(review) (website)
Simon Tatham's Puzzle Collection	(review) (website)
Chocolate Castle	(review) (website)
Lemmings	(review) (website)
Step-by-Step	(review) (website)
Zen Puzzle Garden	(review) (website)
Gate	(review) (website)

I particularly like the Mac version Simon Tatham's Puzzle Collection. It now contains three more games than when I reviewed it last year and used the Mac interface well. I have wasted a bit of time on it this week.

One disappointment, I could not get Lode Runner: The Legend Returns to run on my Mac Mini.

I do not know of any great Mac only puzzle games. There are some unique Dashboard puzzle widgets. I have had some fun with Twixt, DashBox, and ChessPuzzle.

Gate

2007-10-27T16:24:00.000-07:00

Title: Gate
Author: Quinn Dunki
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.quinndunki.com/gate/

Games Magazine recently released their Top 100 Computer Games of 2007 just in time for the Christmas buying season. Once again, PC puzzle gamers came up short. But the 2008 Independent Games Festival Entrants were also announced recently. It contains a whole slew of puzzle/logic games. I have not had time to go through all of them, but I did play Gate this weekend.

Gate is your basic program the robot game. If you are a regular reader, you know that I am a sucker for these sort of games. The goal is to program the robot, the white sphere, to reach and stop at the goal, the black and yellow stripped square.

The inputs are the four side sensors. They sense whether or not there is a mountain on that side of the robot. The outputs are the four side thrusters which move the robot. You can fire multiple thrusters at the same time to move diagonally or counter act each other. The program which you construct is a circuit diagram of and, or, xor, and gates wired together. Gate also includes a toggle switch which acts like one bit of memory. You wire together the input and outputs with a circuit, then turn it on.

The pictured level contains additional switch tiles which when passed over, lower certain mountains. The circuit below uses the toggle switch to cause the robot to move back and forth, left to right triggering each of the switch tiles. Once it reaches the goal, the activation of the top and bottom sensor causes the robot to stop. Well, actually, it fires both the left and right thruster and effectively stops.

The actual mechanics of creating and wiring a circuit is a bit clumsy. It takes a little getting used to. But Gates does a nice job of teaching the basics of circuit design.

There are 30 levels which must be solved in order. The first 10 or so are more of a tutorial. Then they start to get difficult. There were a few that made me think. Given that I am comfortable with circuits and wiring diagrams, it is hard to me to judge how the difficulty of Gate for other people. It could imagine that this game might be quite difficult to most

There is a level editor, but I do not know of any user made levels.

My one tip is to play around. Try something, hit the power switch, and see what happens. Gate graphically shows what is happening with the sensors and the effect of your circuit. There is no penalty for failed attempts.

Portal

2007-10-18T23:27:00.000-07:00

Title: Portal
Author: Valve
License: Commercial
Website: http://www.valvesoftware.com/games.html

I have to get this out of the way: in order to play Portal, you have to use the steam client. I hate steam. I hate the ads that pop up when I shut it down. I hate that it collects supposedly anonymous data and reports it back to the mother ship. I hate that it has root privilege. I hate that people have come to accept this sort of crap. I hate that to play a great game like Portal, I am willing to allow steam to run on one of my computers.

Portal is an amazing 3D puzzle game using the HalfLife2 graphics/physics engine. Your goal is simply to get to the exit. Your tool is a portal gun. Using it, you can open a portal opening on a wall, floor, or ceiling which allows you and certain objects to pass through to some other part of the map, the other portal opening. The entertaining part is that your orientation can change while passing through a portal and cause a change in the direction of gravity. Often, you can look through a portal and see yourself, from a different angle.

The maps contain obstacles. Some have switches which need to have boxes dropped on them to activate. Other switches need a ball of energy to hit them. Portals can be used to redirect these balls. Sometimes, you just need to figure out how to place the portals so you can get from A to B. There are also objects to avoid, laser and poisonous floors.

There are several great ah-ah moments in Portal where you start to understand the game. It is worth it for these moments. There are only 19 levels which feel like a tutorial. The portal effect does take some time to get used to. Just as I was really feeling comfortable, it was over. I hope that more levels are on the way. A level editor is not included.

The graphics are amazing. The audio is amazing. The background computer voice dialog is great. The only down side, besides the evil steam and small number of levels, is that some levels require timing and quick thinking. For example, you have to do a timed platform jumping. However, it is not too difficult.

You are purchase Portal directly through steam. It is also included in the Orange Box.

Anybody who likes Portal, will probably also enjoy Kiki The Nanobot, and vice-versa.

Crocodile Garden

2007-10-01T22:13:00.000-07:00

Title: Crocodile Garden
Author: Anahara Masataka
License: Freeware
Website: http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~anhr/English.html

One of the best feelings is finding a new, simple game with good puzzles. Such games push you and stretch your thinking. I am always looking for these games. This means downloading a lot of junk. Mixed within the junk, I recently found this gem. It has weak graphics and no sound, but it does have simple rules and good puzzles. I probably like it more than most people will, but I highly suggest everyone play it.

The readme file calls Crocodile Garden a sokoban-like game. While true, this sells the game short. The objective is to move each crocodile to a different pool. The problem is that there are these holes which your character cannot cross. However, there are balls which when pushed into a hole, fill it in, and make that tile passable. How do you push a ball? With a bulldozer of course. Each bulldozer moves either left-right or up-down. You enter bulldozers on either side and can push balls or other bulldozers with its blade.

There are 40 levels which are arranged in 10 groups of 4. Once you complete any of the four levels in a group, the next group of levels becomes available to be played. The quality and pacing of the levels is very good. The first group of four levels is really a tutorial. The levels slowly become more difficult. In the end, they become difficult.

The later levels require careful planning. Bulldozers are often needed to push other bulldozers. The chain of required moves gets completed. This is where the fun begins, figuring out what has to be done in what what order. All the while, you have to make sure your little guy does not get trapped. One hint, you can pass through the bulldozers by entering on one side and exiting the other. However, you cannot pass enter a bulldozer while holding a croc, an interesting constraint and those dozers can get in the way from time to time.

I have no real complaints about Crocodile Garden. The only minor problem I ran into is that the help file WANI-EN.HLP could not be read on my computer due to a language support issue. I did read it in a hex editor and learned a few commands. Use the space key to drop a crocodile. To change direction with stepping in that direction, use an arrow key while holding down the shift key.

Crocodile Hunter comes with a nice level editor. If you make any good ones, send them to me.

Tile World

2007-09-17T08:53:00.000-07:00

Title: Tile World
Author: Brian Raiter
License: GNU Public License
Website: http://www.muppetlabs.com/~breadbox/software/tworld/

Some games hold up well with time. I recently replayed most of the Lemmings series and was amazed how well it stood the test of time. I plan on having a few more entries on the series as time permits. With a similar mindset, I decided to replay Chip's Challenge, one of the classics in PC puzzle gaming, this week. Actually, I played the free Chip's Challenge emulator Tile World.

Chip's Challenge is one of the best known puzzle games in the PC world due to its inclusion in its inclusion in the Microsoft Entertainment Pack way back when. I think I first played it on a Windows 3.1 computer and have fond memories from playing it. So, my hopes/expectations were high when I starting playing Tile World. I know this might bring some nasty email, but it just did not hold up with time.

Before going into what I did not like about Chip's Challenge/Tile World, let me say that Tile World is an impressive emulation of the original. I am really glad Brian Raiter wrote the program and for all of the fans who developed levels for it. It is just that the underlying rule set from Chip's Challenge does so many things wrong.

Here is Chip's Challenge in a few sentences. You control Chip or Chippie or whatever his name is. The goal is to collect all of the computer chips and make your way to the exit within the allotted time. Standing in Chip's way are doors, walls, ice, bombs, traps, conveyor belts, teleporters, and more. You know, the usual puzzle game items. There are switches to toggle doors, ice skates to pass over ice, and blocks to fill in holes. Then there are baddies to avoid: fireballs, bugs, blogs. The items in Chip's Challenge was clearly an inspiration for many other games.

Now the bad: time limits, levels must be played sequentially, and passwords to remember. Some levels require careful timing. Only the small area around Chip is visible. There are hidden items such as invisible walls, and if move the wrong block to reveal fire, you die. Many levels cannot be solved with thought alone. You spend a lot of time wandering about learning the level. The level design is uninspired.

For legal reasons, the Tile World distribution does not contain the original Chip's Challenge levels. But with the data file CHIPS.DAT from the original copied to the proper subdirectoy, you can play these levels within Tile World. It does come with its own set of levels in CCLP2.DAT generated by fans. These levels provide more than enough of a challenge.

Chip's Challenge/Tile World has an amazing following. Here is a small selection of the fan sites I found.

This sort of support for a puzzle game is impressive.

I feel bad giving Chip's Challenge/Tile World a bad review. I had such fond memories of playing it ten plus years ago. Some games just do not age well. Still, anyone who has not played either, should give Tile World a quick play if for historical reasons only.

Browser Games 8

2007-09-12T00:14:00.000-07:00

I have been working hard to finish DROD: The City Beneath. It is kicking my butt. Maybe I am just getting old. In the mean time, here are a pair of physics based browser games to pass a few minutes.

Gravity Pods

A sharp aim is all that is needed. Pick a direction to send the rocket. The red gravity pods attract the rocket. The dots show the path your rocket took helping you line up a better shot next time. Latter levels require that you to place the gravity pods. There is a great deal of trial and error in

Ramps

Arrange the position and angle to ramps to direct the ball to the bucket. Along the way, they add additional obstacles. First, there are the wholes which suck up passing balls. Later, these piranha things jump out of the water and capture the balls. Some levels require some careful timing to avoid them. Finally, some levels have helping hands which do not help at all. They capture balls and throw them the other way. Ramps comes with 33 levels which can be completed in an hour.

Tiltor

2007-08-27T21:24:00.000-07:00

Title: Tiltor
Authors: Håkan Carlsson and Andreas Gustavsson
License: Freeware
Website: http://tiltor.googlepages.com/

Tiltor is a really simple puzzle game. There are two controls, left arrow and right arrow which rotate the board 90 degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise. After rotating, your square, the bright red one on the screen shot below, falls. The object is to get your square to the exit, the whirlpool. The only added twist is the gold "bad squares". They also fall after each rotation. If one falls on your square, your square is crushed and you have to start over. The red square is allowed to fall onto the gold squares.

There are more 150 levels in adventure mode which must be played in order. I have to admit that I did not finish the game. The levels get a bit repetitive after a while. The interesting levels are those that require the gold squares to block for you.

Tiltor was created using the Adventure Game Studio. The levels are grouped in sets of 20 or so. The authors put in a fun little back story for each group, first "moon", then "mars" and so on. There are cut sceens between groups. The audio and visual quality is quite high for a game with 320x240 graphics.

The controls take some time to get used to. After a while, the rotation direction for each arrow becomes second nature. Until then, it can be frustrating. The menus use only the four arrow keys and are bit confusing. Also, I could not figure out how to exit the game and resorted to a Ctrl-Alt-End.

There is also an arcade mode which I did not play much.

The default downlaod is compressed using the proprietary .rar file format. I wish people would not do this. I have ranted about .rar before, so I will not say more here. A .zip version is available at Caiman.

Zen Puzzle Garden

2007-08-19T15:10:00.000-07:00

Title: Zen Puzzle Garden
Author: Lexaloffle
License: Commercial
Website: http://www.lexaloffle.com/zen.htm

A few months ago when I purchased Chocolate Castle, I noticed that if I purchased two games from Lexaloffle at the same time there is a 20% discount on the whole order. I had played the Zen Puzzle Garden demo a few years back and thought it was ok, but not worth $20. Now it would only cost $12; so I went for it. I am glad I did. It is a better game that I expected. It has the staples of any good puzzle game: simple rules, simple interface, good puzzles.

The inspiration for the game is a Japanese Rock Garden. In such gardens, a person rakes simple patterns into a box of sand. Obstacles such as rocks are often placed in the sand.

In the game, the goal to rake every square of sand without getting trapped. You control bald raking guy. You can start him anywhere on the edge and send him on his raking way. The main constraint in the game is that he keeps raking in a straight line until he hits an obstacle or a square that has already been raked, at which point you can pick a new direction to send him. Once he exits the sand garden, you can move him to any point on the edge and start another path. You must finish with him on the edge so that he can admire his work, not trapped in the middle somewhere.

The interface is simple, use the arrow keys or mouse. It keeps track of your paths and has unlimited undos. There are 64 levels which can be played in any order. They gradually get harder. The last couple are quite tough. There is a level editor. Zen Puzzle Garden is a nearly perfect game.

This might be a little cliche to say, but did find this game relaxing. I would play it for five or ten minutes when I wanted a break. For whatever reason, it did the job, and I felt better.

The puzzles are trickier than I first thought. I do not have any great advice for solving them. There are certain local configurations which implies that the puzzle cannot be completed. The simplest is


X .
O X
X .

where X denotes an obstacle or already raked square and O is a square still in need of raking. There is no way to rake this O without getting stuck. A slightly more complicated example is


X . .
O X .
O O X

Building up a list of these configurations in your head helps you avoid some simple mistakes.

Writing a program to solve these puzzle should be straight forward. With some knowledge of dead configurations like the two above a program should make short work of these puzzles. The search space is not that big, I think.

Bobitos

2007-08-11T21:20:00.000-07:00

Title: Bobitos
Author: drakon
License: freeware
Website: http://www.cin.ufpe.br/~dfs2/jogos/AI.swf

Why does this little browser based shockwave game deserve its own blog entry? Shouldn't be mixed in with two other games like last week's entry? On its own, it does not deserve a whole entry. However, it came up at a party last weekend and caught my interest. Someone gave one of the puzzles from this game as a challenge, and it got me to write a program to solve Bobitos puzzles. You are probably thinking, "that sounds like one dull party."

The goal of a Bobitos puzzle is to get the king to the center square of the 5 by 5 gride. Helping him out are five slaves. You choose which piece to move and a direction. That piece keeps moving until another piece, king or slave, blocks it. If a piece reaches the side of the board, it falls off and you lose. There is no sacrificing of slaves.

The interface to Bobitos is a little clumsy. First you click on a piece to move. Then four large arrows appear, and you select the direction. There is no way unselect the piece other than restarting the level. Also, there are no undos; you have to restart. Another interface complaint is that the pieces move painfully slowly. Finally, you have to go through the introduction every time you start the game.

Bobitos contains 18 levels. They can be played in any order by selecting the tile in the lower left corner. The top tier are very easy, and they get harder as you work your way down. For me, the game did not keep track of completed levels between sessions. One other minor complaint, the game does not record the number of moves made. This is a shame because of the additional challenge of finding the minimal solution.

The level that came up at the party is the leftmost one in the bottom tier.


S . S . S
. . . . .
S . . . .
. . . . .
S . . . K

One party-goer threw it out there and said it can be done in 14 moves. He actually called the game by a different name, rambling robots or something. I had remembered playing Bobitos a while back. The next day, I wrote a quick and dirty search program to solve these puzzles and found that this position requires only 13 moves to be solved.

Interestingly, if a position can be solved, it can be solved in 14 moves. Here are nine positions, unique up to the symmetry of the square, which require 14 moves.


K . . . S    . . . . S    . . . . S
. . . . .    K . . . .   K . . . .
. . . . .    . . . . S   . . . . S
. . . . S    . . . . .   . S . . .
S . . S S    S . S S .   S . . S .
          
. S . . .    . S . . .   . . S . .
K . . . .    K . . . .   K S . . .
. . . . S    . . . . S   . . . . S
. . . . .    . . . . .   . . . . .
S . . S S    S . S . S   S . . S .
          
K . . . S    K . . . S   K . . . S
S . . . .    S . . . .   . S . . .
. . . . .    . . . . S   S . . . .
. . . . S    . . . . .   . . . . S
. . S . S    . . S . S   . . S . .

I could not come up with a mathematical argument for why no position takes more than 14 moves. All I have right now is that the computer says so. If you see why 14 suffices, let me know.

Browser Games 7

2007-08-05T21:31:00.000-07:00

Time for another set of browser based puzzle games. Each of these can be played in your browser using Adobe Flash. There are many sites which host such games. One such site at which I think I learned about this trio is FreeGames News.

Bloxorz

Bloxorz is an amazingly simple puzzle game designed and written by Damien Clarke. You control a 2x1x1 block. Using the arrow keys, you roll this block with goal of getting it to fall length-wise into the exit. This must be done without falling off the edge of the board. Some levels contain special switches which activate bridges. The 33 levels make for a good challenge. The levels must completed in order with passcodes to write down. A list of passcodes and a walkthrough can be found at JayIsGames. For an added challenge try to solve the levels in the same number of moves as in the walkthrough. A similar game is Tumblin' Dice which is part of the Smart Games Challenge 3.

Phit

Phit is essentially the classic puzzle of fitting polyominoes into a rectangle with no overlapping or gaps. The twist is that the pieces are not picked up and placed down. Instead, they are slid about. The hard part is that pieces block other pieces. This requires careful planning to make sure the path is each piece is open. On the other side, no rotation or flipping of the pieces is allowed. There are 100 levels which can be played in any order. The pacing of the levels is very good. A similar game is Puzzle Quest.

D-Star

Another simple game similar to Fire. You control the blue ball. The goal is to pass the blue ball through all the yellow balls. Once you send the blue ball in motion it keeps going until it hits a wall or the 5 square object. The interesting feature of this game is that you can switch the position of the ball and square by hitting the space bar. This allow you to use one to block for the other. The game is kind of short, and the puzzles are not too hard, but I still enjoyed it. Simple and effective graphics and interface made this game better.

CheckerBoard

2007-07-29T10:52:00.001-07:00

Title: CheckerBoard
Author: Martin Fierz
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.fierz.ch/checkerboard.php

It has been a while since I had an entry on an abstract strategy game. With the recent announcement by the Chinook team that checkers is a draw with perfect play, I thought it might be a good time to mention my favorite checkers program: CheckerBoard.

I have to say that I am not much of a checkers player myself. Many years ago, more than I care to admit, I wrote a checkers program in turbo pascal. It was your basic alpha-beta min-max program. It only looked six or ten moves ahead, I forget exactly, but it kicked my butt. Well, I did not know about the endgame databases. Sometimes, games would get down to two kings for the program and one for me. Looking only ten moves ahead it could not see how to win the game, and would move almost randomly. So, from time-to-time I could pull out these 2-to-1 draws.

Enough on my failings. CheckerBoard is a simple, free checkers program with every feature you could want. It has many levels play, ranging from instant to 30 minutes of thought per move. It displays it current search depth and position evaluation. On the 1 second thought per move, it usually thinks about 10 or more moves ahead and beats me soundly. The interface is intuitive and clean. You can take back dumb moves. And, it can analyze games to tell you which moves were dumb.

CheckerBoard comes with an opening book which can be extended. Actually, you can modify it to force CheckerBoard down a particular opening line if desired. At the other end of the game, the endgame database is critical to a good checkers program. CheckerBoard can build a 6-piece endgame database. I highly suggest you do this. The 8-piece database can be downloaded.

One of the interesting advanced features is the concept of an "engine". It turns out that CheckerBoard is just the interface. The brains that decide which move to make are in the engine. These are .dll files that CheckerBoard calls when it is the computer's turn to move. It comes with 4 different engines written by different people. You can choose which one to play against. The weakest engine, SimpleCheckers, usually beats me on the 1second/move for what it is worth, but does not know about endgame databases. You can even play engine vs. engine to see which one is the best. The API for writing an engine is available if you want to write your own engine. The source code for Simple Checkers is available as a starting point.

The only missing feature, and I do not know if this a flaw in CheckerBoard or the Engines, is that it does not learn. Even simple Samuel-style learning can protect an engine against repeatedly falling into the same cooks, not that I found any. That aside, this is a great program. I do not understand why anyone would pay money for another checkers program unless it was Chinook itself.

Now that American checkers has been solved, you might want to try international checkers. Two free programs are Dragon Draughts and Dam.

Step-by-Step

2007-07-20T15:42:00.000-07:00

Title: Step-by-Step
Author: Manfred Kopp
License: GNU Public License
Website: http://sourceforge.net/projects/step-by-step

It is probably bad form to review a game which is technically still in beta. I don't care. This is a blog after all; I can do whatever I want. This week's game, Step-by-Step, is still in development, a beta. But, I am going to review it anyways. I am going to say mostly nice things though. It would be really bad form to rip on a beta release.

I was wandering around the puzzle section of SourceForge about two weeks ago and found Step-by-Step. It is similar to Hex-a-Hop and MASRDBE, the former being one of the best games I have ever played. Step-by-Step does not rise to the level of Hex-a-Hop, but it still a damn fine game.

The goal is make each of the stones disappear by walking on then a certain number of times. You control the little pair of shoes. When you walk off a blue stone it disappears. When you walk off a green stone, it becomes blue. When you walk off a yellow stone, it becomes green. You have to plan your path so that each stone is walked on 1, 2, or 3 times depending on its initial color. You also have to plan ahead so that your final step is onto a solid platform.

Step-by-Step adds a few twists. First, there are the arrows. They force your next move; the game makes that move for you automatically. Next there are icy stones, the cloudy looking tiles. If you walk on one, you slide along and walk off on the other side, automatically. Then there are the numbers. You have to walk on all the stones with an i at least once before walking on any higher number stone. Lastly, there are teleporters. That is it, a very simple and clean rule set.

Step-by-Step comes with 99 levels. You can play any level at any time, good design choice! The early levels introduce the various tile rules. Then they start to get harder. The pacing of the levels is pretty good. But, they never got overly hard. I am hoping with the level editor some really tough levels get made. If you do get stuck, solutions to all the levels after 11 are given in a text file.

Step-by-Step is a beta, so it really is not fair for me to knock it, but I do have a couple of complaints. First, this game would be much better if it had an undo button. Second, I am not a fan of the isometric projection. With a top down view, you would not need to tell people what way the arrow keys move the pair of shoes. Lastly, I did not like the numbered tiles. They make levels easier. Take a look at level 15 for example. With the numbers, you just follow your nose and you cannot help but solve it. Without the numbers, that would be a much harder level.

Complaints aside. I had a great time running through the 99 levels. It is free. Go get it and play!

Tripline

2007-07-13T17:57:00.000-07:00

Title: Tripline
Author: konjak.org
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.konjak.org/games.htm

I am willing to admit when I am wrong. This is one case where I was wrong. When I first played Tripline sometime last year, I thought it was easy and uninteresting and quickly put it aside. I was somewhat bemused when it made more than one "best of" list at the end of the year. But recently for some reason, I decided to give it another try and was pleasantly surprised.

The goal of each Tripline level is to draw a path through each of the symbols. The starting piont for the path is given. The arrow keys are used to draw the path. The path cannot touch or cross itself. Here is the key point to the puzzles, the path must pass through the symbols in groups of threes. The path can end at any symbol.

The levels are pretty easy until you get to this one, level 10. Here, it is not even clear which symbols need to go together to form the triples. You have to do a little topological thinking in matching up those triangles so as to not isolate other symbols. At this point, Tripline got interesting to me.

I finished off the game in a couple of sitting, but there are some tough puzzles in Tripline. I have to say the interface sucks. There is no undo for one thing. Also, it would be nice if you could draw in any line you want and make them connect up at the end. For a couple of levels, I just printed it out and used paper and pencil. There are two ways to view that comment: the puzzles are that good and the interface is that bad.

There are 31 level if I counted correctly which have to be solved in order. If you get stuck, solution are available in their forums. There is no level editor, which is a shame. I am curious what devious things other people could come up with.

Tripline is certainly worth playing. I feel bad that put it a side for so long. So many games, so little time. I haven't finished the latest DROD yet. It is killing me. Ugh.

Lemmings

2007-07-01T23:06:00.001-07:00

Title: Lemmings
Author: Psygnosis
License: Commercial
Website: no known official site

In June, I went on a Lemmings kick. This was caused in part by the release of Lemmings for the PSP and Nintendo DS. Reading about all of the fun a new generation was having with this classic caused me to pull out my copies from the closet. I started with Lemmings for Windows which is a combination of the original game and the expansion Oh No More Lemmings ported to run under Windows. I actually saw it for sale in a game store about a year ago in England. You still might be able to find it, or it can be downloaded from an abandonware site, not that I support that sort of behavior.

Over the next couple of weeks, I am going to mix in reviews of the various Lemmings games in my collection. I am not going to describe the game play in this version of Lemmings. If there is anyone out there who has not played Lemmings, the wikipedia entry linked to above gives a great description, and there is a DHTML version with a few levels.

Instead, I will just give some impressions. First, it is amazing how well this game stands up 16 years after it first release. Lemmings is still a lot of fun to play and challenging. Take a peak at some of the other video games in 1991. How many of these games would you like to play? Well, Brix isn't too bad.

Second, almost all of the levels have multiple solutions. This is a rare feature in puzzle games. I did not realize how much I missed this. One of the most enjoyable aspects of Lemmings is recovering from a mistake without restarting a level. I actually had to think on my feat, so to speak, several times.

Third, there is a quality to the game which is hard to describe. It is a love of the game which comes through in the details. There is the cute "On No" audio when a lemming blows up. The subtle references in the levels caused me to pay attention to the artwork. The programmers had fun and enjoyed making this game. And it shows.

There were a couple of negatives in Lemmings which I had forgotten about. You have to finished the levels in order. At least in the Windows version, there are no passwords to remember. Many of the levels require some careful placement and quick clicking. I kept wanting a time system like Impulse which allows you to stop time, make a few precise clicks, and then restart time.

Marble Match

2007-06-24T00:08:00.000-07:00

Title: Marble Match
Author: ToastSoft
License: Freeware
Website: http://rydia.net/udder/prog/mm/

Marble Match is a little old, maybe two years, but still fun. It has simple graphics and simple audio, but still fun. The goal of each level is to remove all of the marbles by "matching" similar colored marbles in rows of three or more. You move balls until they hit a wall or another ball, the usual thing. The interesting twist is that you can only move a marble which is adjacent to your character. This adds some complexity to the mix. You have to plan ahead to gain access to various parts of the board.

Marble Match includes several special objects: teleporters, one-way arrows, teleports. There are water tiles which marbles can pass through, but your character cannot. Marbles get stuck on the sand tiles. All usual stuff, you will pick it up quickly.

Some levels contain monsters. They move one space everytime you move. If one type of monster catches up to you, death. There is another type which kills if you get within its line of sight. Of course, there are arrows which you can use to kill monsters. I have to say, I did not like the levels with monsters. I just worked through them to get to the next level.

Another twist is that there is a move limit. You have to complete the level in certain number of marble moves. There are three difficulty levels. In the normal mode, the move limit is rarely a factor. In the hard mode, there are limit is reduced and marbles cannot move diagonally. This limit can be a factor. In Maniac mode, they add a time limit.

Marble Match comes with 100 levels. You have to complete the levels sequentially, but a little hex editing magic of mm_level you can get around this. A level editor is included. The pacing of the levels is not great, but there are some tough ones.

Two Physics-Puzzle Demos

2007-06-09T00:08:00.000-07:00

Title: P.H.L.O.P.
Author: B. Kircher, C. Lyon, T. Nguyen
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.digipen.edu/GameGallery/websites/PHLOP/

Title: Crayon Physics
Author: Petri Purho
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.kloonigames.com/blog/games/crayon/

This week, I am going to review two physics based puzzle games. Both are are concept/demo games. The first, PHLOP, is a DigiPen project. DigiPen is a school for games programmers located in the Seattle area. Every year, various student projects are released as freeware. Here are the 2006-2007 projects.

I have never been impressed with the DigiPen games. They are always oddly incomplete and buggy. There are some interesting ideas in these games, but they are never polished. I am often left wondering, "did they even play test this themselves?" Of course, I am sure that every history professor reading senior theses thinks something similar.

PHLOP is the first DigiPen game that impressed me. It was clearly inspired by Armadillo Run. At first, I almost dismissed it as a clone, but PHLOP contains some interesting new features. As in Armadillo Run, the goal is to use various struts and platforms to get the balls to the goal area. Two fun new features are gravity switches and magnets. When a ball hits a gravity switch, the direction of gravity changes, the screen rotates, and the ball starts falling in new direction. This is a great idea.

PHLOP has 40 levels, and any level can be accessed at any time. It has good graphics and audio. The physics model is decent, but not as good a Armadillo Run. As with other DigiPen games, there are missing elements. One is that it does not record which levels you have completed. The interface is quirky. Then there are little things like help screens that say "Todo: any help here". Given these omissions, I cannot fully endorse PHLOP. Still it is fun.

The other game is Crayon Physics. It is a "done-in-under-a-week game" so some leeway has to be given. The objective is to force the ball to each of the stars. To do this you draw boxes on the screen. Once completed, they fall. As they fall, the boxes push things about. On this this level, I used the blue box to push the ball next to the pillar. Next, using other boxes, the pillar can be tripped over the ball. Then pushing the ball to the star is easy.

The physics model is very good, and the crayon graphics are great. There are only seven levels which can be completed in any order. Crayon Physics is fun while it lasts. I wish there was a level editor.

Chocolate Castle

2007-05-29T23:52:00.000-07:00

Title: Chocolate Castle
Author: Lexaloffle
License: Commercial
Website: http://www.lexaloffle.com/choc.php

120 wonderful, challenging puzzles. That is all you really need to know about Chocolate Castle. A simple set of rules yields a diverse set of challenges. The level design is excellent. I am amazed at the variety of the puzzles. The levels are divided into three categories: easy, medium, and hard. One review said the 40 easy puzzles were "for kids". I have to say a few of these easy ones caused me more than a minutes thought. The 40 medium puzzles form a good challenge. The 40 hard ones are hard. They took me a couple of weeks to finish. The pacing of the levels is great.

Chocolate Castle does everything right. You can play any level at any time. The interface is so good, you do not even have to think about it. Unlimited undos. The graphics are simple, but effective. The audio is minimal and helpful, but does not get in the way. There is a level editor. I have no complaints about this game.

Oh yeah... the game. The goal of each level is to eat all of the chocolate squares. There are four types of chocolate and four corresponding types of eaters. By moving an eater to a group of chocolate of the same color, it eats all of the chocolate in that orthogonally connected group. The restriction is that each eater can only eat once. After eating, it disappears along with the chocolate. The heart of the game is moving around groups of chocolate so that they become connected and can be removed at once. Once one group of chocolate is moved next to another group of the same color, they become connected and must be moved together from that point onward.

There are only a few other game items. There are blue groups which get in the way but do not stick together. They give rise to some Rush Hour like puzzles. Purple groups which can only be moved once. Clear tiles which once move keep moving until they run into something. Snakes wind about. There are bombs and cats to explode them. That's all.

Again, the levels make this a great game. Each of the game items is fully explored through the 120 levels. Chocolate Castle is well worth $20.

One last thing, check out the Lexaloffe's BBS. It contains all kinds of good stuff including optimal scores.

Mindfields

2007-05-21T23:47:00.000-07:00

Title: Mindfields-2204 and Mindfields 2 - The Russian Tundra
Author: GameSheep
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.gamesheep.com/game/mindfields-2204/
http://www.gamesheep.com/game/mindfields-2/

Mindfields 1, called Mindfields-2204, and its sequal Mindfields 2- The Russian Tundra are two fun albeit short SWF games. Both can played within a browser or downloaded and played within a SWF player.

The object of both games is to successfully guide your tank to the exit, the yellow circle. Each level comes with several tool tiles which you place on the board. Once the "start engine" button is pressed, the tank proceeds forward until it hits a wall, rolls into water, gets hit by turret, makes it to the exit tile, or is redirected by one of tool tiles. Those tool tiles are the key to the game. The arrow tiles cause the tank to change to that direction. There are two fire tiles. One causes the tank to fire projectiles in all four directions; the other causes the tank to fire forward only. These projectiles destroy opposing turrets and clear the path. There are also teleporter tiles and shield tiles that protects the tank for three steps.

Some levels such this first level come with some tiles already sprinkled about.

This level also has one four-way fire tile and a pair of teleporter tiles. Here is a placement of these tiles which solves the level.

The tank starts heading left and takes out the bunker when it passes over the four-way tile. Then it turns around at the arrow and destroys the turret on its second pass over the four-way. Finally, the teleporter gets the tank home. A trickier first level than in most games.

Both games comes with only 18 levels. There are some tricky levels, but most are pretty easy. Keeping an eye out for sneaky use of the diagonals, you should complete the levels in short order. I wish there was a level editor.

Other flaws? You have to complete the levels in order. There are passwords to remember. If you fail, all of the tiles are reset and have to be replaced. There is a little trial and error in figuring out which teleporter leads to the next. There is one level with the annoying "X" tile. The tank stops on it and you have to "start engine" again at just the right time to pass through a toggling force field.

There is some scoring system, but it did not make any sense to me. On the solution above, the score is 820. The clearly inferior solution below, with a longer path, yields a score of 1002.

So, I stopped trying to maximize my score and just finished off the 18 levels.

Both are fun games and I encourage everyone to give them a play. If you enjoy mindfields, I would suggest you play my own Puzzle Bunnies (version 0.4 has 72 levels).

Swistakowy Klopot 2

2007-05-13T09:35:00.000-07:00

Title: Swistakowy Klopot 2
Author: Projeckt Siedem
License: Freeware
Website: http://pe7.aspweb.cz/ShowGame.aspx?id=14

As I have said many times, puzzle games are all about the puzzles. Good puzzles make for a good game. Bad puzzles make for a bad game. The great puzzles in Swistakowy Klopot 2 makes for a great game. The level design here is phenomenal. Many of the levels seem impossible at first. After some thought, a spark of insight comes along. At times, it seems as though the level designers are toying with you. They include an extra item about to lead you down the wrong path. Do not take my word for it. Even though SK2 has only been out for about a month or two, the Caiman Games help forum is already 5 pages long.

Swistakowy Klopot 2 is the worthy successor to the original. You control the little badger-looking guy. Your goal is to safely guide him to the exit. The main constraint is that he can only step up one level at a time. So, to get around, you have to move the crates to create staircases. You can carry one crate at a time. Pick 'em up, drop 'em elsewhere. The little guy cannot swim. The crates also make nice bridges when dropped in the water.

There are a couple of other items. Teleporters are one; warp from one to the other. Keep in mind that you can carry a box through a teleporter. This move is often useful. There are doors and corresponding colored triggers. Drop a box on a trigger and the door opens. There are a couple of new features in SK2. One new item is fires. You cannot walk into a fire, but you can drop a box on it. The other new feature is floors that can only be walked on once or twice.

The heart of Swistakowy Klopot 2 is the levels. With these simple rules, the level designers came up with 50 wonderful, tricky levels. They force you to use the various items in new ways. Your thinking is constantly being pushed and stretched. Oh, when you get trapped on a level, hit the ESC key and use the arrow key to rotate between "Resume", "Restart", and "Menu". Actually, I could not figure this out on my own and emailed the authors knowing that there must be some way to restart a level. They quickly responded. It is good sign when people support their game, even a freeware game. I hope everyone reading this, plays SK2.

As with any game, SK2 is not perfect. The music is a little annoying, but it can be turned off with with the "M" key. You are supposed to play the levels in order, and there are passwords to remember or write down. However, all of the passwords available at the Projeckt Siedem site in case you get stuck and want to move on. The controls take a little getting used to. My last complaint, since they used the free version of the Games Factory, there is a splash screen when exiting.

Abstractica 2

2007-04-30T23:13:00.000-07:00

Before getting to this week's entry, I want to ask a favor. I would like you to email me (jmsmith4@yahoo.com) a list of the five best, in your esteemed opinion, logic/puzzle games which I have not previously mentioned in this blog. I will compile the results and report back.

Title: Abstractica 2
Author: MJK Games
License: freeware
Website: http://mjkgames.com/abstractica2.html

Most logic games are set in a small, usually finite, world with well-defined rules. The goal is easy to understand even it is hard to get to. There are no gray areas. You know when you have succeeded. Pejoratively, logic games require thinking inside-the-box.

Abstractica 2 is just the opposite. It requires thinking outside the box. Each level consists of a picture and sometimes sound. All you have to do figure what answer the level designer was thinking. The picture is your only clue.

For example, the answer in this one is "banana". Type it in left text box and click on "Try It!" Opps, wrong answer. Hmm... Stuck? Click on "Tip" and "Read that text carefully :D" appears in the text box on the right. Thinking outside the box and making a few more wrong guesses, you try "very easy". Woo-Hoo, the right answer. On to the next level.

Let's try another one. All you have to do is figure out the mathematical pattern. After flailing about for a long time, I finally typed those 5 numbers in a search engine. It turns out that those are the product numbers for 5 different Noika cell phones. The answer is "Noika".

Abstractica 2 requires many different skills and sometimes some inspiration. Using the Internet to research an answer is fair game. Sometimes you have blow up an image using some paint tool to determine the secret. On one level, I had to use Audacity to slow down the audio.

This is a great game to play with multiple people, all throwing out ideas. Each person with their different strengths adds to the whole. Plus, you might learn something about your friends. When you really get stuck, there is a forum for hints.

There are 250 levels. You can skip three levels and get hints for fifteen. The level quality varies greatly. Some levels are real groaners. The most logical answer is not always the right answer. It can be frustrating. One annoying feature of Abstractica 2 is that it only saves the game every five levels.

Abstractica 3 is available for $8.50.

Gems

2007-04-22T16:27:00.000-07:00

Title: Gems
Author: GameCave
License: Freeware
Website: http://gemsthegame.com/

Ultimately, the finally evaluation of any puzzle/logic game rests on the quality of its puzzles and level design. This, ultimately, is why Gems falls flat. It has high production values in terms of graphics and audio. It contains some unique twists on old ideas. But sadly, the level design is awful. Juvenile is a better description. This could have been a great game. I still want to review Gems because it comes with a level editor, and I hope that the user designed levels will be better.

Gems is at its heart a simple game. The objective is to get each of the goal gems (the red ones for example) to a disposal gem (light blue). The game is played top down. The moveable gems such as the red one are selected with a mouse click. The selected gem is then moved by hitting an arrow key. Once a gem starts moving, it keeps moving until it hits a wall or another gem.

There are many similar games out there, but Gems adds some interesting twists. There are pink gems which blow up and force a restart if touched by one of the other gems. The yellow defuser gems can be used to remove pink bomb gems. One nice twist is that several pink gems arranged in a line can be eliminated at once with a pass of a yellow gem. The next twist is the line gems which are goal gems but cannot be allowed to leave the rails. You must use the red gems to block and keep the line gems on the rails while transiting to the light blue disposal gem. Another nice twist is the light green gems with a number on it. These are also goal gems which must get to the disposal gem. However, they must do this in that number of moves. This makes for a tricky puzzles. A standard but nice addition is the deflector gem. Any moveable gem hitting one bounces back. Then there is once-through (dotted circular tile) which transforms into a solid wall after any gem passes through it.

Now, I need to start on the bad innovations in Gems. The first is the blue moving bombs. These just bounce back and forth. You have to time the moves to avoid them. The level designers relied on these moving bombs way too much. The resulting levels can be really annoying. In the level below, the upper blue gem has a range of only three spots. Timing this one is a pain, and it has to be done twice to complete the level. Sorry no saves.

The next problem is teleporters. Enter a blue X and come out a red X. These are ubiquitous in puzzle games. How can they be so bad? In Gems, there is no indication which blue X goes to which red X. Take a look at the level below. For each red gem, you have to guess which blue X leads to the red X next to the light blue disposal gems for each red gem. The other one leads to the pink gems.

Finally, there are these annoying timer gems which have to get to a disposal gem within a certain number of seconds. Ugh. After all this, the levels do not involve one of these annoying gems are usually fairly easy. There were only four or five that really took any thinking.

Gems comes with 62 levels broken into one introductory level, 6 sets of 10 levels each, and a final elite level. Each set introduces another item with a demo level. Once 8 out of 10 levels are completed in any set, the next set of 10 becomes available. This level structure is very good if only the levels were better designed.

Luckily, Gems comes a level editor. Maybe some user made levels will be good. We'll have to check back.

Blocks 5

2007-04-15T22:22:00.000-07:00

Title: Blocks 5
Author: David Scherfgen
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.scherfgen-software.net/blocks5/

Blocks 5 was released a little over two weeks ago. I heard about it in a forum and downloaded a copy right away. Over the next couple of days, two regular readers emailed me about this great new puzzle game called Blocks 5. A sure sign that this one is better than most. Keep those suggestions coming.

Blocks 5 is a great hardcore puzzle game similar to Escape and Rocks'n'Diamonds. At a high level, it is a very simple game: collect the required number of diamonds and make your way to the exit. Movement is simple enough: up, down, left, and right. Easy it would be if it were not for the doors, lasers, and other obstacles. To get a feel for the game and the various items, watch the opening screen.

Before describing the game, I want to mention its quality. The graphics, audio, and level design in Blocks 5 are all professionally done. It is bug free and has the fit and finish of a commercial program. I suggest you download it and give it a spin just for this reason.

There is a large number of items in Blocks 5. I cannot list them all, but I will mention a few. There are gates, and switches to lower the gates of the same color. There are brown crates, blue blocks, and stones which can be pushed around. Some blocks feel the force of gravity, other do not. Oh, unlike most similar games, you can push multiple blocks. There are anvils; don't let one fall on your head. The game contains one way arrows. Oddly, the arrow restricts the direction which a character can walk onto one, not the more standard constraint on the direction you can walk off an arrow. This confused me for a while. Blocks 5 also includes the puzzle game standards: lasers, mirrors, canons, teleporters, bombs, and conveyor belts. While there is no documentation, the level editor gives a quick description of each item when you hover the mouse over it.

While most are not new, Blocks 5 puts an interesting twists on some items. For example, bumping into a magnet rotates all of the arrows 90 degrees. I enjoyed some of the puzzles this resulted in. There are separate teleporters for characters and objects. Teleporters, laser, and conveyor belts can be powered on and off at the switch.

Taking a feature from Triogical, some levels contain multiple characters. In these levels, the characters have to work together to complete it. The TAB key is used to rotate among the characters. These levels require a bit of planning and preplacement of characters. One thing to keep in mind is that bombs are not shared across characters. Each character can only use bombs which it picks up. And only one character has to make it to the exit to complete the level.

There is more. Some levels contains baddies to avoid. Other levels transform into a darkness mode where you can only see small area around your character, all colored items change to a shade of green (night vision, I guess). This makes it hard to determine which switches control which gates. I will leave the rest for you to discover on your own.

Blocks 5 comes with a campaign containing 42 levels plus a bonus level. The quality of these levels is in general quite good. The various game items are slowly introduced often with a helpful hint message. There are some good tricky puzzles in the mix. I enjoyed playing through the levels. At any time, the next three uncompleted levels are unlocked and available to be played. This kept me from getting too stuck.

A nice level editor is included. Another campaign is already available. I have a feeling that Blocks 5 will gain a loyal following and many user designed levels will follow.

Where Blocks 5 falls down is the high frustration factor in many levels. One small mistake and you have to start over. I cannot tell you times I had to hit Shift-F5 to restart a level. This game would be greatly improved with the inclusion of a take back button which allowed the user to undo the last dozen or so moves, or maybe a save/restore feature. Also, some levels require fast fingers. It is usually not too bad but does result in some restarts. To be fair, some levels contain a hotel which allows you to save and restore the current state of the level.

My next complaint with Blocks 5, as with many similar games, is that there are too many items and their interaction is not always logical. Lasers destroy certain items but not others, likewise with bombs. Some items can be pushed, others cannot. Some items fall down when pushed over a ledge, others do not. Sadly, there is no documentation.

I have a couple of final minor complaints. Blocks 5 calls home and checks for updates when started, and this feature cannot be turned off. It also requires and installs the Microsoft Visual C++ redistribution. These are things which many programs do. Still, I wish one did not.

Complaints aside, this is great puzzle game for anyone looking for a challenge. Download, play, enjoy. It is easily the best new puzzle game I have played this year. Still, I feel it could be better.

Loop-De-Loop 3

2007-04-08T19:58:00.000-07:00

Title: Loop-De-Loop 3
Author: Smith from Australia
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.deadofnight.org/Smiths_Stuff.shtml

DRoD: The City Beneath has been eating up my time this week. That and various Christan and Jewish religious meals (I am an atheist who loves to eat) has not left me with time to finish anything new this week. So, I am going to give a quick review of a great slitherlink program I ran across recently. The objective of a slitherlink puzzle is form one loop such that the edges adjacent to each numbered square equals the number in the square.

Loop-De-Loop generates random slitherlink puzzles and lets you solve them. You pick the size, say "14x10" and hit "new". It generates a random slitherlink problem of that size. Now it is time to solve. Left click to place an edge; right click to forbid an edge. Great, an almost infinite supply of slitherlink puzzles!

Looking a little deeper, there is a lot to this program. First, it supports other grid types, such as hexagons. Then take a peak at the puzzle creation options. Using the "Full Generator" option results in some tough puzzles. I personally like the difficulty of puzzles using the "Simple Generator" with "Lookahead" 2. You can use "AutoStart" to automatically fill in the obvious edges. One last thing, to get an idea as to how it solves slitherlink puzzles, try the "Use Visual Solver" option and then hit "Solve" on a tough one. I find this oddly entertaining to watch.

This is a great program. Any slitherlink fan will have a blast playing with it and the various options. Thanks Smith for making this program.

My only real complaint about Loop-De-Loop is the "hints" are often fairly obvious edges that have already been filled in. I would prefer that hints are always edges which are not currently assigned. Another complaint, which is very personal and I cannot really justify, is that random slitherlink problems are often a bit sterile compared to human generated problems. And to be picky, Loop-De-Loop does requires Microsofts's .NET Framework 2.0.

There are lots of other slitherlink programs out there. A decent one is Loopy, although some of its puzzles are uninspired. Online, my favorite is still janko.at, but some people prefer www.puzzle-loop.com.

Browser Games 6

2007-03-31T19:12:00.000-07:00

I doubt there is anyone out there who reads my blog, but does not know about jay is games, one of the best gaming blogs around. Just in case, I want to mention three browser based puzzle games which I learned about from jay is. All three can be played inside your browser. Each is original and tougher than average.

PLANned

The goal is to link all of the diamonds as I have just done in the above screen shot. The problem is that each diamond starts out sized 1x1. When you click on a diamond, it expands to the next size. However, once two or more diamonds become linked, they cannot be expanded any further. One last restriction, you cannot expand any particular diamond twice in a row. As the its name suggests, some careful PLANning is necessary. You can download PLANned from ArcadeTown and play off-line if you prefer.

Clack

When you hit the go triangle, the first ball starts rotating. Then in some crazy version of Newton's cradle, when one ball hits another, it stops rotating the new one starts. The one thing you control is the length of the arms. The goal to have a ball pass over each of the way points (20 in this first level) in order. But, you do not know exactly where the way points are, just their direction from the previous one. It requires some trial and error. Notice the handy stop square. A new version Clack2 played on squares instead circles is available, but I did not like it as much.

Rings and Sticks

The last one is an interesting game where you have to grow a tree so that so that a limb passes through each ring. At the bottom are moves, extend, split 45 degrees, split 90 degrees, extend left only, extend right only. In the screen shot, one more extend will finish it off. The numbers indicated how many of each move are left. Some levels contain additional obstacles like the red bomb things. This game could really use an undo one move button. If you mess up, you have to start over. Check out Komix Games website for more browser games.

Hexy

2007-03-24T15:10:00.000-07:00

Title: Hexy
Author: Vadim V. Anshelevich
License: Registration Required
Website: http://home.earthlink.net/~vanshel/

I recently found the book Hex Strategy Making the Right Connections by Cameron Browne in my local library and decided to work through it. To monitor my improvement, I played many games against the computer Hex program Hexy. I had never really played Hex before and learned a lot, both from this book and from playing Hexy.

Hex is a simple abstract strategy game invented by Piet Hein in 1942. Players take turn placing stones on a hexagonal board. The objective is to form a path connecting your opposite sides of the board before you opponent forms a path connecting their two sides. Typical board sizes are 11x11 and 14x14. It easy to prove that the with perfect play, the first player can always win. However, at present, the actual winning strategy is only known for 9x9 and smaller boards.

Hexy is a nice program and plays a strong game of Hex. It has a simple interface, just click on the hex where you want to play. All of the usual features, 4 skill levels, hints, and take backs (use the up and down arrow keys) are present. One suggestion I have is to use the "randomization" option to vary the games a bit.

While Hex programs perform poorly against top human players, Hexy is one of the best. When I started Browne's book, I could not beat Hexy even on the first level. Eventually, I was able to hold my own against level two, but I never beat level three.

My biggest complaint with Hexy is that it requires registration in order to play more than 20 games. It is free, but you have to email the author for a registration code. I actually put off doing this for a long time. Instead, using process monitor, I figured out where Hexy stores the registration information in the Windows registry, in another company's namespace. Tweaking these registry keys, I could reset the counter to 20. When I finally emailed the author, he promptly responded. Still, freeware should be free.

My only other complaint with Hexy is that the largest board size is 11x11. Given that 14x14 is a standard size in human competitions, it would be nice to have this size in the program.

There are many resources on the game Hex. The wikipedia entry for Hex casts some doubts on the soundness of the strategies in Browne's book. This might explain why I was never able to beat level 3. Hex has its own wiki. The strategy articles are worth reading if you have never played before. Thomas Maarup has a great website for the more mathematically inclined. The author of Hexy has a great paper on the inner workings of his computer program.

Hex is just one of many connection games. Two that come right to mind are Y and Havannah. If you own Zillions of Games, here are several connection games which can be played within ZoG.

Linx

2007-03-19T00:10:00.000-07:00

Title: Linx
Author: Maurice Zarzycki
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.mauft.com/

A quick one this week. The goal of each Linx level is to connect all of the similar colored bases with paths of their color. Left click on a base to select that color. Then left click on the grid to place a path of that color. Right click to delete a path. Each level has a limit on the number paths which can be placed.

Paths of different colors cannot cross. To make all the connections, paths often have to routed around in odd ways to leave access for paths of other colors. A little topological thinking goes a long way in this game. There is one odd rule. If there is only one base of a given color, you have to form a loop connecting that base to itself.

Linx contains only 40 levels. Most levels are pretty easy. You can shoot through them in a couple of hours. There are about ten tricky levels. There is a level editor, and 15 additional levels are available.

The read me file claims, "Linx is an unique logical game." Not true. There is a shockwave game called HyperFrame which is very similar.

Gruntz

2007-03-10T11:37:00.000-08:00

Title: Gruntz
Author: Monolith Productions
License: Commercial
Website: www.lith.com

Last month, there was an interesting thread on the CaravelNet Forum on "What are the best puzzle games ever?". I read through with interest as I am always on the look out for puzzle games. But the suggestion that struck me most was for Gruntz, a commercial game which was released in 1999. I had played through it way back when, and still had a copy in a bin, in a closet. So, I dug it out, dusted it off, and gave it another go. Ah, my pack rat ways paid off!

Gruntz did not make a strong impression on me the first time I played it, but it did this time. It has an atmosphere that is lacking today's games. It has an intro movie, cute graphics, funny voices, and a touch of humor. It is easy to say that all that matters for a puzzle game is the puzzles, but Gruntz shows that a bit of polish can really improve a game. It also made me sad that commercial game companies do not produce puzzle games any more.

Gruntz is a slightly complicated game. It is part puzzle game, part adventure game, part strategy game, and part action game. The basic goal of each level is to find the warp stone piece and return it to the king. You control the gruntz and can order them to pick up tools such as gauntletz (which break rocks), shovelz (which fill in holes), and springz (which allow gruntz to jump over things). There are also a variety of switchez which toggle various barriers and bridges. Then there are enemy gruntz. You have to evade or kill them. Here is where the strategy come in, making sure your gruntz have the right weapons to slay their foes.

Gruntz comes with 32 levels, and there are two ways to play each level. The simple way is to pick up the warp stone piece and deliver it to the king. The hard way is to also collect all of the coins, find the secret portal, activate the secret switch, and get the warp letter. There are special rewards for collecting all the extra items. I like this two tier approach. I actually played through twice. The first time through, I just collected the warp stone pieces. This only takes a couple of hours of game play. Then I went back and tried doing all of the extras. This way is very hard. I had to cheat and look on-line for the hints on a couple of levels.

I had great time replaying Gruntz, but it does have it flaws. There are too many items for the number of levels. They are slowly introduced which means that the key to most of the levels is understanding how the new item works. My other complaint is that to solve the extras on some levels, you have to search the map for the secret portal. This does not require a whole lot of thinking.

A minor thing is that the controls do not seem intuitive to me. It took me a while get used to them. I sent more than one gruntz to its death by right-clicking when I should have left-clicked.

There are some good sites for Gruntz. www.gruntz.com seems to officially associated with Monolith and contains a patch among other things. However, the link to purchase Gruntz seems to be broken. The fan site Paul's Gruntz Page contains a lot of info including screen shots showing you where all the secret portal and swichez are located. There are also a bunch of fan made levels here.

WAtomic

2007-03-02T19:26:00.000-08:00

Title: WAtomic
Author: ironfede
License: GNU Public License
Website: http://watomic.sourceforge.net/

WAtomic looks harder than it is. The goal is simple: reconstruct the molecule shown on the right somewhere in the field on the left. You slide the atoms around to form the molecule. Once an atom starts moving, it does not stop until it hits a wall or another atom.

The mechanics are very similar to that of OrbitZ and Fire. One difference, though, is that the molecule can be formed anywhere that it fits. At first, this makes the game seem a lot harder. To solve a level, I first choose where I am going to form the molecule, and then I work on getting the atoms there. Until I finish level, I am not quite sure if my choice of location will work or not. In the back of my mind while moving the atoms, I am usually wondering if all these moves are for naught. In practice, it is rare that a given location does not work for some deep reason.

Oddly, the more complicated molecules are actually easier because there is often only one or two places on the screen where they would fit. In screen shot, there are only two places where Malic Acid can fit: the lower-left corner or the lower-right corner. This makes solving a level much easier.

WAtomic has 85 levels with the last one being a bit different. The levels can be played in any order. The levels are definitely not ordered by difficulty. The game keeps track of your best score (fewest moves), but I could not find a list of best scores in world or par scores on the Internet. There is a level editor, but I did not see any user made levels, however 85 is probably enough.

One fun thing in WAtomic is the "about" button. By clicking on it, it opens the Wikipedia page for that molecule. I always enjoy reading Wikipedia articles. A word of warning: I did notice that the Malic Acid molecule in the game is not correct. It should be C₄H₆0₅. I didn't notice any others that were wrong, but you should not use WAtomic to study for a chem exam.

My only complaint about WAtomic is that it always crashes when I exit. It never crashes during the game.

WAtomic is a fun game, everyone who reads this blog should give it a play if you have not done so already. If you enjoy WAtomic, you will also like the web-browser flash game TubesMix.

Laser Frensy

2007-02-25T23:41:00.000-08:00

Title: Laser Frensy
Author: KNPMASTER
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.thegamespage.com/tgp5/games.php?section=mustdl&game=laserf

The author of Laser Frensy claims the game is a "really, really hard puzzle game," and he is right. This game kicked my butt. There are only 18 levels, but it took me a lot longer than it should have to finish. A real ego bruiser, this one.

The goal in Laser Frensy is to shot the exit (the white circular tile) twice. The first shot opens the exit; the second completes the level. Your only tools are the lasers. By clicking on a laser, it fires. Some lasers are on tracks and can be moved left/right or up/down by clicking on the arrows. The tough part is aiming lasers. Hitting a laser with a laser blast rotates its firing direction 90 degrees clockwise. A big part of this game is planning ahead to get the lasers aimed correctly.

The effect of a laser blast on other objects is pretty logical. The black walls stop the laser blast. A blast bounces 90 degrees when hitting the glass side of a mirror. The mirrors can be moved one square by hitting them on one of their other two sides. Red brick walls need to be hit twice to be knocked down. There are these nifty bombs (radiation symbol things) which blow up other objects when pushed into them.

One laser blast can pass through the tiles with a cross on them, then they become solid. The one direction tiles only allow a blast through in that one direction, but toggle their direction upon doing so. The small boxes move one square, if open, when hit by a blast. I think that is it.

While there are only 18 levels, that was more than enough to challenge me. The levels are very well constructed. On most levels, there is an "a-ha" moment when you see the trick to solving the level. The level pictured above is one of my favorites. For the longest time, I was sure that you had to rotate the laser just above the exit three times. Finally, I realized that you can use the bomb to blow up the wall just to the left of the exit. Then the level became easy with a little careful planning.

Complaints? The screen size is small and fixed. A level editor would be nice.

There is one odd thing about the game. It somehow reads the keyboard at a low level. If you start laser frenzy, open notepad, and start typing, then every time hit the m key, the music in laser frenzy will toggle on and off. This means that it is reading the keyboard even when another program has focus. I did not think Windows allowed programs to do this. So, don't go typing in you on-line banking password while playing. I do not think it is doing anything bad, but it could be. Who knows!

Laser Frenzy reminds me a bit of Laser Tank.

No Friction

2007-02-18T20:17:00.000-08:00

Title: No Friction
Author: Daniel Remar
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.remar.se/daniel/friction.php

A quick one this week. In No Friction, you control the large blue ball. You have to collect all the small green balls and make your way to the exit. The constraint is that once you send the ball in motion, it keeps moving until it hits a wall. Thus, the title of the game.

You also have to avoid the traps. The gray traps are fixed. The red traps move back and forth, but timing is not really an issue. One more thing, some of the walls are breakable. Once you hit one, it breaks and disappears. That is all there is to the game.

No Friction has only 20 levels, and they are not too hard. At each move, you have at most four options and many of them can be quickly eliminated. This is a fun little game which you can play in a few sittings.

There is something about about simple little games like No Friction which I really like despite their obvious faults. It guess it is the indie thing. My only real complaint is that I could not turn off the music.

Sokoban YASC

2007-02-08T20:08:00.000-08:00

Title: Sokoban YASC
Author: Brian Damgaard
License: Freeware
Website: https://sourceforge.net/projects/sokobanyasc/

Sokoban is an ubiquitous puzzle game. The first version came out in early 80s. Over the years there have been many clones and variants. I have wasted a bit of time with ksokoban which comes with most linux distros while I should have been working. But, for some reason which I cannot explain, I have never been a huge fan of sokoban. It has a simple idea and gives rise to some great puzzles which be really tough. Objectively, I should be a huge fan. Personal taste is a funny thing.

Just in case you have never played sokoban, here is a quick description. The goal is to get each crate, box, or stone to one the destination spaces. To do this, you use the man or bulldozer to push the crates about the maze. You can only push one crate at time into an empty space. Simple rules but some levels require thousands of moves.

Among the many windows clones, I like YASC (Yet Another Sokoban Clone) the best. It has a simple interface and controls, and comes with all the features you would expect: 1521 levels, unlimited undos, solution recording, and a level editor in case you solve all 1521 levels. There is deadlock detection which keeps you from doing really bone head moves. There are a dozen skins if you do not like the default graphics.

There are two unusual features of YASC which put it on top. The first is reverse mode. In this mode, the destinations and crates are flipped. Instead of pushing crates to destinations, you pull destinations to the starting positions of the crates. The reverse mode is logically equivalent to the forward mode. Strangely, some puzzles seem easier working in reverse.

The other unique feature of YASC is YASS (Yet Another Sokoban Solver). It turns out that solving sokoban puzzles can be quite hard. For some problems, the search space gets unmanageably large. YASS cannot solve all 1521 levels, but it does a pretty good job, and I have enjoyed playing with it.

A while back, I wrote my own sokoban solver using a best-first A* algorithm approach. I was surprised how difficult these problems can get. So, YASS impressed me. The University of Alberta gaming group have also taken stab at sokoban.

One odd feature of YASC is a built in music player. There is nothing like solving puzzles while listen to a little Moby.

I wish YASC recorded completed levels in a clearer fashion. I have no other complaints.

There are many other good sokoban programs. I have not tried them all, but one of the best is Sokoban++. The oxyd clone Enigma contains a set of sokoban levels. Another interesting program is Spherical.

Blue Ball

2007-02-02T23:04:00.000-08:00

Title: Blue Ball
Author: H.Yamaguchi
License: Freeware (I think, I cannot read Japanese)
Website: http://www.yamagame.com/MyWeb/WINDOWS/BLUEBALL/BLUEBALL.HTM

One of my favorite freeware gaming sites is freegame.cz. One problem for me is that the site is in Czech, but I have made due. It does not require a PhD to figure out that Logicke means logic. Then using the screen shots, I have found some good games over the years. Recently, they started an English version of their website which is wonderful for us English only folks. They have not translated every description yet, but they seem to be working on it.

I found this week's game, Blue Ball, going through the English listings at freegame.cz. It is a simple little logic game which lacks polish, but contains some good puzzles. The goal is simultaneously fill each of the end tiles (indented tile with a small blue dot) with one of the blue balls. The controls are simple, the four arrow keys. Hitting an arrow key moves all of the balls one space in that direction unless the ball bumps up against a wall or other unmovable block.

Solving most levels comes down to figuring out how to get the correct separation, both horizontally and vertically, between the balls. The walls allow you to move some of the balls while keeping the others fixed. However, you have to make sure that none of your balls falls into an void tile, never to be seen again.

There are several special tiles which add additional complication to the game. The red blocks can be pushed around so long as there is an empty tile at the end of the row. Things can be hidden under red blocks. This comes into play in a couple of the levels. The yellow blocks can also be pushed about. They also fill voids when pushed into one, forming a bridge. The blue blocks act as locked doors. The keys are the small blue topped pyramids. There are breakable tiles. One type can only be walked on (rolled on?) once; the other can withstand two transversals. Finally, the tiles with arrows on them restrict which direction a ball can move off them.

Blue Ball contains 64 levels. They are arranged in eight groups of eight. Once you complete five levels a group, the next group of eight levels becomes available to play. The quality of levels is a mixed bag. Some are quite easy, others quite hard. Some are just plain annoying. One level contains three blue blocks, but the blue pyramids are hidden under red blocks. You have to find them. I actually have not finished all 64. Assuming that you can solve five out of eight levels, you can skip the annoying ones.

Beside the arrow keys, the only other keys you need are the space bar and escape key. The space bar toggles between the level selection screen and the levels. Hit it twice when you mess up and want to restart. The escape key exits the game.

It is easy to find faults with the blue ball: poor level quality and pacing, weak graphics and sound, general lack of polish, and no level editor. But, I suggest you overlook all this. There are some good puzzles mixed in here. And, it is free. Well, I think it is free. I cannot read Japanese, so I cannot be sure. Why not play it?

Zillions of Games

2007-01-28T15:16:00.000-08:00

Title: Zillions of Games
Author: Zillions Development Corp.
License: Commercial
Website: http://www.zillions-of-games.com/

This is the last and least traditional in my little three part series in compilation games. Zillions of Games is a game playing system. The rules for a game are encoded in .zrf file (Zillions Rule File, maybe?). The syntax is similar to lisp. The game engine reads in a .zrf rules file and plays the game.

Zillions of Games comes with 50 rules files, most of which contain several variants. The game engine is designed with two-player abstract strategy games in mind. The included rules files allow you to play chess, checkers, go, and many other games against the computer. However, the .zrf syntax is flexible enough to allow for puzzle games. Included with the game are some classics: peg solitaire, 8 queens, and knight tours.

These 50 included .zrf files are just the beginning of Zillions of Games. Fans have submitted, as of the today, 1353 more .zrf files covering all manner of games and puzzles. Here is the index. The range and scope of the games is impressive, and shows the simplicity yet power of the .zrf syntax and game engine.

Since most people concentrate, rightfully so, on the 2-player games, I want to list some of the interesting puzzle games which people have written for Zillions of Games. Obviously, I have not tried all of the 1353 submitted .zrf files. So, this is in no way a comprehensive list.

I hope this gives you some idea of the puzzle possibilities with Zillions of Games.

The majority of these puzzle .zrf files were written by Karl Scherer. I want to thank him for making Zillions of Games such a wonderful toy for us puzzle and logic fans.

What is bad about Zillions of Games? The graphics are weak, and the interface is clunky at times. Both are "who cares?" in my book. The there is no real quality control in the user submitted .zrf files. Some are buggy, and some are less interesting. I wish there was a rating system for submissions. The game does not record which puzzles you have completed. For some 2-player games, the heuristic used in the min-max search is weak. The computer backgammon player is truly awful. This does not effect the puzzle games.

I hope that any puzzle/logic fan who has avoided Zillions because they thought it was only for 2-player games will give it another look.

(*) In the interest of full disclosure: Adam Chalcraft is a friend. So, I might not be fully objective on this one.

Smart Games 2

2007-01-19T18:38:00.000-08:00

Title: Smart Games - Challenge 2
Author: Smart Games, Inc
License: Commercial
Website: http://www.smartgames.com/Content/challenge2.asp

Next up on my list of compilation games is Smart Games 2, a puzzle gaming classic which came out in 1998 (give or take). It is a diverse and original collection of 15 games, each with about 35 puzzles or levels. It is a mix of game types. There are some straight logic games. Then, there are word and trivial games. Plenty to keep you busy. Details for two of the more interesting games are given below.

You can play any puzzle from any of the games at any time, which I really like. Smart Games 2 records your progress. And, your progress is also converted it to an overall score for household bragging rights.

Smart Games 2 can still be purchased. It runs on a Windows XP computer, but I found the mouse movements a little jerky at times. Also, it maxes out the processor which makes this a poor choice for a laptop.

Pipeline

Simple enough: use the different pipe pieces on the left to connect the water spigot with the red valve to the each of the devices needing water. The requirements differ from level to level. On some levels, the goal is to use a few pipes as possible; on others, you have to use all of the pipes. Some levels contain leaky pipes which can be used but lower your score. There are several levels where you can beat their "best" score.

Say What

You have to place the sound bits in the correct order to form a famous saying or a sample from a well known song. Many of the songs are from classical music. This probably says more me than anything, but I found this game quite difficult, but at the same time fun. As an added twist, some the sound bits are backwards.

Heaven & Earth

2007-01-12T15:46:00.000-08:00

Title: Heaven & Earth
Author: Buena Vista Software
License: Commercial/Abandoned
Website: http://www.iangilman.com/software/heavenearth.php

I recently played through several old compilation puzzle games and am going to start the year by reviewing them over the next couple of weeks. These compilation games contain a series of puzzle types with 20 or more puzzles in each category. The programs keep track of your progress. Completing all of the puzzles in every category is quite a challenge.

The first one is Heaven & Earth. It came out way back in 1991, but is still loads of fun to play. It runs just fine on today's Windows XP machine. The controls are little goofy. You use the mouse sometimes and keyboard at other times. You have to click to move on to the next puzzle. Just use your DOS zen thinking (or read the manual) to figure it out. Also, Heaven & Earth does not contain any sound (not quite true, but almost).

Heaven & Earth actually contains three subgames: pendulum, a card game, and the illusions . I am only going to review the illusions. I never enjoyed the other two subgames, and there is more than enough puzzle gaming goodness in the illusions to keep you going for a long time.

The illusions contains 12 different puzzle types, three of which are described below. Each puzzle type contains 40 puzzles, divided into four groups of ten. The puzzles get progressively more difficult, and when moving from one group of ten to the next, an addition twist is usually added. The on-line help fully describes the rules for each game.

Heaven & Earth can be downloaded for free from one of the programmers (the link above). I guess this is legal. The first time the game is run, you have to answer a question from the manual. I actually still have mine, but in case you lost yours, the answers are also available at this website.

Convex Concave

You have to combine the blue pieces together to form the green figure. The tricky part is in choosing the order in which to place the pieces. You have to get the 3-D shading correct. This requires that you overlap the pieces in the right order.

Antimaze

This is one of my favorites. The goal is simple enough, get the blue square to the circle. However, with an antimaze, you can move the blue square through walls, but not through free space. Sure it is just the duel of a regular maze, and should be just a easy, but our brains are hardwired with years of regular mazes to make these antimazes oddly difficult.

Fit Fall

Fit Fall is simple enough, fit the pieces in the grid. You can rotate and flip the pieces. A later variant increases the depth of the grid.

2006 Game of the Year

2006-12-29T17:35:00.000-08:00

Game of the Year: Hex-a-hop

Picking the game of the year was very easy this year. Hex-a-hop is perfect. Simple rules, nice graphics, intuitive controls, gradual learning curve, 100 wonderful levels. And it is free! Playing through the Hex-a-hop was the best gaming of the year for me. I want more; another set of 100 level, please!

Runner-Up: Armadillo Run

The realism of the simulation in Armadillo Run is top notch. I feel that if I were to actually make one of these contraptions, it would behave just like in the game. Look at some of these Spectator Levels where people have the game to model the real world. Oh, there is a great game lurking in this physics simulation. Be sure to check out the fan made levels.

Honorable Mention: Puck

Puck is a simple fun puzzler with an original idea. It has 45 well crafted levels. Free. What more could you want?

Honorable Mention: Buchstabensalat

I do not know if this game came out in 2006 or not, but I first starting playing it this year and it has become a bit of an obsession. I can't really explain why, but whenever I have five minutes to kill, I start up Buchstabensalat. I have not played a game of freecell since getting it.

Swistakowy Klopot

2006-12-22T23:12:00.000-08:00

Title: Swistakowy Klopot
Author: Projekt 7
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.projekt7.xt.pl/

As best I can tell, a swistak is a small mammal and "klopot" is Polish for "hard case". Put together, Swistakowy Klopot is a fun platform puzzle game. The goal is to get swistak to the exit. Being a small mammal, the swistak can only step up one step at a time and cannot swim. Luckily, each levels comes with some boxes which you can pick up, move around, and drop. Using the boxes, you can form staircases to climb. You can also use boxes to fill in water.

In the later levels, some additional game elements are introduced. There are teleporters. These allow swistak, and a box if he/she is carrying one, to teleport to another part of the board. There are also gates blocking the way on some levels. To open the gate, a box must be dropped on the key pad.

Before I go on, I should tell about the bad, and there is a lot of it. Swistakowy Klopot uses a fixed screen size. You have to complete the levels sequentially. There are passwords to remember or write down. The controls are little clunky. To turn around without moving, hold down the shift key while hitting an arrow. There is no documentation. The background music cannot be turned off. The background graphics, while well done, can be distracting and cannot be turned off. When exiting the program, there is a splash screen for the software development tool click team. Despite all of this, I still liked Swistakowy Klopot.

Now for the good. The rules are simple. There are 41 levels which are well done and well paced. They are not too hard, but a couple made me think. The hardest levels for me were the ones around level 10. I was still learning what is possible by stacking boxes. What I like the most about the game is the depth of the puzzles given the simplicity of the rules.

There are a couple of subtle points in the rules. In order to pick up a box, the space above you must be free. Also, in order to step up while carrying a box, there need to be two free spaces above. You will get the hang of it very quickly.

Their website does not seem to be working. You can download the game from Caiman Free Games. A similar game is Mailroom Madness. It contains the same box moving mechanics.

Updates

2006-12-15T18:59:00.000-08:00

I spent the week going through my old blog entries and seeing which games had been updated since I wrote about them. Some have had serious updates; others just minor patches. In either case, it is good sign when a game is being actively updated. It shows that the developer and programmers care.

Kiki the Nano Bot

One the best gaming moments of 2006 for me was the release of Kiki the Nano Bot version 1.0.2 with 27 additional levels. Actually, it came out in late 2005, but it took me a while to notice. Kiki is a great game, but just as I was getting used the movement and rules in the previous version, the game ended. The additional levels are pure heaven and make Kiki a much better game.

Enigma

Version 1.0 came out in the last couple of weeks. I have not played with it much. It contains over 200 new levels. The interesting new feature is a system for recording/submitting of times. Now each level comes with a best time and par time, and you can submit your best times. They also reordered the levels a bit, but did not create a thinkers only level set which I would have liked.

Armadillo Run

Version 1.0.3 contains many small improvements. These improvements show that the author listens to the players and cares. Definitely download this update if you have purchased the game. Also, be sure to download some of the user designed levels.

Eets

Version 1.03 is now available. Among the many improvements is a reply feature. Also, after some number of failed attempts on a level, a "show solution" button will appear if you want move on to a new level. Plus, there are now over 200 user made levels.

CuberXtreme

The renamed Cubrius has added one level pack. I am a little disappointed that there have not been more new levels.

Rocks'n'Diamonds

In August, version 3.2.2 came out.

Babala

While still technically in beta, version 0.4.0 is now out. This includes some new levels and the ability to download/upload global high scores for each level. See how well you are really doing.

Simple Sudoku

I don't understand why people pay $20 for a sudoku program when this one is free. Version 4.2i came out within the last week.

Tube Twist

The Tube Twist Quantum-Flux Edition can be purchased right now. Their site claims to have a patch/update in the works for those of us who purchased the game. However, they have been claiming for the last nine months to be working on experiment packs for us. So, I am not going to hold my breath on this update.

Puzzle Bunnies

This is my little puzzle game. Version 0.3 contains twenty some odd new levels and a couple of bug fixes. Email me if you would like a copy. I am working on setting up a website.

Robocode

Just this week, version 1.2.2 was released.

Deadly Rooms of Death

DROD: Journey to a Rooted Hold was my Game of the Year for 2005. In 2006, they kept patching those small bugs that pop up. The current version is 2.0.14. There are also an enormous number of user made holds to play. Also in 2006, DROD: King Dugan's Dungeon was released. It is essentially the original DROD: Architects' Edition with improved graphics and audio. They are now working on DROD: The City Beneath. Check out the progress bar on the CaravelNet Forum page.

GNU Backgammon

One of the best computer backgammon programs in the world keeps improving. The current version is 0.15.

Browser Games 5

2006-12-09T14:44:00.000-08:00

It is time for another trio of browser games. This time around, I am going to mention three The Incredible Machine-like games. If you read through my old entries, you will see that I love TIM. I hope that someday a new version comes out. Until then, here are three web based games to tide us over. Oh as a fourth choice, I have previous mentioned WhizzBall.

BluePrint

The goal is to get the ball to the target. Each BluePrint level comes with a variety of items such as ramps, treadmills, nudges, and pipes. When properly placed, these items guide the ball to the target. When improperly placed, the ball goes flying off the wrong way. The physics model is realistic. One nice thing about BluePrint is the items have to placed in the grid, and thus no pixel level placement that some TIM games suffer from. One odd thing about BluePrint is that you only have a limited number of attempts at a given level before it resets. There are 28 levels which can be played in any order.

Impulse

This is a browser based demo/tutorial of a full game, a really good game. Again, the goal is to get the ball to the target. Sometimes, you have to activate the target by hitting a key object first. Each levels comes with some collection of exploding bombs, imploding bombs, bounce bombs, and teleporters for you to place. With each bomb, you also get to set its timer, how long after hitting start the bomb goes off. The timing on the bombs often has to be right down to the 1/50th of a second, but with Impulse's amazing replay feature this is not a burden. The demo comes with 20 levels. The full version comes with 100 levels.

Rubicon

Rubicon is a great game. What it might lack in graphics, it makes up for in tough puzzles. Also, users can and have submitted levels. This game is going to become a cult favorite. You have to move each numbered (in hex 0x0 to 0xf) create to its destination. To move those creates about, you have conveyer belts, pipes, dozer, ramps, winches. The best item though is the packer which takes two boxes, packs them together, and creates one new box whose label is the sum (mod 16) of the two inputs. As you might guess, people have already come up with some tough puzzles requiring this feature. There are only 12 prebuilt levels. Then you have to move onto the user made levels. These get tough. There are some devious people out there.

Gartriage

2006-12-02T08:47:00.000-08:00

Title: Gartriage
Author: Jean Van Laethem
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.tont.be/Gartriage/EN/index.html

Puzzle games with simple rules are always the best. Gartriage falls into this category, simple rules, simple graphics, and good puzzles.

Gartriage is a Sokoban-like game. To complete a level, each of the train cars has to move to the corresponding load of coal. To do this, the train engine is used to push and pull the cars. There are two twists though. First, you can link up two or more cars and push or pull them simultaneously just like a train. Second, no link in a train can make more than 45 degree turn when moving. That is about all there is to the rules.

These two additional rules make for some interesting puzzles. It is often necessary to form a train with multiple cars to free one car stuck behind another car. This adds a nice bit of complexity. The 45 degree turn rule restricts your movement options and dictates some careful storage of cars off on side tracks from time to time. And as with any Sokoban like game, care has to be taken to make sure the engine does not get stuck.

The actual mechanics of playing Gartriage take a little getting used to. The nodes on which the engine and train cars can move to are small and a bit hard to see at first. Then you have to learn how to connect, move, and disconnect cars to the engine. I did not find it obvious at first, but after a few minutes it became clear.

Gartriage comes with 60 puzzles to solve. Most are pretty easy, but there are some good ones in the mix. Any level can be played at anytime, and each level comes with difficulty rating. So, you can skip right to the tough ones. It also keeps track of the best solution by every player for each level allowing for a little friendly competition. A level editor is included.

Gartriage is a good game and well worth playing.

Ultimate Spin Doctor

2006-11-26T10:29:00.000-08:00

Title: Ultimate Spin Doctor
Author: Expert Software?
License: Commercial/Abandoned
Website: http://www.the-underdogs.info/game.php?id=4452

Due to a busy Thanksgiving holiday and one too many flights, just a short entry this week.

Despite no updates since January, the best abandoneware website on the Internet is still Home of the Underdogs. It lost its .org domain name this Summer due to a credit card issue and subsequent cybersquatting. Some information about all this is available in the HotU Wikipedia article.

But HotU is back with a .info domain address. I recently ran through their puzzle games and rediscovered Ultimate Spin Doctor. It is a Clockwerx clone/remake for Windows by Expert Software. Now, normally, I don't endorse abandoneware, but Expert Sortware website has been taken over by some other cybersquatter. Ah, the irony. So, if this does not count as abandoned I don't know what does.

Ultimate Spin Doctor is a fun, challenge puzzle game. The game is played on a square grid of dots. The object is to get your spinning clock arm (the yellow one) from the starting dot to ending dot. When the clock arm gets near a neighboring dot, you can pass like a trapeze artist to it and thus work your way through the grid toward your objective.

Of course, there are obstacles. There are enemy clock arms spinning on some dots and mines. There are switches which open doors to pass over. There are teleporter dots. All the usual puzzle game stuff.

Ultimate Spin Doctor comes with 100 levels. The first ten form a nice tutorial. The later levels get tough. If you need a hint or two, a Clockwerx fan put together a walkthrough. There is some timing necessary, but it usually is not too bad. Happy spinning.

rE/Generation

2006-11-19T16:39:00.000-08:00

Title: rE/Generation
Author: Dream Codex
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.dreamcodex.com/regen.php

A quick nostalgia trip this week. I recently played through a D/Generation remake called rE/Generation. The original D/Gen came out in the early 90s, and I loved it. It was part action game, part adventure game, and part puzzle game, a wonderful hybrid of these various genres.

The best part about D/Gen is the great back story which develops throughout the game. Something has gone wrong at Genoq, a bioweapon developer. You have to rescue the hostages, stop the bioweapons, find out what happened, and save the world . As you work through the rooms and floors, the story is told by the hostages and the computer terminals. It is one of the best stories I have ever seen in a computer game.

The goal of D/Gen is to secure each room. Each contains various baddies to avoid or shoot. There are switches to turn turrets off and toggle force fields. Some doors require special access cards which are usually located in other rooms. You have a gun and sometimes grenades. The game play is actually very simple. Some rooms contain hostages hiding in corners to be rescued. Everytime you reach a hostage, you can talk to them and find out more about what happened. Some rooms contain computer terminals which you can activate and read.

This week's game, rE/Generation, is a remake which came out about two years ago. It is very faithful to the original. A few extra levels were added. Anyone who remembers D/Gen needs to play rE/Gen.

rE/Gen suffers from being an old DOS game converted to Windows. The controls seem outdated, the graphics while better than the original are not great by current standards, and sound is poor. But it is just the way I remember it. So I cannot fault rE/Gen for any of these things.

D/Gen and thus rE/Gen is not a puzzle game, nor is it an action game or adventure games. It is a combination or hybrid, and thus will not appeal to many. Also, it is also a difficult game, but worth it.

There is one bug which I noticed. Clicking on a computer terminal with the Window's mouse in windowed mode, the game freezes. There is also a full screen mode with no mouse cursor.

Lines of Action

2006-11-10T23:06:00.000-08:00

Title: Lines of Action
Author: Benjamin Guihaire
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.guihaire.com/loa/

As a young lad, I happened upon a copy Sid Sackson's Gamut of Games in a used book store, a great find. It contains a wonderful collection of rules for abstract strategy games, many described for the first time. One of my favorites from this book is Lines of Action, a simple but deep game invented by Claude Soucie. I subjected my siblings to many games of Lines of Action way back when. I recently remembered the game and went searching for a good computer opponent.

Lines of Action is played on a checker board with twelve pieces a side. The complete rules are available at the Lines of Action Homepage. The goal is to connect all of your pieces. Each turn, one piece is moved horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. The main rule is that the number of spaces a piece can move is equal to the number pieces, friendly and unfriendly, in the row, column, or diagonal of motion. You cannot move over an opponent, but you can land on opponent removing it from the board.

What has always fascinated me about Lines of Action is the lack of an easy heuristic to evaluate positions. Games like chess and checkers have simple material heuristics. One thing you will quickly learn about Lines of Action is that a material advantage is not a good indicator of who is winning. With fewer pieces it is easier to connect them. Some rough guidelines I have learned from playing over the years are that you want to connect your pieces, try to isolate one or more of your opponent's pieces, and keep your piece mobility high. This is all easy to say, but I still do not know how I would go about writing a subroutine to evaluate Lines of Action positions.

It turns out that there are many Lines of Action programs out there. I like Benjamin Guihaire's program the best. It has a simple interface and plays a reasonable game. There are ten skill levels. The easiest level can be beaten without much thought. The middle levels kick my butt, but I do not claim to be a good player. One fun thing about his program is that it includes several alternative starting configurations.

I do have two minor issues with Guihaire's program. First, when the computer wins, I brings up a "black has won" dialogue box before displaying the winning move. Second, clicking on help sends your web browser off to a site which does not exist any more.

Guihaire's program is considered weak compared with some of the best ones out there. Here are a couple of others. Mark Winands' MIA program is one of the strongest in the world and free. I find its interface confusing though. Mark wrote a Master's Thesis on Lines of Action which is worth a read. There are two others offered up by The University of Alberta GAMES Group: Mona and YL. They have a JAVA Applet which proports to allow you play against them online, but always get "Error: Could Not Connect To Server(games.cs.ualberta.ca:52020" after my first move.

Old DOS Games

2006-11-03T22:21:00.000-08:00

Remember the days when you had memorized critical information such as SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4. You had multiple boot disks sitting there next to your computer. One for those extended memory games; another for the emm games. Setting the number of FILES and BUFFERS just right in your config.sys was an art. VGA graphics! Remember the advance that was VESA. Those were the days. The days of DOS.

Here are three throw back puzzle games to those DOS days. All three feature crappy graphics, crappy sounds, no mouse, and excellent puzzles. I found them at DOSGAMES, a fun nostalgia trip for those of us over 35.

Cyberbox

All you have to do is make it to the exit at the top. Standing between you and the exit are a collection of boxes and one way gates. Some boxes can be pushed, and others can be pulled. The arrows indicate the direction or directions in which boxes can be moved. 15 levels come for free, others can be purchased. The levels are quite challenging.

Vampiric Tower

In this one, you have to collect all the viles and then make your way to the exit. Of course, you have to avoid getting in the direct line of sight of a pumpkin because they will kill you. There are blocks which can be pushed around to block the glare of those evil pumpkins. When the going gets really tough, you can transform the little girl into a bat and fly over the spikes tiles. Vampiric Tower comes with 50 levels, some of which are pretty tough.

Spych

The third game, Spych, actually uses the PC speaker for sound. I finally got to test whether I connected the speaker to the mainboard correctly when I built my computer. The goal in spych is the same as the others: collect all the chips and make it to the exit. There are boxes to be pushed around, doors to be unlocked, and bombs to be defused. Spych has 31 tricky levels.

Castle of Elite

2006-10-28T20:55:00.000-07:00

Title: Castle of Elite
Author: Daniel Remar
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.remar.se/daniel/castle.php

With any puzzle/action game, there is a balance between the puzzle part and the action part. What makes a good puzzle/action game enjoyable is usually subjective and personal . I tend to enjoy games which are more puzzle than action. To give you a calibration of my tastes, the popular n requires too much finger work for my tastes, Blackshift is right at the boundary, and the small amount of timing needed for Reflexion is negligible.

Castle of Elite is a puzzle/action game which I greatly enjoyed. What pushes it into enjoyable territory is that when fancy finger work does appear necessary, it is usually possible with a bit of thought to find another way to solve the level which requires far less careful timing. This makes Castle of Elite a great thinkers game.

Castle of Elite is fairly straight forward platform puzzler. You have to collect all of the coins and proceed to the exit. You can move left or right and jump up one square. The interesting aspect of this game is that there are special brick symbols. After picking one up, you then have the ability to add a certain configuration of bricks anywhere on the board where the configuration fits. These additional bricks then be used to jump on and access other parts of the board. You have to think carefully where to place these additional bricks.

Castle of Elite also contains many of the usual puzzle game objects. There are switches which toggle bricks of the corresponding color. Jump boots allow you jump two levels instead of one. Teleporters help get you and the bad guys around.

Oh yes, the bad guys. There are several types of bad guys. Each has it own movement rules, and you certainly do not want to be touched by one. The sweeper just moves back and forth. The trundler moves left and right but feels the effects of gravity. The trapper rotates its directions of travel counter-clockwise when it hits a wall. An interesting facet of the strategy of Castle of Elite is that by placing bricks, the path of the bad guys can be and sometimes needs to be changed.

The levels are dividing into four difficulties with 12 levels of each difficulty. Once you have completed 6 levels of each difficulty, all of the levels of the next level become available. If you complete all of the levels of a given difficulty, a secret level is revealed. The later levels get quite hard.

The graphics and audio in Castle of Elite are decent. This is on the whole a very polished game. I encourage everyone to give this one a play even if it does require a little finger work from time to time.

aXiebal 2004

2006-10-21T23:41:00.000-07:00

Title: aXiebal 2004
Author: IDEE Software
License: Freeware
Website: http://users.pandora.be/hendrik.knaepen/axiebalen.htm

Have you ever found a game which by all rights you should hate, but you do actually enjoy it? aXiebal fits that description for me. Let me go over some of aXiebal's faults. The levels have to completed sequentially, and there is a time limit. The pacing of the levels is poor. The interface has huge flaws. For example, in order to see how many bombs you currently have in your possession, you have to hit enter, pause the game, and bring up a dialogue box. On many levels, it is impossible to tell which tiles can be destroyed with bombs and which cannot. This can result in some trial and error. The controls are mushy and take a bit of getting use to.

With all this going against it, I still enjoyed playing aXiebal. It is your basic platform puzzler. The rules are simple: controlling the teal ball, collect all the flags and make it to the exit. There are bombs which can also be picked up. Later, you can detonate a bomb destroying any neighboring destructible tiles. Depending on the tile set, you may or may not be able to tell which tiles are in fact destructible. There are elevators to gain back lost altitude and death tiles to avoid. The death tiles appear differently in different tile sets. Sometimes, they looks like water, file, or as above, electricity. That is it.

aXiebal comes with 75 levels. The difficulty of the levels varies a great deal and the pacing is quite poor. A sorting of the levels would really help. One oddity is that a few levels are different when playing on hard difficulty versus easy difficulty. Another oddity is that when you start a new game, you have to manually go in the options menu and set the level to begin playing. A very strange design choice in my opinion.

Why did I enjoy playing aXiebal? Well... there are a few tough levels in there which I really enjoyed. There were even a couple which I thought were impossible after a few failures. Also, the graphics and audio are decent.

Once you finish off aXiebal 2004, there is aXiebal Winter with 75 more levels to tackle. Although, I could not figure out how to configure aXiebal Winter to have English menus.

OrbitZ

2006-10-13T23:05:00.000-07:00

Title: OrbitZ
Author: Addictive 247
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.addictive247.co.uk/orbitz.htm

Addictive 247 recently relicensed OrbitZ from a shareware to a freeware game. I am very thankful for this, but there is a price. You are forced to view an advert for other Addictive 247 games and hit ESC every time you exit the game.

The goal of each OrbitZ level is to safely get each planet (Earth, Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune) to its corresponding worm hole. You choose how to move the planets, but once a planet starts in motion it keeps moving until it hits a wall or another planet. To key to solving most levels is figuring out how to use the planets to block for each other and gain access to areas which they could not by themselves.

There are a couple of other items to spice things up. First, there are mines. If you run a planet into a mine, you gotta restart that level. Of course, there are mine sweepers. If a planet passes over a mine sweeper, all the mines are destroyed. Then there is the vortex which is similar to a teleporter, but you can only use it once and you do not know where the other end is. There can be a bit of trial and error with vortices. Finally, there are asteroids which bounce back and forth and must be avoided.

OrbitZ comes with 60 levels plus 5 tutorial levels. You can play any level at any time. Also there is no time limit. I have to give them thumbs up on both of these design choices. The levels get gradually more difficult as you proceed, but no level is overly difficult from a logic point of view. A few of the later levels are difficult from a timing point of view. On these few levels, you have to very carefully time planet movements to avoid the asteroids. No level editor is included.

One minor complaint about OrbitZ is that the graphic for Mars and Jupiter are similar. I got used to it, but it seems that Saturn would have been a better choice for one or the other. Otherwise, the graphics and sound are excellent. OrbitZ has the fit and finish that you expect from a commercial game.

OrbitZ keeps track of five players or profiles as they call them. One interesting feature is that the total number of moves is recorded for each profile. This might result in a little friendly competition among family members. It is too bad that they do not record the number of moves on each level and give a par or best score for each level. This would make OrbitZ a bit more challenging.

OrbitZ is a fun, quality puzzler and worth the price of having to look at their advertizement.

Sokoblast

2006-10-06T02:27:00.000-07:00

Title: Sokoblast
Author: Hellbound
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.gamemakergames.com/?a=view&id=1028

The last thing the world needs is another Sokoban clone. So, a year ago when I first saw this week's game on the Game Maker site, I skipped right over it because of its name. About a month ago, it appeared at Caiman Free Games, and I decided to give it a try. It turns out the Sokoblast has little in common with Sokoban. The truth is that it is not the greatest or most challenging game, but I still enjoyed running through the levels.

There is some interesting social networking between gaming sites which I observed due to this game. Once Caiman Free Games had a review, Sokoblast starting appearing on all kinds of sites. Independent Gaming had a review. The next one I noticed was at Noonan Free Games. There were a couple of others, and now my review. We all read each others blogs and sites on a regular basis. With a little chronological analysis, you can probably figure out exactly who reads whose site. I found it funny that the game has been available for over a year and is only now getting some play.

So what is Sokoblast all about? It is your basic collect all of the gold bars and make your way to the exit game. Standing in your way are locked doors, various types of blocks, and voids. To get past the locked doors, there are keys spread about to collect. The basic block type can be pushed around Sokoban style. Blue and green blocks can be only eliminated by stepping on the button of the same color. To get rid of the orange blocks, you have to push a block onto the orange button. The purple blocks cannot be destroyed but can be moved with dynamite blasts.

Now you have to get across those voids. If you push a block or blast a purple into a void, it fills in the void. Another way is to use your boomerang to active a red button. Once activated, some subset of the voids fill in. To use your boomerang, you have to have direct line of sight of the button.

As I said Sokoblast is not a great game. Its biggest flaw is the level design. There are only 27 levels which are all quite easy and quite repetitive. I didn't have to think more than 30 seconds on any given level. A couple of times, I made a small mistake and did something in the wrong order and had to start the level over again. It is more annoying than anything else. Sadly, no level editor was included.

Sokoblast comes with no documentation. Use the arrow keys to move, space bar to light a stick of dynamite, and x to use your boomerang. To save your progress, you have to return to the main menu. Doing this after completing each level gets a little tiring. Two of the three graphic tile sets are nice; the middle one is ghastly. The audio is nice.

Sokoblast is still a fun little ego boost.

Clockwiser

2006-09-30T17:36:00.000-07:00

Title: Clockwiser
Author: IshiSoft
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.jrnetwork.co.uk/ishisoft/

This week's game, Clockwiser, was created as an entry for Retro Remakes 2006 competition. As part of that competition, IshiSoft was required to put in an initial splash screen containing the logos of the of the various competition sponsors. You have to click through this screen every time you start the game. This is an annoying form of in game advertising, something to which I am very opposed. I have decided to review Clockwiser anyways in large part because IshiSoft did not have a choice about the ad. I would understand if readers with higher standards just skip this one and come back next week.

In Clockwiser, the goal of each level is to make the left half the screen the same as the right half. To do this, you select a rectangle and rotate all of the items on its boundary one space clockwise or counterclockwise. After each rotation, gravity takes over. The colored squares simply fall. Bombs fall and destroy any neighboring items when they hit the bottom. Gems fall and multiply upon hitting bottom.

There are some other special items. There are bricks which do not feel the effects of gravity. They are especially useful if you want to elevate other items. There are wooden blocks which cannot be moved, but can be destroyed with bombs or converted to gems. There are anti-gravity tiles which counter gravity in that column. Finally, what would a puzzle game be without teleporters?

Clockwiser comes with 133 levels including 100 from the original game. Be sure to download the corrected level 74. The pacing of the levels is very good. The first 10 introduce the various items and then gradually get harder. There are some good challenges in here, but none of the levels are insanely hard. A level editor is included. One bummer is that you have to solve the level sequentially.

Clockwiser has two nice interface features. Each level comes with a time limit, but you can turn off this limit in options menu (thank you!). Another nice feature is an undo button. If make a bonehead move, you can take it back. Both make the game better.

There is one odd aspect to the rules which took me a while to understand. When a clockwise rotation is made on the left, the brick and bomb move together. On the right, the brick would move first. After the rotation, the bomb would drop and blow up itself and the brick.

All in all, Clockwiser is a great puzzle game with simple rules and fun, tough puzzles. It has great graphics, audio, and interface. As far as I can tell, it is bug free. What more could you want? No ads!

If you want info on the other entries in Retro Remakes 2006 competition, Tim W has short reviews of all of the entries in his Indy Gamer Blog.

Logical Stones 2006

2006-09-23T18:04:00.000-07:00

Title: Logical Stones 2006
Author: Face5 Team
License: Commercial
Website: http://www.face5.hu/

My first blog entry over a year ago was on Logical Stones. It is one of my favorite puzzle games ever. Since the freeware Logical Stones was released, Logical Stones 2004 and recently Logical Stones 2006 have come out as commercial games. This week I am going to review Logical Stones 2006.

Logical Stones 2006 is a platform puzzler. You control a little space ship. Your goal is to push, pull, fly, conveyor belt, whatever you have to do to get all of the stones to the "X" exit tiles. The stones are colored wire-framed cubes. When a cube reaches an "X" exit tile, it evaporates.

In Logical Stones 2006, there are 6 cube types, each with different properties. The basic blue cubes can only be pushed about one at a time with the ship. The red cubes be used to push one other cube. The green cubes can be flown around. The crystal cubes can only be pushed around like blue cubes, but they have the added restriction that they can only fall one space without breaking. These four stones made up the original Logical Stones game. Logical Stones 2004 added the yellow cube which can be pulled. Logical Stones 2006 adds the while cube which are very light and can be raised up if you get the ship underneath it. They also fall slower than you fly. So, you can push one off a ledge and fly under it.

There are several other items in the game. Lifts and switches allow you to move cubes about. There are teleporters and conveyor belts. Converters change cubes to another color. Factories create new cubes of a given color. These new cubes can be useful, but you have eliminate them also in order to complete the level.

The resulting puzzles are exquisite. Each level requires careful planning using one stone to block or fill in a gap for another. Logical Stones 2006 contains 100 levels. For the most part, the level design is very good and quite challenging. There are a couple of duds. This is not a game for the weak. If you are new to Logical Stones, I highly suggest you play the freeware original first before moving on to either the 2004 or 2006 version. I found the levels in the 2006 version slightly easier than the 2004 version, but there are still 6 levels which I have not completed.

I want to praise the level access model in Logical Stones 2006. The levels are arranged in a 10 by 10 grid. Initially, only the 4 levels at the center of the grid are available to be played. Once a level is completed, the neighboring levels in the grid become available for playing. This is a nice middle ground between having every level available and requiring them to be completed sequentially. And as you work your way out, the levels become harder.

There is not much bad to say about Logical Stones 2006. The new white stones do not add much to the game, but it is nice to have 100 new levels. My biggest complaint is that there is no level editor. I realize that they make money off the levels and level packs, but I think it is bad form that they did not include an editor. They owe it us paying customers. My only other complaint is that the game is expensive. It costs 19.99 euros which translated into 28.16 dollars on the day I bought it.

There is a forum for Logical Stones 2006. For spam reasons, you have to enter a username ("face5") and password ("forum"). Although, there are not many entries at this point. For the previous version, these forums have been quite active and useful for a hint or two.

One oddity is that the 16 levels in the demo are non contained in the full game. Be sure to play both.

Reflexion

2006-09-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

Title: Reflexion
Author: Juho Pohjonen
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.gamemaker.nl/games_exe.html

While randomly wandering the Internet, I found John Cletheroe's Puzzle Game Programs website which contains short reviews of about 140 puzzle, logic, and adventure games. Many of these games have also appeared in this blog. From reading his reviews, I sense that he is a kindred spirit to myself. For most games, we have similar opinions as to their merits. I suggest you give his site a read. One downside to John's site is that he lists the games in alphabetical order. So, it is hard to tell what is new.

On John's site, I found this week's gem. It is an older game which somehow I missed. Reflexion is a great puzzle game that is 99% logic and 1% careful clicking.

Each Reflexion level starts with a ball exiting the S tile. Your goal is to collect all of the gems by running the ball through them and make it to the exit (the E tile). You control the mirrors. By clicking on a mirror you change its orientation and thus the direction the ball will bounce when it hits that mirror. When the ball hits the a wall, it bounces back 180 degrees.

It sounds so simple. However, figuring out how to get the ball to certain parts of the map can be quite challenging at first. The thinking needed for Reflexion is novel, and I really enjoyed getting the hang of it.

Along the way additional items are added to complicate things. There are mirrors which you cannot flip. There are toggle tiles which control a door. You have to make sure the parity of the number of trips across these toggle tiles is correct. On some levels there movable tiles. Hit one with the ball and the tile will move one space. In the level in the screen shot, you have to move these tiles so the the cannon cannot hit your ball as you move to the right side to collect the gems. There are many more which keeps the game fresh.

There are 36 levels broken into three groups of 12. You have to finish all of the levels in each group to gain access to the next level. The interface is simple and intuitive. The graphics are sharp and not overdone. The sounds are good. Neither the graphics nor the audio gets in the way of the gameplay. My only complaint is that I wish there were more levels.