August 2004 Archives

Games are a good way to draw traffic to your site and get them involved when they arrive, and Pepsi recognizes this. Pepsi Co. UK commissioned the development of these games to promote their products and give visitors to their site something to have fun with.

Breakout is a twist on one of the oldest gameplay formulas in videogames, and it is surprisingly difficult. Instead of controlling just one paddle, you control four, and all of them with the mouse. Moving the mouse to the left and right move the top and bottom paddles, while moving the mouse up and down move the right and left paddles. Not only does the control scheme seem a bit odd to describe, playing it is a similar experience that challenges your hand-eye coordination skills. The object, of course, is to keep the ball on the play field, which is in a top down perspective. To add some variety, four power-ups exist to change up the play, such as: multi-ball, laser paddle, and big paddles. Click.

Finger Footy is a fun and humorous game that pits you against a whole football team—that's soccer to us Americans. The object is to try to score goals by getting the ball past the oncoming players, all the while preventing the players from getting too close by bowling them over with the ball. Control is with the mouse, click and hold the button down to power up your finger to flick the ball down the play field. Scoring a goal nets 15 points, and 1 point each for every player you knock over. It's a cute game that gets more difficult as the big guns come out later in play. Click.

Update: Unfortunately, Pepsi UK has taken these games offline to make room for another promotion.

The tree of Vanilla grows rapidly and becomes difficult to manage and balance if not cared for properly.

Like the tree it's named after, Vanilla is a deliciously refreshing and original game from ON, Japanese creator of Grow and Tontie, and exists with the others on his Eyezmaze website.

Gameplay is quite simple: just click each node of the tree with the mouse when highlighted, beginning with the base and moving up sequentially to the top of the tree. Each node will stay highlighted for only a short time before dropping back down towards the ground, so timing is important. Clicking in the center of each node will keep the tree balanced and growing straight up, while clicking to the right or left of center will cause the tree to lean in the opposite direction. The objective is to see how high you can make the tree grow before it tips too far towards either edge of the play field.

What is most unusual about Vanilla is its very narrow play field and a potential height that stretches well beyond the height of any browser window. As the tree of Vanilla becomes very tall, it becomes necessary to scroll the browser window in-between clicks, and timing becomes a factor that increases the difficulty.

Play Vanilla

Nate Rode, an RIT colleague, has created a helpful tutorial for anyone interested in learning how to program basic 2D game physics such as velocity, acceleration and gravity into their games, and he explains how to apply them to running, jumping and throwing or passing. The interactive Flash tutorial contains examples with animation that illustrate the concepts covered, as well as settings that can be changed on-the-fly. Click.

Cost of the War in Iraq

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Click.

Just who do you think will be paying for it, and for years and years to come? Not to mention even the incalculable cost of those who paid for the war with their lives. Think of that when voting in November.

Borag Thungg, Earthlets! From the UK's 2000AD comics comes this Flash game of Thrill-sucker culling using the Rigelian fireballs of Tharg the Mighty, 2000AD's alien editor and resident galactic spokesman. Thrill-suckers threaten to remove all the excitement and fun from the world leaving only the dull and boring, and it's up to you to help Tharg in his quest. Using the arrow keys, control the fireballs and kill the Thrill-suckers to earn points whilst avoiding the cavern walls and traps. If you lose health along the way, recharge by catching other fireballs as they fly by. Multiple levels keep this game changing every minute, and bonuses are awarded for good behavior to propel your score into the stratosphere.

Created by Anders Gustafsson, with art by Kevin Walker, this game exhibits good Flash game and graphic design. Now hosted at Miniclip.

Play Rigelian Hot Shots

Gold Miner is a cute and addictive little Flash game that has you mining for gold using just a claw and reel to unearth valuable treasures in a race against the clock. Each level provides a dollar value goal that must be met within the time limit to move on to the next.

Using just the [down] arrow on the keyboard, press the key to stop the claw from swinging and send it down to latch onto the first item it encounters. Gold nuggets, ranging in size from pebbles to boulders, yield values commensurate with their size. Rocks and larger gold nuggets require more time to reel in, with rocks being worth a tiny fraction of gold. Items can be bought between levels with earnings to spice up the game and add a small element of strategy to the gameplay.

It's a well produced game with cute, appealing graphics and sound effects.

Play Gold Miner

Thanks to Carlo for pointing me to this fun little Flash game.

Mixing elements from platform, puzzle and space flight simulation games, Lunar Mouse House is more than just another Lunar Lander game. The Flash game puts you inside a galactic-sized piece of cheese with caverns running throughout. Your mission is to pilot the spacecraft to find the lunar mouse balls and carry each one via tractor beam to its respective roller switch. Doing so will open a door to the next 'level' on your way to escape the cheese. Refueling can be done at any launch pad, and damage is incurred by hitting the cheesy walls. The Flash graphics are bright, crisp and clean, the game physics perform smoothly and believably, and the sound effects are just right to accentuate the gameplay. From the folks at Fingertime.com, Lunar Mouse House is a well-designed and enjoyable game that builds on a tried-and-true gameplay formula.

Play Lunar Mouse House

Update (8/31): Due to security measures employed at Fingertime, I am no longer able to present their games without the ads and other additional content of their site. While being completely understandable, it is nonetheless disappointing that some sites exploit and abuse the privilege of linking to Web content, which then ruins it for others like me.

Monkey Slide shines with glistening golden bananas, twinkling shooting stars and cute adorable monkeys all sliding down a pole. Your task is to get all the monkeys to safety while avoiding all the bombs. Grab the banana power-ups for additional time, and the shooting stars for temporary invincibility. Use the mouse to break apart the pole, move around the bombs and grab power-ups. Reconnect it again to allow the monkeys to continue their point scoring slide.

Games don't get much cuter than this, nor more beautiful. Ferry Halim strikes again with his latest Orisinal creation and proves one more time that he has mastered the art of Flash game design. Thank you, Ferry, for helping to make this blog so worthwhile to me. Your art reigns supreme.

Play Monkey Slide

David Thorburn is a British freelance designer with several years of game development experience behind him, and he has successfully applied that knowledge to the Flash environment and designed several low-bandwidth games with impressive 3D perspective. Featured on his personal website TeaGames.com, David delivers a bit of elegance in his takes on classic games such as: Pool, Air Hockey and Archery, among others.

In 3D Pool, it's a race against the clock to sink as many balls as you can in 3 minutes. Sink the black ball last for a bonus and avoid scratching, as the latter will deduct points from your total. David demonstrates his mastery over 3D graphics in Flash by allowing freedom of perspective when lining up a shot—simply click and drag the mouse to change camera angle—and with cinematic camera effects when showing each shot. A straightforward and accessible game to pick up and play, with a high score list to one-up the competition. Very nice implementation. Click.

Air Hockey is not only a fast paced game, it is also a race against the clock. You have just 3 minutes to score as many goals as you can. Four increasing levels of difficulty, ranging from Beginner to Grand Master, reward points on a sliding scale with each goal scored. Control is performed with the mouse, moving it moves your corresponding air hockey stick on the table. Intuitive control, realistic sounds, and authentic looking scoreboard all make this game an excellent implementation. Click.

A variation on classic trajectory games, Eagle Eye is about archery, and yes, a race against the clock. Each level presents a task that must be completed within the time limit, such as hitting the target board twice in 45 seconds on the first level. Some tasks have you aiming for another archer, requiring two hits within the time limit to move on. Points are deducted if you are hit by the computer AI archer. The mouse is used for controlling the angle of each shot, and there are several different arrows of various weights to use to affect the distance of each shot. Arrow keys on the key board allow camera movement to view targets and distances. The game has smooth fluid motion that exudes elegance and polish. Click.

Check out David's other games on his TeaGames.com site where he claims to be working on even more games soon to come. Click.

Almost twenty years ago, I would often play a solitaire game on the Mac called Shanghai that used Chinese Mahjongg tiles for play. Created by Brodie Lockard and released by Activision in 1986, Brodie is credited with the original idea, programming and artwork for the game. Since then there have been many clones and copycat versions, but most still rely on the same tile-matching and removal gameplay. Considered a meditative strategy game, Solitaire Majongg is played with a standard set of Mahjongg tiles stacked on the play field in a precise formation. The rules of play dictate that you can remove two like tiles from play only if each tile is "free"—meaning there is no other tile physically on top of either one, and they can each be slid freely off the stack either to the left or right. To win, you must remove all 144 Mahjongg tiles from the play field.

If you are new to Mahjongg tiles, you can visit this site to learn more about each of the suits and what they look like. The important thing to know when playing Solitaire Mahjongg is that there is generally four (4) of every type of tile—the only exceptions being the four seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter) and the four flowers (orchid, plum, chrysanthemum, bamboo) of which there is only one each.

This version of Solitaire Mahjongg was created by Thomas Weibel of Switzerland in June 2002, and coded using only DHTML/CSS and JavaScript. Since then, Thomas has updated the game regularly with new and improved features, including additional tile sets, and to date has had over 5 million visitors to his site. No plug-ins are needed, just a JavaScript capable browser, and loads of time to kill.

Play DHTML Solitaire Mahjongg

Thanks go out to Nils for the link to this very cool Shockwave game created by Steve Riddett of the MetalBox.com.

Merlin's Revenge is a cute little adventure in which you play as Merlin on a quest to save your brother, Berlin, who is kidnapped by the evil Scarlet Wizard.

As Merlin, your primary method of attack is, of course, magic, and the mouse is used to aim and fire a burst of energy. Simply move the mouse to where the enemy is and click. Hold down the mouse button for a larger, and more lethal, charge. Your magic skills as a wizard can be improved upon by collecting potions along the way. Red ones increase the blast size, blue increases the blast charge speed, purple increases the initial blast size, and green increases the rate that Merlin walks, and therefore is able to avoid enemies easier. You will also find Medkits that completely restore Merlin's health.

Use the arrow keys to move Merlin around the map. Your quest takes you from area to area making your way to the Scarlet Wizard's Post to the north. As you enter a new infested area, you must kill all of the enemies in it before the exits are enabled, but once you clear an area it remains cleared.

It's a fun game with pleasing pixel-style tiled graphics and cool effects. And while there isn't much use of sound in the game, the sound effects that are used fit the action well. But it's not an easy game, and there is no way to save your progress mid-game, which means if you die you must start again from the beginning. That is my only complaint, so far, but it is one that Steve addresses in Merlin's Revenge 2. And he's already begun work on the third game in the series.

Play Merlin's Revenge

VirtualApple is a website that boasts over 1100 disk images of Apple II, IIe, and IIgs games and other software. Through the use of an ActiveX application and an Apple IIgs emulator, you can now enjoy Apple II software from years gone by, and do it all online using Microsoft IE and Windows—though, ironically, there is no current support for Macs. There is nothing to download and install, the browser handles everything. It's a great way to relive a little bit of computing history. Click.

Take for instance, Karateka, one of the more impressive games for the Apple II, released in 1984 and created by Jordan Mechner of Prince of Persia fame. Click.

Jake Kaufman is amazing with a 6-bit sound chip, the Konami VRCVI chip to be precise. The chip contains sounds that were used in Konami games for the Famicom such as Castlevania and Madara. Jake has used the same sounds to cover Michael Jackson's Thriller. And it's not a fluke, this guy lives to create videogame music. Check out his site and see for yourself, but first check out Thriller. Click.

Invisibility, the disappearing cursor game, was created in Flash by Tom Pennock and released to the public just a few days ago on his site, BeatsTelevision.com. It's a game with a modest design and lofty expectations on the player. There are at least 12 levels where you must navigate the cursor with the mouse from point A (Go) to point B. The concept sounds easy enough, but try it without being able to see the cursor, and if you touch a wall you must start the level again. How good are you with a mouse?

Play Invisibility

From the Adult Swim website, Cartoon Network's saucy animated programming for adults, comes a series of Flash games featuring characters and scenes from the Adult Swim animated features. Although many of the games rely on rehashed gameplay elements to make them work, each one does so with flair and originality taken directly from its respective animated series. And while all of the games may not appeal to everybody, there's certainly a little something for everyone in the bunch, including: stealth action, strategy card battle, underwater shmup, platform, and even a text adventure. Each game is written in either Flash or Director (Shockwave), and all of them contain much of the same brash humor that has made Adult Swim a favorite with the 18-34 demographic. Highlighted here are just a few of what's available on the Adult Swim site.

In Time for Trouble! you play as Dr. Quinn out to stop crewman Stormy Waters from installing the wrong cable that could blow up Sealab. Using the arrow keys for movement and the space bar for firing your harpoon, shoot everything in your path while avoiding all the obstacles and grabbing all the power-ups. The graphics, sound and animation make this game special, while the familiar shoot-em-up style gameplay gets the job done. Click.

Head Games is a platformer with a twist. Carl has literally lost his head and your job, as Meatwad, is to help him find it. Meatwad movement is controlled with the arrow keys, and special Meatwad commands are issued using either keys 1-5, or simply by clicking the appropriate icon on the screen. Commands such as MeatWall, MeatUmbrella, MeatSpring, and MeatTrampoline are all needed to help guide Carl towards his lost head while avoiding obstacles along the way. An unusual twist to the platform genre, this game is ...uh, odd. From the series Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Click.

The object of JailBirdMan is to use your powers of stealth to complete five missions of increasing difficulty. You play as Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, where a bad losing streak has landed your last five clients in the slammer. To see that justice is served, you've decided to bust each of them out. Movement is performed using the mouse, with Harvey moving faster as you move the cursor farther away. Avoid the guards, get the key, open the cell... then on to the next. Click.

Along with a variety of tutorials for writing tile-based games in Flash, TonyPa has available on his site several unique and original Flash game designs. Some he created for various online game competitions, and all of them are worthy to derive some fun and inspiration from—especially to someone interested in designing or developing games. Highlighted here are PixelField, Robootik, Spots, and StarRunner.

The object of PixelField is to move your rotating red base around the pixel field to collect the blue energy pixels while avoiding all other "bad" pixels. Clicking the mouse moves the base to that location, however the movement will include some elasticity that you must plan for carefully. Your score increases the fewer moves you make. Unusual yet realistic physics make this game both fascinating and challenging. Click. Robootik is similar to those mechanical arm games at a carnival where you try to pick up a prize. The object of the game is to switch between the various joints using the left and right arrow keys on the keyboard to maneuver the robotic arm to collect the springs and mystery prizes that randomly appear. Time gets added on as you pick up items, so this game is a race against the clock. Not difficult, but fun to play with—like a Flash-based erector set. Click. In Spots, the object is to join all the spots together in a continuous line to complete each level within 60 seconds. Clicking on a spot will rotate it clockwise. Bonus points are awarded based on how long it took to complete a level. It's a puzzle-based brain teaser that gets more difficult with each new level. Randomly generated levels increase the replay value of this very creative concept. Click. StarRunner is a basic 2D platformer that has you collecting all the stars on each level, while avoiding all the enemies, to advance to the next. Move with arrow keys, and use the ladders to climb up and down. The controls are tight and the game moves along at a comfortable pace. The programming is solid and makes this cute little platformer an enjoyable diversion. Click.

Update: Some of the above referenced games are no longer available on Tonypa's website. He is currently updating them and, if we're lucky, they will be once again available to play. Many thanks for the games, Tony! =)

There is something I need to warn you about, especially if you have thought about trying the multiplayer game I posted a couple of days ago called iSketch... it is very addictive. Drop that mouse and put your hands at your sides. Now step away from the computer. Do it now before it's too late.

Since I stumbled upon iSketch a couple of days ago, I have not been able to stop playing. I find myself jumping online just to play “a quick game or two” in between other things I should be doing. Problem is, one game turns into three or four… eight… ten… to the point where I lose count, and I lose track of time. I keep saying “just one more” but the truth is, it never ends. I'm addicted to iSketch after only two days playing.

I even believe there is a need for a support group for people who play this game, as I have seen many of the same people, time and time again, playing too. One kind woman that I see playing quite often—I'll call her Adrienne—even suggested that I warn others of how addictive the game is. Adrienne told me that while she also feels addicted to the game, she enjoys the social aspect of the game as well. iSketch includes a chat window within the game where ‘high fives', hugs and other greetings are exchanged as friends enter and leave the rooms. Conversations run concurrent with the game, connections are established, friendships are formed. And there are many others, like Adrienne, who are both kind and addicted, and play and chat together all day/night long.

So, consider yourself warned.

Ulrich Tausend, of Germany, sent me this link and suggested that I try out a few of their games. He is part of a 3-man team of media specialists for Neocolor.com, and together they have created many successful games for their Neodelight Games site. They also license their creations to other commerical online game sites such as Miniclip.com.

Super Fishing is a well-produced fast-paced Flash game that has you speed fishing in a race against the clock. Catching fish increases your score and adds more time to the countdown timer, while catching trash reduces both. A thunder cloud hovering overhead will strike you with lightning, further reducing your time, if you're not careful to avoid it. Catching multiple fish of precisely the same type will multiply the awarded score and time. To keep you coming back for more, a high scores list keeps tally of the Super Fishing League's 200 best scores from around the world.

The graphics are nicely done and the game runs smooth and solid. The game is fun to play, and yet it is somewhat ordinary. Besides being an exceptional quality production, there's nothing truly remarkable or original about the game. Still, these boys have talent and I'll be sure to keep a lookout for other games that they come up with. Click.

Multiplayer games can be a lot of fun due to the competitive social dynamics involved. Playing against real people, in most cases and for most games, is inherently more rewarding than playing against some human-coded AI. Even single player games that offer up a high score list inject a bit of the multiplayer competitive element, though without the social dynamics. That's why I find myself playing single player games with high score lists more often than those without, and why I find myself continually going back to games like WEBoggle and Conqueror simply because of the dynamics involved in playing against a live human opponent. And I've just found another game to add to that list.

iSketch is an online multiplayer Shockwave game similar to the drawing game Pictionary, and it works remarkably well on the Web. You sign in with a username—no registration is required—and enter any available room, though no more than 10 can play at a time. Each round consists of 10 sketches. Players take turns drawing a word assigned by the game. When it's your turn, a basic and simple-to-use drawing interface appears with which to begin drawing. Players type their guesses in and the game recognizes when someone gets it right, which then begins a 10-second countdown for any remaining players to get it right. Your score is based on how quickly you guess the word. It's very well designed and loads of fun. This one is a keeper, and you simply must try it out!

Play iSketch

A brand new Flash game just released by Naive.it, and this one is named NaiveTown. Building blocks fall at a rate determined by the difficulty level, and you score points by stacking 5 like blocks to make a building. The catch is you can move the blocks once they have landed by clicking on the right or left edge of each block. There are also power-ups you earn for each building built, such as: dynamite that blasts away one block from play; air strike that removes the top block from each stack in play; and demolition that allows you to remove a whole stack from play. It's a fun game once you get the hang of it, but Easy mode is so easy there is no challenge whatsoever. From the makers of Equilibrium, another beautiful game by Naive. Click.

Disinfect the Core is a Shockwave game by The Jab that can be frustratingly difficult. Similar to games like Go and Othello, this game is about turning all the tiles (or I suppose 'nodes' in this case) to your color. You play as green and you may only click on a green node, doing so turns the node's arrow clockwise. Then, beginning with the first node the arrow points to and continuing along the circuit, each node is flipped to your color until there are no more nodes on that circuit. It's very simple to pick up and play, but the possibilities for each move become enormous.

With so many combinations to examine as a human, against a computer AI able to process many hundreds of thousands instructions a second, the odds are definitely stacked against you. However, the challenge is fun if you put a little time into examining how each move affects the play. There are some strategies that become apparent, like breaking up the train so that one move by the computer doesn't completely annihilate you. The game starts out by saying "You cannot win," but it sounds more like a taunt to me.

Play Disinfect the Core

This classic game of Hangman made in Flash, from Fanatiker Media in Norway, boasts over 50,000 words in its database from categories as diverse as: movie heroes, cartoon heroes, musical instruments, Harry Potter, rock bands, frequently misspelled words, countries of the world, beer brands, dog breeds, etc. And if that weren't enough, it offers a 2-player mode, 3 levels of play, and a cute and catchy musical soundtrack. It might as well be called Super Hangman. And who hasn't enjoyed playing Hangman at least once in their life? Click.

Update: The link seems to bring up the correct game, but the game appears to be broken. I've removed the game from the recommended list of games.

Is there any doubt that pixel graphics are cherished the world over as the best looking graphics for games? Well, probably not cherished, and probably not the world over either. Still, you can't deny their elegance and beauty. In fact, just the other day I was thinking that there should be a world holiday dedicated to pixel graphics. Ok, so I wasn't really thinking that either.

Continuing my pixelhugging courtship with pixel graphics, I offer up yet another pixel Flash game from Charles Forman, of SetPixel. This game, Out of Alcatraz, demonstrates Charles' amazing talent with game engine design. It features smooth map scrolling by clicking and dragging the mouse, and a spectacular particle engine for a fog effect. Based on a simple game of Cat & Mouse, the gameplay is turn-based where for each move you make, the guard (or dog) also makes a move towards you. The objective is to make it to the goal before you are caught. There are rules of movement you will need to exploit if you are to escape the later levels. Everything about this game reeks of quality.

Play Out of Alcatraz

Today I bit the bullet and bought a license to the latest version of MovableType, the content management system I use for this blog. I'm looking forward to the added security it has for protection from the comment sp*m that has been plaguing the Web. I won't even begin a rant about how much time those f*&kers have wasted of mine. Just this morning I missed a piano lesson in order to clean things up.

So now if you post a comment, and by all means please do, I will need to approve it before it appears. And since I'm generally no further than a foot or so from my computer most of the day, that means your comment will show up within only minutes. This way I can protect everyone from the insidious, disgusting crap that these malicious folks spread daily. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

More Flash fun with pixel graphics, this time from the BBC's 6 Music digital network. 6ixel is a platform game that has 6 levels of increasing difficulty, and each one highlights a different artist or group: Bob Marley, The Clash, Alanis Morissette, New Order, Run DMC/Aerosmith, The Strokes. There are 6 discs on each level that you must collect to release a clip of a classic tune by the artist. 6ixel is a simple game that offers a challenge and serves up a reward at the end of each level. Nice.

Play 6ixel

Update: A new game is also available: 6ixel I Was There.

More pixel graphics today, with this game from the PixelBrothers based on the popular cartoon series, Dragon Ball Z, created by Toei Animation. In this turn-based fighter, you first select the character you want to play as, then compete head-to-head on your way to winning all 7 Namekian Dragon Balls. Doing so will allow you to summon the dragon Porunga. There are defensive moves, such as power-ups, as well as hand-combat and multiple energy attacks. A lot has been put into this little game, even a two player mode with each player taking turns to select moves.

While there appears to be some strategy involved in the game via the array of moves you can choose from, the gameplay is based mostly on luck with the success of each attack dependent upon each player's choices. A complex game of rock-paper-scissors played in a four-quadrant arena. It's a good game, just not one that will keep you challenged for hours. The graphics are pretty and the interface, reminiscent of StarCraft, is very nicely designed. Click.

Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3, a new Dragon Ball Z game for the PlayStation 2, ships on November 18th.

Update: Apparently the Pixelbrothers have taken their game offline to the public, therefore the link above no longer works.

For those who find pixel art beautiful as I do, here's a wonderful pixelated game from the UK, created by the pixelHugger himself, Pete Everett. PixelHugger in the Field of Typography is about defeating the evil Auntie Alias who has mesmerized the Typographic World with her ultra-smooth ways. As a result, many perfectly good pixels lie abandoned in the Field of Typography, and your mission is to rescue as many as you can. The game map is huge with over 60 areas. And there are lots of sheep, flies and other nefarious creatures bent on thwarting your efforts with humiliation along the way. It's a cute game with a very clever approach.

Pete calls his Pixelhugger site his pixelated playground. There you will find pixel graphics of all kinds, icons, fonts and even a new game he's currently working on: pixelHugger in em-space.

Play PixelHugger in the Field of Typography

This game keeps popping up every where I look. Based on the simple game of paper toss, the objective of Cyrkam Airtös is to first catch the various paper objects being thrown at you, then toss them into the waste bucket. If you make it, someone moves the bucket for the next toss to make the game more challenging.

Created by Sticky, a creative agency specializing in interactive and motion media, the game combines video graphic elements, motion graphics and realistic physics, and presents it all with unique style. The soundtrack used is a bit loud, so if you're at work you might want to turn down the volume first. There is a toggle switch for the sound on the lower left corner of the game window.

A simple concept paired with gameplay mechanics most people can immediately relate to must certainly contribute to why this game is becomming so popular across the Web.

Play Cyrkam Airtös

From Homestar Runner comes Peasant's Quest, a hilariously funny game that pokes fun at itself and the text-based adventures and 8-bit graphics of years gone by. Boasting “lush 16-color landscapes,” this game puts you in the shoes of a short-panted peasant named Rather Dashing who sets out on a quest of revenge against the Wingaling dragon, Trogdor the Burninator, who burninated your tiny thatched-roof cottage along with all your goods and services. Full of wit and humor, the game will keep you entertained for a couple of hours.

You'll have to type your actions in at the bottom of the game window just like in the olden days, so if you're easily frustrated by games of interactive fiction and text-based adventures, this may not be the best game for you. If you stick with it, however, you're sure to get a laugh.

The game was created by Videlectrix, the fictitious game company of Homestar Runner, makers of fine retro games like Trogdor, also on Homestar Runner.

Play Peasant's Quest

Brian Gardiner, of Rocklin, California, has pieced together his own PlayStation portable for the mere challenge of it all. The device was built from pieces of PSOnes—the smaller, redesigned original PlayStation game console. He reconfigured it all to fit inside a chassis that he designed using Solidworks CAD software and then had fabricated at a rapid prototyping firm. The finished product looks very impressive and of commercial quality, and Brian claims to have had “almost no experience with electronics.” To top it all off, he purchased the palmpsone.com domain and put up an impressive site detailing all of his work. Remarkable. Click.

That has got to be almost as clever as the DDR touch pad Brian and Dave put together last week. Mad props to anyone who takes the initiative and follows through on good old ingenuity. Nice job.

“One of the many oddities of the English language is the multitude of different names given to collections or groups, be they beasts, birds, people or things. Many of these collective nouns are beautiful and evocative, even poetic.” [Source]

A creative play on words gives this game its poetic name and purpose, while a poem at the beginning of the game gives it soul. Still, it's the haunting imagery of men of straw being eaten by a murder of ravenous crows, and then coming alive to thrash and swipe for their lives that gives this game its magic.

The Flash game, A Murder of Scarecrows, is part of the site theskeletonshop.com, which is part of a larger site mypetskeleton.com. The author and artist is almost certainly Vincent Marcone. But, who is he you ask? An adventure at these sites will illuminate that which I cannot say. To play the game, click on the "Play" button that appears in the lower-right corner of the Skeleton Shop main page.

The object of the game is to keep the scarecrows alive by launching the seeds that grow in the trees above them, so that they land on the scarecrows to bring them to life, but for only a moment. From time to time a bell will appear, dangling from a tree. Hitting the bell with a seed will resurrect one scarecrow from the dead.

It's a magnificent game on a beautiful site composed by an accomplished artist. What more can I say?

Play A Murder of Scarecrows

This must be a day for German pinball games. Rapid Motion is another very clever entry in the pinball game genre, this one uses a circular playing field and a virtual magnetized surface as part of the gameplay mechanics. The object, besides of course racking up as many points as you can, is to complete the ring of ball bearings by triggering a pit to open in each level and knocking the silver balls into it. Excellent design and dynamics make this game very enjoyable, and the sound effects add atmospheric tension. Created by SecretLevel.de. A beautiful Flash game that is both easily accessible and addictive.

Play Rapid Motion

Robo Pinball is an excellent, original concept, Shockwave 3D pinball game from Germany. It combines old-school pinball action with 3D graphics and elements of a first-person shooter, all wrapped up into one. The game is a beautiful implementation of Director 3D with realistic physics and all sorts of secrets to discover. Some events trigger the camera to zoom in for a close up of the action, and triggering Shooter Mode takes you right down onto the pinball table itself in a first person view. Outstanding!

The game's graphic design and production is top notch, and it was all conceived, modeled and programmed by Max Tafelmayer, with sound design and 2D artwork by Thomas Kress. Max used the Havok Xtra for reatime physics simulation as well as other cool technologies such as adaptive timestepping for consistent speed across platforms, scripted model movement, smooth motion paths based on Catmull-Rom and Bezier splines, and all with a file size no bigger than 600Kb. Visit his site cerberos.de for more details about the game.

But all this cool stuff doesn't come without a price. No, Max isn't charging to play the game, but your system better be up to the task. Minimum hardware requirements: 300 MHz (PC or Mac), at least some sort of OpenGL or DirectX accelerated graphics card with 8 MB. He recommends a 600+ MHz CPU with at least 16MB graphics card. I encountered a little flakiness after playing for a while, but re-starting Shockwave did the trick. No guarantees you will have similar luck with it, but at Version 1.0 it's looking pretty sweet! Very nice.

Play Robo Pinball

This Flash game was posted to a Halo fan site back in February of this year by BOLL.

The objective in Warthog Launch is a little odd, it took me a bit to understand the concept at first. Basically you have this Warthog, which is a Jeep-like military vehicle used in the game Halo, and you decide where to position it on the ground.

Next, you have a bunch of grenades that you decide how many of them to put under the Warthog. You also need to position the grenades so that when they explode, they propel the Warthog up in the air to knock out all the floating ...er, uh... things (you probably can tell I've never played Halo). You must knock them all out in a single blast, keeping in mind you may need to use the walls to bounce off of. The game is excellent fun, not to mention very gratifying if you like to blow things up. The animation and sound effects fit the game perfectly and add to the realism of the task. Try it, you'll be hooked.

Play Warthog Launch

The Australian government has issued this latest game for would-be pilots interested in joining the Australian Defence Force. Operation Thunderbolt is a Flash game consisting of mission based levels that have you flying an F/A 18 Hornet aircraft by using the mouse to guide the plane. You must keep the plane with the boundaries of the gates as you follow the lead aircraft. Missing 6 gates in a row will cause the lead plane to escape and end the mission. If you succeed, you will then have 10 seconds to get a missile lock on the enemy, by positioning the crosshairs with the mouse over the enemy for 2 seconds or more, then firing by pressing the mouse button.

And that's just the first level. It is not easy... I tried several times before I was even able to follow the lead for just a few moments. I suggest using the training facility first off to get your bearings with the controls.

The game is very well done, and requires a bit of serious attention to it if progress is to be made. So, you think you have what it takes to fly an F/A-18 Hornet?

Play Operation Thunderbolt

From David and Goliath, maker of funny T-shirts and other fine apparel, comes this Flash game straight out of their “Boys Are Smelly” department: Throw Rocks at Boys. And why shouldn't we? After all, everyone knows that boys are stupid. If you've ever seen D&G designs then the game will be quite familiar. Otherwise, you might think the graphics look a bit plain and simple—kinda like a 6-year-old might draw—and you'd be right! And you might also be thinking that the game is stupid. Well, then you must be a boy, so take this advice: Look out for rocks!

The Flash site that is home to their shop, as well as various other activities to immerse yourself in their fashion concepts, is well designed and the game is a lot of fun. So check out their store, buy some T's, and while you're at it... Throw Rocks at Boys.

Play Boys are stupid

Appealing to a wide audience requires that your game design be straightforward and easily understood. Games that are instantly and universally accessible are generally based on simple concepts and mechanics that most everyone can identify with. Quite often it's the simpler games that win over our affection, and our attention, and become a joy to pick up and play merely because they feel both natual and familiar.

Blow Boat is a good example of just such a game, created by Luis Buenaventura of HighFibre.org. The simple gameplay of blowing a boat back and forth across a running stream brings back to mind youthful days sailing paper boats on a pond. This is a concept that almost everyone can identity with, and it works. The wonderful and charming graphics transport us to the edge of that tiny little stream, even if the scenario is less than plausible. We believe because we want to, because it's fun to play.

Play Blow Boat