Falling bricks

The original classic game, Tetris, with authetic computer sounds.

What I call the "falling bricks" game. The purpose is to maneuver the different shaped bricks, as they fall down slowly, so that a single row of bricks is formed and then deleted. You are awarded points for every row deleted, accompanied by some music. If you happen to delete two or more rows of falling bricks at once, then the points awarded increase.

As the game progresses to different levels, the speed of the falling bricks increases, making it more challenging to maneuver them in time. The incomplete rows of bricks pile up at the bottom leaving less room to maneuver the falling bricks—when the pile of incomplete rows reaches the top of the playing screen the game ends.

Modern versions of Tetris come with jazzed up graphics, pretty colours, and a variety of music. But the original Tetris, created by Russian students, had only simple computer sounds. Check their website for the download of the classic Tetris:

Vadim Gerasimov

Tetris is a popular game developed in 1985-86 by Alexey Pajitnov (Pazhitnov), Dmitry Pavlovsky, and me. Pajitnov and Pavlovsky were computer engineers at the Computer Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences. I was a 16-year-old high school student.

Our plan was to make about a dozen addictive computer games for the PC and put them together in one system we called a computer funfair. Pajitnov and Pavlovsky also thought about selling the games. The selling part seemed unusual and difficult because we lived in the Soviet Union. Making and selling something privately was highly irregular. We focused on making development tools for the PC, converting earlier games to the PC, and developing new game ideas.

A few months after we started working together, Pajitnov came up with the Tetris idea. Before we met he had a computer game called Genetic Engineering. In that game the player had to move the 4-square pieces (tetramino) around the screen using cursor keys. The player could assemble various shapes. I don't remember the exact objective of that game, but it seemed rather dull.

At one of our meetings Pajitnov told Pavlovsky and me about his new idea of tetramino falling into a rectangular glass and piling up at the bottom. He believed the game might be successful.

The game name "Tetris" was purely Alexey's idea. The word is a combination of "tetramino" and "tennis".

So the "falling bricks" are called tetramino! Live and learn.

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Super Mario Galaxy by and for Nintendo!

Nintendo users got a new version of the old as gold Mario game called Super Mario Galaxy. Download the old Mario here.

Super Mario Galaxy places adorable Mario in space, leaping from planet to planet, in an effort to save Princess Peach. This time his rival is a gigantic robot!

Making Mario jump, spin, and use weapons, is so much fun with the Wii-mote!

Super Mario Galaxy review

The ultimate Nintendo hero is taking the ultimate step ... out into space. Join Mario as he ushers in a new era of video games, defying gravity across all the planets in the galaxy.

When some creature escapes into space with Princess Peach, Mario gives chase, exploring bizarre planets all across the galaxy. Mario, Peach and enemies new and old are here. Players run, jump and battle enemies as they explore all the planets in the galaxy.

Since this game makes full use of all the features of the Wii Remote, players have to do all kinds of things to succeed: pressing buttons, swinging the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk, and even pointing at and dragging things with the pointer.

Since he's in space, Mario can perform mind-bending jumps unlike anything he's done before. He'll also have a wealth of new moves that are all based around tilting, pointing and shaking the Wii Remote. Shake, tilt and point!

Mario takes advantage of all the unique aspects of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controller, unleashing new moves as players shake the controller and even point at and drag items with the pointer. [Nintendo]

Watch the video of Super Mario Galaxy:

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Super Mario Brothers

The greatest game of all time: Super Mario Brothers by Nintendo, released in 1985 for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and rereleased for the Super Nintendo (SNES) in 1993 as part of "Super Mario All Stars".

First download this game courtesy Chrissy!

SUPER MARIO BROTHERS

This is a zip file, which you can open using a unzip program, or if you have Win XP just double click and it will open. The folder will contain the game, music files, pictures, videos, and a text file. Click the game to start playing...there's nothing to install, no need to restart your computer. So simple!

Now read a review of this game:

Super Mario Brothers for the Nintendo Entertainment System is the game that kick-started the video game industry after a market crash, and spawned one of the longest running, most successful video game franchises to date.

With simplistic, entertaining levels and flat-out fun, there was no reason not to love Super Mario Brothers.

the purpose of this game is to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser's clutches, and you have to travel through many levels and castles to get that far. In typical 2D, side-scrolling platformer style, Mario hops along, avoiding a series of obstacles ranging from flying fish, to massive bullets to brown-ish blobs with eyes and a mouth. What may now sound out-dated is actually magnificently executed. All of the levels look great, and are even touched up with a nice pallet of colour. The well-designed backgrounds portray the simple themes of Super Mario Bros.

To help Mario defeat these enemies, he can also get powerups. For starters, in each "world" (out of eight in total) there are four levels, the final one being a castle which potentially holds your damsel in distress. These other three levels are either simple landscapes with trees and grass, or perhaps an underwater reef. There are also some valleys and hills, which loop up and down, and even some underground tunnels. Not only is this so, but each sports their own bad guys. You'll find menacing squids underwater, and a variety of weird monsters, turtles and blobs in the other locales. If Mario touches one of these enemies on the side (if he jumps on their head he kills them, or at least deals damage) he instantly dies. Thank goodness for the mushroom! Whenever Mario encounters a Mushroom he will double in size. This means that he can break more things when he hops around, but if he unfortunately comes into contact with an enemy he'll shrink back down to size, saving himself from losing a life. Once you're in this pumped-up state you can then find fire flowers. These allow Mario to fire small fireballs at enemies, which is something that becomes incredibly handy, especially when underwater.

To complete each level, you simple have to finish it in the alloted time, and jump into a flag (depending on how high you jump, you'll get a different score bonus). Playing this way is simple, as you can just avoid all enemies and make your way to the finish line in a rush.

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It gets even more unreal!

One of my favorite shooting games is Unreal Tournament-2004. Of course with the gore level reduced I get clean graphics, and a fast enjoyable game. And no comes Unreal Tournament-2007, which is renamed Unreal Tournament 3, and released this December.

One of the most boring aspects of Unreal Tournament was when the bot did not have a vehicle and had to move on foot through the landscape! In Unreal Tournament III each bot will have a hoverboard to just glide over all kinds of terrain. And of course graphics are upgraded, storyline and missions improved, and there are more kinds of
weapons to cause endless gore and bloodshed for the aliens! Hopefully the level of gore can be changed in the settings.

Unreal Tournament III can be played on the PC, X-box 360 and the PS3. It will be available for the X-box and the PC in January 2008.

Read the review from GameZone:

Unreal Tournament has been one of the premier online shooter franchises of the past decade, even eclipsing the original Unreal series from which it’s spun-off in terms of success. Now, the latest highly-anticipated title in the series has released and does what it sets out to do, making a solid and engaging multiplayer-centric shooter that lives up to the standard set out by its predecessors.

Unreal Tournament III has six different game modes, many of which are returning from previous games. There are Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Vehicle Capture the Flag, Duel, and Warfare

The Unreal Engine 3 looks phenomenal, as does the art direction for the game. The large maps are fully realized, with tons of intricate details and great effects. The character and vehicle models also look fantastic, with some cool animations and detailed textures. The game is also very scalable, and performs exceptionally well on mid-range PCs with a few options turned down.

The sound effects are also pretty good, as is the score, which fits in well with the mood of the game. The voice acting is the same typical brand of trash-talk that we’ve come to expect from the series. The problem is that this can get repetitive and grating after a while, and after the last “pwnage” snide remark, you might want to turn off the sounds altogether.

Unreal Tournament III functions as it’s meant to: a beautiful, fast-paced online shooter with some great gameplay modes and diverse maps. While not terribly far removed from its predecessor, the game holds up quite well against the current batch of PC shooters. Fans of the series won’t be disappointed.

Watch this trailer video of UT 3:

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In the burning sea!

It is 1720. You find yourself with a dead captain, a new rank, your own vessel, and a mysterious treasure map to decode. Welcome to Pirates of the Burning Sea!


Pirates of the Burning Sea is the other pirate-themed multi-player online RPG, by Seattle based Flying Labs Software. Unlike the more simplistic Pirates of the Caribbean online, this is aimed at older audiences with a thousand different missions, most of which have you taking charge of a pirate ship from England, France, or Spain, and contest for supremacy in the beautiful Caribbean Isles. There is even a mission to fight some eerie, mysterious events in the patch of sea, which we now call the Bermuda Triangle.

Or you can avoid a fight and try to build your economy by trading with other players....my favorite part. A good lesson in economics, trade, and business competition for us all!
Pirates of the Burning Sea

The game has recently been sailing through some rough waters, though. First it was delayed, leading to some mutinous vaporware whispers. Then it seemed to be unable to find a publisher that would meet its terms, which led to speculation that PotBS might sink before it could even set sail. To judge by the game's appearance at new publisher Sony Online Entertainment's booth at E3, though, all that seems to be behind them. Even better, it looks like the game's almost ready to go.

"The first fifteen levels are done and ready to ship," Flying Labs' Rusty Williams says to me as I settle in to try out the latest version of the game. According to him, the heart of the game is essentially done and a lot of what's going on now is tweaking, testing, balancing and doing the million-and-one tiny things that make the user experience easier and more pleasant. On-screen, I'm goofing around with the game's character creation system. I'm trying to recreate Elizabeth Sharkshot, the female Pirate captain I made during my past visit. The character avatars look better than they had back then, though there are still some occasional clips and artifacts. The clothing and body customization selection was as good as ever, including a selection of eye patches. I was disappointed to find that I could no longer choose a peg leg or a hook.

As it turns out, this is actually by design. The Flying Lab team is apparently a big believer in the idea that avatar customization is a big driver when it comes to player behavior. Therefore every race in the game will have some sort of long-term "epic quest" arc they can pursue that will include specific sorts of avatar customization as a reward. Pirates, for example, will acquire battle scars and deformations based on the epic career missions they choose to pursue. Rewards include larger or decorated eye patches, peg legs, different sorts of hooks, specific kinds of hats and perhaps even pets (a parrot is planned for pre-order customers, but the team is definitely planning on a whole range of appropriate pets like monkeys, ferrets and cats). French, British and Spanish players who choose navy careers will have a special military coat that will gradually be filled up with medals, gold braid, rank markers and a variety of decorations.

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Games for children

Some nice magazines on games, small games that can be played at home:



Riddles and games for children: Nickelodeon Fun Puzzles & Games is a zany new magazine of pencil puzzles featuring all of your child's favorite Nick characters. Each issue of Nickelodeon Fun Puzzles and Games magazine is filled with full-color, fun puzzles - like word searches, mazes & easy crosswords, plus riddles and pictures to draw. Brain-building fun for kids ages 7-12.

Dell Crosswords Special 
Dell crosswords special offers 128 pages of big crossword fun, plus lots of enjoyable word games.


Dell Extreme Sudoku 
Perfect for Sudoku solvers who prefer a greater challenge, Dell Extreme Sudoku contains more hard and challenger puzzles than its sister publication, Dell Original Sudoku. The very addictive Sudoku is all about arranging numbers in a grid so that no vertical column or horizontal row contains the same number. Sounds simple huh? It is at the basic level....but then it gets complicated and really keeps you hooked, like Spider Solitaire.


Dell Math Puzzles & Logic Problems 
Dell math puzzles and logic problems contains puzzles that will raise your intellect and your spirits.

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Spider Solitaire: a fun game!

Spider Solitaire is an amazing card game, a better version of the traditional Solitaire. It comes by default in Windows Xp but can be downloaded by other users from the official website.

Solitaire (French word), known as Patience to those of us following the Queen's English, is a card game played by a single player. As the original name suggests, this was meant to instill discipline and patience into the player. With the birth of PC games, Solitaire appeared on computer screens. It's a simple game created by complex computer programming.

Now while Solitiaire (Patience) is played with one deck of cards, Spider Solitiaire can be played with just one suit of cards and more upto two separate decks. And where cards of different colours are placed sequentially in Solitiare to complete a suit, same-coloured cards are used to complete each suit of cards in Spider-Solitiare.

I love the graphics and sound effects of Spider Solitiaire....and also the graphics at the end when a player wins the game!

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