G e n e r i c _ T i t l e

Robot Wants Puppy

2010-10-16T08:53:00.003+01:00

After playing Robot Wants Kitty what better way to finish off your afternoon than to play Robot Wants Puppy. While the previous game was mysterious with it's lack of explanation, this game comes with a introduction sequence giving you details into the characters involved and their motives. This proves completely ~~invaluable~~ unvaluable, and the game plays very similar to it's precursor. The main difference this time being the addition of your newly aquired sidekick - the kitty.

Acheivement Unlocked 2

2010-10-15T08:31:00.000+01:00

After the success of Acheivement Unlocked - a game where you play as a dark blue elephant to complete a collection of 100 tasks - there is now Acheivement Unlocked 2! In the sequel you play as a light blue elephant, and there are now 500 acheivements to unlock. There are also five "level packs" to purchase using the in-game coin system. Is it possible to have too much fun?

Robot Wants Kitty

2010-09-30T07:46:00.002+01:00

Robot Wants Kitty is an endearing tale of one robot's love for his kitten. Evil alien-type things have kidnapped (kit-napped?) the kitten and it's your quest to return him/her. During the game you obtain various power ups which give you access to delve deeper into the alien's lair.

This classic platformer takes about twenty minutes or so and there's no way to save your progress, so when you have a spare moment why don't you help the poor robot out?

PuzzGrid

2010-07-01T21:25:00.003+01:00

If you've ever seen the hit TV Quiz show Only Connect and wanted to play along at home then this is the puzzle site for you. This site contains many "connecting walls" to play, as well as the facility to submit your own puzzles. Incidentally, you can play the official grids here.

All PuzzGrid needs now is a few Victoria Coren monologues...

Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe

2010-04-10T17:28:00.002+01:00

Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe (or OpenTTD) is based on the classic game Transport Tycoon. You can build road and rail networks, as well as airports and docks and then instruct your vehicles to carry cargo between destinations. There are several AI opponents to play against, or you can play online against the community of players who have probably devoted way too much time to the game. OpenTTD has just reached a milestone in its history as version 1.0 is finally available. Apparently the game ends in the year 2050 but it would take about 24 hours of playing for me to find out, so I haven't... yet. Overall this is well worth a download if you enjoy micromanagement games.

Bloons Tower Defence 4

2010-02-06T10:10:00.003Z

Bloons Tower Defence 4 is quite a good tower defence game. To be honest I'm not sure how it compares to BTD1, BTD2 or BTD3, but I will endeavour to play them to find out. I think the most surprising thing about this game is that it's based on possibly the most dull game in the world - Bloons. All things considered though, it's quite entertaining to build you way up through the different available towers, bursting your way through progressively more resilient levels of balloons.

Red Alert

2010-01-30T09:35:00.002Z

As well as the link from this post's image it may also be helpful to see this page about how to play Red Alert without burning it onto a CD. Red Alert is a great old game, that was released as freeware to mark the release of Red Alert 3. I spent many days playing it when it was first released, and since rediscovering it I have spent many hours more. Compared to some of today's games standards the AI can seem quite stupid, but I think the range of units and buildings in this game still makes it one of my all time favourites.

Zombie City Tactics

2010-01-19T18:32:00.003Z

Zombie City Tactics is a turn based strategy game themed around a zombie infested city. It plays a little bit (but not much) like chess - with the humans and zombies taking it in turn to move their pieces around a grid. There are three types of humans - bog standard one square per turn, soldiers who take a piece without moving, and slayers who can move two spaces per turn. They can be dropped into the playing field, but cost different amounts of energy to summon. The energy is gained by holding land against the zombies and so there's a balance to find between all out offence and simply staying put. Overall the game is nicely put together and the 3D layout is pretty cool.

Wordle

2010-01-18T17:47:00.003Z

Create a cloud of words using a website or text document as input. Style it how you like and then astound your friends and family with your skills. This could be useful if you want to create a tag cloud, or maybe if you want to find out the important elements in a story without reading it... Or (more likely) it could just be something to play around with for a couple of minutes and then throw away.

ASCIIpOrtal

2010-01-17T16:14:00.003Z

ASCIIpOrtal is a 2D ASCII version of Valve’s Portal. Run around, fire portals, jump through portals, dodge barrels, push switches and enjoy the company of your companion cubes... all in wonderful text format.

Interestingly (or not really) the character set used isn't ASCII - for instance the green player character (see Wikipedia). Also the game's author lists his inspirations as "Increpare’s Portile game, Super Serif Bros, and Valve’s Portal". So it's not ASCII, nor is it just Portal, but it is definitely awesome.

Tone Matrix

2009-09-05T13:29:00.002+01:00

A really nice melody maker. Click on the boxes to light them up, and then listen to the music it produces. Toggle more boxes on and off until you've got a tune you're happy with and then... um, well there's not really a then - you can just listen to it. Anyway I thought it was really cool, and it uses the pentatonic scale which is also cool.

Shift 4

2009-07-13T18:31:00.003+01:00

Shift 4 shares much with Shift, Shift 2 and Shift 3. Once again you are stuck jumping around in a maze of walls and not walls, which become not walls and walls (respectively) as soon as you hit the shift key. However this time there is the added complication of more people to control. A great game with an almost comprehensible "rescue the family" plot line; I give it five stars.

NetHack

2009-07-10T18:46:00.003+01:00

If you're more a fan of game play than graphics and you like games that need you to explore and think and explore some more, then NetHack could be a game for you! Filled with far too many different weapons, potions, creatures, tools, clothes and ascii characters NetHack is probably impossible to complete, but very fun to die trying. You have a choice of thirteen different rolls (Wizard, Archeologist, Tourist, Knight, ...) in five different races which all play very differently from each other. Admittedly learning the keys takes a few games, but you can see a list of the keys by pressing '?'. I've been informed that there are a lot of spoilers on the web, but have been quite content playing the game for the last two weeks without looking beyond the guidebook text file it comes with. NetHack generates a new world each time a new game is started - so no two games are ever the same.

GemCraft Chapter Zero

2009-06-17T18:00:00.003+01:00

One of my favourite games from last year was the addictive tower defence game GemCraft Chapter One. This year the makers have created the prequel to it - Chapter Zero. If you're anything like me then you'll have forgotten that the original game was loosely fitted around a storyline - and this game is a continuation of the same storyline backwards. I for one was certainly wondering how all these gems obtained magical powers and this instalment sheds exactly no light on my puzzlement.
Anyway, Chapter Zero is very similar to Chapter One, but with a load of new levels, a load of new enhancements and a load of new bonus towers on each level.

Shift 3

2009-06-09T19:00:00.001+01:00

The title of this, the third game in the Shift series, won't come as a surprise to many; Shift 3 is incrementally titled after Shift and Shift 2. It introduces a new element of adventure with the PDA powered map. There are also a load of new achievements to attain and even a couple of secret characters to unlock.

Stickman Odo 1

2009-06-06T15:42:00.004+01:00

It turns out that Stickman Odo was actually Stickman Odo 2. Stickman Odo is shares the same level of random guesswork as its older brother. However it's also humorously violent in a cartoon violence way and only takes about five minutes to complete, so is well worth a look.

Shift 2

2009-06-04T18:05:00.002+01:00

After a weird opening Shift 2 quickly picks up pace and is a very good sequel to Shift. More puzzles and more strange in game text and a few extra things to interact with. Now there is also a level editor, medals and a high score table (which is of course impossible to get on).

Board Game Geek

2009-06-03T17:57:00.000+01:00

If you're interested in board games then this site will no doubt be of interest to you. There are many many games listed on here from traditional games such as chess and Monopoly, through to more modern games like the Settlers of Catan and Puerto Rico.

Shift

2009-06-02T18:03:00.003+01:00

A clever platform game where the floor is the roof and the inside of blocks is also the outside... Umm... Control the character with the arrow keys and then use the shift key to invert the man about the floor he is currently standing on. Collect keys to open gates and avoid the spikes (both sides of them). There is an in game timer from which you can find your score and plenty of in game text about the in game timer (almost all of which can be completely ignored :-)

Achievement Unlocked

2009-05-16T18:47:00.002+01:00

The aim of the game is to "unlock" the 100 achievements by achieving them. The game is, in my opinion, brilliant although one of the achievements (#55) requires some rather specific knowledge, or a lot of luck.

Also I have no idea why you play as an elephant.

Meeblings2

2009-05-12T08:15:00.003+01:00

The sequel to Meeblings - this game is very similar to the first, but with better graphics. Also the option to create your own levels.

Meeblings

2009-05-10T08:06:00.000+01:00

Use the special powers of the various different "Meeblings" to bounce them to the exit. Yellow attracts, blue repels, ... you can pick up the rest as you play. Click and hold on a Meebling to activate their special power.

This game reminded me a bit of Lemmings.

Fantastic Contraption

2009-04-06T17:40:00.003+01:00

Create a machine that will get the pink shape to the finish zone. Similar idea to The Incredible Machine, only with far far less parts you can use.

Possibly the most frustrating thing about this game is that once you have completed a level you can click on the "Other Players' Designs" button and see a thousand solutions that are much simpler and more efficient than the one you just came up with!

Music Catch 2

2009-03-26T18:43:00.003Z

Using the mouse catch random shapes to score points. At the same time listen to chilled out music (although this second step isn't essential it does improve the overall experience!)

Yellow shapes increase your size, while red shapes decrease your size. Purple shapes give you bonuses (plain purple make you act as an shape attractor and flashing purple turn loads of the shapes yellow).

Circular Blot

2009-03-06T22:11:00.002Z

Bounce one ball around a maze using a larger ball. Sounds simple? Well, it probably doesn't sound very simple really. And it's not! Well, after the first 20 levels it starts becoming less simple.

I stopped after 40 levels (and 142 lost balls).

AsoBrain

2009-02-28T22:44:00.004Z

If you like board games then you'll love AsoBrain. They have Carcassonne (called Toulouse) and Settlers/Seafarers of Catan (called Xplorers).
You do have to register to play, but it's free. You can play against friends, or if no one else is online, against the computer. Hello Carcassonne, good bye spare time!

Some of the rules are different than in the version of the board games that we have. In particular the points for farmers are 3 points per city (instead of 4 points).

Grow Tower

2009-02-25T18:57:00.002Z

At last, another game in the Grow series of games! Although it looks simple it's actually quite tough still. Anyway the game pretty much speaks for itself.

Find Obama

2009-02-17T19:03:00.003Z

A very simple game where you have to find Barack Obama. He has been photoshopped into fifteen pictures and it's your job to find him.

I Wanna Be The Guy

2009-02-16T18:59:00.003Z

An awesome game, but incredibly hard. If you were a fan of games from the early 90s then you may well also be a fan of the aptly titled "I Wanna Be The Guy". I have put maybe an hour into playing this, and I'm up to the 6th or 7th level now, but I did have to resort to a walkthrough for a couple of hints.

On the downside you have to download it to play it, but on the upside it's very entertaining if you like very frustrating games!

Flight of the Season

2008-12-12T09:35:00.002Z

Obligitory Christmas game especially for you!
Click on the houses to delivery as many presents as you can "before Christmas comes". Luckily for you Christmas comes after about 30 seconds (otherwise this would be potentially one of the most mind-numbing, but realistic of flash games).

Christmas Tree Puzzle

2008-11-29T12:40:00.002Z

A festive puzzle especially for you!

Connect up all the wires to light up the bulbs (and also the wires) on the Christmas tree!

Amazing.

Auditorium (Demo)

2008-11-25T07:43:00.003Z

This game is not only very beautiful visually, but also great to listen to! Change the position and the size of the directional circles to fill the sound bars. Once all the sound bars are completely full you get given another level (which is usually quite a bit harder than the last).

Very good puzzle game, and it bodes well for the full version.

The Reviewing Pages

2008-11-16T08:13:00.004Z

Finally a review site with local reviews on! It's based in the Staines and Egham area, although some of the reviews reach even further afield. If you ever wanted to know which estate agents are worth looking at, or where a good place to get furniture from is, then The Reviewing Pages is the site you're looking for.

Super Stacker

2008-11-15T08:52:00.002Z

Balance the blocks on top of each other, but don't let them fall. How quickly can you stack the blocks for all of the twelve levels?

True Knowledge

2008-11-14T09:49:00.000Z

A search engine with a twist. The engine knows lots of facts, and learns more. The clever bit is that it then uses these facts to deduce even more facts. You can see some examples of how it thinks on this page.

It's not very clever yet; there are a lot of facts to learn in the universe. However, it could potentially become a useful tool for fast fact finding.

Cursor * 10

2008-07-25T15:25:00.001+01:00

Click stairs and move.
The 16th floor is a goal.
Cooperate by oneself?!

You heard the man - now do it!

GemCraft Tower Defence

2008-06-18T09:57:00.003+01:00

Similar to Desktop Tower Defence this game is based around defending against waves of enemy minions. In this game every tower can be made into a weapon by placing a gem on top of it. The various colours of gems have different powers, and you can combine them to make gems with mixed colours. The gems also have different strengths depending on the shape - by saving up you can purchase more powerful gems.
There are lots of levels, and the aim is to complete them all above a certain level, which I estimate would take days. Luckily you can save your progress and come back to it later.

Grow Nano 3

2008-06-16T17:53:00.003+01:00

More weirdness in the latest game in the grow series. This time the aim is to help the little man get back to full health. It's not amazing, but if you haven't already seen them I recommend trying some of the other games on the site!
Tontie
Grow Cube
Grow Island

Box Heroes Teleporter

2008-06-13T10:15:00.003+01:00

Box Heroes Teleporter is a very simple game where the aim is to roll the coloured boxes around to their respective goals.
The game is made considerably harder by the presence of teleporter blocks which transport a block from the "in" end of one, to the "out" end of the other. These transporter blocks can be moved around themselves, and a lot of the levels involve using the teleporter blocks to stack towers of blocks.
Click on a block to select it, and then use the left and right arrows to roll a block. I've solved the first fourteen levels, so leave a comment if you want a walkthrough one of these.

Unique

2008-06-11T09:48:00.005+01:00

Simply click on the odd circle out. Fifty levels of odd-one-out fun. As the levels go on the puzzles get harder and harder, and I think I fluked the 50th level!

See if you can beat my score of 159680.

Chore Wars

2008-06-10T13:19:00.002+01:00

The most amazing idea for getting housework done more frequently. Each house member creates a character and each time they complete a household chore they gain experience points!
The person who sets up the list can set up a list of "adventures", each with a corresponding number of points for completing it (it should be roughly one point for thirty minutes of work). The person with the most points each month should ideally be rewarded in some way, but that can be agreed upon by the household.

If only we'd found this at the start of the year!

Chronotron

2008-06-06T11:30:00.002+01:00

A very clever game where the aim is to collect the "Skip" button, and then get to the exit. The twist - every time you go to the exit without the "Skip" button, you are transported back in time to the beginning of the level. However each time you restart the level your former self is there, doing whatever you just did.

Some of the levels are fast, reaction or timing based, while others are very clever puzzles that require you to plan what you will be doing minutes in the future, whilst remembering what you did minutes in the past. Certainly one of my favourite games, and maybe my favourite game concept ever!

Qwerty Warriors 2

2007-11-16T10:24:00.000Z

Very much like Qwerty Wars but with all the annoyances removed! No longer do you have to press enter after each word, no more words obscuring other words and now all the words drop from the top allowing easy reading on the way down. When you start typing a word it appears in the status bar showing you how many of the letters you've hit so far. You get a multiplier increase each time you type a word without making a mistake, but obviously if you take too long then you start to lose health.
I'd advise against using the 'easy' level because it really is easy! Great help if you're learning to touch type.

Geoffrey's Quest

2007-11-13T16:32:00.000Z

Geoffrey's Quest is a typical point and click escape game. Instead of escaping a room, you play Geoffrey who is searching an island for his kidnapped girlfriend Jen.

The game is ok but the ending is very creepy. Also, you can't see the items you pick up which is quite annoying.

FreeRice

2007-11-12T11:02:00.000Z

This is quite a simple game: you are given a word and have to pick the correct definition, if you get it right you score 10, otherwise you score 0, repeat ad infinitum. However for each point you score the FreeRice people donate a grain of rice to third world countries.
The game tracks how verbose you are too and assigns you a different difficulty of word depending on your past ability. Each time you get three answers in a row right you go up a level, each time you get an answer wrong you go down a level (nb. this only kicks in after you've answered a few questions). My average level was about 29/30, and my maximum level reached was 37. The difficulty of each word is determined by how many people got it right and wrong, and so may change over time too.
The rice is paid for by the advertising on the site, and is donated to third world countries via the United Nations World Food Program.

IQ Test

2007-11-08T14:49:00.000Z

So this blog has been going much longer than I imagined it would. This is post number 100! (That's an excited 100 as opposed to 100 factorial which is a lot bigger). To tie in with the one hundred theme here is a game where 100 is the average score - an IQ test. Admittedly it's an inaccurate measure, and favours more numerate people rather than more intelligent people.

The picture is from my first try, for which I scored 160/160, without understanding several of the questions. Good luck!

Gimme Friction Baby

2007-10-27T16:16:00.000+01:00

The worryingly titled Gimme Friction Baby is actually a clever game which balances strategy and skill with a very simple mechanism. The aim is to burst as many bubbles as possible, by decreasing the number on them from three to zero. Balls will bounce around and get gradually slower and slower (possibly the friction referenced by the title), before coming to a halt and expanding until they hit something. If a ball bounces back across the baseline then the game is over, and your score is the number of balls burst.
When I started playing I was stuck with a high score of six for quite a while, before fluking my current high score of twenty six. This does seem like the sort of game where it would be possible to score indefinitely if you got good at it, but it's quite entertaining while you're capable of making mistakes.

Sky Blocs

2007-10-20T10:51:00.000+01:00

Sky Blocs is a puzzle game which borrows strongly from the 1992 game Pushover. The aim is to knock over all the dominoes and then to hit the flag box and raise the victory flag. As the levels progress more and more objects become available for you to use, which in turn enables more and more improbable domino set-ups!

Agent Scappa pointed out the original Pushover game to me, and I think this is just as tricky (but with a lot better graphics).

Five Differences

2007-10-19T09:16:00.000+01:00

Simply a game of spot the difference, but with five differences to find on a whole host of charming, lifelike scenes. This game feels very tranquil, and slightly weird, although I did have to resort to clicking randomly to finish some of the levels.

Grow Island

2007-10-18T09:05:00.001+01:00

Grow Island is made by the creator of the other Grow games and is still based on the 'find the correct order' principle.
This particular game doubles as an advert for an institute of education in Japan I think, but I didn't read carefully enough to find out.
Although I haven't finished this yet I hear that Naomi has, so many congratulations to her.

Portal (Flash version)

2007-10-17T08:45:00.000+01:00

Quite a complicated game based on quite a simple idea. You have a gun which fires 'portals' - a yellow one and a blue one. The two portals link to each other - anything that goes in one will come out of the other. Then you throw this portal gun into a game where the aim is to get from the start to the finish of each level, and that's it!
There are hints at the top of each level, telling you how to play, and you should remember things like the speed you go into a portal is the same as the speed you come out of the other end. You can only fire the portals on the white walls, and later on you'll come across lasers, cubes and turrets, which make things even more complicated.
The game is based on a game currently on sale called Portal.

Factory Balls

2007-10-04T07:44:00.000+01:00

In Factory Balls you work in a ball factory, creating balls to particular specifications. Drag and drop the balls onto the various tools to create a ball that looks like the stick on each box. It is possible to lose all your balls, before you complete the game, so try to avoid that. For levels where you need to combine paint together you may need to think about how computer printers combine their ink to make colours.

The short term memory checker

2007-10-01T13:13:00.000+01:00

Try to remember a set of random objects. How many can you remember at once? Beware - many of the objects are similar to other objects.

It seems like my limit is about 11 objects.

PastMaster

2007-09-28T10:37:00.000+01:00

Test your historical general knowledge and try to traverse from one side of the board to the other.

I managed to fail twice at level one before making it to level two. Perfect training if you're thinking of being on Eggheads!

Backflip

2007-09-27T16:56:00.000+01:00

Use the mouse to drag a path through the black and white tiles. Any tiles that your path goes through will be flipped over, changing the colour from black to white or vice versa. The aim is to get all the tiles in each row the same colour, it doesn't matter that the different rows are different colours from each other. You can create your own levels and play levels that other people have made too.

Equilibriated Willy

2007-09-26T08:59:00.000+01:00

Use the arrow keys to balance the penguin on the bar while snowballs pelt down. Use the mouse to click on the yellow bonuses to gain protection from the snow, or to slow its decent.

This game was chosen specially for Paula because she was complaining there wasn't enough updates. I'm sure she'll love the game's title.

Rubicon

2007-07-10T23:24:00.000+01:00

Rubicon is a game where you have to create a machine. The aim of the game is to make your machine move some crates to their corresponding destinations. There are loads of different types of devices you can use, including some with some quite complicated rules attached. Basically the easiest way to see how it works is by playing it.

Bosnia Hike 24

2007-06-20T08:03:00.000+01:00

For those of you that missed the first, second or third hikes, here's your chance to follow Team Hike 24 as they raise much needed money for a trip to work with kids in Mostar, Bosnia this Summer. They set off on the hike on Thursday the 21st of June at 5am, so keep yourself glued to the site for all the latest thrills and spills.

Winterbells

2007-05-31T08:45:00.000+01:00

Use the mouse to move the bunny rabbit left and right, and click the button to make it jump. Bounce off the bells to climb higher and higher in the sky, scoring more points for each bell, and doubling your score for bouncing off birds. Eventually you'll fall, but don't worry he always has a soft landing.

Acrobots

2007-05-24T09:19:00.000+01:00

A weird flash thing with no real point, but lots of fun to play around with. Move or throw the acrobots around and watch them climb on, and stick to each other. Add more with the plus button, turn on the light, change the energeticness of the acrobots, or even more impressively rotate the whole box and watch them tumble over each other. Bizarre, but strangely satisfying.

Penguin Pushing Game

2007-05-15T22:18:00.000+01:00

Here's a game where you need to position arrows on the ground to get the penguin to his deckchair. Really quite challenging after a while, but makes for some interesting problems.

Oh, did I mention it's all in German? Still, you can probably work out what the gist of it means!

SuPuzzle

2007-05-12T08:49:00.000+01:00

Connect the three houses to the three utilities without any of the pipes crossing. This is a classic puzzle written in flash, and it is possible. You will probably think that you've tried everything, but there is a fairly elusive solution to find.

Boomshine

2007-05-10T10:09:00.000+01:00

In this game you have to set off a chain reaction of exploding circles by clicking the mouse. There are twelve levels which get progressively harder, and I didn't manage to complete the last one. However as the levels get higher it also seems to me that whether you succeed or not is more based on luck than skill. Anyone want to prove me wrong?

And I almost forgot to mention - the music to this is great (although a bit repetitive).

Crazy Cube

2007-05-08T10:54:00.000+01:00

If I'm honest I was slightly disappointed by the lack of craziness in this game. It did however contain a high cube content rating, so if you're adverse to cubes then turn away now.

Click and drag to connect coloured squares together on the surface of this cube. Once all the paths are connected you can go onto the next level. There are thirty levels in all, some of which are very tough.

Crazy Doors of Rainbow Colours

2007-05-03T11:59:00.000+01:00

First of all ask yourself - how could you not play a game with this title? Some crazy doors? Complete with rainbow colours? Sounds like a great place to be.

You have to find objects, throw them against the correct walls to make doors, open the doors, and repeat! You never need to reset (although you might need to if you can't remember things), which makes this a fairly straightfoward game. However it's not an easy game, which makes it fairly satisfying too.

Dwarf Complete

2007-05-01T09:14:00.000+01:00

This is a bit of a weird game, by the maker of the Grow and Tontie games. In this game you have to explore around and collect all the weapon/clothes/shoes things which unlock the passages into the next rooms. You also have to get the other objects which allow you to do super-cool things. Yes, super-cool is a real phrase.

I'll put some helpful hints in the comments section (otherwise it's impossible).

Everyone's a winner

2007-04-27T13:17:00.000+01:00

A bit of a random game, but can you work out what needs to be done to win? Once you've worked out how to win, can you work out a tactic to win every game?

Galves Adventure

2007-04-26T12:40:00.000+01:00

Apparently Galves is a baby known by the maker of the Grow series (eg. Grow Cube) and this is a point and click adventure game made about him. It's very similar in style to the creator's earlier games, and equally fun. At times you need timing, and it's possible to get stuck, so use the reset button frequently.

Warning: There's a rude bit which can happen if you let the crab and the baby get too near to each other!

Stick Cricket

2007-04-21T12:12:00.000+01:00

Using just the arrow keys can you play a successful batting innings? I've played this for quite a while and have concluded that I'm fairly rubbish at it, but it's still entertaining.

Also check out the "Super 8" game, where you play as one of the teams in the World Cup trying to qualify for the semi finals! Needless to say I didn't win a single match and ended up bottom.

50 Dark Movies Hidden In A Painting

2007-04-20T13:09:00.000+01:00

If you liked the Ultimate Film Desktop then chances are you'll like this too. There are fifty spooky movies hidden in the painting and the aim is to work out what they all are. When you think you know one you can click on it and type your answer in. The box will go green if you're right, red if you're wrong (or it's mispelt).

You can also save your progress by putting an email address in (it doesn't have to be a real email address), but you need to find the @ button, which is 'Shift' and '2' for anyone with British keyboards.

The Impossible Quiz

2007-04-16T14:31:00.000+01:00

Funny, loud, and almost a quiz. The impossible quiz requires you to think laterally and often to simply guess. Some of the levels are about speed while others are more about thinking. I've managed to get to level 60 or so, let me know if you do better!

I think this takes a looong time to load, so if you've got a slow connection maybe try a different game. Many thanks to Paul for telling me about this one.

Desktop Tower Defense

2007-04-02T13:09:00.001+01:00

Desktop Tower Defense is a clever game where you have to create and maintain a field of towers. Periodically you will be invaded by a swarm of little critters and if any of them get through your `tower defense' field alive then you lose a life. You can upgrade your towers by clicking on them and clicking upgrade.

There are full instructions at the bottom of the page.

Planets (A different one)

2007-03-29T11:49:00.000+01:00

In this game the aim is to get all the planets aligned. As of yet I haven't worked out how to do this, but I have worked out a few things which I'll put in the comments. If anyone works out more feel free to help me out a bit!

The game itself has a hints button, but that didn't really help me much/at all. Basically this game is extremely weird, but it looks fun all the same.

Planets

2007-03-28T08:37:00.000+01:00

Fire the missile at the red planet without hitting yourself or the green planet. As the levels go on the green planet gets larger and larger and the red planet gets smaller and smaller. As in all space scenarios the missile will bounce off the edge of the screen.

See if you can beat my personal best of failure on level nine.

Let It Flow

2007-03-26T12:59:00.000+01:00

Comic Relief have made this game which is fairly similar to the old skool game "Pipe Dream". Rotate the pipes to connect the pump to the plants and animals, then pump the pump and finally wait for the water to reach the end point.

Bonus points for using the 'star' pipes and negative points for spilling any water.

Dice Wars

2007-03-02T11:49:00.000Z

It might take a short while for the page to load, but it's an interesting game. You play as purple and have to try to conquer the world with your dice. Dice are allocated randomly, and when you attack an adjacent country all the dice involved are rolled and if you roll higher than the defender then you move into the country (leaving one dice behind to defend). If you fail then you lose all the dice that would have invaded. At the end of your go you get reenforcements (depending on how many countries are in your largest connected region) distributed randomly over your territories. You cannot have more than 8 per country though.

Turbo Risk

2007-02-25T10:26:00.000Z

Continuing the line of board games turned into computer games, this is TurboRisk. The game of Risk converted into a very playable game. If you have the skills you can even write your own computer opponent! By watching the computer players it seems like Australia and South America are the places to be.
The only downside is that you have to download this game. However it seems to be fine on my computer and I've had it for a while now.

The Settlers Of Catan

2007-02-23T12:53:00.001Z

Another board game made into online game, and this one's great. It's a bit complicated if you haven't played before, and the computer players are sometimes a bit annoying and gang up on you, but on the whole this game is really well made. You can play a game of Settlers that would normally take over an hour with human opponents in ten minutes!
You can also play against other people, but it helps to play with people you know won't take ages over their go. I don't think you can get the rules from Wikipedia (probably due to copyright), so you'll have to pick it up by playing.

FreeCiv

2007-02-02T12:39:00.000Z

So this isn't by any scope of the imagination a quick distraction. This is a huge life-time of a distraction. It's a download game, which instantly spells out long, but it's also amazing. If you've ever player Civilization, then this game is very similar (verging on the same). It's much more customisable, and is also much more free.

I can't possibly hope to sum up the whole game here, but basically the aim is to take charge of a civilization and lead them through the ages, keeping up to the times with military, economic and scientific advances. You start in 4000BC and the game goes all the way up to the present day.

This game is also multiplayer, and I'd love to organise a multiplayer game some day in the future, if only so everyone can see how bad I am at it!

5 Numbers

2007-02-01T14:21:00.000Z

A weird game with instructions in Japanese (I think), but actually a very simple concept. Click on each of the terminal things (the grey boxes), and use the clue to work out the five digit number. Type in the number, click "Lift", and away you go. If you get it right then the terminal will be replaced by bits of something else (I'm sure you'll work out what quite quickly).
I managed all but three fairly quickly, and have now managed all but the grey and black pattern puzzle (feel free to give me any hints!).

GoWind

2007-01-26T10:10:00.000Z

Play Go against a computer. Unlike drafts and chess computers are supposedly pretty bad at Go, for more information about this see this Wikipedia page. However this program (GoWind) seems to beat me every time!
The aim of Go is to capture squares on the board by surrounding them, and also to capture the opponents stones by surrounding them. You aren't allowed to suicide a stone (place it somewhere it would be immediately captured) except in the case that you would use it to capture an opponents stone, and therefore free up some space. Repeating the same moves over and over is not allowed either, so you may not be able to capture a piece if it's the one which the computer just placed.
My best effort so far is b 232, w 129 (ie. a loss of 232 to 129).

Catch The Butterfly

2007-01-20T08:30:00.000Z

When you click on the button then your mouse pointing becomes invisible, and you have to catch the butterfly without running over the walls. When you are over the butterfly a box will appear around it, and you can click the mouse button to complete the level. Oh, and if you click on the british flag symbol you get the instructions in English!

Weboggle

2007-01-13T12:57:00.000Z

Play Boggle against people from around the world and try to get to the top of the score board. If you don't know how to play Boggle already then you should look at the Wikipedia page on it.

Have fun!

Seen On Screen

2007-01-12T11:42:00.000Z

In this game the aim is to work out what to do in order to advance to the next level. There are no instructions, and you can see what level you've reached in the bottom left corner. We managed to reach level 13, but are now stuck! If anyone can do better then please let us know (and we'll probably sulk for a while).

Line Rider

2007-01-09T21:23:00.000Z

Draw a track and then press play to watch a penguin on a sledge follow it. Use the blue pencil tool to draw normal track and the red lines to draw acceleration track. If you want you can even draw background with the green lines. Be sure to check out the videos page to see what can be done!

Submachine

2006-12-20T14:27:00.000Z

Submachine is a simple point and click adventure, but I'm sure people will be quite relieved if they've previously got stuck on Hapland, or any of the 'coloured room' series (Crimson, Viridian, etc.)
Nicely animated and very intuitive, I give this game a nine! (Though I'm not saying what out of)

Quest for the crown

2006-12-19T11:37:00.001Z

An adventure game like no other. If you enjoyed 1D tetris and clock patience, then you'll love this. For more detailed hints and tips then check out this (hilarious) page.

In short - I'm dumbfounded.

Grow Version 1

2006-12-13T21:11:00.000Z

For some reason this has come after Grow ver.2 and Grow ver.3, but it's still great!
Choose between the different options and sculpt your ball into a creature. The 'aim' is to get the bar at the bottom to MAX, which (I think) there's only one way of doing. However whatever options you choose you get to see an insight into the weird mind of Dave.

Diversity

2006-12-12T16:49:00.000Z

Another escape from the room type game, but quite a good one! There's about four levels and none of the things are too hard to do. We managed it without any help (go us!)

Ps. Hopefully Soph will understand it ;-P

TyperA

2006-12-11T11:14:00.000Z

After a recent conversation I realised there is a need for people to be able to type faster. This will improve efficiency not just in essays and emails, but also in other mediums such as MSN. How good would it be to boost the amount of procrastination you could do per hour, without it taking any extra time!
Apparently I type at about 44 words per minute, although I made nine mistakes when doing it. This is much better than QWERTY Wars (which was recently posted on here) for training typing skills, because you don't need to hit enter after every word.

Grow Ornament

2006-12-08T12:11:00.000Z

If you've played the many other Grow games, then you'll take to this like a duck to water. Add decorations to the tree in the right order to make them interact with each other, and ultimately create the best Christmas tree ever!

Overtime at Santa's factory

2006-12-07T13:17:00.000Z

A festive treat for you here (I think it's about six years old, but nevermind!) You forgot to write a letter to Santa, and so you have to get your present requent to him. If you select that you've been naughty then it's a very short game, but if you select nice then there's quite a bit more of it! You should put in a real present request, because there's one part of the game which is more fun if you do!
Anyway it's probably aimed at kids, but it entertained me for five minutes or so.

Qwerty Wars

2006-12-06T11:05:00.000Z

The aim of this game is to stay alive as long as possible, which you do by shooting the alien type things. You shoot the alien/robot things by typing the words underneath them. As the game progresses the enemies attack more frequently, get larger and have longer words words beneath them. You can shoot the 'FullHealth' crates to be returned to 100 health, and shoot the 'Detonate' crates to destroy all the enemies on the screen.
If you can't touch type yet then this might be one way to learn!

The Unsuggester

2006-12-05T09:42:00.000Z

Enter the title of a book you loved, and it will give you a list of the top 100 books you probably won't like.
It's worked out from a database of people's libraries, by comparing the expected number of people owning both (worked out from the individual book popularities) with the actual number of people owning both, and comes out with some quite surprising results!
The same site also has a 'Suggester', but that's just not quite as exciting really.

Ashes Alarm

2006-12-04T12:44:00.000Z

I'm not sure of all the rules on this one, but basically the BBC are offering a text service to recieve scores from the Ashes series down under. You send a text to a number (at usual text price), and they'll send you the live score, at whatever time of day you choose. Consequently I get woken up at 7:30 on the dot with news of England's latest.

Thanks to Paul for showing this one to me!

Movie Puzzle ver.0

2006-12-01T11:32:00.000Z

This strangely titled puzzle is also strangely tough. It has less to do with movies, and more to do with a moving ball jigsaw puzzle. In fact it has everything to do with a moving ball jigsaw puzzle, because that's precisely what it is!

After completing the easy setting in a minute or so you should try the hard one, which I still haven't yet worked out. Anyway it's a great idea for a puzzle, and is perfect to use up a few minutes of your day. I think this is a trial version, so look out for future additions/improvements to it!

I've now worked out the hard puzzle - you have to use the left and right arrow keys to complete the puzzle!

Ver

2006-11-27T11:10:00.000Z

This game is a lot like one I wrote when I was at school. The idea is to use the arrow keys to control the line, however make sure that you don't run into the walls, or you'll get insulted(?) in French, and then have to start the level again. To complete the level you have to run into the star, and on the next screen press 'up'. As the levels progress the mazes get harder and harder.

I think the French says "You need to practice more", but I may be completely wrong! If you get to this screen press 'up' ("haut") to continue.

Make Moving MSN Emoticons

2006-11-23T10:53:00.000Z

Create you own animated MSN emoticons with this animated gif tool. Upload the pictures you want in the animation and then save the result to your computer. Go to the "Create..." option on the MSN emoticon viewer, and select the gif file you produced (Nb. The emoticon will come out 50x50px - so don't put too much detail into the original pictures).

Multiperson Jigsaw

2006-11-16T23:56:00.000Z

What could be more fun than an online jigsaw?
Answer: A multiperson jigsaw of course!
Just when you thought you'd got some of those pieces in the right place some fool moves them all! Actually it's good fun, and most of the time feels like you're bonding with someone over an respectible old-fashioned pastime (without actually talking to them).

Rock Paper Scissors 25

2006-11-10T21:25:00.000Z

Click on "Play This Game" to experience the wonderful world of RPS25. If you want to know more about the history of the game (it's actually very entertaining!) then there's the official (I think) page here.
Possibly even more exciting still is the new addition to the site - RPS101! Now over a hundred different hand gestures, and under one percent chance of a draw! So the next time you need to make a decision in a hurry, you should consider RPS101.