Posts Tagged: ‘Games’

Fun Things To Do on the Internet (2020-04)

July 13, 2022 Posted by Tiny

Thoughts From a Clicker
By Tiny Ruisch

I love going to a carnival.  I don’t go on many of the rides anymore, but I love all the fun things there are to do.  Unfortunately, carnivals can be pretty dangerous too.  There are always pickpockets who will steal everything they can.  We often hear of rides that injure people.  About the only thing that is really safe at a carnival is the healthy food you can buy.

The internet is a lot like a carnival.  Everyone knows about the dangers and we all keep our antivirus programs updated.  I know that all the Cajun Clickers club members have their router firmware updated.  Their firewalls are active to keep the bad guys away.  Since everyone is so safe, I thought that this month I’d talk about some fun things to do on the internet.  After all, many people are spending a lot more time at home trying to avoid the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).  It is keeping a lot of people at home with lots of spare time on their hands.

There are a lot of fun sites.  I know that everyone doesn’t have the same idea of what’s fun.  Maybe if I tell you about my favorite sites, you might find something entertaining.

One of the things you can find a lot of on the internet are free games to play.  If you’re looking for games to play, good place to start is Gizmo’s list of Best Free PC Games.  This site is updated often and all the games are free to play.  My personal favorite online game is Texas Hold’em Poker.  There are a lot of places to play, but you’ll usually find me at World Series Poker at AOL Games.  There are lots of online games on the site, but I haven’t played many of the others.  If you like to play hearts, I recommend you try the Microsoft Gaming Zone.  The Gaming Zone has been around for a while and they have lots of games.

I’ve never been much of a television or movie watcher, but I love to listen to the old time radio shows.  Most evenings I’m listening to The Lone Ranger, Gunsmoke, Jack Benny, or my personal favorite, Fibber McGee & Molly.  My network drive has about 21 GB of radio program files.  You can get them and many more at the Old Time Radio Internet Archive.

In December 1995, Bill Watterson retired from cartooning.  I lost my daily dose of one of the funniest cartoons ever.  Now, thanks to the internet, I can still read Calvin & Hobbes everyday.  You can find a daily comic you’ll like at GOCOMICS, Comics Kingdom or ArcaMax Publishing.  None of the comics sites require registration.

“The Alphabet has been Updated with 15 Exciting New Letters” is only one of the funny satires you’ll find in The Onion.  This fictional, satire paper started in 1988.  They’ve been around more than twenty years, so they must be doing something right.  Their news stories seem so genuine that they have occasionally been cited as real.  I’ve got to warn you though.  There is often adult language used in the paper.  Another satire site I like is the Babylon Bee.  For a great description, check out their About Us page.

I’ll show my age a little. I don’t mind being called a “senior” because it usually includes a 10 percent discount.  If you like senior citizen humor, you also might like to check out Geezer Guff.

As you might or might not know, I’m a transplanted Northerner.  When I talk with my brother and sisters on Facebook, I usually translate into Southern for them.  Everybody gets a few laughs.  Translating into a dialect is easy when you use The Dialectizer.  As I write this you can convert into nine different dialects.  It hardly ever fails to make me laugh.

Here is a sample:
As y’all might o’ might not know, I’m a transplanted No’therner.  When ah talk wif mah brother an’ sisters on Facebook, ah usually translate into Southern fo’ them, dawgone it.  Ev’rybody gits a few laughs.  Translatin’ into a dialeck is easy when yo’ use Th’ Dialeckizer.  As ah write this hyar yo’ kin cornvaht into nine diffrunt dialecks.  It hardly evah fails t’make me laugh.

That’s just a few of the things I like to do on the internet for fun.  I hope you enjoyed them too and found a new site you’ll visit often.  Do you have a favorite place you think everyone should know about?  Let me know and it could become a topic for the new Internet SIG group I’m starting.

Thanks for reading and keep on clicking.

Read full article |Leave a comment
Tags: , , , ,
Categories: Clicker

Real Kakuro

August 15, 2020 Posted by Tiny

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

I only play a few games on my Android devices.  With one exception, they are all either word or number games.  I like to play Sudoku, Crossword Puzzles, Wordiest, Cryptograms and a few others.  It has to be a pretty good game to make it to the games folders on my phone.  Real Kakuro is a game that I downloaded about a week ago.  I have found it to be similar to both Sudoku and Crossword Puzzles.  To play the game, you also need to employ both mathematical and logical skills.

Kakuro, also known as cross sums or sum totals, is like a crossword puzzle with numbers.  Each “number” must add up to the total provided at the top of the column or to the left of the row.  Only the numbers 1 through 9 can be used in any row or column.  Each number can only be used once.  Every Kakuro game can be solved through logic alone.  All of the puzzles have only one solution.  If you get stuck in any particular board and think there is no solution, just reset and start over.  There are 3000 puzzles to solve.

As shown in figure 1, there are five levels of play.  I recommend starting with a few easy games to get a feel for how the grids are filled in.  In figure 2, you can see the opening screen for the easy puzzles.  The ribbon denotes that the puzzle has been completed.  Figure 3 shows the opening screen of a puzzle.  Under the grid, you can see a list of all the possible solutions for each row and column.  These numbers change as you fill in possible answers.  Answers are added with the keyboard in the bottom center.  The pencil icon on the left will let you enter one or more possible choices.  The pen icon is used to fill in your answer.  If you enter a number that will not fit the answer, it will show in red.  Selecting the eraser icon lets you delete whatever you have entered in any block.  Finally, the eye icon removes the possible answer choices.  Figure 4 shows the completed puzzle, except for the final answer.

I do have one minor niggle with this game.  The numeric keyboard is a little small for my big fingers.  I sometimes enter the wrong number without realizing that I did it.  Then I have to change icons and delete it.

Like many Android games,  Real Kakuro is supported by displaying advertisements.  They are not intrusive and show on the top of the game play screen.  After I played my second game, I paid the $2.95 in‑app purchase to remove them.  Download the game from the Google Play Store. I think you will like it.
Thanks for reading.

Read full article |Leave a comment
Tags: , , ,
Categories: Darkside

The Room Series (2020-05)

June 7, 2020 Posted by Tiny

Thoughts From a Clicker
by Tiny Ruisch

There is at least one good thing about being stuck at home to avoid COVID‑19.  I’m getting a chance to replay my all time favorite Android games.  Fireproof Games has released four installments of their popular “The Room” series.  It all started in September 2012 with the release of The Room, a physical puzzler, wrapped in a mystery game, inside a beautifully tactile 3D world.  It was followed with a sequel, The Room Two, in February 2014.  January 2016 gave us the release of The Room Three.  The Room: Old Sins was released in April 2018.  They have also created a Room VR which is a virtual reality game.  I wish I could afford the gear.

Fireproof Games describe themselves as “a team of 18 based in Guildford, UK and since 2012 we’ve been creating our own games.”  Many game companies churn out a lot of games that are mostly the same old thing with in‑app purchases to try and get your money.  Fireproof has a slightly higher price but delivers a quality game with no further cost.  The games are also available for Apple and Windows.  This mini‑review is for the Android environment.

In The Room, your task is to open a safe.  The safe is really a big box that changes as you solve the many puzzles, riddles, games and other baffling conundrums.  In the course of the game, you find a story unfolding about locating a strange machine.  I estimate that it took me about 20 hours to complete the game the first time.  I replayed it last year and got through a lot faster, even though I couldn’t remember a lot of the game play.

The Room Two picks up where the original game left off.  You have to recreate the steps of the scientist and complete a strange machine.  The first thing you notice is that the room is a lot larger and has several boxes.  There are a lot more puzzles and many of them are much more difficult.  I don’t think any of them were repeats from the first game.

The Room Three is more diabolical that the first two.  One of biggest differences is that the game “world” is much larger.  Instead of a single room, the game starts on a train.  As you start solving puzzles, you soon find a secret entrance to a room.  Once again, you find many puzzles, riddles, mazes, etc.  The difficultly level has increased again.  The machine you discovered in the previous games has put you in another world and you need to solve the game to return.

The Room:  Old Sins takes place in the attic of Waldegrave Manor.  You find an old doll house, which is a replica of the manor.  You have to find a missing engineer and his wife who are lost in the doll house.  There are many puzzles you have to solve to unlock the rooms in the dollhouse.

The games all have spectacular graphics, perplexing puzzles, eerie music and are very playable on a touch enabled tablet or phone.  If you have a device with a larger screen, they are even more playable.  I originally paid full price ($5.99) for each game.  Over the years, the price has been reduced:

The Room is $0.99, The Room Two is $1.99, The Room Three is $3.99 and The Room: Old Sins costs $4.99.  I can enthusiastically recommend all them.

Thanks for reading.

Read full article |Leave a comment
Tags: , , ,
Categories: Clicker

Sudoku Free by A1 Factory – Originally Published December 2019

December 8, 2019 Posted by Tiny

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

I was looking through my list of Android app reviews when I noticed that I had installed one on September 27, 2012 and had never written about it.  This was mildly surprising since it is a game that I play nearly every day.  Needless to say, it is one of my favorites.

When I searched the Google Play Store for this article, I found hundreds of Sudoku apps.   A sudoku puzzle is a grid of nine by nine squares or cells, that have been subdivided into nine sub−grids or “regions” of three by three cells.  The objective of sudoku is to enter a digit from 1 through 9 in each cell, so that each row and column contains each digit once.
Sudoku Free by A1 Factory Limited has the following features.

• 1500 puzzles five difficulty levels.
• Smooth interface and graphics.
• Statistics tracking, including fastest times, average times and completion % for each level.
• Optional hints and board aids.
• Two sets of Sudoku board art and fonts.
• Two different modes for notes input.
• Supports undo.

The game has an easy to use interface.  Screenshot 01 shows the opening display of the program.  It is a completed game.  The black numbers were the starting given numbers of the game.  The blue numbers have been filled in by the player.

Screenshot  02 shows that I have completed puzzle 80 on difficulty level 4.  It took me 16 minutes and 20 seconds.  The arrows on the side of the grid allow you to advance to the next puzzles or return to previous puzzles.  There is also a button to replay the puzzle.

In Screenshot 03, I’ve advanced to puzzle 81 and am ready to hit the play key.  Screenshot 04 shows the opening grid after I’ve started the game.  In the Screenshot 05, I’ve entered the digits 1 and 5 in the upper left block of the lower left grid.  These are the two possible numbers that could fit in this space.  I’ve also entered the number 9 to demonstrate an incorrect entry.  To correct it, I could either hit the 9 button or the Undo key.  Screenshot 06 shows the game options selectable by the player.

If you like to play Sudoku, I can highly recommend you download and try Sudoku Free from the Google Play Store. It is ad supported, but I can honestly not tell you if they are obtrusive.  After playing a game or two I purchased Sudoku for $1.99.  That was more that seven years ago.

Thanks for reading.

Read full article |Leave a comment
Tags: , , , ,
Categories: Darkside

Cryptogram for Android – Originally Published October 2019

October 6, 2019 Posted by Tiny

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

Android phones and tablets are the perfect size for playing some of my favorite games.  Most of the time, it is some type of a word game.  In the past, I’ve reviewed Wordiest, 7 Little Words, Monkey Wrench, Crossword Puzzle Free and many others.  I’ve recently found another word game that I’ve played daily since I installed it.

Cryptogram for Android is a puzzle where a sentence or phrase has been encoded by substituting the actual letters of the sentence with different letters.  The challenge of the puzzle is to decode the sentence to reveal the original English sentence.  The cipher used to encrypt the text is a simple substitution of letters and is easy enough that the cryptogram can be solved by hand.  The solution to each puzzle is a message by one of hundreds of different poets, preachers and prophets.  There are thousands of puzzles to solve.

The features of the game as listed in the Play Store are:
• Hundreds and hundreds of hand-picked puzzles without any religious or political bias;
• It works completely offline, so you can enjoy some brain teasers while traveling;
• Compare statistics about how well you’re doing with friends;
• Keep track of which puzzles you’ve solved already and revisit them;
• Get help by revealing letters or showing hints.

The game is easy to play.  As you progress in the game, the puzzles get harder.  The quote topic and author name can often give you clues to what some of the words might be.  You can get hints by revealing letters.  As I write this article, the Play Store has 14,209 reviews with an average rating of 4.6.  The puzzle author is very responsive to reviews.

                                                     

Did I mention the best feature?  Cryptogram for Android is completely free and has no ads.  There is a donate button in the settings menu.  You can download Cryptogram from the Google Play Store.  If you like word puzzles, I highly recommend this one.

Thanks for reading.

Read full article |Leave a comment
Tags: , , ,
Categories: Darkside

Reviewing My Game Reviews – Originally Published December 2018

December 8, 2018 Posted by Tiny

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

I was trying to decide on a subject for this month’s column by doing what I often do.  Almost always, I review previous columns and see if there might be a good follow up article.  I noticed that I have done quite a few game reviews.  This month, I thought I would recap them.  I hope you enjoy my reviews and that you might give one of the games a try.  All of the games except The Room Series are free from the Google Play Store.  Many have upgrade options to remove advertising, buy upgrades, etc.  In each application, I’ve included the month of my original review in case you want to reread it in the club newsletter or on my website.  I’ve also included the Play Store rating (as of this review date)

FEB 2014 (4.6) – Wordiest is a Scrabble like word game where you try to beat 100 other players by making two words out of fourteen tiles.  I still have this game on my phone and play it several times a week.
APR2014 (4.7) – 7 Little Words is a game that Tom recommended I try.  Thanks a lot Tom!  You’ve cost me more than $20 for puzzle packs I’ve purchased.  Each puzzle consists of seven clues for seven different words.  There are twenty letter combinations for you to put together that fit the clues.  I play this game every day.
JUL2014 (4.1) – Red Herring is a word game where you try to fit words into categories.  I thought it was a fun game, but not very challenging.  After playing the fifty free games, I uninstalled the app.
MAR2015 (4.1) – Trainyard Express is a puzzle solving game where you have to get your trains from their departure points into the correct station by drawing track on a square of grids.  The only real problem with the game is that the advertising is pretty intrusive.  I long ago purchased the ad free version for $1.99.  The paid version is renamed Trainyard and has a 4.8 user rating on the Play Store.
AUG2015 (4.2) – Shikaku is a game where the objective is to place rectangles (boxes) all over the screen such that each box contains a single number and has an area equal to that number.  I forgot all about this game, so I must have thought it wasn’t that great.  Now that I’m looking at it again, I may download and play it again.
MAR2016 (4.9) – The Room, The Room Two, The Room Three and The Room: Old Sins all have high ratings on Google Play.  They are all larger games that combine many different types of puzzles that the player must solve.  I keep them installed on my tablet.  When I finish the series, I start over again.  Just to be completely honest, I fudged a little on the Play Store ratings.  The Room was only a 4.8 rating.
MAY2016 (4.7) – Monkey Wrench is a word search game where you have to find the words to fit various categories.  The game is OK, but can get a little repetitive.  I still keep it on my phone just to play the free daily games.
DEC2017 4.5) – Block! Hexa Puzzle is a game where you have to fit small block pieces nicely into a given shape.  I really like this game because it gets more challenging to more you play.  Even so, I haven’t played the game for a while.  When I downloaded it to my new phone, I had to start playing from the beginning.
OCT2018 (4.6) – Crossword Puzzle Free is a nicely laid out puzzle game that is easy to play.  This has become one of my favorite games.  I’ve played it enough that I know which of the many puzzle authors to avoid.  There are a lot of crossword games on the Play Store.  I haven’t looked at any of them since I installed this game.
I also looked back on my app history and realized that there are a lot of games (and other programs) I’ve installed over the years.  Some I still use on a daily basis and others have become obsolete.  There might be a future article on these.
Thanks for reading.

Read full article |Leave a comment
Tags: , , , ,
Categories: Darkside

Crossword Puzzle Free – Originally Published October 2018

October 7, 2018 Posted by Tiny

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

I’ve got a new game on my phone that has been taking up almost all of my idle moments.  Crossword Puzzles Free by Redstone Games is an easy to play game.  The features extolled by the author include:
– Smart Look Up: get word suggestions when you have trouble with difficult clues.
– Hints: reveal letters, words or the entire puzzle in case you get stuck.
– Smart Step: skip filled cells when navigating through the puzzle.
– Show Errors: highlight wrong letters.
– Clear Errors: easily remove all incorrect letters.
– Offline Mode: puzzles available even when you don’t have an Internet connection.
– Polished User Interface: easy and modern way to navigate through the puzzle cells and clues.

Opening the game gives you a choice of 108 puzzle packs to play.  Packs are rated as either easy, medium, hard or very had to play.  Each pack has ten puzzles for a total of 1080 puzzles.  Each week, some of the puzzles are changed out.  If you are a prolific player, you can also purchase puzzle packs.  New puzzles are added on a weekly basis and it appears that an equal number of older puzzles are removed.  There are several different puzzle authors which gives you a variation on the types of clues.  I suspect that puzzles might be recycled.  That shouldn’t make a difference.  I haven’t seen any repeats in my play.

The game is easy to play.  The open screen allows you to select a puzzle pack by author and ease of play.  After you select a pack, a new screen opens listing ten puzzles by title.  All puzzle are a 15×15 grid.  The puzzle shows in the top part of the screen, the clues in the middle and the keyboard on the bottom.  Entering letters automatically advances the cursor to the next block.  The backspace key at the bottom right deletes letters.  Correct letters don’t get erased.  The left and right arrow keys select the next/previous clue.  The magnifying glass above the keyboard opens the hint screen.  The icon to the right opens the error screen.

              

The options menu is straight forward and is truly self explanatory.  The two items of note is the “Look Up” which will give you suggestions for an answer.  The “OneLook” key to its right lets you select the source for the Look Up.  Choices are the OneLook dictionary, the Crossword Tracker dictionary, Google and the OneAcross dictionary.  Remember, the suggestions, may or may not be the correct answer(s).

I do have two small quibbles with the program.  I guess it could be more a fuss with the puzzle author instead of the app.  Sometimes the clues are repetitive which might make it seem like you are doing a puzzle that you have already completed.  The other problem is that sometimes the clues are a real stretch.  There have been a few times that I have just hit the show answer button.

The game is free with mostly unobtrusive advertisements.  You can pay $4.99 to remove them.  Download the game from the Google Play Store.  Give it a try.  You might like it.

Thanks for reading.

Read full article |Leave a comment
Tags: , , ,
Categories: Darkside

Block! Hexa Puzzle – Originally Published December 2017

January 1, 2018 Posted by Tiny

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

I was originally going to write an article on my research before buying a new phone.  Then I downloaded “Block!Hexa Puzzle” by BitMango and put a new phone in my drafts folder. I like games that make me think and sometimes give me ideas for Mindbender puzzles. Needless to say, I like “Block! Hexa Puzzle”.

This is one of those games that is simple to learn, but soon becomes challenging to play.  It definitely makes you use your brain.  The aim of the game is to fit small block pieces nicely into a given shape, which changes on every level.  There are fourteen modules consisting of 80 puzzles each.  As you advance, the puzzles get more difficult.  There are no time limits for finishing the puzzles.

                             

The game play is pretty simple to play. You drag the pieces into the frame and try to connect all of them to fit.  You cannot rotate the pieces, but you can take them out and switch them if you need to.  As you progress to higher levels there will be extra pieces.  This can get a little frustrating, but I like the fact that it makes you think harder.  Another thing I like about the play is that there is no time limit.  You don’t have to restart from the beginning.

If you really need help, you can always tap to receive hints.  The developers are pretty generous with them.  You get hints for many different accomplishments.  You can even watch an advertisement to get a hint.  After almost 100 games, I’ve earned 23 hints.  I haven’t had to use any of them yet, but I’ve been tempted.  This is mostly because after five or six tries, the hints button starts to wiggle.

Like many other “free” games “Block! Hexa Puzzle” is ad supported.  A video advertisement plays before the game starts.  There is a small ad at the bottom of each screen.  Every three games or so, there is another video ad.  All advertisements can be removed for an upgrade fee of $1.99, which I purchased after playing about twenty games.  I only do this for games I really like and plan to play often.

Another way to get hints is to solve the daily extra puzzle.  Of course, you have to watch an advertisement before playing.  There is also a multi‑player option which I haven’t tried.

This is the type of game that you can play when you have a few minutes to kill.  It is both easy to play and challenging at the same time.  Most importantly, the game is FUN to play.

You can download “Block! Hexa Puzzle” from the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.  If you do a search instead of clicking the link, download the app created by BitMango.  There are a lot of similar games.  Note that my review is for Android but I’m pretty sure all the functions in iOS are the same.

Thanks for reading.

Read full article |Leave a comment
Tags: , , ,
Categories: Darkside

Monkey Wrench – Originally Published May 2016

May 8, 2016 Posted by Tiny

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

Way back in April 2014, I told you about one of my favorite word games, 7 Little Words.  I still play it every day and have purchased several extra puzzle packages.  In July, I reviewed Red Herring, another game by the same developer.  I thought it was okay, but not near as challenging.

The developer, Blue Ox Technologies has released another word game.  I think that two years from now Monkey Wrench will still be on my favorites list.  Monkey Wrench is a word finding game with clues to figure out what the hidden words are.  The clues are given in categories which will definitely challenge your brain.  Some are easy (sports with a round ball – tennis) and others are difficult (edible flowers – fennel).

Opening a puzzle presents you with a screen of letters.  The object of the game is to spell the answers by sliding your finger through the correct letters.  When you get an answer right, the letters are removed from the grid.  Each puzzle has three difficulty levels you can play.  Easy shows all of the words you must find.  Normal shows the first letter of each word.  Hard reveals how many letters in each word.

If you get stuck, you can use a hint.  The game comes with ten free hints or you can buy an upgrade for $1.99 and get unlimited hints.  The hints give you a choice of showing all the vowels, showing the last letter or showing the entire solution.

The game comes with one free bundle of fifty puzzles.  You can purchase more puzzle packs.  There is a promotion where you can sign up with an e-mail for their newsletter and get another bundle of twenty puzzles.  There is also a free game each day that you can download.

If you enjoy word games, you’ll like Monkey Wrench. It can be downloaded from the Play Store for free with in-app purchases.

             

Read full article |Leave a comment
Tags: , , ,
Categories: Darkside

The Room – Originally Published March 2016

March 13, 2016 Posted by Tiny

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

I’ve been excited lately!  Fireproof Games recently released the third installment to their popular “The Room” series.  It all started in September 2012 with the release of The Room, a physical puzzler, wrapped in a mystery game, inside a beautifully tactile 3D world.  It was followed with a sequel, The Room Two, in February 2014.  Last month, January 2016, gave us the release of The Room Three.

Fireproof Games describe themselves as “a team of 15 based in Guildford, UK and since 2012 we’ve been creating our own games.”  So far, they’ve only released the three Room games and a virtual reality Jetpack game for the Samsung Gear.  Many game companies churn out a lot of games that are mostly the same old thing with in-app purchases to try and get your money.  Fireproof has a slightly higher price but delivers a quality game with no further cost.  The games are also available for Apple and Windows.  This mini-review is for the Android environment.

In The Room, your task is to open a safe.  The safe is really a big box that changes as you solve the many puzzles, riddles, games and other bafflements.  In the course of the game, you find a story unfolding about locating a strange machine.  I estimate that it took me about 20 hours to complete the game the first time.  I replayed it last year and got through a lot faster, even though I couldn’t remember a lot of the game play.

                   

The Room Two picks up where the original game left off.  You have to recreate the steps of the scientist and complete the strange machine.  The first thing you notice is that the room is a lot larger and has several boxes.  There are many more puzzles and many of them seem to be much more difficult.  I don’t think any of them were repeats from the first game.

                   

I haven’t yet finished playing The Room Three, but I can tell you that it is more diabolical that the first two.  So far, the biggest difference I have found is that the game “world” is much larger.  Instead of a single room, the game starts on a train.  As you start solving puzzles, you soon find a secret entrance to a room.  Once again, you find many puzzles, riddles, mazes, etc.  The difficultly level has increased again.  It appears that the machine you discovered in the previous games has put you in another world and you need to solve the game to get back.  So far, there have been several rooms and many more puzzles.

                   

The games all have spectacular graphics, perplexing puzzles, eerie music and are very playable on a touch enabled tablet or phone.  I originally paid full price ($5.99) for each game.  Over the years, the price has been reduced:
The Room is $1.10, The Room Two is $2.07 and The Room Three costs $5.55.  I can happily recommend all them.

   
Thanks for reading.

Read full article |Leave a comment
Tags: , , ,
Categories: Darkside
« Older Entries