The Arcade: A Monthly Roundup of Freeware Games (June 2008)

Welcome back to the Arcade.  I have to admit, June has been a little bit of a crazy month for me.  As most of you know, I used to be pretty involved with Just Another Mobile Monday.  A few months ago, I left that site, and shortly thereafter, Tariq and I founded My Today Screen.  Well, almost as soon as I got moved in here and unpacked all of my boxes, I got an email from Patrick, the founder of Just Another Mobile Monday.  For personal reasons, he needed to leave JAMM.  A mention became a discussion, and almost before I knew what had happened, I became the new owner of that site.  Frankly, the whole thing is a little overwhelming, but here I am.  I’ve been spending quite a bit of time getting reacclimated with the team over there, and planning JAMM’s major relaunch (June 25th for those of you who were wondering).

So, June has been a bit hectic for me in this crazy online world of ours, so it has been nice to take some time here and there and relax while testing this month’s freeware games for The Arcade.  And what are the games that served as such able distractions for me lately?  Let’s take a closer look at:

1. Arukone

2. Oliver’s ActionPack

3. Dust Digger

4. Crimson Fields

5. Pocket RackO

Arukone.

This is another entry from French puzzle-game designer (not to create a pigeon hole there or anything), Jean-Francois Manguet.  I am pretty sure I have mentioned in this space what a fan I am of his games.  In Arukone, like most of Manguet’s games, you are faced with a square shaped grid.  The size of the grid depends upon the difficulty level you select.  A variety of shapes (you can choose symbols, letters, or numbers)  are scattered across the game board.  Here is the catch, each shape has a twin.  Your job is to find the twins and connect them by drawing a line from one to the other.  Sounds easy enough?  Well, there are two complications.  First, you must connect the shapes without crossing any other lines.  Second, you must use all of the spaces in the grid.  If any spaces are left open, then you lose.  Plain and simple.  I know, it still sounds pretty easy.  But give it a try.  Not only is it much more difficult than these basic instructions would imply, but it is also terribly addictive.  I find myself turning to Arukone almost every time I had a few seconds to spare.

Oliver’s Action Pack.

It always interests me when you start to unearth the components that would later become a Windows Mobile powerhouse.  It is almost like video game archeology.  Here, we have another pillar in the pre-foundation days of PDAMill.  Now, I cannot say for certain whether Oliver Lovaszi, who created Oliver’s Action Pack, is still associated with PDAMill.  I can only tell you that I have seen his name crop up in association with a number of projects he worked on, in those early days of Windows Mobile, along with the likes of Peter Balogh (founder of PDAMill).  So, even if unconfirmed, Oliver clearly has a connection to the founding of PDAMill, and his Action Pack goes straight to the roots of that fantastic company.

Oliver’s Action Pack is actually three games in one, all of which are based on a shoot-em up type theme.

• In Galaxy Clone, you must fly your spaceship vertically up the screen, while waves of asteroids and enemy ships fly down upon you.  All you have to do is blast them to survive.
• Snow Wars is a game which has been around in one form or another for quite some time.  It is a really well made first person action game, in which you are engaged in a simple snowball battle.  Other kids will run across the screen, ducking behind barriers and dodging your throws.  All you have to do is hit them before they hit you.
• Heaven’s Gate is probably the most original concept I have seen for a game.  Basically, you are a guard at the gates of Heaven.  Souls ride to Heaven by hanging onto balloons.  But watch out, because the Devil has sent his minions to try to infiltrate Heaven as well.  All you have to do is lob your arrows to shoot down the devils, without hitting any of the innocent souls.

I thought all three games were well made, although some of the graphics were a bit on the crude side.  They also all suffered from a repetition of action problem.  In which they were fun and exciting at first, but quickly became boring after wave upon wave of the same action flew across the screen.  Nonetheless, it is exciting for me to see a game like this, which is clearly the early attempts of individuals who would go on to become pioneers in the Windows Mobile industry.  Video Game archeology, indeed.  Almost like finding the lost early works of Masaya Nakumura.

Dust Digger.

Here we are with another nice remake of a classic game.  In Dust Digger, you will find yourself burrowing through underground caves, in search of the many jewels hidden in the catacombs.  Watch out though because there are a variety of creatures haunting these caves.  Come into contact with one of these devils and it will be lights out for you.  And that does not even take into account the boulders which have been buried deep in the Earth.  Unearth a boulder by digging out the ground beneath it to make it fall straight down.  Dig around the side, and it will drop in that direction.  Just make sure you are not standing beneath the rock when it falls, or you’ll take a bump that may leave you down for the count.  I thought this was a fantastic remake of a classic arcade game.

Crimson Fields.

Would you like to play a game of chess?  No?  How about thermonuclear war?  If you have ever dreamed of throwing an entire army at your enemy, but could never quite muster up the money to attack a free nation…well, maybe you should check out Crimson Fields.  This is an impressively made turn-based strategy game.

Which army you control will vary according to which of the 17 different maps you choose to play (including a very nice tutorial.)  In addition to battling the computer, you can also play head-to-head, across a computer network, or via email.

Basically, though, you control an army.  Yes, an entire army: infantry, ships, tanks, aircraft.  The works.  In each turn, you can move your units around the map, attack enemies, and even construct new buildings and units (hint, new buildings can increase the number of different units you are able to build).   If you enjoy turn-based strategy games, making war, or just blowing stuff up, then give this one a try.  It is a fantastic game, and very comparable to other games in the genre which often can cost $30 or more.

Pocket RackO.

If you have never heard of the card game RackO, then I am afraid you may have missed a significant piece of your childhood.  This was always a favorite game growing up (but then, in case you have not noticed, I am sort of a card game nut).

RackO is not played with an ordinary deck of cards.  Instead, it has a special deck of 60 cards (no suits).  The object of RackO is to create a row of ten cards, in order from lowest to highest.  To begin, you will be dealt ten random cards, which are placed in your rack (hence the name) in the order they were dealt.  You may not change the positions of any cards within your rack.  In order to make a winning hand, you will need to exchange cards from your hand with the top card in the discard pile or the top card in the draw pile (face down).  On each turn, you may draw one card and exchange it with any card in your rack.  When you exchange cards, however, the new card must be placed in exactly the same position as the one it is replacing, so there is a lot of strategy involved with knowing just the right placement for each card.

The player who creates a RackO (row of ten cards in order) wins 75 points.  Each other player will earn points based upon how close they came to a RackO.  Play continues until one player breaks 500 points.

This was one of my favorite games growing up, and I am very happy to find that the shine has not worn off as an adult.  Not only is it an incredibly addictive game, but it is also a fantastic game for children who are just learning to count.  Putting cards in order, particularly without significant context, is fantastic practice for youngsters.

Well, that should do it for another month of The Arcade.  It is getting toward 2:00 am, which means I should probably finish up and post this one.  I was really impressed, once again, by how many of these free games offer a product which is very competitive with comparable commercial games.

As always, if you have any freeware games which you would like to see me highlight in this space (or if you are a developer of free games) just send me the link via the contact form on the front page, or send an email to dsgoldring [at] mytodayscreen.com (replace the “at” with a “@”. And if you are just joining us, be sure to check out our archives here at My Today Screen.

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