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For games though, there are still far more (and better) web games for Flash than there are for noFlash.

I'd agree with more but not better. What's an example of a Flash game that's better than HTML5 games like DeadTrigger 2 or AngryBots or HexGL or Bejeweled or Browser Quest or the GA.ME games. I don't think Flash games have any technical edge over HTML5 games these days.

The PS4's user interface is implemented in WebGL. Don Olmstead gave a talk on its development and optimization.

Total Annihilation. Real-Time Strategy. Multiplayer with multiple computers. Check the web for easter egg to take it from 4 player skirmishes to 10 player skirmishes, and similarly to tweak resolution (via registry editing) up to 1600x1200 (or whatever you have). I have it running under Mac OSX with WINE.

Worms 2 Turn based 2D cartoon combat. Multiplayer with hotseat swaping. I have it running under MacOSX with WINE too. Was not able to get it running under Windows 7. (Perhaps we should port WINE to windows.)

Dungeon Keeper. Real Time resource management.

Plants vs Zombies. Row-based real-time strategy. Offline version is better. More options and activities. It's like $10 at Walmart. But click that link and play it now!

Diablo II. (No longer supported under MacOSX natively, but works with WINE for me.) ($20 @ Walmart.)

Starcraft/Warcraft.

Back in the day, Elite on the Apple II.

Solitaire. With the ability to back up and take another set of choices, the game becomes far more interesting.

All those words about tower defense games and you miss the most popular one out there?

Free demo is available for this one too.

Actually, I know exactly what you're talking about.

The best video game I've seen in almost a half decade was one about setting off fireworks by Popcap games. Here. . .

http://www.popcap.com/games/rocketmania

Competing for audience appreciation (cheers for bigger explosions) was by far the happiest and most exhilarating reward system I've ever encountered. Very positive and very fun. We're tuned as a species to seek approval noises from people. I'm surprised it hasn't caught on more as a game reward feature.

Anyway. . , as per my reaction in my first post; I was just stunned when I saw the screen in action on that Youtube video. I'd never paid attention to how that game actually worked before It was a shock to realize just how little it takes to keep the human race perpetually entertained. I just figured there was more to it than Karaoke for your fingers.

-FL

Hmm, interesting, but I pretty much gave up on playing EVE with just the mouse, it always felt much faster and more natural to mash the F1-F8 keys and other hotkeys to activate weapons and devices. Plus many of those control elements are pretty small at any usable resolution. Though I think they did succeed at exposing interface elements to noobs by following that philosophy.

There is a class of games that I've grown accustomed to playing only on a PDA touchscreen and couldn't imagine going back to a mouse ... e.g. just about anything from Popcap (Bejeweled, Insaniqarium, Bookworm, etc.). But even then it's with using a stylus... I couldn't imagine trying to play those games on a capacitive touchscreen where I have to obscure much of the screen with my finger pad.

In the next 10 years we're gonna see more games on Mac. A lot of quality companies are coming out to support Mac.

• Blizzard has famously supported all of their games for Mac as well as PC.
• Popcap already has Mac support for some of their games and I imagine that they will do the same for the rest in time.
• Valve just announced that they're bringing all of their current and future games to Mac, along with Steam. Other developers may follow suit

I could be wrong (i.e. I haven't checked too closely), but I am pretty sure there is Intel-only software that runs on 10.4. I will have to dig a bit and see if I can find an example, but I'm fairly sure many of the recent game releases (such as WoW and Plants vs. Zombies) can run on 10.4, but still require an intel Mac. My Mini came with an Intel proc, but is currently running 10.4...

{checks PopCap.com for PvZ info}

Yup. 10.4.11 and Intel proc combo required. It could be done. No PowerPC support required.

Googles gotten:

Galcon
Gratuitous Space Battles
Mount & Blade
Plants vs. Zombies
Puzzle Quest

Tremulous
OpenArena

Did you all miss that Bejeweled on the iPhone was one of the first "apps" back before the SDK? Yep, it was a full on web app for the iPhone/iPod platform, and, you can still play it in a web browser.

Visit this site in your mobile safari browser (or desktop but it redirects you pretty quickly now)
http://www.popcap.com/iphone/

My Linux computer is infested with zombies: http://www.popcap.com/games/pvz/?icid=plantsvszombies_HP_DL_3_8_19_08_en (Plants vs Zombies game via Wine) ^_^

That's your phone provider's fault. I've got an iPhone and I love it. I have wasted so much time with it. Trism, Peggle (great control!), and Flight Control have taken large chunks of my life.

Both my siblings have Palm Pres. I've played with them, and they're quite nice. My only complains were the build quality (would like it a little tighter) and navigation (you have to know the gestures, they're not discoverable). The card metaphor is very good.

But the app store is empty. There are three games, one of which is... connect 4.

The SDK was just released to the public, in beta. It's not meant for games, it's barely more advanced than the first way to develop for the iPhone (which was so roundly criticized). You can't get accelerometer data faster than 4 samples/sec. Palm is supposed to be making a gaming framework, but who knows how long that will be.

So right now Palm is taking submissions for their app store, which will only be able to handle non-demanding games (no Katamari Damacy there), for it's fall opening. Even if your game is done, no one will be able to buy it for months.

Basically, the Pre will be devoid of good apps for at least the next 6 months. The situation is really sad. They messed it up, big time. The SDK, even in alpha, should have been available months ago, so there would be apps at launch.

Windows Mobile has tons of apps, and a tradition of tiny little utilities costing $20. Combine that with the fragmentation of device capabilities and the market is... rough for a consumer.

Blackberries? I've heard that to develop anything on them that doesn't look like a 1996 Java applet requires you to basically do the painting for every widget on screen. There is device fragmentation here too. The app store it's self is a joke, it's very difficult to use. There is no way to browse it from a computer, which makes using it a nightmare.

Apple proved good apps were a "killer app". No one really "got" the importance of them before the iPhone's native SDK came out. Unfortunately, after more than a year, no one else is even close to being able to foster any kind of app ecosystem. Palm should have, but botched it.

I'm not really sure about the G1. I'm guessing it's sales are just too small for it to reach any kind of critical mass soon (where the Pre has a chance and Blackberries are there).

And can he download an addon for World of Warcraft that'll let him play Bejeweled?

'cuz Bejeweled is, like, a million times better than Tetris.

I find many modern 3D games have a low "button-press-per-minute" count. Whilst older games always had something going on almost every second, recent titles just get the player to sprawl around for hours. Give me an older title such Bank Panic or Smash TV (both arcade) over a modern 3D shooter any day.

For the games which aren't like that, then they're just too easy I find as well. I've recently bought great playing games such as World of Goo and Zombies Vs Plants, and although they are great fun while they last, it's over all too quickly - more proof that games today are geared towards the masses for 'throwaway' purchase like a McDonalds. It's pretty sad.

Oh, dear. This cries out for an addition to the Steam game, 'Plants and Zombies', at http://www.popcap.com/games/pvz.

PopCap's framework is open source. See?

All yours. :)

Chuzzle stole my life away. Much more addictive than Frozen Bubbble especially when you get a high score of 190,000 on the first game. Then there is TAGAP, but that's too hard, even for a 15yr old.

Play Bejeweled

Perhaps you've never heard of these guys? They seem to be doing OK for themselves developing games for the casual/non-hardcore gaming crowd.

Perhaps you've never heard of these guys? They seem to be doing OK for themselves developing games for the casual/non-hardcore gaming crowd.

And how well does that iPhone store limitation keep apps out of your browser?

Just go to http://static.popcap.com/iphone/ and see how hard it is to run--though not install--an app on the iPhone.
Next: someone finds a vulnerability in their javascript implementation for such an app to exploit.

Just glossing over the first code that gets loaded seems to indicate that it phones home already, but I imagine that's part of some copy protection system rather than spying.

BTW: the link works just as well on iPod Shuffles and PC's and I suppose Macs and Linux boxen too, only in IE there's a slight problem with alignment of the splash screen during initialisation. Firefox doesn't have the alignment problem, and in IE it disappears after the splash screen.

There also seems to be a bug somewhere that makes it run at far too much CPU use sometimes, on the PC as well as in the iThings it was written for.

Yeah, ok. You're right, but let's not lump everything together like they are the same. Consider a marathon of Lost and a marathon of Law&Order. Assuming you like both shows, which one are you more likely to watch longer? Law&Order is a good show, but there is little or no continuity between episodes. Lost is a good show, and the bastard writers leave you wanting to curse the TV at the end of many episodes (How could they end the episode like that?! Et cetera).

Now let's talk about games. Play Peggle for an hour and play WoW for an hour. Even assuming you enjoy both the same, it will be more difficult for you to stop playing WoW than it will be for Peggle, because WoW has no natural break points (except MAYBE levels). There is always something -- I'll just finish this quest, I'll just get one more level, This damn thing has to spawn in the next couple minutes, I bet this female character msg'ing me is a hot chick who likes WoW just like me, etc.

Either way, moderation and discipline are necessary, but I'm just saying that -- just like Lost is constructed to make you long for the next episode -- some games are constructed in a way to make it harder to play for just an hour. The terms 'Evercrack' and 'Warcrack' didn't come out of nowhere.

I think we saw a ground change with DOOM -- no points, no score, just survive and kill everything in sight. I don't pay a lick of attention to scores nowadays unless they're really obviously pointed out, such as on a transition between levels.

Zuma, currently one of my favorite games, does have scores and levels, although the levels are much more important, as it changes the map the balls roll through. The score is less relevant, but it's there. Most of PopCap's games seem to have both scores and levels. (Dave, any comment on that?)

There aren't even any good iPhone games, so I think there's something wrong with the thinking of the people who tag every iPhone story "toy".

Labyrinth is pretty bitching. Toss in the NES emulator with plenty of ROMS and you have all the games you need. There's also a MAME port in the works.
Bejeweled is here.

OK, apart from Labyrinth and Bejeweled they aren't actually "iPhone" games, but they do exist.

The article omitted a link to Peggle, so here's a link: http://www.popcap.com/games/peggle

Maybe it'll work with wine?

I've played a ton of games that could be considered purely fun and weren't intended for educational purposes, but I ended up learning simply because I was drawn in by the fun aspect.

For instance, Popcap games are brilliant in that they are simple, fun, and for the most part, educational. Word worm can help out vocabulary skills, and typer shark is a great way to improve your typing skills and speed without feeling like the goal of playing it is to improve your typing skills. I've always felt like I needed to save the diver!

Another good example is the Myst series. The first few games in the series were plenty challenging, and the puzzles caused the player to think analytically, using mathematical approaches without asking the player to actually compute anything (mostly).

And of course I can't leave out Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego! I learned all sorts of state capitols and information about various places because I wanted to catch Carmen. Of course, when I played that game, I probably wasn't old enough to differentiate between playing a game for fun and education. If I played now, I'd probably quit rather quickly because I realized that it was a definite educational tool, but at the time it was just fun. :)

Of course games don't have to be next-gen to be fun.

My two favourite games of all time, both first time through and for replay value, are still the Baldurs Gate series and Total Annihilation. In the several years since these were released, I've encountered no RPG with better plot/characters, and no RTS that was better for all-out action combined with genuine strategy.

My other half is a big fan of puzzle games. She has spent many hours enjoying the games from PopCap, and spent more money buying the full versions of her favourites from them than on any trendy 3D FPS.

Sure, funky 3D graphics and a rocking soundtrack can make some games more atmospheric. It's not like there's much comparison between Gears of War and Wolfenstein 3D (or perhaps more fairly, Quake) in the presentation department. But much as I have enjoyed many FPS games over the years, the gameplay is still pretty close to the original Wolf3D/Doom/Quake model that popularised the genre all those years ago, even if I can now use different weapon types, lob grenades with my other hand, and drive vehicles.

Where I personally find the gaming experience lacking is on-line competition/collaboration. Many games I've played are no doubt much more satisfying against real people, but IME pretty much all of the on-line services suck if you're not in the US (lag issues) or not willing to spend silly amounts of time waiting around for an opponent. The only games I've ever played on-line for long and truly enjoyed were Quake and Quake II in my university days, when there was an active student population and getting a good deathmatch game going was easy. For TA, it was too hard to find an opponent of a similar skill level and to set aside an hour or two for a good game. For Neverwinter Nights, I never even worked out what on-line facilities were available, as I'd lost interest because of poor single-player. Lots of people seem to enjoy things like World of Warcraft (and I notice they've been running ads for it on TV here in the UK in the run up to Christmas), but I also hear a lot about powergamers who can arbitrarily spoil it, which puts me off trying it given the cost involved.

Of course, my system is a little long in the tooth now -- it's about time to build a new ueber-PC but I haven't got around to it yet -- so I'm not running much from within the last year or two. Do the latest "next gen" games have good player-matching for on-line competition as well as the snazzy graphics? If they do, then maybe next gen games are the future after all. :-)

It is now!
http://www.popcap.com/launchpage.php?theGame=bwa

These surveys can be a bit misleading to the hardcore gamers out there.

If you read the AP story (do a google news search for "ap aol video game poll") you'll find this bit: "Casual, strategy and role-playing games were most popular among online gamers." So, it seems they counted any game where you use the web to play (e.g. Sudoku or Popcap) as an "online" game. Which is technically true, I suppose, but to any person who has played Counter-Strike, or World of Warcraft, online typically means "online multiplayer", otherwise the online distinction is fairly useless (to me anyway).

The other notable bit from the article: "Casual games like board or card games were the most popular, followed by strategy games, action sports, adventure, first-person shooters and simulations, the poll found." So, of the 40% of people that play video games, the most popular games are those that you could probably play without a computer/console.

I agree 100%. I bought a 20in iMac about a month before the release of boot camp and kept my old windows (p3 900 mHz) box around simply to play Chuzzles.

The company I work for mandates XP for some of the e.Learning courses we have to take on our own time.

Boot Camp has enabled me to migrate the six or so games I play to "XP Mode" on my new iMac, take corporate e.Learning and also released my old windows-only hardware to allow a full Ubuntu Dapper install for testing purposes.

I've got the best of three worlds now. I can enter the alt world and pop Chuzzles to my hearts content while still being able to do all the stuff I actually enjoy in OS X. I can keep the linux toys on another pc.

I think Boot Camp is fantastic.

Boot Camp actually convinced me to run out and buy an XP Pro disc because I finally had the hardware to run the OS.

I agree, but those simple addictive games will be the ones that hook the users, and they won't cost much. Games that you see yourself playing when you close your eyes, hours after you've put them down. Like Lumines.

Good point. It might be a good time to invest in popcap games.

Rip-offs are really common nowadays in the casual game space. I swear, at some point, it seems like all of Popcap and Gamehouse's games were rip-offs of each other. Popcap's Big Money and Gamehouse's Collapse are two obvious examples. (And I wouldn't be surprised if they're rip-offs of some other game as well).

In general, the whole "match 3 or more colors" gameplay has been done many times over. Just take a look at Bejeweled, Zuma, and Hexic.

Rip-offs are really common nowadays in the casual game space. I swear, at some point, it seems like all of Popcap and Gamehouse's games were rip-offs of each other. Popcap's Big Money and Gamehouse's Collapse are two obvious examples. (And I wouldn't be surprised if they're rip-offs of some other game as well).

In general, the whole "match 3 or more colors" gameplay has been done many times over. Just take a look at Bejeweled, Zuma, and Hexic.

Rip-offs are really common nowadays in the casual game space. I swear, at some point, it seems like all of Popcap and Gamehouse's games were rip-offs of each other. Popcap's Big Money and Gamehouse's Collapse are two obvious examples. (And I wouldn't be surprised if they're rip-offs of some other game as well).

In general, the whole "match 3 or more colors" gameplay has been done many times over. Just take a look at Bejeweled, Zuma, and Hexic.

Almost all of what Chronic Logic offers is good. Also PopCap and Urbansquall offer plenty of fun and excitement.

Which Popcap do you play games at. This Popcap's game demos last for 60 minutes. You can play the watered-down web versions forever, but the deluxe version demos have a time limit on them.

I've always been a fan of Zuma.

$9.99 for some Tetris ripoff, which originally debuted for $19.99 a year previous.

$29.99 for an innovative game with low production costs, but never goes down in price.

$20.00 for a classic game that's more than 5 years old.

I'm talking Ambrosia, I'm talking PopCap, I'm talking Spiderweb. It is usually cheaper to buy regular "game-industry" games, if you can stand to wait a month for it to fall into the bargain bin.

I think people are missing the point that this isn't just about deathmatches and Everquest. He's talking about a shift in distribution much like digital music. Today all the top titles are things you buy in a store. You get a box, a CD or DVD-ROM, a reference card and maybe a manual. But as more and more people have broadband, the need for that physical medium decreases.

The shareware market has had online distribution for years, of course, largely because the barriers to entry are lower, but also because smaller games are easier to download. Something that's starting to hit a lot now is the online applet/flash game with a downloadable (pay) equivalent, a la PopCap. I know this example's a bit old, but Bejeweled was quite popular before they put it in a box.

Back to multiplayer games, if they require a connection to play anyway, there are really only two reasons to sell the base game on CD. The first is size: If it takes 12 hours to download the client, people would rather drive down to Best Buy, plunk down the cash, and be back home in 30 minutes. The second is visibility: You expect to find games at GameStop. Both reasons are becoming less important, though. If your connection is fast enough, there's nothing to discourage you from downloading a 500MB installer. And as you get used to finding games online, you're as likely to look there as you are to look at the local mall.

With indy games like Gish getting rave reviews, proof that the indy scene is more than tetris, breakout, and R-type clones.

The indy scene really is about the people who are ok plunking down $20 for a game that they can just pick up and play for 20 minutes, isn't overly involving, and can be put back down. People ranging from your Mom playing Zuma, to your kids playing Chuzzle, to Dad playing Jets 'n Guns

I like Indy games, especially for my young daughter, that I know are fun and entertaining, innexpensive, and have replay value - and the $20 price tag on most makes them worth while to me.

Check out our 2D game framework and real game samples, available at http://developer.popcap.com/index.php. We've used and continue to use this framework for all our own games. Nearly all the hard technical issues you'd need to tackle have been solved here, so you can really put your focus on game design. There's a pretty active community of people on the Popcap Developer Forums who can help you out too. Best of all, it comes with one of the most free and open open-source licenses out there. Give it a shot!

The popcap framework is totally free, and supports both 2d and 3d

http://developer.popcap.com/

LOL - I must have a touch of dyslexia, because I thought at first you were a typing Buddhist... :-)

Actually, the typing tutors that are available are hit and miss. One that I find works for the non-typist is Popcap Games's Typing Shark You'll keep at it because it's actually fun to practice.

LOL - I must have a touch of dyslexia, because I thought at first you were a typing Buddhist... :-)

Actually, the typing tutors that are available are hit and miss. One that I find works for the non-typist is Popcap Games's Typing Shark You'll keep at it because it's actually fun to practice.

First, as a teacher and now homeschool mom who attempted to use Linux for over a year I must say that the comment on moving to Linux was uncalled for. I loved it for its stability, but had to give it up due to the lack of quality (appealing and intuitive interface, non-crashing, easy to install, and actually educational in nature) educational games and resources. Good design is especially important when dealing with children, espcially those with special needs (read special ed students), and with adults who need occuptaional/recreational therapy. There is, or was last year, a significant lack of quality educational games that are stable

Aside from that, there are plenty of good games out there, especially ones which are educational (which would prove especially helpful in dealing with stroke as they would help rebuild the pathways and make new ones.)

There are many good educational sites that are free to use and that are very simple to get to, especially if you were to make her homepage a custom designed web portal with links to all the sites and activities you think she will enjoy. I did this for my kids, designing a site for each that has picture links to all their favorite web sites.

Depending on the level and area of damage you should be able to make a portal of links that would suit her needs. If you need a jumping off point with a variety of educational sites you could look through the links on our site: http://www.shamusyoung.com/kidsportal/kidshome.htm l. Feel free to copy and use the source if you like. I would look through the different sites and see what is most likely to work on the areas she needs, i.e. Memory (the game), math games, logic games, etc.

http://www.popcap.com/ games, Real.com, Shockwave, and Yahoo also have some great games that help build problem solving skills, working with the logic/mathmatical part of the brain, even Tetris is good for logic developement. (if you don't mind the occasional spyware, in fact installing http://www.lavasoft.com/ Ad-aware and an anti-virus program like http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1 AVG would be wise prior to any downloads).

If you can get a hold of the old "Doctor Brain" games they are wonderful for this type of situation as they are fun to play (even for adults) and deliberately work on different parts of the brain, i.e. File Sorting to work with memory, etc. The Incredible Machine games and Lemmings are also good for logic and problem solving developement.

Having minor carpal tunnel from typing and my (brace yourself) sport, I've been taking a break recently from
games like Counterstrike which heavily employ my left hand on the keyboard, and have been going mostly mouse only...

The most recent addictive game I've played is called Oasis. I describe it to my friends as a 5 minute
version of Civilization. It has no time limit or anything that might be limited by slow mouse control, and although their
website states that it's currently in beta I had no problems with it during my binges.

The poster said he wanted to play "by himself" so I'll exclude multiplayer games and suggest two other obvious ones
which come to mind: Snood and Zuma. These two have taken myself and probably many
others through some long nights. Good luck!



(The sport is rowing, for those in disbelief)

I like the following games, which can kills hours, and they used a mouse.

Tetris, Bejeweled [lots of popcap gameshttp://www.popcap.com/], Hexen.

Cheers.

Astropop and Bejeweled 2 are the most worthwhile 40 bucks I have EVER spent on games (each is 20 dollars, but you can also get a free trial version or play online for free).

Ditto for "Age of Empires". I have cousins who enjoy playing the missions and then reading the between-mission historical information. Yeah, it's not much, but it's more history than you get from playing Halo 2 on XBox Live! all day.

For spelling games -- hell yeah they can! Check out PopCap Games Typer Shark and Bookworm. Failing that, get into online Scrabble or something.

(And likely I have spelled something incorrectly in this post. I always do. Peace.)

Ditto for "Age of Empires". I have cousins who enjoy playing the missions and then reading the between-mission historical information. Yeah, it's not much, but it's more history than you get from playing Halo 2 on XBox Live! all day.

For spelling games -- hell yeah they can! Check out PopCap Games Typer Shark and Bookworm. Failing that, get into online Scrabble or something.

(And likely I have spelled something incorrectly in this post. I always do. Peace.)

Ditto for "Age of Empires". I have cousins who enjoy playing the missions and then reading the between-mission historical information. Yeah, it's not much, but it's more history than you get from playing Halo 2 on XBox Live! all day.

For spelling games -- hell yeah they can! Check out PopCap Games Typer Shark and Bookworm. Failing that, get into online Scrabble or something.

(And likely I have spelled something incorrectly in this post. I always do. Peace.)