Sunday Flash Fun

April 6, 2008 5:20 AM

Compulse - Drop the different blocks on the stage to affect the direction of the ball. Try to use as few as possible, but you may use as many as you want.
posted by sveskemus (32 comments total)

Interesting concept, but I thought the gameplay was a bit dull.
posted by grouse at 6:01 AM on April 6

How do I access the actual game? I just keep getting promos for MechQuest and BiteFight...
posted by chara at 6:30 AM on April 6

How do I access the actual game? I just keep getting promos for MechQuest and BiteFight...

Click "Play" after it's done loading. It's just under the MechQuest and BiteFight promo.
posted by sveskemus at 6:51 AM on April 6

That was fun. Thanks.
posted by Elmore at 6:56 AM on April 6

A spot of advice for those who hate freakin' games with insufficiently explained operation. First you click and drag from the lower block menu to place the blocks on screen where they'll affect the trajectory of the ball, then you click Go to set the ball in motion.
posted by raygirvan at 7:19 AM on April 6 [3 favorites]

I don't see a 'play' button at all. Oh well, perhaps this is a sign that I should be off doing other things.
posted by chara at 7:22 AM on April 6

In the last week, I've seen several Flash games with MechQuest and BiteFight promos on the splash page that have trouble displaying the "Play" or "Go" button. Hmmm.
posted by sidereal at 7:26 AM on April 6

Yeah, gameplay is pretty dull. On levels without mines, you can change the ball's vector once or twice and then just let it keep on bouncing. Eventually you'll clear the level.
posted by ursus_comiter at 7:49 AM on April 6

Flash plugins badly need a mute button for all of these apps that fail to include one.
posted by Harkins_ at 8:17 AM on April 6

It was fun until the level with 6 mines on the ground and I guess the idea is you have to twitch the ball just perfectly into some sort of parabolic bounce between them. Screw that.
posted by norabarnacl3 at 8:27 AM on April 6

Level 12 and enjoying it as a contemplative exercise -- more just logic puzzles with no time limit and some nice music rather than a traditional relflex or point-scoring game.
posted by Shepherd at 8:31 AM on April 6

It's not fantastic, but I loved this piece of commentary: I have combined elements from the previous levels to bring forth a sense of accomplishment in learning game mechanics.
posted by ErWenn at 8:34 AM on April 6 [1 favorite]

In case it's not clear from earlier comments: You can clear all the early levels with no more than two boxes and letting the ball bounce for as long as you can stand it. And then all of a sudden the challenge is to be pixel-precise and right the first time.
posted by ardgedee at 9:17 AM on April 6

For levels with, say, mines along the floor, I just smothered the floor with up-blocks. They ceased to be a problem after that.
posted by sidereal at 9:26 AM on April 6

Aw, I like it. I can understand the "it's dull" complaints—to each his own, etc—but it doesn't have to be easy if you're willing to go for minimal fields.

This reminds me a lot of on old black-and-white game I played on Mac Classics back in high school that involved a similar idea: you deployed a limited set of positive and negative point charges into each level, in order to guide a small charged particle to the goal without hitting any of the (increasingly oppressively placed) walls. I want to say it was called soemthing like "Electromagnetic Hockey". I killed a lot of time playing with that game.

In fact, google time: someone has done a reasonable faithful recreation of it (or maybe it's just an updated by the original author, who knows) with the name "electric field hockey", and you can play it right now. Java web start link.
posted by cortex at 9:35 AM on April 6

Also, as far as the let-it-bounce-a-bunch thing goes, there's a nice sort of Lorenz Attractor thing that you can get going if you set things up just right. It was kind of striking to see that just happen in the middle of a little flash game.
posted by cortex at 9:37 AM on April 6 [1 favorite]

Harkins: FlashMute
posted by prefpara at 9:40 AM on April 6 [1 favorite]

Enlightenment by flash.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:43 AM on April 6

A very nice puzzle game. I liked the patterns the path of the ball made as well. Just goes to show how complex systems can show up with very few elements.
posted by demiurge at 9:59 AM on April 6

This reminded me a lot of Spaced Penguin. Thanks.
posted by sunshinesky at 10:08 AM on April 6

This is a great game. It is so satisfying to solve Level 18 with a single block.
posted by synaesthetichaze at 11:39 AM on April 6

Hm. I beat 10 with two blocks but it counts my score as 3.
posted by flatluigi at 12:12 PM on April 6

I'll see if I left a superfluous one around in that, actually -- it correctly says I beat 14 with 3.
posted by flatluigi at 12:18 PM on April 6

Beating the pro scores is fun! 1 on 17.
posted by flatluigi at 12:42 PM on April 6

Second run: 188. Anyone beaten that yet? I got most on pro, one or two under pro, and three over (I just couldn't see it). That's definitely the last two and I forgot which other one.

Fun, thanks sveskemus!
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 12:51 PM on April 6

I'm at 196% with a score of 58. I've got pro or sub-pro scores for everything except 20, which is stymying me.
posted by flatluigi at 1:55 PM on April 6

flatluigi: see here. But even with that help, I couldn't get 20 at pro.
posted by sexymofo at 2:06 PM on April 6

nah, I'm not going to use a guide. The good thing about this game is even if it's frustrating you you get to see pretty patterns.
posted by flatluigi at 2:11 PM on April 6

And.... Done!

200%, 57 points, 93 under par, 3 under pro. Beat that.
posted by flatluigi at 2:28 PM on April 6

I got 154 the first time through. Pretty fun.
posted by MythMaker at 4:18 PM on April 6

I managed 8 under pro. -3 on 14, -1 on 16, 17, 19, 21, and 24.
posted by shadow vector at 4:26 PM on April 6

Hah! Managed to do 20 with 4.
posted by shadow vector at 11:37 PM on April 6