HIDDEN FOLKS

This is a unique hidden-object game  with beautiful, hand-written  animated scenes you interact with  while searching for characters, animals and objects. Using previous experiences  of picture books that teem with life as opposed to the often bland visual aspect of a standard hidden-object game allowed this title to come to life like no other in this genre. The layered drawings you click on are exclusively accompanied by recorded mouth noises and voices which  I find absolutely dazzling and adds to the vastness of the drawned surroundings. Now, these are the OGTs people should be making!

Even those who cringe at the very idea of ever playing another hidden-object game should have a go at this gem.

NOBY NOBY BOY

This is an experimental game, a game which stretches your character to fantastic proportions, and in which stretches your our understanding of what a game is or could be. Is the absense of  a clear objective , a discernible goal within a game allowed in games? Can we call such games games?

You control a pink four-legged creature called Boy who's in direct communication with the Sun who sends Boy's regards to the Girl. Wierd pop tunes that verge on being annoying to an unaccustomed ear are wonderfully paired with odd controls and camera views and randomly generated sandboxes that inhabit a unique and odd-looking world the Boy lives in. Boy eats  people and objects and stretches and that's pretty much what he does all throughout the game.

The Girl's directly linked to The Boy, and she stretches whenever somebody playing the game stretches.The randomly generated sandboxes unlock planet by planet to all the players as they collectively play a giant single-player game and help Girl reach another planet in the Solar system, unlocking new sandboxes. The author of the game thought it would take years and years to unlock all the planets  and that the interest in the game would wane without gamers ever unlocking all of them, but it only took 2489 days  for the Girl to connect all the planets in the system and get back to Earth . That's how engaging this game was/is to those who played it.

Is this a game about love and finding your significant other? Is it about loneliness and our voracious appetites? Is it about evil in this world , as some might suggest? The critics view the game as a non-game, as an experiment in form  and to some degree I can relate to that. But shouldn't each new  game challenge us and not be just another eye candy to waste time on? It has interesting gameplay, odd mechanics and it's immature, childish, absurd and fun. You should definitely give it a try.

CHIPWITZ

What it says on the tin, and so much more than that!  This is the first successful robot simulation game ever! Knowing one of the authors of this game and the rich artistic inner world he lives in only makes me realize even more how  forward-looking and adventurous this title was and still is.
In order for the robot to be able to navigate mazes you use a programming language comprised exclusively of icons that look intriguing and beautiful on both Apple II and c64 and the new windows version. Once I got past my initial discomfort of trying an educational game as a kid and the puerile impatience that  accompanied it , its charm worked its way through each subsequent mission. The learning experience that it entailed I became aware of  only years afterwards. Both you and the robot are on a constant learning curve  of systematic thinking as you continue using the hieroglyphic  programming language to navigate mazes, conserve energy and avoid obstacles. Icons are used in sets of 60 per all of the 8 available panels plus subpanels to go about each given mission.
Very few similar titles have appeared since (CODDY WORLD ON ALGORITHM comes to mind) and none have achieved what Chipwitz has. It's fun to play , addictive and educational.

you can dowload the latest Windows version of Chipwitz here as intended by the original programmers.
 http://www.chipwits.com/

TETRIS

TETRIS  was a title that  made such an impact on the gaming world and such a revolution in gaming that every console or personal computer since had to have at least  one version of it available. The game that shook the world came to Alexey Pajitnov in a dream and stood out as an  inherently unique tile-matching puzzle game.The concept was simple and unique- you rotate dropping pieces to form solid lines at the bottom of the screen so that they could disappear. It's still equally addictive and attractive. It was a triumph of brains and imagination over graphics, state and corporate greed.To think that a single game could mess things up  on a grand scale only to  end up being what it was - a game of the people for the people- is amazing . Long live Alexey Pajitnov !