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Weird Games, Part I
By Search EzineArticles.com

Tired of playing same old boring games? There are dozens of wacky, offbeat or just plain weird games out there and I’ve got the scoop on the latest releases. Check ‘em out.

Varmintz (Skunk Studios)

This humorous game places the safety of a wacky crew of raccoons in your hands. In Varmintz Deluxe, you guide five furry creatures through an obstacle-packed maze.

Varmintz Deluxe brings back classic hop-and-dodge style gameplay in a fast-paced, character-rich environment. The game includes a range of characters and stars. Varmintz is a scrappy raccoon posse in search of golden eggs. Each of the more than 50 levels contains a variety of challenging obstacles and in-game enemies, including rabid dogs, lumberjacks, cowboys, joggers, and skateboarders.

Oh yeah, it’s the only game of this kind, where you have no weapons whatsoever. Good luck!

Free Download: http://www.deprice.com/varmintz.htm

Enigmo (MumboJumbo)

Enigmo is a 3D puzzle game where you move various streams of flowing liquid so that the droplets get to their destination. Liquids (water, oil, and lava) fall from “droppers” and will bounce around the walls of a mechanism. You move and rotate into position various types of bumpers, sliders, accelerators, and sponges in order to divert the flow of the falling droplets. The faster you complete each level, the more bonus you will receive.

The puzzles in Enigmo are mainly about studying the environment and knowing the devices at your disposal. How does water react with the sponge? How does oil react with the bumper? What will happen with the lava if you rotate the slider just a little bit? The game is made more complex by having to accomplish elements in a certain order. You not only have to divert 50 drops of liquid into the receptacle, you also have to first gain access to the receptacle. There’s a lot about which to think, here, and it’s rare that I ever solved a puzzle correctly on the first try. Trial and error is the way to get through this game

Free Download: http://www.deprice.com/enigmo.htm

Pax Galaxia (Dio Games)

Pax Galaxia is a uniquely addictive real time strategy game of stellar conquest. The difficulty ranges from extremely easy to nearly impossibly difficult. While the easy modes are suitable for a fun couple of minutes trying to beat your time records, the more difficult ones will require all your concentration and the mastery of all the tricks of the game to overcome the computer players.

There are more than thirty maps to choose from, and you can quickly make many more using the random map generator and the easy to use in-game editor. You can choose between four levels of difficulty and each map can be played multiple times with each of the opposing forces. You’ll be entertained for months.

Free Download: http://www.deprice.com/paxgalaxia.htm

John Deprice loves weird games. His collection is publically available for free download at http://www.deprice.com/games.htm

The-colorful-history-of-sudoku
By Terence-Uniacke
People today tend to marvel at the accomplishments of ancient civilizations, such as demonstrated by the pyramids of Egypt. Those ancient people had such creativity and intelligence, and they did not have TV or radio to entertain themselves. Instead, they relied upon their minds for entertainment, creativity, and solutions to problems.

From time to time, when we find the regular media is rather dull, or we feel that our minds need a bit of a workout, we will turn to brain twisters and riddles, or crossword puzzles. It is one of the ways that we explore our thought processes, and how we encourage our own creative side. Without riddles and puzzles, our brains become rather dull themselves. All people have a deep need for activities that shape the mind and help us develop new ideas and concepts.

Some of the games we play today are based on those that were played in ancient times, with innovations and changes made over the centuries. Sudoku is a game that may well have been played in ancient times, and it has a beautiful simplicity, yet can be wonderfully challenging. And the history of Sudoku is fascinating, too.

The word “Sudoku” is derived from the word for “number place.” Based on the Japanese language, Sudoku indicates that it is a logic-based placement. Therefore, it is a kind of puzzle game. The first modern Sudoku puzzle was published in a US magazine in 1979. It was picked up by players in Japan in 1984 and was instantly popular. The original name of the game was abbreviated to Sudoku, which, translated into English, actually means “the digits must remain single.” There are also various different pronunciations of “Sudoku” throughout the world, but the basic elements of the game remain the same. And the mental power benefits also accrue wherever the game is played.

Howard Garns was a retired architect who loved creating puzzles as a freelance effort, and it appears he contributed the first-known version of Sudoku to a puzzle magazine in 1979. It is similar to the Latin Square, which has been much analyzed by Euler, and is an ancient game. Garns added a third dimension, improving on the design, and he offered his version with some of the fields already filled in. It is immediately popular with puzzle players worldwide once they try it for the first time.

Once the game had arrived in Japan, a few years after its invention, its name was changed from “Number Place” to “Sudoku.” A Japanese company copyrighted the name later on, and helped launch the game to Europe and around the world.

Originally, players always found newspapers or puzzle magazines for the source of new games, but in 1989 a computer version of Sudoku was introduced. Some people have even created a three dimensional version based on Rubik’s Cube.

By 1997, Sudoku had established an enormous worldwide following. In Hong Kong, Judge Wayne Gould decided to create a computer program that can make millions of variations of Sudoku puzzles. He made a deal with The Times of Britain, which began publishing a daily puzzle in 2004.

Nationwide, newspapers would print the puzzles and sell out quickly. World media acknowledged Sudoku as the “fastest growing puzzle in the world”. By 2005, Sudoku was at the peak of its popularity.

Knowing something of the history of Sudoku adds a nice touch to this enjoyable pastime. From its beginnings in the ancient world, to adaptation using modern computers, to global acceptance, Sudoku has come a long way in a short time. Thanks to Howard Garns for creating a puzzle that brings pleasure and brain stimulation to millions of people every day.

Article Source: http://activeauthors.com

Terence Uniacke is happiest writing for a variety of well-known contemporary online magazines, on hobby center and ultimate hobby topics.
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