After Dark Games

Pros • a good variety of addictive time wasters	Cons • some of the games are duds • single player only
Bottom Line At least one game in the collection will appeal to every member of your family. I have had various little time wasters on my computers over the years. There has been Solitaire, Minesweeper, Tetris, Shanghai, Maelstrom, and others. Little games that I could pull up for a quick five or ten minute break when I needed one, yet that were good enough games that they could absorb me for hours as I tried to break my last high score. Cost effective, dollars per hours of entertainment, these little free and shareware programs have been my best computer games. Add to this equation the factor that the flying toasters and swimming fish of the After Dark Screen Savers became such a ubiquitous computer screen feature that I was always surprised to see anything else. Things have changed. Burn in is not the concern for modern computer monitors that it once was with the old screens and when I want a quick five or ten minute game these days, I am more apt to sign on for a quick multiplayer session of Half Life than I am to play a puzzle game. What a pleasure it was to rediscover this genre of gaming in the excellently packaged collection that is After Dark Games. Many of, and probably the best of the games in the collection are glossed up versions of those old classics while others are original games.

I have had various little time wasters on my computers over the years. There has been Solitaire, Minesweeper, Tetris, Shanghai, Maelstrom, and others. Little games that I could pull up for a quick five or ten minute break when I needed one, yet that were good enough games that they could absorb me for hours as I tried to break my last high score. Cost effective, dollars per hours of entertainment, these little free and shareware programs have been my best computer games. Add to this equation the factor that the flying toasters and swimming fish of the After Dark Screen Savers became such a ubiquitous computer screen feature that I was always surprised to see anything else.

Things have changed. Burn in is not the concern for modern computer monitors that it once was with the old screens and when I want a quick five or ten minute game these days, I am more apt to sign on for a quick multiplayer session of Half Life than I am to play a puzzle game. What a pleasure it was to rediscover this genre of gaming in the excellently packaged collection that is After Dark Games. Many of, and probably the best of the games in the collection are glossed up versions of those old classics while others are original games. The games are as follows:

After Dark Solitaire

This is just your standard Klondike solitaire, same as you have played a thousand times before and will play a thousand times again. It may not be as hilarious as Freeverse Software's Burning Monkey Solitaire (www.freeverse.com), but it will still waste away those last few minutes before quitting time.

Bad Dog 911

Bad Dog 911 is a word puzzle game, that presents you with a scrambled word and challenges you to make enough words to score points sufficient to rescue the clock cleaner from the predicament that Bad Dog has put him in. Simple, and challenging. At times the dictionary seems a little bizarre as the game rejects some words that I thought were pretty solid (rome, effete) while expecting things like toa or frere. Still, this was one of my favourites of the bunch. The antics of Bad Dog are hilarious and distracting from the game while the mental challenge is very addictive. Fun gaming that might even be good for you. Weird.

Fish Shtick

Here are the famous After Dark fish, only in this game they each have a letter from a scrambled word on their sides. The game is a timed challenge to unscramble as many as possible. Basically just a variant of Bad Dog 911.

Foggy Boxes

This is that old classic line game where the challenge is to make more boxes than your opponent. Fun, simple and challenging. The addiction only lasts a little while, especially since there is no multiplayer possibility and you are stuck with playing the computer.

Hula Girl

Hula Girl is one of the weakest of the games. This is a Frogger style arcade game where the challenge is simply to keep Hula Girl on the screen by leaping from platform to platform. Bonus points for collecting good stuff like sundaes and negatives for touching gross things like frogs and broccoli.

Mowin' Maniac

A dull, difficult to maneuver Pac Man style arcade game. This is the only game less fun than Hula Girl. I can't imagine that anyone would play this game more than three times. The collection would be better without this one.

Mooshu Tiles

This is a colorful adaptation of the old Shanghai tile elimination game. All of the colorful tiles are a tad distracting and make the game a little more difficult but it is still addictive. This one will eat up time. It is the perfect break from whatever it is you do.

Rodger Dodger

If it wasn't for Rodger Dodger I would say that Berkeley Systems sucks at arcade games and ought to stick to the puzzles. This is an immensely simple little arcade game that got me hooked. The idea is simply to maneuver around the slightly puzzled environments collecting the goodies while avoiding the baddies. The level progression is superb and the slightly increasing difficulty level of each successive game screen will get you hooked and addicted to getting one screen farther each time you play.

Roof Rats

In Roof Rats, you are trying to rescue the critters on the roof of the building. This is performed by demolishing the rooms below them. Adjacent, like-colored rooms can be demolished. This is merely an average, if brightly colored puzzle game.

Toaster Run

Toaster Run is a variant of the Glider game that had you guide a paper glider through a house. Toaster Run is much easier since the toaster has wings and in Toaster Run, the object is to collect all of the objects scattered about the house while avoiding the obstacles. Why a toaster is trying to collect blocks and baby toys is beyond me. Boring.

Zapper

Zapper is a fantastic inclusion. This is a trivia game, much like You Don't Know Jack. The questions are irreverent, funny and informative. Berkeley Systems have proven that they make brilliant trivia games and Zapper will only whet your appetite for more.

Sum Total

At the end of the pile, what we are left with is a hit and miss collection of little games, much as you would get if you downloaded a stack of shareware games. The difference is that with After Dark Games, you don't have to chase around trying to write small cheques to the shareware developer or feel that pang of immorality if you choose not to pay. After Dark Games is also much more polished graphically and musically than you will find in most shareware titles, and you know it is virus free. The extra fun of recognizing all of the characters from your old After Dark Screen Saver and the inclusion of one of them in the package make this collection worth while. It is a great little collection of games. At least one of them will appeal to every member of your family although I suspect that a couple of the games will not see much use. It is unfortunate all of the games are single player. Games like Zapper and Foggy Boxes really ought to support two players.

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