Microsoft Entertainment Pack: The Puzzle Collection

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Microsoft Entertainment Pack: The Puzzle Collection

Developer(s)	Mir - Dialogue
Publisher(s)	Microsoft Games
Designer(s)	Alexey Pajitnov
Platform(s)	PC Windows 95, Game Boy Color
Release date	1997
Genre(s)	Puzzle
Mode(s)	Single player
Media	CD-ROM
System requirements	Windows 95/98/ME/XP, 486DX2 (66MHz) or higher, 8 MB RAM, 30 MB of available hard-disk space, Single-speed or faster CD-ROM drive, Super VGA display (800x600 resolution), Local or PCI-Bus SVGA; Display capable of 256 colors
Input methods	Keyboard and mouse

Microsoft Entertainment Pack: The Puzzle Collection is a collection of 10 puzzle computer games developed by Mir - Dialogue and published by Microsoft Games. The creator of Tetris, Alexey Pajitnov, designed some of the games featured in the pack. It was released on CD-ROM for Windows 95. It was also bundled as part of the Microsoft Plus! Game Pack which was released after Windows Me.

A version was made for the Game Boy Color. It features six of the games from the PC version (Fringer, Charmer, Mixed Genetics, and Muddled Casino have been omitted). [1]

[edit] Presentation

Each game in the collection runs in a window using 256 colors. They use MIDI background music and digitized sound effects. Controls vary from game to game - they either use the keyboard or the mouse.

[edit] Games

Fringer - Untie all the knots in a stage before a knot is pushed to the bottom of the screen, at which point the game ends.

Finty Flush - Fill a 4x4 grid with predetermined combinations of marbles before the screen fills up with too many marbles.

Mixed Genetics - Breed mutated animals to fix their mutations without any of the three bred animals having repeat mutations.

Rat Poker - Coloured rats enter and walk clockwise around a playing area. Rats will only exit if they line up in a specific pattern such as three in a row of the same colour. Players may lift rats off the 'conveyor belt' onto rotating spokes, and release them again in the best order so that they will exit and the playing area is not overrun.

Lineup - Various pentominoes composed of sports balls must be placed on the playing field to form a continuous row from one end to the other. When this is done, all shapes used to form the row will disappear. The game continues until the queue of shapes waiting to be placed fills up.

Jewel Chase - Steal as much loot as possible before the other robber does and get to the exit first or you lose. The playing area is a colour maze. At any time a robber occupies a square made up of up to 4 different colours. When the player selects an arrow-key, the robber will move to the nearest square if available in that direction that has a colour in common with the current square. The game can be played in a training mode which allows you to walk the 100 colour mazes collecting all gems without a time limit.

Color Collision - Control a ray of light and hit sun-like discs of matching colour. Bonuses are scored for hitting discs when they are smiling, "turned on", or about to explode, etc. depending on the level.

Charmer - Charm snakes to a vine to make their pots disappear, without letting the lids fall and create another pot.

Spring Weekend - Arrange the garden critters into a certain pattern before your moves run out. The playing area is a hexagonal grid. By right-clicking or left-clicking on a hexagon position, all 6 adjacent hexagons will rotate clockwise or anti-clockwise respectively.