The Challenge Base » Useful Info

Free online puzzle games

TheChallengeBase — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:49:56 +0000

There are so many types of free online flash games, and there is a game about anything you can think of. Some games are fictional and they have characters and activities invented by the creators, while other games are inspired by real facts and real persons. So there are games involving real activities such as driving, cooking, cleaning, playing all sort of sports, fighting and so on. There are also some games with inspired by real human, such as games with famous singers (Britney Spears, Madonna, Justin Timberlake etc), or games with politicians (Barrack Obama, George W. Bush, Tony Blair etc.) and also games with actors (Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and others). Some of these games are really silly and funny, but there are also some games that require some concentration and thinking and that will put your intelligence and creativity to the test. And these are the free online puzzle games. There are all sorts of them, and they usually have very simple controls (mostly you have to use just the mouse). They are simple to play in terms of controls…but the game play will get more and more difficult as you advance in the game, and they will really put your intelligence to the test.

So now let’s discuss about some puzzle games found on the famous site miniclip.com and we’ll choose the game called Scribble. In this game you must help the Ink Blots get through the levels by drawing bridges, ramps and also caging enemies. The Blots are some small creatures that are made out of ink, and they are forming from the ink that is dropping. They are not so smart, and they never look where they are going, so they will easily fall or get hurt.

Your objective is to guide them safely to the end flags from each level by using your special drawing powers. Just hold the mouse button and drag it across the screen to draw lines, and make path for the little creatures. Whether the line is going up or down, the Blots will follow the exact path showed by your lines. So you will have to draw lines to make the Blots avoid obstacles, pits or slopes. If you want to block a Blot, and make him turn the other way around, simply draw a vertical line…and once he touches it he will turn back. . But you can’t draw as much as you want, because you have just a limited amount of ink. You will see how much ink you have left in the white bar at the top of the screen, so use it wisely.

The lines that you draw will disappear after some time, and the ink bar will refill. So watch out when a line is disappearing and make sure that the Blobs are always safe. Move the cursor to the edge of the screen, to see the whole level, and this way you can always keep an eye on the creatures. On the flag from the end of the level you will see a number, and this shows how many Blots you still have to bring to complete the level. If you get that number of Blots to the end, the level will end automatically. And you can also use the “end” button to kill all the creatures left that you can’t get to the flag. This game can be quite fun to play and challenging but also a little difficult because the ink will disappear quite soon, and you will have to move and act really fast. So here was just one of the many free online puzzle games from miniclip.com, but of course there are many more other games on this site, and on other sites too. Enjoy them, and if you find some other cool games that worth playing, please tell us all about them.

Puzzle Games Online

TheChallengeBase — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:47:33 +0000

The world of free online games is really diversified and there are hundreds of sites and thousands of cool games that you can play. And the great part is that they are all for free. All you need to have is a computer and a connection to the internet, and you can play any game you want. There are all sorts of topics and all kinds of characters so there will be a game for anyone.

Among the many categories of flash games there are also the online puzzle games , and about one of them we’ll discuss more today. And we’ll choose the game called “Pipol smasher” which can be found on the site funny-games.biz. This is a really cool physics puzzle game in which your objective is to crush all the people from the level by controlling the cars that you have. The controls are really simple, and you only need to click once on a car to start it, and click on it again to stop it. Depending on the level you can also use all the items that are surrounding you and they can really help you.

The only thing you need to be careful at is not to drive a car off the platforms. The game can be quite violent, but in a really fun way. In the first level you will have 2 cars and 2 humans, and you will need to click on a car, let it drive itself for a few meters until it hits the human, and then click again to stop it. Do the same with the second car, and the level is complete. Since the lower car has a wall in front of it, you don’t even need to stop it, and you can let it hit the human with full speed. In the second level you will have one care and 8 humans. Start the car and let it go all the way down, on the last platform, but be sure to stop it in time. In the third level there are 3 platforms, 3 humans and six cars. Here you have two options: you can either activate only one care from each level until it hits the human, and then stop it…but you can also activate both cars from the same level, and let them crash into each other and catch the human between them. This is a much more fun method to complete this level .

In the next level you have only a car and a human, but you will have to be careful because the car will go really fast, and jump higher than the platform. So you will need to drive it really slow, and make it fall directly on the human that is situated below. In the level 5 you will drive some kind of a big bus. You can click on it and let it go all the way, because it will stop into a brick wall. It will then activate the platform below, and throw it directly on the person and kill it. But you will then have to stop the car, otherwise it will fall too. the games goes on and on, and there are more and more fun methods to kill humans with cars. After all it is a really nice game, and we invite you to try it. Have fun!

Free online gambling games

TheChallengeBase — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:45:58 +0000

The world of free online games is very diversified, and there are thousands of games on the internet with all sorts of topics and characters. Some of them are really silly or funny, while others can be more serious. Among the last category there are the puzzle games which require a lot of concentration, and also the free online gambling games. Some of them require concentration, but most of them are relying just on good luck. There are sites where you can play casino games with real money (so you can win or lose real money), but there are also sites where you can play these games absolutely for free, and don’t win or lose anything.

The most famous casino games in the world are: blackjack, poker, roulette and the slot games, and you can find them on hundreds of sites. The basic rules of the games are the same, only that the graphic of the game is different from one site to another. So now let’s discuss about some of the free online gambling games from the site funny-games.biz, and for today we’ll choose the Casino Blackjack. The version from this site is a really nice one, a game that is really simple to play and also realistic. The basic rules of Blackjack are quite simple…you first have 2 cards and you will have to sum the value of each card. The number cards have the exact value written on them, and the other cards (J, Q and K) have the value of 10.

There is also the A which can have the value 1 or 11, depending how you want. Your goal is to be as close as possible to 21, without exceeding this number. The best solution will be to have exactly 21, and the perfect situation is when you have from the first hand an A and one of the cards J, Q or K. In this case you have exactly 21, and it is called “Blackjack”. But let’s say that you are not that lucky, and you have in your hand a 3 and a 8. In this case the total value is 11, which is quite far from 21. So now you can choose to “hit” and you will receive another card.

When you consider that taking another card is risky, and it will end up in exceeding 21, then you can choose to “stand”. Also when you have 2 cards of the same number (for example two 8), you can choose to “split” them. You always play against the dealer (or the computer), and your objective is to have better cards than he does. You start with an initial amount of virtual money, and before receiving the cards you will have to bet. In the lower left side of the screen there are the chips with values of 1, 5, 25, 100 and 500, and you can bet as much as you want, in the limit of how money you have. For example if you have 1,000, you can’t bet 1,200. If you win you will double up the amount of money that you bet, and if you lose you will lose those money. So after all it is a nice and simple game, which is really appreciated by players from all over the world. In case you don’t have enough money to play it at a real casino, we invite you to try this free online Blackjack game. Good luck!

Online Gaming

TheChallengeBase — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:44:20 +0000

There are all sorts of fun activities that you can do at your computer, and one of them would be playing a video game. you can choose to buy a complex video game, install it into your computer and play it, but you can also choose the online gaming. There are hundreds of sites on the internet that are offering free online games and you will find thousands of cool games. They have all sorts of topics and all sorts of characters so that anyone can be satisfied and find a cool game for them. Among the game categories you can find: puzzle games, shooting games, adventure games, fighting games, sport games, dress up games, role playing games, games for kids, games for adults, racing games and many more others. Among the characters found in these games there is practically anything, from imaginary creatures, robots and heroes to real persons such as: singers, actors or politicians. There are also many sites with this kind of games, and some of the most famous are: miniclip.com, funny-games.biz or freeonlinegames.com.

And for today we’ll discuss about some games from the site funny-games.biz, and since there are so many of them, we’ll simply choose some random ones. The games on this site are sorted on categories, and they are: Arcade Games | Board Games | Card Games | Casino Games | Fighting Games | Multiplayer Games | Puzzle Games | Racing Games | Shooting Games and Sport Games. Let’s begin with a racing game, for example the one called “Freeway fury”. Your goal here is to reach the finish line with your car…but it is not just a regular racing game. along the way you can slam into other cars, change your vehicle and gain ultra speed using your nitro boost.

The controls are quite simple, and you will have to use the left and right arrow keys to steer and the up arrow key to activate the nitro boost. In most of the racing games the down arrow key is used for breaking, but in this game you don’t have any breaks. The down arrow key has another function, and this is to change vehicles. When you press this key your guy will get on top of the car, and using the arrow keys you can jump on other cars that are situated close to you. But be sure to jump on a car that is close, otherwise you will fall on the road on die.

When trying to change vehicles the game will run in slow motion, so you can use this as a method to break when another vehicle is in front of you. But you can also smash into that vehicle, and this will bring you points for the nitro boost. But be careful to not hit a car for many times, because it will break down and you will lose. So try to change the vehicles from time to time. As we said when you hit another car from behind you will gain more points for the nitro boost, but this will also slow you down a lot. So it doesn’t worth to apply this method. There is a much better method to get nitro boost, and this is to drive on the opposite side of the road. It is true that this is quite dangerous, and if you hit a car that is coming in front of you, you will die…but it will bring you a lot of nitro boost, so it worths the risk. And then you can get back on the right side of the road, and use that nitro boost to drive much faster. Jumping on other cars will also bring you points for the nitro booster. In the right side of the screen you will see a line, and that represents the track, and your position in the game. there is quite a long road until the finish line, and from time to time there will be checkpoints. The game also has a time limit, and you will need to hurry up otherwise the time ends and you lose the game. whenever you reach a checkpoint your time will be extended, and if you die you will be able to start again from that checkpoint, and not from the beginning of the game.

After all it is a really nice game, so we invite you to try it and to tell us your opinions about it. Have a nice day!

Gaming Systems

TheChallengeBase — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:29:53 +0000

Gaming systems can be divided in a couple of categories. One of those categories and the most important one is the platform which they operate on. The most popular one being of course the desktop personal computer. The personal computer can be tweaked and upgraded very easily and its cost worthy. Making a gaming desktop usually involves getting it to run at faster speeds, enabling better game experience, upgrading the graphic card up to a level that it supports all the games and allows you to enable every feature of the game and increasing your RAM memories. Of course these are not the only items that you need to change in order to set up a gaming rig, but they are indeed the most important. There are other important things that cannot be tweaked from the hardware, such as the internet connection speed.

Another platform that we can mention are the laptops. Gaming laptops are luxury items for many, with costs and sizes that are higher and larger than most mainstream users are willing to accept, they exist in a specialized upper echelon of the computer universe, a niche usually avoided by most. An affordable, small laptop that also plays games well is a rarity, and most people looking for a travel-friendly notebook simply leave off such hopes in exchange for a few more bucks in their pocket, and buy a gaming console or desktop gaming PC instead.

There are also innovative platforms that are popular but not everyone can afford. Wii fits in that category. The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. A distinguishing feature of the console is its wireless controller, the Wii Remote, which can be used as a handheld pointing device and detects movement in three dimensions. Another distinctive feature of the console is WiiConnect24, which enables it to receive messages and updates over the Internet while in standby mode. The Wii is Nintendo’s fifth home console, the direct successor to the Nintendo GameCube, and able to play all official GameCube games.

Another console that could be mentioned here is the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft, and the successor to the Xbox. Some major features of the Xbox 360 are its integrated Xbox Live service that allows players to compete online, download arcade games, game demos, trailers, TV shows, music and movies and its Windows Media Center multimedia capabilities. The Xbox 360 also offers region specific access to third-party media streaming services such as Netflix and ESPN in the USA or Sky Player in the United Kingdom.

These are one of the few popular gaming systems and platforms that are available currently on the market. You can find many more consoles or gaming systems that suits your needs.

How To Improve Processor For Gaming

TheChallengeBase — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:28:31 +0000

How to improve processor for gaming is one of the questions that really concerns any person that wants to have a desktop PC or a laptop especially for gaming. The question is good but somehow wrong “built”. This is so because not the processor is the key element that might be improved. Once you bought a processor, you will rest with it for the rest of the life of your computer. If you want to change your processor you practically have to change the whole configuration of your system. So instead of trying to improve processor for gaming you should better focus on buying a new desktop system or a new laptop. Before buying something new, we will try to help you and show you what matters for a strong gaming system.

First of all, if you want a PC especially for gaming, don’t rush to buy a laptop. I tell you this because laptops are made especially for portability and for Internet or easy applications – http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/07/dell-m11xr2-review-the-worlds-smallest-gaming-laptop-goes-i7/. Except for RAM memory, you can not change a thing to your laptop, once you bought it. So, if you are a real game player, you will need a desktop PC. Let’s see a little bit the features you have to be careful to. First and first, it is the processor. Be very careful when choosing it, because it is a very important choose not only for the games of today, but for the games of tomorrow. No matter that you will choose a processor made of Intel or AMD, be sure that it is at least a dual core processor or better a quad core processor. Make sure then that its frequency to be of at least 2,5 – 3 Ghz. If you take care to this aspects you will have a very powerful processor, one that will last a bit longer for the new games that you are waiting for. After this important step you can focus on the other things.

Video card is the element that makes all the money when you want to play games with good graphic and fast engine – http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/07/did-nvidia-cripple-its-cpu-gaming-physics-library-to-spite-intel.ars. My advice is that the video card to have at least 512 MB or even 1Ghz. Big names that come to my mind when thinking to video cards are ATI Radeon and Nvidia Geforce.

Then the RAM memory is an important aspect, I suggest that it should be of at least 4 Ghz so you don’t experience problems of any nature. For those who have real money and want the best I recommend 8 Ghz of RAM. The Hardisk capacity is not so important, you should buy one with at least 7200 RPM and with that capacity that you think you need it. If I were you, I would buy a harddisk with 1 terrabyte and the problem is solved, but such a beauty would cost a lot more.

Well, these are the most important things you should know when buying a computer and you should be aware that overclocking your processor is not really the best decision. I have learned a thing for a very long time of using computers, you should never force their limits because they might fail eventually. Good luck at shopping – http://thechallengebase.com/negative-effects-of-gaming/!

Online Gaming

TheChallengeBase — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:26:56 +0000

Online gaming appeared almost at the same time as the internet. Once this technology to bring players together became available, it gave birth to online communities and provided new means of interaction between them. At first, online gaming was limited localy then it expanded with the help of internet area growth, enabling gamers around the world to connect one with each other and play games. Online games can range from browser based text games which you play with the help of your internet browser up to complex graphics and virtual worlds populated by many players simultaneously.

Some online games like World of Warcraft, Lineage II or Anarchy Online charged its players with a monthly fee to subscribe to their service, while other games offered a free to play scheme while gaining profits from advertising and offering players extra features for a fee. At the moment there are thousands of games to choose from, each differing from the other.

While online gaming is considered to be a fun and entertaining method to make time pass by there are also negative points about this technology. The main problem is that many teenagers developed an addication towards online games, some of them spending even 15 or more hours per day playing a game. People even created a stereotype for online gamers, they believe if you play online games you are a teenager with weight problems, higiene problems and you must live in your parents basement or using the popular terms, a “basement dweller”. That is absolutely not true. Online gaming is another way of socialising and the ages for joining such a community has no limits, often meeting both teenagers and adults around the virtual worlds that games provides. Of course some communities targeting more mature people then others.

Just because someone enjoys the online gaming doesn’t mean that he has no social life or is different then us, by contrary, he just uses different means to get to the same result. Most of the persons who are attracted to online gaming, develops the addiction because of the opportunity that it offers. In the virtual games you can become something that you could never be in real life, like a Knight who fights to rescue his kingdom, or you could role play a character of different gender, possibilities being endless with the help of imagination.

The market that for this method of entertaining comes with a vast list of games genre, allowing everyone despite their age to enjoy and experience the online virtual worlds. Prices for subcriptions varies depending on how complex the game is or how big its community is. A successful online gaming community will always support each other and will most likely do everything they can to improve the game while increasing its lifetime. There are online gaming communities that survived almost 10 years, despite the countless problems that the game developers encountered.

Custom Built Gaming PC

TheChallengeBase — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:20:29 +0000

Every computer gamer out there owns or has something similar to a custom built gaming pc. The difference between a normal personal computer that most of us posses at home, and a computer that a modern gamer uses are enormous in key areas needed for playing newer games. The custom built gaming pc outperforms normal computers in areas like CPU speed, Video Graphic card capabilities, bigger sized internal memory also known as RAM and storage devices of enormous sizes. There are also gamers that goes beyond technical details and tries to customize the external looks of their computers making it look cooler with the help of lights, sci-fi themed controllers, water tubes for cooling the hardware, multiple number of monitors and so on.

The markets that provides games for clients usually, tries to sell custom built gaming pcs also along with the game. Some games being more successful then other in pulling such a scheme. One of those popular games is World of Warcraft, with a staggering playerbase that counts over ten millions and keeps on rising, adopted this technique and succeeded in pursuing their clients in buying these expensive and high tech custom built gaming pcs. Depending on its specifications, features and capabilities a custom built gaming rig can be very expensive and there is always the risk that in a few months, your computer may become outdated for games that will be released over the next period. Computer technology is progressing every year, thus games having the ability to use more resources increasing the need for games to upgrade their computers.

Following Morris’s Law in computer architecture, he predicted that the integrated circuits that are used for making computers will become smaller, the number of transistors per area being doubled every 10 years thus making them cheaper and more available for everyone. At the current rate we could expect everyone to be able to have a custom built gaming pc at his home in the next few years, prices for custom parts going lower by day.

Elite or professional gamers goes beyond the normal everyday gamer Joe, and have their own custom built controlers and input/output devices, such as custom keyboards with screens that displays certain statistics from a game and with buttons enabling macro making or dual monitors making the experience from playing a game resembling closer and closer to real life experience. Usually only professional gamers are spoiled with such gadgets, being sponsored and trained by companies in exchange for advertising revenue. All of the technology for making a custom built gaming pc is available for every client around the world as long as you are willing to pay the price for it.

If you don’t got the budget to spend for such a rig then consider your self lucky because with the help of Morris’s Law and the current research for cheaper materials and cheaper work force, custom built gaming personal computers will be available for a fraction of their current price in the near future.

Virtual Reality Gaming Future

TheChallengeBase — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:18:49 +0000

Before we talk about the virtual reality gaming future we have to return to the beginnings of this phenomenon. The most well known 3D gaming device was The virtual boy. After this one we have had part of no innovation for a very long time. We were lucky to have Nintendo with its famous Wii, the first console that had as main input form this extraordinary interesting motion sensing. That was a technologic revolution that impressed at that time. The most recent technology permitted the users to interact with the 3D images without the need of any kind of glasses.

Other famous company, and we refer here to Sony, has developed something similar, called Eyetoy games, which has evolved into Move. The developing of this new technology has brought the world one step closer to what it might be called the virtual space or the virtual reality – http://www.lazygamer.co.za/ps3/playstation-move-ps3/playstation-move-your-ticket-to-a-virtual-reality/. Besides, the guys from Sony prepare the next generation of TV experience, the 3D TV! This will make our HDTV technology to become history. Of course, this means that we will have a television without the need of carrying glasses but with the need of motion sensing and pop up images. I can’t imagine any virtual reality gaming or television future without these two components – http://www.gearlive.com/news/article/3d-video-gaming-hazardous-to-your-health-q310/. And I guess the guys from Sony know that these requirements are just the basics.

Going with one step further, Microsoft invented their Kinnect, which has motion sensing but without controller and it can detect all your body gestures. Well, this is something, because we have now three powerful world companies that try to revolutionize the gaming industry (and not only) for a very long time period. I wonder myself, and I think you wonder yourself too, would this 3D and motion controls “fever” become the base for the games we will be playing for 10 years to come from now? I personally hope so, that would prove that the game industry is mature enough to walk into the next technological step, the one of virtual reality.

A personal fear that I have is the fact that this unprecedented developping of the virtual reality gaming industry will lead to mass productions of poor quality games. I mean, the 3D effects and annimation are important, the eyes spectacol is necessary but this has got to be an atribute for a good thought epic story. I wouldn’t like to see incredible, let’s say, fight scenes and the story and the logic of the game to be unattractive. Let’s hope that the 3D graphic revolution would not lead to a death of the stage managers. The real ones I mean. Because then we will assist to something like “the show killed the story” and this would really be a pitty for us as users, as gamers. I am still optimistic on this matter because I know that this problem also manifested in the past, each time a technology revolution appeared. I personally think that virtual reality could become an 8-th art of the world. What do you say about that?

Old Computer Games

TheChallengeBase — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:17:27 +0000

When someone talks about computer games, first thing that passes through your mind are the modern 3D high-detail and sparkly video games, that are currently flooding the market on every country. What about old computer games? Some may highlight the first few, first person action games that spreaded, as a world wide phenomena such as Doom or Duke Nukem, and you are right they are indeed the stone markers for the computer video gaming era, but certainly not the first.

The first video game dates back in January 25, 1947 and it was a Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device made by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. Estle Ray Mann. The game itself consisted of an analog device, that allowed the user to control a vector drawn dot on a display borrowed from a military radar. It may not be the prettiest sight nowadays, but back then it was something revolutionary, it was an innovation and marked the beginning of the blooming gaming market. The profits from such a new market had the potential to generate billions of dollars and they were right.

A good example of an old computer game that became popular amongst the teenagers and adults back then, was Spacewar written by Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen, all of them being students at MIT – Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The game was written for DEC PDP-1 computer in 1961 and with the help of the computer’s vector display, two spaceships battled each other.

To play a computer game now all you have to do, is to own a personal computer, buy a game from the millions out there that suits your needs, install the game and let the fun begin, back in 1960 there were a few more tedious and complex steps needed to perform before playing anything that resembled close to a game. The modern computer games are delivered on a cd/dvd easy to install, while the old computer games came as written code, most of the times found on magazines. The early gamers had to program their own games using the code found in the magazines, on their own computer, thus its player base needed some knowledge in Computer Science field. All of these previous steps being eliminated as soon as the first external storage devices became available for the public, thus increasing further more the number of potential buyers/clients for this new market.

Another benefit from this new market was that almost with every computer game sold back then, a personal computer was sold along with it it also. We can say that when the computer gaming era started, it forced the computer manufacturers to build smaller and cheaper personal computers making the everyday man more opened to this new technology that is very common in the present times.

Computer games spreaded like a highly contagious disease amongst people and there was nothing ahead that could stop or slow down its rate, the gaming market continuing to exist and its clients numbers increasing with each and every passing day.