Meet Your New Addiction: InkBall

Meet Your New Addiction: InkBall

What would a new computer be without a new computer game? InkBall takes advantage of your ability to work with a pen on your computer screen. It's fun, it's challenging, and it's addictive.

Ready to play? To go ahead and open InkBall, choose StartðAll Programsð GamesðInkBall.

The rules of the game

InkBall is a simple game to learn. Winning it depends on quick responses and a touch of manual dexterity.

The game board, as shown in Figure 9-12, changes slightly with every game and also changes depending on the difficulty level at which you're playing.

Figure 9-12: Note the little score counter at the top to remind you of your score to date.

Essentially, InkBall will have a certain number of blank squares where the colored balls can float free, a few solid squares that the balls will bounce off of like the bumpers in a pinball game, and color-coded holes.

The object of the game is to get the blue balls into the blue hole, the green balls into the green hole, the orange balls into the orange hole, and so on. You do this by drawing on-screen with your pen to direct each colored ball into the corresponding hole.

Starting a game

When you open InkBall, it automatically begins a game. You can choose GameðNew Game at any time to start a new game. When the game begins, the colored balls (sometimes one of each color; sometimes more than one of a single color) are loaded in the little window at the top-left corner of InkBall.

After a moment, the balls pop out of the square in the playing area that has a hole surrounded by four red dots. The balls appear one by one within the game area and begin to move in random patterns.

To play the game, perform any of these actions:

• Draw a line with your pen to block a ball from going in the wrong- colored hole (as shown in Figure 9-13). When you draw a line, the ball bounces off of it.

  
  Figure 9-13: These ink lines will deflect the ball to help you direct it into its hole to win the game.

• Draw a line to direct the ball toward the correct color hole.

• Choose GameðPause to pause the play.

• Choose GameðClear Ink to remove lines you've drawn. Though these lines disappear automatically when a ball hits them, some lines may not get hit, and you can use this step to clear them manually.

After you land all the balls in the right-colored holes, the game is over, and your score will be added up and shown at the top of the screen.

If a ball goes into a hole that doesn't match its color or if the timer at the top of the game window runs out before all the balls get in their holes, the game is over!

Setting the difficulty level

InkBall is set for Beginners by default. This is the easy stuff, and you may soon master this level and want more challenge.

The different levels present scads of different configurations and complexities. For example, the Expert level game, as shown in Figure 9-14, has six balls in play; the balls all started out as clear, then turned into different colors as I played.

Figure 9-14: With this many balls in the air, winning a game is hard!

They also changed color periodically, so a blue ball I was trying to push into a blue hole suddenly turned green and I lost the game when it landed in the blue hole.

 Remember  Note (also in this game) the blocks of solid color; these disappear if they are struck by a ball of the same color, but they deflect a ball of another color.

Figure 9-15 shows an Intermediate-level game, where directional blocks with arrows indicate that you can only move balls in a clockwise direction around the screen; if a ball moves into a row of blocks where the arrows are facing towards it, it will bounce off and not be able to pass.

Figure 9-15: Challenges vary with every game you play.

To select a difficulty level, open the Difficulty menu and tap the level you want. A new game begins automatically.

InkBall continues to start a new game at the same difficulty level when you finish each game, and it starts a game at that same level the next time you open InkBall.

Racking up scores

Here are a few things you should know about InkBall to succeed. First, a timer appears in the upper-right-hand corner that runs for each game.

If you get all the balls into their holes before the time runs out, you get a bonus point for each second left on the timer. Points carry over from game to game until you lose.

Here are few tips about how to win InkBall games:

• You need to stay ahead of the balls, so try to anticipate their movement and draw a line about one inch ahead of their path.

• If your lines aren't appearing where you expect them to, you may need to recalibrate your pen and screen by choosing StartðControl Panelð Tablet and Pen Settings.

• Balls are worth different points, depending on their color, so go after them strategically.

  Gray balls are worthless, red balls are 200 points, blue balls are 400 points, green balls are 800 points, and gold balls are a hefty 1,600 points.

• Gray balls can go into any color hole.

You can find lots of variations on the different game levels, so explore them and get better with every game.