LMarbles 1.4Mb
LMarbles is an Atomix clone but instead of assembling molecules, you are presented with an arrangement of marbles that you have to duplicate. It’s a puzzle game of mind-bending mayhem!
Let me say straight off, it isn’t easy; and even at the easy difficulty level the first few levels really get quite challenging. You have to use marbles co-operatively and decide where on the maze grid you are going to attempt to build the puzzle. You’ll often find that whatever you seem to try, one or more of the marbles are seemingly stranded, or you can’t seem to get one or more marbles in exactly the right place. All levels are supposed to be solvable, but you might be trying for ages on some of the levels!
At higher levels, new features such as one way streets, teleportals and crumbling walls seriously complicate things! Control is very simple. Select the marble to move with the left mouse button and use the arrow keys to move the marble. The only thing is, the marble keeps moving until it meets an obstacle, which includes other marbles. ‘Spacebar’ retracts a move.
The game is available for Windows, USB Windows Portable (just recently!), Mac and Linux. It was originally a Linux game; hence the name. The game requires SDL libraries (any version) to be installed on your computer.
It’s a free game that is quite a lot of fun, if you can handle the frustration level and don’t mind some maddeningly difficult levels. Some levels look easy, but are anything but . . . !
The time limit is in terms of the number of moves, and you can attempt to get the minimum number of moves. ‘R’ key restarts a level, either to try to do the level with less moves or when you get stuck on a level. The chapters have to be completed in order, but the levels within a chapter can be played in any order. Changing the difficulty level changes the maximum number of moves allowed. I can’t say how difficult some of the levels are, as some levels presently make my head spin . . . ! There are 4 chapters with 8 levels in each, 32 levels in total in the Windows version, or 3 chapters, 10 levels each in other versions.
The only shame (or headache saver!) is that there aren’t further level sets available as yet.
It is possible, though on the complicated side to produce your own levels. There’s a manual with the game (and on the game’s website) and instructions should you wish to try building some levels of your own. You would then need to test them to see if they would be solvable - or try them out on paper first!
Sound is limited and there’s no music:- some soothing music would have been of benefit given the amount of head-scratching some levels can cause! If the author would add an easy level editor, music and some extra level sets, it would be brilliant!
It’s a polished and well-presented game with decent graphics, though!
Sorry, no walkthroughs available at present!
Read More Here
Download SDL Runtime Library (Free) <1Mb HERE
Download Game HERE
Download Portable (Pocket PC) Version Here