I once went to an astronomy display and saw a model of the Big Dipper. The stars aren't all on the same plane, and are, in fact, all different distances from us. By rotating the display you could really get a picture of how these stars might look like the Big Dipper to us, but it's all just an illusion based on perspective.

Side View Generator works along these same lines. By moving parts of letters out of a common plane, one word might become a different word when rotated. A very interesting idea, if a little hard to explain.

Splashback

This is one of my favourite games, and it's strange it didn't manage to get posted sooner. Maybe because I was never really any good at it, I don't know.

You start the game with 10 drops of liquid and a board filled with blobs. You can click in any square to add a drop of liquid to a blob. Too much liquid and the blob will explode, sending a drop in all four directions and adding an extra drop of liquid to your tank. The object is to clear all the blobs from the screen.

I find this game interesting because there's often a chance for good strategy, adding drops in such a way as to get the largest chain reaction. It's also fun to watch the screen clear as blob after blob explodes. I'm not sure about the whole alien and little girl thing, though. She's got this kind of knowing look on her face like we're down with something. Are we supposed to be down with the alien? I'm not. He's got a gut like my old man.

Link

Shuffle

In Shuffle, both you and your opponent start with a row of marbles, with the object being to knock your opponent's marbles off the board. Each round you win shortens your supply by one marble and moves you a step toward the center of the board. The first person to win four rounds wins the set.

Anyone good at pool will be good at this game. I'm not good at pool, and lasted only ten rounds before finally getting clobbered.

Link

Rose and Camellia

You play Reiko, newly widowed and shunned from her home by the aristocratic members of the family. In order to secure her place in the house, she must defeat the other family members in a slap fight -- or what the game refers to as "the elegant art of feminine conflict".

The game is easy to play, but takes some time to get used to. Fortunately, it's also just silly enough to hold you attention, without being so silly as to lose credibility. I had great success on the Easy level; the harder levels require more patience than I was willing to put in.

Link (via Memepool)

Multibabel

Lost in Translation is a fun little tool, held together with a Perl script and powered by Altavista's Babelfish translator. It takes the text you enter and translates it through several languages before returning it to English.

It's described on the site as the game of Telephone, but I think it's a lot more like Engrish. The one big fault is that sometimes a word will be translated which is not easily translated back, so you will end up with foreign language artifacts in your final English text.

Some examples:

• I think we're alone now, there doesn't seem to be anyone around. translates to Nontask that we are only hour, I look like here, all same that one to be around.


• She's buying a stairway to heaven. translates to Stairs of purchase one with the sky.


• You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. translates to They can control, when it appreciates, but you cannot never go.

Link to Lost in Translation
Link to Babelfish

50 States Game

Place all 50 states in their correct positions on the map. The game keeps track of your average distance "wrong" as well as how long it takes you. I managed to make it through once without any errors, but some of it was luck.

While it isn't the most amusing game in the world, it's good to reference every now and then, just to keep my US geography fresh.

Link

Guess-the-Google

A grid of 20 pictures is presented, each representing a single keyword. Your goal is to determine which word, plugged into Google, will produce search results with these images.

There are some tricky ones sometimes, but the game is really as easy as it seems. It's also a lot more addictive than it seems. Be prepared to spend a lot of time here.

Link

Have a Slogan

A fun little site that does nothing more than pair a randomly chosen word with a randomly chosen corporate slogan. It's a cute little time waster that generates some genuine laughs.

If you're really looking for a slogan for something, I suggest you bounce on over to Sloganizer. It's a lot more serious and a lot less fun, unless you sloganize a word like poop, or assholes.

Link to Have a Slogan
Link to Sloganizer

Desktop Tower Defense

Another terrifically addictive game that overwhelmed me so much I was playing it at all hours -- evenings, lunchtime, even my coffee breaks.

Your goal is to arrange your defenses to prevent the Creeps from crossing the screen. You start with a limited amount of money, but you get more with each Creep you kill. You get to register your name if you survive 50 levels. If you survive 50 levels.

Link

Juggler

A simple, fun, and addictive flash game that requires you to keep the juggling balls in the air. Kinda reminds me of breakout, with balls and paddles but without the bricks.

Not as much fun as juggling in real life, but easier to do at your desk.
Link (via Darren Barefoot)

10 Ways

One of the most difficult things about this blog is finding things to say about some of the sites I come across. 10 Ways seems almost to defy description. At its heart it's about experimentation with a visual medium, but it definitely transcends the static pictures it plays with. The image above, from Information, uses the idea of photomosaics to suggest that images underlie other images. Philosophy aside, I could spend hours here.

Link to 10 Ways
Link to 10 Ways:Information

Psychic Tests

Though not a big believer in psychic phenomena, I do have a few experiences that leave me scratching my head. Plus, I like spending my time fooling around with this kind of stuff. And who isn't curious about ESP?

There are a number of different tests here, mostly "guess the card" and remote viewing. They do a good job of breaking down the odds of how well you've done, and then you get to rank yourself against others at the end. I think I tend to do better when I'm really drunk or really tired, so I'll post an update if I'm successful at completing the tests in either of those states.

I also heard a rumour that they'll pay you for research if you exceed the norms, but I can't say with any validity whether this is true.

Link (via Linky & Dinky)

Virtual NES

I think people forget to hearken back to our halcyon days of youth, where graphics were cumbersome and sound effects were tinny, but where gameplay reigned supreme. I had an old-school Atari 2600 which, at the time, was the zenith of home video game systems -- and sure beat the hell out of our Telstar console. But next to systems like ColecoVision, it was a definite step down. A few years later, Nintendo would emerge as the leading video game console, crushing the other competitors under its flimsy white and grey plastic heels.

I remember renting NES consoles every weekend and staying up all night playing games. And although I do find it kind of disturbing that I can now play upwards of 350 NES games in java on my computer, I do like the idea that I don't have to scrounge through yard sales, pawn shops, or classified ads to look for used cartridges.

(My NES currently sits under our TV, right next the PS2. My Atari console is still MIA.)

Link

Holiday Excuse Generator

It's that time of year again. And in addition to working, volunteering, and living your life, you've also got to squeeze in shopping, social functions, and parties with every group of friends you have. So if you need an excuse to help keep your sanity or prevent alcohol poisoning, this one's got you covered. It has the option of sending your excuse out once it's generated, and has some cute eye candy to keep you interested while it's finding your perfect excuse.

Link

Two Winter Time Wasters

This first game, Snowcraft, has been around since 1998. I remember spending my lunchtime playing it while I worked at SEDA. I eventually completed the game, but it was very frustrating. In fact, this game is as frustrating as it is fun.


The object is to defeat the green team by hitting them with snowballs. It takes three hits to remove a player, and they do pause to wipe snow off themselves when they're hit. To move your players, just drag them around the screen. Release the mouse button to throw a snowball: the longer the button's held down, the further you can throw.

In Snowball, you use the arrow keys to control a snowball rolling down a very long hill. It gets larger and harder to control as it rolls, and you can absorb dogs, people, and other objects as you grow. Hitting a tree with reduce your size, and hitting a house will stop the game. You can see my best score in the picture.

Two simple, addictive games for your continued amusement. If I don't hear from you I'll forward your mail.

Link to Snowcraft
Link to Snowball

Snowflake Maker

In the middle of a scorching summer heatwave, nobody wants anything more than to think about an ice-cold winter. Which is why this post about the snowflake maker is coming at just the right time.

I suppose you could make real snowflakes yourself using the method they show you, but what good would that be? You'd have your kitchen table littered with tiny scraps of paper, hundreds of snowflakes hung from pipe cleaners, and no way to display them to thousands of people a day. No, this is definitely better and more convenient.

After you're done cutting your masterpiece, the site allows you to e-mail your snowflake out to people, or even to download an EPS to use in your own projects. You can also visit the gallery, where similar options are available for more than eleven million snowflakes! For what it's worth, the one in the picture is #11985365.

Link

Cool and Frustrating Puzzles

I came across these Grow puzzles a couple of years ago, but they were weird and I didn't spend a lot on them. Returning to them now, they're still weird, but brilliantly weird: like the guy you meet on the subway who does your math homework for a pouch of Pop Rocks, not like the guy you meet on the subway who carries a duffel bag with his wife's severed head in it.

The premise of all these puzzles is the same: there are a number of items along the left and right sides of the screen that must be activated in a certain order. The twist is that different orders give misleading results. A lot of times you'll think you're making progress only to find you're straying dawn a misleading path. In Grow 3, for example, the tornado attaches to the windmill to provide the globe with electricity; but if the tornado is activated too early, it destroys the windmill -- and then a misleading "bonus" pops up, suggesting you've done the right thing.

These puzzles are perfectly crafted and great fun to watch, even if you're not trying to solve them.

Grow v2 (via Kent's Blog)
Grow v3
Grow RPG
Grow Cube

Update: It turns out the all knowing, all seeing Wikipedia has a link to Grow and a mysterious fifth puzzle called Glow Ornament. Solutions for all the puzzles are also listed, so don't look too closely or you'll ruin the fun!

Link to Wikipedia article

Simple (and Surprisingly Accurate) IQ Test

There are a number of IQ tests out there, and I've probably tried them all. Most are gimmicky, and nearly all of them artificially inflate your score.

But this test provided me with the same score I received when I took my Mensa application tests. It consists of 38 true/false questions that must be completed in 13 minutes. You apparently get bonus marks for completing the test quickly, and there's a break after the 19th question so you can relax before tackling the second half.

I'll send a postcard to anyone who can guess what my score was.*

I'll send a prize to anyone who can beat it!**

*Family and close friends excluded from this offer; you'll get a phone call.
**Screenshot verification may be required. Prizes are expensive, especially now that I'm out of work.

Link

Time-Wasting Pepsi Game

This game is quite a lot of fun for being a one-trick pony. It's not something that's going to bring you back again and again once you complete it, but it's a great waste of time if you're, say, struggling at work on a Friday afternoon. As a bonus, leave your sound on at the end of the game: he never stops drinking! After 30 minutes it becomes one of the most deeply repulsive sounds I've ever heard.

Link

Multi-User Flash Games

At The Broth you work in a shared space with as many as ten other people at the same time, moving coloured tiles around and trying to create patterns. It can be frustrating, as most people are more concerned with tearing down rather than building, but it can also be a lot of fun to work on a shared design with two or three other people.

It reminds me a lot of Someone Keeps Stealing My Letters, another multi-user site that allows you to drag those plastic fridge magnet letters around. Same idea, but sometimes I find it more appealing to write words instead of just pushing tiles. I guess I've always been more literary than visual.

Link to The Broth
Link to Someone Keeps Stealing My Letters