JARKANOÏD 3 is a Breakout/Arkanoid simulation programmed by Jérôme BARJOT a part time game developer whose main job in life is a postman. As it was developed during his spare-time, it took him a long time to complete it, but the effort paid off in my opinion because this game is one of the better freeware arkanoids around and better than some commercial versions, though I’d disagree with his statement which I’ve detailed below (about his game being better than other arkanoids) because there are some superb commercially available arkanoids such as ricochet infinity, Reaxxion and Acky’s XP Breakout that knock the socks off this game. (I only mention 2D arkanoids as Jarkanoid is a 2D game.
The game is played using the mouse, with some keyboard input.
The author says JARKANOÏD 3 is better than other Arkanoids because:
• Graphics details are better
• There are up to 100 balls simultaneously
• 22 bonuses
• Many options to fix your own way to play (balls speed, balls acceleration, bonuses at once, bonus frequency, bonuses weight, and more…)
• No flickering, balls moves are the smoothest possible
Minimum System Requirements:
• Windows 95/98/Me/NT4/2000/XP
• A video accelerator with 16 Mb of video ram
• A Pentium II Class Processor or equivalent
• DirectX 7 or higher
• A monitor able to display 1024*768 at 60 Hz
• 64 Mb of Ram
You can download Jarkanoid 3 HERE. The developer also created Jarkanoid and Jarkanoid 2, which you can find HERE. I’ve not searched for the original Jarkanoid yet.
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3D Pulsoid:
3D Pulsod is now over 10 years old, but it still retains the quality of a commercial (but dated) game (IMO). It was made freeware by the developer some time ago, though the file that you’ll be downloading is only a demo, so you’ll need a registration code to activate the shareware version of the game. I’m not sure whether I’m allowed to post the code here, so I’m going to link to the code on the developers home page plus another site where I found the code. It can be found http://www.fd.com.ua/3dpulsoid/">HERE; I did find the site was a little hard to connect to, but it is possible it's a connection problem at my end because i've been having trouble connecting to quite a few sites including the giveaway site. Alternatively you can find the activation code HERE (the code is highlighted in blue).
The game will play in XP, but no music or sounds can be heard. If you want to hear the games music and sound effects you will have to play the game in DOSBox. wizzard has posted a short tutorial on how to setup DOSBox. It's well worth reading if you aren't sure how to set it up. Once done you'll have many great games at your fingertips (which includes such gems as the first two Elder Scrolls RPG games and another one that's as amazing called Darklands, plus many more arcade games from the DOS days (if you're into puzzles I highly recommend a tetris clone called Squarez, a brilliant game that's hard to beat on expert mode).
The main rule of 3D Pulsoid is to control a racket with snakes and balls, destroy all the bricks and go to the next level, (really, lol). Monsters will try to prevent you from completing your mission by changing the trajectory of the snake or of the ball. There are plenty of bonuses to either help or hinder you. (check out the bonus and monster images below to get some ideas as to which bonuses you can use to win each level. If you find the game too easy, simply ignore the positive bonuses and pick up the negative ones to ramp up the difficulty). :}
After the 32nd level the game ends and your name is placed in the Hall of Fame. Once you’ve completed the levels you can create your own levels using the levelsditor/creator; (see Level editor description and Game menu description below ). You can also play cooperatively with a second player, by controlling two rackets, which makes it easier to score higher and lose less lives. Those who like playing a standard game of Arkanoid can turn the snake into a ball with via the special option; details of which can be found in the game menu description below.
The developer has constructed the levels so that as you progress you encounter increasingly difficult levels; therefore on the earliest levels he's programmed the game so as not to encounter very dangerous monsters such as the 'Mystic' or the 'Evil Scull' (see Monster description below for details). He's also removed some of the more positive bonuses such as the 'Laser' and 'Rocket Launcher' (see bonuses description for details of all the bonuses available throughout the game).
Game Menu Description
1) Start Game. Just press it. The game starts with all the set preferences. You will be asked to enter the registration code, received from Ultisoft, Inc. company. The way of its receiving is described in the order-screen. If You don't have the registration code, You will play only 2 levels of all the 32, but after that You will have enter the code anyway.
Registration key is : 7****8 (follow the links I've provided above)
2) Options. You can change the game settings via the options menu.
Sound settings. There You can change the volume of the sound effects, music and CD-music or turn them off. Mind You, music will not play in Windows (see Frequently asked questions and answers).
Racket control settings. There the control of the game racket can be set. For the first player is mouse, and keyboard is for the second for default. If You have a joystick, the control is set to it.
Game process settings. There You can choose Your "players" - snakes or balls - Pulsoid or Arcanoid. There You can also choose the angle of the bouncing off. For Pulsoid it's fixed - 45 degrees. For Arcanoid it's not fixed.
Then You can choose the Number of players - one or two.
With User Levels You can load Your levels for playing (see Level editor description). To cancel the game with home-made level You should enter User Levels and leave it without loading anything.
Features And Hints
F10 ………………………Pause
Alt+S……………………Save game (though it will not save a level in progress, so if you say for example decide you need to save while you are part way through level 25 when you come back to the game you will have to start level 25 from the beginning.
Alt+L………………………………load saved levels (There are 8 save blocks)
If You cannot complete the game fairly, there are several cheat codes available. Type in the menu in small letters and without spaces the word fifthdimension. You will hear a sound signal, symbolizing the activating of cheat codes system. You need only to press F1 - F9 buttons.
F1 - normal racket.
F2 - double racket.
F3 - one-shot chaingun.
F4 - two-shot chaingun.
F5 - rocket launcher.
F6 - laser.
F7 - an instant exit to the next level.
F8 - the destruction of the racket.
F9 - "god mode".
If you think the game is too fast you can use the slow code. Open up the games executable using a suitable text editor and in the command line type 3dpuls.exe hispeed. Movement of snakes and bonuses will decrease by 1.5. You can also do this by executing slowgame.bat file.
The rocket explodes after You release the fire-button or when it's near the upper border of the screen.
If the snake or the ball can't find the way out of the bricks, the tank will increase it's fire power every 30 seconds - firstly it will have the chain gun, then double chain gun, then rocket launcher, and then laser. And finally if You can't complete a level the tank will go to the next level.
Some Brick Types and monsters:
Level Editor Description
The Level editor was included by the developer of the game so that you could add to the number of levels available in this game. Levels are saved into blocks, each block has 32 levels.
Functions of the editor:
Placing Bricks:
This is the main part of the editor. There You can act as a builder and place bricks for Your new level. All bricks has 6 levels of destruction - from 1 (the brick is destroyed with one hit), 5 (the brick is destroyed with five hits) to undestructable. With Your mouse take any brick and place it in the game field. It's then set to 1 - it can be destroyed with one hit. If You want to change its resistance, press number buttons from 1 to 5 and U button for undestructible.
I won't detail all the workings of the levels editor here, otherwise this thread will become too unweild. You can find more details on how to use the levels editor/creator by clicking HERE
Power ups:
You can download 3D Pulsoid from HERE and visit the developers home page HERE.
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