Installation:
The game downloads to a 6.69Mb zip file that unpacks to a read me with the terms and conditions plus a set up and separate activation module. The game installs to the following path by default, but can be changed during the installation wizard. The C drive may be different depending upon if you have more than one hard drive installed and whether your OS is installed to the C drive or a different one like mine (which is the F drive):
C:\Program Files\CubeDrift (32 bit OS)
C:\Program Files (x86)\CubeDrift (64 bit OS)
Once the game has been installed make sure you don’t forget to activate the game using the activation module within the 24 hour period which ends on Monday 10th July at 8pm GMT (3am Eastern Time or Midnight on the 9th July, Pacific Time). The game creates a shortcut on the desktop and in the Start/Programs menu and also installs an uninstall shortcut in the Start/Programs menu. During the installation wizard you can also install a shortcut to the quick launch bar if you wish. That is unchecked by default. The game starts in windowed mode, but you are asked at the first start up whether you want to play the game in full screen.
Main Menu
Introduction:
Cube Drift has been given away twice before way back in January 2007 only a month after the start of the game give away project where it received a positive 89% votes out of 145 votes with 43 comments. You can see the comments HERE
The game was also given away later that year in September 2007 where it again received a positive 89% out of 175 votes with 60 comments which you can read HERE
The developer introduces the game with the following blurb:
Mind-blowing logic game, inspired by Sokoban with challenging puzzles and neat graphics with a completely new and remarkable game mechanics that you will love.
Are you tired of pointless games for brainless people? Dive into the logical world of Cube Drift and solve hundreds of challenging and original levels! Cube Drift is a very addictive game.
CubeDrift does not only bring you joy and fun, but also improves your logical thinking and combinatorial skills. Increase your IQ painlessly!
You can also boost your creativity with the included Level Editor. You may not only download and play level packs from other players, but also create them and share them on our website. CubeDrift has support for color-blind players.
Reference accessed HERE on the 8th July 2011
Options Menu
Features:
• 100 original and exciting levels
• 6 level themes
• Beautiful long soundtrack
• Great level editor
• Downloadable levels (not sure where you can access these any longer)
• Player community
• Color blind mode for color blind players
Level Editor
The Game:
When first started the game opens up in a window and asks if you would like to switch to full screen. When you start the game play a help window will appear which shows you how to move the blocks (see the last image below). Game play is very simple, you have to move colored blocks to their respective colored dots by placing your mouse pointer over the block. You can make the block move in one of four directions Up, down, left and right by placing the mouse pointer to the edge of the block you want to move. Watch out for the black holes.
The block moves in the direction of the arrow
An arrow appears showing you which direction the block will move to. The game starts off very easy, but as you progress through the levels the level designs become more and more devious. You will also find six different themes, most of which I've captured images of and uploaded them to my photobucket account which you can see as a slide show below (see the images section) You get 100 levels plus a levels editor to create your own levels. The levels editor is accessible from the main menu (Launch Editor).
The developer used to run a forum for this game where users could post links to their own levels, but this has over the last four years disappeared. (I’ll set up a thread in the game discussion thread later where you can post and share any levels you create; however you’ll have to upload the levels to your own ftp account. There are free upload sites such as Filefront which gives you unlimited space for uploading files, but you do have to make sure the files are downloaded occasionally otherwise the owners will clear your account.
In Game Level
The options menu enables you to toggle off/on the sound and music but there is no slider controls to adjust the volume. There’s also an animations and fade toggle for those with older or slower computers, but bear in mind this game is already several years old; most computers should easily cope with the games graphics now. You’ll also find a full screen/windowed toggle and a color blind mode as well.
There doesn't appear to be a save function, but you can select any level you wish to play even those that you've not played before so the lack of a save function isn't really an issue that I initially though it was. You can also skip levels from the in game menu (to the left of the playing arena) and there's a reset button to start a level from scratch again or a move back one move button just in case you make a mistake. The game is controlled by the mouse, but you can use various keyboard shortcuts such as R for reset, U for undo the last move, L brings up the level selection screen or S for select a level. The latter button scrolls through the levels as opposed to bringing up the selection screen (as in the L key) and most of the keys require you to have started a level before you can use the shortcuts.
In Game Level
Images:
You can see a slideshow of about 30 images HERE. Using the level selection function (keyboard key – L) I've taken images of most of the different themes. you wont find any solutions to the games in my images, all but one show the beginning of the level, though I have posted some level walkthroughs in the video section below
Video:
You can see walkthrough video's for all of the levels for this game. I've only posted several link, but you'll find the rest to the right of the videos when you follow any one of the links below:
You can find Cube Drift Video's HERE (level 26), HERE (level 30), HERE (level 37), HERE (level 45), HERE (level 54), HERE (level 93), and HERE (level 99).
Music:
The music is okay; a 50 minute track, reminiscent of early ‘Tangerine Dream’. Very mellow in places. Nice….. someone must have been jamming on fruity loops, lol. The music tracks are saved as a .pak file, one that I’m not familiar with. It may be possible to change the file extension of your favourite music if you wish to change the music, but I suspect you’ll need to find the correct file type first. You can find the music files via the following path:
C:\Program Files\CubeDrift\data\music
Problems:
1) … The game doesn’t appear to have any save function. I played 8 levels then closed the game down to check whether the game would save but it didn’t. I had to start from the beginning again. You may have to play a specific number of levels before it will save; (much like the ricochet games where you have to play ten levels at a time), but I didn’t have time to replay this game so if anyone does play past level 10 please let us know whether it saved. That said you can select any level from the level selection screen (keyboard shortcut L or mouse click on level select)
2) … You may be asked to turn off your Data Execution Prevention for this game to run. You can create an exception so that the game will run without having to turn DEP off. Please bear in mind only one person out of nearly 4000 downloads has mentioned getting a DEP warning, so it may be a false positive. that said it's always better to be prepared than to take chances.
If you are not sure how to create an exception read THIS article, which tells you how to do it. :lol:
In game Help screen - opens when game first starts
Conclusion:
It really is a great puzzle game, although an earlier version called Brix I used to play was much more colorful, however it didn’t have the advantage of a levels editor, which is always a big plus for me when buying arcade games.(You can now download a full version of Brix for free from several abandonware sites - I've also posted it in the free games synopsis over in the forums HERE or you can download it
HERE
Graphics …7
Sound … 8
Game play … 8
Re-playability … 8
Total … 31 out of 40 that’s a score of 7.75 out of 10 The graphics are excellent, especially considering this game is quite old now, the sound is decent enough with an original music track. It’s mellow enough not to become too intrusive when you are playing. The game play is standard puzzle fare, but I like this sort of puzzle hence a higher than average score (okay a little bias creeping in there, lol) plus another decent score for re-playability. I gave it 8 because of the levels editor. The save problem should have knocked this down a little, but for me it’s not a great problem becasue you can select any level you want from the select level button (mouse click or keyboard L).
