My Video Game Side Quest: Browser Games

    When I got out of playing on consoles, I eventually found my way to computer games via browser home pages. See, I didn't yet have a computer, yet I would need to go online for my store.  I would have to look up books as well as print off various pages This is beyond standard searches and stuff. From the late 2000s to mid 2010s,  I would go to the Floyd County Public Library in Prestonsburg to do this, as they had a better policy on printing at the time. (Since then, the current management has taken up a much stricter policy.) Also, the library was a great place to wait while I was getting car maintenance and my mom's appointments. After I finished what I absolutely needed to do, I would usually wind up with some extra time. At the time, the library's default browser was Yahoo, and I noticed the 'Games' tab. I would sometimes try a few games out, just to wait.  However, there was one game I wanted to try that wasn't there. 

    That game was Bejeweled. I had first read about it in Games Magazine (now known as Games World of Puzzles Magazine), and I wanted to try it out. It was one of the first three-in-a-row games, if not the first to catch the public's attention. Yahoo didn't have it, but MSN did. I would switch out browsers to play it, in the non-combative mode. Just matching until no possible moves were left. I would play a few other games if I got bored. They had an interesting 9-ball pool game. It had tricky mechanics, but it was the only place I had for pool.

    Well, the library got remodeled, and the computers moved to a different room, as well as replaced with newer models. The browser also changed to Google, and I joined Facebook and started playing games there instead. I also finally got a computer, meaning I'd only have to use the library's computer for print jobs or goofing off while waiting. Yahoo had gotten rid of its games tab, and I never really liked Microsoft. I basically stopped playing browser games, even on my own computer.

    But things would change.

    Google doesn't normally have games on its home page. Normally. Occasionally, the doodle will have a link to a game randomly. Whenever there is a game, it is something unexpected with abstract rules or uncommon themes. The most notable of these was an RPG that was in conjunction with the recent Tokyo Summer Olympics. You played as cat competing in certain sports, while also completing various tasks. I googled hints in solving some of these challenges, while making sure not to delete my search history to keep my progress going. Finding out there was a house I overlooked that kept track of my achievements was great, even if I had already finished almost the entire game. I still check the doodle to see if there is anything to play. Just recently, YouTube has started to have small, casual games available, beyond what there is to download on GooglePlay. I haven't look too much into this yet, but I've seen many of these types of games elsewhere.

    Late last year, I noticed that Yahoo had brought back its games tab. (Yahoo is still my mom's go-to browser.) It doesn't have the large selection it used to, but I still checked some out. At first, after trying out a few games, I settled on a mahjong tile-matching game. Now, I am greatly familiar with mahjong, although I have never played, but I had seen others playing something similar. I had also seen the ads. While I didn't always beat the game, I did win enough that I got bored with it. I then moved on to jigsaw puzzles. I loved jigsaws when I was a kid, but I lost them all to floods. Yes, many of the images are cursed enough to suggest they were generated by AI, but I still like them. The puzzles got easier once I noticed that I could focus on just the edges. The rest of the pieces would vanish, until the border was done. Then, they would come back, with the right third on one side, and the rest on the other. And the pieces would show up in the same places with each puzzle. This allows me to finish a puzzle in about five minutes, or less. I started out at 8 x 6, but I have since moved up to 10 x 8 most days, or 12 x 10 if I've got the extra time. I've also started to do the daily Candy Crush Crushable brainteaser since February. (More on this in a later post.) I either solve it immediately or I need multiple tries and hints to get it done.

    I have even started to check out the games on Bing, Microsoft's update of MSN. For the most part, I have only checked out games that are similar to ones I've seen in ads elsewhere. I've only played a fruit merger game on a regular basis, and that was an over a month ago. Bing still has the same 9-ball game that they had years ago. I tried to play it again, but the mechanics are just not quite to my liking. Still better than other pool games I've seen.