Pac Man widget killed by Namco

Filed under: Fun, Games, News, Macintosh

Pac Man widget killed by Namco

by Marc Perton Jul 11th 2005

Perhaps the fact that Chris Marks' Pac Man widget was the top Dashboard download on Apple's site is what killed it. Lawyers for Namco, which owns the rights to the old school game, apparently put the squeeze on both Apple and Marks' hosting provider, and now the widget is gone (at least "officially" — I know you can find a copy if you look hard enough). Hey, Namco: how about just licensing Marks' widget and slapping your logo on it? Clearly there's plenty of demand for it.

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Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

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