Giveaway of the Day - D.N.A

Introduction and Installation

This received a positive 94% 0f 216 votes when it was given away the last day of June 2007 and received 62 comments which can be seen by following the link below:

http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/d-n-a/#comments

In particular see Retroboys comment #1 and Jucati comment #4,

When this game was given away previously there was no shortcuts made so you will need to keep an eye on where it’s installed to. Unless you choose to install it elsewhere (advisable if you have more than one drive because filling up your boot drive can slow your computer down) it’s likely to have been installed either to one of the following paths:

C:\Games\DNA

or

C:\Program files\DNA

If you’re not sure how to create a shortcut or haven’t done so for quite some time and have forgotten follow the link below for a short tutorial on how to create either a desk top or a start menu shortcut. The latter will also show you where all the shortcuts kept in the start menu are stored and will enable you to tidy them up if needed (I recently had to tidy mine up because I had so many shortcuts in the start menu I couldn’t see the whole list.

The Game

There are three levels of play, action, puzzle and eternal. You have to run action mode at least once to activate the other two modes. The main menu gives access to the options menu, which is always available during play. There’s also a tutorial that shows you the basic moves to be able to proceed in the game. There are further helpful tutorials and tips at the beginning of each mode to guide you along the way; (see the link below for screen captures). As you would expect the game starts off very easy, so don’t think this is a lame game, as you progress the levels do become much harder.

When playing the action mode you are told how many proteins and which colors and in what proportion they are required to complete the level. As you progress, the levels become harder to complete. The eternal mode is the same as the action mode except it’s not timed, so this can be played at a leisurely pace and is probably ideal for the younger player. Initially you are introduced to each color, and then from level 4 onwards you collect combinations of each color.

Both the puzzle and action modes are introduced by a tutorial session, which is useful because both games are distinctly different.

Clicking on the escape key pause’s the game and brings you to the options menu where you can adjust the music and sound effects as well as toggle the game from full screen to windowed. You can also access the main menu from this screen as well as toggle on/off the chain assist, which helps you to see how big a chain of proteins you can form within a group of proteins; which is dependent upon their proximity to each other. This can help significantly when the playing area is full of proteins.

There is no save button, but each mode will be saved to the point you leave it. You can make multiple profiles so this is an ideal family game.

Images – All on one page

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/DNA/?start=all

Images – As a Slideshow

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/DNA/?albumview=slideshow

Conclusion

My initial impression of the game was that it was far too simple for adults, but would be a great game for children. Aiding color combinations and pattern recognition; however as the game progressed I found both the puzzle and Action versions of the game became much more challenging to play. My initial training was as an ecological biologist, so the title interested me somewhat; especially as it seemed to be related to botany and genetics; both of which I’ve studied to undergraduate level. However the science is extremely simplistic, so don’t worry about having any biological knowledge; I guarantee you don’t need it, lol.

The music is okay, especially if it’s turned down . There are 2 ogg files in the games music folder, so you can change the music to something more to your liking provided you have an audio converter that will convert mp3’s or other standard formats to ogg. There are a large number of sound effects, some of which are quite good. The male voice that speaks during the game is a good facsimile of a human voice (or a recorded one)

If you need an audio converter there’s two usable ones for free listed in the Freeware section:

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/freeware/dir/51535/Download-Free-Mp3-Wma-Converter.htm

or

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/freeware/dir/50186/Download-Free-MP3-WMA-WAV-Converter.htm

I originally gave this a 6 or 7 out of 10 but on playing it for longer it’s definitely worth a good 7 out of 10 for playability and originality. The only games I can remotely compare this to are called Zodiac and Zedd, both of which are excellent games. You can check these out via the demos by following the links below:

http://www.reflexive.com/Zodiac.html

http://www.reflexive.com/Zzed.html

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Other Information

If you get an error message saying cannot find Bass.dll then you can download it from the following address:

http://www.un4seen.com/bass.html

the above link was found by BuBBy. (Thanks BuBBy) If you need any more info about it please follow the link below to the forums where you’ll find more information, but basically once you’ve unzipped the file you’ve downloaded from the address above extract the dll file and place it in the games folder.

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/1316?replies=1#post-7675

Addendum:

A couple of extra points to note:

The downloaded 11.5Mb zip file installs to 12.4Mb

The installation path is to C:\Games\DNA

The game is fully mouse controlled