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Game Giveaway of the day — Magic Ball

Magic Ball is a highly addictive Arkanoid remake that won't let you go outside for at least a week once you install it. The point of the game is to destroy all the bricks the level is comprised of using the rockets. Sometimes you will get bonuses for destroying the bricks. Those bonuses can be good ones - bullets, magnets or rockets, for example, - and getting them will help you to pass the level, or bad ones, such as "Jack - the Bat Killer" or ball Speed-Up, that will negatively affect your performance.

$19.95 EXPIRED

User rating: 157 59 comments

Magic Ball was available as a giveaway on December 20, 2007!

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Knight Solitaire 3

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Magic Ball is a highly addictive Arkanoid remake that won't let you go outside for at least a week once you install it.

Magic Ball is now includes more bonuses and contains 30 new levels – guaranteed to have you hooked up! Professional 3D graphics, studio-level sound effects, awesome original soundtrack and well-designed gameplay are at your service.

The point of the game is to destroy all the bricks the level is comprised of using the rockets. Sometimes you will get bonuses for destroying the bricks. Those bonuses can be good ones - bullets, magnets or rockets, for example, - and getting them will help you to pass the level, or bad ones, such as "Jack - the Bat Killer" or ball Speed-Up, that will negatively affect your performance.

System Requirements:

Windows 9x/ME/2000/XP, Pentium-III 600 MHz+, 64 MB RAM, 16 Mb 3D Video Card

Publisher:

Xing Interactive

Homepage:

http://www.alawar.com/games/MagicBall/

File Size:

3.77 MB

Price:

$19.95

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Developed by Electronic Arts

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Comments on Magic Ball

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#59

I really enjoy playing this game. I have played it every night since the download. Some very challenging levels, I really like it.

Reply | Comment by Marla – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#58

This is a pretty good game at a very good price. I do wish the complainers could be a bit more constructive and keep the negative comments to themselves. They cannot expect to get free gold and silver every day!!!

Reply | Comment by bill russo – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#57

Just magic. I can still remember the very first of these arkanoid games which must have been about 20 years ago plus. This is yet another very good remake.

Reply | Comment by John E.Davies – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#56

I have both 2 and 3 from previous offerings and was wondering if I missed #1 somewhere along the way. Glad I didn't. While roboball is still my favorite of this type of game (I really like the gems and the gem magnet and was surprised that feature wasn't present in all games of this type), I enjoyed the different versions of this for a change in landscapes. I guess that's the reason I keep downloading these types of games is for the changes in scenery. I do like this game but it's not my favorite of this type and I probably won't play it for very long.

Thanks whiterabbit for all the alternative suggestions!

#22
I worked in a library and yes, people do complain to the librarian if all the books, movie and music aren't to their liking. And they certainly had no problem coming up and requesting specific items to be purchased if we didn't own it. Matter of fact, while I worked there there was at least one major series by a major author banned by the entire county system because one person complained (probably more were removed but this one garnered lots of publicity.) Oddly enough this occurred not long before Banned Book week and our director nixed all the displays.

Users do have a right to complain in a forum/comment section. That's the purpose of it. Though oftentimes to me, it doesn't seem as if GAOTD pays any attention to the complaints, bad sign to be acting like a huge company when you aren't yet. If I ran a business I would rather people let me know their complaints rather than they just voted with their feet, even if they just say 'I don't like this.' Not everyone has time to sit down and write out the pros and cons and such for every item they use. Sometimes they only have time or desire to say 'this suxs.' Anyway, otherwise how would businesses improve? Commenters here have made this point (and many other very rational points) over and over again but yet we get other commenters telling others to stop complaining. Me, I will complain when I want and I certainly won't tell anyone else to stop complaining about the complainers!

Sg,

Please comment only on todays Giveaway here. If you have technical problems (including issues with activation) or suggestions on our project, please leave us a note in our forums.

As it says - If you have suggestions on our project - please leave us a note in our forums. Even a librarian should be able to read that... ;)

Rgds, BuBBy.

Thanks whiterabbit for all the alternative suggestions!

#22
I worked in a library and yes, people do complain to the librarian if all the books, movie and music aren't to their liking.  And they certainly had no problem coming up and requesting specific items to be purchased if we didn't own it.  Matter of fact, while I worked there there was at least one major series by a major author banned by the entire county system because one person complained (probably more were removed but this one garnered lots of publicity.) Oddly enough this occurred not long before Banned Book week and our director nixed all the displays.

Users do have a right to complain in a forum/comment section.  That's the purpose of it.  Though oftentimes to me, it doesn't seem as if GAOTD pays any attention to the complaints, bad sign to be acting like a huge company when you aren't yet.  If I ran a business I would rather people let me know their complaints rather than they just voted with their feet, even if they just say 'I don't like this.' Not everyone has time to sit down and write out the pros and cons and such for every item they use.  Sometimes they only have time or desire to say 'this suxs.'  Anyway, otherwise how would businesses improve?  Commenters here have made this point (and many other very rational points) over and over again but yet we get other commenters telling others to stop complaining.  Me, I will complain when I want and I certainly won't tell anyone else to stop complaining about the complainers!

Sg,

Please comment only on todays Giveaway here. If you have technical problems (including issues with activation) or suggestions on our project, please leave us a note in our <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/" rel="nofollow">forums</a>.

As it says - If you have suggestions on our project - please leave us a note in our forums. Even a librarian should be able to read that... ;)

Rgds, BuBBy.

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Reply | Comment by Sg – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#55

Strike Ball 2 Deluxe is better, at least when it comes to graphics. This just looks like a complete dog's dinner.

Reply | Comment by Richard Olnew – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#54

My review of Magic Ball:

The first thing that I noticed about this game was that it is in 3D. Normally, 3D games are supposed to be more interesting than 2D ones, but this game was quite boring.

For starters, the ball moves very slowly. I don't like many 3D Breakout games due to their ball speed, but this is the worst that I've played. According to the game's "prizes" list(which doesn't even describe the powerups apart from listing their names), there's a powerup to increase the speed, but I never encountered it - in other games I've been able to increase it from the options menu, which is a much better setup.

Level design is also very boring - rather than taking advantage of the game's 3D level capabilities, DreamDale decided to simply drag out level times by just having a gazillion layers of bricks. As if the ball wasn't slow enough, when you hit a block it takes forever to fall. I should be able to bounce my ball between two stacks and clear them after six ricochets - in this game my ball just runs under the block that I bounced it off of and I have to take another pass at it. Add to that the ball's slow speed and you end up spending five minutes on a level that should take two.

With regards to graphics, they're pretty dated. The main menu says that it was made in 2004, but it looks years older. The blocks are all the same basic wedge/brick shapes - the only difference between them is the use of different colors. Some cycle colors, which would be interesting if it didn't look so horrible. The textures are awful.

Another problem with the graphics is that powerups are barely differentiated - and some don't even affect gameplay. Take, for example, the lightbulbs - a lightbulb with a minus sign makes the game darker(actually, it makes it look dimmer), while one with a plus sign makes it brighter. That's it. You can still see all of the bricks, no matter how light or dark they are. As mentioned before, half of the powerups look practically the same.

The sound effects are annoying - the breaking blocks have annoyingly loud explosions, the "boing" when you hit it sounds like something out of a Looney Tunes short, and there's a weird breaking-glass noise when you die. The music is also hardly worth hearing.

Apparently, the look that the designers were going for with this game was DATED. Everything about it - from the wobbly credits at the bottom of the main menu, to the weird pseudo-wireframe background, to the actual bricks and balls themselves - looks like something developed for Windows 98. I know that this is more a complaint about the graphics, but they're so generic that I don't know how else to describe them. I could sprite better graphics in MSPaint.

Overall, I give this game a four and a half out of ten(seven for gameplay, four for graphics, four for sound, and three for theme). This is one case where the sequels are definitely better than the original.

>robyn/Da Wife/Cyndee

Look, I don't tell you not to voice your opinions, but you tell me that I can't? Come on, this is the "comments" section, not the "sycophantic drivel" section. I say what I think, you say what you think, we leave each other alone.

Da Wife, it's not like that at all. It would be like the library only letting you pick out books from one shelf each day, and spending a month going through all of the picture books.

>Fuller

Nobody's mentioned Neverball because it's not a Breakout game, duh. It's still fun, though - thanks for mentioning it.

>Justin

WhiteRabbit's a guy. At least, I'm pretty sure that "Stephen" is a guy name.

>Ernie LaVallee

Don't flame Phil, or anyone else for that matter. I'm surprised that you got past the mods with that one.

My review of Magic Ball:

The first thing that I noticed about this game was that it is in 3D.  Normally, 3D games are supposed to be more interesting than 2D ones, but this game was quite boring.

For starters, the ball moves very slowly.  I don't like many 3D Breakout games due to their ball speed, but this is the worst that I've played.  According to the game's "prizes" list(which doesn't even describe the powerups apart from listing their names), there's a powerup to increase the speed, but I never encountered it - in other games I've been able to increase it from the options menu, which is a much better setup.

Level design is also very boring - rather than taking advantage of the game's 3D level capabilities, DreamDale decided to simply drag out level times by just having a gazillion layers of bricks.  As if the ball wasn't slow enough, when you hit a block it takes forever to fall.  I should be able to bounce my ball between two stacks and clear them after six ricochets - in this game my ball just runs under the block that I bounced it off of and I have to take another pass at it.  Add to that the ball's slow speed and you end up spending five minutes on a level that should take two.

With regards to graphics, they're pretty dated.  The main menu says that it was made in 2004, but it looks years older.  The blocks are all the same basic wedge/brick shapes - the only difference between them is the use of different colors.  Some cycle colors, which would be interesting if it didn't look so horrible.  The textures are awful.

Another problem with the graphics is that powerups are barely differentiated - and some don't even affect gameplay.  Take, for example, the lightbulbs - a lightbulb with a minus sign makes the game darker(actually, it makes it look dimmer), while one with a plus sign makes it brighter.  That's it.  You can still see all of the bricks, no matter how light or dark they are.  As mentioned before, half of the powerups look practically the same.

The sound effects are annoying - the breaking blocks have annoyingly loud explosions, the "boing" when you hit it sounds like something out of a Looney Tunes short, and there's a weird breaking-glass noise when you die.  The music is also hardly worth hearing.

Apparently, the look that the designers were going for with this game was DATED.  Everything about it - from the wobbly credits at the bottom of the main menu, to the weird pseudo-wireframe background, to the actual bricks and balls themselves - looks like something developed for Windows 98. I know that this is more a complaint about the graphics, but they're so generic that I don't know how else to describe them.  I could sprite better graphics in MSPaint.

Overall, I give this game a four and a half out of ten(seven for gameplay, four for graphics, four for sound, and three for theme).  This is one case where the sequels are definitely better than the original.

&gt;robyn/Da Wife/Cyndee

Look, I don't tell you not to voice your opinions, but you tell me that I can't?  Come on, this is the "comments" section, not the "sycophantic drivel" section.  I say what I think, you say what you think, we leave each other alone.

Da Wife, it's not like that at all.  It would be like the library only letting you pick out books from one shelf each day, and spending a month going through all of the picture books.

&gt;Fuller

Nobody's mentioned Neverball because it's not a Breakout game, duh.  It's still fun, though - thanks for mentioning it.

&gt;Justin

WhiteRabbit's a guy.  At least, I'm pretty sure that "Stephen" is a guy name.

&gt;Ernie LaVallee

Don't flame Phil, or anyone else for that matter.  I'm surprised that you got past the mods with that one.

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Reply | Comment by Lockett – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#53

Thank you Alawar for once again giving us the possibility to try out one of your overpriced games that should have been deleted years ago.

The only people that can really be into this are those that have never played a decent computer game in the last 20 years - those that have attention spans of a gnat - those that just want to hoard games no matter how bad they are - or the very very young and inexperienced - or those that just want something to do which doesn't take any higher brain function.

Alawar doesn't even have the common decency to make this a freeware title although they've released newer versions of this.

If you can download for free and directly from the makers GTA 1 and 2 then why does Alawar still want 20 USD for something as crappy as this?

To the those that don't have a life and just need to complain about those of us that ,although appreciating GAOTD's efforts, think that not all things they can put up are up to scratch, let me qoute B. Simpson :'Eat my shorts'

Reply | Comment by Belgian Dude – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#52

Thank you!! As said by others above, YAY! Now I have the complete collection! Excellent! :)

Reply | Comment by Skye-hook – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#51

I like the game

Reply | Comment by Zin warrior – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#50

This is a technically inferior game, but one that I truly loved. The graphics are blah, the contols are OK, but something keeps me clicking on the icon on my Desktop. It's a really addicting game and I reccomend it.

@ Everyone who posted "OMG THIS GAEM SUX": At least post some darn criticism. Saying "lol graficks blow nevurr playz" does not help. This game wasn't made in 2005. It's not even DX 7.1. At least post pros and cons.

PROS:
1. 3D gameplay makes for some creative "worlds" that the player has to blow apart. This makes the game more interesting as levels literally collapse on themselves.

2. Addictive gameplay, like most Breakout games.

CONS:
1. Boring stock sounds. The "boing" and explosion sounds come from the same library of stock noises that I use for my VB games that I make in school. Almost any stock library of sound bites has these same noises. And they don't even randomize. It's the same sound, over and over and over and...

2. Yes, I will say the graphics are a con. As someone who plays Bioshock and AoE III, this game just hasn't got the same hook in me as they do.

Overall, a 55/100 (because I want to feel special and not post on a scale of 1-10). If you like the genre, or have the sequels, I say get it. However, if you are a hardcore gamer that plays WoW, C-S:S and Bioshock all the time, I would bear left away from it.

Reply | Comment by Mr. Finnigan – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#49

Thanks anyway. I have already downloaded games that are like this and the graphics do look very 'old-school', so I am passing on this one today. Thanks - I'll be back tomorrow!

Reply | Comment by KB999999 – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#48

Thanks GOTD and Alawar, for another great stress reducer. And speaking of stress, Li'l Phil (comments #13, 14 & 17)--you need to take up yoga or something. First off, GOTD might be ignoring your comments because they're useless. Secondly, whiterabbit, aka Stephen, has probably forgotten more about computers than you will ever learn about them. Why don't you enjoy a pill or two and write some of that cheesy amateur "poetry" of yours? I like it. It's funny. Do anything besides bothering the grown-ups.

Reply | Comment by Ernie LaVallee – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#47

I LOVE arkanoid games. But not if I get bombarded with 'bonuses' of which I have NO IDEA what they mean.
What about some info screen?!?!?!

I Like to play, not to spend an afternoon learning by trial and error.

Bye bye.

Reply | Comment by Casey – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#46

THANKS GAOTD!! Grabbed the sequels, but was sooo hoping you'd offer the original. Always loved it, along with the music, and was my intro to this type of brick-buster. A real collector's item, imo.

Reply | Comment by moo – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#45

Up until about a wk ago I was able to download all the games here offered each day, but since the windows update I keep getting the error: "Fatal error, key is invalid." I do not know what this means. I did a search on the internet about it and someone did type that they turned off their proxy server and it works since doing that. I am not sure what is meant by this so I dont want to change anything til I know for sure. I love these games and miss the downloads til I find out what to do to get it to get correct key to be accepted. Plz get back to me on this. Thank you very much,Terry

Reply | Comment by Terry – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#44

For Phil's eyes only comment #17, I wrote the review without checking it over once I'd finished; as you can probably tell from the poor formatting, that resulted in a large block of my comment #11 being in blocked italics as I was in a hurry.

What I meant to say regarding the Hard Drives was, that I'd connected two of my HDD's in the wrong position. I have three connected to this particular computer. When I replace any hardware like I had to yesterday, I usually strip down the entire computer (apart from removing the MoBo), and give everything a good spring clean (especially around any fans in particularily the cpu fan as the build up of dust on and in the heat sink can cause serious overheating). I connected the two master discs; i.e. the primary and secondary discs the wrong way around. It would be obvious to anyone who frequently messes with the interiors of their computers what I actually meant. Cleaning your computer regularily helps keep the temperature of your computer down and thus helps in it's efficient running.

As for your first pearl of wisdom regarding disagreeing with my comment about computers becoming slower. You are wrong; As a boot drive fills up, the area used for swap files and the like are 'interrupted' - (can't think of a more appropriate word at this moment as I'm starting to feel the effects of my drugs and also I'm tired) and WILL therefore cause your computer to slow down. That will include everything from boot up, start up and running any application. The effect gradually creeps up on you as you slowly fill your drive with games and applications. (unless you run all but the programs that run the computer. I always allow certain programs to be installed on the C drive as they would be slowed down by placing them on another drive, but I wasn't talking about other programs I was talking about games which are not essential to the running of a computer. As for running your game from a FAT drive while running your OS on an NTPS system, I wouldn't really know as I'm no expert and have never professed to be one. However even if you did run a game from a FAT drive while running an NTFS system, what you're saying makes no sense as I have run games from a secondary drive that are FAT (while my boot drive is on an NTFS drive, and I personally have never noticed a difference in the games performance - that is it plays absolutely fine. If the overall performance of the computer is affected, it really doesn't matter as once you stop the game ...... the computer will return to it's previously more optimized 'running'. (or in a more informed way of saying, the reduction in performance of a computer is not important while running the game, {unless you've got an old system - or maybe upon which game you want to run, for example trying to play Crysis, lol}).

My point was, that adding more and more games (and applications) WILL slow the overall performance of a computer, due to the above reason.

B.T.W. with respect to your other pearls of wisdom, I did say, "other things like defragmenting", which implies that there are other things. I would have posted a link to one of my other comments from a few weeks ago that lists other ways of creating a more efficiently running computer that includes the ways you so graciously mentioned. if I hadn't been in such a rush today.

For Phil's eyes only comment #17, I wrote the review without checking it over once I'd finished; as you can probably tell from the poor formatting, that resulted in a large block of my comment #11 being in blocked italics as I was in a hurry.

What I meant to say regarding the Hard Drives was, that I'd connected two of my HDD's in the wrong position.  I have three connected to this particular computer.  When I replace any hardware like I had to yesterday, I usually strip down the entire computer (apart from removing the MoBo), and give everything a good spring clean (especially around any fans in particularily the cpu fan as the build up of dust on  and in the heat sink can cause serious overheating).  I connected the two master discs; i.e. the primary and secondary discs the wrong way around.  It would be obvious to anyone who frequently messes with the interiors of their computers what I actually meant. Cleaning your computer regularily helps keep the temperature of your computer down and thus helps in it's efficient running.

As for your first pearl of wisdom regarding disagreeing with my comment about computers becoming slower.  You are wrong; As a boot drive fills up, the area used for swap files and the like are 'interrupted' - (can't think of a more appropriate word at this moment as I'm starting to feel the effects of my drugs and also I'm tired) and WILL therefore cause your computer to  slow down. That will include everything from boot up, start up and running any application.  The effect gradually creeps up on you as you slowly fill your drive with games and applications. (unless you run all but the programs that run the computer.  I always allow certain programs to be installed on the C drive as they would be slowed down by placing them on another drive, but I wasn't talking about other programs I was talking about games which are not essential to the running of a computer.  As for running your game from a FAT drive while running your OS on an NTPS system, I wouldn't really know as I'm no expert and have never professed to be one.  However even if you did run a game from a FAT drive while running an NTFS system, what you're saying makes no sense as I have run games from a secondary drive that are FAT (while my boot drive is on an NTFS drive, and I personally have never noticed a difference in the games performance - that is it plays absolutely fine.  If the overall performance of the computer is affected, it really doesn't matter as once you stop the game ...... the computer will return to it's previously more optimized  'running'. (or in a more informed way of saying, the reduction in performance of a computer is not important while running the game, {unless you've got an old system -  or maybe upon which game you want to run, for example trying to  play Crysis, lol}).

My point was, that adding more and more games (and applications) WILL slow the overall performance of a computer, due to the above reason.

B.T.W. with respect to your other pearls of wisdom,  I did say, "other things like defragmenting", which implies that there are other things.  I would have posted a link to one of my other comments from a few weeks ago that lists other ways of creating a more efficiently running computer that includes the ways you so graciously mentioned. if I hadn't been in such a rush today.

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Reply | Comment by whiterabbit aka Stephen – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#43

Welcome back, Whiterabbit. It is good to have you with us again.
I know Murphy's law but more than one computer biting the dust at one and the same time, defies belief!
I see you have added to your fan club. I believe #23, Cyndee, was not enthusiastic about your review when she joined us. It is nice to see her positive approach now.
Stay well, and have a wonderful Holy Day and a very special New Year.
Jetta J

Reply | Comment by Jetta J. Cooper – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#42

Meh, not so bad.

I found the controls more forgiving that Strike Ball 2. But the overall game play was a bit slow on the basic settings. Didn't get around to fiddling with options yet though.

Looks like a good one for the Kids.

Reply | Comment by Anidem – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#41

Ken (#3) said he has 156 games. I have over 250 and some of them have hundreds of games within them (Solitaire Master 2 for example). I guess I'm kind of a collector of games. I got Magic ball 2 and 3 here and just Had TO COMPLETE my collection.

It works fine on my Vista Ultimate NOW. I normally do not start playing from the install wizard. I hit finish too fast today and it tried to start the game and went weird! I had no control over the cursor and could not get any of the selections to take. I could not get to the Task Manager to shut it down. The only thing I could do was reboot - that option did work. After the boot, the game worked fine. It must have been some strange action from the wizard.

Reply | Comment by Diane – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#40

THIS HAS TO BE THE WORSE GAME EVER OFFERED BY GOTD, THERE IS NO ACTION WHATS SO EVER WITH THIS GAME,

Reply | Comment by alan – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#39

Helloooo WhitteRabbit, so glad to see u here again.
Missed you, A LOT!!
Hope you showed those stupid machines who's the boss...
How is it going health wise?
Wishing you & your family a wonderful & fun Christmas.

Merry Christmas everybody :-)
Manu

Reply | Comment by LeKanaw – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#38

Thumbs down. This game must be a leftover for Window 95!!!

Reply | Comment by Captain Yippeee – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#37

In my personal opinion, Nuclear Ball has been the best Breakout/Arkanoid clone on this website. Best powerups, smoothness, fun factor.

Reply | Comment by Ali – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#36

I'm new to this freebie downloading procedure, so I'm looking for some advice from a patient soul. I downloaded the program, clicked the activation icon, went through all the screens, did everything I was supposed to do (I think), then clicked the setup icon, everything went fine EXCEPT I don't have the full version. It says I can play for 60 minutes and have the option to PURCHASE the full version.

What did I do wrong?

Reply | Comment by Greg – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#35

I am happy there are games for people like me and my friends who just want to play something fun, to relax and let our hair down. This is perfect. Thank You

Reply | Comment by b – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#34

Thank You GGAOTD for this GREAT Game!! My twin boys love all the games you have on this site as well as the Wife.
And Thank You to WhiteRabbit for an insightful explanation of the game as well as where to look for other games of the same Genre.
Finally, Thank You WhiteRabbit (aka Stephen) for the Free Game Packs that you offered to anyone who had wanted them. You are Truly a Fine and Decent upstanding man. It is people such as yourself that give Everyone the World over something to strive for. Hope your Illness is getting better. My Wife, myself and our Twin Boys would like to Thank You so Sincerely for your Nice Gesture!

From the Hammer Family, we would like to Wish each and everyone on the site along with GGAOTD a Very Merry and Holy Christmas!

Reply | Comment by Jack Hammer – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#33

I too downloaded despite the negative comments, but, I have to add my vote to the thumbs down. I just didn't enjoy the retro look & feel to it; it didn't move as smooth as I would expect. I also don't like the full screen mode, and no option to change it. I generally love the offerings from Alawar, but uninstalled this one. I don't even think my 7yo would like this one. See y'all tomorrow ;)

Reply | Comment by Tracey – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#32

@ Fuller... Thanks for the link. I'd never heard of NeverBall or NeverPutt before. They're both great free games. :)

Reply | Comment by DaletonaDave – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#31

Thanks whiteRabbit for the alternatives.

Reply | Comment by Seby – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#30

I will pass on this one. I have downloaded 2 ark syle games from here and have found myself addicted to the blah of these types of games. But, this one seems to have a real retro look to it. The background looks the same on all 3 screen shots.
After downloading strike ball 2 and egyptoid 2 on here, i have hoped to find an arsenal of these little games on here-> this one is to retro witht hat flourescent green background. Maybe, I just got up-> and its alittle loud lookin [maybe i need more coffee]. Bringm on!
Hey giveaway-> build one of these into your site as a flash game or somethin-> somethin else to do while here. hehe.

Reply | Comment by elfmans – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#29

I LOVE GAMES LIKE THIS.. THANKS

Reply | Comment by wheatpennies – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#28

Magic Ball games are really good. I've gotten all three and each is different and lots of fun.

Reply | Comment by Vickie – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#27

Well, eventually, due to the good comments above, I downloaded the game and I agree whilst graphically inferior to MB2 and 3 it still is a playable Arkanoid clone.

Reply | Comment by Terry Pardy – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#26

Awesome!

I really dig the Roboball, Neoball 3D arkanoid style games. I really wanted Magic Ball and DL'ed it last time but forgot to install it that day. Ugh!

So I'm really glad to see it back. I'll be sure to install it right away this time! Keep em coming!

Reply | Comment by Brian Moy – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#25

Decent, but Aquaball from Alawar has better playability.

I like WhiteRabbit's reviews. She often nails it when breaking down a game!

Reply | Comment by Justin – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#24

Installed and tried to play. Wow the graphics are straight from the Nintendo era. I couldn't even finish the 1st level. The other versions are much better.

Reply | Comment by Axeman – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#23

I have Magic Ball 2 & 3 and play both of them quite often... so was glad to see this one come up! And, whiterabbit, thanks for your reviews, I look forward to reading them, as well as the great links you provide us with!!!
Hope everyone here has a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year!!

Reply | Comment by copMom – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#22

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I LOVE Magic Ball. Now I have all 3!
To those who like to "dis" certain games, as I'm sure your mother has said, "If you can't say something nice, say nothing at all." It's one thing to critique a game, and we expect some games will not be as worthy as others. (Take a lesson from whiterabbit, he fairly point out the pros and cons without being condescending.)But, nothing is served by bad-mouthing the producers of such games (except to P--s them off!) And, by no means should you EVER have the right to bad-mouth GOTD because you don't like certain games - after all, you're getting these games for free. It's not like you PAID to download the games. Be patient and wait - one you like will eventually come along. Until then, just keep quiet. 'Nuff said!

Reply | Comment by Cyndee – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#21

I am wondering if people go complain to the librarian if not all the books on the shelves are to their liking. Maybe Sears should be boycotted because not all the clothing is something everyone would wear. The people who complain: Get over it! If you do not like it, do not download it. You are free to make constructive comments, positive and negative, but to cuss and complain without anything real to say is a waste of web space. If I was the owner of this site, I would have been fed up a long time ago and would have shut it down due to all the ungrateful juveniles who cannot seem to understand this is free.

Not all the games are to my liking all the time either, so I simply wait for the next day. There have been many wonderful games on this site that have brought joy to my kids and myself.

Reply | Comment by Da Wife – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#20

I am very happy with this game. I recently got Strikeball2 from you and I love it...this one isn't quite as good as Strikeball2, but I still like it a lot. Thank you so much GGOTD, I have enjoyed all of the games I have gotten from here and I for one am very grateful to be getting these games for free.

Reply | Comment by Sandra – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#19

wow this is gotta be one of the best games i have ever downloaded. i have had magic ball on my pc now since the first time it was offered and i play almost every day. when i finish the game i start over again im gonna download it again for my friend he loves to play this type of stuff. and as for MB 2 and 3 they are equally fun to play. keep it up GGAOTD love alot of the games that i have gotten from here. ALLEN

Reply | Comment by ALLEN – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#18

Woah, with all the negative commentary, I almost didn't download this. I did since I could always uninstall. It's a fantastic game. Glad I didn't let the negativitiy deter me. It's a great game.

Reply | Comment by Josh – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#17

No ones mentioned the free NEVERBALL yet?
http://icculus.org/neverball/

even comes with NeverPut.

Reply | Comment by Fuller – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#16

#11 Bunny Man: Installing this game on your main hard drive will not affect the speed or efficency of the drive (Except when you run it). Just defragmenting the "Boot" drive is only one of many things that help with performance IE: Keeping Temp, Temporary Internet Files, and History folder cleaned. If you install this game on a secondary drive that is a FAT32 drive and you're running an NTFS main drive it will actually slow down the performance. How can you connect a hard drive "The wrong way around" when there's a notch on the ribbon cable, and one on the hard drive?

Reply | Comment by Phil – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#15

Wow this is just Alawar taking Roboball (Seen before here) and changing a couple graphics.

Reply | Comment by Brandon – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#14

Alawar is everything that's wrong with video games

Reply | Comment by Blaise – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#13

Didn't think so :0)

Reply | Comment by Phil – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#12

Thanks anyway GGAOTD, but I'll pass.

PS Let's see if I actually get passed the moderator

{Wel, it won't pass ;)}

Reply | Comment by Phil – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#11

Installation:

You get the usual three files once unzipped, a read me, a Activation module and a set up module. For those that are new to the giveaway project, read the document first, then activate the game by clicking on the activation module then install the game using the set up file. This should guarantee a fully functioning, full version game.

You are given the oppertunity to browse and select your installation path; and as ever I would advise that if you have a second hard drive or a partitioned drive with two or more drives then install the game on one of those rather than the boot drive (C: drive). This will help keep your computer speedy and efficient (though you'll need to do other things like regular defragmenting of the boot drive to keep your computer efficient)

Introduction and the Game

This was originally given away last November via the giveaway project, just before the game giveaway project was started over a year ago. This is the first of the Magic Ball Series and though it looks very basic and graphically old, it still retains the game play of the whole series. If you liked Magic Ball 2 then this is another game you'll like. Apart from the obvious graphical differences there's not much else different between this and number 2 that was given away again recently, so if you missed that one then this should be a good alternative.

There's not much else to say other than if you don't have it and love arkanoids what are you waiting for. Get this downloaded. Oh yeah, there are a couple of expansion packs that you can buy from alawar. Personally I think these should be added to the full version and sold as a package for around $10

Conclusion:

To me this is worth 6.5 out of 10. I did buy it, but that was about 3 years ago. I personally think that this should be at least half the price (or less) than it's selling for at the moment, considering the later release of Magic Ball 3 is superior in Game play and graphics. You can see other comments from Alawar customers by following the link below. Most are dated now, so probably give a better unbiased view of the game than I do (I have far too many superior arkanoid/breakout games):

http://www.alawar.com/games/magicball/comments/

------------------------------------------------------------------

Free Arkanoid and Breakouts

The following is a freeware breakout/Arkanoid that in my opinion is far more fun to play than Magic Ball:

Jarkanoid 3::

http://www.jarkanoid.com/

Jarkanoid 2::

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/jarkanoid2/downloads/downloads.htm

Here's a whole page of Breakouts. I wou;d recommend Hoowaball; it's menus are in German, but you should still be able to navigate to the game. It's quite an unusual game, with some original power ups. Make sure you take full advantage of the fan when playing. Also try DXBall.

http://www.caiman.us/scripts/fw/fbreakout2.html

Ploing:

This has fantastic ball physics. you can spin the ball and make it curve. This is another game worth having in your games library. It has some unusual features such as new bricks appearing when you were thinking you were on your way to winning the level. theres also a teist to this game as the point isn't actually to break all the bricks at the front. I'll let you discover for yourselves though.

http://www.firestormproductions.co.uk/poing/

one more:

Beatball::

This is another with excellent ball physics and a great sound track if you like Techno music. I bought the second game because of this one.

http://www.imphenzia.com/games/beatball.asp

-------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.firestormproductions.co.uk/poing/

I had to wait for delivery of a new cpu which finally arrived yesterday. Amazingly I managed to fix two other computers yesterday. The only thing wrong with them were a shorting motherboard and the hard drives being connected the wrong way around.

Thankyou Bluhoteyes and Wondering, for your comments from the other day. :)

Installation:

You get the usual three files once unzipped, a read me, a Activation module and a set up module.  For those that are new to the giveaway project, read the document first, then activate the game by clicking on the activation module then install the game using the set up file. This should guarantee a fully functioning, full version game.

You are given the oppertunity to browse and select your installation path; and as ever I would advise that if you have a second hard drive or a partitioned drive with two or more drives then install the game on one of those rather than the boot drive  (C: drive).  This will help keep your computer speedy and efficient (though you'll need to do other things like regular defragmenting of the boot drive to keep your computer efficient)

Introduction and the Game

This was originally given away last November via the giveaway project, just before the game giveaway project was started over a year ago. This is the first of the Magic Ball Series and though it looks very basic and graphically old, it still retains the game play of the whole series.  If you liked Magic Ball 2 then this is another game you'll like.  Apart from the obvious graphical differences there's not much else different between this and number 2 that was given away again recently, so if you missed that one then this should be a good alternative.

There's not much else to say other than if you don't have it and love arkanoids what are you waiting for.  Get this downloaded. Oh yeah, there are a couple of expansion packs that you can buy from alawar.  Personally I think  these should be added to the full version and sold as a package for around $10

Conclusion:

To me this is worth 6.5 out of 10.  I did buy it, but that was about 3 years ago.  I personally think that this should be at least half the price (or less) than it's selling for at the moment, considering the later release of Magic Ball  3 is superior in Game play and graphics. You can see other comments from Alawar customers by following the link below.  Most are dated now, so probably give a better unbiased view of the game than I do (I have far too many superior arkanoid/breakout games):

http://www.alawar.com/games/magicball/comments/

------------------------------------------------------------------

Free Arkanoid and Breakouts

The following is a freeware breakout/Arkanoid that in my opinion is far more fun to play than Magic Ball:

Jarkanoid 3::

http://www.jarkanoid.com/

Jarkanoid 2::

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/jarkanoid2/downloads/downloads.htm

Here's a whole page of Breakouts. I wou;d recommend Hoowaball; it's menus are in German, but you should still be able to navigate to the game. It's quite an unusual game, with some original power ups. Make sure you take full advantage of the fan when playing. Also try DXBall.

http://www.caiman.us/scripts/fw/fbreakout2.html

Ploing:

This has fantastic ball physics.  you can spin the ball and make it curve. This is another game worth having in your games library.  It has some unusual features such as new bricks appearing when you were thinking you were on your way to winning the level.  theres also a teist to this game as the point isn't actually to break all the bricks at the front.  I'll let you discover for yourselves though.

http://www.firestormproductions.co.uk/poing/

one more:

Beatball::

This is another with excellent ball physics and a great sound track if you like Techno music.  I bought the second game because of this one.

http://www.imphenzia.com/games/beatball.asp

-------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.firestormproductions.co.uk/poing/

I had to wait for delivery of a new cpu which finally arrived yesterday.  Amazingly I managed to fix two other computers yesterday.  The only thing wrong with them were a shorting motherboard and the hard drives being connected the wrong way around.

Thankyou Bluhoteyes and Wondering, for your comments from the other day.  :)

Save | Cancel

Reply | Comment by whiterabbit aka Stephen – 16 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#10

After playing Magicball 2 and three, I about died of boredom when playing the first level of Magicball original. I almost didn't go any farther, but found that the next levels were better. Next I tried playing at a higher resolution which improved the look and feel and lastly, I tried a visual effect from the options menu (don't remember the name) and that also seemed to help the feel of the game. IMHO, still not as good as 2 and 3, but much better than my initial reaction. Glad I persisted! :^)