Good game - installed with no problems, easy to use. It makes you think.
Maybe it could be improved with some sort of scoring, even if just for the player, like you did it in 20 moves - can you better it? kind of thing. Or a timed mode as well.
Just a thought
Crystal

I love this game! It really makes you think ahead! Love, Love, Love it! Thank you GOTD!

This is the second game I have downloaded from the site. Both are cube style puzzles. They are great fun. Cube drift is replacing the reruns this season. My wife sits with me and we have a lot of fun with challenges.

Ooo, I like it! Sometimes the simple ideas well executed are the best. I probably won't play it a lot, but only because I'm severely geometrically challenged. Only got to level 13 before I got stumped, but it was pretty fun while it lasted.
As Whiterabbit says, it's very low on resources and plays on my 13 year old emergency machine on win 2k without a problem. Graphics are pleasant. Don't agree on the music. It's appropriately pseudo-oriental in spots, but a little too synthesizery sounding (if you don't have a word for something, make one up) and a little too loud to be meditative. By loud I mean too full. Turning down the volume will only help a little. IMHO, it should have been written a little more softly, a little more "piano", to use the technical term. Though meditative might not have been what the developers were going for it makes sense for this type of puzzle.
Finally, I don't like the completion sound. Too loud and jarring when compared to the background music. Not startling, but annoying after awhile. Needs the volume dropped a little.
Still if the music is all I have to whine about, it must be quite a good game! And it's small, too. A definite keeper.




....................Moderator comment.....................

Thank you for your feedback. The music files are pak files. Not sure whether you could replace thoughs. I think GMMan or someone else may have menttioned something about this when the game was previously given away. May be worth researching if you find the music too much.

I didn't install the game since I already had it from July 9th, 2011. I didn't have any problems then installing on my Vista HP x64. I haven't had the energy to play much but the few levels I have played turned out to be a fun brain exercise. It's a good thing to do when you have to take so many meds, train your brain that is. I also suffer from severe chronic pain so morphine has been smudging my brain for the last 15 years. So games like this one helps re-activate the brain. Lol.



....................Moderator comment.....................

Thank you for your feedback.

Anyway, I don't have anything major to suggest for this game because it's not too bad as it is. I would suggest a help file with clues to each levels or at least the harder ones. Also, as mentionned, a multi user or at least a two player game. One other thing I had, I discovered later in "select the level". Thank you GGOTD and Dextronet and of course Whiterabbit for your review.

If I may, I would like to suggest a rerun of those City HOG games such as City of Cairo, of Vegas... I have to flush my OS soon and would like to have them again. Only if it's anything feasible, I would appreciate it very much. If not, thanks for what you manage to give us on a regular basis.

Have a great week everyone:-)

When I ran Setup.exe, the installation wizard said it was installing CubeDrift 1.10, not 3.3.0.118 as stated by #37. Did I get an old version somehow?

.....................Moderator comment........................

Right click on the installed games executable (not the shortcut) then select properties. Open up the Details tab. That will show you the actual file version. The intaller probably hasn't been updated. You are definitely not getting an earlier version.

This is a fabulous puzzle game that get's really challenging, based on the simplest of (absolutely brilliant!) concepts. Whoever devised this game is pure genius! Logic of course plays a great part, and the addition of a level editor makes this a spectacular offering! Thanks GAOTD! :)

For all of you having registration problems, I've edited the wrapper module as per my post at http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/cubedrift-2/#comment-188607. Nothing else have changed, only the EXE manifest is edited. Get it here: http://www.mediafire.com/?ykcri3apipsefae
The reason I uploaded this version is not everyone wants to download another program to use a program, and the process might confuse people. I'll get rid of the download when the day's over.

--

If you like this game, you might also like Quell for your mobile devices (iOS/Android/webOS/something Nokia). Same concept, but with only one thing you have to move around. http://www.fallentreegames.com/wpblog/



....................Moderator comment.....................

Thank you GMMan. Wasn't sure whether to let the linkthrough, but it's harmless. Please make sure the download is cancelled a soon as the giveaway is over. Thank you.

Thanks to commenter #28, + the 2nd level link by WR on DEP. I have 2 computers, Win 7 Home Premium x64 SP1, one a desktop w/6GB ram & one a laptop w/4GB ram. Both installed & activated CubeDrift OK & on both when I ran the program & clicked "Play" it would crash & be hard to get rid of the crashed window. BTW, on both computers the "Options" menu of CubeDrift worked OK & CubeDrift played it's music OK. Now however, that CubeDrift is finally working OK I am too worn out to play it. Maybe playability comments later.

BTW, WR, you are a much better moderator than the person on the regular GAOTD site. S/he sometimes doesn't moderate for 11 hours & comments that appear after the give away is over are of limited use.




....................Moderator comment.....................

Thank you.

@ whiterabbit... thanks for the tip about adding the program to the exceptions in DEP. i never had to do that before - learned something new :) the program opened, but when i clicked *play* i got a message that windows couldn't run the program (or something like that)... then completely froze - task manager couldn't close it - had to reboot. installed it twice before finding your post about DEP. after the *fix*, it runs fine. when i close the program, then reopen, it remembers the level i left. if yours doesn't, click *select level* before closing so you'll know what level you're leaving... then you can *select level* after reopening & clicking *play*.
running win 7 64-bit


....................Moderator comment.....................

Thank you for your feedback.

Cube Drift crashed repeatedly under Win XP. I was asked to turn off DEP for Cube Drift, but did not. Bigger and more complex games run just fine on my machine. Turning off DEP for a program that has run afoul of DEP just doesn't seem like a good idea.

This is a terrific game! It installed well on Win 7 32-bit. This game is challenging and fun. I like the soundtrack, too. These are my favorite types of games, and this is one of the best. I like being able to edit my own levels, and I like being able to use full screen or a separate window. Thank you gaotd and Dextrogames!

This is really an awesome puzzle game! I played all 100 levels back in Oct. 2007, now I'm playing it again. I love a good puzzle as long as there is NO timer! I also enjoyed Brickshooter Egypt.
Thank you Dextrogames & GAOTD!!!! :)

Hello? Would someone please tell me what the version number is on this? I don't want to miss a newer version but I don't want to risk losing my current version (3.3.0.118) in some download mishap. Thx.


.................Moderator...................

Hi Mr Sandler you can rest easy, it's the same version.

Being partially colorblind, at first I found the default colors of the blocks and dots somewhat hard to distinguish from each other.

Then I discovered the option for "color blind mode" -- wow, what a help! Thanks for including this.

Nice game!

Curious, I got an unsollicited autorun installed during installation (in XPSP3), which I had to disable afterwards manually in the firewall (Online Armor).
As to people getting an Unlock/Buy option offered after the activation: make sure you activate the game with administrative rights, also in standard accounts (which you temporarily have to make an administrator account, since using "Run as" won't work).
I also got a runtime error "75" when playing the game in a non-administrative account (note: only with XPSP3, not with W7), so I made a shortcut and fired that up with "Run as ..", then everything was fine.


.....................Moderator comment...................

Thank you for your feedback

Nice game!
It's funny,. usually, when I install a game, I have no problem activating it. However, this time, I had to do it 3 times! But now, it is. I just click on the Activate.exe program, and it worked.

Installed easily. Not sure I have the right brain cells for this one but I'll give it a try. Maybe it will stave off Alzheimers. Maybe some of us need easier levels to start.

I think I finally understand what my problem is with the activation.

If I install the game as administrator and run the activation program as administrator, the game is only registered for that administrator user!

As I can't run the activation program as a normal user, it means I have to this game as administrator.

Is there any other workaround for this?

At the moment I haven't play enough to comment on the actual game. I'll try that later.



.....................Moderator comment...................

Thank you for your feedback Timmy. You don't mention which operating system you are using. You can turn off Admin priveleges so that you are able to nstall to all accounts on the computer. The following link is for Win XP and 2000. you can find articles on microsofts website to disable in vista and win 7, or google to find other tech sites that will have dealt with the issue.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/281140

In Win 7 and Vista I think admin rights are tied up with UAC which you can read about via the following link:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/turn-off-or-disable-user-account-control-uac-in-windows-vista/

And here's a tech forum that deals with Admin rights in Win 7 and Vista:

http://www.tech-forums.net/pc/f127/admin-rights-vista-windows-7-a-197772/

Game installed and registrated with no problem (vista x64).

Nice game, starts off easy, but becomes pretty complicated quickly (for me). I liked the visuals, it's not really colourfull but the colours they used are soft, giving the game a neutral look to me.

Only thing I didn't like to much was the music, some parts are a bit too neurotic for me. For this sort of game I need very relaxed music so I can think better. It would be nice if there was an easy way to put your own music in.

Thanks to Dextrogames & GOTD for this great game,

& Whiterabbit of course for the review and "brix", i think i'm gonne like that one too.



.....................Moderator comment...................

Thank you for your feedback. :) You may have to use DOSBox to run Brix. It's a free DOS emulator. When playing the game it would be best playing in a lower resolution as the graphics are only 8 bit. That said, for it's time it was a very colorful game. You'll see the similarity to Cube Drift, but I much prefer Brix except the fact that it doesn't have a levels editor like Cube Drift.

Nice game, certainly can be improved with more clear graphics, and ability to track one's progress (last level cleared)



.....................Moderator comment...................

Thank you for your feedback

Downloaded, installed, activated and plays on Windows 7 - 64 bit.
I like the game but play in color blind mode because it's easier -- the colors should be brighter. Being able to choose the level I want to play is nice.

To solve the problem of only 1 player profile....I created a document with notepad. The grandkids like having the responsibility of opening, editing and saving a doc with their name and level :)

I tried to Launch Editor and got the message:
Component 'Mscomctl.ocx' or one of its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid.
I've never used a game's Editor (so it's not a problem for me) but I always check out a games different modes and extras.

Thanks to #22 LizzieK for the walkthrough :)

Thanks to Dextrogames and GGOTD :)




.....................Moderator comment...................

Thank you for your feedback

Win 7 x64 Ultimate. 8GB ram. First game where had to create exception under DEP. Works then. Thanks be to WR for pointer to easy method. I am loath to off DEP totally. Before exception created the prg would launch but freeze system when try to begin inital game. Details below of crash mention stackhash which threw me. Google showed lot of refs in old days to BEX (that's buffer overflow exception). Made me think the 8GB ram caused it or running from D: drive. Couple more postings tho suggested it is a DEP call. Made me think of WR pointer and this being an old game.
Now runs ok even full screen. As mentioned no sliders for sound-music but music is ok. Fun puzzler. 8/10 since level editor helps rating. Going to try Brix as mentioned & couple of those games suggested.
So if have some old school goodies bomb try DEP exception.
Problem Event Name: BEX
Application Name: CubeDrift.exe
Application Version: 3.3.0.118
Application Timestamp: 44634fb6
Fault Module Name: StackHash_2ef0




.....................Moderator comment...................

Thank you for your feedback Beergas. If you like this game you'll love Brix (I think you will need to play it using DOSBox. It's an old Atari game if memory serves me (which recently it hasn't; but that's usually short term memory. that was also released to PC. I first played it via an Atari then purchased the PC version as I much rather preferred playing games on the PC back then.

CubeDrift is a really interesting and fun game. It is challenging at higher levels, with lots of replayability, and will appeal to anyone who enjoys logic puzzles. Besides the well-crafted logical challenges, I also enjoy its relaxing music and graphical design, which is simple and old school, in shades of blue and green, with great ice and snowflake effects.

And now for some constructive feedback! The marketing blurb contains the following comments: "Are you tired of pointless games for brainless people? Dive into the logical world of CubeDrift and solve hundreds of challenging and original levels! Non-violent game for whole family." I find most of this quite offputting. The question seems to imply that I may have been in the habit of playing pointless games for brainless people, which is rather insulting. The question is also aggressively critical of other, non-specified games, for no particular reason. There is no need to insult other games in general in order to sell this one, and you are likely to insult potential customers who may also enjoy less challenging games. Also, the comment about this game being non-violent is rather pointless and moralising. It is obvious that a logical puzzle game is non-violent, and suitable for all ages. Nobody is going to get it confused with a first person shooter or war game, and it's not as though other games in the puzzle genre are generally violent. To have simply said "Dive into the logical world of CubeDrift and solve hundreds of challenging and original levels!" would have been so much more positive and appealing.

Thanks very much to GOTD and Dextrogames for this extremely welcome game. I am delighted to have it, and I would love to see more pure logic games like this on GGOTD.


.....................Moderator comment...................

Thank you for your feedback Julia - you make a valid point about the blub which I would agree is off-putting.

The enclosed readme says install game first, your instructions say run the registration first. I tried the way the enclosed readme said to follow and it didn't work. I tried yours and it didn't work. Played a little but could not do the second puzzle at all, so I uninstalled everything. Thanks anyway.


.......................Moderator comment.................

Hi Promytius, it doesn't really matter which way around you do it. did you read any of the other comments/ In one I mention that you may need to reboot the game for it to show as registered. for some reason some users have been getting this problem. One did confirm that the game does register once you've restarted it. I also suggested re-starting your computer. You could also try downloading the demo from Dextronet and trying that one. Once you click on the activation module a registration code is written to the registry.

My boyfriend installed on his computer and it works fine & activated correctly. I installed on my laptop and activated, it says that is has done this via the "game of the day activation", but when exiting the game it is not activated? Is there a work around or key available. I have restarted the computer, game and uninstalled and reinstalled multiple times? Windows 7, ie9?
Thank you!


...................Moderator comment.................

try starting the game again. You may find it is now registered. When activating via the activation module a registration code is automatically written to the registry. If the game is still a demo when you restart try reactivating it using the activation module (the orange icon with the key symbol)

A good challenge for the mind. My wife and I like clean games we can do together. Install was easy. when first played and then exit the game was in demo. When restarted it was the full version. Thanks. I can see how it can exercise the mind.

This game is what I like to think of as a sneaky - it LOOKS deceptively simple, but once you get past the first few levels it's actually quite challenging. It will certainly help you to think ahead several moves and is IMHO an excellent example of puzzle games of this type. My version is from the last time this was offered, and I've gone back to play it many times and (as others have noted) it has some kind of auto-save function and will resume where you left off.

I like this game, though it's not near perfect, and would agree with WR's Moderator review and other comments about graphics and gameplay and hints to get the game underway more easily. It seems that puzzle game developers assume that all of us can just figure out how to move and other rules of their games, as this one does, but lame players like me always appreciate even the most basic form of tutorial to get underway...

That said, this is a keeper IMO, and I'd give it a 7/10 - overall it's fun and challenging but stumbles in some areas. Nicely done, Dextrogames... and yes, I would play more games like this.
JL

(Hi Stephen - hope you and your family are all doing well across the pond. We're just getting our first real blast of snow and cold this winter, but quite late and only a few inches, compared to over 6 feet we'd got last year by this time!
BTW - nice job coming up with clearly explained sections covering the basics for your reviews. Like a lot of visitors here, I look forward to your input before considering even trying the games offered here. Thanks for that, and for your participation in the boards along with the regulars - you really do make a difference for us! John)


...................Moderator comment..................

Thank you for your feedback John. We are also getting the first real cold snaps. I just purchased a roll of plant protector for our large camelia bush. It was badly damaged with last years bad frosts and half of the flowers were spoiled. Because things have been so mild so far it's already started flowering, though usually doesn't till the end of February; which is why I decided to cover the bush this year. hopefully it will protect the flowers this year.

I love this game. I purchased it from Big Fish last year and it kept me busy for quite a while. I have posted video walkthroughs on youtube for all 100 levels. You can find them by doing a search on youtube for "CubeDrift walkthrough". You can also search for walkthroughs for specific levels by adding the level number to the search.

The video links in the above game description are a few of my video walkthroughs. Happy gaming!

......................Moderator comment.............

Thanks for the videos Lizzie

Nice game, but it needs to support multiple users. Either add a user name screen or save the current level in the user's documents somewhere. My kids and I use the same machine, but with different users. This game will only save the highest level any of us reach.

I installed it just fine. Then activated it and it said it was activated. I played a bit and when I went to close it I got a screen asking to unlock the game. It asks for a registration name and serial number. I rechecked all I did and I have none of that. Is it registered or not?

..................Moderator comment................

Try restarting it again and see if it's now registered. It may require a restart of your computer, though I didn't have to do that. It was registered after clicking on the activation module.

Just a comment about games in general, after the comment yesterday about being frustrated by completing the game and not being able to go back to the start to continue playing.

I too have been frustrated by this, but what I have had to do is to change player. In all those start screens we learn to click through quickly as we play the game, there should be an option (often almost "hidden", you really have to look hard sometimes) saying "Player 1 not you, click here" or something like that. That is how you start the game again, sometimes you can even use the same name again, but you will often have to call yourself "John 2" or something like that to play again. You do loose all your points/gold/spells/whatever, but I find it is preferable to having a one-use game.

I hope this might help some who get disappointed with certain games, like I was?

Best wishes to everyone.

.....................Moderator comment..............

Thanks for your feedback and suggestion (I'd already mentioned this above in reply to someone else)

Love this game! I can play for a few minutes for a break and mental stimulation, and then go back to work.

i downloaded spirit of wandering: the legend yesterday and i love the game :) i have played similar cubes like this in h.o.g., and this will allow me to improve on playing games like this. thank you gotd for the game!!!

I like this games I have been used it since last time of game of the day and lost it by my old computer that had re-insult whole system last fall. Thanks for bring it back :-)

I enjoy puzzles like this. Being a child of the 70's/80's there were puzzles like the Rubiks Cube hitting the shelves every day.

The only suggestion I have was it needs options for multiple players. House full of kids here.......

.................Moderator comment.................

depending where the saves are kept it may be possible to install the game to several areas, or relabel the game with the names of each member of your family, that way each member has a game to play. :)

To activate the game in a non-administrator account I had to temporarily elevate the account to that of an adminstrator, otherwise it would not work. The game itself seems nice, though the colors green and blue are a bit hard to distinguish for my tired old eyes. Perhaps they should be more bright.

What version is this? I already have 3.3.0.118, downloaded July 2011. Is this any different?

It's a good game. My only problem with it was that it seemed to go from easy to good challenges, and then too quickly to too hard for me. But I really enjoy it and recommend it.

The save game is written to ogpice.cdx in the \cubedriftzdata folder, so if you want to move the game, your save game will move with it. Should anyone be so inclined, it's possible to edit the file so that any level can be played instead of playing the levels in order.

........................Moderator comment..................

Thanks for the feedback :)

I had this game before but somehow lost it. Glad to see it offered here today. Very fun puzzle game, just the type I am always looking for. Thank you GOTD for always having a nice variety of game giveaways.

Hello Dextrogames and GOTD teams,

Thanks for this very challenging game. It will give me plenty of playing hours.
I downloaded and installed without any problems on a Vista 32b system by following the steps from the readme file.

In the description above, theirs written about saving with closing the game. Well by me I closed the game after level four and when reopening the game it continued from there. So a save was not needed. I stopped the game by selecting first main menu and then exit, and confirmed the exit game box. To be sure I rebooted my system to confirm the remembering of the level and it did 

I also recommended it to a friend of mine who is color blind, he was able to play the first few levels without any color issues, big thanks for that. Hope more developers would think about that.

So for me this is the best giveaway in 2012 so far, Merci.




...................Moderator comment................

Thank you for your feedback Willy-France

I still have this game from last time, saved at level 29. There are 100 levels altogether. I love this type of game, but this one gets difficult pretty quick unless you are good at these games. (I aren't :)
The colour blind mode button seems to work the wrong way round, or maybe that's just me. I found it's easy to click the wrong direction, so full screen is recommended if you aren't too accurate with your mouse pointer. I'd like to have seen a keyboard mode.
This is the same version as offered originally, and could probably have been brought up to date in style, but the gameplay would have remained the same. Good game and recommended for anyone who likes puzzle games.


...................Moderator comment................

Thank you for your feedback banditrider

Interesting. Good for logic. FIRST FEW SLIDES need some help to attract the lazy.

I liked the game concept, but I am experiencing serious hangs, freezes and even game crashes which happen randomly. OS is Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit.

......................Moderator comment................

It runs fine on my win 7 64 bit system (Ultimate). How much RAM do you have? Try closing some background programs. A good program to use for this when playng games is Game booster There's a free version available that does the job really well and free's up around 40% of your system RAM. Alternatively it could be that you need to change your screen resolution or update your graphic drivers or the Direct X that's installed. Win 7 uses DX11, you only need to install DX9.0c for this game.

I got the message that it was activated, but on exit of the game it showed a unlock prompt window - do that mean its not activated or suggest that I buy a new version of the game?



...................Moderator comment................

Hello Annette, did you activate the game using the activation module/ Unusually this game comes with a seperate activation module which you need to click on to activate the game. From your description it sounds like you haven't done that. The message that is shown about activation is a standard script that automatically shows after installing the game. Usually the set up file comes packaged together with the activation module. In this case as mentioned already, it's a seperate module, but the message still shows. This I know can be confusing; especially if you are new to the game giveaway project. Please make sure you click on the activation module before the giveaway is over, otherwise you won't have a registered game, thank you.

I got this last time. I loved it. Kept me entertained for weeks. Extremely challenging. Ever changing in the later levels,so if you can do that level once you may not get it again for some time.

Thanks Dextrogames and GOTD for another fun game.

Really nc game. . . . With 7mb package, its an gd game. . . . To pass ur time its gd, bt not gd 4 dose who just open deir pc's 4 games!!! Graphics r admirable. . . .

I like it. Have been try and good games for mind

The giveaway period for yesterdays game has been extended for an extra three hours
.
.
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Developers rely on good feedback to improve their games. If you download this game please take some time once you’ve played it a while to leave some constructive feedback either positive or negative. The more constructive feedback we get, the more likely developers are going to give more games away. The giveaway site already has a very good standing with the search engines. Developers want their products out there on the WWW, this site has the potential to do that. The game giveaway project gives away on average between 9 to 17 thousand downloads for each game depending upon what genre and how obscure the game is. That’s a lot of homes these games are being downloaded into and a lot of potential cash that’s being lost by the developers. If we get better games because of better feedback, the community are likely to continue to benefit from the generosity of the developers. Satisfied community members are then more likely to visit the home sites of those developers and purchase games that they may not have bothered with before they discovered the developer via the game giveaway site, thus giving the developers more incentives to give away more decent games.

Please leave some feedback once you’ve checked the game out. It can be positive or negative, but please explain why your reasons for the feedback you post. Thank you in advance to all those who take the time to post a constructive comment. Thank you.

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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. Click on the activation module to register the game then install it using the set up file. This is one of those games that isn't free standing, which means re-installing the operating system will leave the game unregistered.

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)

Don’t forget to activate the game using the activation module within the 24 hour period which ends on Monday 16th January 2012 at 8pm GMT (3am Eastern Time or Midnight on the 15th January 2012, 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 three times previously; way back in January 2007 only a month after the start of the game give away project where it received a positive 89% of votes out of 150 votes (just over 5.7 Thousand downloads) with 43 comments, which you can see HERE The game was also given away later that year in September 2007 where it again received a positive 89% out of 176 votes (just over eight thousand downloads) with 60 comments. You can read those HERE and finally it was also given away last July (2011), where it received a positive 70% out of 318 votes (approx 10 thousand downloads) with 82 comments which you can read HERE . Just to put things in perspective, last july's downloads compared to the number of comments made equates to 0.82% and of those about 50% were constructive (0.41% of those downloading the game)


C:\Program Files (x86)\CubeDrift (64 bit OS)


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. atch 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).

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Problems installing, activating and running today’s game:

If you have difficulty downloading or activating the game you can try again later or do one of the following - for example once downloaded when you click on the dual activation and set up file you may get the message “Failed to connect. Please try again later” Check to see if your internet explorer isn't offline (thanks to MrSnoozles/Mike and GMMan for that fix). If the previous suggestion doesn't work go check out previous comments from the last several weeks and look for comments from GMMan and Mike. They have also posted their possible fixes for this problem.

Mike suggests that you check to see if Internet Explorer is offline (even if you use firefox). If it is make sure that it's online thn try again. I’ve always tried re-booting my modem and/or router with some success, though Mike has said that doing that does nothing. Still, it’s worth a try if all else fails.


If you are getting the black screen problem right click on the games executable and select properties then click on the compatibility mode and select the disable visual themes. This should fix the problem, if not try disabling the display scaling on higher dpi settings and disabling the desktop composition.

Other fixes include changing your screen resolution, installing the latest direct X (remember that XP uses DX 9 or earlier only, Vista uses DX 10 or before and Win 7 DX11 or before). Also try updating your graphics drivers. The main two chip manufacturers are NVIDIA and ATI both of which offer driver downloads for free. Just go to the respective manufactures home page and you'll find a link to the driver download page. To find out which graphic card or graphics chip your computer uses type in Dxdiag in the search field (Vista or Win 7) or the run command (XP); this opens up the DirectX diagnostics panel. click on the display tab and look to the left panel. You should easily see what graphics card or chip you are using. (This is required information when selecting the correct download from the developers site).

If you are having problems unzipping the game giveaways zip file, for example getting a message saying the file is invalid try using a different file archiver such as 7-Zip, J-Zip, CAM UnZip, Hamster Free Zip Archiver, GZip, B Zip2, peazip, ZipUnzip, FreeRAR Extract Frog, RAR File Open Knife, ALZip, The Extractor, RarZilla Free Unrar

Okay, that should be enough. there are actually many more free versions available. also there are other commercial titles such as the well-known WinRAR, Stuffit, WinAce, NXPowerlite and Corel Winzip Pro, but IMO 7-Zip is probably one of the better freebies. I did purchase a copy of Stuffit when it was on sale a few years ago, but didn't like the interface for some reason, so hardly ever use it.

If you are posting requests for help late in the day I would suggest posting in the main giveaway forums in the game Game Discussion . If you’ve installed the game but it won’t work for some reason, it should still be registered, so someone may be able to help at another time. Unfortunately if your problem is actually installing it then once the giveaway period is over there’s nothing that can be done until the game is given away again (though that isn’t guaranteed. It’s always worth checking out the free games sites as sometimes the games we get here are also available for free from them as well.

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If you are looking for something else other than a puzzle game check out the game discussion forums and the free games synopsis. We’ve posted a couple of thousand free games over the last three years, some of which are fantastic. All of the major game distributors such as Steam, Direct 2 Drive (soon to combine with another site), Impulse and GOG all have some sales with savings as good as 75% in some cases. For example this weekend you can get 75% off the Dead space franchise. The first game (Dead Space) costs less than a cheap arcade game at only $5/£2.50 or you can get EDGE, the award winning retro-styled platform game for 50% off, or Nation Red a top down zombie shooter for only £2 (75% off) plus other deals. Tjhere's a new 24hr deal later today (replacing Edge). You can check out all of the main distributors deals via the Didematic Site