Debby pointed me to a new game (or, apparently, an updated version of an old game, or something -- feel free to clarify my muddy understanding of this in the comments, Debby), which has been destroying my productivity quite nicely: Enigma. It's not a Web-based game -- you actually have to download and install it (I know, how primitive, right?) -- so getting started playing it will take a little more energy on your part, which may mean that the bar for getting yourself addicted is a little higher than it was with, say, Weboggle. But it's worth it. It's sort of a cross between Marble Madness (if Marble Madness weren't in that fucking impossible perspective) and my beloved Heaven and Earth (which you can get here).
Posted by Francis at 11:35 PMIt's not that Marble Madness has a perspective issue, it's just that you have no *skills*.
Snap, bitch!
Posted by: Tanis at January 21, 2006 03:12 AMActually, I was pretty okay at the arcade version of Marble Madness...it's just that it is entirely unsuited for play at home, as pretty much all diagonally oriented games are for someone who doesn't own a trackball.
Posted by: Francis at January 21, 2006 04:21 AMEnigma is an open-source port of the old Mac/PC game Oxyd. Dongleware, the German company that made Oxyd, went out of business sometime in the mid- to late 90's, but mercifully, some hackers rescued the codebase and have even been making new levels. If you search online, you can find the data files for all the Oxyd games (Oxyd, Oxyd Magnum, Per.Oxyd, and Oxyd Extra, which I think was never released for the Mac) and import them into Enigma. Not that you need more levels, because that will just mean more time-wasting.
Posted by: Debby at January 21, 2006 11:40 AM