Reviewed: July 23, 2001
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Gray Design Associates

Developer
David P. Gray

Released: May, 2001
Genre: Puzzle
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone

10
9
4
10
9.5

System Requirements

Puzzles for adults emerged around 1900, and by 1908 a full-blown craze was in progress in the United States. While many people ridiculed puzzles as silly and childish, there were others who ignored meals while chanting "just one more piece;" until the bleary-eyed victor finally put in the last piece in the wee hours of the morning.

Puzzles have certainly advanced over the past 100 years, increasing in both style and complexity. Original puzzles did not interlock and the pieces were cut along the color lines, so while they were a bit easier to solve they could also be ruined by a careless swipe of the hand or even a sneeze. Today's puzzles can consist of thousands of pieces with interlocking designs or even arced edges for an even greater challenge. There are even 3-dimensional puzzles you can purchase now that reconstruct famous buildings and landmarks.

There have been jigsaw puzzle games available for computers almost as long as people have been using computers to play games. One might find it curious to replicate a pastime like puzzle assembly on a PC but it does have its advantages. You are no longer required to get out the card table or reserve half of the dining room table for days on end. There are no pieces to lose and unlike conventional puzzles, once you buy a PC puzzle game your options of new puzzles is limited only by the number of images you can download.

When it came time to do a review for Jigsaws Galore 4 I realized it had been over 20 years since I had actually solved a puzzle. While playing this game I also realized that puzzles are still as much fun and challenging as they were when I was a kid - they have just been replaced by computers and video games. The ability to solve puzzles on the computer might make the pastime more accessible to today's computer whiz kids, but they will probably still favor the action and adventure of the more modern games available.

Adults will find this game particularly appealing, especially if they enjoyed solving conventional puzzles when they were kids. The major drawback of computer jigsaw puzzles is that it becomes almost a solo experience. Whereas before an entire family could crowd around the table and solve a 2000-piece puzzle, with only one mouse and one person in control it might not be as entertaining for a family to crowd around the computer and point to pieces on the screen saying "that goes there".

Jigsaws Galore 4 was written by David Gray and is being offered as Shareware. It can be purchased for $25 and comes with 10 puzzles or there is also a CD-Version available for $39 that comes with 192 puzzles and 2 bonus games that are surprisingly fun. While $40 may sound expensive for a "puzzle game" you should keep in mind that this one-time purchase has the potential to keep you occupied for hundreds, if not thousands of hours. Considering that most games released today sell for the same price but only offer 8-20 hours of gameplay, you will definitely get more than your money's worth.

With Jigsaws Galore you simply start the program and choose from one of the many puzzles available. Along with each of the picture puzzles are some informative descriptions for the topic of that puzzle. Some of these are downright educational. The text that accompanies the Fire-Engine puzzle gives a brief but interesting history and description of the big red truck.

Puzzles range from gorgeous photos to simplistic clip-art graphics that you might find in a desktop publishing package. These are great for kids as they are much less complex that the detailed photo-puzzles. Each puzzle comes with a default setting but you can change the difficulty and size of the puzzle to suit your taste. You can even pick from a variety of puzzle piece styles. If you don't like the interlocking pieces you can choose one of five other shape-styles that become very challenging.

The difficulty you choose for each puzzle determines how many pieces it is divided into. You can adjust the number and size of the pieces and many other settings at anytime by using one of the three context-sensitive pop-up menus. By right clicking on a puzzle piece you get special options for that piece such as rotating it. If you right click on the background you get another menu of options that relate to the puzzle itself. Each menu also offers some ingenious "cheats" that you may find addictive once you start to use them.

The cheat system is very clever, and while I try not to use it there have been occasions where it has saved my sanity. You can right click on any puzzle piece and immediately have it find the "neighboring piece". This will cause that piece to flash wherever it may be. You can also "fetch" the piece which will connect the two pieces. The cheat that I use with almost every puzzle I do is the "Right Way Up" cheat that immediately rotates all pieces so they are oriented correctly. You can, of course, disable piece rotation altogether in the options menu if you wish. There is also an amusing auto-solve cheat which I can't imagine anyone would ever resort to using, but it is fun to watch the computer solve a puzzle right in front of you at super-human speeds.

The biggest drawback I found to solving puzzles on a computer is organizing all those pieces on a monitor. The enjoyment you will have with this game is directly proportional to the size of your screen. I tested Jigsaws Galore on a 17" monitor and found it was hard to manage puzzles that consisted of more than 200 pieces. When I started playing on my main computer with the 24" monitor running at 1600x1200 resolution I was able to do a couple puzzles with more than 1000 pieces. While a puzzle of this size would typically take up a 4'x4' card table, I was able to manage quite nicely on a 2'x1' computer screen.

Managing all the pieces regardless of your monitor size is made easy with several helpful commands built right into the game. You can arrange the pieces in a grid or along the outer edge of the screen area. This guarantees that pieces will not be overlapping or hiding under one another. You also have the ability to create user-defined trays that help you sort your pieces. As any good puzzle solver knows you always start with the "edge pieces" so you can use a tray to sort out all of those pieces. You can then create additional trays to sort pieces by any criteria you want. These trays are instantly accessible through a handy menu along the edge of the screen.

Other handy tools are the ability to sort pieces by shape and color and the option to have a ghost image of the final picture on the screen. This is great for positioning sections of completed puzzle in the approximate location over the main picture. The game also monitors your progress by telling you how many pieces you have solved and how long you have taken (sometimes this is not a good thing to know).

In a day where games are often solely judged on their 3D models, polygon count, or texture detail, it's nice to see a fun and addictive game that doesn't rely on flashy graphics.

The game comes with 15 midi files, which range from pleasant to mildly annoying. You can go into the advanced options and modify the music play list to include midi, mp3, and wave files of your choosing then program the order or have them randomly shuffled. This is a great feature and can certainly liven up an otherwise silent time in front of your computer. The game does not require the CD to be present in the drive, so you can always disable the in-game music and pop in your favorite music CD too.

The full-version also allows you to take any custom puzzles you have created and send them to family and friends as small self-contained programs with your own personal greeting message. I created a Gift-Puzzle of the Pink Floyd Pulse artwork and even included a Pink Floyd MIDI file with the 300-piece puzzle. It was only 852k and has all the features and cheat functions that the main program has. You are just limited to that one puzzle. This is a great alternative to the traditional electronic greeting cards that people are now sending through email.

If you enjoy conventional jigsaw puzzles then you will love the simplicity this game will bring to your favorite pastime. If you have a large collection of digital photography then you will enjoy the unlimited possibilities for fresh new puzzles you will now have at your disposal. And if this review hasn't convinced you then go and download the 30-day trial version and see for yourself.