I'm trying to remember the names of several old puzzle/strategy games. These games are much older than the modern-day casual games, long before the phrase "casual games" was ever used, probably even back to the days of DOS.

One game involved pushing blocks around (like in sokoban) to block a laser beam so that you could get to the exit. This game also had balls that when pushed would continue to roll until they hit something, and part of the strategy involved positioning one of the blocks so that it would stop a ball at the right spot so that it could then be pushed in a different direction, effectively making the ball turn a corner. The balls could also be used to block the path of a laser.

The other game also involved lasers, but this game used mirrors or prisms that could be rotated to change the path of the laser by 90 degrees. I think some of these mirrors might have been portable, you could push them around the game field. Also, I think that if you could maneuver behind one of the laser sources, you could turn that laser off.

Can anybody help me remember the names of these old games.

Thanks,

Uncle Reg

Sorry, Uncle Reg, both games are familiar but can't remember their names. I remember one with a little wizard running around moving crates and climbing up and down ladders, it had levels gradually getting harder but the name escapes me also.

There were a ton of those games with ladders and platforms. They were all side view. Both of the games I'm thinking of used a top-down perspective.

Chips Challenge and Chromatron?

Ana

Two games I have played and they are at Big Fish is Prism and Lumen. Prism is little balls and light beams, a more cartoonish type. Lumen is working overhead like in a courtyard trying to escape with light beams. I got Prism years ago from a free promotion from BFG and Lumen from Game Giveaway, and lost it when the hard drive fried. I didn't know Lumen is at BFG too, but it is. Hope it helps!

Koalanut

ETA Prism is on the list at BFG, Lumen is not, but when I google it, it has a page at BFG.

No, it wasn't any of those. They were much older than those Big Fish games. Graphics were much more primitive. They were probably DOS games.

Googling what you described brought up the name of a game called Deflektor; does that name ring any bells?

Both of the ones I mentioned were DOS games Uncle REg.

Ana

Marian, Deflektor is not it.

Ana, sorry if I was misleading, I did look at both of them and they did appear to be DOS games, but neither one is what I'm looking for. The comment I made was referring to the Big Fish games, which did appear to be newer Windows games. I apologize for the confusion.

Challenge of the Ancient Empires?

(We will just have to keep on trying!)

There was a game called Ballance that had a top view of the balls, crates, etc.. I had it on CD. It was only available at Amazon UK. I just checked and there is a description of it here.

Neither of those last 2.

Challenge of the Ancient Empires appears to have some action elements/monsters that you have to overcome with some degree of speed or dexterity. Neither of the games I'm looking for had any. They were pure puzzle solving.

As for Ballance, one of those screenshots showed a setup screen with Screen Resolution set to 1280 x 960. The games I'm looking for date back to a time when 640 x 480 was the norm, and most people didn't have the hardware to go any higher.

Sorry Reg my game playing doesn't date back that far.

Uncle Reg, the only games that spring to mind about crates are the Tex Murphy games and Black Dahlia if my memory serves me correctly.

Bernie

These were not adventure games. They were small puzzle style games, probably shareware.

Uncle Reg, try googling "Oxyd." (Google may try to expand your search term to a multisyllabic chemical term. Stand pat and insist that you only want those four letters.) You should get a handful of hits in places like YouTube and Wikipedia.

Does this look like the game you are thinking of?

My memory is that the game went through several incarnations, a few of which were sold in bigbox computer stores(which is where I ran into it.) Sometime after it fell out of availability, one of the programmers released a mini-version as shareware. I remember it being an interesting challenge--VERY different from the adventure games I usually gravitate toward.

to GameBoomers, Halcyon.

Uncle Reg. I believe you're thinking of Bolo made by Soleau Software. Very enjoyable DOS based games.

I remember both Oxyd and Bolo Adventures.

Oxyd is definitely not one of the games I was thinking about.

Bolo plays like the one I was looking for, but it doesn't look like what I remember. Bolo II and Bolo III look a lot closer, but something still doesn't look exactly right. Were there any other games that were similar to Bolo?

Hmmm, thought that was it.

The Bolo Adventures is the best match that I know of based on your description. I played quite a bit of it some years ago. Out of curiosity I ran around in cyberspace looking at old DOS games. I don't think any of the ones I'll mention are the specific game that you're looking for but they're from the same genre. I thought Laser Light was a lot of fun. You have to place mirrors and prisms in the grid to guide the laser beams to multiple targets on the screen. Cyberbox and Cyberbox 2 are free downloads on dosgames.com. Here you have various boxes on the screen which have many different properties. The object is to move them around to make it possible to get out of the room. I was surprised how many websites have DOS games available for download. A Google search for DOS games brings up enough possibilities to keep you busy for a long time, even if you aren't on your lunch break.

I did a lot of browsing around recently also, trying to find what I was trying to remember. I found Laser Light too. Haven't done much with it yet. I remember Cyberbox from 20 years ago, what a great little game. I didn't even know that Cyberbox 2 existed until I found it browsing just last week. I also found this: The Continuing Adventures of CyberBox . It's a fan made remake of the original Cyberbox with a bunch of enhancements. In addition to the original Cyberbox levels, he has created over 100 new levels. If you liked Cyberbox, check it out. Runs perfectly in DOSBox. I also found this: Spych , which I am enjoying very much. Not extremely difficult, but a lot of fun. In addition, I also found a couple of old DOS flight-sim games that I had a lot of fun with many years ago.

Well, I guess I'm going to give up on my original search. Thanks to everybody who contributed ideas. While I didn't find what I started out looking for, I did find a few interesting things following up on everybody's suggestions. Thanks again for trying.

Uncle Reg,

I know this is not the one you want but have you played Midnight Synergy's Colony? For a simple to learn strategy puzzle something like Chinese Checkers, it must be the most ominous game I've ever tried to beat. Inevitably it gave me the creeps every time! And it isn't easy...at least it wasn't for me. It was shareware back in the day, now you can try a demo before you buy.

Gil.

I found the game!! I have been looking for it for a long time now. It is called Axium Adventures

http://www.soleau.com/games/axium.html

Your welcome Uncle Reg

to Gameboomers, McDavid! Thank you for your help.