Pandora's Box - I'm hooked!

Two days ago I started the puzzle game Pandora's Box, and I love it. No, it isn't an adventure game, per se, but it certainly has puzzles galore! Does anyone else like this game as well?
So far I've done a few over 100 of the 350 puzzles, and they are really starting to get hard now.

I never take this off my hard drive. It's a great way to relax.

Laura

I'm with gatorlaw, This is an all time favorite with me. Never leaves my computer either. I sure wish they would make another game with different puzzles. I would be in 7th Heven. Diane

I have the original and there aren't that many puzzles on it. When I first joined GB, there was a post about downloading extra puzzles or buying a new version of the game for $10 with the extra puzzles. Can't remember the details but I wish that I had. This was a great game.

I loved it!

I had some real fun times with Pandoras Box.

ohboy.......you guys are making me want to get this game..........

Yes a new version came out and they added about 60 new puzzles. I play that one. This is a great game buy one if you can. I've seen them in a few stores one being KB toy store. Diane

Pandora's Box was my very first pc game.

Lived overseas for a decade in a country where game playing was unknown. Back in the US, about summer 1999, Newsweek had a write-up on a puzzle game...thought it sounded interesting enough to give it a try.

****BAM*****

Went on the internet (newbie at this too) to see what else was out there...stumbled upon something called "Myst."

The rest is history.

What sorts of games are included in Pandora's Box? When I saw it before, I thought it would be sort of like the 7th Guest. Is is more of a collection of mind games/puzzles or more like Shivers, where you are doing a puzzle to get into a particular room?

This post made me want to reload it, so now it's back on the computer and I spent 2 hours playing nonstop I do have 350 puzzles on my version and I intend to play them all this time around.

The first puzzles you encounter are all distorted or rearranged pictures to put back into order. Later on there are some vases to reassemble, my personal favorites.

Pandora's Box was the very first computer game I played (other than solitaire)about 4 years ago, and I loved it. I'm only sorry I can't play it with XP, but I still have it on my old computer with Win98.

It's a series of beautiful graphic puzzles, not anything like 7th Guest, than get increasingly difficult as you pass from one level to the next. There is a very slight story line, but the emphasis is on the puzzles, and you can by-pass the story altogether, and just do the puzzles.

Sumac, I wonder why you can't play it on XP? I have XP and didn't have any trouble getting it to play. It's on all 4 of my putters from 133 to my xp. I LOVE THIS GAME> I spend hours playing it. Diane

I'm playing it on my XP with no problems whatever.

Bryan's mom - there are ten different kinds of puzzles.

There are sliders in a circular format.
There are pictoral puzzles with overlapping parts.
There are pictoral puzzles cut into strips that go in all directions, and you are given the puzzle in different colors.
There are 3D objects with parts of the surface missing, an a stack of pieces to the left, and you have to place them on the surface.
There are overlapping outlines of people/objects and you have to fill them in with color to isolate one from the other - these were my favorite, until they started to spin them, Yikes!
There are floating hole puzzles. You are shown a blank screen with object shaped holes that roam over the screen, and you have to click them into place where they belong one the underlying picture.
There are broken up pictures that you must look at through different lenses to see, then to orient them in the right order to place them to create the picture.
There are pictures broken into different size blocks. They are then magnified or miniaturized to fit the block they are shown in. You need to swap them to the right places to see where they should belong.
There are objects such as statues, that are sliced into pieces, and you have to orient them in 3D to place back together in the right order.

Ack! I'm missing one type! Oh, well, you get the idea, I'm sure.

Sumac, there is a patch to run the original version on XP. Here: http://www.microsoft.com/games/pandorasbox/downloads.htm

Thanks for explaining, everyone! This sounds like something I would really like! I just don't like valve and lever/getting machines to work puzzles. I really liked the puzzle in ND: The Scarlet Hand where she had to reassemble the vase, and this sounds like that sort of puzzle!
Thanks again,
Beth

Thanks, Nancy, I'll try that. When I tried to install my 4 year old version on XP, I got an error message saying it was not a compatable version, and I should contact Microsoft for an updated version. Maybe the patch was what they were talking about.

I just downloaded the patch, and now I 'm going to reinstall the game. The website did say that current versions of the game available in the stores now are designed to run with Pentium III or higher.

Excellent game! I have the 350 puzzle version also and there's no other game quite like it.

So far I'm not having any luck with the patch and XP. I put the patch in the Pandora's Box folder, but is there something else I need to do with it? I'm still getting an error message when I try to play the game.

All you need to do is double click it to extract it after the install(from any location). After that you can delete the downloaded file. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

I have Pandora's Box on my computer all the time also, its the best its one of those games you can play over and over. I'd love if they made another one, another favorite similar, kind of are the Smart Games by Hasbro there were three of them and they are fun also.

Karen

That's a very good description of the type of puzzles in the game. They're all about reassembling images in various ways - usually 2D but in that one case 3D.

I have the original version and I'm quite satisfied with it. I have a friend who had the original and bought the newer version hoping to get new types of puzzles. But she said the new puzzles turned out to be the same varieties only harder. Some of those puzzles in the original version took 2 hours each. I wouldn't want any harder ones.

Thank you Jenny 100. I am thoroughly enjoying this game, have just passed 200+. The only ones I really can't get so far are the floating hole puzzles - you just can't see enough of the picture to know where to put the pieces. The longest I've taken so far, and this was to beat one of the challenges at the end of a section, was 50 min. In most cases my times range from 1-20 min. I must say, it is very challenging to assemble a picture or sculpture when you have no idea what the finished product will look like.

Nancy,I'll try again. I downloaded the patch into my Downloads/Patches folder, and then dragged it into the Pandora's Box folder. When I open up all the files in the Pandora's Box folder, it shows the new patch in there, but the game still won't open. Do I need to double click on that patch after it's in the Pandora's Box folder?

BTW, the web site says this patch is to fix a bug with Pentium III, and a problem with Direct X. The error message I keep getting doesn't mention either of these issues. It just says there's a conflict with my OS.

I to have this game on my computer all the time in fact it was one of the first games I brought. I tend to play it when I'm learning lines listening to a tape. The only puzzle I have to use any hints on is the final rotoscope.

The third time's the charm! What a difference a click makes! I tried AGAIN this morning, DOUBLE-clicked on the patch, and lo and behold the game is running! Thanks Nancy - the game looks and sounds much better on my new computer, and now I have something new to play around with! :kiss: :kiss:

This sounds like a must have game, not heard much about it until now. Don't suppose I will beable to get it in any of the UK stores, will have to try E-bay.
Sylvia

Those floating holes are a real challenge! I found the best way to attack them was to take the biggest piece and move it all over the picture while I located where the smallest ones belonged. After I have all the little ones in place, then the bigger ones aren't so hard...

To SuMac-I was hoping you saw my earlier message about double clicking it. I'm glad you got it working.

You said, Jenny, "Those floating holes are a real challenge! I found the best way to attack them was to take the biggest piece and move it all over the picture while I located where the smallest ones belonged. After I have all the little ones in place, then the bigger ones aren't so hard..."

Are you saying you CAN move them where you want to? I haven't been able to do that, but sometimes I make them sproing across the screen.

You can make the pieces move in different directions. I forget exactly how it was done. You needed to somehow select the piece and then click where you wanted it to move to. On slower computers, at least, the pieces would move in that direction slowly enough that you could see what was under them as they floated by.

I didn't like the floating hole puzzles with the tiny pieces. It was so hard to figure out what they were. I cheated on the more difficult ones - saved my game, got a hint, and then restored my game from before the hint so the game wouldn't penalize me for looking. Even with the hint some of those tiny pieces were really hard to place.

Thanks Nancy . I loved the game. I tried to install on my old computer when I upgarded to Windows XP but it would not work. I will try this.

I have played Pandora's box on my pc with Windows XP Pro.
I used the compatibilty wizard and also downloaded the patch, although I did find that despite the patch and the xp compatibility setup, Pandora's box didn't work right if you had 'autorun' enabled on the cd. So what worked for me was to have a shortcut icon on the desktop and then run it from there. If the CD auto-started, I clicked cancel and then used the desktop icon, worked like a dream.

Fantastic game, have played it several times, it never loses it's appeal. It's one Good Point for Microsoft I suppose!!!!!

You can control the movement of the pieces by clicking on them, (they will then have an active outline), then clicking in the direction you want the piece to go. Do NOT click directly on the piece, unless it's over the spot where it belongs. You can also control the speed of the pieces by clicking on the buttons in the far right margin: Turtle for slow, Rabbit for fast, and (I think) the circle for medium speed.

I also noticed that the fewer pieces there were floating around the screen, the faster they would move. So you had to slow them down. I'd forgotten you could adjust speed manually until SuMac mentioned it.

Well I have been adjusting the speed okay, but today I tried clicking them toward where I want them to go. That did help some. I actually got one of those puzzles!