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for specific internal games: Nubix, Cubix,
Cubix Squares, Line Smash, Smash, Super
Smash, Super Smash
Plus, Ribbon Smash
The original program or level is still found in
this new game in the 3D levels and is now called
"Cubix
Ultra Squared and Ultra Smashed." In
the beginning, or at least back in the
mid-1990's it was simply called Cubix. When I
made similar games to differentiate it from
them, it was dubbed "Cubix Squared." That is
because it is a 2 by 2 by 2 cube. Not exactly
squared, but it had squares in it. I take some
pride in the fact that it is now, though heavily
modified away from the original game, still the
very best level of the games, IMHO. That is it
in the picture above in the middle, with a bad
case of the measles, and extra lines diagonally.
Other games which I made later came with their
own names but some games were still called
Cubix. The second game of the same type was a 3
by 3 by 1 wall of cubes simply called "The Wall."
A million games, or at least very very many, now
are called Cubix which is why I have gotten away
from simply just calling my games "Cubix"
as in the old days, but I think no one else has
thought to call their game simply "The Wall." But with 7
billion people around now, I probably am
wrong.
By the time of making a third game, I was
tired of making cube / square-based games
and took a radical leap into making the
exact same game with
triangles on a pyramid. It may look similar,
but the play of triangular games is
completely different on each of the
dimensional levels from each other, as well
as from square-based ones. It was important
to me to have at least one triangular-based
level of games on each of the dimensional
levels of this new game. Eventually I got
there. Both the designs of "Cubix Squared" and the third
game I made called "Tetrix" are in the
picture above, kind of in the middle. Also,
a LOT of games are called Tetrix now too.
About the most ambitious I ever got before this
"2014" set
of games or before the 2D 3D 4D versions from
about 8 years ago, was when I did make a 3 by 3
by 3 Cubix game which was nearly impossible to
see all the way through easily and did not have
rotation, which I had dubbed and sold as "Super
Cubix." What made that game more
complex besides still remaking the same game
over and over again in bigger and different
shapes, was that it had a level editor (plus 3
and 4 player modes). You could create and save
your own designs to play on by removing lines in
the game and it would still work. Some of the
new levels now still use the same principles
back from "Super Cubix" in how they can be
scaled up or down to make bigger or smaller
levels to play on.
In 2004 I got it into
my head to make a 4D version of the game, and
that lead to also making 2D versions of the
game,
The "Smash"
games came from the 2D levels. Making the
original game into 2D was not really challenging
to play, and was hardly unique as Cubix was a 3D
adaptation of a 2D pen and paper game kids
The problem with the actual game in the
beginning was that whoever goes last usually
would win. It is not hard, nor hard to think of
a strategy for the second player to simply unto
the moves that the person who went first did. To
even it out a little bit so it would be possible
for someone to sometimes "break serve" in a
tennis sense, would be to make the last move a
neutral move which would undo win moves of both
players. As it gets closer to the end, one could
use strategy to try to use the neutral move to
their advantage. I called it "Smash"
because the program would say "Smash!" on
the last move and then that would end the game,
and sometimes your hopes of winning. From the
previous 2005 / 2006 Help files, some
technical how to play stuff... Differences
between programs, levels, and games The terminology of what is a program, what is a level, and what is a game can be a bit confusing. Technically, this is all one program, so referring to parts of it as "programs" is just plain rude and almost sure to confuse some people. Programs, as to the parts of it referred to here, are separate windows, they look completely different. In general, they were released as separate programs in the past, or will be in the future. A good example of this merging was the prior version 3.0, Cubix Plus, which merged the 3 different but similar programs, Cubix, The Wall, and Tetrix into a single program for a single price. To these 3 "programs" within a program, now two new "programs" have been added, 2D Cubix- Flatland and Bubbleland, and the 4D "program", 4D Cubix Basic (Now called Wireframe). Luckily I left out Super Cubix, so this is really a direct continuation of the original three 3D "programs", CUBIX PLUS (which was Cubix, The Wall, Tetrix) combined but also with the new 2D and 4D "programs". A level is different than a program because it is within the same program (window). Some 2D ones have different level sizes and level types called Flatland and Bubbleland. Smash the Wall now has different sizes as different levels. Levels can be changed via the Levels menu at the top of each window that has sub-levels. Games
are different ways to play on each level. Different
games have different rules. Games can be changed via
the Games Menu at the top of the window for all
"programs". Most have more than one game which can be
played for each level, usually at least 3 different
games for each level. Whereas a level is like a
different board to play on, a game is a different set
of rules, or a different game you can play on that
board. The different games are Nubix, Cubix,
Cubix Squares, Line Smash, Smash, Super Smash, Super
Smash Plus, and Ribbon
Smash. These are
mentioned one at a time below. Nubix
(Line-based)
Unlike Nubix, the point in this game is
instead to try to add the final line to complete a
cube. In Cubix Squared for example, there are 54
turns altogether, the same number of moves as in
Nubix. However, unlike that game which has 36 squares
or points to win, there are only 8 cubes or points to
win with this game on the same level. You do get an extra turn
when scoring, so this is like a completely 3D version
of the Nubix game.
Cubix Squares
(3D only: Line-based:
New to the 2014 version) This is a new version of Cubix which looks like a Smash game at the beginning, and ends up looking like something a lot more complex when you are done. Instead of clicking on lines, you click on the circles like in Smash, and that covers an entire square at once, like a window pane. This game goes by the same rules as Cubix. You win points when completing an entire cube, but with this game it only takes six moves per cube instead of 12, because there are only 6 sides of a cube, like a dice. You also still get an extra turn when scoring a point. Line Smash
(Line-based: New to the 2014
version) Line Smash is a new game originally made to tie together, conceptually speaking the different Hypercubes of the 4D Hypercubes level. Super Smash or Super Smash Plus were originally thought to be too complex (each square connected to too many other squares at once at right angles) to make 4D versions of them. I only added Super Smash Plus to 4D by cheating a bit. But the Line Smash game works the same in 4D *without* cheating. It works the same in 2D, 3D, and in 4D. The rules are scored the same as they are in Smash, which were the same as in the now-dropped original Twobix game. You get scores by having all 4 lines of each square your own color. The more squares you make with 4 sides all your color, the more points you get. Each line move also gives you the line moves directly connecting to it at 90 degree right angles. This is easy to see in the 2D and 3D versions of the game (in the Beginner's Flatland or Beginner's Bubbleland 2D levels, and in Cubix Ultra Squared and Ultra Smashed on the 3D level) but with the 4D level you have to begin to "see" them as 90 degree right angles instead of how they are represented. Once you can do that, you can begin to understand the 4D level better and how it fits together. That was Line Smash's purpose, to show how the adjacent hypercubes, and their cubes and squares are connected to each other, and it then turned out to be a very good game to play too.
In this section, I refer to Player 1 and Player 2 in ONLY terms of who goes first and who
goes second. In the game however, Player 1 and 2 do not
change places, but who goes first does change. In game
play each remains Player 1 and 2, and stays the same
color. Just remember as written below, Player 1 just
means who goes first in that turn or in that game. Smash, and its later weird but somewhat twisted-logic(ally) predictable off-shoots, Super Smash, Super Smash Plus, and Ribbon Smash, were created to take the place of the Cubix game in the 2D program since that 3D game cannot be played in 2D. In Smash you click on the squares themselves (by clicking on circles in the middle) instead of the individual lines. Green edges around the square or circle in the center marks which moves have already been made. With Smash, like in the old Twobix game, you cannot make a second turn after scoring so the strategy is completely different. Also like Twobix, you get points based on the number of squares that have your color on all 4 of its sides. Since every move gives you at least 1 win, this would make the game very boring, if it were not for the fact that you can take away wins from the other person while scoring points for yourself at the same time. Each player gets usually get the same number of moves, and the last move, the Smash move, is neutral, meaning it helps neither player. The order of the moves and who goes first sets the tone for each of the Smash games here. If you have no strategy whatsoever, Player 2 usually has a big advantage. Since the program alternates who goes first over multiple tries, any even number of games played should be a fair score since each person will have gone first and second the same number of times. The reasons for Player 2's advantage is that he / she / a computer player can simply react to Player 1's moves and try to take away their wins. However Player 1 is guiding such games having gone first, and can use that to their advantage with skill. If Player 2 is only reacting to Player 1's moves, Player 1's ability to go first can be used to an advantage, though it is not normally one without considerable skill. Another reason for Player 2's default advantage is the fact of going last. Without the Smash (neutral) move at the end, since there are an odd number of moves when there is a Smash move at the end, Player 1 would always win having every advantage from making the first move to making the last move. Even with the Smash move at the end, Player 1 is still 2 moves away from his or her last move, 2 chances for his or her potential points to be taken away, and Player 2 only is 1 move away or 1 chance to lose his or her points, and only to the last Smash move. The strategy comes in as to where to try to lead Player 2 to in reaction to Player 1's moves.
Even if you always lose as Player 1, being
able to limit the losses from those games when you do
go first, and try to make up for them on the next try when you are Player 2,
becomes the challenge in all the Smash games. It is even possible
to win as Player 1. This can be thought of as the equivalent of "breaking serve" in
tennis. Also, being able to win by healthier margins
when you are Player 2 than you lose by when you are
Player 1 is important in multiple sets of games. You need to
develop good offensive and defensive abilities to
increase the points you get when you have the
advantage of being Player 2, and counter the Player
2's advantage with a better strategy when you are
Player 1.
Super Smash follows
all the same rules of Smash except
that there are no differences in how wins are created.
All potential points can be lost. There are no immune
safe purple squares. (Not exactly true anymore with
all games) Where
a typical move of Smash gives
you 1 point and colors 4 lines around your square to
your color, a move in Super Smash extends
that 1 line away from each corner of your square in
every direction, for the original 4 lines of Smash plus 8
more lines extending away from around your square.
This leads to a greater range of being able to take
away points from your opponent and a greater reach to
take back points for yourself, especially in Bubbleland
(dimension wrapping, top and bottom edges connect and
are the same, left and rights sides connect and are
the same). Super Smash Plus
(Shape-based: New to the
2014 version) Super Smash Plus follows all
the same rules of Smash and Super Smash but
it has 4 extra lines at the end of each of the squares
away from the center one you clicked on. This makes each move
a Plus sign of 5 moves (or 6 moves if in the
4D level). Leads change very quickly in Super Smash
Plus games. You need to have a pretty big lead to
actually keep even at the end, and if you are only
even in score after your turn, it probably means you
are very much behind.
Ribbon
Smash follows all the rules of regular Smash except for the one
exception mentioned there (in the rules for Smash)
which does not apply to either Super Smash or Ribbon
Smash. The
difference with the moves in Ribbon Smash is that your
lines extend not only 1 line away in each direction
away from the square you click on, but in ALL lines in
ALL DIRECTIONS away from the square you click on
perpendicular to that squares 4 lines. In Bubbleland, this is particularly
intense.
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leaving
the original 3D games somewhere in the middle.
The "4D"
game or level worked on the same principles as
the original games, but it was only in a single
wire-frame hypercube or tesseract, which if you
did not know what it represented, it just looked
like a weird shaped cube with another cube in
the middle and diagonal squares in-between.
Which is what it was, and what a hypercube is or
looks like drawn, but it played the same as a 4D
level would play, albeit a very, very small one
and perhaps a bit buggy. I remember sometimes it
would eventually go weird and crash. I never did
get the 4D rotation working quite perfectly.
That is why there is only simple rotation now in
this new version. Less rotation, but less bugs.