Back to start page

On this page I will fill upp with a lot of stuff how to get out the most of Playground.
I have started whith some information below and will fill up all the links soon.
I have put out a lot of PP-tricks*. Perhaps you have a trick you want others players to know, or you have a suggestion of something else you want me to put in this page please mail me.

Create-game-competition The competition goes into second stage - until the 1:st of June.

How to download games

How to save games

The "M-files"

How to send games and solutions

How to create good games

How to solve games

Create-game-competition:

The competition now has gone into the second stage

The challenge is to create a game with:

1. as many supplies (including balls) as possible,
2. you must not have to have more than one ball going into the goal.
(In all the March competition, you could have up to 12 balls going into the goal.)
3. if the game can be solved fewer, it doesn't count.

Perhaps this seems like a simple competition, but since there is a total of 126 supplies that you can have in a game it will be very intresting to see how many you can put out.

The game has to be named after the creator and the amount of supplies that you have used.
For instans, if I have used 30 supplies, I call the game "Pellepennan - 30 supplies"

I want you to send in your games to me (you can make it secret if you want). I will then put your game name in a highscore-list (updated with games), so everybody can see which the best scores are.
This competition I will not test the games, so you have to test them an extra time before sending them to me.

You still can improve your "score" and send in better games to me later in the month if you like - you can send in as many games that you like.
After the competition has ended, I will put out allt the games, so everyone can test them.
If someone founds a fewer-solution to any of them, I will take away the game.

The player who has his/hers game still in top the 31:th of May, is the winner of this competition.

In this competition, I will try to participate. I think a "no-fewer-solution-game" with 30 supplies, wouldn't be impossible to make - what do you think?

Create-game-competition:

This first competition ever in creating puzzles is going on for a month until the 1:st of March. The challenge is to create

a game, with as many supplies (including balls) as possible.
But if the game can be solved fewer, it doesn't count.

Perhaps this seems like a simple competition, but since there is a total of 126 supplies that you can have in a game it will be very intresting to see how many you can put out.

The game has to be named after the creator and the amount of supplies that you have used.
For instans, if I have used 30 supplies, I call the game "Pellepennan - 30 supplies"

I want you to send in your games to me (you can make it secret if you want), and I will test it. If the game is OK, (I haven't been able to solve it with fewer supplies), I will put your game name in a highscore-list (updated with game), so everybody can see which the best games are.

You still can improve your "score" and send in better games to me later in the month if you like - you can send in as many games that you like.
After the competition has ended, I will put out the 5 best games, so everyone can test them.
If someone founds a fewer-solution to any of them, I will take away the game.

The player who has his/hers game still in top the 30:th of March, is the winner of this competition.

In this competition, I will try to participate. I think a "no-fewer-solution-game" with 30 supplies, wouldn't be impossible to make - what do you think?

There are two types of games:
a) Games saved in "secret mode" and
b) Games saved in "NOT secret mode"

The only way to see if a game is "secret" or not is to go into the "create puzzle" mode. If you then choose to load a "secret" puzzle, there is a "lock" infront of the puzzle-name.
When you have loaded a "secret" puzzle, you can't see any supplies*, except arrow-balls*.

Here is a useful PP-trick* If you have a game with yellow arrows, you can go into the "create puzzle-mode" to see in what direction the creator of the game have put the arrows, and get a little help with the solution in that way.

You can download games in two ways:
a) from Rubik's Playground-pages with the patch
b) from another homepage

a) If you go to Rubik's Playground-pages, it's very easy to download a game to play. You just click on the link and the game automatical downloads in a "download"-folder. This works with Internet Explorer 4.0-5.5 or Netscape 4.0 or later.
It doesn't work with IE 6.
Please mail me if you have any problem, and tell me wich browser you use.

b) Here is how you download games from a another homepage.
I think there is no problem downloading games with IE6 from my pages - but I'm not sure. If you try, it would be nice if you mail and told me how it worked.

You can save puzzles by two reasons:
a) You have created a puzzle of your own, or
b) You have solved a puzzle in another way (for instans with fewer supplies) and want to save the solution

a) When you have created the puzzle in the "create-puzzle-mode" and you have tested that it work like you want, you can save it by clicking on "file" and "save". You have to call your game something and see that it is saved in the right folder where you want it to be. You select folder by clicking och ".." or "\" and the looking up right folder for your game.
The normal folder for games that you have downloaded is:
"C:/Program/Hasbro Interactive/Rubik's Games/Fields/Download/" so i suggest you make another folder for your own games that you have created.
You have to create folders in the Explorer - it can't be done in the Rubiks Playground-game.

Important! When you save a game, save the game both in secret and not secret mode. If you save a game in secret mode, and forget how you solved it, you can get some trouble, because you have to find the solution once again. If you have saved it in "not secret mode" as well, you easily can open the game in "create puzzle" mode and find out how you did it.

Here is a nice PP-trick*. I usually put a "-s" (for solution) after the puzzle name so I know that it is not secret.

Another PP-trick* is to save different verions of the same games just by adding a number after the game name. If you creat a puzzle, and want to change it, you just call the next version ...01.bpl, and som on. Then you alway know that the latest version is the one with the highest number.

b) When you have solved a game in another way, and want to save that solution, you can call it whatever you like. A nice PP-trick* is to call the solution of the game the same as the original, and just add a letter. I have used an "-f" (for fewer) after the game name on some pages.

Here are explanations too some words that I use in this page:

* PP-trick is a way that I have found out (and perhaps you to), but you can't read it in the rules of the game.

* Supplies are all the different pieces that you can use to change the direction of the balls, or simply a ball. There are 14 different types of supplies (including the 4 different balls - bombs, rubber, metal and plastic), that you can use in a solution, and two other supplies (nails and magnets) that you can use when you create a puzzle.

* Arrow-ball is a ball with an yellow or a red arrow. The yellow-arrowed balls is possible to change direction, while you can't do anything with the red-arrowed balls.

Everytime, when you open a game in Playground it creates a "M-fil" in the folder "Program/Hasbro Interactive/Rubik´s Games/save/playg".
The games in the Rubik's Challenges starts with "M^100".
The Free-play games starts with "M^101".
All the other games that you download and create starts with "M^103".

All M-files has the same contruction. After M^103 it follows "P^" then "your playername" and a "L^" then "the name of the game" and finally ".bpl". For instans, if I (Pellepennan) creates a game called "Hello", then the M-file is: "M^103P^PellepennanL^Hello.bpl".
(Sometimes when sending files, and putting them on a homepage, you can get and extra ".bps" after the file-name, but that dissapeares when downloading it on your computer.

If you want to send your solution to another playgroundplayer, so that she/he can see how you solved a game for instans, it's very easy to do. You just mail over the "M^103-file to her/him."

The reciever then has to save the game in hers/his folder where all the "M-files" are saved: "Program/Hasbro Interactive/Rubik´s Games/save/playg".

To open the game, the receiver has to change the Playername when he starts Rubik's Games. After you have choosen Rubik's Playground, you usually click on your name, which comes up under "Player".
Now change the name to the same name as the playername has in the M-file that you want to look to. (In the Hello-game, you simply change Playername to Pellepennan).

You can try download the game here and see how it works out.
Hello

If you change player-namn to Pellepennan and then go into the "Create-puzzle-mode" you can se my solution.

I will add more to about the M-files in the future.