Microsoft Entertainment Pack: The Puzzle Collection is a collection of 10 puzzle

Computer puzzle game

Puzzle video games are a genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles to be solved can test many problem solving skills including logic, strategy, pattern recognition, sequence solving, and word completion....

 computer game

Personal computer game

A PC game, also known as a computer game, is a video game played on a personal computer, rather than on a video game console or arcade machine...

s developed by Mir - Dialogue and published by Microsoft Games. The creator of Tetris, Alexey Pajitnov, designed some of the games featured in the pack. It was released on CD-ROM

CD-ROM

A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....

 for Windows 95

Windows 95

Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...

. It was also bundled as part of the Microsoft Plus!

Microsoft Plus!

Microsoft Plus! was a commercial operating system enhancement product by Microsoft. The last edition is the Plus! SuperPack, which includes an assortment of screensavers, themes, and games, as well as multimedia applications...

 Game Pack which was released after Windows Me

Windows Me

Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me , is a graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft, and was the last operating system released in the Windows 9x series. Support for Windows Me ended on July 11, 2006....

.

A version was made for the Game Boy Color

Game Boy Color

The is Nintendo's successor to the 8-bit Game Boy handheld game console, and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan, November 19, 1998 in North America, November 23, 1998 in Europe and November 27, 1998 in the United Kingdom. It features a color screen and is slightly thicker and taller than...

. It features six of the games from the PC version (Fringer, Charmer, Mixed Genetics, and Muddled Casino have been omitted). http://www.mobygames.com/game/microsoft-puzzle-collection-entertainment-pack/

Presentation

Each game in the collection runs in a window using 256 colors

8-bit color

8-bit color graphics is a method of storing image information in a computer's memory or in an image file, such that each pixel is represented by one 8-bit byte. The maximum number of colors that can be displayed at any one time is 256....

. They use MIDI background music and digitized sound effects. Controls vary from game to game - each game uses either the keyboard

Computer keyboard

In computing, a keyboard is a typewriter-style keyboard, which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys, to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches...

 or the mouse

Mouse (computing)

In computing, a mouse is a pointing device that functions by detecting two-dimensional motion relative to its supporting surface. Physically, a mouse consists of an object held under one of the user's hands, with one or more buttons...

.

Games

• Fringer - Untie all the knots in a stage before a knot is pushed to the bottom of the screen, at which point the game ends.

• Finty Flush - Fill a 4×4 grid with predetermined combinations of marbles before the screen fills up with too many marbles.

• Mixed Genetics - Breed mutated animals in groups of three to create pure animals.

• Rat Poker - Coloured rats enter and walk clockwise around a playing area. Rats will only exit if they line up in specific patterns such as three in a row of the same colour. The player lifts rats off the 'conveyor belt' onto rotating spokes, and then releases them again in the best order so that they will exit and the playing area is not overrun.

• Lineup - Various pentomino
  Pentomino
  A pentomino is a polyomino composed of five congruent squares, connected along their edges ....
  
  es composed of sports balls must be placed on the playing field to form a continuous row from one end to the other. When this is done, all shapes used to form the row will disappear. The game continues until the queue of shapes waiting to be placed fills up.

• Jewel Chase - Steal as much loot as possible before the other, computer-controlled robber does and get to the exit first or you lose. The playing area is a colour maze. At any time a robber occupies a square made up of up to 4 different colours. When the player selects an arrow-key, the robber will move to the nearest square if available in that direction that has a colour in common with the current square. The game can be played in a training mode which allows you to walk the 100 colour mazes collecting all gems without a time limit.

• Color Collision - Control a ray of light and hit sun-like discs of matching colour. Bonuses are scored for hitting discs when they are smiling, "turned on", or about to explode, etc. depending on the level.

• Charmer - Charm snakes to a vine to make their pots disappear, without letting the lids fall and create another pot.

• Spring Weekend - Arrange the garden critters into a certain pattern before your moves run out. The playing area is a hexagonal grid. By right-clicking or left-clicking on a hexagon position, all 6 adjacent hexagons will rotate clockwise or anti-clockwise respectively.

• Muddled Casino - Figure out how to move the cards off the table in the correct order to beat the house.