| The following software products are available from Spoonbill Software.
| Note: All our products are 100% Freeware and run only on Windows 95/98/2000/ME/XP (and should work on all other later Windows operating systems)
| If you would like a copy of any of them, just contact us by e-mail, stating which products you require and we will forward them to you by return e-mail.
| Please feel free to tell us what you think of our products. We always welcome constructive comments and any suggestions for future new games or other applications.
| If you have any problems with installing the software sent to you please contact us via e-mail at the address below. Send your request to Ian Humphreys (together with your full name and country) at: irhumph@omninet.net.au e.g. My name is Joe Blow from Utah, USA, please send the following games... IMPORTANT: I have no commercial affiliations and I guarantee that your details will not be disclosed to a third party. I retain your details solely for the purpose of contacting you when bug fixes, enhancements or upgrades are made to the games you have previously requested. SPOONBILL SOFTWARE NEWS - If you like this site and would like to be put on our mailing list for automatic notification of new games and upgrades, just drop a line to Ian Humphreys and ask to receive SPOONBILL SOFTWARE NEWS. You can view the latest newsletter by clicking the Newsletter button. Cribbage Version 2.0 Requires DirectX Released September 2004 (1.3 MB) Spoonbill Software's Cribbage game has just received a complete new makeover thanks to Steve Watkins who found several bugs with the previous version. He played it to death long into the night and got it to crash in several situations including when Large Fonts were set. Since this game has not been revisited since it was written in 1997, rather than delve into the code and try to patch the existing version, I decided to completely rewrite the game to give a fresh new look and playability. Cribbage 2.0 now uses Direct-X for animation of the card movements, has optional background music, an option to turn off the score breakdown boxes which some of my users found annoying and several other improvements. I also noticed in the process of rewriting that although I touched on one or two of the rules of Cribbage in the on-line help, I'd forgotten to include the full rules for those people who have never played before. So this has been corrected in the new help. If you enjoyed the original Cribbage, or even if you've never played it, you'll love Cribbage 2.0. Apple Lode Runner - The Remake Version 1.0a Requires DirectX Released September 2004 (1.4 MB) - includes Bonus Pack 1 Apple Lode Runner - The Remake was suggested by Fred Pence who in his younger days back in the early 1980s was an avid fan of the original Apple II game by Doug Smith. Here's the Spoonbill Software version. For those of you who are not familiar with this game, it is an action / puzzle game combining quick reactions with logical reasoning. You progress from level to level by collecting the treasure chests and avoiding the guards. Your only defence, apart from your quick wits, is a laser pistol which you can use to dig holes to temporarily trap the guards. When you have collected all the treasure chests on a level, you must climb to the top of the level before proceeding to the next level. Some levels are more action than puzzle, whilst others are more puzzle than action. The 150 levels which came with the original Apple game are here, plus the 50 levels from the later Championship Lode Runner and a bonus set of 150 levels by the Lode Runner master, Fred Pence himself. This minor version 1.0a includes 4 new level map sets, Quickies, Hyper LR, CWG Contest and LR Pics - 441 new levels to challenge you! In addition, you can save a game and resume the game later, record your achievements in the High Scores table, design your own levels, and organize levels which you have created by rearranging them or deleting unwanted ones. There are lots more goodies. Fruit Drops - Version 1.0 Requires DirectX Released March 2004 (650 KB) Fruit Drops was suggested by Eric Mortimer. Here's the Spoonbill Software version. Position the falling blocks of fruit so that they make a line, horizontally, vertically or diagonally. A line must contain 3 or more of the same fruit. When you make a line, these tiles are removed and you score points. Your immediate aim is to keep the playing area as clear as possible by making as many lines of fruit as possible. The more lines you make at once, the more points you score. When tiles are removed, tiles above them fall down to take their place. If another line or lines is created in the process, this is called a cascade and scores double points. A second cascade scores triple points etc. The game is over as soon as one of the piles of tiles reaches the top of the playing area. This is a simple, addictive game. Order your copy today! Apple Serpentine - The Remake Requires DirectX Released November 2003 (1.6 MB) This is a major upgrade to Serpentine 1.0. It introduces a new ORIGINAL game mode which plays as closely as possible to the original Serpentine as implemented on the Apple computer. The screenshot on the left is from Apple Serpentine - The Remake and the screenshot on the right is from the original Apple version of Serpentine. The release of Apple Serpentine - The Remake has provided the opportunity of fully integrating the rather fragmented offering in Serpentine 1.0. Apple Serpentine - The Remake now contains:
| A fully integrated Level Organizer.
| A fully integrated Full Screen / Windowed option.
| MIDI music files to provide background music.
| New ORIGINAL mode of play which follows as closely as possible the rules and scoring of the original 1982 Broderbund game.
| All the original Level maps by David Snider.
| The algorithm which computes the snake return path at the end of the level has been completely re-written and optimized. The snake now always returns to its home by the SHORTEST path in JUNIOR, EASY and HARD game modes only. The original non-direct algorithm is retained for ORIGINAL mode in keeping with the behaviour in original Apple game.
| A choice of several different wall designs for the mazes, one of which, Magenta, is most like the original Apple ][ walls.
| A choice of several different colors for your Player snake and the Enemy snakes including the original look snakes from the Apple version of the game (see the screenshot above).
| A slider to set the Snake speed and PLUS and MINUS keystrokes to change the snake speed during a game.
| Comprehensive, completely integrated on-line Help.
| Level Map Sets. Now you can have more than one set of Level maps. Any Level map set can be associated with each of the four game modes. The release version associates the ORIGINAL Level Map Set with the ORIGINAL game mode and the MAGNOLIA Level Map Set with the other three game modes.
You'll also find many other things have been tidied up. I think you'll like the new look Serpentine!
Boggle Deluxe 1.1 (2.3 MB) Requires DirectX Boggle Deluxe is a complete rewrite of Spoonbill Software's original Boggle game. It has all the features of the original Boggle but with many new exciting features including:
| Improved graphics
| Continuous updating of the round scores and the total scores for all players.
| Additional options and game parameters which are remembered between sessions.
| Solo play against the computer.
| Solve It! mode where you try to find all possible words without a time limit.
| Analysis of the Boggle grid showing all the possible words including the ones you missed!
| Separate main Boggle dictionary and User supplemental dictionary so that you don't lose all your additional words when you install a newer version.
| Play Boggle with the Challenge cube - introduced by Parker Brothers into their Boggle game in 1983.
| Completely solve any Boggle grid, including the ones from the "manual" game. See how many words you missed finding!
| Choose whether to run the game in Full Screen or Windowed mode.
| A choice of Keyboard or Mouse input for your words. In the picture below, the mouse graphic next to the Boggle title indicates that Mouse input is in effect.
> If you like Boggle, you'll love Boggle Deluxe! Rockfall (881KB) Requires DirectX Remove rocks by clicking on groups of 3 or more of the same color. Rocks fall vertically and also roll sideways if unsupported by other rocks. Clear the rocks to score points and prevent the rock pile from reaching the top. More rocks are added from the bottom at a quicker and quicker rate as you proceed through the levels. In later, faster levels, you have the added advantage of a cluster bomb which removes a group of rocks in its vicinity and colored bombs which remove all rocks of the same color from the rock pile. Explode a bomb by clicking on it. To maximize your score you should aim to make large groups of rocks of one color before clearing them. The larger the group cleared, the larger your score for the group. If you clear a group and score 200 points or more you get a x10 bonus (the group score is multiplied by 10). You also get a massive bonus score for entirely clearing the rock pile, but this is much harder to do on later levels as the pace gets more frantic! Tyrron 2 (1.8MB) Requires DirectX Spoonbill's latest release is a completely revamped version of the original Tyrron game which has now been withdrawn. Tyrrons are fierce green creatures that will eat you up at any opportunity. Avoid Tyrrons at all costs or you will be killed. The object is to accumulate as many points as possible. The higher the level the more points you are awarded. To complete a level, you must collect all the Diamonds and drop all the Gold Coins in the Wishing Well. Once you have collected all the treasures, you must find the Golden Key and carry it to the Level Exit and open it to proceed to the next level. In doing this you must avoid Black Holes and Electric Sparks (which can kill you), and Water, Mud and Ice which can slow you down. To help you there are various power-ups you can find such as a flask of Elixir (which allows you to kill Tyrrons), a Magic Pill (which allows you to pass through objects such as Rocks and Trees) and Winged Boots (which allow you to jump over objects). Magic Mushrooms may have to be eaten to discover something valuable underneath. But beware, these will befuddle you and all movement keys will operate in reverse! On some levels Teleports stations allow quick travel from one place to another. The game is played on a Level Map 31 x 31 tiles in size. Less than a quarter of this is visible at any one time. As you move your Player around, the map scrolls to reveal previously hidden parts. 25 Level Maps are supplied with the original game plus 4 Bonus levels. They are arranged to provide a challenging game. Great sound and background music make Tyrron2 a game to be experienced. And that's not all! On top of all this, there is a fully integrated Level Designer which allows you to invent your own challenging levels! And the best thing is - it is all completely FREE OF CHARGE! BALListic (1.4 MB) Requires DirectX Shoot balls to form groups and clear the layout to advance to the next level. Sometimes the cannon is stationary and sometimes it moves from side to side really testing your aiming skills. As you advance through the levels Skulls appear. These are more difficult to get rid of because the cannon can only shoot balls, not Skulls! Drop revolving skulls for big bonuses. On higher levels you get balls of additional colors making the layout harder to clear. Games can be saved and loaded at a later time to continue. Includes a background music feature which allows you to replace the supplied background music with your own background music. Anita's Word Challenge (1.7 MB) Requires DirectX Anita's Word Challenge is an exciting word game where you make words to increase your score whilst trying to make Target words before your letter allocation runs out! You make words by swapping two letter tiles with each other, and any words either across or down which contain either of the swapped letters are scored. The more words you make in one move the more you score. The letters used in scoring words are then removed from the grid, the tiles fall down and the empty spaces left at the top are filled with new random letter tiles. But to advance to the next level and get a new letter allowance, you must make all of the Target words before your letter allowance runs out or the game is over! While all this is going on, lock Super Bonus letters into the Super Bonus word and when you complete the Super Bonus word, you will be awarded a Super bonus. If you get stuck, you can always blow up tiles with your stick of dynamite! But beware - you will be penalized for doing this! Quad (620K) Quad is a topological game of skill. In a way it is like Tetris but without the pressure of a time limit. The object of the game is to get as many points as possible. To do this you must keep the board as clear as possible. When there is no more room to play a piece, the game is over. The only way to clear the board of played pieces is by making a rectangle of the specified size made up of cells of a single color. We'll refer to this as a Quad. When you make a Quad, all the cells of the Quad will be removed, together with all the cells of the same color which form a contiguous area with the Quad. Each play consists of playing the piece in the top preview panel onto the board. You can rotate the piece in any one of four ways. You try to play each piece so that you build up areas of the same color. A glance at the next four pieces will help you decide where to play the current piece. Beware of the "rogue" multi-color pieces! SCAN Solitaire (810K) Requires DirectX SCAN Solitaire is a derivative of the original SCAN (Shape, Color And Number) game for two players. Position the triangular tiles on the board matching as many attributes along an edge as possible. Match attributes along two or all three edges in one play to boost your score even further. The tile in the middle is the starter tile, you play the other 72 tiles which are all different. When you have completely filled the board with tiles, if your score is good enough, it will be added to the Top Ten. CLAIM! Solitaire (800K) Requires DirectX CLAIM Solitaire is played on a special board with a random selection of playing pieces or tiles, chosen from a pool of 76 different ones. The tile pool is the same as for the normal game of CLAIM (75 tiles) plus an extra blank tile. Each tile contains 9 square units of area (3 by 3), divided in various ways by heavy lines which represent boundary fences. As each random tile is displayed in the preview area, you play it onto the board, placing the tiles such that you can enclose as much territory as possible. The larger the territory you claim, the more points you score. For example, for a territory with an area of 2 square units, you score 3 points, whilst for a territory with an area of 15 square units, you score 120 points and for a territory with an area of 30 square units, you score 465 points. Fences at the edges of the board and fences around islands within the playing area count as boundaries for the purposes of enclosing a territory, but you cannot claim the green islands as territory. Balls (675K) Balls is a game of logic. At the start of the game you are presented with a random layout of colored balls which react to gravity when balls beneath them are removed. In other words, a ball can fall vertically if the ball beneath it is removed, or it can roll sideways if supporting balls at either side of it are removed. Balls cannot roll horizontally, only downhill. The object of the game is to score as many points as possible by removing balls from the layout. The larger the number of contiguous balls in a group, the more points you score for removing that group. When you have removed as many groups of balls as possible, and the number of moves left becomes zero, this is the end of the game, and your score, if it is good enough, will be added to the Top Ten Scores. If you can remove all but the last few balls, instead of being the end of the game, you will get a bonus game to allow you to further increase your score. Brick Out (883K) Requires DirectX Brick Out is a game which requires skill and dexterity. Using the bat, you direct the ball to hit colored bricks and destroy them. For each brick you destroy, you get points. The object of the game is to get as many points as possible. The game consists of a number of levels which get progressively more difficult, but to compensate for greater difficulty you also get more points for each brick. You complete a level when you have destroyed all its bricks. Bricks with the same color as the ball, score more points than bricks with a different color. You can also score a bonus if you complete a level within an allotted time. The faster you complete the level, the higher the number of bonus points you are awarded. Of course, if you take too long, you get no bonus at all. From time to time, a piece of fruit will appear for a short time. If you can hit the fruit with your ball before it disappears, you get a valuable addition to your score. The game comes with 7 pre-defined levels but you can design as many more of your own as you wish using the built-in Level Editor. Deflector (1193K) Requires DirectX Deflector is a game of skill. You must guide a ball around the playing surface and collect treasures. Points are scored for each treasure you collect and when you have collected all the treasures on a level, you proceed to the next level. At the end of a level, a bonus is added to your score depending on how quickly you cleared the level. If you do not clear the level within the maximum allotted time for the level, the game is over. You guide the ball around the playing surface by placing deflectors in its way. Once a deflector has been placed, it cannot subsequently be removed. Level 1 contains treasures but no obstacles. Subsequent levels contain randomly scattered obstacles to make your task of collecting the treasures more difficult. The higher the level the more obstacles there are to impede your progress! The game ends when your ball is trapped. You try to beat your previous highest score. Card Games Cribbage (1,710K) Superseded by Cribbage 2.0 (1.3 MB) released August 2004 Cribbage is one of the oldest of card games and is primarily a game for two players, although it can also be played by three or four. This computer game implements the two-player game, you versus the computer. There are three distinct forms of the game, known respectively as Five-card, Six-card and Seven-card Cribbage. They differ in the number of cards dealt to each player. Again, this computer game implements only the more popular Six-card game. Freecell Solitaire (667K) Requires DirectX Freecell is a solitaire card game with a larger proportion of skill than most solitaire card games. All 52 cards of the deck are dealt face-up so you know where all of the cards are at all times. The only luck is in the random distribution of the cards at the start of the game. Some layouts are simple to solve whilst others are diabolical. It has not been proven that any layout is impossible so assume that each layout can be solved. Build cards in suits from Ace to King on the Home cells. Build cards in descending sequences of alternate black and red cards on the columns of the layout. Use the four Free cells as temporary parking areas for cards which are not immediately useful. Shortcuts for moving cards and automatic playing of cards onto Home cells when they are no longer required in the layout make this version of Freecell Solitaire a pleasure to play. Hi-Lo Solitaire (305K) The object of this card game is to remove all the cards from the layout. An exposed card can be removed to the top of the starter pile if its rank is one more or one less than the rank of the starter card. This removed card becomes the new starter card. When no more cards can be removed by following this rule, another card is dealt from the stock to the starter pile. This then becomes the new starter card. If all the cards are cleared from the layout, the pack is reshuffled and re-dealt and the game continues with another round. If all the stock has been dealt and you cannot remove all the cards from the layout, the game ends. You try to beat your previous highest score. Nomination Whist (322K - Version 2.0 released February 2003) In Version 2.0, the following new features have been added.
> | You can play a Short game (13 deals) or a Long game (25 deals).
> | You can elect to have NT (No Trumps) as a fifth trump suit.
> | You can select either Random or Cyclic generation of trumps.
> As its name implies, this game is a member of the Whist family of card games. It is similar to straight Whist in as much as each of the four players plays individually and not as partners as in the various Bridge varieties of the game. It is similar to Bridge, and Solo Whist in as much as there is a round of bidding beforehand, where each player estimates how many tricks he or she will take having regard for the current trumps and the number of cards dealt. Its own uniqueness comes from the fact that each subsequent deal has fewer and fewer cards. All 52 cards are dealt at the first deal, 13 to each player. On the second deal each player receives 12 cards and so on until the 13th and final deal finds each player with a single card. After thirteen deals, the game is over and the player with the highest score is the winner of that game. You may elect to play more than one round, in which case the player with the most number of game wins is the overall winner. In this simulation, you play South and the computer plays West, North and East. Knock! (885K) Knock! is based on a game called Elevens which can be played by any number of players between 3 and 5. This computer version allows only four players, you, the human player, and three computer players. The game is played in rounds. Each round consists of dealing a number of cards, playing the cards to the table, followed, at the end of the round by the scoring of that round. Each round is complete as soon as one player has played all the cards in his hand. The scores for each round are totalled and the player with the highest score at the end of a designated number of rounds or after one or more players reach a predetermined number of points, is declared the winner. This game does not use an ordinary deck of cards, but has its own unique deck. Other Games Adventure (425K) A revamp of the original Adventure game on DEC mainframes which was command line driven and text only. Rather than complex graphics it relied on your imagination to create your environment from on-screen location descriptions. Most of the locations and puzzles are still here but it has been brought a little more up-to-date for the PC Windows operating system. The location descriptions remain text only to allow your imagination to run riot, but the objects you come across and pick up are portrayed in graphics. There are several other modernizations to make the game more enjoyable. If you really get stuck, a map of the cave system can be supplied. Jigsaw Version 4.1 (830 KB) Released February 2004 Jigsaw 4.1 is a major new version of our popular electronic jigsaw puzzle software. Now you can create jigsaw puzzles directly from Windows Bitmap files or from compressed JPEG files. The JPEG option means that you can now store your Jigsaw images in compressed format on disk, thus saving oodles of disk space. Two JPEG images are included with the new version to start you off. Other new features include Auto Fit option to automatically scale your picture to fit comfortably on your screen, a status bar which continuously displays the settings of the most common options. These options can also be set by clicking on the status bar. Show/Hide the box top window. Progress bar for Remove Transparency tool. Optional manual positioning of the picture before shuffling the pieces. Red Square (260K) This is a block-sliding puzzle game. The object is to slide the colored blocks within the puzzle frame and to maneuver the Red Square from its starting position to the opposite corner marked in red. The minimum number of moves to achieve this is 38 and this is your goal. Once you can do the puzzle easily in the minimum number of moves, you can then time yourself against the clock to see how fast you can do it! Simon Says (375K) Simon Says is a game of skill which can be played by from 1 to 5 players. It is especially suitable for children. It is basically a memory game using a combination of both sight and sound. The player with the best memory will generally win the game. It also tests your powers of concentration! The computer generates a sequence of musical notes which the player has to copy. Each time the player copies the sequence correctly, it is played again but extended by one note. The sequence becomes longer and longer until an incorrect note is clicked and the player's turn ends. Each game consists of a series of rounds, to make the game as fair as possible, each player is given the same series of notes as the other players for a particular round. A new sequence of notes is generated for each new round. The player with the highest score at the end of the game is the winner. Other Programs which are not games Crossword Compiler (1414K) Updated September 2002 to Version 3.4 Version 3.4 includes a new, improved Anagram feature and a larger alternative English dictionary including some foreign words and phrases useful in crosswords. Crossword Compiler is designed to produce professional crossword puzzles whose format is square or rectangular. If you want to produce non-standard crossword puzzles with fancy shapes, this is not the application for you. Crossword Compiler allows you, the crossword compiler, to follow the logical steps in creating a quality crossword puzzle.
> | You start out by designing a skeleton (or you can used a previously-created skeleton).
> | The next process involves populating the skeleton with words. Here Crossword Compiler can assist you by providing a suggestion list of words which fit the missing letters of the word you are entering.
> | When you have fully populated the crossword grid with words, the next step is to compile the clues.
> | The final step is to print the crossword and clues onto paper.
Crossword compiler comes complete with an 80,000 word dictionary and functions such as suggestions for words with missing letters. The Find Word function is handy for solving crossword puzzles. For instance, if the answer to one of the clues is a word .T...GE (where . denotes a missing letter), the Find Word function will give you a list of three words which fit this pattern, STORAGE, STOWAGE and STRANGE. The Edit Dictionary function allows you to add, modify and delete words in the dictionary.

##### Send mail to irhumph@omninet.net.au with questions or comments about this web site. Last modified: September 22, 2004