Microsoft InkBall and PowerToys for Tablet PC
Published: July 15, 2003
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When you've had enough work and want to play games on your Tablet PC, you'll find that all the games included with Windows XP work well with a pen, except for Pinball. Tablet PC also comes with a brand new game that requires a pen and is only available to tablet users—Microsoft InkBall.
InkBall is reminiscent of Pong or Breakout except you use ink strokes instead of a paddle. The goal is to bounce colored balls off ink strokes you lay down on the game board and put them in holes of the matching color without letting any balls enter holes of a different color. Once a stroke is hit by the ball, the stroke disappears, so you'll need pretty continuous pen work as the boards get more difficult.
You're awarded points by how fast you clear the board and by the color of the balls you sink. Gray balls are worth nothing but can go in any hole, red are worth 200, blue 400, green 800, and gold 1600. Just to keep things interesting, there's also a time limit, walls that disappear or only block certain balls, walls that change the color of the balls, and ramps that speed up or slow down balls.
Although the possibilities for play are nearly endless, in this column I'll cover the must-have moves to get you going playing InkBall. I'll also introduce two of my favorite Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, New York Times Crossword Puzzle on MSNBC.com, and Microsoft Tablet Pool.
Bounce Balls off Ink Strokes
If there's a key to InkBall, it's learning how a ball will bounce off the ink and laying down strokes well in advance of the ball.
To start InkBall:
| • | Tap Start, tap All Programs, tap Games, and then tap InkBall. |
For examples and an explanation of all the different game elements, see InkBall Help. Some useful techniques to master are the following:
Flat Shot—A flat shot just reverses the direction of the ball, as shown in Figure 1. In a pinch, just tapping a quick dot directly in front of the ball has the same effect.
Figure 1
Bumper Shot—Just like a bumper shot in billiards, the angle the ball hits a stroke determines the angle it leaves, as shown in Figure 2. Forty-five degree bounces are the easiest to predict, but virtually any angle is possible. These shots work best if you have a moment to plan them out before the ball gets there.
Figure 2
Curve Trap—Like a concave mirror, a curved stroke generally sends a ball back toward a specific point no matter what angle it arrived from, as shown in Figure 3. This shot is handy for convincing a stubborn ball to get into the hole. It helps to lay down two or three curves on top of one another, so if the first one doesn't do the job, the second or third will.
Figure 3
Defensive Ring—One of the hardest parts of InkBall is trying to keep the balls you aren't working on out of trouble while you focus on getting a specific ball sunk. One way to do it is to totally block off the holes you don't want balls to enter with lots of separate circles, as shown in Figure 4. The circles can overlap, but they need to be many separate strokes so that it will take several collisions before the hole is exposed. A variant on this technique is walling a ball into a corner temporarily with a bunch of flat or curve strokes.
Figure 4
Develop InkBall Techniques
InkBall is a great game. Spend some time on the beginner level, really learning how ink strokes affect the ball. These boards are sometimes so easy you can win without doing anything, but they're the best place to hone your game. You'll develop your own favorite techniques as you play. Here are a few more tips to help you learn the ropes:
| • | Watch the color of the balls queued up in the upper left before they come out and plan your first few ink strokes to send them in the right direction. |
| • | Pause the game on the harder boards to figure out a strategy. |
| • | You can draw ink over walls, so don't worry about making neat strokes on the game board. |
| • | If you set up a trap with many ink strokes and don't use them all, use the Clear Ink command on the Game menu to get rid of them and open up the hole again. |
| • | When the balls start moving too fast, you can slow down a ball by creating a head-on collision with another ball. It's not easy, but it does work. |
Whatever technique you're working on, don't focus on one part of the board for too long. Balls in other parts of the board have a way of getting into trouble if you don't keep an eye on them.
PowerToys for Tablet PC
While we're talking about games, the free Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP Tablet PC Edition includes eight games specifically developed or adapted for the Tablet PC. Some of the games are cute demonstrations of using a pen for play, such as the Drawing Animator Toy for Tablet PC, and some are great for keeping your kids busy like Tic Tac Toe and the Maze Game. The two games that really stand out for adult play are the New York Times Crossword Puzzle on MSNBC.com and Microsoft Tablet Pool.
New York Times Crossword Puzzle on MSNBC.com requires an Internet connection to download the daily New York Times Crossword to your desktop. Once downloaded, you can play offline throughout the day. Your partially-completed puzzle is automatically saved. If you're a crossword puzzle fan, this game is a must.
Microsoft Tablet Pool is an adaptation of a pool game developed by Terra Games and is more sophisticated than other PowerToy games. If you're only going to try one PowerToy game, try Microsoft Tablet Pool. The ball animation and sounds are fantastic and the game is great fun to play. The results of putting "English" on the ball or adjusting your cue angle are almost exactly what you would get on a real pool table. Can you tell I like to play pool?
Using the pen as cue does take a bit of getting used to. The only real quirk of Microsoft Tablet Pool is it only works in landscape orientation. My Toshiba Portege 3505 automatically switches to portrait mode when I stow the keyboard, so I must manually switch back to landscape mode before starting the game.
While you're getting a feel for Microsoft Tablet Pool, go to the Chalk menu (looks like a pool cue chalk cube) and turn on the Aim Line feature. This shows you the exact path the cue ball will take from any angle.
Although the lower processing power and small size of Tablet PCs don't make them ideal gaming machines for high-end games, there are great games to play on your tablet. Combined with the Tablet PC's extreme portability, tablet games are a fun way to take a break from the daily grind and just goof off for a while!
 | Jeff Van West is the author of over a dozen books, CDs, and training curricula about computers, technology, and aviation.
Titles include Microsoft Tablet PC Quick Reference (Microsoft Press, 2002) and
Illustrator CS Hands-On-Training (Peachpit Press, 2004).
His multimedia training programs are used in North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan. An advocate of what he terms "appropriate technology," Jeff focuses on applying the best solution to accomplish the task, rather than using cool features just because they're there. He can be reached at Van West Communications.
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