InkBall

InkBall running on Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

Inkball is a computer game by Microsoft that was introduced in Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005. It is also included with all editions of Windows Vista except the Starter and Home Basic editions. InkBall employs the use of a stylus or mouse to draw lines to direct balls into holes of corresponding colors.

On Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, a pen tablet was required to play the game properly, as the mouse cursor was not visible inside the game window. However, pressing Alt twice while playing the game will cause the mouse cursor to show up. In Windows Vista, it can also be played using the mouse without any issues. InkBall is not part of later versions of Windows, and is removed when users update from Windows XP or Vista to Windows 7.

Gameplay

Points are awarded for putting colored balls in the correct hole, time left at the end of the round, and for breaking blocks. The game is over when time runs out, or when a ball enters a hole of the wrong color. There are five colors: Orange, yellow, green, blue, and gray. However, gray is a neutral color and therefore if a gray ball goes into the hole of a different color, or if any ball goes into a gray hole, nothing will happen. Some blocks have special properties, such as breaking when hit, opening and closing at intervals, changing the ball's color or making the ball accelerate. InkBall has a variety of difficulty levels, ranging from Beginner, to Novice, to Intermediate, to Advanced and finally to Expert. As the difficulty increases, the time to move the balls into their correct hole(s) is dramatically lowered, and the overall complexity of the task increases substantially.

External links

• Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005: Inkball at Microsoft (archived 2004-07-14)
• InkBall at Wikipedia