June 27, 2004

My power namely that is large!

I've been playing this computer game called Zuma. I like it because I can sit down and play a few rounds and then just get up and move along with my day. A quick fix, a coffee break.

It's kind of an Aztec theme, with ancient temples and such. The player (that would be me) is a frog in the middle of the screen and with a left-click I spit out balls of various colors. There is a track along which run other balls of various colors. The tracks change length and configuration depending on the level of play. Some of the tracks are pretty crazy, looping back and forth and going through tunnels. New colors of balls are added in as levels progress and the speed of the balls racing around the track increases. The object is to make chains of at least three balls of the same color. Toss in "special" balls: explosion, backward, accuracy, slowdown. Every so often a coin will appear off to the side and if I can hit it with a ball, I get extra points. Another object is to not let the balls reach the end of the path and get gobbled up by the Dreaded Gaping Mouth. Because then the game is lost. The gaping mouth is to be avoided at all costs.

And as a player advances deeper into the temple, the Zuma speaks:
As for me it is not possible to believe! Your power namely that is large! But there is one more temple which you do not find, that the Zuma deeply buried under the land. It was hidden. It is the Temple of Secret! You the final temple must fight in order to take the cover of position of my jail!
Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? My mind seeks a tenuous parallel between the game of Zuma and life. The object of Zuma is quite clear. The who what where when why and how are laid out in an orderly progression and one must but decide which colored ball to send in which direction while relying on instinct and reaction to succeed. Sometimes you make a good shot and other times it goes completely awry. Can you sense the parallel also or is it just me?

Wendy and I have side by side computers where we sit and each do whatever needs doing and/or whatever our desires decide needs doing and at times discuss whatever it is we are doing while we are doing it. Works for us.

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