KYE
Kye is a win32 game made by Colin Garbutt, released in 1992. It was a Charity Shareware - you had to donate to Save the Children in order to register and get a lot of more levels.
I consider Kye to be one of the best games ever, because it combines strategy, reflexes and even speed.
It came with a level editor that allowed many people make their own levels, and their personalities got reflexed on them.
Yet it was a very simple game to understand the nice thing was the way the objects interacted.
It is 2005 and Kye still works well on my P4 computer.
The gameplay
You just have to get/eat all the diamonds in the level, but it is not as easy as it sounds, many dangers are present, traps made out of those arrow blocks, for example. Also beasts that try to eat you. There are plenty objects in the game:
- Walls block the way of kye and other objects
- You are able to push blocks
- Sliders are blocks marked with arrows that determine their direction, they will move towards their direction until their path is blocked.
- Rockies are the round version of the sliders, the difference is that round corners of walls or round blocks don't stop them if there is free space at the other side.
- Clockers / Aclockers are blocks that changed the direction of sliders and rockies.
- Sticky blocks are blocks that have magnetism .- they pull other objects to themselves and they are attracted to Kye.
- Bouncers are mobile blocks that push other objects then change their direction to the opposite.
- Timers are blocks that vanish after their timeout.
- Doors would only let you go towards one direction, and there is no way to know which is the direction unless you try the door manually.
- Auto sliders and auto rockies generated rockies or sliders constantly.
- Blackies absorved/killed other objects.
There were beasts but at least on the official levels the objective of the beasts was to present an intelligence puzzle or time limit rather than turning the game into an arcade kind of game like pacman.
Kye - The history
No, I am not the only Kye fan ever. Between 1992 many things have happened. This section has information about other versions of Kye. Some are official some are not.
This section will have descriptions of the versions, sometimes screenshots, at the end of the document you will find links for more information and even be able to download the Free versions.
Kye 1.0 - 2.0
The game I call the original Kye is actually the second version, 2.0 ; There was a Kye 1.0 it seems that the main difference is that Kye 2.0 also brought us auto sliders/rockies and doors.
Christmas Kye
I have never played THE christmas kye, I only got Kye JR. (see bellow) . Apparentally they are mostly the same but Kye JR. is freeware and has less levels OR other levels, I don't really know. But it was Kye with a christmas touch. And it was an official version. This game is present on a package called Christmas for windows.
Christmas Kye JR.
I got a copy of this game which seems to be freeware (A christmas gift!) It is kye but it has different sprites and a Low color quality christmas background.
It comes with 12 really though levels. And I enjoyed this version of the game, it doesn't come with the editor / option to open other levels - ouch.
Kye Deluxe
It seems that Kye JR. was made in order to draw attention into this project wich seemed to be a major upgrade to Kye, even more than Xye; I'll quote the Kye JR. help file : "Be prepared, we have placed some of the most intriguing mazes in KYE jr. - The Christmas Present. If you are up to the task of solving those we have placed here, then you may want to check out KYE Deluxe. Further information on KYE Deluxe is included in this help file".
And it was going to have some features:
Exciting New Features:
200+ Levels
KYE Deluxe features over 200 of the most challenging puzzles ever designed for a computer game. Each one of these new levels takes full advantage of the many new features unique to KYE Deluxe, enhancing the challenge and game experience.
A New Level Editor
You can also create your own challenges for KYE Deluxe by creating your own unique levels. You can even exchange levels with friends to challenge them with your own devilish conundrums.
Exciting New Graphics
KYE Deluxe features all new 3D graphics. KYE Deluxe also fully supports all 16 and 256 color cards under Windows for stunning visual effects.
Expanded Animation
All characters in KYE Deluxe now feature enhanced animation. Creative animation brings character to each of the various monsters, traps, and creatures in KYE Deluxe enhancing gameplay.
Enhanced Sound Support
KYE Deluxe fully supports all sound cards under Windows. Each action is easily identifiable by its sound. Clues as to how to best solve a level can also be gleaned by carefully listening to the high-quality sound effects.
Sound Configuration
You can also customize the sounds in KYE Deluxe any way you wish. All of the sounds are user configurable and can be replaced with any standard Windows audio file you choose.
Selectable Difficulty
You can set the difficulty of KYE Deluxe to best challenge you. You can also challenge yourself as you work your way through to becoming a KYE Expert.
New Scoring
KYE Deluxe allows you to keep score and challenge your friends and co-workers for best score. A high-score table lets you keep track of the KYE Champion and Challengers.
New Adversaries
KYE Deluxe incorporates several new adversaries and monster types each with their own unique character. Understanding how to complete the KYE maze may rely on best understanding your adversary.
Traps and Bonuses
Traps and Bonuses have been added to KYE Deluxe. You'll have to be careful to avoid the traps, but the bonuses may be very important if you are to successful navigate the maze.
New 3-D Interface
KYE Deluxe also features a much improved and enhanced 3D interface. With all of these new features, we also made them more fun to use... and to PLAY!
KYE Deluxe also features SO MUCH MORE...
Look for it soon from Kinesoft Development Corporation
But when you look for more info you find a message from Kinesoft : "unfortunally, we left Kye Deluxe on hold"
DR. Floyd's Kye
A desktop toys package, Dr Floyd's Desktop toys for Win 3.11 included a new version of kye, it wasn't different from the original version unless you cound perhaps different levels and mainly a background image to combine with the other desktop toys.
Reviews about this package highlight this puzzle game as one of the main features.
Amazing Kye
It is the latest "official version". Although it was made by Sergey A. Stolbov , it got a permission from Colin Garbutt.
It wasn't really a new Kye version. Many objects from original Kye (Well just monsters and doors) are missing, and you were not able to die. It seems Amazing Kye focuses on the "Moving Block riddle sindrome" of the kye game.
I never got to register, I actually liked Amazing Kye but for a Bolivian it is not that easy to register shareware software.
I can say that the unregistered version's levels were really challenging and fun to play.
The biggest issue with Amazing Kye is that it seems that even the registered version doesn't have an editor / way to edit levels.
Did I mention it got really nice graphics, music and sound? There is an exception though, the "Classic" skin didn't look at all like the classic game - had wrong colors / weird figures.
Kye 3.0
Another sf.net project Called Kye 3.0 It is really good but its development suddenly stopped. Also it didn't come with any new level to show the new features (unless you count the first level).
I noticed 2 features:
- Teleporter blocks
- The border of the game also works as a warp zone (this was a good idea because all the orignal Kye levels had a border of walls, thus now you can opt to not have a wall there but it becomes a teleport zone.
Well I really liked these features so I implemented them into Xye.
I didn't like a change in the game: monsters Have to move to your square to eat you instead on the way they act in the original Kye; And this stops some of my levels to work there because the combination sticky block - monster was a factor I used in some of them.
It didn't have an editor although I think it was on the plan sheet, but they could have explainned how to edit levels with a text editor and mainly how to use the teleporters in the new levels. Although you can figure out by looking at default.kye.
Python Kye
Have Never been a fan of python - Its syntax actually depends on indenting! - but Kye was succesfully cloned into a python version, granted the cloning was really succesful and people in linux were now able to play the Kye game. And it even has an editor.
Overall it is a very good clone, it is probably the most succesful at reproducing Kye
A good thing about python and interpreted languages is that there is little effort required to make them work on many versions of linux
Also Colin Philips , the author is also the author of some of the best kye levels and developer of PrBoom - A Doom port.
Since there is gtk+ and pygtk for win32 it should be possible to play this version on windows, but that might require to change some parts of the source
SKye
SKye by Jim Babcock, a very good clone featuring 2 new objects. I like the new objects and let's consider that this version allows you to play Kye on a Texas Instrument calculator.
Xye
I simply cannot judge xye myself so here we have what Colin Philips said about xye:
Also, I notice that there is yet another Kye clone sprung up on sourceforge: Xye. It looks more like a derivative than a clone, though, as it is not fully compatible, but instead has lots of new objects added to the game. No level editor yet though, and while you can convert Kye levels to its new level format, they won't necessarily work. And it is Windows-only for now.
Well, he is right in most parts. He wrote that evaluation before 0.6. Back then you were not able to open .kye files and required to convert them. Most of the .kye levels work. Most of the ones that do not work correctly just became easier, and very few became impossible because of the lack of diagonal movement (I still think that the only level that required diagonal movement was ADOORABLE in original Kye).
It is true that Xye just does not work well as a kye clone, I think I added way too many stuff
The editor is currently in development and we 'll hopefully be able to have many new levels soon
Many ports to pocket PCs
I never got the chance to see them but yes, they exist. Amazing Kye also has its pocket pc version.
Links
