BEIKS Color Lines for BlackBerry

Color Lines is a board game mixing logic and luck for a simple yet extremely addictive playing experience.

The BEIKS' version of the game for the BlackBerry platform is based on the classic Color Lines by Gamos Software, a Russian company which, to the best of our knowledge, was the first to release Color Lines.

The game quickly became extremely popular and at some point was reportedly more popular than Tetris itself in Russia. Yet the two games are totally different in concept and playing experience.

We at BEIKS are avid Color Lines fans and do our best to present the game to every major mobile platform.

Since its initial release in mid 90s the game had seen many modifications, extensions and other changes by various developers around the world. Some have indeed been for the good. Others have not.

And although we ourselves offer an "extended" playing mode we can't help but notice that the game shines in its original, simple and - again - terribly addictive implementation, which we try to preserve in every release we make.

Rules

The game is played on a rectangular board, where user takes turns to play with the color balls.

Each turn starts with three balls falling on random free cells on the board. The user can see the three games that are about to occupy the board on the next turn, but doesn't know where they will drop, because it is randomly decided.

Once the balls drop, the user can relocate one ball on the board. This is done by selecting the ball to be relocated and then indicating the place to where it should go; there must be a clean path of unoccupied cells that the ball can move through in order to reach the desired destination. Balls can not move diagonally or jump over other balls.

With 3 balls falling each turn, the board will apparently get full quickly, unless there is a way to somehow get rid of them.

To remove balls from the board the user needs to arrange a horizontal or vertical line of five or more balls of the same color.

When that happens, the whole line disappears and the player gets both points and more room to play. The longer the line, the more points are awarded (e.g. imagine 3 green balls, empty cell and then another three green balls; by relocating a green ball between the two triads, the user can get a total of 7 balls).

The game ends when the board gets full and there is no more space for new balls to drop.

Basically, that is Color Lines in its classic form!

Once the user purchases and enters an activation key, he or she can also switch to Advanced mode, where there are some additional types of objects that can fall and be operated on the board. Those include wildcard balls (balls that can be any color), mixed color balls, score multiplier balls, rocks, granades, paint buckets etc.

Some say the goal of Color Lines is to gain points, because this is how you get the highest score in the Hall Of Fame.
Others claim that the real goal of the game is to make sure you keep the board clean since that is the only way to keep scoring points.

Controls

The variety of BlackBerry devices and the differences among them present certain challenges in both implementing and explaining the game controls.

While in game mode, there is a rectangular cursor blinking over the currently highlighted cell on the board.
You can move the cursor around, but depending on the BlackBerry model that is achieved differently.

It is easiest and most natural on BlackBerries with trackballs such as the ones found in the 8100, 8200, 8300, 8800 and 9000 models.
In this case you just use the trackball to move the cursor around and click to indicate selection - picking or dropping a ball.

On devices with track wheels, such as the 8700, 7100 and all other old, rolling the wheel moves the cursor vertically and seemingly you are not able to move it horizontally.
However, you can achieve that by holding down the ALT button while rolling the wheel.
Alternatively, you can use the game's menu mode to assign particular buttons for the up, down, left, right and selection buttons.

Note that because the trackball/wheel clicking is being interpreted as a sell selection request, it does NOT by default serve its usual function of invoking the application menu.

Instead, by default you must press the "0" button to invoke the game's graphical menu. You can change that button along with the others, though.
Note that on some devices in order to enter "0" you must hold down the NUM or ALT button!