Microsoft Director Brad Becker, recently published an article about the Future of Silverlight. Becker gives a decent argument why there is space for Silverlight on the planet, even though HTML5 is coming.

I would approach the argument from a simpler angle. Back in 1997, Java was only one year old. Evangelists predicted that Java would be on every thinkable device on the planet, even your refrigerator. Java would also conquer the Desktop. Well, Java was useful in many ways, but absolutely did not conquer the Desktop. Being platform independent, Java could not support the rich Windows features, which weren’t available in e.g. X11. Java didn’t conquer the desktop, because it supported a platform common denominator.

That’s the problem with being on many platforms, you can only support a smaller feature set than the richest platform.

Flash was ported to many platforms, taking Flash’s own features to the new platform. Silverlight is taking the same road. While a standard like HTML needs to be available on any platform, Adobe and Microsoft are the ones who choose which platforms they want to support; keeping the weak platforms out of the game.

So in this constellation, HTML5 will always be average, compared to Flash/Silverlight, which are designed to be excellent. And that is really all there is to it.

People like excellence, while developers – not normal people – like standards. As excellence sells, I expect that HTML5 will never be a killer for Flash/Silverlight.

The more you play ‘em, The more you love ‘em: online browser adventure games. These are not games to play at lunch, rather you sit down to play them and waste your evening, when there’s nothing on TV. Amazing what great games are available. Click on the links to play.

Harry Quantum: Episode 1

Get your own Inspector Gadget, the creator of this game must have thought. Well he did. And the first person you meet in the game is B.A. Baracus. What, a look alike? Shut up you fool! Harry Quantum is one of those adventure games which – they say, is different than other adventure games. I got stuck at one point, where you need to use an inventory item on an object, while I already lost it in another scene to another object. So this is one of those adventures which you can lose. The creators put a lot of humor in to the game, which makes this game very nice to play.

Create a crop circle, to attract an alien ship

Find all hidden TV-signals within 30 steps, minesweeper but now different

The Fog Fall 3

Very atmospheric adventure game. The art and sound effect really give an intriguing and mysterious feeling while you play. I didn’t have a clue what the objective is, which is a big positive point. The game is about finding out, what the game is about. This game has an autosave function, so that you can return at a later moment. Very cool feature!

In a mysterious house, just browsing..

Somewhere under the ground, you find a broken bicycle

The controls can be somewhat unnatural at times. However the story, the graphics and the way objects are hidden in the scenes make me really appreciate this game.

Morning Star

You crashed your spaceship onto the planet and you friend has been speared in the cockpit. Great game, with great graphics. The objective, as far as I’ve played, is to repair the ship, rescue the speared captain, and get the spaceship back in the air. I think. This addicting game has a save game feature, which is really useful.

Entered the engine room with an electric doll

The suit sealed the speared captain’s wounds

Cargo blocking your way

Here are a couple of very interesting pixel games. Pixel games are to give you a retro-nostalgic feeling. Click on the links to play.

Color Theory
Brilliant pixel platform game. You need to find your way through this, well, sort-of maze and get to some wormhole thing. The funny thing is, when you touch colored items in a level, the platforms change. Some platforms disappear and others appear, changing the rule of game.

Jump on that red plus-sign to get rid of the red platforms

Pixel
A very good chain-reaction clone. You pick your own avatar and then you shoot enemies. These enemies explode pixels, which can kill other enemies. The fun with this game is that it has continues play. Most chain-reaction clones give you one shot and you must kill a percentage of all enemies. In this game you keep on shooting. The level-transformation is smooth. While you are aware of the next level, the playing is hardly interrupted.

I played the footstep symbol in the center-right, dodging enemies and collecting pixels

Different colors, different enemies and a great mess of pixels to look at

One Button Bob

For your authentic retro-game feeling. It even has a C64 load screen! I’m not sure whether this game is for real, or it is a parody on the discussion that games should be even easier to control. You control the character with the left mouse-button only. In each level, clicking the button has a different function. In one level it the button is to throw a boomerang against a bat. In another level the button stops the player from walking, so that you can avoid a falling spear from the ceiling. Parody or not, this is a very creative game.

In this level, you need to press the button to start walking

I found some great puzzle games on the internet, well worth playing. Puzzle games are probably the most popular games on the internet. Click on the links to play the game.

Waterfalls 2
In this game, it is the objective to lead floating colored stuff to the correct symbol. You use forces to push the direction of the floating stuff. Certainly a good puzzler to keep you busy all night!

Those orange things go to the circle, the purple to the star

First discover what goes where…

Vessel
Tangram is hard, Tangram with physics is even harder. Even if you see the solution to place the figures in the vessel, then still it is hard to place them because you move them with a handicap: physics. You click a rope on the segment, and then you carry it to the vessel, but influenced by gravity and free rotation, it is very hard to get the figure into position. A game for those with lots of patience!

Sorry, no patience here I’m afraid

Twist Bang
Another Jewel Case game, but the controls are limited, making the game harder than most Jewel Case clones. It has nice graphics in the Pirate theme.

Cute graphics, but the game is still hard though

Keywords: nice try, okay and brilliant. What makes a good game? Well, a good game is one which people like to play twice. How do you get there? Well, you need to give the player that special feeling.

Nuclei
Nuclei is a nice try for a game. Quite simple, however takes too long to load. The object of the game is to protect your own ball in the middle of the screen, from incoming balls. You do this by rotating some forcefield around, on which the enemy balls will bounce. Well, that’s about it. After playing a few minutes, you have been there and done that.

That blue thing in the middle needs to be protected from the green things

Spaceball
Spaceball is an okay arkanoid clone. I have never seen anything like this. The object of the game is to play away all the colored bricks in the level. However, you do not control a platform to bounce the ball, no, you control the ball itself. An okay game to kill some time.

Green bricks when the ball-color is green

Coma
Coma is one of those diamonds you find on the internet. Absolutely brilliant. You play some black blob character and you start in some sort of haunted-house scene. When you leave the house, you enter into a cartoonist world, where the flowers wave as you pass them. I’m still not sure what the objective of the game is. But that’s also a positive point, you need to play it to discover the objective.

You walk past that haunty window, and birds fly-by