DX-Ball Free Download for PC (stylized as DX•BΔLL) is a freeware computer game for the PC first released in 1996 by Michael P. Welch and Seumas McNally. The game, originally inspired from an earlier series of Amiga games known as MegaBall, is patterned after classic ball-and-paddle arcade games such as Breakout and Arkanoid. It became a massive cult classic in the Windows freeware gaming community during the late 1990s. A level editor was made available as well.
Gameplay
The game is basically a Breakout clone: you bounce a ball off a paddle at the bottom hitting different colored blocks on the top of the screen without having the ball fall below the screen. Clearing all the blocks results in completing the level and going to the next. There are 50 levels to complete. Similarly as Arkanoid and MegaBall, there is an inclusion of power-ups other than extra balls. When you hit a block, there is a chance that a power-up will appear (signaled by a high-pitched explosion sound) and float downwards towards the paddle, and can be picked up by touching it with the paddle. Certain powerups have positive effects, while others have negative, making it important to try to collect the helpful powerups while avoiding the powerups that increases the difficulty. There are 18 power-ups, five of them being either good or bad. For example, if you were to get the fast ball power-up. the ball will simply gain speed. The ball also gradually speeds up as the game continues. Some good power-ups include the «zap bricks» which reveals the hidden blocks and also makes the unbreakable blocks breakable, the magnetic paddle, which is able to catch the ball and aim it at any block that you want to hit, the extra life, whose powers give you an extra chance of playing at the cost of most of your power-ups, the level, which lets you advance to the next level, and the fireball, which turns the ball explosive and can destroy multiple blocks with one hit. DX-Ball Download free Full Version.
If only a single breakable block remains on a level and it continues to be untouched by the bouncing ball for a minute or so, an electricity sound begins to build and eventually the block is blasted away by a sudden bolt of lightning.
In certain levels, the layout of unbreakable blocks may allow the ball to become stuck in a loop between the unbreakable blocks without touching the paddle. If this occurs, all unbreakable blocks will eventually replaced with the breakable ones after a minute or so of the ball being stuck in a bouncing pattern.
Development
Designed by Michael P. Welch in 1996, DX-Ball was one of the most sophisticated Breakout-style game, with its high-colour 16-bit graphics, highly stylized level designs, a wide array of power-ups, catchy sound effects and new gameplay elements never seen before in a Breakout clone of its time. Seumas McNally (1979—2000), whose programmed its sequel, has also contributed the game's graphic design. DX-Ball Game free Download Full Version.
According to the message in the game's leaderboard screen, it was originally dedicated for Michael's wife, so that she can play something in the PC that was similar to her favorite Amiga game MegaBall. In the message, Michael himself even states that his wife enjoys MegaBall more than his own game, Scorched Tanks, which was probably his main motivation to design DX-Ball.[citation needed]
Sequels
DX-Ball has been followed up by two direct sequels: DX-Ball 2 by Longbow Digital Arts in 1998, and Super DX-Ball by BlitWise Productions (Michael P. Welch's current game company) in 2004. While DX-Ball 2 was later succeeded by Rival Ball in 2001, the latter merely relates as a spiritual successor to the original DX-Ball, being developed on the branch of Longbow Digital Arts, while Super DX-Ball is considered a tribute and reincarnation to the original game. Unlike DX-Ball, these games are not freeware, though many registered copies of DX-Ball 2 now can be freely found on the Internet. DX-Ball Free Download Torrent.
