Puzzle Gallery (a.k.a. At The Carnival) Download (1990 Puzzle Game)

The master of all puzzle games, Cliff Johnson, made a mind teasing game about his experiences of working in different amusement parks. At The Carnival has those nostalgic "early-pc" graphics and puzzles that will keep you glued to your computer for hours, sometimes laughing and other times frustrated, but still always entertained.

At The Carnival has series of puzzles based on an amusement park -theme. The game will take the player to different thrilling rides located in Hazard Park, bathroom's waiting lines, a haunted house and all those little stores that sell souvenirs and snacks. Some of the puzzles are quite easy, including actual jigsaw-like puzzles and word search. Other puzzles are harder, including mazes and "word masking" where you have to turn on and off different shapes to form a word.

At The Carnival has some major differences to the other brilliant Cliff Johnson game The Fool's Errand. In Carnival, all the levels are visible and accessible right from the beginning, so you don't need to solve other puzzles before proceeding to the following levels. That adds to playability, because if you get stuck somewhere you can still proceed to somewhere else. The game lacks a real plot which can be found in Fool's Errand; Here the player just wanders around the game solving puzzles, which actually reminds of a nice stroll around a real amusement park.

The game has some more or less twisted humor in it, as the maker has seen amusement parks from behind the scenes and not just the pretty outside. The game makes fun of long waiting lines, visitor safety and high prices, amongst other things. The game has some thoughts which younger players might find offensive in that "Santa Claus is not real" -style. Older players will laugh with the game, remembering all those times they have visited amusement parks and gone through most of the stuff portrayed in the game.

The first and only game using "The Puzzle Gallery" engine, for which there were supposed to be multiple Puzzle Disks. Extremely similar in style to Are We There Yet? and The Fool's Errand, "At the Carnival" includes word searches, jigsaws, block puzzles, word squares, crosswords, jumbles, cryptograms, mazes, and more.

Each puzzle is set at and somewhat related to a different attraction at Hazard Park. There are total of 40 attractions, and 180 puzzles

The "sequel" of sorts to The Fool's Errand, Cliff Johnson wasn't at his best in this puzzle collection designed around the "carnival" theme (the game takes a sardonic look at the amusement park biz through Johnson's eyes as a former employee), but that's not to say the game isn't good-- it *is* a good collection of puzzles of many types, although none as original as those in its prequel. Still, there are a few pleasant surprises and good twists lurking among the anagrams, jigsaws, and other well-known parlor puzzles.

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

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