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- Dotty's photo gallery. Free daily jigsaw and eCards. Members can play jigsaws with over 3000 pictures.

Jigsaw Reviews: P

Reviews Introduction A-B C-I J K-O P Q-S T-Z
Jigsaws in Other Languages

Reviews are listed alphabetically. Scroll down the page, choose a section of the alphabet above or select one of the highlighted reviews listed at the right.

     
  1. PBS Reconstruct-the-Pot - One online jigsaw for children with joining to illustrate how archaeologists reconstruct artifacts from shards.

  2. Playtonium - Play the daily Shockwave jigsaw online, create a puzzle with your own picture, download jigsaws to play offline or license a puzzle for your own website.

    All puzzles are in the classic style with joining and optional rotation. Online puzzles have 12, 25, 50 or 100 pieces. Downloaded puzzles may be played with up to 200 pieces. 29 different puzzle cuts are used. Play is timed and may be submitted. Press the ? button for help and instructions. The instructions say shift-click to rotate but right-click also rotates pieces. Pieces may be rotated after joining. You can display edges only, resize the puzzle, change the background color, toggle display of the picture and control other options.

    Poll temporarily discontinued

    The daily puzzle contains pictures for the last 10 days. It may be licensed for your own website and you may even use your own pictures - contact Adveractive via the email address on the web site.

    The Jigsaw Creator does not appear to work anymore. It was used to create an online jigsaw with one of the 60 pictures provided or with your own picture, play the puzzle yourself and email it to your friends. The created jigsaw is available for 30 days. Jigsaw Creator requires Self-Expression Xtra - close all other browser windows before downloading Self-Expression Xtra because its installation will close them and you may lose information. Steve Bullock, President of Adveractive, says that links to the created puzzles may also be placed on your website.

    Download shareware versions to play offline. Each set contains 50 or 60 pictures. Five or six pictures may be played in the demo version. All pictures become active jigsaws when you pay the $19.95 registration fee. New sets are frequently added. All downloaded sets can be accessed from within any set. Some of these jigsaws have special shaped pieces.

    Playtonium puzzles are also available at the following sites:

    • Dotty's Daily Playtonium - My implementation of this puzzle, featuring my own photographs. You can also download demo versions of the Playtonium puzzle sets at Dotty's Jigsaw Downloads.
    • Fell2Earth - Daily puzzle uses the same picture as at Playtonium. Downloads for Playtonium demo packs are also available.Warning: Google reported finding malicious software at this site on January 24, 2009. See the current Google Safe Browsing Report on fell2earth.com.
    • The Puzzle Society- Also called UPuzzles.com. Paid members only can play a variety of games. Membership is $3.95 a month or $19.95 a year with some special offers. "The 'demo' of Playtonium is only a picture, not an active puzzle.
    • uClick- Daily Playtonium for webmasters. Demo is available and contains 10 pictures.

    Playtonium is created by Adveractive. See my review of Adveractive, Dotty's Daily Playtonium, my download of Playtonium sets and the Playtonium entryin my Jigsaw Comparison Chart.

  3. Puzzelator - This mosaic style puzzle is shareware with a $7.50 registration fee.
    It works for 7 days after installation, then it must be registered. Drag and drop pieces in a frame (or click on two pieces) to swap their position. Rotation is optional. A congratulations message with statistics is displayed when the puzzle is solved. The optional fitting of the picture to the screen size reduced the image quality considerably (even when reducing the image size). It comes with one tropical picture and you can use your own jpg, bmp or gif files. Poll temporarily discontinued
    Control right click or control left click to rotate a piece 90 degrees in the corresponding direction. (Macintosh users, try holding down control and option or command while clicking.) Right click for the same menu that is available under the Game selection at the top of the screen. Keyboard shortcuts are available for menu items. Change background color by using the Options menu. Previewing the picture and showing pieces that are not in the correct location/rotation are nice touches for solving more difficult puzzles. However you cannot move a puzzle piece while the Preview window is displayed. Displaying About in Help caused a Windows application error (in Windows 98) and I needed to cancel the task and restart the program. See also the Puzzelator entryin my Jigsaw Comparison Chart.

  4. PuzzleFactory.com - Jigsaw puzzles and other games. The Flash plugin is required (free download). 70 jigsaws are
    sorted by category and some are available for download to play offline - see below. There is no rotation or help. You can't view the picture until it is finished. Pieces are locked in place when they are in the correct position. This is really a matter of putting pieces in their correct position rather than joining pieces. The correct position is not recognized if there is overlap with another piece. No choice of Poll temporarily discontinued
    background often makes for poor visibility. There are no drawers for sorting. There is a satisfying clunk when a piece is placed in the correct position but there is no recognition that the puzzle is complete. The number of pieces varies but is usually 25 or 49. You can also download interactive screensavers to play jigsaw puzzles. An optional membership provides updated information. See also the Puzzle Factory entry in my Jigsaw Comparison Chart.

  5. PuzzleFactory.pl - Online classic jigsaw puzzles. The Flash plugin is required (free download).

    You can also create your own puzzle by uploading a picture from your computer, specifying one of 5 piece shapes and the number of columns and rows (2-10).



  6. The Puzzle House- More than 100 free online puzzles from a puzzle store. New
    images are added periodically. The Shockwave Player is required. Puzzles were created by Article 19. See my review of Article 19. Choose a picture from a category, then select easy (48 pieces), medium (90 pieces) or difficult (120 pieces) or order the actual puzzle. Set your browser to full screen mode. There is no rotation and all pieces stay on the work surface (no drawers). There is no control for background but Poll temporarily discontinued
    it's not a problem. You may turn viewing the picture on/off while solving the puzzle and you may save a partially done puzzle and reload it. Help and a feedback form are provided. See also the Puzzle House entryin my Jigsaw Comparison Chart.

  7. Puzzle Magic - The puzzle Magic website is no longer available. This review is kept for historical purposes:

    Play one mosaic style puzzle or download a shareware program to make your own online or stand alone puzzles. Registration is only $4.98. No joining or rotation. 4 - 2000 pieces. It supports bmp, gif or jpg images. To play, click the picture for instructions, then double click it to scramble the pieces. Drag a piece to a new position to swap the two pieces.

    The download was also available at CNET Download. Unzip the downloaded file and place it in a different directory than where you want the puzzle installed (because the downloaded file and one of the files created when it is installed have the same name.) Run PM.exe to install the PuzzleMagic. Then run it from the Start Menu or run the installed PM.exe to generate your puzzles. To register it, use the Register button within Puzzle Magic and follow the directions. Be sure to press the button at the top to get your registration code after you've paid. (The registration code is not the same as the authorization code.) Copy the registration code into the box for it in the registration window of Puzzle Magic.

    The puzzle is still implemented at:


  8. PuzzleMak - One picture in a frame style puzzle. There is no indication when the puzzle is completed. This Javascript puzzle is available for download as shareware. For $10.00 you may use the puzzle on your website. When you use the downloaded program to create a puzzle, put the generated puzzle in a separate directory because it will generate file index.html. An optional Solve It For Me button is available - if used, press refresh to attempt the puzzle again.

  9. Puzzlet Factory - Innovative jigsaw puzzles with joining, rotation and sound to
    play online, download or put on your own web site. Includes a daily puzzle from their gallery of puzzles, a featured artist of the month and sending puzzles in e-cards. Puzzles are 15 to 400 pieces and are very realistic with joining, rotation and even flipped pieces. They require the Flash plugin. Choose the English, French or Spanish version of the site by clicking the appropriate flag. The French version is the original version and has fewer errors. Poll temporarily discontinued

    Many of the puzzle screens are small making it difficult to read the buttons and instructions. Try resizing the puzzle screen by selecting a size at the top of the puzzle. Do try these puzzles - they're worth the effort.

    Click on a picture or select the Puzzles List for a search menu of more pictures to play online. After selecting a picture, press the question mark button for instructions (or refer to the User Guide section on the online Play page). Press the three arrows in the upper left corner for menus and scoring box. Some pieces are turned over, as in real life; to flip dark blue pieces, double-click it (may not work in larger puzzles) or click the piece to select it then press the space bar (fastest) or the YingYang symbol in the drop down menu at the left. To rotate a piece, select it and drag the rotation symbol above the piece around the piece or press the right or left arrow key. Pieces will join only when they are in the correct rotation. When joining groups of pieces, the mouse must be on the piece to be joined.

    There are 2 methods of moving groups of pieces - using the hand and the magnet. Both are accessed with the drop down menu on the left. To move a group of pieces, click on the hand, then click on one or more groups of pieces, drag them to the desired location and release the mouse button to drop the pieces. Click the hand again to turn it off. To select multiple individual pieces (great for sorting), click the magnet, then click the desired pieces. Press the space bar to drop the pieces. Click the magnet again to turn it off. Use the hand and the magnet in with zooming out to organize pieces on a larger playing area. Press "c" to center on the last piece selected.

    See the site's User Guide for more instructions. A Forum and online chat are also provided for discussion of the puzzles.

    When downloading, be sure to replace and then run indexPuzzlets.htm in the Puzzles subdirectory to add the downloaded puzzle(s) to the search list on the Play page.

    To add the a Puzzlet Factory jigsaw to your own web site, fill out the form and copy the generated html to your site. The form is only available in French. Try using BabelFish Translation if you don't understand French. A list of sites using Puzzlet Factory puzzles are found at Puzzlet Sites (in French). I've implemented the daily puzzle at Daily and Weekly Jigsaws and Dotty's Online Jigsaws.

    See also the Puzzlet Factory entry in my Jigsaw Comparison Chart.

  10. PuzzleWarehouse - Online classic jigsaw puzzles in 3 levels of difficulty. Pictures for the online puzzle are from their collection of real jigsaw puzzles for sale. The online puzzles at PuzzleWarehouse require the Flash plugin for your browser.

    Join pieces to complete the puzzle. Some pieces are upside down (showing clouds and text) - confusing, until you get used to it. Hold the t key down on your keyboard and then click a piece to turn it over.

    There's a daily puzzle that can be played or easily placed on your website. I've implemented their daily jigsaw at Daily and Weekly Jigsaws. There's also an archive of past daily puzzles on their daily puzzle page.

 
     

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The following reviews contain more detail and are included in the Jigsaw Comparison Chart. Jump directly to one of the highlighted reviews:
Big Jig
Big Mosaic
BrainsBreaker
Clever Media Jigsaw Puzzles
icaPuz
Jigsaws Galore
Jigsaw Mania
Jigsaw-Puzzles.net
Jigzone
Jixxa Jigsaw Puzzles
Living Scenes Jigsaw Puzzles
One Player
Playtonium
Puzzelator
The Puzzle Factory
The Puzzle House
Puzzlet Factory
Shockwave
Smoke and Mirrors
Steve's Jigsaw Puzzles
Tibo Jigs@w
Web Reference
World Winner
Yavsoft