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.
Adveractive - @dver@ctive, now Adveractive, are the makers of Playtonium. See my review of Playtonium. They have discontinued licensing of their original Jigsaw Puzzle Engine for your own web site.
All-Star Puzzles - Daily mosaic style puzzles are archived by date. There are over 400 puzzles available. Each picture can be played with 3 levels of difficulty. The puzzle includes some nice extra controls, such as undo, redo and save progress. The instructions are very clear and easy to follow.
AlterJig - A frame style puzzle to download and play offline. Four pieces are rotated at once, making this a challenging puzzle. Play with the provided pictures or use your own bmp images. AlterJig is also included in AbcPuzzles and was created by Kirill Vasilyev of Ixis Research Ltd.
Article 19 - Three online puzzles require the Shockwave plug-in. Press Edges button to toggle displaying only edge pieces. Press Move button to toggle moving multiple pieces at a time. (It moves both joined and unjoined pieces, an inconvenience when trying to move pieces away from already joined edge pieces.) Press the hint button to toggle displaying a small picture of the completed puzzle. Drag and drop pieces to join them. No rotation. Change background color by clicking the colorful swirl at the bottom. Timed with a pause button. No recognition that puzzle is complete except that the timer stops. Shockwave required.
Beginning in July 2001, a new version of Article 19 puzzles appeared at Shockwave . Moving multiple pieces in this version does not also move joined pieces. There is a congratulatory message when the puzzle is completed and the opportunity to save your score and view others' scores. On January 15, 2003, Shcokwave started using Article 19's PuzzleMaker. (See my review of Shockwave.)
There are other jigsaws listed in Article 19's Shockwave Gallery including a multiplayer jigsaw. Article 19 jigsaws are used at:
AsObject Jigsaw Puzzle - Classic Flash jigsaw puzzle with joining to add to your website. There's an online demo, but no free download. At $25 it is low cost only if you already have Flash 8 or Flash CS3.
I think their online demo is misleading. The demo allows entry of a URL for a picture, but I could not get it to load a picture from my website or from my computer. It will load a different picture with the URL suggested, but uses the last picture if any other URL beginning "http://www.aspobject.com/images/" and followed anything and then ".jpg". Click the Restart Puzzle button after entering the URL. If you can get the URL entry to work, then it can probably be made to support obtaining picture URL from a database, but I doubt that this can be done. I believe that you'll need to edit the Flash source file for each picture, but that is only conjecture on my part because I have not actually used the purchased software, only the demo, since I have not upgraded from Flash 4.
B-Jigsaw - Shareware by Antony Pranata, free download to try and $15 (for Windows 3.1) or $14.95 (for Windows 95/98/2000/Me, originally $19.95) registration. Typical jigsaw shape pieces are joined and placed in a frame which is the outside edges of the picture. Can use own pictures (bmp or jpg images) or the ones provided. Includes music. Can create standalone puzzles with latest version.
B-Jigsaw is used at the following sites:
JigsawPuzzles Online Catalog - Pictures are organized by catagory and sold as stand alone puzzles for your computer. Each puzzle is $4 (New Zealand) for beginner, intermediate and advanced levels plus a free slide-puzzle of the same picture. Puzzles can be customized and a free sample is available for download.
B-Puzzle - Shareware by Antony Pranata, free download to try and $10 registration. Creates jigsaw and slide puzzles. Frame style, swap pieces in a frame. Optional view of picture. Use own pictures (bmp or jpg images) or the ones provided. 9 to 100 pieces (limited to 9, 16 or 25 pieces if not registered.) Includes music. Requires Windows.
Behr - Daily online puzzle, joining rectangular pieces. Use the links at the bottom right of the screen for more jigsaws. Your browser must be Java enabled. The Java applet is not available for download.
Ben Reynolds - This site is no longer available, but the puzzle is implemented at many sites. Online puzzle with only one picture available, move square pieces (no tabs) from scrap board to correct position in finished frame. Cumbersome. Javascript for PC or Mac. It is implemented at many sites (especially European, each site has only one picture), including Rock Hounds .
Big Jig - Shareware puzzle by Lena Pankratova in standard jigsaw style. Beautiful graphics and
very well done program and documentation. Two working spaces plus 4 trays for arranging pieces and a magnifying glass. Optional rotation. Two pictures available before registration. Can make puzzle more difficult by specifying edgeless. When puzzle is solved, picture may be saved to bmp file (doesn't say how this file may be used). Registration is $19.95. There is support for many languages. Registered users get a utility to make your Big Jig puzzles with your own pictures
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( supports bmp, gif, jpg, pcx and Targa files). There are over a hundred high quality puzzle pictures available at this web site to registered users and a new puzzle picture each week. See also my review of Big Mosaic. Other shareware games by Lena are also available at Lena Games and there's a demo version of train puzzles at Abracadata Train Teasers Jigsaw Puzzle. See also the Big Jig entry in my Jigsaw Comparison Chart.
Big Mosaic - Shareware mosaic style puzzle by Lena Pankratova with 2-sided pieces.
Optional rotation and mixing which piece side is up. Beautiful graphics and very well done program and documentation. Registration is $14.95. Support for many languages. All registered users get a utility to make your puzzles with your own pictures and over a hundred beautiful puzzle pictures available at this web site. Other shareware games by Lena are also available. See also my review of Big Jig . See also the Big Mosaic entry in my Jigsaw Comparison Chart.
BlackDog - Frame style puzzles for Children. Piece movement is jerky. There are more puzzles, most with holiday themes at search results.
BrainsBreaker - Shareware jigsaw puzzle program to be played offline. Free download
with limited but still impressive capability - limited to 35 piece puzzles or 20 connections in larger puzzles. Cost is $19.95 for registration, then you can work with any size puzzle. Play the puzzles provided or make your own jigsaw puzzles using their online pictures, your own pictures or the clipboard. The program will also create "stand alone puzzles freely distributable that can be played without installing any additional
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software". These stand alone puzzles are limited to 35 pieces or fewer. See my download area for some puzzles created by BrainsBreaker which you can download. The BrainsBreaker web site contains some pictures and links to other sites with picture galleries.
Piece rotation and mosaic settings may be turned on/off when playing a puzzle. There are 6 storage boxes for sorting pieces - you can join pieces while they are in boxes. Control right-click or control-left click for bi-directional rotation. (Macintosh users try holding down control and option or command while clicking.) Shift for magnifier on/off. Correct joining is indicated with sound and visual. The mouse or control keys may be used to control movement of pieces and the menu. Excellent help is provided.
Puzzles can be saved on shelves with different numbers of pieces for the same puzzle. Partially completed puzzles can be saved too, but when a puzzle is deleted it deletes all versions of the same picture. Therefore I prefer to use the create custom puzzle option where the number of pieces is specified when it is played. BrainsBreaker may be run in competitive mode. Customer support is excellent - I received a quick and gracious response to my email questions. See also the BrainsBreaker entry in my Jigsaw Comparison Chart and Marjorie Power's comments on Brainsbreaker.
Puzzles to be downloaded and played within the Brainsbreaker software can be found at these sites: (Move individual files into the same folder where the Brainsbreaker puzzle is installed or any of it's subfolders or click on the file to install it with your Brainsbreaker puzzles.)
Grandma's Graphics - Puzzle sets using illustrations from old children's books.
Stand alone puzzles made with Brainsbreaker may be found at:
or 