Macenstein

Many of you will likely soon get your wish, as there is no possible way I can continue to publish Macenstein now that I have rediscovered Slingo via the newly released Slingo Quest for Mac.

Like many Mac users, I began my computing experience (as a young lad with locks of gold) on a PC, with AOL as my portal to the “World Wide Web”, as we called it back then. Yes, before taking of the computer training wheels and getting a Mac, AOL on a PC gave me my first introduction to the world of online gaming, and one of the first of the first for me was Slingo, a cross between a Slot Machine, Bingo, and the excellent Press Your Luck game show of the 80’s (Who else remembers “No Whammies! No Whammies! Stop!”?). Alas, at the time Slingo was AOL only, and PC only, so when I made the career altering move to the Mac, I had to leave Slingo behind.

But perhaps that was for the best, as who knows how much time I would have wasted on that addicting game. I found myself jonsing for Slingo much the way the little blue-haired women at casinos need a fix of their slots (and in fact, I remember seeing a Slingo-branded slot machine at Foxwoods Casino not too long ago). I likely never would have finished school, gotten married, or had kids if I had been able to play Slingo. But now that I have done those 3 things, and my life is more or less over, I think it is an excellent time to get back to the game that wasted my time in a way Solitaire could only have dreamed of.

Above: Behold the 10 islands of “Quest Mode”!

I admit that since losing track of Slingo, I have not kept up-to-date with its evolution, so perhaps some of these features which are new to me are old news to veteran players. While the basics of the game have remained the same (you try to get as many “Slingos” as possible (meaning complete lines of 5 blocks, either horizontally, vertically, or diagonally across your board, as with regular Bingo)) over the course of 20 “spins”, there have been many additions, some small, some more involved, that add to the overall gameplay and re-playability.

First of all, Big Fish Games was smart enough to keep the original game intact, and you can still play “Classic Slingo” if you’d like. The graphics, sounds, and music have all been updated since I’ve last played, but “Classic” still feels and plays like the time-wasting original I knew and love. New to this release of the game is the “Quest” mode, which offers a more challenging “journey” feel to the game. There are 10 islands, each with a series of Slingo boards with secret block patterns that you must unlock in order to advance to the next island. There are also a slew of new power bonuses you can get, such as “Slingo Vision”, “Super Jokers”, and “Stamps” that make the game even more addicting.

Oh my god! Is that a 7-block Slingo grid! Awwww yeah!

Big Fish offers a free, fully functioning demo (time limited to an hour of game play) which you can download to get a taste of the Slingo-ey goodness. Before I knew it, my free hour had passed, and I found myself fumbling for my wallet to buy the game, like the off-the-wagon addict I am.

Issues

Ordering the game turned out to be the only problem. First, my server’s spam protection apparently marks mail from Big Fish games as spam, and deletes it, so I did not receive my activation code. This is apparently a common problem, and Big Fish has posted in their FAQ that you should add”@bigfishgames.com and bigfishgames@mailnj.custhelp.com” to your server’s whitelist to keep this from happening. I of course read that after wondering where my activation code was, so I had to add their domains to my server’s list, and then experience another TWO FULL DAYS of excruciating Slingo withdrawal before customer service sent me the code (they claimed to be backlogged from the holidays).

Above: Big Fish could have spent 4 seconds and made these icons more Mac like.

Conclusion

Slingo Quest for Mac costs $19.99 plus tax, which is a bit steep for Slingo, I think. Not that I won’t waste $20 worth of time on it, but I guess since part of me always considered Slingo a “free game” (minus my AOL subscription) it just seemed a little high. Still, I like the new features, love the old ones, and I have not even come close to playing all 60 games. Big Fish also offers tiered pricing plans for buying their games in bulk, so you can get Slingo for less if you like some of their other games. But once you play Slingo, you won’t have time for any other games. Or friends, family, or Mac websites.

Slingo Quest Mac

Price: $19.99 (plus tax)

Pros: Addicting in a way only slot machines can be, yet even more so; new gameplay modes plus Classic Slingo make for months of fun

Cons: Slightly pricey for a puzzler, a good chance your spam blocker will eat your activation code, slow customer service