Volcano Trial

Volcano is a block-falling game that requires fast reactions and good spatial awareness. If you like block-falling games, then we're sure you'll like the challenge of Volcano. The full version has 4 levels (speeds), but this is a trial version with only one level (the slowest). The scenario (bearing little relation to reality) is that there is a volcano known to be close to eruption. The dark, smoke-filled, brooding sky emphasizes the imminence of the danger. The volcano has a crater, and seismologists believe that eruption can be prevented by completely filling the crater, i.e. by plugging the volcano. This is a delicate and dangerous operation. You are in control of a flying craft (the white block) designed to catch blocks (blue) being dropped from above, so that you gradually build up a plug that will fill the crater, with no gaps, up to the level of rim of the volcano. As the falling blocks are incorporated into the plug, they change colour to become brown, so that you know which blocks form the body of the plug. Once you have formed a plug of the right shape (as shown in the image below), you must then lower the plug into the crater and prevent the eruption. Remember that you will normally have to turn the plug upside down before lowering it into the crater once you have created it. If a block is not caught by the craft and, instead, falls into the crater (denoted by purple blocks), the impact destroys part of the natural plug (a purple block is removed) - and, of course, also changes the shape of the plug required to fill the crater. And if the falling blocks break through the plug material to expose the magma (red) an eruption takes place and the game is over. Any blocks that fall onto the rim of the volcano or the mountain side (green blocks) are themselves destroyed, but the mountain itself is not destroyed by the impact. However, each impact, whether onto the mountain or into the crater, increases the chance of eruption. If fifty blocks crash to the ground an eruption takes place - and, again, the game is over. You are also able to launch missiles (yellow) from the missile launchers at the sides (magenta blocks). These fly horizontally and can be used both to destroy falling blocks, and so prevent dangerous impacts on the ground, and to remove blocks that form part of the plug you have created, if the shape is wrong. But make sure you don't accidentally shoot down the craft as the explosion caused by this will trigger an eruption. Note: if you remove a block from the plug and this leaves other blocks in the plug no longer with a means of connection, direct or indirect, to the craft, then these unattached blocks are also removed.