Microsoft Entertainment Pack 4

Overview

Microsoft Entertainment Pack 4 (also known as Microsoft Entertainment Pack, Volume 4) is a game compilation developed and published by Microsoft for Windows PCs in 1992.

The fourth and final mainline entry in the Microsoft Entertainment Pack series (and the sequel to Microsoft Entertainment Pack 3), Entertainment Pack 4 features seven new games (including a port of Epyx's Chip's Challenge). Unlike the other three mainline entries, this entry does not include the IdleWild screensaver program.

Chip's Challenge, Dr. Black Jack, and JezzBall were later included in the Best of Microsoft Entertainment Pack compilation.

Games Included

• Chess (David Norris) - A chess game with multiple customizable options and features (including chess clocks, printable move history in algebraic notation, savegames, and customizable colors). In addition, it features multiple AI levels and a way to view their "thought" processes.

• Chip's Challenge (Tony Krueger / Ed Halley) - A tile-based action-puzzle game where players must guide nerd Chip around each of the 148 levels, collecting microchips, keys, power-ups while manipulating blocks and avoiding many dangerous obstacles. Similar to Tetris in the first Entertainment Pack and Pipe Dream in the second, Chip's Challenge is a licensed video game port.

• Dr. Black Jack (Mike Blaylock) - A single-player blackjack card game with customizable casino rules and an integrated helper AI (who can assist the player in making decisions, both with basic strategy and with card counting).

• Go Figure! (Dave Hunt) - A math-based puzzle game where players attempt to form valid equations using a target value, four chosen numbers, and three mathematical symbols.

• JezzBall (Dima Pavlovsky / Marjacq Micro Ltd.) - An action-puzzle game reminiscent of QIX series, where players have to section-off as much of the playfield as they can (using wall anchors created by clicking points on the playfield, either in the hroiziontal or vertical orientation) while avoiding making contact between the wall builders and various "Jezz atoms" bouncing around the playfield.

• Maxwell's Maniac (Dima Pavlovsky / Marjacq Micro Ltd.) - An action-puzzle game loosely based on the "Maxwell's demon" thought experiment. Players manipulate "slidergate" between both halves of the playfield in order to allow the correct molecules to reach the correct side.

• Tic Tac Drop (Gleen Bulat and Troy Strain) - A turn-based tile-based strategy game similar to Connect Four where two players (one of whom can be AI) alternate dropping colored balls in a grid (where it falls to the bottom-most unoccupied tile) and attempt to get a certain number of matching adjacent balls (cardinal or diagonal) in order to win. Players can customize various aspects, including the size of both rows and columns, how many matching balls to win (3, 4, or 5), and a choice of three grid types (rectangular, triangular, and diamond).