(7)
Your rating: Now say why...
- Download Now
52 MB -
Visit Developer's Site
Robert Kooima
Neverball... Tilt the floor to roll a ball through an obstacle course before time runs out. Neverball is part puzzle game, part action game, and entirely a test of skill.
Also included is Neverputt, a hot-seat multiplayer miniature golf game using the physics and graphics of Neverball.
The current version includes 141 Neverball levels and 134 Neverputt holes.
Also included is Neverputt, a hot-seat multiplayer miniature golf game using the physics and graphics of Neverball.
The current version includes 141 Neverball levels and 134 Neverputt holes.
What's New
Version 1.5.3:
- Init default most coins times with the level's time
- When scanning for set files, ignore files not ending with ".txt"
- Fix attempt to use "joystick" option before config system is set up
- Add licence info for share/fs_jpg.c, which is based on jdatasrc.c from libjpeg
- Do not flip left/right when using joystick third-axis rotation
- Disallow path separators when entering replay name
- Fix LOCALEDIR ambiguity in Makefile
- Putt: Move shot/desc from courses.txt to the individual course files, a la sets.txt
- Putt: Scan for and add courses not listed in courses.txt after those listed
- Don't clip shadow geometry above ball if "shadow" is set to 3
- Print last error when VFS init fails
- Fix user scores not being read if file has CRLF newlines
- Fix some "glass" materials scheduled as opaque
- Show inapplicable score (e.g. not enough coins for a Fast Unlock) as unqualified rather than leave an empty row
- ufo.map: Replaced uses of red-glass and green-glass
- Removed the now unused green-glass texture
- Fix filler space allocation in GUI
- Correctly apply teleport translation to view position
- maze2.map, runstop.map: replaced pane of glass with a grill (invalidates replays)
- Update "stereo" option description
Version 1.5.3:
- Init default most coins times with the level's time
- When scanning for set files, ignore files not ending with ".txt"
- Fix attempt to use "joystick" option before config system is set up
- Add licence info for share/fs_jpg.c, which is based on jdatasrc.c from libjpeg
- Do not flip left/right when using joystick third-axis more...
Requirements
PPC / Intel, Mac OS X 10.3 or later, Hardware accelerated OpenGL with multitexture (OpenGL 1.2.1 or greater) is required. A 500MHz+ processor is recommended.
PPC / Intel, Mac OS X 10.3 or later, Hardware accelerated OpenGL with multitexture (OpenGL 1.2.1 or greater) is required. A 500MHz+ processor is recommended.
Neverball User Discussion (Write a Review)
Overall:
(7)
(7)
Displaying 1-10 of 20
-
-
-
Neverball... Tilt the floor to roll a ball through an obstacle course before time runs out. Neverball is part puzzle game, part action game, and entirely a test of skill.
Also included is Neverputt, a hot-seat multiplayer miniature golf game using the physics and graphics of Neverball.
The current version includes 141 Neverball levels and 134 Neverputt holes.
Also included is Neverputt, a hot-seat multiplayer miniature golf game using the physics and graphics of Neverball.
The current version includes 141 Neverball levels and 134 Neverputt holes.
Copyright © 2012 MacUpdate LLC
- -
+3
+3
The downloaded disk image contains 3 nameless files that are only labeled by text embedded in the background image. The nameless file labeled "Readme" has the icon of a text file but actually is an application which "launches" a hidden text file. The nameless file labeled "Install Neverball" has the icon of an installer package but actually is another application which "launches" a hidden installer package. And yes, even the nameless file labeled "Website" has the icon of a web link but actually is another application which "launches" another hidden file. See a pattern emerging here? This is supposed to be open source software but it even hides its ReadMe file?!? Why the hidden files?!? Why an application for a web link or to view a ReadMe file?
But the horror does not end there - the installer package requires root privileges to run and turns out to be a metapackage containing 7(!) separate installer packages, two of them just to install a folder icon for 2(!) INVISIBLE folders! Yep, you hear that right - game data is kept in 2(!) invisible folders in your home directory (~./neverball and ~./neverball-dev) - but at least the uninstaller (which is an installer metapackage again) remains visible in your home folder (~/Uninstall Neverball.mpkg). Oh, and there's another folder '/Library/Application Support/Neverball Data' (note that this is system-wide, not user-domain) that gets a nice folder icon too - not that anyone would ever look in there. And here comes the highlight: The game itself comes with 2 applications that get installed in /Applications separately - without a common folder, without folder icon - just two separate apps in your applications folder.
I don't know what (or if) the developers were thinking when they put this together, but this probably takes the crown for the worst software distribution in history!
My advise: Immediately delete this abomination!
+1
+432
Since Neverball and Neverputt are packaged together, i'll save my full review until i've experimented more with Neverball.
It looks like i'm going to be the voice of dissent regarding NEVERPUTT. I like the concept and while not chock full of eye and ear candy, the UI is straight forward, has great clarity and is simple to use. No real complaints there.
That being said, i have pretty serious problems with BOTH the physics and hole designs. The ball collisions are too elastic and friction too slight.
As far as the level designs, i disagree with the claim that the beginning course has a smooth learning curve. In general holes have too many gaps, tricks, and overly steep ramps.
That could potentially be good and all appears interesting enough, but when you put the boingy physics together with the traps and steep ramps, it adds up to annoyingly pedantic play requirements.
Some examples:
1 - A ramp simply rises to a higher platform. Given the physics a shot which seems to have enough power to make it up the ramp, will typically cause the ball to bounce at the base of the ramp instead of rolling up, greatly reducing it's speed so it doesn't make it. A harder hit will then get the ball to the top, but with enough of a bounce that unless the platform at the top is wide (a rare occurrence) the ball will retain enough bounce to fly off the world for a penalty stroke.
2 - Lots of platforms turns corners and ascend ramps. Because a ball will bounce off the base of a ramp, bouncing around a corner with enough speed to have any chance of ascending the ramp will bounce the ball off the world.
+37
Downloaded it, opened disk image, double-clicked installer, and...
ERROR MESSAGE
"no such file"
Same thing when I try to read the Read Me file. These are actually just scripts that are calling files by the wrong names, and thus don't work.
I had to use Houdini to find out the name of the .mpkg file so I could find it with EasyFind and launch it from there. What a chore.
+1
I'm the guy in charge of the Mac packaging, we released a silent bugfix that *should* fix this problem. (Scripts failed under 10.4 for some reason.)
Find it here:
http://neverball.org/download.php
Hope you get it running okay!
agraumann reviewed on 12 May 2008
I hope the developers keep up the great work!
Anonymous reviewed on 02 Nov 2005
Great game!
Anonymous reviewed on 01 Nov 2005
Anonymous reviewed on 11 Jun 2005
http://kernelthread.com/software/ams2hid/
Anonymous reviewed on 26 Sep 2004
Anonymous reviewed on 24 Sep 2004
+297
It started with time remaining at just a few minutes and then kept increasing to a half hour, then one hour. When I went to the kitchen for a repast and returned an hour later, the downoad still showed over two hours remaining!! And I've got a fast DSL internet connection.
So I stopped the download, put it in the trash and went on my merry way.
Most downloads of 52mbs, the size of this one, take just a few short minutes but this POS is very constipated.
Dunno what's up with that, but I don't need the aggravation.
+297
Took it for a spin and it seems well designed and fun. No problems.
I then decided to try another download to see if the process remained fast and stable.
Not so.
Once again extremely slow going, with the remaining download time going all the way up to past 1 day ! and a download speed of less than .7kb/sec.
I tried installing my first download once again and this time got a message telling me that
"the file/volumes Neverball 1.5.2 .mpkg does not exist!
Clearly there's big trouble with the downloads; very wonky and unstable.
But my original installation remains intact and plays very well.
If you can manage to score a fast, trouble free download and installation, I think that you'll find Neverball fun and challenging.
The developer needs to make the download process work well every time, though.
+1
+1
We have two download mirrors, caffeinatedcontent.com and icculus.org, which users are transparently redirected to... I did just try downloading from both servers and they seemed to both be fast.
All I can say is click the download link on the site, if it's going slow, cancel and retry until you get it going faster (different mirror)...
It also could be due to some server maintenance that happened recently.
If anyone else has issues, please reply and try to include which mirror it was coming from.