Dr. Lanny B. Brilliant had just created eight new elements (Redium, Greenium, Bluium, Cyanium, Purplium, Yellowium, Pinkium, and Flashium) which turned out to be highly unstable and scattered everywhere. At the most basic level, the game is like Columns in that the goal is to form molecules (chains) by getting three or more atoms of the same color in a row in any direction. That's where the similarities to any other puzzle game end. The atoms travel one at a time through six tubes. You have a test tube that you can move beneath the tubes to catch and hold up to five atoms at a time. If you fail to catch an atom by missing it, or trying to catch it while the test tube is full, you lose a "drop". You can dump one atom at a time into the beaker below, which can hold five atoms high in six columns. Atoms fall out of the test tube from the top, so the last atom in is the first atom out. You can manipulate the order in which atoms fall out of the tubes by speeding up one of the tubes. There are special atoms: Flashium is a wildcard that can used to create a chain of any color, Xenon won't react with any color atom, AntiMatter destroys the surrounding atoms, Bonus turns into Flashium when caught and gives you a bonus drop, Multiplier will fill your test tube with atoms, Evil Multiplier fills the test tube with Xenons, Convertor changes all of the atoms it lands on into Xenons, Blocker will fill the beaker column it lands in with Xenons, and Filler permanently reduces the number of atoms the test tube can hold by one atom (let this one drop if you can afford to). The game can be played in either Endurance Mode (play until you lose) or in Waves where you have to accomplish specific objectives. Developed by Absolute Magic, v1.0 was distributed by Software Creations, and v1.1 was distributed by its successor, Impulse Software. The registered version has 50 more waves, 5 new backgrounds, and adds the Anti-Matter and Bonus atoms.
Added by DOSGuy
Screenshots
320×200×256c
Downloads
| Tubes v1.1 Shareware (547,317 bytes) | 1994-11-07 | DOS | Play online  |
| Tubes v1.0 Shareware (555,935 bytes) | 1994-06-21 | DOS |
Availability
I have found no ordering information for this game.