JigSawed

One of the puzzles in JigSawed.

JigSawed is a puzzle video game developed by Tito Messerli and published by Microsoft in the Microsoft Entertainment Pack 2 for Windows 3 in 1991. The game is a simple jigsaw puzzle, only it uses primitive shapes instead of standard fully-interlocking jigsaw shapes. It has a few options to customize the layout, but that's about it.

Personal

I didn't have this game growing up, but some of my friends did. However, since it's just a primitive jigsaw puzzle game, I didn't bother playing it very much. As an adult trying to reacquaint myself with the games of Windows 3, I played the game more to try and see all the features. I solved a rectangular shaped puzzle for all the included photos on 2020-07-30.

I do not own this game, but I have solved all the included photos.

Review

2	4	1	1	4

Best Version: Windows 3

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• The puzzle area expands to accommodate larger resolutions for those few people who had them, and allows for screen scrolling even if you have a smaller resolution.

Bad

• Even if both Windows and the bitmap are set to handle 256 colors, the program downgrades the image to 16 colors.
• As jigsaw puzzles go, this one is really weak. Most of the options are entirely inconsequential, like being able to change the background color.
• You can't control how many pieces the puzzle will be. Instead, the count is based solely on the size of the bitmap and the shape you choose. And, the size it uses is often too large to make for an enjoyable puzzle experience.
• The game is media challenged lacking animation, sound, and music.

Ugly

• The included photos are terrible and there are only five. They don't make very good use of dithering, are mostly boring to look at, and not very conducive to the default puzzle shape. And, since high-quality bitmaps were a rarity in the early 1990s, the user would have been hard-pressed to find any decent images to add to the mix.

Media

Icon

• 

  The game's icon.

Screenshots

• 

  The "Fish" puzzle.

• 

  The about form.

• 

  The "Bricks" puzzle with the stars shape.

• 

  A larger custom puzzle with the ellipses in rectangles shape.

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	There are no characters.
Bechdel test?	Fail	There are no characters.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	There are no characters.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no characters.

Credits

Roles	Staff
Entire Game	Tito Messerli