[Lymojo]

So I've seen links to some really great games mentioned here and there on the forum, but I can't seem to find a thread dedicated to them.

Let's hear about those exceptional browser/freeware/flash games that you've come across.

Here's mine:

"The Codex of Alchemical Engineering".
http://www.kongregate.com/games/krispykrem/the-codex-of-alchemical-engineering/?referrer=Lymojo

The goal of the game is to use an assortment of special tiles and programmable robotic arms to build a machine that, when run, will transmute a handful of base alchemical elements (earth, air, fire, and water) into a more complex element or compound (gold, elixir of youth, etc.). You win when your machine can operate in an infinite loop without failing or blowing up.

What Codex does is force you to think iteratively. You need to know where each element and robotic arm will be on the board at every moment; each new movement you add to a mechanism's flow chart will push the rhythm of the machine forward a beat, inevitably disturbing the order of an operation further down the line. You have to think almost musically, in stanzas.

I absolutely love it. It makes me use parts of my brain that I haven't touched since I graduated - juicy lobes and cortexes just dripping with endorphins, ripe for the squeezing. I haven't gotten much else done today.