Color Lines
Line up five of a colour and watch them pop
How to play
Color Lines is the classic Lines 98 puzzle, free online: move candy balls on a 9 by 9 board and line up five of a colour in a row, a column or a diagonal to clear them. It plays in any browser on phone or desktop and inside Telegram via @MatsuriGamesBot, with no download and no sign-up. The daily board is the same for everyone, and a challenge link gives a friend your exact game.
Color Lines is the classic ball-lining puzzle also known as Lines 98. Candy balls in seven colours sit on a 9 by 9 board. Tap a ball, then an empty cell: it rolls there if a path of empty cells leads to it, never jumping over other balls. Line up five or more of one colour in a row, a column or a diagonal and they vanish for points, and that turn no new balls come. Any other move brings three new balls onto random empty cells; their colours are shown in advance, so you can plan for them. Longer lines and two lines at once score more. The game ends when the board fills up. The daily board is the same for everyone, so the leaderboard is a fair race.
- Click a ball to pick it up, then click an empty cell: it rolls there if a path of empty cells leads to it (it never jumps over others). You can drag it too, or use the arrow keys and Space.
- Five or more of one colour in a row, a column or a diagonal pop for points, and then no new balls come.
- Any other move brings the three balls shown in my dish onto the board. Keep room: the game ends when the board is full.
How to play Color Lines
The board has 81 cells and starts with five balls; there are seven colours, and each also carries its own small mark (heart, star, stripes, dot, diamond, ring, cross). Tap a ball to pick it up and tap an empty cell to send it there. It rolls only if a path of empty cells connects the two, moving up, down, left or right, never jumping over another ball; if no path leads there, the ball shakes its head and nothing is spent. Dragging the ball works too, and on a computer the arrow keys and Space.
When the ball you moved completes a line of five or more of its colour, across, down or along either diagonal, the whole line vanishes and no new balls come that turn. Any other move brings the three balls shown in the dish above the board onto random empty cells, and three new colours appear in the dish. A new ball that happens to complete a line clears it too, and it scores the same. The game ends when the board is full.
A line of five scores 10, six 16, seven 26, eight 40 and nine 58: two points a ball, and more the longer the line. Two lines cleared by one move share the ball where they cross and add 20 for the extra line. There is no undo, as in the original Color Lines. A run that has gone on long enough can be handed in with Finish; the score only grows, so stopping early never helps.
Color Lines strategy and tips
- Read the dish. The next three colours are always shown, so if two of them match a line you are building, keep its ends open rather than rushing a different line.
- Every move that clears nothing adds three balls, so value moves that finish lines. Building two half-lines of one colour that cross at an empty cell sets up a double clear worth 20 extra.
- Keep the board connected. A ball walled in by others cannot move, and an empty pocket nobody can reach is wasted space; leave corridors through the middle and keep the corners for long-lived lines.
- Do not chase one colour across the board. Building near the edges and corners, where fewer random balls land in the way, gives a line a better chance to grow to five.
- When the board gets crowded, clear first and build later: a quick five that opens space is worth more than a six that may never come.
Modes and difficulty
The daily board and its sequence of new balls are the same for everyone (the same moves bring them to the same cells) and change at 00:00 UTC; only your first daily try counts on its leaderboard. Practice deals a fresh game whenever you like, and the best practice score goes on the all-time board. After a game you can send it as a challenge: your friend gets the same start and the same balls in the same places for the same moves, with your score as the target.
Playing Color Lines on Matsuri
The balls are candies with little faces, and each colour has a mark so colour-blind players can tell them apart. The game draws every new ball's colour and landing cell from the board's seed, so the server can replay your moves to check the score, and a daily is truly the same game for all. Skins (Sakura Fest, Lemon Summer, Pumpkin Party) change the board and the candies; the classic look is free.
A little history
Color Lines was made by the Moscow studio Gamos in 1992 for DOS and spread through offices across the former Soviet Union, where it is still remembered as Lines or шарики. Lines 98, a later Windows version with the same rules, made it a favourite in Vietnam and far beyond, and the simple idea of moving balls to make lines of five has been copied on every platform since.
Questions
- Can I play Color Lines (Lines 98) free online?
- Yes. It is free with no ads, no download and no sign-up, in any browser on phone or desktop and inside Telegram through @MatsuriGamesBot. Tap a ball and then an empty cell, or drag it; on a computer the arrow keys and Space work too.
- Why won't my ball move to that cell?
- A ball only rolls along a path of empty cells, step by step up, down, left or right; it never jumps over other balls. If balls wall the cell off, the ball shakes its head and the move is not made, so nothing is lost.
- Do diagonal lines count?
- Yes. Five or more of one colour in a row, a column or either diagonal vanish. When the ball you moved finishes a line, no new balls come that turn; otherwise three new balls land on random empty cells.
- How is the score counted?
- A line of five scores 10, six 16, seven 26, eight 40 and nine 58. Two lines cleared by one move add 20 more. New balls that complete a line by themselves score the same. The game ends when the board is full, and the server replays your moves to check the score.