Site features

You can, with a click, quickly access any of these topics and return here, or just scroll down and get to all of them, in this order. It's all useful information, like a tour guide, to make your visit here more enjoyable and interesting. Too bad most people don't bother to read anymore.

Icons
Graphics
Getting around
Our Logo Movie
The Fast Lane
Puzzle Parlor
Memory Matching Games
Other Amusements
Archives of our history
The Life of Games
Music, the Caranza Collection
Coloring Book
Emmy-winning Video
Children's Stories
Other special attractions
Who did it (Site design credits)


Icons
We've provided hot links on some custom symbols. The site's organization lets you reach "Home" (top of the Index page) and nearly anything else within 3 clicks, without ever resorting to the BACK button. Here are the icons you can click on and what they do. (Hint:  Some of these are playful hot buttons, too.)

 Miniature of Product Index menu brings you directly to the Product Index portion of the Home page. (Have you noticed that it's made of 3 pentominoes joined?)

Purple logos are navigational links between pages within this website. Their destination is spelled out in an accompanying caption.

Green logos access your shopping cart (also called order form or, simply, order)...next to a product, they add the item to your order; on the bottoms of pages they merely let you view its current status.

Yellow logos appear at the tops of most pages and are an instant beam-out to the top of the Index page ("Home").

Red logos appear at the tops of individual highlight pages and are an alternate link back to the antecedent page.

Multi-color logos at the bottoms of certain sections are a link back to the Fast Lane menu, the quick tour for first-time visitors.

Silver logos denote items or activities celebrating Kadon's 25th anniversary, 2005. Wherever you encounter them, they link you to the Anniversary Celebration index.

  Question marks in the Product Index connect to a brief definition of their topic. Just click them. Click this one for a little demo.

 T buttons in the Product Index open the thumbnail gallery of their respective sections, showing at a glance a miniature of every product in that section. The miniatures link to their full-size descriptions.

Red squares at the tops of most pages drop you directly to the bottom of that page or section (psst, this is a secret).

Kadon Enterprises, Inc. or Kadon Enterprises, Inc., wherever highlighted (including here and in any copyright notice at page bottoms) is email contact ... you can reach us with just a click from almost any page.

Whatever color, shape or size, balloons are all hot. Really!

 PLAY buttons next to any product description are a link to an interactive area where you can play that puzzle, either by solving in our Puzzle Parlor or as a memory matching game. Elsewhere, like this one, they lead to other playable features.

 SEE buttons are a link to relevant and interesting pictures to look at about the topic they accompany.

Treasure chests mark our "Treasured Oldies" — puzzles from long ago that went out of print and deserve to be rediscovered and further developed. Click chests for historical notes.

buttons move you back up to the top of the page or section you're in. Most sections consist of more than one part. The "top" is at the beginning of the first part, above the section heading. If you want to leave a section early, you can skip to the top anytime and bail out from there to the Home page by clicking the yellow logo.

buttons drop you to the end of the section you're in. Most sections consist of more than one part. The "bottom" is at the end of the last part. You transit between parts by clicking on NEXT buttons or Continue arrows. If you want to leave a section anytime, just skip to the bottom and go from there to the Index ("Home") or to the next mystery destination through the secret doorway or the CONTINUE button.

buttons bring the next item on the page into your viewscreen. Neater and quicker than scrolling down, and easier on the eyes, too. They also create smooth transitions between section parts.

buttons take you back to the immediately previous product you visited, on the same page or even back to the previous page or section. Useful for when you can't scroll back. Lets you slide smoothly backward as easily as forward. Added by popular demand.

buttons are near the top of product sections. Looking for a game? Clicking them opens a thumbnail gallery of all the items in that section. So will clicking on the heading balloons. The thumbnails are links to the full-size pictures.

buttons take you into the next section when you've reached the bottom of the current section. It's a convenience for those who want to see the entire line-up of products in one continuous loop, without the interruption of going through special doorways to enter the next section. Added by popular demand.

  has been added as a reassurance for those who, like our web guru Tom Franklin, like some sense of direction at what appears to be the end of a page. This button occurs in sections that have more than one part. It does the same thing the NEXT button does, moving you into the next part of that section.

  has been added as an easy connector from the end of one section to the start of the next section on the Grand Tour that loops through all the product pages. It does the same thing the NEXT buttons do, just moving you into a whole new section. It's added as a reassurance for those, like our friend Addison, who don't want to use the secret wormholes we had built at the end of each section.

Secret doorways lead to other sections and form a complete loop through the entire gamepuzzles gallery. There's one at the end of every product section, with playful names like "Wormhole" and "Transporter Room". Use them for the Grand Tour. Or just use the more visible CONTINUE button.

Bears appear seasonally or with special messages. Before Christmas they link to special pages about holiday orders, gift-wrapping, shipping instructions, and early-order bonuses. At New Year's a couple of cheery bears drink a toast. On certain custom order pages the bear takes a bow for the extra service. This one has his own ideas.

Silver emblems commemorate the 25th anniversary of Kadon and of the products we've made for 25 years. Each year those that reach this venerable age are honored in some special way. See also our Archives and Historical Notes.

Baskets with our green logo sit at tops of product pages. Click them to see the current status of what you're ordering (shopping cart). Added by popular demand. Green logos at section bottoms do likewise.



Graphics
All the puzzle graphics, other than photos, are shown at relative scale except where noted. A couple of the really large sets wouldn't have fit on your screen otherwise. Please see the text for specific sizes.

The miniature images in the thumbnail galleries and in our Great Wall (behind the right margin of the Home page) have uniform vertical measurements, thus are not to scale.

The graphics are as true to the real thing as you can get ... they're from the same CADD program our laser uses to cut the pattern. And while the colors of the graphics can only approximate the beauty, vividness and hue of the acrylic puzzles, and individual variations of your browser and monitor may also alter their actual appearance a bit, the illustrations are a good general guide.

Photos are not to scale since the subjects vary greatly in relative size. With many of the products shown in photos we've provided an enlarged view you can access by clicking on the small one. The file size is indicated for the larger image. We've compressed them to speed your download time.

Some playful graphics are hidden here and there:  a cat that walks through walls, a teddybear who takes a bow, a logo that separates into puzzle pieces that dance around, and other surprises and prizes to be added from time to time. Have fun finding them!


Getting around
We've grouped the games and puzzles in sections by categories or themes. Some items may appear in more than one section. You can visit the various areas by clicking on their captions in the Product Index or the Site Map. An extended list of categories, each with its own thumbnail gallery, is in the Search Index.

At the top of each section you'll see how many items and pages it contains and a list of the games therein. Their links let you visit them in any order, or you can move down the page sequentially by scrolling or clicking the NEXT button. The partitioning of the list gives a picture of what's on each page. The pages are numbered. A link at page bottoms leads to the next page. The section name at top of each page links back to that section's first page.

Clicking the OVERVIEW button or section title balloon opens a thumbnail gallery of all the games in that section, for a quick overview. Click the thumbnail picture to take you to that game. From each game you can return to the TOP of the section or skip to its BOTTOM by clicking those buttons. You can also open the thumbnail galleries with the T buttons in the Product Index on the home page.

Many products in each section have individual highlight pages linked from their text or illustration. Go there only if you want additional information, such as larger pictures, color choices, or more detailed explanations of game rules or other interesting facts about that specific product. A highlight page always links you back to its product. You never need to use your BACK button.

About pages that open in new windows:— For your ease of navigation, a referenced page will open in a new window unless it has a link back. That way you can use the link back or, if there isn't one, just close the new window, and you'll be back on the page you started from. No way to get lost, and no need ever to use the BACK button.

At the end of each section you can choose to return to the Index for the next area to visit, or contact us by email or phone, or view your shopping basket's current status (we call it "Order") by clicking the little green logo, or take a shortcut to another section through playfully named portals in the lower left corner or by clicking the CONTINUE link.

To take a Grand Tour of the entire gamepuzzles gallery in a single loop, click NEXT buttons from beginning to end. Where sections end, click the CONTINUE button or arrow. From the GRAND TOUR button on the Index page, your first stop is the "Hottest Sellers" section. The Grand Tour ends when you reach the EXIT button; it returns you to the Home page.

If you're looking for a particular game by name, go to the Alphabetical Listing in the Product Index and click on the product name for direct access.

If you're shopping by price, see the Indexed by Price listing.

If you're looking for special features, check the Search Us index.

We'll send a small prize to the first person who advises us of a mistake in this website, whether a typo, broken link or other goof. Each blooper gets a separate prize. Email us at Blooper Bounty and provide your ground address, so we can mail you your prize. And thanks!

We've tried to make your visit here as pleasant, convenient and inviting as possible. We hope you'll visit often and purchase our games for your continuing enjoyment.


Our Logo Movie
Click on the big yellow W at the top of our home page to view a movie. This short subject animates five different pentomino designs. The 12 pieces first spell out the five letters of our company name, KADON. Each letter leads to one of the five ways 4 pentominoes can form a doubled W. Their solutions are embedded within a moving "dance" of 9 pieces that form a tripled W. Sound confusing? It'll make sense when you see the movie. After each design you can click the next one or "Home" to return to the index page. Why pentominoes? Because Kadon's first product, Quintillions, was founded on them, and they have inspired everything else we've created. The movie was made originally by Chris Palmer using Flash technology, from concept and solutions by Kate Jones. Flash having gone obsolete, the animated graphics were converted to HTML5 by the wizards at Dart Innovations in India. There are five miniature animations hidden throughout the website. Here is one sampler.


The Fast Lane
For first-time visitors the sheer size of the gamepuzzles website can be overwhelming, so we've provided a Fast Lane with its own brief menu for a quick tour that gives an overview of just a few highlights. It takes in the Hottest Sellers, For Youngest Players, and Games Magazine selects sections, plus the FAQ (frequently asked questions) page and entrance to the Puzzle Parlor. We hope visitors will be made comfortable enough by this short first trip to want to take a more leisurely cruise through the other parts of the site eventually.


Puzzle Parlor (temporarily inactive)
Online play to sample some of our puzzles. It was created with Flash, which has been abandoned. We'll work on converting the program to a workable system. We regret any disappointment and delay. It will return better than ever. Each puzzle provides three challenges of different ranks of difficulty. Players use the mouse to click, drag and drop puzzle pieces into enclosures of various sizes and shapes, somewhat like the trays the real puzzles occupy. Each game layout also has a link back to the gamepuzzles homepage (Index page), back to the Puzzle Parlor menu, and to an ordering page for purchasing the hands-on puzzle, with color choices illustrated.


Memory Matching Games
Sharpen your memory and visual perception with classic "concentration" games we've customized for our gamepuzzles. Twelve puzzle pieces or other images are hidden in pairs behind 24 tiles you click to reveal an image. Click a matched pair and they disappear. How fast can you clear all 12 pairs? Play this game with all these different themes — some are hidden, some have surprise endings. Just click their PLAY buttons or links wherever you may encounter them. Or here:

  • the 12 pieces of Quintillions
  • the 12 pieces of Iamond Hex
  • the 12 different color pairs of Diamond Rainbow
  • the 12 different non-symmetrical teddybears in Bear Hugs Jr.
  • the 6 numbers in two colors each of Six Disks
  • the 4 tiles in 3 colors each of Rombix Jr.
  • the 12 two-color tiles of Multimatch I
  • the 12 two-color tiles of Multimatch II
  • a dozen familiar objects you'd see during a Beach Vacation
  • our 12 most popular puzzles for kids, in Joy for Kids, with an adorable surprise ending
  • a dozen sneaky numbers "25" for our 25th Anniversary celebration
  • 12 all-different little Christmas trees
  • 12 color pairs of stacked Looney Pyramids

    Some other memory games are hidden in unexpected places as part of our collection of secret surprises. We won't tell you where the entrances are, but the puzzles themselves are these:
  • 12 differently colored Kadon logos
  • Karen Glatt's 12 darling animals
  • 12 mountainous nations'/states' flags
  • Names of 12 popular dances
  • A strange and mysterious group of numbers


    Other Amusements
    A variety of play activities are tucked away here and there. You may find them by chance as you browse in the backrooms of this site, or get to them from this list. Your solutions may win a prize. We'll add new games here from time to time as we think of them or find them. Those marked with * are by others; we share them here because they're great fun and kin to our own material. Several use paper and pencil, or scissors, or our products, not your mouse.
  • 7 x 7 = 7—seven heptiamonds form a 7 and a triangle
  • 10x10 Latin Square, cut out and play (.pdf, 269K)
  • 11 Magic Cubes—cut out and play (.pdf, 150K)
  • Alphabest—a heterogrammatical word grid challenge
  • Annigrams—a triple anagram puzzle
  • Arc Angles—form tightest loop
  • Berkshire 9x9—sudoku/slide puzzle
  • Big-Game Hunt—find the mistakes (from a secret link)
  • Bowties—cut out 10 pieces and play (.pdf, 199K)
  • Celebrating LXX—70 squares match edge markings, Kate's birthday souvenir
  • Chicago 7x7 — a sudoku/sliding puzzle
  • Cornucopia — a hexomino subset challenge in 15 steps
  • Double Entendre—two words overlap with dual letters
  • Flower Garden Game—interactive 25-grid checker challenge with flowers
  • G = 7—make the 12 pentominoes into a G and a 7
  • Logo matchstick puzzles—topological transformations
  • Logo maze puzzle—find the connecting route in exactly 25 moves
  • Logo path puzzle—find the shortest route
  • Magic '8'—8 octominoes build an 8, make magic sums
  • Magic Heptominoes—find the 5 missing pieces
  • Martin 6x6 Sudoku/Slide, cut out and play (.pdf, 223K)
  • The Octo Clock—challenges with 8 numbered, indented octagons
  • The Octo Maze—match paths to make 8's with 8 indented octagons
  • OHIO Sixteen—double-whammy Sudoku and sliding puzzle to print, cut out, solve
  • The Prague Czecherboard—6x6 checkerboard with letters P R A G U E in every row
  • The Star-9 Challenge—get the numbers right
  • The Three-Squared Challenge—match or mismatch colors, find hidden letters
  • Word Pingpong—a bouncy word game
  • Wyandotte 50th Street Art Fair—a 5x5 sudoku/sliding puzzle
  • Logo Dances (from 5 secret links)
  • Wanna Play? Links Maze Puzzle (from a secret link)

    Cool finds worth spending time exploring:

  • AlienTiles*—online game on Cliff Pickover's site
  • Asian countries*—drag and drop on Sheppard Software site, very tough
  • Battlestones*—play the app for Batalo on inventor Scott Harmon's site
  • Caboodle*—group colored circles in minimum moves on Toby Gottfried's site
  • Chat Noir*—go-like strategy chasing a black kitten on GameDesign site (Japan)
  • Cube Roll*—roll cubes to finish lines on Carl and Michael Huang's site
  • Entanglement*—connect tiles to form longest path, by Gopherwood Studios
  • Grand Tour*—connect dots on Glenn Iba's site
  • Jigolla*—Blokus-imaged jigsaw puzzle by Toby Gottfried
  • Minima*—sliding blocks by Dick Hess, play on Puzzleworld site (Java may fail)
  • PathPix*—download gorgeous pathforming puzzles by Kris Pixton from her site
  • Pentolla*—play Blokus online (log-in required), a site built for and by players
  • Planarity*—move nodes to untangle crossed lines on creator John Tantalo's site
  • Puzzle Express*—fill railroad cars with polyominoes from Hipsoft site
  • Q Game*—push marbles into goals on Puzzle Perfect site
  • SquareMatch*—match colored squares on Toby Gottfried's site
  • Tetrapentos*—form hundreds of figures on Thérèse Eveilleau's French math site
  • U.S. Map*—place the states on the Sheppard Software site

    Some of these games may require your browser to have Java enabled. For Microsoft Internet Explorer, click Tools > Internet Options > Advanced, then scroll down to 'JIT Enabled' and check the check-box. If you still get a blank, download the latest Java plug-in.



    Archives of our history
    We've done a little nostalgia and retrospective for various landmarks of our company, beginning in 2005 for our 25th anniversary. Now, each year, we glance back briefly at what happened 25 years earlier. A bit of humor and hilarity, a bit of insight, a few good stories...here, if you're curious, are links to our historical pages, including a chronology of all our products, an overview of who we are, and a few good lessons learned.


    The Life of Games
    A unique online journal of scholarly and exploratory articles on the subject of why and how we play. . . How games have been an important part of every culture throughout history; how we know what rules are, and why we want rules. Fascinating unfolding of ideas, well edited and attractively presented. Founded October 1999. Come explore with us. Articles from interested thinkers and writers are invited. New issues added from time to time.


    Music—The Caranza Collection
    A collection of 25 CDs of virtuoso performances of Patric Hale, Meistersinger, who sings in 12 genres and 7 languages. Listen to 25 sample tracks online, ranging from grand opera to country, rock, Broadway classics, Italian and German songs, Sinatra, Tom Jones, Tony Bennett and Billy Joel hits, and more. Get swept away by the power of Patric's delivery and the warmth and passion of his interpretations. If you like what you hear, you can order the disks and brighten every day of your life.



    Coloring Book
    We present a cool online entertainment — paint a meta-graphic design (DUALITY by Kate Jones) in any way that pleases you, from our presented palette of hues, and name it, save it, print it or send it to friends. The design is a geometric abstract with metaphysical themes. With just a few clicks of the paint tool, you can bring out the meanings you see. Use the supplied .GIF template in your paint program, or paint it with real paint or crayons. Permanent art pieces in lasercut acrylic can also be ordered, to your color specifications. New designs to come.


    Emmy-winning Video
    A four-minute segment about Kadon's beautiful, mathematically inspired puzzles, with narration by Kate Jones, was produced by Violet Carberry for Maryland Public Television in 2002 as part of its "Artworks this Week" program. It won an Emmy for short subject in April 2003. The file is 28MB, so allow for a little extra download time.


    Children's Stories
    Three charming, fantasy-inspired tales for kids that grown-ups can also enjoy. Authors Warren Fahy and Robert Vermillion Jr. present imaginative and touching themes, plus one interactive adventure that's a puzzle to solve.



    Other special attractions
    Other features on this website include a Mini-Quiz for fun and fame, a list of Contests we sponsor, a considerable Resources section of links to other useful sites, a calendar of Shows where we'll appear, an FAQ page, and background information about who we are. Then visit the Maryland Renaissance Festival, and don't miss our mascot. There are also .pdf files you can download and print out for a condensed paper catalog, or view it as a flip catalogue where you turn the pages.

    For lots of useful information, see New Stuff, where we update you on additions and announcements, and provide links to our hot stuff online videos. See How to Order and how to Contact us. The Search Index provides a quick overview of all the product categories, with links to thumbnail galleries. This Site Features page [you are here] gives a summary and description of all the special features. For a complete sweep of all the parts, visit the Site Map.




    Who did it
    Site design, layout, text and coding are by Kate Jones, originally with HotDog Web Editor 16-Bit, v2.55, GemDraw 2.01 and Paint Shop Pro 5.01; now with Microsoft Notepad for Windows 10, Paint Shop Pro 8, and Microsoft Word. Product graphics by Chuck Coates, Chris Palmer and Kate Jones. Additional graphics by Kate Jones and Michael Keller. Product photography by Richard Grainger, Dick Jones and Thomas Atkinson. Scanning by Dick Jones. Walking cat and bowing bear animations by Arthur Blumberg. Memory Matching Games graphics by Kate Jones, javascript program by Karen Glatt. "Pentominoes, the Movie" logo animations, the Coloring Book's Flash Painter interactive format, and the entire Puzzle Parlor interactive program by Chris Palmer. Leapfrog Solitaire JAVA applet by Eric Solomon.

    We'd also like to thank Dr. Ali Kooshesh of the computer sciences department of Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California, for his invaluable help in constructing the first draft of the product description template. Kamran Sedaghatkish's critiques were most helpful in the final stages before launch. Teacher and website creator Tom Franklin taught us the value of hyperlinking abundantly. Matt Kalina, Laser Applications Inc. web guru, mentored us on meta-tags. Peter Aleff advised on color scheme, and Bjarne Viken inspired the streamlining of the homepage. We're grateful to several of our customers whose bewilderment prompted further improvements. Warm thanks to Jan de Ruiter for pinpointing dozens of defective links. A special tribute to Dick Jones for his continuing support and for bringing home an HTML guidebook.


  • Kadon Enterprises, Inc.
    1227 Lorene Drive, Suite 16
    Pasadena, MD 21122
    +1 (410)437-2163


    To Product Index

    ©1998-2023 Kadon Enterprises, Inc.