Free game
Color Lines 98 online
Move a ball, line up matching colors and keep the board from filling up. This is the Lines puzzle many people first played on a Windows PC. It runs here in your browser, no account needed. Play on the 7x7 board from our Android app or switch to the classic 9x9 board.
Pick a ball, then an empty cell it can reach through open cells. Small dots mark where the next balls will land.
Play the full version on Android
Color Lines 98: Clay Puzzle uses the same 7x7 rules as this page. On top of Endless play it has a Daily Challenge shared by all players and a Run mode with stackable modifiers. When space runs out you can use Undo, Move Anywhere or Swap. There is a colorblind mode, and it works offline without an account. Free to play, with an optional one-time Pro purchase.
How to play Lines 98
- Tap or click a ball to pick it up, then tap an empty cell to send it there.
- A ball travels only through empty cells, stepping up, down, left or right. If other balls block every route, the move does not happen.
- Put enough balls of one color in a row, column or diagonal and they disappear. On the 7x7 board you need four. On classic 9x9 you need five.
- A move that clears a line costs nothing: no new balls arrive. Any other move drops new balls onto the board. Small dots show where they will land, and the Next row shows their colors.
- The game ends when no empty cell is left.
On a keyboard, click the board or tab to it, move the cursor with the arrow keys and press Enter or Space to pick a ball and to drop it. Escape drops the selection.
Scoring
Scoring follows our Android app. Each ball in a clear is worth 20 points, plus 8 for every ball beyond the minimum line, and that sum is multiplied by the number of balls cleared. A line of four on the 7x7 board scores 320. A line of five there scores 540. On classic 9x9 a line of five scores 500.
Clears in a row build a chain. The second clear in a chain counts double, the third counts triple, and so on. A move that clears nothing lowers the chain by one step instead of wiping it, so one repositioning move is not a disaster.
Every 40 lines cleared you go up a level. The level multiplies your points and gives you one more undo. On the 7x7 board each level also adds a ball to every drop, up to six. Classic 9x9 always drops three.
Tips and strategy
- Keep the middle open. A ball in the center can reach most of the board. Once the middle clogs, every move takes a detour or fails.
- Read the landing dots. You are allowed to move a ball onto a cell where a new ball was about to land. That ball then drops on a random free cell instead, which can save a line you are building.
- Give each color a zone. Keep reds on one side and blues on another. A color spread over the whole board needs many moves before it forms a line.
- Leave the last gap reachable. Build a line with one hole and make sure that hole touches open space. Then several balls can finish it, not just one.
- Look for crossings. One ball can finish a row and a diagonal at the same time. Both lines clear together, and the bigger clear scores far more than two separate ones.
- Keep an undo for emergencies. The best time to use it is when a drop seals off the only path to a nearly finished line.
A short history of Color Lines
Color Lines came out for MS-DOS in 1992. Oleg Demin made it with artists Gennady Denisov and Igor Ivkin, and the Russian company Gamos published it. The first release listed Demin's wife, Olga Demina, as the author, because his employer at the time would not approve the side project. The original used a 9x9 board, seven colors and three new balls per turn, with the next three shown in advance.
Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 versions followed in 1995. A later Windows remake called Lines 98 is the name many players still search for, and the same rules have been copied into countless versions since.
FAQ
Is this Color Lines game free?
Yes. It runs in your browser with no account and nothing to install. Your best score is saved only in this browser, so clearing site data resets it.
Are Color Lines and Lines 98 the same game?
Yes. Color Lines is the original 1992 game. Lines 98 is the name of a later Windows version, and most players use the two names for the same puzzle: move balls, make lines of one color, stop the board from filling.
Why does the 7x7 board clear lines of four?
A 7x7 board has 49 cells instead of 81, so lines of five would be rare. The 7x7 mode uses the rules of our Android app: five colors and lines of four or more. Pick Classic 9x9 for the original seven colors and lines of five.
Can I undo a move?
Yes. Each game starts with two undos and you earn one more every time you reach a new level. Undo takes back only your last move, including the balls that spawned after it.
Is there a phone version?
Yes. Color Lines 98: Clay Puzzle is our Android version. It uses the same 7x7 rules and adds Endless, Daily Challenge and Run modes, a colorblind mode and offline play.