i have the retail version .. it gets an error 217 (OR 271) at an address on a 98se machine. anyone have this error ?

I dunno what happened, but the download went fine... and when I tried to install, it said it was already installed. I do not have this game, but have Rise of Atlantis. As far as I can tell, that must be what it saw. My GF grabbed this one and it worked fine... but she missed Rise of Atlantis when it was offered. Guess I'll have to play on her computer... *pout*

This is the first game I have actually gotten to download on time to play. (My fault for not reading the regs carefully! (red face<here) As a rule, I don't care much for Match Three games, but this one is fun and hard. I will beat it some day. Cordially, Nehmah

The only problem I have with it seems to be the addiction factor. Can't seem to stop playing. Great Game! Thanks!

@Whiterabbit-uk and needforspeed
Thanks for the reply and advice.
I run CCleaner after every browsing session, deleting all related stuff in my Internet browsers. But it didn't make any difference.
I had already tried the Firewall thing, but to no avail either.

Oh well, I'll go for the MyPlayCity versions.

Thanks again.


.................................Moderator comment.........................

If you continue to have poblems I would delete the cookies manually. Also reboot your modem as opposed to turning off your firewall. :)

Tried changing display settings, still didn't work. I think it then is probably my drivers, & I'm not gonna bother right now to get new drivers, had enough problem with drivers for awhile already, & they all say I have the latest ones. This game had this problem 3 yrs ago, also? So I'm also doubting latest drivers would be needed, so I dunno. I liked this game when had it once, but it's not important enough to do more research to get it to work. Thanks anyway, Playrix! :)

Wow, I had no problem at all with the download. I run 7 with a 64bit.
Was a bit worried by reading comments as I have not quite figured out My Play City just yet.

Installed and ran fine on my laptop: windows 7 home premium 64bit and my desktop: windows 7 ultimate 32bit both all up to date.

I downloaded this game before, and initially enjoyed it, but EVEN if you get it to work on your machine take my advice: don't bother unless you want to get really frustrated with the gameplay later on.

This is the game, IIRC, where at some point you're humming along just fine, getting all the tokens or whatever they are, and some "Evil Something or Other" (I forget exactly what it's called) mysteriously makes all your work vanish, and essentially makes you start all over again.

And THERE'S NO WAY to avoid this. It's programmed right into the game.

Then, in the later levels the alignment of the board makes completing certain levels impossible unless you're incredibly lucky, depending on how the tokens fall.

I play a lot of similar games. I finish all of them, with few exceptions. If I can't get by a level that is planned to be almost impossible to beat (say, after about 60 trys), then the frustration isn't worth the effort. One plays a game for the challenge, but also for the gratification of winning, at some point, otherwise what's the use?

I play games for the enjoyment of it. Once a game becomes so hard that it's not fun anymore, it gets deleated. Over-zealous programmers can have their game. I don't want it, or anything else they offer.

It's a long time ago, but I remember sending off an email to the makers of this game telling them that playing a game that one can't finish in a reasonable amount of time using a reaonable amount of skill stops being played, and starts being deleted.

I'm not saying all games should be easy, ot finished within 30 minutes, but to frustrate the gamer with no real reason is to insure that they never downloade your games again.

Which is why I'm avoiding this one Big time. And taking the effort and time to warn other people in the process.

I realize this comment is so far down the list that it may never be read, but that's ok. If you do get a chance to read this, when I tell you I told you so, I told you so.

Thanks so much to needforspeed (#66): changing the screen settings makes the game run just fine. And I think it will help some other games I've been having trouble with ever since SP3 was inflicted on my formerly SP2 XP Pro system.

Now if I can just figure out how to collect more bonuses/get more time on the later levels where I always got stuck before...

Win 7 Ultimate 32-bit, played fine for first 3 levels before I quit. Seems like an older match 3 game.

I've been playing The Rise of Atlantis (a giveaway from a couple months ago) which I enjoy very much. Atlantis Quest must be an earlier Playrix game as the gameplay and graphics are much less sophisticated. That's just an FYI. I'm happy to have another match 3 game to play. Thanks GGOTD, Playrix and especially White Rabbit for the reviews and moderation.

Had no problem with installation I am running windows 7 64 bit installed with no errors & plays great game thanks GGOTD

Unable to stay awake to moderate any longer. Will return about 30 minutes before the giveaway ends. Goodnight folks!. :)

@Kate #73: Also try turning off your firewall on the computer temporarily. You can turn it back on after completing installation.

Some firewalls, e.g. Comodo, are known to cause this problem with GAOTD installers.

Just to note: Running great on Visa Home Premium, Acer Aspire w/ 2 GHz Pentium processor.

On most of your games, there is an option for "Custom Cursor"; my eMachines laptop running Windows Vista Home Basic won't show me a cursor till I turn this option on (ain't easy getting to it with no visible cursor, but I manage). This game doesn't include "Custom Cursor", so the game is not playable.

Nice game. The only thing I did was to install to the program files/games instead of just program files. It's nice to have the games together. EXCELLENT GRAPHICS & AUDIO. well done!! Thumbs up!

This game loaded and worked fine on my Vista Home Ed. Played thru Level 1 with no problems. Thanks GGAOTD!

Downloaded. Didn't work. Vista Home Basic. Got a video card error, Intel Integrated Media Graphics. Intel site says all is a-ok. Pity I really wanted this one.

I downloaded and installed this game on my Windows 7 64 bit with no problem. It's a pretty good game, much like around the world in 80 days. It is different enough to be interesting.

I seem to have a different problem.
When I run setup.exe, the Activation screen (the one that says checking availability, etc.) comes up and just stays there for ever; though setup.exe doesn't show as not responding in Task Manager, the x on the right up corner is not working and I have to kill it through Task Manager. I can't get beyond the Activation screen, no matter how long I wait.

I had the exact same problem with Around the World in 80 Days; I misssed that one because of this and it looks like I'm going to miss today's as well.
Makes me wonder if Playrix games don't like my machine.

I'm on Win XP SP3.

...........................................Moderator comment.................................


Hi Kate,

Sounds like the cookie related to the game giveaway is corrupted. clear out your internet cache. in XP just right click on the internet icon and select internet properties. From the window that pops up you can delete cookies, past browser history etc. Hopefully this will clear the problem. If not try rebooting your modem and/or router. Please let us know whether o not any of the above work. If you can't get it to work, may I suggest you download the MyPlayCity versions of both Around the world in 80 Days and Atlantic Quest:

Around the world in 80 Days:

http://www.myplaycity.com/around_the_world/

Atlantic Quest:

http://www.myplaycity.com/quest-game-atlantis-quest/

These free versions are exactly the same games, the only thing you need to remember is when installing them make sure any check boxes are unchecked. Otherwise you'll get a tool bar and find your home page is a MyPlayCity search engine (related to Yahoo). These are easy to rectify, but as i said you just uncheck the check boxes during the installation wizard. Also when the games close your browser will open to the MyPlayCity home page, which can be useful because they get at least one new game or more each week. This is totally innocuous; you just close the browser and it's gone.

After reading all the grave reviews, I thought I would be brave and also be a first time poster.

Installed fine, opened and did the setup without any doing on my part. Did not have to change a screen. Works great and I LOVE THIS GAME!!

HP Win7 Home Premium 64 bit

After reading all the above comments, I almost decided to pass on this one. But I really like Rise of Atlantis, so I tried the options.txt fix needforspeed @66 suggested & the program ran great the first try. (XP SP3)

I love match 3's & I enjoy the history lesson that goes along with it. Thanks Playrix & GGOTD for another great game.

Running Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit on a Dell Inspiron 1750. Installed fine. Played fine (seemed to have a little graphic trouble at first because I still had browser open & had been surfing, even though I have more than enough RAM). After closing game, I got this message: "Generic application error. Enable debug output for detailed information. This sample will now exit." I closed that screen, closed Firefox which I still had running, cleared my cache, & rebooted. Played the game again, then closed it. Ran fine (no graphic glitches) & closed without error message. I find that most games that will run on Vista will run on Win 7. I have a bunch of Playrix Match 3 games from GGOTD & from GameHouse - love them all. Thanks Playrix and GGOTD!

Thanks Whiterabbit; hope you feel better. Found another possible fix after a bit more futzing:

1. Change the following line in options.txt:
Windowed 0

2. Start the game. Same issues expected. Reboot/exit the game.

3. Change the following line in options.txt:
Windowed 1

4. Start the game. Game should run in a window now.

The game got a bit stale after first few levles, but a good time killer nonetheless. Thanks again.

P.S. Sorry am still not able to get together for vehicle battles (we exchanged some msgs earlier this year, am still on 7-year old lappy).

Windows 7 Home Premium. Does not work on my machine. Installed fine. Loads the game menu screen, then freezes. Can't even open task manager at that point. Unintstalled.

I still have this game on my computer. Haven't had time to finish playing all of it. I like the game. Music is great. It can be difficult in higher level.

To all that does not want to risk a browser hijack and are willing to troubleshoot a bit, here're a few ways to repair some of the problems people have experienced, after a quick-snoop around the game files:

1. The main source of the problem is that GGAOTD's version starts off with an unreasonable default screen resolution (1152x864x75hz). While the game self-troubleshoots and some video card drivers will attempt auto-adjust, it can take a while or leave undesirable artifacts (e.g. white screen, minimized by default, etc.)

To repair: After installation, modify the following lines in options.txt before starting the game:
Width 1024
Height 768
RefreshRate 60
VSync 0
WaitGPU 1
Note: There are 2 sets of Width and Height configs in options.txt. The changes here are for the 1st set ONLY. Leave all other lines as is.

2. If the above fails to work, please ensure you have the file Glares2.tga under the Textures directory in the game. If not, reinstall the game with admin rights, and launch game from the installer. Reboot (if computer hangs) and then make the modifications in step 1. This allows the game to self-extract texture files under its default install directory.

3. If issues continue, please check error.log for game progress and specific error messages.

Unfortunately the error.log is too large to be posted here, but if you can copy specific/relevant lines I or someone here would try to help.

Disclaimer: I'm not affliated with the mentioned game companies or GGAOTD, just an average gamer that occasionaly likes a troubleshooting challenge. Plus I really wanted to try this game, which proved to be quite enjoyable. Thanks GGAOTD.


.............................Moderator comment......................

Thanks needforspeed, i'll check your fix. Will be interesting to see if it works. :lol: Unfortunately step one didn't work

Installed fine on XP SP3. I install all my games to an external drive but I don't think that makes any difference. Fun little mathc 3 and I needed something difference from Around the World in 80 Days.

Thanks Playrix and GGAOTD. Nice offering. Hi WR, hope you are feeling a bit better, although I know it is a long term thing. Fingers crossed that someday life will return to normal again.


................................Moderator Comment.................................

Thanks, I'm as well as can be expected. :lol: Email me and I'll fill you in on recent developments. I'm sure I have your email, but not sure which account. :)

yes yes yes yes! *bounces up and down* i love this game! just happened to check my email today, and here this game is for frrrrreeeeeeeeee. I had this game before from another website but I don't particularly trust where I got it from, but now I know I'll have a nice clean safe and frrreeeeee version! *happydances* this game is on my "to buy" list. Now I can put that off for a bit and spend my money on other things. Like ... (insert name of match 3 game here). LOL

I've got...

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 6000+ ~3.0GHz
Memory: 2942MB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 7025 / NVIDIA nForce 630a (integrated)
OS: Win Vista 32

Game installed and runs perfectly! Thanks for it - great M3 with superb graphics and soundtrack!

I already download free full version of this game here http://www.freegamepick.com/download-free-games/pillars-of-hercules/screenshots.html It's called different for some reason maybe has more levels but same game


....................Moderator Comment..........................

It's also available from MyPlayCity and Gametop for free.

My wife plays and enjoys this game online, great offer today. Easy download and install on Vista 32. Runs well on both my desktop with dedicated graphics, as well as netbook with integrated graphics. Played up to level 2-8 so far and each level gets more challenging. The in game music updates every now and then which is nice, it does get annoying after a while. Overall a great game. I'd like to see some new or different power ups in the next version. Possibly a mini game in between levels just for power ups ect.

Hi WR, I also want to report that this appears to be working on my HP with XP-SP3 installed. Mine's an older machine. I just finished playing the first game of the first level.

I did note that after the resource window finished loading, my original screen background showed up. I was first worried that I was having the same problems as some of you out there, until I noticed the Atlantis tab at the bottom of the screen.

I tabbed it open and the game was there.

I also stopped the game, and restarted it from the icon on my desktop and it restarted just fine.

I don't know if this will help everybody, but it worked for me.


..........................Moderator comment.................

Thanks Duane

This is AFAIK the first game of the "Atlantis"-series type, and is several years old. I think that's why some people are having problems running it.

I had the problem many have mentioned with the main screen appearing to lock up. However, I was able to get it to work by waiting a bit, and clicking around on the screen till it responded. Also, I noticed that if the screen went blank (as it did once), the game was still running. Alt-Tab brought it back then.

The concept is a very good one. Lining up three objects in a row to move the artifacts down to the bottom of the playfield is much more fun than just putting three objects in a row only. This game is harder (for me) than the newer ones in the series, which have better powerups. I was unable to finish it several years ago, but I think I can do it now after having played "Around the World in 80 Days" recently (...given away here last week).

Thanks Playrix and GGOTD.

Same problems as above with Win7x64. Tried the MyPlayCity's version, after a complete uninstall and it works well... see first comment above

finally i got a playrix game that works on my HP laptop. past few games installed fine but the cursor vanished so they actually didnt work for me. this 1, working, however with a wobbling cursor, yet happy to play

First-time poster here - do I get a "bell ring?" Installed just fine on my Windows 7 Starter netbook. The "resources window" did unpack and noted that it was a one-time procedure, but the game played just fine afterward. Decided to try it on my Windows 7 Home Premium desktop machine - same exact experience, unpacked the resources, then the game ran just fine, although this one seems a little slower in execution than the other Playrix games I have gotten.

Thanks, GAOTD.

I've had trouble with this (and other) games on Win7 that I've been able to get around BY CLOSING FIREFOX! As soon as Firefox is shut down, this game works fine.

No idea why it works, but it does.

I had no trouble playing this game on my Win 74 Pro 64bit install.

I'll try it in XP Mode shortly.

I have The Rise of Atlantis installed as well and enjoy playing it from time to time.

Download and installation went fine on Windows Vista. I like the feature of saving the bonus power-ups you collect, rather than needing to use them on the current level or lose them. This game is a bit clunkier than some other Playrix match-3 games, in that the movement of pieces on the board feels less fluid. One of their other games, can't recall which one, lets you swap pieces while pieces are dropping after a previous move - you don't need to wait until everything settles down before moving again. I find myself double-clicking on a piece to get it to move quite frequently.

I do like the game, however, and offer my thanks to Playrix and the Giveaway of the Day team for making it available.

Tried installing this several times and has never worked, just comes up with a small "Atlantis resource creator" window and then refuses to work at all.

If from reading all the comments this does not work on all platforms and OSs why are you offering it so that so many people become disappointed and feel excluded.

Doesn't make much sense to me 'cos now I feel left out and alienated whilst others get a free game today and I don't.

I appreciate it greatly when there's a game like this one that makes the greymatter work and I can actually spend time playing a game with my youngsters and enjoy watching them figure stuff out for themselves instead of using cheats and stuff in some of those other very unsocial games that go on for hours just with one player taking their turn.

So any suggestions as to how to fix this "game"?


..................................Moderator Comment.........................

Read my comments above. I've mentioned the fix I found several times already. :)

Does this work with wine under linux?

...................................Moderator Comment.......................

I don't use Linux and most here probably don't either. Maybe if you could let us know. :)

Installs without problem on my WinXP system, but invokes DEP when trying to play. Worked great on a previous installation of Win2K during a previous Giveaway.

I always set my games up in my "D" drive, instead of the default "C" drive.
This game works just fine when doing it that way. There was no need to download from MyPlayCity.


.........................Moderator Comment..........................

That all depends upon whether you can get the game to work. It seems there are quite a few who can't get the game giveaway version to work, including me on five diffeent operating systems. I'fve already tried installing the games onto my D, E and F drives with no success. The only way I could get this game to work was to install it over the MyPlaycity game. (I didn't need to do this becasue i already have a purchased copy from reflexive, but I was trying to find solutions for the community).

sure, download it from the game site and get your home page changed and lots of extra desktop icons added. It might be a good game, but I already don't like it.


..............................Moderator Comment...........................

If you read my explanation correctly you will see that no tool bars or home page hijack need happen. During the installation wizard you have to uncheck the boxes that ask if you want these changes. (They are ticked by default). Provided you uncheck them the game is clean apart from opening your browser when you close the game down and that is totally innocuous. nothing extra is installed to the computer outsde of the game to hijack anything. All those games from places like MyPlayCity and Gametop earn their cash because lots of people download their free games, which in reality are commercial games that are still being sold by most other distributors. they earn cash when you visit the sites becasue of all the little adverts.

As for lots of desktop icons added to your desktop. Most game distributors add such things now. They can easily be deleted and leave no other trace apart from in the .dat file and probably an orphan registry entry. Still that's your perogative.

The game installed and played fine on XP Home SP3. The problem though is that the game actually occupies 89 MB on the hard drive after all the "resources are extracted", rather than the 29 MB mentioned in the first comment. That is one really large game. Game play is simple and intuitive, and it seems to be a decent match-3 game.

............................Noderator comment........................

Thanks for picking up on the size issue. My giveaways didn't unpack when started so I could only qui=ote the installed games size. :) I never though to check again once installing and getting to work the MyPlaycity version.

Ok Win 7 Ultimate 32x. Used installed shortcut icon, installed on C: but not in default PF folder. No probs. icore 7, ram 6 gigs for heck of it. Nice matching game with nature water theme. Can set volume levels sound & music. Thanks guys for no ending browser routine or hijacking home page - tho I'd try free version if a fan and can't run this one. Oh IE9 beta fwiw. No idea why all the posts lately about folks not getting some games to run. Since at least a few of us can get games to work I'd suspect either/both hw or sw issues. Video cards have been Nvida ones, at GTS 450 now.

Doesn't work on my Vista machine. Load resource creator, then hangs. The uninstaller fails to work completely; I'm now stuck with three files that I cannot delete despite the uninstall process telling me they can be deleted manually. Unless the developer can tell me why these things won't delete and how to remove them, I smell malware. I certainly won't have anything to do with them now, and I'll think twice before downloading another Game Giveaway again.

AVOID.

................................Moderator comment...........................

The gamegiveaway team check all games thoroughly. Malware has never been a problem before and I doubt it is now. The reason you can't delete some files is because the resource centre hangs and therefore some of the files within the games folder are in use. You need to turn the computer off to stop the process then you'll find the files do delete. have you tried the method I suggest above re: installing the giveaway over the MyPlayCity version. you get a working game with no phone home at the end.

Your choice not to bother with the game giveawayoftheday, but it'll also be your loss when a decent game is posted.

We are in a time of recession (still) many of the distributors who used to contribute to the game giveaway realized that it was a great idea and started their own schemes. The ream now find it hard to get premium games (most of the time), but they do work tirelessly trying to get more games for us. Let's hope the situation improves soon. It's now been over two years since we got regular giveaways, but the team have always maintained a presence with frequent (but not always) weekend games.