Like garbski, I lost this game on a dead computer, so I'm happy to get it again!

I'm pretty much over Match-3's, but I enjoy this one -- graphics are drab brown, but crisp; and I can play in relaxed mode without stress.

I did finish this game previously, but I don't remember the end -- just that it was satisfying. Thanks, Stars Ashes and GGOTD!

In your Windows Control Panel there should be a way to add an app as an exception when it comes to the mouse. If you use a brand named mouse such as Microsoft and Logitech and use it's software , you may be able to add an app exception.

Been a long time I've commented here but for those of you who are having problems running under Windows 8.1 you may need to install the Direct X 9.0C RunTime before the game can run properly. This game and many older games won't run as a result of Microsoft stripping older components from Windows 8.1

A word to those who are upgrading to Windows 10. If you have Windows 7 and 8.1 and you have the free upgrade I should caution you that any game activated by DRM (The games that install to directories (Playrix) and others may not work due to registry upgrades and these games may play as demos. Those games such as Alawar and some other select games that choose to go to the C:\Games directory should continue to work.

.

Habogee----I am left handed too and the game works for me. Just change your mouse at home to the left-handed figuration and the one at work to the right-handed figuration.

To change settings using your mouse

Click the Start button, and then click Control Panel.
In Control Panel, make sure you are in Classic View, with all Control Panel icons showing. ...
Click Mouse to open the Mouse Properties dialog box. ...
Click OK, and then click the Close button in Control Panel.

Change your mouse settings - Microsoft Windows
windows.microsoft.com/en-AU/windows-xp/help/change-mouse-settings

FISHDOM IS THE BESTEST GAME IN THE WHOLE DARN UNIVERSE!

Oh, well; had hoped someone would have a suggestion, but it's near the end of the day and my post is still "awaiting moderation" and so isn't showing. Sounded like it would have been a fun match 3. Maybe tomorrow will bring an "adventure" game; fingers crossed!

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

Sorry Hectate, been out all day. Then slept for several hours. Hardly anyone had posted after seven hours of the game going live, and previously, this game hasn't garnered many comments, so hadn't been as high on my list of to do things. That's very strange. Do you have an Nvidia graphics card? If you do and have installed all the software that comes with the drivers including Nvidia's configuration and experience software check to see iof the 3D check box is checked. I checked this on one of my other computers l;ast week and Google earths maps had the same effect as you described. Unchecking the check box for 3D stopped the problem.

Game Giveaway of the Day splash screen! Good show.

The game itself is colored way too blandly to generate much excitement. Fishdom competition it is not.

Thanks for this game. I'm sure I've seen it before, but don't remember playing it at all, but it looks like fun. Personally, I like darker shades on my monitor, as my eyes are getting very old and tired. I'm also sticking to Match-3 and Mahjong games for the most part. Hidden Object games just frustrate me too much, unless they're only a part of a game. Sorry I can't comment on the game itself - I don't have time today, but I'm very grateful for the opportunity to give it a try.

I am playing The Flying Dutchmen on 8.1..all is going well. Although the graphics are a little dark, the theme is consistent...I definitely like the theme itself. The music doesn't seem to fit though.

I particular liked the ghost's curse. I found this a amusing and a boost to the game.

I didn't play that far into the game, but plan on doing so later. Thanks Stars Ashes and GGOTD for such an intriguing game. Thanks Whiterabbit for such a detailed post. I found it quite helpful.

Rats, this sounded like a fun game. Downloaded fine, but when I installed and ran it, the graphics were like in 3D---tripled and all red and green, unviewable. Tried "run as admin" and ran the compatibility troubleshooter, to no avail. I'm running Win 8.1 on a very powerful and fairly new rig, with a good video card with tons of video ram. Even tried running this at less than ideal resolution, but still the unusable 3D-like graphics. Had to uninstall, reluctantly. This did happen once before a long time ago with a different game from here, but only at one point in the game. Here, it's happening from the beginning of the game.

Downloaded and runs fine on my Win7/64 laptop. I didn't find it very engaging. Actually I'd say, boring. I played 4 or 5 levels and there was no change to the gameplay at all - same tiles, same obstacles, same powerups (and no apparent chance of getting more, or more interesting ones). I don't mind the muted colors so much, but the tiles are also muted which makes them hard to distinguish.

I'll play a couple more levels and see if it changes my mind - otherwise it will be uninstalled.

I downloaded this previously. I would love to see it with brighter graphics for those of us with older, tired eyes. The brown tones fit the mood but I find it is often difficult to see the different pieces. Still a minor quibble about a really fun match 3.

All the brown shades in this game are like really REALLY BROWNY! If all the shades of brown were shades of orange the game would be much MUCH PRETTIER! Orangey is better than browny.

Any game should include left handed support. Programmers should put in the small amount of effort it would take to implement this.
(I use my left hand at home and my right at work. To avoid carpal tunnel).

Yes thanks but tried it couple times over the years and besides the clunky, chunky, style the game play doesn't seem to 'fair' after several levels. Just brings on those ghost squares and time to move on to another form of game.

i would agree with whiterabbits comment about the lack of contrast and the clunky graphics. The big problem for me is that it does not recognise a left handed mouse and since i really can't play with a right handed one, it ended on the first screen. Music was bland and ok. Rather meditative. Reminded me of another game that was here once, also match 3, but I can't for the life of me remember it's name.

Yay - another game I missed when my external hard drive ate it. Thanks!

I have downloaded this on a previous giveaway. It works fine on both Windows 7 and Windows 8 computers. Overall, it is a good match three game. As Stephen stated earlier, it is not a very colorful game as the board is in subtle shades of brown (but that does tie into the theme of the game). I didn't delete the game after I completed it as it does have some replay value.

Everyone have a great weekend!

The Flying Dutchman - in the ghost prison:

In Brief:

The Flying Dutchman is a basic match three with decent graphics. It's been given away at six times now. It’s not Treasures of Montezuma, Atlantis Rising, 4 Elements or Fishdom, but it’s decent enough for me to keep it in my games library. When I read the reviews over on Big fish I got the overriding impression that most negative comments were towards the ‘drabness’ of the graphics. That said I actually found the graphics were decent and well done. It’s not brightly lit up like some match threes, more like subtle shades of brown, but it fits in with the theme of the game.

Installation:

The Flying Dutchman downloads to a 51.9 MB zip file (1.8MB smaller than the previous time this was given away) that unpacks to a read me and dual activation module, which for the newcomers to the game giveaway project means that once you've installed the game it automatically registers, that is, there's no registration code to input. The game installs to the following path:


C:\Games\TheFlyingDutchman\TheFlyingDutchman.exe

There is no shortcut installed so you'll have to follow the above path to create your own shortcut. To uninstall the game just delete the installed folder (there is no uninstaller). The game works on Win 98, XP, Vista and Win 7. The installed game is 73.7MB (the same as the last time this was given away). There is no version number (or at least I couldn't find one).

You can change the in game music by replacing the appropriate Windows Media Player tracks with renamed tracks from your own music collection, though you will have to convert them to the appropriate audio files. Also the sound effects are mixed up with the music so you’ll have to search through the files for the music files. These tend to be the larger files such as Ambient 01 and 02 or theme_1 to theme_5.

If you install the game to its default location you'll find the music files

C:\\Games\The Flying Dutchman_Game\DATA\Sound\x.ogg

Not all of the ogg files are music files, so be careful what you replace. Generally sound effects tend to be small file sizes for example 60KB whereas the music files are much larger {for example 3.5 MB (3500KB)}. The music files for this game are called theme_1.ogg to theme_5.ogg and theme_menu.ogg

Introduction:




The Flying dutchman has been given away five times previously. The last time it was given away last year (June 2014) it received a positive 55% out of 335 votes with 16 comments which can be read HERE, then again the previous year, September 2013 where it received a positive 65% out of 340 votes with 25 comments which can be read HERE. It was also previously given away June 2012 where it received a positive 65% out of 283 votes with 52 comments which you can read HERE and again that year, December 2012 where it received a positive 69% out of 247 votes with 37 comments which you can read HERE. Finally it was first given away November 2011 where it received a positive 68% out of 329 votes with 61 comments which you can read HERE. The games popularity has waned slightly since it first appear here, but not significantly. See my conclusion for reasons why its only just getting average positive votes.

For ages sea voyages have threatened of dangers. The sea always has its tribute from vanished ships making all the traces of wrecks inaccessible in its depths. But sailors still believe in their last chance for salvation. The legend says that if you underwent a shipwreck with no hopes for reprieve, you must jingle coins. And then you will behold the Flying Dutchman – the Ghost Ship. Its crew will take you wherever you want to go in the world. But for each day you will pay gold. If there is no gold left, you have to play a game with the crew of Flying Dutchman – the game with your life at stake. Victory will assure enough gold till the end of the day. But defeat will make you prisoner of the Flying Dutchman…forever!

Reference accessed HERE Nov 27th 2011

If you miss today's giveaway you can get it 24/7 from MyPlayCity

The Game:

The Flying Dutchman is a basic match three with decent graphics. It’s not Treasures of Montezuma, Atlantis Rising, 4 elements or Fishdom, but it’s decent enough for me to keep it in my games library. When I read the reviews over on Big fish I got the overriding impression that most negative comments were towards the ‘drabness’ of the graphics. That said I actually found the graphics were decent and well done. It’s not brightly lit up like some match threes, more like subtle shades of brown, but it fits in with the theme of the game.

From the options menu you can select from three different difficulty settings Easy, Normal and Hard as well as adjust the screen resolution from between 640 x 480 through to 1600 x 1200. There’s the usual sound and music sliders. You can create multiple profiles. Once you’ve created your first profile you can then choose between two different modes of play, Quest, which is time limited and Relaxed which isn’t. The timer is a barrel of gunpowder with a fuse.

There is a help section that tells you how to play the game. The last time this was given away Suki recommended that you read the help section prior to starting the game as it's not always clear what you need to do. Briefly, in timed mode you have to collect all the gold coins hidden under the dark colored decking of the Flying Dutchman by creating matches of three or more blocks. We all know how to play match three’s so I won’t bore you with the mechanics of the game. Clearing away matches of three or more is akin to scrubbing the floor of the decks. Once you’ve cleared the deck of all coins in timed mode or scrubbed the deck in untimed mode the level is complete. As you progress through the levels you will meet ghosts. If you create a match next to a ghost the match will be cursed and frozen or locked (depending on whether it wears a red or blue headband for a certain amount of time, but if you can create matches of three ghosts you can destroy them. Destroying these ghosts earns you very generous bonuses (500 points). You’ll find four different power ups, the bomb that destroys all nearby objects, holy water which removes curses, holy fire destroys all the ghosts of pirates and lightning that destroys all objects in the line that it is activated into. To activate a power up you just have to move it to the next tile. Every time you activate a new power up a note on it’s function will pop up. You can turn off these messages if you wish by un-checking the box at the lower left of the message.

Completion of each level earns you a part of a treasure map that is divided into 42 pieces. Once you’ve collected all 42 pieces you then get to do the treasure hunt, which I’ve not played through to, so can’t tell you what it is. I presume more levels. You can follow your progress on the levels map. At the end of each level you get a report of how many gold coins you’ve collected, the number of bonus points, collapsed objects and ghosts. To proceed to th next level just click on OK.

System Requirements:

OS: Windows XP/Vista though it also works on Win 7
DirectX: 8.0
CPU: 1.0 GHz
Memory: 128
Hard Drive Space: 79





Reviews, Video and Images



You can find videos of game play HERE, HERE and HERE.

You'll find several short user reviews from BigFish HERE



Conclusion:

The Flying Dutchman is a reasonable match three. There’s nothing outstanding about the game, but IMO it’s worth keeping, especially if you are into the match three genre. If not, there are far better free match three’s available from various sources. You’ll find some of the best match threes over at MyPlayCity as well as a few other free game sites such as Toomky Games, Gametop and FreeGamePick, but, as always, be careful when installing as you may end up with toolbars etc if you don't uncheck the boxes. :) The addition of the ghosts adds an extra challenge to the game and can often confound your quest to complete the level. I was stuck on one level for ages due to the ghosts, lol. They add a difficulty that's not always present in some match three games. I scored the game a 6.4 using the parameters below.

Scoring

I've upgraded my scoring themes and after playing the game for a few hours have changed some of my original scores . Previously I gave this game a score of 6.4

Gameplay: 7
Graphics: 7
Sound & Music: 7.5
Replayability: 7
Originality: 6
Fun Factor: 7
Upgrades: ignored as not applicable

41.5 out of 60 which equals 6.9 out of 10






Suggestions to the Developer:

• Add more power ups

• Include some mini games

• Improve the story

• Add a ghostly screensaver that you can earn by completing the game

• Create more contrast between the tiles




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Problems:


If you have any problems installing or getting today's game to work please go HERE for help. I've posted most of the common problems and solutions in a FAQ thread, which you can find in the sticky section of the forums by following the above link.




If you are posting late in the day I would also suggest posting in the main giveaway forums; in the game discussion section, because I cannot moderate 24hrs a day over the weekend. I've created a thread HERE for that purpose. If you've installed the game but it doesn’t work for some reason, it should still be registered, so someone may be able to help at a later date. Unfortunately if your problem is actually downloading it, once the giveaway deadline is reached you will no longer be able to download the game unless you've already started downloading it before the cut-off. Sometimes you can still register the game after the giveaway has ended so long as you managed to start the download before the giveaway ends. I've tested this and the grace period lasts for up to 1 hour. Apart from the above instances; i.e. already installed, but having problems running the game, (with the possibility of receiving help from the community via the giveawayoftheday game discussion forum); or still downloading after the cut off period, but within the 1 hour grace period, or registering within an hour of the cut-off period. Once the giveaway period is over there’s nothing that can be done to get the game (unless its available from one of the free game sites) until the game is given away again (though that isn't always guaranteed).



It's worth checking the giveaway game discussion forums the day before the giveaways go live to see if we are getting a large sized file; this is especially important for those who have slow connections and even more so if the game is popular. We can have up to forty thousand (40 000) community members downloading over the 24 hour period, with the bulk of community members downloading in the first 12 hours of the giveaway going live, there is always a massive strain on the giveaway servers. The bigger the file size, the more community members will be downloading at any one time. Because the bandwidth is shared equally amongst all community members, downloads can become excrucatingly slow, so if you do have a slow connection, its important to start your download as early as possible to avoid disappointment. Because these games are free, the giveaway owners cannot invest in more bandwidth without compromising the whole project, so we have to be satisfied with what we have at present.

I hope the above goes some way in expalining why we sometimes have really slow downloads.


It’s always worth checking out the free games sites because sometimes the games we get here are also available for free from them. MyPlayCity (MPC) has the most with over 1000 games to choose from; however, (today's game isn't available from any of the sites I know of but ten of the 12 in the series are available (Farm Frenzy, Farm Frenzy 2, Farm Frenzy: Pizza Party, Farm Frenzy 3, Farm Frenzy 3: Ice Age, Farm Frenzy 3: Madagascar, Farm Frenzy 3: Russian Roulette, Farm Frenzy: Ancient Rome, Farm Frenzy: Gone Fishing, Farm Frenzy: Viking Heroes.) from MPC and TooMyk Games also have a few of the series). Other sites include Gametop, TooMyk Games (I've not included a link for this yet) and FreeGamePick.


If you do download any games from MyPlayCity, Gametop or the other free game sites please 'do' watch out for toolbars etc. Make sure you un-check the check-boxes during installation, and, in the case of MyPlayCity, every time you boot the game up, (this may have changed now as these free game sites tend to change the format frequently)....... I've posted links to all of the common free game sites below in the games, games games section. If you do download a game from any of these sites you do so at your own risk. We cannot be held responsible for problems arising from an installation. :)

For now I won't be recommending you download games from Jenkat Games. They have changed the way you get games from their site. Diane has posted information about this over in the game discussion forums. If I have time or remember, I'll link to it. TooMyk Games are now safe to download from. They have removed the games that were suspect and have cleaned up their act. As always, you download from those free game sites at your own risk. The giveaway site is the safest site I know of where you can get free software and games. The only disadvantages with downloading from here is you have to download and install within the day of the giveaway (apart from the instances mentioned above and if and when you upgrade or buy a new computer legally you aren't allowed to transfer games given away previously, unless they are being given away on the day you upgrade, or if you've purchased a licence. :)

You just have to look at the sites track record since the game giveaway site was created back in December 2006. Zero games given away have been infected with malware, there are no toolbars installed, nor home pages hijacked or browsers changed. There is one slght annoyance, but that only occurs if a community member isn't paying attention when the final window pops up after installing a giveaway. That is the software Informer installation. some community members have complained that they were given no choice in its installation. That is not true; when the final window pops up, there are two buttons, one asking if you want software informer installed and the button to close the giveaway window down. Some community members have clicked on the wrong button, probably because they weren't paying attention. Thankfully software Informer is a genuine application, that can easily be uninstalled by the usual means. It's actually a useful piece of software, especially if you have a lot of applications running on your computer. Basically the program will list the programs that need updating, or programs that have available updates. They wont be automatically installed (thus cancelling many giveaway registrations); you have to click on individual buttons to update each program/application. :D

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Games, Games, and yet more Games:












There are 420 games on sale over on Steam this week, ranging from 10% to 90% off. Also there is a special Quakecon sale on with specials heavily discounted each day, todays hevily discounted game is Wolfenstein plus all ID titles. This weekends main deals are The Talos Principle an excellent philosophical first-person puzzle game from Croteam (the creators of the Serious Sam franchise) and the Tropico franchise, that combines real-time strategy and simulation elements with a healthy dose of political intrigue and Caribbean flair to create a unique and critically acclaimed game experience.

You can find a full list of all sale items HERE.



You'll also find some excellent deals over on the following Game sites.

GreenManGaming
Gamersgate Summer Sale
GOG (DRM free games)
Gamestop
GameFly (soon to be sold off)

I've removed the Desura link because the owners are bankrupt and there has been no activity on the site in a couple of weeks. If you own any games via desura i advise downloading all of the drm free games you have on that platform before the site is taken down.




Free Game Sites:


MyPlayCity (over a 1000 games to choose from)
Gametop
FreeGamePick



To be honest there are too many game deals around too list them all. Just visit the sites I recommend above and I'm sure you'll find something that suits you for a very decent price. If like me you prefer Steamworks games, many of the above sites also sell steamwork games.

If that's not enough, check out the Game Discussion forums HERE for details of other games either free or on deals such as the Indie Game bundles (there's over 20 of them - If you purchased all of them you'd be paying around $80 for around a thousand dollars worth of games); or check out the four day sales at IndieGameStand. you'll find the indie bundles thread HERE. The thread is outdated, but all of the links will still take you to the latest bundles.






The latest IndieGameStand game is called At the mountains of Madness, an Indie Lovecraftian PC game based in the novel by H.P. Lovecraft, currently under development.

An expedition to the Antarctic continent back in the 1930's where you will encounter ancient creatures and fight against the elements in a horror realtime adventure. Buy the game now and get instant early access for the alpha version.
Note: This Early Access game is not complete and will change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see the game progresses further in development. The current Alpha version is a playable preview from the first two levels from the first Chapter, explore the world and game mechanics and survive to complete both maps.

The game has been Greenlit on Steam Greenlight, so a Steam key as well as a drm free copy is available.

This bundle ends around 5am Wednmesday 29th July (GMT).

The latest Daily Indie game is Portal of Evil a Hidden Object Game:

Key features

- 60 locations
- 45 mini-games
- 26 HOG scenes
- 42 cinematics
- More than 200 objects to use!

You can get the game for $0.99 or two keys if you pay more than the average price which at the time of writing was $1.12; (one for a friend or family member perhaps?). You'll find that deal HERE. They also have a bundle of several games that'll cost you less than $1.50 HERE

Most of the bundles retail for around $5 give or take a few dollars (apart from the Daily Indie bundles that only cost $1.49 for six games), but you can pay as little as a dollar for some. There are some excellent bundles out at the moment. Check out the following:

Groupees (5 bundles)
Indie Gala (? bundles)
Humble bundle (2 Bundles)
Indie Royale (this bundle is no longer live)
Bundle Bandits (0 bundles)
Blink Bundle (0 bundles)
Play Injector (0 bundle)
Get Loaded (0 bundles)
Games Rage (0 bundles)
Flying bundle (0 bundles)

The free game from Origin has changed to Zuma's Revenge the sequel to the excellent Luxor style marble popping match 3 game. This is one of the better Marble poppers. Check it out HERE.


You do need a free Origin account and install the Origin client to get these free games. Once you've installed the Origin client and signed into your account select 'On the house' from the 'Free Games' drop down menu. Then select download now. The game will then be registered to your Origin account permanently.

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A Request for help:

Developers rely on good feedback to improve their games. If you download this game please take some time once you’ve played it a while to leave some constructive feedback either positive or negative. The more constructive feedback we get, the more likely developers are going to give more games away. The giveaway site already has a very good standing with the search engines. Developers want their products out there on the WWW, this site has the potential to do that. The game giveaway project gives away on average between 9 to 17 thousand downloads for each game depending upon what genre and how obscure the game is. That’s a lot of homes these games are being downloaded into and a lot of 'potential' cash that’s being lost by the developers. If we get better games because of better feedback, the community are likely to continue to benefit from the generosity of the developers. Satisfied community members are then more likely to visit the home sites of those developers and purchase games that they may not have bothered with before they discovered the developer via the game giveaway site, thus giving the developers more incentives to give away even more decent games.

Please leave some feedback once you’ve checked the game out. It can be positive or negative, but please explain what your reasons were for the feedback you post. You could also leave suggestions for improving the game, for example, this game could do with more block types for the levels editor, add more power-ups, describing the ones you think would be suitable, add some mini games (which seem all the rage in some arcade games now) or enable the user to be able to change the in game music easily.

Thank you in advance to all those who take the time to post a constructive comment, and a big thank you to immanitas games for sharing and to the game giveaway team for getting these games.

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen