The Great Pharaoh

#31

I was ok, not very original. not real impressed with the construction. All in all game was good

Reply | Comment by kitty coleman – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#30

I tried changing resolution and using the window view to fix the problem I was having with some graphics.
The window was too tall for my 1920 x 1080 monitor and the buttons appeared (or rather didn't appear) below the bottom of the screen. I was unable to move the window high enough to get at the buttons so I couldn't change the settings back. Closing and restarting made no difference.
The game is now deleted.

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

Thanks for feedback.

Reply | Comment by JerryB – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#29

Nice game but boring. Try making us put the key puzzle together or add something in between levels.

Reply | Comment by Kheldar – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#28

Thank You GGOTD , WR and Stars Ashes for this game.
W7 x64 extracted fine and ran fine I played through to the Construction of the City gates without any issue. Again not in a VM but directly on my main PC.
Will test this on an x86 tomorrow. Can't understand why others are having issues.
My host and VMs have very little installed (its all portable), I clean my registry regularly and rarely have a issue with anything.

Found the game a bit boring maybe just not my kind of game.
Graphics were good , game worked well and I had no issues.

7/10 Lacks languages and more variation. But fine for those that enjoy this style of game play.

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

Thank you for your feedback IsItBroke, you ht it right on the nail. ;-)

I wish I was so fastidious with my computers. I've got around 14 Terabytes of disc space on my desktops not including externals, most of it backed up files, images, games and music plus another 8 or so Terabytes of external hard drives and innumerable DVD's and CD,s with backed up data. The though of purging a lot of it is just too much, though I reckon about half of the files are just taking up space. The kleptomaniac in me just can't be helped, :lol:

Reply | Comment by IsItBroke – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#27

I like the play, the art is beautiful, and the music is great. BUT. The timer is NOT great. I hate it when developers fail to think about how people play. We play for fun, and we all have our own style. I like to play at my own pace, and when I get a game like this one, where I can't get past about level 6... Well. I uninstall. There are plenty of match 3's out there that have untimed mode that I would never pay for one that doesn't.

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

Thank you for your feedback I agree with you about the un-timed mode. I too like to take my time as I've always seen games as a relaxant and not a competitive thing. (don't get me wrong, I did win at some sports usually athletics and running :) )

Reply | Comment by phatkhat – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#26

Nice to know I haven't been forgotten :P

I no longer have a website reviewing professional software for a fee. I became very ill and couldn't keep up with the necessary marketing, research and reviews. I still provide occasional journalism to Now Public, but even that is sketchy for me these days. My email is my real email, so feel free to write there anytime. xx
~ Swan

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

I'm really sorry to hear about your ill health. That must have been really upsetting considering the amount of work you put in. I'll email you soon and we can catch up. I hope to see you around more often. We could do with someone with a good writing style and a different opinion to my own (though I don't tend to write as much about the actual game as i used to; more often than not including other information such as fault finding and alternatives; plus of course my request to the community for more feedback. I still hold that if we received more high quality feedback about the games given away here the game giveaway reputation for useful feedback would grow and we'd get more developers coming to the site.

Reply | Comment by Swan – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#25

Found out they put it under c:/games. So for those who don't know where to look try there first. Hope it helps. Thanks again.

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

Hi Tamsharleycat; you must be relatively new to the game giveaway project? Most game giveaways are the same w.r.t. no shortcut. I always post details of the installation at the beginning of my review which normally will be found at the beginning of the comments section. I've been posting a potted review since about 2007. The following was posted today:

Installation

The Great Pharaoh downloads to a 44.5MB zip file that unpacks to a wrapped setup and activation module plus a read me that contains details of the installation and the terms and conditions. Once installed the game uses 81.8Mb of disc space.

I’ve tested the game on all my installations and it works on XP Pro 32 bit, Vista Home Basic 32 bit, Vista Home Premium 64 bit, Win 7 Pro 64 bit and Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit installations. There’s no shortcut installed so make a note of where the game is installed to so that you can manually create a desktop shortcut. By default it installs to the following path:

C:\Games\TheGreatPharaoh

Registration

Registration is automatically done when you install the game. You will require an active internet connection to complete activation. If you have any problems see the section above the review.

You'll notice that I mention where the game is installed to and why you should make a note of where it is installed to. Generally games are either installed to C:\Games or C:\Program files (x86)\ depending who the publisher is. Two of our bigger contributors Alawar and Playrix entertainment always place the games in their own folders as well i.e. C:\Program files (x86)\Alawar\ & C:\Program files (x86)\Playrix Entertainment\. You'll get the hang of it the more you visit this site. The project owners used to post games every day until the recession hit back in 2008 when it went to weekends only following a brief stint in the main giveaway section where it originated from back in October 2006. The game giveaway project was born on the 2nd Dec 2006 and the daily offerings stopped at the end of March 2008; since then we've received games on a Saturday & Sunday; though occasionally contributions from the various developers who support the project dry up. A lot of the games we get now are repeats, but on average I'd say we get never before given away games 50% of the time. We've actually had a really good run of excellent games over the last several weeks, and there hasn't been a drought since about April last year apart from the odd weekend and a few days. There's a whole range of games given away from all genres of arcade games. We don't get the large sized triple a games though as these would bottleneck the giveaway servers. On average depending upon what game is given away, there can be up to 100 games being downloaded at any one time from the project, so you can imagine the bandwidth involved. Depending on the game we've seen download numbers vary from a low of around 5 thousand to over 25 thousand games on any one day.

p.s. the above is just a friendly introduction to this project. Happy gaming. ;-)

Found out they put it under c:/games. So for those who don't know where to look try there first.  Hope it helps. Thanks again.

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

Hi Tamsharleycat; you must be relatively new to the game giveaway project?  Most game giveaways  are the same w.r.t. no shortcut.  I always post details of the installation at the beginning of my review which normally will be found at the beginning of the comments section.  I've been posting  a potted review  since about 2007.  The following was posted  today:

<blockquote>Installation

The Great Pharaoh downloads to a 44.5MB zip file that unpacks to a wrapped setup and activation module plus a read me that contains details of the installation and the terms and conditions. Once installed the game uses 81.8Mb of disc space.

I’ve tested the game on all my installations and it works on XP Pro 32 bit, Vista Home Basic 32 bit, Vista Home Premium 64 bit, Win 7 Pro 64 bit and Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit installations. There’s no shortcut installed so make a note of where the game is installed to so that you can manually create a desktop shortcut. By default it installs to the following path:

C:\Games\TheGreatPharaoh

Registration

Registration is automatically done when you install the game. You will require an active internet connection to complete activation. If you have any problems see the section above the review.</blockquote>

You'll notice that I mention where the  game is installed to and  why you should  make a note of where it is installed to.   Generally  games are either installed to C:\Games or C:\Program files (x86)\ depending who the publisher is.  Two of our bigger contributors  Alawar and Playrix entertainment always place the games in  their own folders as well i.e. C:\Program files (x86)\Alawar\ & C:\Program files (x86)\Playrix Entertainment\.  You'll get the hang of it   the more you visit this site.  The project owners used to post games every day until the recession hit back in 2008 when it went to weekends only following a brief stint in the main giveaway section where it originated from  back in October 2006.  The game giveaway  project was born on the 2nd Dec 2006 and the daily offerings stopped at the end of March 2008; since then we've received  games  on a Saturday  & Sunday; though occasionally   contributions from  the various developers who support the project dry up.  A lot of the games we get now are repeats, but  on average I'd say  we get  never before given away games 50% of the time.  We've actually had a really good run of  excellent games over the last several weeks, and there hasn't been a drought   since about April last year apart from the odd weekend and  a few days.  There's a whole range of games given away from   all genres of arcade games.  We don't get  the large  sized triple a games though as these would bottleneck the giveaway servers.  On average  depending upon what game is given away, there can be up to 100  games being downloaded at any one time from the project, so you can imagine the bandwidth involved.  Depending on the game we've seen download numbers vary from  a low of around 5 thousand to  over 25 thousand  games on any one day.

p.s.   the above is just a friendly introduction to this project.  Happy gaming.  ;-)

Save | Cancel

Reply | Comment by Tamsharleycat – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#24

Ok, installation supposedly is ok. Problem it doesn't let you create a desktop icon while installing like most programs do. So where do I find it on my computer to create one? Otherwise seems like a nice game. Just hope I can find it to play it and see. Thanks.

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

See my comment in your next post below. :D

Reply | Comment by Tamsharleycat – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#23

Installed and activated easily enough on my Win 7 machine but that's where the good news ends. Bad sound file and continuous flickering screen which I had to close down manually via task manager and even then I had to use the "kill process tree" option. What a mess! I don't usually have any problems with the games - software on the GaotD site sometimes, but never the games.

All my drivers etc are automatically updated but I did double check to make sure and all is well there, same with my audio. Microsoft also popped up wanting me to send the file to them,(which I did).

I've also never heard of the publisher, which in itself is not damning but they *do call themselves experts. Following quote taken from their website:

"We use new ideas in old-school arcade games! Innovation 3D game engines, opens new capabilities and visual quality. STAR ASHES has professional designer, programmer and software developer. Our experts have participated in many projects and have vast skills and experience in the game industry."

Since they have publicly stated their credentials, it would be nice if the developers themselves would answer all the problems here - which would be the courteous thing do, instead of leaving everyone hanging, wondering whether or not they will get an answer within the remaining 8 hours.

I'm a match 3 junkie (as well as many other games including all those games from the *excellent game company - EA Games [paid for]) and must have at least 4 or 5 dozen games, so I'm disappointed not to be able to give this a whirl.

Thank you for the tips on "My Play City" ... free games as many as you want all day, every day! Excellent! As previously warned though, make sure you unclick the option to make them your home page when you launch the game. Unfortunately this shows up every time you want to play, but it's no biggie. Just know that it's there.

To close, I'm surprised with the problems stated by myself and others with today's game, which is clearly at odds with the thumbs up.

P.S. Hello to my dear friend White Wabbit <3

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

Oh my god, I've often wondered about how you were doing. It's been a long time since you me and Merril used to write game reviews. As you can see i'm still here. In fact, never gone away. Life is still stuck with the legal battle for compensation. Almost 7 years now. Thankfully I've finally got a court date next March. Yeah!

Do you still review software? I seem to remember you were doing alright with your web site, but I've not visited it in a long time simply because I have since upgraded all of my computers and didn't save my favorites so lost the link.

I'll email you (assuming the email you've used for your account isn't a disposable one)??? :)

w.r.t. the developers answering queries, I agree; it would certainly increase the respect the community has for them and I reckon would increase sales as they do have a couple of decent games.

Installed and activated easily enough on my Win 7 machine but that's where the good news ends.  Bad sound file and continuous flickering screen which I had to close down manually via task manager and even then I had to use the "kill process tree" option.  What a mess!  I don't usually have any problems with the games - software on the GaotD site sometimes, but never the games.

All my drivers etc are automatically updated but I did double check to make sure and all is well there, same with my audio. Microsoft also popped up wanting me to send the file to them,(which I did).

I've also never heard of the publisher, which in itself is not damning but they *do call themselves experts.  Following quote taken from their website:

"We use new ideas in old-school arcade games! Innovation 3D game engines, opens new capabilities and visual quality. STAR ASHES has professional designer, programmer and software developer. Our experts have participated in many projects and have vast skills and experience in the game industry."

Since they have publicly stated their credentials, it would be nice if the developers themselves would answer all the problems here - which would be the courteous thing do, instead of leaving everyone hanging, wondering whether or not they will get an answer within the remaining 8 hours.

I'm a match 3 junkie (as well as many other games including all those games from the *excellent game company - EA Games [paid for]) and must have at least 4 or 5 dozen games, so I'm disappointed not to be able to give this a whirl.

Thank you for the tips on "My Play City" ... free games as many as you want all day, every day!  Excellent! As previously warned though, make sure you unclick the option to make them your home page when you launch the game.  Unfortunately this shows up every time you want to play, but it's no biggie.  Just know that it's there.

To close, I'm surprised with the problems stated by myself and others with today's game, which is clearly at odds with the thumbs up.

P.S. Hello to my dear friend White Wabbit &lt;3

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

Oh my god, I've often  wondered  about how you were doing.  It's been a long time since you me and  Merril used to write  game reviews.  As you can see i'm still here.  In fact, never gone away.  Life is still stuck with the legal battle for compensation.  Almost 7 years now.  Thankfully  I've finally got a court date next March.  Yeah!

Do you still review  software?  I seem to remember you  were doing alright with your web site, but I've not visited it in a long time simply because I  have since upgraded all of my computers and  didn't save my favorites so lost the link.

I'll email you (assuming the email you've used for your account isn't a disposable one)??? :)

w.r.t. the developers answering  queries, I agree; it would certainly increase the respect the community has for them and  I reckon would increase sales as they do have a couple of decent games.

Save | Cancel

Reply | Comment by Swan – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#22

I have this from a previous giveaway (v 1.0.3). I like the music, but the gameplay is kind of ho-hum. It doesn't look like much has changed.

Reply | Comment by MercuryPDX – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#21

I am an expert at Match 3 games and unfortunately, this one failed to keep my interest longer than it took to download it and then play several levels. Since I have a lot of experience playing games with more than matching 3 of items in a grid above to gain awards, points and so on, I found this not a game for the experienced, rather, it's great for beginners and/or someone playing to kill time at a Doctor's office waiting room or to get in some light game play during coffee/lunch break. The game lacks a lot of elements. It downloaded and installed easily enough on my XP system, opened and loaded nicely; the graphics are passable but I noticed the pieces on the board were not "fixed" meaning if you click on a piece to switch, it becomes a floater and I really don't like that especially if you are working against a timer (which you are); if it made the game harder, that would be on thing. Floater pieces that are locked to a certain direction is an element that becomes a pain in the neck when you're trying to figure out 1. why one would create the piece to float only to restrict it in the manner a fixed piece (when clicked it switches with the second clicked piece, not stick to the cursor and is not movable to another piece other than in a straight horizontal line's piece directly to the left or right). By level 3 I expected more like bombs or bones, SOMETHING, I got more of the same. I real sleeper for me. I'll keep it, I may even play it if I'm incredibly bored and nothing good is on TV. 1-10, 1 being really bad and 10 being really good, for me, it gets a 3 and only because of the graphics.

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

Thank you for your comments Deborah, much appreciated. :)

Reply | Comment by Deborah1962 – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#20

i like this game, and i especially *love* the in-game music. usually i turn the music off, but i was in a hurry and forgot. thought i heard something jamming coming from my netbook's tiny tinny speakers, so plugged in my headphones. imho the game is worth playing just for the music.

anyway, i like match-threes, so i guess it's no surprise i like this game. i like the added challenge of avoiding the mummies, the consequences of not avoiding them, and the benefits of lining those puppies up.

like others i sometimes find moving the tiles difficult. not sure why, but i click on them and they're not really "clicked," so i have to do it again.

also, i agree with others that there are too many OKs to click. i'm not really interested in seeing my progress on the map between levels. i do like to see the goals for the level, so it makes sense to have to stop and OK it before proceeding.

i find it hard to click on the text-based links. you have to click right on the letters, not on the spaces between them.

as with many games, i had to jump through some hoops to get this to run on my netbook. i tried to launch the game at the computer's native 1024x600 resolution and got a fatal error. increasing the resolution to 1200x768 using a1ctl, i got the game to launch, but there were two cursors (an a1ctl bug i think), which made it almost impossible to click on the text-based links. for some reason i had to double-click. in the game's options, i lowered the resolution to 800x600. then quit out and changed the computer back to 1024x600. relaunched the game, and it ran fine (only one cursor).

thanks to stars ashes and gotd for offering this!

(system info: winxp home sp3 on an acer d250, 2gb ram, 1.6ghz, 1024x600 resolution, a1ctl 1.0)

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

Thank you for your feedback tinyearl

Reply | Comment by tinyearl – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#19

Running (mostly) okay on Win7 64 bit.
The graphics between levels (the picture of the city) kept going screwy after a couple of seconds. I'm guessing it was supposed to be an animation of things being constructed. Nobody else has made that comment so I assume it doesn't like my Radeon HD 4350 graphics card.
I agree that the "OK" needs to be bigger because I did find it a little annoying when I thought I'd clicked on it and nothing happened.
I think this is probably a liitle below par for the genre but it's not completely terrible. I reckon I'll try to finish it off before I uninstall it. I wouldn't consider buying it.

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

Thank you for your comment. Have you updated your graphics drivers? Also changing the screen res may help failing all of those try disabling visual scaling via the compatibility tab (properties)

Reply | Comment by JerryB – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#18

Well , i guess we cant be spoilt all the time with classics , now can we mR moderator?Not my type of game though, i found it a bit interesting, but really , waiting for another classic next week, hopefully.thanks all the same , effort appreciated.

Reply | Comment by Ami – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#17

Well, I tried installing the k-lite codec pack (a popular set of codecs to enable support for a wide variety of music and video formats), but the basic install didn't help my situation (I didn't try anything else because I don't have time to learn all the settings). So I installed this game on a different machine (Windows 7 64-bit) that has a lot more stuff on it and it ran beautifully the first time. Not sure why my laptop had problems.

Anyway, the graphics and music are beautiful and fade in and out gracefully--no sudden cuts to other scenes which I find annoying.

Fun little game--very similar to other matching games I've seen here, but a nice little mindless de-stresser. :-)

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

Thank you for your feedback

Reply | Comment by David Cornelius – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#16

Yes, I rebooted, tried to run the game, uninstalled, reinstalled, rebooted, and the same message.

I did shut down various programs running in the background and that did no good. Well, that happens occasionally. Although I think this is the first time I have had an issue with one of the game offerings from GOTD.

Reply | Comment by Harry – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#15

Forgot one thing, sorry its a negative. As #3 stated, the game pieces are hard to grab hold of and sometimes seem to stick to the pointer which again slows the player down. I would suggest increasing the time to play a level even if nothing else in the next version is changed. Would give the game another play if I thought I might be able to finishing it.

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

Maybe the developer will fix these issues, but as most were already brough up last time i doubt it. I do wish the developers themselves would come back with feedback. Especially as they are the ones giving. Strange really, hardly any of them do.

Reply | Comment by CabLady – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#14

Had this game some time ago and deleted it. Downloaded again to see if I had changed my mind. It remembered where I had stopped previously, guess there is still a save file on the hard drive somewhere. That doesn't make me happy as evidently all of my cleaning programs missed it, thus its still here.

Okay what I liked....

options screen...you have a lot of choices as to which resolution and what byte size (8, 16, 32). Would like to see that in more developer's games.
Normal and Bright choice setting for effects was a good idea.

What I didn't like.

No casual mode. I got as far as the first map screen shot above and got stuck there. Only 4 minutes to complete the level. You get 6 minutes in the score mode but no story.

Story is a bit lame at that. If a game has a great story I will persist just to see what happens next. Not this game.

Playing pieces are dull and the explosive (thawing) effects are very bright. Same on the normal setting, which makes it hard to see the pieces to continue play after they are set off. That type of contrast slows down reaction time, and sufficient time is something you really don't have. Lowering my screen brightness on the computer doesn't work, just makes the playing pieces even duller.

Played that level 6 times and gave up. Deleted this again. Didn't put a listing in the Add/Remove Programs so had to hunt it down to delete. Evidently it doesn't keep the save in the same file with the game, so it is still probably hiding on the hard drive somewhere. Not a nice thing to do with users of your program in my book.

So, I have to give this one a thumbs down.

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

Thank you for your feedback Cab Lady

Reply | Comment by CabLady – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#13

Having same problem as several others regarding the "sound file is bad" error. Suspect it has something to do with the use of the .ogg format, but if downloading the codecs didn't help David in #5, I suspect it won't help me either. I'm using Win XP Pro, although I don't expect that to make a difference for me either. I'll wait for an update like everyone else and failing that, I'll have to uninstall. Ah, well; thanks anyway for a good-looking download.

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

Thank you for your feedback; hopefully someone will post a fix bfore the day is out. Otherwise take the problem over to the forums. It may get solved over the coming days. so long as you have it installed before the end of the giveaway there's a possibility that it will be fixed.

Reply | Comment by thom – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#12

Really nice game. It works well under Win7 64 bit. Thanx.

Reply | Comment by G.M. – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#11

#8: "I’d like to know why you still rely on using Winrar to “install” these games? They come from the publishers with install files already compiled in them. No where else on the websites you can also get these games from do any of them not use a real installation scheme so they run right when other people install them."

Just a guess, but many of the games appearing on GOTD are available elsewhere with all sorts of site branding, toolbars & the like. That stuff's built-in to the installers. If the devs had to write & compile a new installer just for one day on GOTD, I'd imagine that would cut down on the games that are featured, maybe quite a lot.

Using a WinRAR self-extracting file OTOH accomplishes the same thing, minus the shortcuts, & is already compatible with the GOTD wrapper, making it rather painless for the game developers who are already being nice & generous. Since you already know how to find a file using Windows' Explorer [or else you couldn't find the downloaded .zip file & unpack the game's setup.exe], navigating to the game's folder & creating your own shortcut should be both easy & IMO worth the effort since you're getting the game for free. If you disagree &/or you want to support the game developers, Big Fish has it on sale today for $2.99.

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

Nice one Mike, thanks for the thoughtful response :)

Reply | Comment by mike – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#10

Installed fine. When I tried to run the program it crashes and I get the following message.....

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: The Great Pharaoh.exe
Application Version: 0.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 4e453349
Fault Module Name: The Great Pharaoh.exe
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 4e453349
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 000181e0
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.48
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 014e
Additional Information 2: 014e1fb5ef3a360fe46f414b562c2086
Additional Information 3: 565f
Additional Information 4: 565fb1ac39bfa7df70fa6f2bde5c4b7c

Sorry, but I will be removing this game. Too bad as it did look interesting.

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

Thank you for your feedback. sorry I cannot decypher any of the code left from the crash. Maybe GMMan will be able to offer some advice?

did you try to re-install the game? It's possible there may have been a memory problem or a conflict with a nother program you were running in the background. The latter issue can often be solved by closing down programs (non essential) one at a time till the culprit is found. I've often suggested Game Booster as an alternative as it temporarily shuts down all unnecessary windows programs while you are playing any game added to it's configuration facility. with the latest version you don't even have t switch the thing on a sit detects when a game is running (so long as the app as been configured first) and when you close the game Game Booster automatically switches everything back on. It's set to automatically close specific windows system services so there's not much you need to do apart from install it, but you can also set it to close down non windows applications as well. For example I have several running in the background such as linkman, Cacheman, Avir Task Manager, and Hard Disk Sentinel. All of those can be turned off temporarily if I wish by adding them to the list of programs and services to be turned off.

Installed fine.  When I tried to run the program it crashes and I get the following message.....

Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name:	APPCRASH
  Application Name:	The Great Pharaoh.exe
  Application Version:	0.0.0.0
  Application Timestamp:	4e453349
  Fault Module Name:	The Great Pharaoh.exe
  Fault Module Version:	0.0.0.0
  Fault Module Timestamp:	4e453349
  Exception Code:	c0000005
  Exception Offset:	000181e0
  OS Version:	6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.48
  Locale ID:	1033
  Additional Information 1:	014e
  Additional Information 2:	014e1fb5ef3a360fe46f414b562c2086
  Additional Information 3:	565f
  Additional Information 4:	565fb1ac39bfa7df70fa6f2bde5c4b7c

Sorry, but I will be removing this game.  Too bad as it did look interesting.

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

Thank you for your feedback. sorry I cannot  decypher any of the code left from the crash.  Maybe GMMan will be able to offer  some advice?

did you  try to re-install the  game?  It's possible there may have been a memory  problem or a conflict with a nother program you were running in the background.  The latter issue can often be solved by closing down programs (non essential) one at a time till the culprit is found.  I've often suggested  Game Booster as an alternative as it temporarily shuts down all unnecessary  windows programs while you are playing any game added to it's configuration facility.  with the latest version you don't even have t switch the thing on a sit detects when  a game is running (so long as the app as been configured first) and when you close the game   Game Booster automatically switches everything back on.    It's set to automatically close specific windows system  services  so there's not much you need to do apart from install it, but you can also set it to close down non windows applications as well.  For example I have several running in the background such as linkman, Cacheman, Avir Task Manager,  and Hard Disk Sentinel.  All of those can be turned off temporarily if I wish by adding them to the list of programs and services to be turned off.

Save | Cancel

Reply | Comment by Harry – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#9

Not too bad as a match 3 game. Not real inspiring but different if you are tired of Chuzzle and the like.

Reply | Comment by Sheltiemom – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#8

I'd like to know why you still rely on using Winrar to "install" these games? They come from the publishers with install files already compiled in them. No where else on the websites you can also get these games from do any of them not use a real installation scheme so they run right when other people install them. No where else on the web does ANYONE use a compression utility to install a program. Isn't it time to step into the 21st century? Of course no one will see this because again, just like the last time I brought it up, my comment was deleted and my email address was deleted to no longer receive your emails.

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

Chuck, I've never deleted a post from you on this forum. I only delete posts that are inappropriate (usually those with swearing or where a user is calling another users). I think (but am not 100% sure) that the reason they do this is because of the wrapped nature of the files we download. The files have to be wrapped with a registration 'for want of a better word' thingamajig so that they cannot be used after the 24 hour period. After all this time I'm still not sure of the whole process, but then It's not necessary that I need to be.

Reply | Comment by Chuck – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#7

G'mornen Stephan and ggaotders, once again this is a game that will not load up on my netbook - not sure if it has to do with a problem in the files themselves as I get the this game did not install correctly - running win 7 home premium. It will try to load but then I get the dreaded The Great Pharoah has stopped working windows is searching for a solution, which of course it never does find. Oh well there is always next wkend I reckon. Have great day everyone.

~Spirit~

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

Check back later, someone may have posted a solution some time during the day. Though there are much better free match three's available from MyPlayCity (if you can put up with the minor irritations I mention in my review above).

Reply | Comment by wildspirit63 – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#6

Been playing this for a bit, and it's cute.

It's a bit repetitive, though. The graphics are simple; maybe a bit more interaction that doesn't involve clicking "ok"? Also, the area around the "ok" button is very small (I suggest making it bigger). I agree with previous comments--perhaps letting us automatically proceed through the game would be better.

Overall, it'll be a good way to fight off boredom that won't require intense concentration. Thank you for the free game!

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

Thank you for your feedback.

Reply | Comment by Trinerella – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#5

I also got the "sound file is bad" error message when trying to open the .ogg files on Windows 7 32-bit. I searched on the internet, found vorbis.com (makers of the OGG format) which pointed me to http://xiph.org/dshow to download the codecs for Windows and DirectShow. Unfortunately, I still have the same problem after installing and rebooting.

I'll try again later today.

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

Hopefully someone will come up with a fix.

Reply | Comment by David Cornelius – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#4

Installed on Windows 7 64 bit. When running the game, the company splash screen is opened in full screen, then minimises to the taskbar.
Clicking the icon on the taskbar will not open the window.

Reply | Comment by Peter Holgate – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#3

Installed fine on Vista 64-bit. Microsoft Essentials popped up and asked for the game info to be sent so they can check for threats in the future (or something), dunno what happened there. Surely I'm not the first person to ever download it... Anyway!

I loves me a Match Three game and this one was all right. Played it about thirty minutes and am neutral about it. The graphics were okay, if a little simple. I liked the music. The story wasn't too interesting.

As with the one other Stars Ashes game I've played, there's too many "press OK" screens to get around. I want to progress in the game, so probably no need to show the course map every time (for one example).

Moving the magic blocks was kind of clunky. The animation wasn't really smooth, and it felt like I couldn't grab the blocks and move them very easily. I get that I'm moving blocks across stone, the sound effects make that clear, but I shouldn't have to physically labor to move pixels around on the screen. I also didn't like how I couldn't move anything while other blocks were falling/matching.

I'd recommend making the "OK" buttons actual buttons that have a larger area to press. It seemed like you'd have to put the mouse directly over the letters to press OK. I missed it frequently.

So, overall, the game isn't very smooth and is unremarkable. I wouldn't pay to play it, but not bad for wasting time when Bejeweled, Chuzzle, Farmscapes, or any other of the good Match Three games are feeling old.

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

Thank you for your excellent feedback Amanda

Reply | Comment by Amanda – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#2

Installed on Win7 64 bit, after I found it tried to open it and received an error message " Sound file is bad" Data/Sound/MenuSound.ogg. I had to open task manager to get out of that as I was not even able to click ok. Tried to re-install and same thing happened, sadden by this as it looked like a game that I would have liked.

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

I still have this from the last time it was given away, so didn't bother to install it. check back later as there may be a problem with the file. Though you could try downloading from the mirror file to see if that version works. If there is a problem there will be loads more posts on the issue and then the giveaway team may do something about it.

That said try updating your sound drivers. You can find out what they are by opening the Direct X diagnostics panel then clicking on the sound tabs to discover what sound card or chip you are using. To open it up type in dxdiag in the run command box (XP) or in the search field (Vista and Win 7)

Reply | Comment by Beth Kenady – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#1

The Great Pharaohl>:

Installationl>

The Great Pharaoh downloads to a 44.5MB zip file that unpacks to a wrapped setup and activation module plus a read me that contains details of the installation and the terms and conditions. Once installed the game uses 81.8Mb of disc space.

I’ve tested the game on all my installations and it works on XP Pro 32 bit, Vista Home Basic 32 bit, Vista Home Premium 64 bit, Win 7 Pro 64 bit and Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit installations. There’s no shortcut installed so make a note of where the game is installed to so that you can manually create a desktop shortcut. By default it installs to the following path:

C:\Games\TheGreatPharaoh

Registrationl>

Registration is automatically done when you install the game. You will require an active internet connection to complete activation. If you have any problems see the section above the review.

Introductionl>

The game has been given away twice before last year, back in March 2011 and September 2011 where it received positive votes of 62% and 75% respectively. You can read the previous comments HERE (March 2011) and HERE (September 2011).

Developers Introductionl>

From generation to generation, each new Pharaoh wanted to be more powerful than the previous one. One got his wealth by seizing the lands of others, another - in the fertile lands of the Nile. But there was another way to gain overwhelming richness... Legend says that in the abandoned temples of the City of the Dead, the treasury of Egypt ancient rulers was kept. Priests put the gold into magical blocks, guarded by those who were gone for eternity. Only the Great Pharaoh could take back the gold, gathering together the blocks and presenting seals. The seals were lost with time. There were no Pharaohs who wished to return ancient treasures, as the price for a mistake was great - eternal wandering in the dark world of the dead. Would you like to try your luck? Returning the treasures of the ancestors, you will build the City, the glory of which will live for centuries... In this fast-paced Match 3 game, the goal is to restore the temples of the City of the Dead, getting hidden gold. You can get the gold by matching 3 ancient blocks. At the same time you should keep an eye on mummies who can put a curse, stealing gold and freezing the blocks. You have limited time to meet your goal on gold and become the Great Pharaoh!

Reference accessed HERE 5th March 2011

The Gamel>

This is a reasonable match three game with decent graphics and additional elements that add to the overall game experience. Game play is as you’d expect from a match three; that is you have to swap adjacent blocks so that three or more blocks of identical color, including those that are frozen line up in columns or rows. This destroys the blocks and releases the gold that is hidden within the block.

There are some original features that make it worth downloading such as the building of a town and the addition of mummies that steal gold from you as well as add a curse which freezes several blocks for a specific length of time. This occurs when there is a line of three similar blocks next to the mummies. If you can line up three of these mummies in a row or column you will get extra gold and destroys the mummies. You can see various symbols within each colored block, these have various values for example collecting 3 ankh’s is worth 120 gold pieces whereas collecting three squiggly lines are worth 250 gold pieces; collecting additional blocks such as a line of 4 or five gives you more gold. You’ll find 7 different values within the blocks ranging from 100 gold pieces to 250 gold pieces. (100, 120, 140, 160, 180, 200 and 250). Destroying three mummies is worth 500 gold pieces. There are 40 levels broken up into eight different stages. Each stage ends in the completion of a specific Egyptian building or object such as an Obelisk, the Temple of Anubis, a city gates or the Pyramids. After each level you are awarded a part of a key. Collecting all the parts will unlock the next stage in the building of the town.

As you would expect levels start off easy with grids of 8x8 which increase in size as you get further into the game. Progression is mapped out via the levels map, which shows you the various buildings and monuments that you will build throughout the game. There doesn’t appear to be any power-ups added to this game (I didn’t encounter any while playing the demo, which included the first five levels).

The options menu enables you to change several parameters such as screen resolution , windowed mode and an advanced lighting mode that adds shadows to the game (not very obvious) as well a sound and music sliders to adjust the volume and a difficulty slider that has three choices, easy, medium and hard difficulty.

Featuresl>:

• Collect gold from ancient tombs in this entertaining Match 3 challenge.

• Restore the Temple of Anubis, the Great Pyramids, the giant Obelisk and more.

• Watch out for mummies and their curse as they steal gold and freeze blocks.

• Rush to clear 40 levels before time is up.

• See the megalithic structures take shape before your eyes.

Images & Videol>:

You can see a slideshow of around 50 images showing the first area to be unlocked HERE. You’ll see help screens, several levels, statistic screens and the level map. Unfortunately the images were uploaded backwards, so you see the later images first

You can view all the images in full screen or as a grid with adjustable slider to view in various sizes. Just click on one of the two buttons to the bottom right of the screen, just above the film strip; (you need to hover your mouse over the bottom of the screen to see the filmstrip)

You can see a couple of videos of game play HERE and HERE

Conclusionl>::

This is a match three game of medium quality. It’s not the best in my opinion, but still playable. It’s got similarities to games like Atlantis Quest which was given away some time ago, but the quality of the game does not match Atlantis Quest by a long shot. The graphics are uninspiring and drab with no power ups to add sparkle and excitement. That said, it’s a basic match three; and if you like match three’s you’ll probably play this one, but too be honest I’ve added links to far superior match three’s below in the ‘Similar Games for Free section’

I’d give it an average score of around 6.5 out of 10. This is broken down into a 7 out of 10 for game play (I’m being generous) and 6 out of 10 for graphics and sound. I like Match Three’s as they are mindless and sometimes I need a mindless game that’s easy to play. The main problem with this game is that this genre has moved on from the original Jewel Quest type game play and now we get match three’s that are combined with RPG elements for example Puzzle Quest 1 & 2 or card playing games like Gyromancer, or more traditional match three’s like Treasures of Montezuma that have upgradeable power ups and spectacular graphics or give you screensavers at the end of the game like Atlantis Quest; (or several if you play Around the World in 80 Days). The amazing thing is the last three games I mentioned above can now be downloaded completely free for the full version - (follow the link to MyPlayCity).
Apart from the addition of a quest to build various landmarks and buildings in between levels this match three game is very basic. The attempt to spice the game up with this building quest really didn’t work in my opinion because there is no actual contribution from the player apart from completing a match three level because the building stages are automatic and occur when you’ve completed a level. You’ll be whisked off to the site and magically see a new building or a city gate appear, and then the next level will start.

Reviewsl>:

Check out THESE reviews from Big Fish, they are all basically negative with respect to uninspiring game play

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Games, Games, and yet more Games plus Download, Installation & Game play Problemsl>:

If you have any problems installing today's game please go HERE for help.

If you're looking for something other than today's game check the didimatic site via THIS link for some brilliant deals. Steam has an excellent deal on Sanctum
, a first person tower defense game with a free weekend and, if you decide to purchase there's 75% off. You can either buy the game itself for $2.49/£1.74 or the game and all dlc for $5/£3.75 (8dlc's). There's also 50% off Batman: Arkham City + DLC. You can get the game for $14.99/£9.99 and four DLC's for £7.71 and there's also a 66% deal on Batman Arkham Asylum game of the year edition ($6.80/£3.40) which you can find HERE.

Morrowind, the third in the Elder Scrolls series celebrates it's 10th anniversary this week, so you can get great deals on both Morrowind: Game of the Year Edition and Oblivion Game of the Year Deluxe Edition for $9.99/£6.49 and $12.49/£9.99 respectively (You can also get the non deluxe edition of Oblivion Game of the Year for $9.99/£7.49. The difference between the two is that you get some extra mods such as Fighter's Stronghold Expansion, Spell Tome Treasures, Vile Lair, Mehrune's Razor plus much more. All of these extra mods are available for free, but they have been incorporated into the commercial game in the correct order to ensure no conflicts arise. There are several other deals available from Steam as well as many more from Gamersgate and Gamestop; all of which you can find via the Didimatic site, which I've linked to above.

You can get Aqua Bubble 2
for free from Realore this weekend and a new game is available from Alawars game box called Discord Times. (You need to install the free gamebox from Alawar to access the free games, which for newcomers change over approximately every month). If that's not enough, check out the Game Discussion forums HERE for details of other games either free or on deals. For example, Epic Inventor, Mecha World, OGS Mahjong, Desolate Hope, Zombie Grinder, Insane Zombie Carnage, Oolite, as well as others i mentioned last week for example a superb 3D space game called Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn which is totally free. There's also updates to games I've posted over the last three years as well as several other new postings that include I shall Remain, Counterstrike 2D, a SAM Missile simulator, Arx Libertatis, SCP- Containment Breach (horror), Speed Dreams (motorsport sim), Battlemass (strategy game), Naev (space arena shmup) and a cartoon like shooter called bullet Train, plus many more (well over 2000 free games). There's also at least three or four indie game bundles still available; where you pay what you want. You'll find details over in the Game discussion forums HERE
as well. :)

The latest 24 hr deal from Steam is Chime an excellent puzzle with shades of Tetris played to music.
Quote:

A Zoë Mode production for the video game charity initiative OneBigGame, Chime pits gamers against the melody in an all-new puzzle experience. Place blocks against the clock, complete solid quads and try to cover the whole playing surface, all the while remixing and embellishing pieces by musicians from across the planet. And you get to feel good about yourself, too: The console version of Chime was originally developed for OneBigGame with all the developer’s royalties going to Charity for sales up to June 2010, and Zoe Mode will continue to donate a proportion of its royalties (equivalent to 5% of purchase price) for sales of the Steam version. OneBigGame always aims to donate a minimum of 80% of all donations to its charity partners Save the Children and the Starlight Children's foundation.

Indie Bundles still activel>

Oh yeah, nearly forgot, there's another Indie bundle just gone live called The Indie Royale May Hurrah Bundle, that contains more excellent Indie games, in this case, Dungeon Defenders (brilliant cartoony tower defense game), Containment: The Zombie Puzzler (a strategy game) , Data Jammers: Fast Forward (continuously moving three dimensional driving and destruction game set within a retro wireframe world of impossible race tracks). Weird Worlds: Return to infinite space (Sci Fi Adventure/Strategy game), and Brainpipe: A Plunge to In-humanity (A real time spatial navigation and quick reflexes game with psychedelic visuals). A minimum of approx $5 is asked for, though you can pay more. The price fluctuates according to what's already been given. The more someone gives, the higher the next person has to give.

Also the Indie Gala IV bundle is still live, and now has 9 games plus one more secret item to unlock this week. The games you get for a paltry $5 are A.R.E.S Extinction Agenda, Alien Shooter 1 & 2, Disciples II: Gallean's Return (superb Strategy RPG), altitude, Steel Storm: Burning Retribution (you can also get the first in the series for free, check it out in the Game Discussion forums), Really Big sky (I bought this several weeks ago for a lot more than what you pay for all of these games and have ended up with two more copies via two different bundles. all of the previous listed games are Steam key only, though there are also two DRM free games called Wake and Lunnye Devisty, with one more item to add. There's also music included with the package. You can find details of both bundles in the Game discussion forums via the following link:

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/forum/17

You'll find both threads near the top of the page in the sticky section

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Similar Games to today's gamel>:

Don't forget you can get a whole raft of match three games for free fromHERE (MyPlayCity) and HERE (Gametop). (There’s around 60 different games including online versions, some of which are really good examples of the match three genre; {including previous giveaways such as Inca Ball, Around the world in 80 Days, Flower Story, Halloween Night: Pumpkin Match, Story of Fairy Place, Greedy spooks, The Rise of Atlantis, Fishdom, The Treasures of Montezuma, Trio: The Great Settlement, and Atlantis Quest}), as well as new additions such as the brilliant Sproink, which you find in the Puzzle section not the match three (technically it’s not a match 3, but does rely on colour to remove tokens from the paying arena.). Please do make sure you uncheck all boxes with respect to toolbar and home page hijacking before installing any games from these sites. Also remember that your browser will open once you shut any game from these sites down, but this is totally innocuous and leaves no traces on your computer once shut down. You could say it’s useful because both sites add new games regularly (especially MyPlayCity), so it gives you the opportunity to check out the site for new games. :) If you like Egyptian themed match threes, MPC has recently added another one called Treasure Pyramid; however Gametop have become quite aggressive w.r.t. Installing toolbars and changing your browsers search engines home page. Asically they force you to accept these nefore you can play the game (though I haven't checked to see if they have changed their policy for a while. On the other hand MPC also try to install toolbars and hijack your browser; however, you can avoid these by making sure you uncheck the check-boxes when installing the game; also every time you start the game those check-boxes will be presented to you again, so make sure you uncheck them each time, otherwise you'll be the proud owner of a MyPlayCity/Ask tool bar and you'll have to fiddle around to change your browsers home page back to whatever you have it set to. That said MyPlayCity do have a fantastic choice of arcade games from all genres of arcade games, so although those things are an annoyance, I think it's still worth the effort, especially if you can't afford to purchase many arcade games. There is another site where you can get a decent selection of arcade games, called Gametop (been around for several years now) as well as others such as FreeGamePick and Jenkat games, but they all have similar routines for trying to install toolbars and hijack your browser and search engine. Gametop has become particularly aggressive with respect to this. You can find those sites if you wish to check them out via Google.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Request for helpl>:

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.

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen

The Great Pharaoh:

Installation

The Great Pharaoh downloads to a 44.5MB zip file that unpacks to a wrapped setup and activation module plus   a read me that contains details of the installation and the terms and conditions.   Once installed the game  uses 81.8Mb of disc space.

I’ve tested the game on all my installations and it works on XP Pro 32 bit, Vista Home Basic 32 bit, Vista Home Premium 64 bit,  Win 7 Pro 64 bit and Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit installations. There’s no shortcut installed so make a note of where the game is installed to so that you can manually create a desktop shortcut. By default it installs to the following path:

C:\Games\TheGreatPharaoh

Registration

Registration is automatically done when you install the game.  You will require an active internet connection to complete activation.  If you have any problems see the section above the review.

Introduction

The game has been given away twice before last year, back in March 2011 and September 2011 where it received positive votes of 62% and 75% respectively. You can read the previous comments <a href="http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/the-great-pharaoh/" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> (March 2011) and <a href="http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/thegreatpharaoh/" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> (September 2011).

Developers Introduction

<blockquote>From generation to generation, each new Pharaoh wanted to be more powerful than the previous one. One got his wealth by seizing the lands of others, another - in the fertile lands of the Nile. But there was another way to gain overwhelming richness... Legend says that in the abandoned temples of the City of the Dead, the treasury of Egypt ancient rulers was kept. Priests put the gold into magical blocks, guarded by those who were gone for eternity. Only the Great Pharaoh could take back the gold, gathering together the blocks and presenting seals. The seals were lost with time. There were no Pharaohs who wished to return ancient treasures, as the price for a mistake was great - eternal wandering in the dark world of the dead. Would you like to try your luck? Returning the treasures of the ancestors, you will build the City, the glory of which will live for centuries... In this fast-paced Match 3 game, the goal is to restore the temples of the City of the Dead, getting hidden gold. You can get the gold by matching 3 ancient blocks. At the same time you should keep an eye on mummies who can put a curse, stealing gold and freezing the blocks. You have limited time to meet your goal on gold and become the Great Pharaoh!</blockquote>

Reference accessed <a href="http://starsashes.com/thegreatpharaoh.html " rel="nofollow">HERE</a> 5th March 2011

The Game

This is a reasonable match three game with decent graphics and additional elements that add to the overall game experience.  Game play is as you’d expect from a match three; that is you have to swap adjacent blocks so that three or more blocks of identical color, including those that are frozen line up in columns or rows.  This destroys the blocks and releases the gold that is hidden within the block.

There are some original features that make it worth downloading such as the building of a town and the addition of mummies that steal gold from you as well as add a curse which freezes several blocks for a specific length of time. This occurs when there is a line of three similar blocks next to the mummies. If you can line up three of these mummies in a row or column you will get extra gold and destroys the mummies. You can see various symbols within each colored block, these have various values for example collecting 3 ankh’s is worth 120 gold pieces whereas collecting three squiggly lines are worth 250 gold pieces; collecting additional blocks such as a line of 4 or five gives you more gold. You’ll find 7 different values within the blocks ranging from 100 gold pieces to 250 gold pieces. (100, 120, 140, 160, 180, 200 and 250). Destroying three mummies is worth 500 gold pieces. There are 40 levels broken up into eight different stages. Each stage ends in the completion of a specific Egyptian building or object such as an Obelisk, the Temple of Anubis, a city gates or the Pyramids. After each level you are awarded a part of a key. Collecting all the parts will unlock the next stage in the building of the town.

As you would expect levels start off easy with grids of 8x8 which increase in size as you get further into the game. Progression is mapped out via the levels map, which shows you the various buildings and monuments that you will build throughout the game. There doesn’t appear to be any power-ups added to this game (I didn’t encounter any while playing the demo, which included the first five levels).

The options menu enables you to change several  parameters such as screen resolution , windowed mode and an advanced lighting mode that adds  shadows to the  game (not very obvious) as well a sound and music sliders to adjust the volume and  a difficulty  slider that has three  choices, easy, medium and hard  difficulty.

Features:

•	Collect gold from ancient tombs in this entertaining Match 3 challenge.

•	Restore the Temple of Anubis, the Great Pyramids, the giant Obelisk and more.

•	Watch out for mummies and their curse as they steal gold and freeze blocks.

•	Rush to clear 40 levels before time is up.

•	See the megalithic structures take shape before your eyes.

Images & Video:

You can see a slideshow of around 50 images showing the first area to be unlocked <a href="http://s571.photobucket.com/albums/ss160/Whiterabbit04/The%20Great%20Pharaoh/?albumview=slideshow" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. You’ll see help screens, several levels, statistic screens and the level map. Unfortunately the images were uploaded backwards, so you see the later images first

You can view all the images in full screen or as a grid with adjustable slider to view in various sizes.  Just click on one of the two buttons to the bottom right of the screen, just above the film strip;  (you need to hover your mouse over the bottom of the screen to see the filmstrip)

You can see a couple of videos of game play <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgGCmkeT6uE" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yqpx0SpYLk" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>

Conclusion::

This is a match three game of  medium quality.  It’s not the  best in my opinion, but still  playable.  It’s  got similarities to games like Atlantis Quest  which was given away some time  ago, but  the quality of the game does not match Atlantis Quest by a long shot.  The graphics are uninspiring and drab with   no power ups to add sparkle and excitement.  That said, it’s a basic match three; and  if you like match three’s  you’ll probably play this one, but too be honest I’ve added links   to far superior   match three’s below in the ‘Similar Games for Free section’

I’d give it an average score of around 6.5 out of 10. This is broken down into a 7 out of 10 for game play (I’m being generous) and 6 out of 10 for graphics and sound. I like Match Three’s as they are mindless and sometimes I need a mindless game that’s easy to play. The main problem with this game is that this genre has moved on from the original Jewel Quest type game play and now we get match three’s that are combined with RPG elements for example Puzzle Quest 1 & 2 or card playing games like Gyromancer, or more traditional match three’s like Treasures of Montezuma that have upgradeable power ups and spectacular graphics or give you screensavers at the end of the game like Atlantis Quest; (or several if you play Around the World in 80 Days). The amazing thing is the last three games I mentioned above can now be downloaded completely free for the full version - (follow the link to MyPlayCity). 
Apart from the addition of a quest to build various landmarks and buildings in between levels this match three game is very basic. The attempt to spice the game up with this building quest really didn’t work in my opinion because there is no actual contribution from the player apart from completing a match three level because the building stages are automatic and occur when you’ve completed a level. You’ll be whisked off to the site and magically see a new building or a city gate appear, and then the next level will start.

Reviews:

Check out <a href="http://forums.bigfishgames.com/posts/list/20/110546.page" rel="nofollow">THESE</a> reviews from Big Fish, they are all basically negative with respect to uninspiring game play

Games, Games, and yet more Games plus Download, Installation & Game play Problems:

If you have any problems installing today's game please go <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/11647#post-101133" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> for help.

If you're looking for something other than today's game check the didimatic site via <a href="http://didimatic.com/dd/en/onsale/steam/" rel="nofollow">THIS</a> link for some brilliant deals. Steam has an excellent deal on <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/91600/" rel="nofollow">Sanctum</a>
, a first person tower defense game with a free weekend and, if you decide to purchase there's 75% off. You can either buy the game itself for $2.49/£1.74 or the game and all dlc for $5/£3.75 (8dlc's). There's also 50% off <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/57400/" rel="nofollow">Batman: Arkham City + DLC</a>. You can get the game for $14.99/£9.99 and four DLC's for £7.71 and there's also a 66% deal on Batman Arkham Asylum game of the year edition ($6.80/£3.40) which you can find <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/35140" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>.

Morrowind, the third in the Elder Scrolls series celebrates it's 10th anniversary this week, so you can get great deals on both <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/22320/" rel="nofollow">Morrowind: Game of the Year Edition</a> and <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/900883/" rel="nofollow">Oblivion Game of the Year Deluxe Edition</a> for $9.99/£6.49 and $12.49/£9.99 respectively (You can also get the non deluxe edition of Oblivion Game of the Year for $9.99/£7.49. The difference between the two is that you get some extra mods such as Fighter's Stronghold Expansion, Spell Tome Treasures, Vile Lair, Mehrune's Razor plus much more. All of these extra mods are available for free, but they have been incorporated into the commercial game in the correct order to ensure no conflicts arise. There are several other deals available from Steam as well as many more from Gamersgate and Gamestop; all of which you can find via the Didimatic site, which I've linked to above.

You can get <a href="http://www.realore.com/games/free_game/" rel="nofollow">Aqua Bubble 2</a> 
 for free from Realore this weekend and a new game is available from Alawars game box called Discord Times. (You need to install the free gamebox from Alawar to access the free games, which for newcomers change over approximately every month). If that's not enough, check out the Game Discussion forums <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/forum/17" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> for details of other games either free or on deals. For example, Epic Inventor, Mecha World, OGS Mahjong, Desolate Hope, Zombie Grinder, Insane Zombie Carnage, Oolite, as well as others i mentioned last week for example a superb 3D space game called Wing Commander Saga: The Darkest Dawn which is totally free. There's also updates to games I've posted over the last three years as well as several other new postings that include I shall Remain, Counterstrike 2D, a SAM Missile simulator, Arx Libertatis, SCP- Containment Breach (horror), Speed Dreams (motorsport sim), Battlemass (strategy game), Naev (space arena shmup) and a cartoon like shooter called bullet Train, plus many more (well over 2000 free games). There's also at least three or four indie game bundles still available; where you pay what you want. You'll find details over in the Game discussion forums <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/forum/17" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>
 as well. :)

The latest 24 hr deal from Steam is Chime an excellent  puzzle with  shades of Tetris played to music. 
Quote:

<blockquote> A Zoë Mode production for the video game charity initiative OneBigGame, Chime pits gamers against the melody in an all-new puzzle experience. Place blocks against the clock, complete solid quads and try to cover the whole playing surface, all the while remixing and embellishing pieces by musicians from across the planet. And you get to feel good about yourself, too: The console version of Chime was originally developed for OneBigGame with all the developer’s royalties going to Charity for sales up to June 2010, and Zoe Mode will continue to donate a proportion of its royalties (equivalent to 5% of purchase price) for sales of the Steam version. OneBigGame always aims to donate a minimum of 80% of all donations to its charity partners Save the Children and the Starlight Children's foundation.</blockquote>

Indie Bundles still active

Oh yeah, nearly forgot, there's another Indie bundle just gone live called The Indie Royale May Hurrah Bundle, that contains more excellent Indie games, in this case, Dungeon Defenders (brilliant cartoony tower defense game), Containment: The Zombie Puzzler (a strategy game) , Data Jammers: Fast Forward (continuously moving three dimensional driving and destruction game set within a retro wireframe world of impossible race tracks). Weird Worlds: Return to infinite space (Sci Fi Adventure/Strategy game), and Brainpipe: A Plunge to In-humanity (A real time spatial navigation and quick reflexes game with psychedelic visuals). A minimum of approx $5 is asked for, though you can pay more. The price fluctuates according to what's already been given. The more someone gives, the higher the next person has to give.

Also the Indie Gala IV bundle is still live, and now has 9 games   plus one more  secret item to unlock this week.  The games you get for a paltry $5 are A.R.E.S Extinction Agenda, Alien Shooter 1 & 2, Disciples II: Gallean's Return (superb Strategy RPG), altitude, Steel Storm: Burning Retribution (you can also get the first in the series for free, check it out in the Game Discussion forums), Really Big sky (I bought this  several weeks ago for a lot more than what you pay for all of these games and have ended up with two more copies  via two different bundles.  all of the previous listed games  are Steam key only, though there are also two DRM free games called Wake and Lunnye Devisty, with one more item to add.  There's also music included with the package. You can find details of both bundles in the Game discussion forums  via the following link:

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/forum/17

You'll find both threads near the top of the page in the sticky section

Similar Games to today's game:

Don't forget you can get a whole raft of match three games for free from<a href="Http://www.myplaycity.com/free_match3_games/" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> (MyPlayCity) and <a href="http://www.gametop.com/" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> (Gametop). (There’s around 60 different games including online versions, some of which are really good examples of the match three genre; {including previous giveaways such as Inca Ball, Around the world in 80 Days, Flower Story, Halloween Night: Pumpkin Match, Story of Fairy Place, Greedy spooks, The Rise of Atlantis, Fishdom, The Treasures of Montezuma, Trio: The Great Settlement, and Atlantis Quest}), as well as new additions such as the brilliant Sproink, which you find in the Puzzle section not the match three (technically it’s not a match 3, but does rely on colour to remove tokens from the paying arena.). Please do make sure you uncheck all boxes with respect to toolbar and home page hijacking before installing any games from these sites. Also remember that your browser will open once you shut any game from these sites down, but this is totally innocuous and leaves no traces on your computer once shut down. You could say it’s useful because both sites add new games regularly (especially MyPlayCity), so it gives you the opportunity to check out the site for new games. :) If you like Egyptian themed match threes, MPC has recently added another one called Treasure Pyramid; however Gametop have become quite aggressive w.r.t. Installing toolbars and changing your browsers search engines home page. Asically they force you to accept these nefore you can play the game (though I haven't checked to see if they have changed their policy for a while. On the other hand MPC also try to install toolbars and hijack your browser; however, you can avoid these by making sure you uncheck the check-boxes when installing the game; also every time you start the game those check-boxes will be presented to you again, so make sure you uncheck them each time, otherwise you'll be the proud owner of a MyPlayCity/Ask tool bar and you'll have to fiddle around to change your browsers home page back to whatever you have it set to. That said MyPlayCity do have a fantastic choice of arcade games from all genres of arcade games, so although those things are an annoyance, I think it's still worth the effort, especially if you can't afford to purchase many arcade games. There is another site where you can get a decent selection of arcade games, called Gametop (been around for several years now) as well as others such as FreeGamePick and Jenkat games, but they all have similar routines for trying to install toolbars and hijack your browser and search engine. Gametop has become particularly aggressive with respect to this. You can find those sites if you wish to check them out via Google.

A Request for help:

<blockquote>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.</blockquote>

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen

Save | Cancel