To the developer... at times after sinking a ball that has rattled between bands before going in, the sound of the ball rattling gets caught in a loop and you don't get your cue stick back. Has happened to me 3 times now since I downloaded it here on GGOTD.

Nice game that was. I really enjoyed it.
Thanks!!

Played very well the first few games, on XP SP2. Now, every time I start a game, after a few shots the screen goes wonky; the table oscillates rapidly between vertical and 45 degrees, creating a propeller effect. I like a challenge, but that's too much! I haven't seen anyone else mention this, so maybe its unique to my setup.

Would you consider rerunning this since there were so many initial installation problems? I waited after having some problems and then didn't see the fix until it was too late. Or run it again in a few months?

Nice game, thanks!

its TOTALLY cool. compared to the game perfect pool that ive mastered many times, this is fanominal! LOL way 2 go GAOTD!

I had the same problem where I got the time expired message... i've only seen now it's too late that the mirror download works... I hope we get a repeat so I can actually play this one...

Wow.
Seems I am the odd ball here.
I had no problems figuring out the install.
The games loads and plays just fine with no problems.
It also looks good and has many options that adds to the replay value.
The only downfall I see is that when I get my new computer I will have to purchase the program to put it on that one.
But hey,it is cheaper than buying a pool table...

It seems to work well on my Vista 32bit home pc so far without any probs.
Nice game.
Thanks.

Thank you GGAOTD & Fly Games. The graphics are pretty cool and the game is as unforgiving as the real thing. I got this game in the afternoon and had none of the above problems that I read. I'm running XP Home Sp2.

Dear GGOTD project team, thank you for a quick fix on a seemingly insurmountable problem. Every thing works perfectly now. I really am so grateful for all your hard work!

The best pool game/simulation is still Virtual Pool 3 from http://www.celeris.com/

A very poor pool game. The graphics are average. I've seen worse, but I've seen much better too. The controls are horrible. I'm a big fan of mouse control for pool, but the sensitivity is all wrong, and there's no nuances in the controls, making it impossible to judge delicate shots.

Worst of all, the collisions/physics are so bad that you frequently have to quit a game and start again because a ball is resting on a cushion but the game thinks it is colliding constantly and never ends the shot, continually playing a collision sound. This game shouldn't have passed even basic quality assurance.

@wishbone et al- ymmv, I got the expired once, then got 'corrupted archive via mirror twice, got another copy of main, and it worked.

bizarre.

Nice on the english, it's easier.

You people who think this game is good, need your head examined. The ball physics just sticks like glue to the table. I know you can adjust friction, well whoopty doo, now I got hockey pucks on felt! Although this is game is free with a retail price of 14.95 on any other day LOL! I have played pool games light years older then this game such as SNES Championship Pool, that still to this day is one of the best pool games I have ever played!

As far as you people talking about the question marks, there not affecting the install at all and it was a simple programming mistake. Just rename the target directory and the problem is solved.

I tried to install from the main download too and got the time expired message. I then tried the mirror download and that one installed ok. Try the mirror copy.

Tried to install but says that the 24 hour period is over. What's with that? It was only 4pm and it shoud have lasted until midnight.
Oh well seems like many were having problems so I guess it best I leave well enough alone. Next!

I really like the controls when using a laptop with a touch pad and the graphics are very good... I understand the game causes DEP errors if DEP is enabled on all running processes like hapens with other games produced by the same developer... maybe one day they will get with the XP SP2 API and properly declare what memory is for data only and what is for execuatable code when running on the operating systems providing that API.

BTW I am running it under Vista Home Premium alongside Dscaler TV player (minimised) and launchcast radio playing in yahoo instant messenger. Much more entertaining to play than 2D yahoo pool.

Help, GOTD staff! I too am getting the "Unable to set video mode" message, & the game shuts down - but only after I click "1-player-game." Someone said something about disabling "aero" but I have no idea what that is or how to disable it.

I've tried running the "American Billiards.exe" file in Win XP compatability mode, no help. So I uninstalled and re-downloaded the zip file. Tried intalling it again, running the setup program in XP compatability mode, but still got the same message.

What's puzzling is that someone said they are running Vista Home Premium on a laptop, and the game ran fine for them. That is my setup too - Vista Home Premium on a laptop (HP), but it's not working for me. I know, there's probably some parameter he/she has on his/her system which I have set differently.

Looks like a great game! Any help in getting it running would be greatly appreciated. I won't uninstall it just yet, in case I can get some help here. But I guess tomorrow, if no help, then down it goes.

Does anyone else hate Vista as much as I do?

Ooooh, don't you just love it to fight your way through the hassle and tear of installing such a nice game, I do! It's free after all, so why complain? LOL...But i think i'll have a word or two with the programmers in the nearby future... next to virtual pool 3, i like this kind of game during my coffee breaks. :) So, again, give GGAOTD some credit for their efforts by giving it to us for free as well! THX.

Like #85 - it says I have 7 hours and 56 minutes left to download, yet says that the time is over when I try to launch it. Any suggestions? I'm running WIn 98SE. First time this has happened. Thank you.

lol @ having to create my own shortcut

Works fine on Vista Ultimate 64b. The graphics are good the controls feel weird like someone earlier said

Thank you so much for this game - and a two player, too! The program downloaded/installed in under 4 minutes, with no game play issues on my Windows XP. Yes, it would have been nice if a desktop short-cut was created for you, but since I named the file it was easy to search and created my own. Thanks for all the great comments today AND the 'readme' comment about no shortcut/name your own file. Great to have a different game - controls will take me a bit to learn, but so far this game is a definate keeper! Thanks.

Still getting this Error message:

"Memory Access Violation"

Hmmmm, I downloaded it fine at work (WinXP SP2) and played a few games with no problems. I just downloaded at home (WinXP SP2), played 1 game fine, but second game crashed. It got stuck when the computer (my opponent) shot the ball into a pocket and kept clicking. Couldn't get out of it, so C-A-D to kill it and uninstalled. Bummer...

by the way that browse box click on desktop make new folder .this is vista business and vista premium both worked this way

had no problem after setup exraction box where it says browse make a place like desktop choose new folder add american billiards and click it downloads to a folder on desktop.good game.

I LOVE this game! The install was a bit weird as I kept waiting for the activation screen and got nothing. I installed it to Program Files instead of Games and found the Americanbilliard folder immediately. I clicked on the American Billiards icon (a little rocket) and the game worked perfectly. I then added a shortcut to my desktop and even changed the icon to the one included in the download. I'm working on XP SP2 and had absolutely no problems with the game play or with the menus.

Thanks to the developers and to GAOTD for a wonderful game!

Nice game.I installed/unzipped it all in the same folder and leave it there to play,from there.
I wished all games had that simple option.
I love it. Gonna have a lot of fun.
Thanks GGOTD

I could not get this game to run in Vista, even with Aero deactivated and with XP Compatibility Mode turned on. No review today.

Hi Folks... lemme just throw something out there regarding the install.

I'm on a Vista Home Premium 32 Bit. AFter reading the problems I decided to just head it off at the pass and I did this.... I don't know if it would have worked normally without what I did... but maybe it will help.

After you download the setup file, click on it and change the properties to compatability with Win 98/ME. Then run the install. This ran perfectly for me. Don't install it to the default folder. Its like the old days... create your own folder there.. IE C\Program Files\American Billiards.

Install, go the directory you made.. click on the app exe icon and send to desktop. Done.

I hope this helps.

This game looked very promising. Some aspects, like all the comments on this forum about installation problems and error messages related to memory and gfx card have a negative impact on this game. Once all these problems are gone and you can play this game, you will find that this is one of these many pool games which have some good ascpets, but have one major drawback: they don't seem to come close to the simulation a real pool physics. In this game, besides some things you can't do in this game such as rasing the butt, give english really high or low on the ball, you never get the feeling that the balls actually move right. I played many pool games like this and the one I stuck with for a some 5 years now is virtual pool from Paprikari. This game has intuitive controls, good camera work and above all: good ball physics. With this game you could actually improve your real pool game, as my friends found out ;-) This game won't do that. I give it 3 out of 5.

Very nice game. The computer easily beat me on medium with two balls of mine left, but I'm sure I'll get more used to the force necessary after some time. The friction seems too high, and there's no music, but those are my only complaints. Thumbs up!

(Oh, by the way the game hanged for a bit over a minute trying to decide whether a ball was to go into the pocket or barely stay up. It eventually decided though, so not gamebreaking in any way.)

Press Install button to start extraction.


Use Browse button to select the destination folder from the folders tree. It can be also entered manually.


If the destination folder does not exist, it will be created automatically before extraction.

Left button: Install
Right button: Cancel

Came up with ????? on my laptop but ok on my XP desktop. Not tried on Vista machine yet.

Gizmo.

I read #54 and even downloaded the FIRST time AFTER the download was updated. I love this site and am VERY appreciative of the games I get here, even the dupes because sometimes I lose my original version. At any rate, I cannot play :( I keep getting the memory access violation error. Is there a fix for that? Any valid response regarding that would be appreciated. Thanks GAOTD for the wonderful games I DO get and get to play. I was excited at the prospect of being able to utilize this, as it is different that what we've been getting.

Wish I would have held off on buying this in the store before finding it here on this site. This game is also known as American Billiards by Masque Games in Retail stores. Its not Virtual Pool 1 , 2 or 3 for that matter but its a game thats quality enough.

I would like to let everyone know that its not fully compatible on ATI Laptop Graphics Cards. You will most commonly get a memory access violation error.

Guys, some of these games don't "install" They simply extract. When you see the extract to: dialog box, click browse and make another folder. Once you've extracted the files to that directory, just browse to the .exe file, right click and drag to the desktop and "create shortcut here"
I think some of you are having problems because extensions are turned off.
In windows explorer, Tool > Folder Options > View > Uncheck: Hide extensions for known file types.
Game loks nice but also looks like it's a resource pig. Very choppy on my Athlon 3000+ with Nvidia 5200 video card. I'll try it on a faster machine.

Downloaded, installed & activated fine. (I used the Americanbilliard(upd).zip, so no problems with the question marks.)

Another little awkward installation routine (just like yesterdays offer), but it works.

Graphics are nice (nothing mind blowing; it's a billiard game after all).

It's a very decent arcade billiard game (pro's may not like it, but I'm not a pro :) ).
And it's Mouse controlled, just the way I like it. :)

Like billiard games and you're not too fussy about official rules and tables and such?
Then get this one. You won't be disappointed.

Thumbs up, and thank you GGOTD and Fly Games.

To all those who jumped in and helped me out -- thanks!!! Not being as experienced as many of you, I actually RIGHT clicked on the ????????? and ended up canceling the install. Then I spent half the night wondering where the spyware went, even though I trust the Giveawayoftheday team ;).

And thumbs up to the GAOTD team for cleaning up the install. The game looks fantastic! I'm running this on an XP and the graphics look terrific. Now that I'm calm, I can't wait to play.

Once again, a big hug to the community for making this all work out. It's what the internets are all about... LOL.

To #18, The install file goes to C:/Games simple!

I did'nt have any problemswith install but a little worrying was AVG popping up a virus alert.
Stil installed fine and sadly the game does'nt understand snooker rules,Nor Billiards.
Other than that, It's a nice game with good graphics.

AGAIN: PLEASE READ THE COMMENT #54 BEFORE STARTING TO COMPLAIN

Please someone .... I had no problems with downloading this game or installing it. BUT as I have run into before the graphics are kinda scrambled...perspective off balanced. I have updated my driver and I am running XP Pro. Help this ole lady with this game so my g-son can play. Love the games at GGOTD!!

Quite a good game, however, it does not play to the normal rules of Snooker (even though 'normal' is chosen)! The game does not give the other player four points for a miss of the red, it does not give any points for the miss of a colour nor does it give points for a hit of the wrong colour!

Hi Everyone:
I read comment #54, and I've done the download/extract thing after that update was created, and although the instalation process may have been fixed, I still cannot run the game. Everytime I try, I receive a "Memory Access Violation" error code. I've tried deleting and redownloading/reinstalling, but still can't get the game to run. I'm running a laptop with a Centrino Duo processor @1.8G. I also have 2G's of DDR2 Ram, and a video card with 256Meg's of additional ram, and I am running XP Media, W/sp2. Any ideas on how I can overcome this problem? I would appreciate any help I can get! Thanks, Lloyd.

Downloaded and installed perfectly on my Windows Vista Home Premium laptop and my Windows XP sp2 desktop. I just choose a different install path where I install all my games. The game actually works really well and the graphix are really good also. It took a few seconds to get used to the pool cue control with my laptop, however, after a few tries I was shooting like a pro (of which I am NOT). I haven't beat the computer yet but...

I went to the installation directory after install and created a shortcut to the desktop for the .exe (the rocket looking icon). After that I changed the icon on the desktop to the billiard icon that is included in the install folder. I did this by right clicking on the shortcut that I created on the desktop, selecting properties, clicking "change icon...", browsing to the directory where I installed the game, clicked on the billiard icon, and select ok. VOILA!!! No more rocket icon!!!

If you are looking for the folder in your Start Menu...It's not there as one wasn't created. To uninstall (if you choose, but I don't see why) just delete the install folder and the registry key that was created. Probably a good idea to back up your registry (advanced users) or creat a Restore Point (non-advanced user and everyone else) before doing this just in case you make a mistake. Or you can get a good FREEWARE delete program off the net.

Thanks GGAOTD and Fly Games for a great game (AGAIN)! I'll put this with my "Mini Golf" game.

mev1296

PLEASE READ THE COMMENT #54 BEFORE STARTING TO COMPLAIN

Thank you for a fantastic game.I play pool at least five days a week and find this challenging none the less. Thank you GGAOTD and the Fly Games publisher. It's a keeper

Just downloaded & played, 9:25 EST. Not a bad game, easy play and easy to get the hang of. No problems here, WinXP SP2. Thanks GGOAD...

OK for free if you do not have a pool game already, but the Virtual Pool series, already years old by now, makes this look terrible. On my laptop, at least, it ran poorly and its graphics were relatively low definition. I get the impression that the game producing world no longer has much interest in billiard simulations. After Virtual Pool there has been no progress.