Overcome all obstacles in an amazing game Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny! FREE game on GOTD!

#5

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

There will be two games tomorrow, one from MPC and another Steam key with a limited number of licenses.

Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny

In Brief

A Breakout game ported from an android version. Starts in a window, but you can change to full screen.

Suggestions:

If you like or don't like Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny please give some feedback about your opinion of the game, for example, what did you liked or disliked about the game, or how it could be improved from your point of view . If you don't like this genre at all, please explain why. What improvements would change your opinion? There are thousands of subscribers to the game giveaway of the day every weekend which makes this an ideal forum for giving developers ideas as to what their consumers (i.e you) would like to see in a game. For example, you could suggest extra content such as better or more original mini games, or a level editor that you would like to see that would make it more appealing to you. Maybe you think the graphics are a little dated and are in need of re skinning, or maybe you've just had enough of the genre and want to see something different or something with more originality?

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via MyPlayCity 24/7 HERE.

Installation:

The game downloads to a 25.6 MB zip file that unzips to four files, (a setup.gcd security wrapper, the set up file and a read me). Those with multiple hard drives are able to save games on any drive they wish. The newly installed game is 28.8 MB in size. The game installs to the following path by default, but can be changed by the user if you prefer:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\Arcanoid - Ball of Destiny

Four shortcuts are installed to the desktop. three of which can be safely deleted (Play Online Games, MyPlayCity Games and shortcuts to a free online game which vary each week). Also, if you don't like icons installed to the quick launch task bar, make sure you uncheck the box when the additional tasks window appears (after the Select Start Menu Folder window)

Introduction:

Overcome all obstacles in an amazing game Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny! A lot of mysterious locations are waiting for you! Your journey will start from a dark dungeon full of ghostly creatures. Your aim is to destroy all platforms with a ball. If you hit the lanterns, sculls or diamonds you will get extra scores. Blow up the barrels to pass the level faster. Collect different bonuses: a speed-up, an extra ball and many others. You will succeed if you calculate trajectory of the ball. Get the highest score and become the best player in the game Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny!

Reference accessed HERE. 24th September 2016

If you have a problem installing or activating or getting Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny to work please visit the problems section, which I've now incorporated into the FAQ's thread, and which you can find HERE

The Game:

Today's game Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny is an android port, which defaults to a small window, however, thanks to the community member xilolee, who posted a fix, by holding Alt then pressing enter, the game can be played in full screen.

Once I'd read Xilolees fix, the game was much more enjoyable. It's not the best arkanoid I've played, but it's good enough to keep. I like the feature when you're nearijg the end of the level when bricks auto destruct. That helps to get rid of the harder to hit ones.

It does have reasonable graphics (despite being a port) and there is one aspect to the game you don't often see in breakout games and that is the ability to curve the ball by side swiping the ball as it comes to the bat. If you side swipe the wrong way, it'll curve down into the out of bounds area, so make sure you practice the technique. Basically Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny is a standard breakout/arkanoid game. The name arkanoid comes from one of the earlier versions of the game called Arkanoid and Arkanoid the Revenge of Doh that were developed by Taito, two early adaptations of breakout, that became very popular when breakout was upgraded to include a variety of layouts instead of just a block of bricks, also added were power ups and different types of bricks. the name arkanoid is usually used in preference to breakout these days even though they weren't the original

.

Ball physics are okay, especially with the ability to curve the ball, but there are no original power ups, just standard ones such as speed up, slow down, gun, magnet extra ball etc. Still, if you enjoy playing breakouts you may like this despite the inability to go full screen. You can gain extra points by collecting the gems that fall.

There are no options to turn off music, or change graphic settings just an exit, play and question mark buttons. The first two are obvious, the question mark just tells you who created the game. When you click on the large play button, it opens a new window that shows you five wrapped presents which I presume are different environments. Of these the first present is unlocked and contains 10 levels, the other four are unlocked as you complete each area. To progress to the next level you have to complete the preceding level first. With respect to the second to fifth area's, each area has a different look to it. Once you've unlocked a level or area, it remains unlocked even if you have to start the game over after losing all of your lives.

Videos:

If you want to see Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny in action, you can see some videos of game play HERE and HERE. You can also get a free android version of Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny HERE. I don't own an android phone, so can't guarantee the android version is clean.

Conclusion:

If you like arkanoids, don't mind playing in a window, this is an okay game that is ideal for the family. Hardened breakout fans will find it easy, unless they have similar problems a si did with respect to going out of bounds due to the window not being locked, i.e. your mouse pointer can stray out of game so you lose bat movement, which in turn can lose you game lives. Personally I can only give this a 5 out of 10 becasue it brings nothing new to the game, and lacks the most simple of options to configure the game to players preferences. It's saving grace is the ability to curve the ball with the bat.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny without the toolbar check boxes and home page changes during installation and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games, in this case Steam keys.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

The problems section that used to be posted here in the Game review is now included in the Game Discussion FAQ's thread; which you can find HERE.

I've updated the games section that used to be posted with the review. The thread is now called 'Weekly round up of game deals', formerly the games section of the weekly reviews. You can find the new thread (which I've posted in the sticky section of the game discussion forums to make it easier to find if you are perusing the game discussion forums) HERE.

If today's game was not to your liking, you may find other games either free or for less than the price of a cup of coffee (from your favorite coffee house) via the 'Weekly Roundup of Game Deals' thread which I've posted a link to above, or HERE.

.

The latest free game over on Origin is still Nox. You can get it HERE. Please note that you do require the Origin game platform to be able to download and install the game. The PC version of ALERT: SECTOR 8 (a traditional Shoot Em Up)is also still available over on Failmids Shareware-on-Sale site HERE, also available via Failmid's site is the the open world racing game The Crew (ends Monday 3rd Oct). You will need the uPlay client for The Crew. To get the game you have to log into your uPlay account, then click on the banner that says Ubisoft turns 30. This should open a new page where you can get The Crew added to your account. The Crew is also a premium AAA game and well worth getting, especially if you like open world racing games. To get The Crew the shareware link I've provided above isn't actually necessary. You just have to sign into your uPlay account and look for the Ubisoft turning 30 link, or if you don't have a uPlay account create an account HERE. Click on the green Join the Club button, get your free account, then get your free copy of The Crew.

If you spend over two dollars in the Indie Gala store (they have some excellent bundle deals, but these are excluded from the offer) you will also get a free copy of Angel Express

DIG are still offering free Steam keys for Hacker Evolution Time Dimensions and Crystals of Time. To get keys for these two games you will have to do similar activities to those we have to do to get Steam games from the game giveaway site, i.e. visit the developers page, maybe download a demo, visit the Steam page or possibly post on Facebook or Tweet information etc. You can find those free Steam key deals HERE (Hacker Evolution: Time Dimensions and HERE (Crystals of Time).

<ul><blockquote>...........................Moderator Comment................................</blockquote></ul>

<blockquote>There will be two games tomorrow, one from MPC and another Steam key with a limited number of licenses. </blockquote>

Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny

<blockquote>In Brief</blockquote>
<blockquote>A Breakout game ported from an android version. Starts in a window, but you can change to full screen.</blockquote>

Suggestions:
<blockquote>If you like or don't like Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny please give some feedback about your opinion of the game, for example, what did you liked or disliked about the game, or how it could be improved from your point of view . If you don't like this genre at all, please explain why. What improvements would change your opinion? There are thousands of subscribers to the game giveaway of the day every weekend which makes this an ideal forum for giving developers ideas as to what their consumers (i.e you) would like to see in a game. For example, you could suggest extra content such as better or more original mini games, or a level editor that you would like to see that would make it more appealing to you. Maybe you think the graphics are a little dated and are in need of re skinning, or maybe you've just had enough of the genre and want to see something different or something with more originality?</blockquote>

<blockquote>If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via MyPlayCity 24/7 <a href="http://www.myplaycity.com/arcanoid/" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>.</blockquote>

Installation:

<blockquote>The game downloads to a 25.6 MB zip file that unzips to four files, (a setup.gcd security wrapper, the set up file and a read me). Those with multiple hard drives are able to save games on any drive they wish. The newly installed game is 28.8 MB in size. The game installs to the following path by default, but can be changed by the user if you prefer:</blockquote>
<blockquote>C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\Arcanoid - Ball of Destiny</blockquote>
 <blockquote>Four shortcuts are installed to the desktop. three of which can be safely deleted (Play Online Games, MyPlayCity Games and shortcuts to a free online game which vary each week). Also, if you don't like icons installed to the quick launch task bar, make sure you uncheck the box when the additional tasks window appears (after the Select Start Menu Folder window)</blockquote>

Introduction:
<blockquote>Overcome all obstacles in an amazing game Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny! A lot of mysterious locations are waiting for you! Your journey will start from a dark dungeon full of ghostly creatures. Your aim is to destroy all platforms with a ball. If you hit the lanterns, sculls or diamonds you will get extra scores. Blow up the barrels to pass the level faster. Collect different bonuses: a speed-up, an extra ball and many others. You will succeed if you calculate trajectory of the ball. Get the highest score and become the best player in the game Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny!</blockquote>

<blockquote>Reference accessed <a href="http://www.myplaycity.com/arcanoid/" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. 24th September 2016</blockquote>

<blockquote>If you have a problem installing or activating or getting Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny to work please visit the problems section, which I've now incorporated into the FAQ's thread, and which you can find <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/11647" rel="nofollow">HERE</a></blockquote>

The Game:

<blockquote>Today's game Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny is an android port, which defaults to a small window, however, thanks to the community member xilolee, who posted a fix, by holding Alt then pressing enter, the game can be played in full screen. </blockquote>

<blockquote>Once I'd read Xilolees fix, the game was much more enjoyable. It's not the best arkanoid I've played, but it's good enough to keep. I like the feature when you're nearijg the end of the level when bricks auto destruct. That helps to get rid of the harder to hit ones.</blockquote>

<blockquote>It does have reasonable graphics (despite being a port) and there is one aspect to the game you don't often see in breakout games and that is the ability to curve the ball by side swiping the ball as it comes to the bat. If you side swipe the wrong way, it'll curve down into the out of bounds area, so make sure you practice the technique. Basically Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny is a standard breakout/arkanoid game. The name arkanoid comes from one of the earlier versions of the game called Arkanoid and Arkanoid the Revenge of Doh that were developed by Taito, two early adaptations of breakout, that became very popular when breakout was upgraded to include a variety of layouts instead of just a block of bricks, also added were power ups and different types of bricks. the name arkanoid is usually used in preference to breakout these days even though they weren't the original</blockquote>.

<blockquote>Ball physics are okay, especially with the ability to curve the ball, but there are no original power ups, just standard ones such as speed up, slow down, gun, magnet extra ball etc. Still, if you enjoy playing breakouts you may like this despite the inability to go full screen. You can gain extra points by collecting the gems that fall.</blockquote>

<blockquote>There are no options to turn off music, or change graphic settings just an exit, play and question mark buttons. The first two are obvious, the question mark just tells you who created the game. When you click on the large play button, it opens a new window that shows you five wrapped presents which I presume are different environments. Of these the first present is unlocked and contains 10 levels, the other four are unlocked as you complete each area. To progress to the next level you have to complete the preceding level first. With respect to the second to fifth area's, each area has a different look to it. Once you've unlocked a level or area, it remains unlocked even if you have to start the game over after losing all of your lives.</blockquote>

Videos:

<blockquote>If you want to see Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny in action, you can see some videos of game play <a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqKvP57_Mn0"" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> and <a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRbcNJWCzUI"" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. You can also get a free android version of Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny <a href="http://slideme.org/application/arcanoid-ball-destiny" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. I don't own an android phone, so can't guarantee the android version is clean.</blockquote>

Conclusion:
<blockquote>If you like arkanoids, don't mind playing in a window, this is an okay game that is ideal for the family. Hardened breakout fans will find it easy, unless they have similar problems a si did with respect to going out of bounds due to the window not being locked, i.e. your mouse pointer can stray out of game so you lose bat movement, which in turn can lose you game lives. Personally I can only give this a 5 out of 10 becasue it brings nothing new to the game, and lacks the most simple of options to configure the game to players preferences. It's saving grace is the ability to curve the ball with the bat.</blockquote>

<blockquote>I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny without the toolbar check boxes and home page changes during installation and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games, in this case Steam keys.</blockquote>

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:
<blockquote>The problems section that used to be posted here in the Game review is now included in the Game Discussion FAQ's thread; which you can find <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/11647" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>.</blockquote>
 <blockquote> I've updated the games section that used to be posted with the review. The thread is now called 'Weekly round up of game deals', formerly the games section of the weekly reviews. You can find the new thread (which I've posted in the sticky section of the game discussion forums to make it easier to find if you are perusing the game discussion forums) <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/458939#post-569898" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>.</blockquote>

<blockquote>If today's game was not to your liking, you may find other games either free or for less than the price of a cup of coffee (from your favorite coffee house) via the 'Weekly Roundup of Game Deals' thread which I've posted a link to above, or <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/458939" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>.</blockquote>. <blockquote>The latest free game over on Origin is still Nox. You can get it <a href="https://www.origin.com/en-gb/store/free-games/on-the-house" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. Please note that you do require the Origin game platform to be able to download and install the game. The PC version of ALERT: SECTOR 8 (a traditional Shoot Em Up)is also still available over on Failmids Shareware-on-Sale site <a href="http://failmid.com/game/alert-sector-8-100-discount/" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>, also available via Failmid's site is the the open world racing game <a href="http://sharewareonsale.com/s/free-the-crew-100-discount" rel="nofollow">The Crew</a> (ends Monday 3rd Oct). You will need the uPlay client for The Crew. To get the game you have to log into your uPlay account, then click on the banner that says Ubisoft turns 30. This should open a new page where you can get The Crew added to your account. The Crew is also a premium AAA game and well worth getting, especially if you like open world racing games. To get The Crew the shareware link I've provided above isn't actually necessary. You just have to sign into your uPlay account and look for the Ubisoft turning 30 link, or if you don't have a uPlay account create an account <a href="http://uplay.ubi.com/" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. Click on the green Join the Club button, get your free account, then get your free copy of The Crew.</blockquote>

<blockquote>If you spend over two dollars in the Indie Gala store (they have some excellent bundle deals, but these are excluded from the offer) you will also get a free copy of <a href="https://www.indiegala.com/store/ideafactory-games" rel="nofollow">Angel Express</a></blockquote>
 <blockquote>DIG are still offering free Steam keys for Hacker Evolution Time Dimensions and Crystals of Time. To get keys for these two games you will have to do similar activities to those we have to do to get Steam games from the game giveaway site, i.e. visit the developers page, maybe download a demo, visit the Steam page or possibly post on Facebook or Tweet information etc. You can find those free Steam key deals <a href="http://www.dailyindiegame.com/content_contesthe.html" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> (Hacker Evolution: Time Dimensions and <a href="http://www.dailyindiegame.com/content_contestcot.html" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> (Crystals of Time).</blockquote>

Save | Cancel

Reply | Comment by Whiterabbit-uk – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)

Hey Wabbit,

1 day plus some hours left @ FAILMID also. Desert Operations: Queen Package (100% discount) - FAILMID

It's a package for an MMO.... not a Steam Key. "Desert Operations has been bringing players together since 2008 and has been nominated twice in a row for “MMO of the Year”. The free-to-play online game offers motivating game play and long-lasting fun. The players are brought directly into the struggle for global power and raw materials. Alliances can made, wars can be declared and trade can be driven.

Desert Operations is a free-to-play game. Today, we are giving you Desert Operations’ Queen Package for free ($15 regular price)!"

Huggles to you and the family. Great review and thanks to MPC for the game.

I am still on the rail about downloading this game...Maybe later....The developers need to learn to have a mute button plus the option to change the resolutions. I don't want to have to remember a "trick"(Thanks @ xilolee!).

Reply | Comment by delenn13 – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

delenn13,

Thanks Delenn. Already got it, but had forgotten to add it to the free list.

Reply | Comment by Whiterabbit-uk – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#1

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

Review has now been posted . I was way behind schedule because I spent an inordinate amount of time replying to Swampy's unrelated comment comments from yesterdays (Fridays) game, when I should have been finishing off today's review and moderating more appropriate comments.

To be honest, I spend far too many hours virtually every giveaway replying to certain community members, either trying to explain why the chances of winning one of the limited license games for Steam is actually quite high when some believe there's little chance. I've calculated the chances of winning for virtually every game since the giveaway team started giving away Steam keys, though certain assumptions have been made. After the winners for each competition have been announced I always check through them and have noticed certain community members (due to their easily recognizable avatars) seem to win virtually every game that has been offered so far. I personally haven't entered every giveaway, but I've still won at least three games, and until I changed the email I used, I'd not won one of the first several. It was only when I'd changed my email that I've since won most of those I've entered. At least one game that appeared on the game giveawayoftheday weekend lists had so few entries compared to the number of keys available more than 95% of those that entered should have received a key. Most other games have also had quite decent odds of winning a key (between 40% to 70%). With those odds, in my opinion it is well worth entering if the game appeals to you. Of course there are always those games, for example Whispering Willows, which from the number of entries so far (and still one day to go) looks to be the most popular of this type since Steam games started being given away earlier this year, that is apart from last weeks Nyctophobia, where over 22 thousand licenses were given away.

I will also no longer be replying to any comments that do not include a constructive comment (be it negative or positive) about the actual game. After all, that is the whole point of this comments section. I have been spending far too much time on unrelated comments when the game is supposed to be the focus; besides I'd much rather spend those hours I've up to now wasted replying to those non specific/game related comments with my family, doing housework spending time on my hobbies etc.

Please keep your comments focused on the games being given away here. I've said it hundreds of times previously, in fact I used to post a request at the end of every review asking the community to comment about the game, because the more comments that give useful feedback about the game being given away whether it be negative or positive, the more likely developers will give away more of their games. I believe this site still has the potential to become a nexus for new and upcoming developers, giving their games away here to gain valuable feedback from a massive community. Games come from idea's, the best idea's come from the community and if the community is willing to spend a little of their time posting their improvement idea's, or their likes and dislikes about the game they have just been given free, that will attract developers because that is what they want to see. The more we give of our thoughts about the game, the better chance we have of getting more developers visiting, and the more the word will spread around the developers community. So, lets start hearing what you like and dislike about the games we get here instead of all the other unrelated stuff. It's still not too late. PLEASE!

<blockquote>...........................................Moderator comment...................................</blockquote>
<ul><blockquote>Review has now been posted . I was way behind schedule because I spent an inordinate amount of time replying to Swampy's unrelated comment comments from yesterdays (Fridays) game, when I should have been finishing off today's review and moderating more appropriate comments.</blockquote>

<blockquote>To be honest, I spend far too many hours virtually every giveaway replying to certain community members, either trying to explain why the chances of winning one of the limited license games for Steam is actually quite high when some believe there's little chance. I've calculated the chances of winning for virtually every game since the giveaway team started giving away Steam keys, though certain assumptions have been made. After the winners for each competition have been announced I always check through them and have noticed certain community members (due to their easily recognizable avatars) seem to win virtually every game that has been offered so far. I personally haven't entered every giveaway, but I've still won at least three games, and until I changed the email I used, I'd not won one of the first several. It was only when I'd changed my email that I've since won most of those I've entered. At least one game that appeared on the game giveawayoftheday weekend lists had so few entries compared to the number of keys available more than 95% of those that entered should have received a key. Most other games have also had quite decent odds of winning a key (between 40% to 70%). With those odds, in my opinion it is well worth entering if the game appeals to you. Of course there are always those games, for example Whispering Willows, which from the number of entries so far (and still one day to go) looks to be the most popular of this type since Steam games started being given away earlier this year, that is apart from last weeks Nyctophobia, where over 22 thousand licenses were given away.</blockquote>

<blockquote>I will also no longer be replying to any comments that do not include a constructive comment (be it negative or positive) about the actual game. After all, that is the whole point of this comments section. I have been spending far too much time on unrelated comments when the game is supposed to be the focus; besides I'd much rather spend those hours I've up to now wasted replying to those non specific/game related comments with my family, doing housework spending time on my hobbies etc.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Please keep your comments focused on the games being given away here. I've said it hundreds of times previously, in fact I used to post a request at the end of every review asking the community to comment about the game, because the more comments that give useful feedback about the game being given away whether it be negative or positive, the more likely developers will give away more of their games. I believe this site still has the potential to become a nexus for new and upcoming developers, giving their games away here to gain valuable feedback from a massive community. Games come from idea's, the best idea's come from the community and if the community is willing to spend a little of their time posting their improvement idea's, or their likes and dislikes about the game they have just been given free, that will attract developers because that is what they want to see. The more we give of our thoughts about the game, the better chance we have of getting more developers visiting, and the more the word will spread around the developers community. So, lets start hearing what you like and dislike about the games we get here instead of all the other unrelated stuff. It's still not too late. PLEASE!</blockquote></ul>

Save | Cancel

Reply | Comment by Whiterabbit-uk – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+14)

#28

Seemed to install fine and initially loaded fine, but after that anytime I try to do anything once it loads, it crashes. Uninstalled. Too Bad To; it really looks like a good game.

Reply | Comment by JonE – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#27

Ok Windows 10 x64 Pro. Thanks for partially larger screen, sure helps. Think those down floating head shapes are negative bits so I usually avoid going for the good stuff. Basic game in that lacks usual bells & whistles.
Tried maximum screen & in Windows 8 but no help for larger screen. No player levels like Novice & such. But not that rough at least at start. Exit allows for restart where left off, outside of a game of course. Rate about
7/10 mainly for limited features & options. Rainy day toy.

Reply | Comment by beergas – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#26

I have to agree with Stephen - the lack of any kind of volume control is REALLY annoying and it would be much better if the music could be truned up or down separate from the SFX as ins more normal in this kind of game.

Also agree that it's frustrating when you accidentally move the mouse pointer outside of the window and as Stephen says the bat just sits there! That said, the game itself is fun and has features that remind me a bit of Egyptoid.

The jewels and lamps, if you let them fall then 'catch' them on your bat, score much more points that way and in the case of the jewels some of them give power-ups but again a chart showing you what they do would be great.

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

Thanks for your feedback Cad, as always appreciated.

Reply | Comment by Cad Delworth MBCS – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

Thnaks Stephen and I managed to avoid even once mentioning St
NO CARRIER
;-)

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

<

:)

Reply | Comment by Cad Delworth MBCS – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#25

when i tried to open file to download i get message C:\\user\becca\downloads\ArcanoidBallofDestiny-alw9dksetup.gcd
Class not registered...... why am i getting this message "Class Not Registered" Thanks

Reply | Comment by bcwminpins – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#24

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

Time to retire for the night. will continue to moderate in the morning. Regards W.R.

Reply | Comment by Whiterabbit-uk – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

#23

good

Reply | Comment by hazem – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#22

Silly question here. Evidently, I won a Steam key to Whispering Willows according to the results page. How do I collect the key?

Reply | Comment by LRios – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

nm - found the email

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

Congrats LRios

Reply | Comment by LRios – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

LRios, I won one also. You have to create a steam account and download the steam app. You do not activate your code on the website but once you are in the steam program, hit games and activate a code (or something similar to that wording). Then follow the directions.

Reply | Comment by cheryl – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#21

Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny, A MPC game which downloads and installs well, yes it makes some icons on the screen which are easily deleted. Since we like breakout games, and this one is full of interesting mixes of rewards/penalties it has been really fun to play so far, but as everyone has already stated that little window it starts in was just to small!
Suggestions have to start with a control menu, to allow adjustments in sounds/size and other settings, as the 'sounds' tends to be much higher than the background music, almost booming on our system.
A fun game overall, and an early Fall/October/Halloween them it seems.
A special shoutout to xilolee, who found the way to change the game to fullscreen!

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

Thank you for your feedback JBurt. Moved the coding you'd added becasue it caused all of the text apart from the game title to become double underlined and changed the color of the text. I used to use code for different colors, but some community members said it was really hard to see. Though I don't think the light blue is too bad. The only thing it could be mistaken for is a hyperlink.:)

Reply | Comment by JBurt – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

Thanks WR ;), was just trying to 'Bold' the title and for some reason the formatting I use on another site is different here, will stop trying to use it.
Really do wish this game had some options built in, as it's a fun one, but when you fullscreen it using Alt-Enter it changes the physics of the ball a bit on my system.

Reply | Comment by JBurt – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#20

I've played a little of the game but it's difficult to see the ball. The graphics are pretty good and for this reason I would like to continue, however my curser seems to run amok and makes it even more difficult to hit the ball. I will keep going with it but the lack of control will eventually stop me. Thanks anyway GOTD and MPC for the free game. At least this way I get to try different types of games.

Reply | Comment by DJ – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)

DJ, Tried the Alt/Enter thing and it increased the screen size so that the curser now stays in the game. Excellent tip! I made it through a level without losing the ball. There's hope yet...!

Reply | Comment by DJ – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)

#19

This is a nice game to play for short while, it's by far not challenging enough to not be able to stop playing. I'm now at level 7, 6 played with the small screen and a tiny red dot as the ball and the last one thanks to the ALT-Enter tip in full screen.
The background is quite nice and rustic and believe it or not, the walls on the side are so rustic that the ball got stuck between a brick and the wall, it happened 3 times so far. The only thing you can do is restart the level.

At the moment I avoid all things falling down except the jewels, because they give points. When you catch a lamp the bat starts glowing for a while, no idea whether that is good or bad, there was no difference in how the bat reacted.
The game is definitely worth downloading although it misses an short explanation of the objects and it could do with more power ups.

Thnx to MyPlayCity and GGOTD for this not too bad game

Reply | Comment by irene – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)

#18

Hey! The Alt+Enter thing worked!
It's not perfect but suddenly i am feeling better!
A couple of suggested this. Thank you. Thank you.
It's a good day.

Reply | Comment by skybase – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)

#17

I love this game. Thank you very much GOTD white rabbit and My Play City!
One problem. The screen is only 5" X 5". Kind of spoils everything.

Reply | Comment by skybase – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)

#16

I almost didn't try this one because of the small screen size. Then I read a comment about using Alt-Enter, which switches between full screen and windowed mode (this works for most Windows programs). What a difference!

Graphics look great, very atmospheric. Sounds are excellent, I'm almost afraid to hit the barrels because of the load explosion sound. Control is good, I like how the screen edges and top are jagged so you get different bounce angles. Focus of the game is on skill, not lots of powerups and flashy distractions (at least not in the first 5 levels). This is now one of my favorite arkanoid-type games! Thanks GGOTD and MyPlayCity.

Reply | Comment by mrdave740 – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#15

Thanks for the Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny game. I actually prefer the small size, seems easier to play.
People who have difficulty playing this size may find magnifying glasses to be helpful.

Reply | Comment by la – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#14

Thank you for the "alt + enter" tip!!!!!

Overall a good game. Needs some instructions including what to "catch" and what to avoid.

Reply | Comment by Jim – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+4)

#13

No need to repeat the obvious issues with this game. Only wanted to say those were the big downfall I had with the game also. I use a 40" screen connected to my computer so the small size was just a no go for me. I was going to uninstall until I tried the Alt-Enter tip. That was not perfect by a long shot but it did allow me to keep the game.

Thank you to the person(s) that provided the tip info and also to Giveaway of the Day for this giveaway.

Reply | Comment by BeenTaken – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)

#12

Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny is as WR says ported from Android. The idea & the way that this sort of thing works, is that the developer codes the game or app using software that can compile the app or game for more than one platform or OS. So the dev codes the game [or app] once, & the software spits out versions for Android & Windows for example. The main problems with this approach is that you can't have stuff that's too complicated for Android to handle, along with scaling the display so it looks just as good on a PC as it does a cell phone. The latter hopefully will be fixed in the future, now that Google is starting to let Chromebooks use Android apps & games.

An alternative is to use an Android emulator, which is basically software pretending to be a Android device, running an Android OS. Rather than trying to make an Android app or game run in Windows, & translate the touch screen controls to use mouse & keyboard, those aspects are handled, in some cases much better, by the emulator itself. Using an Android emulator can be as simple as running something like the Remix Player, which creates the virtual environment, then runs Android inside of it, or as complicated as installing a complete OS that you can boot to instead of Windows, or pretty much everywhere in between.

windowsreport[.]com/best-android-emulators-windows-10/
androidauthority[.]com/best-android-emulators-for-pc-655308/

IMPORTANT Note: Don't get any Android apps or games from anywhere besides the Google or Amazon stores, with the exception of those offered by your cellular carrier or maybe a company like Samsung if they made your device. Curious about Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny, I found it had been removed from Google's Play Store. So I went to the game developer's site, which was soon blocked by McAfee. Proceeding anyway, it attempted to install a malware app designed to look like a copy of the Flash player.

The original game was most probably OK, since Google checks them before they can appear in their store. The PC version offered is OK since it's been checked by MPC & GOTD. But the game dev apparently later went over to the dark side, likely causing Google to pull a new version of the game containing malware. The Android version of Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny is still available from several sites for download -- whether you'd get the OK version or the malware is anyone's guess, so STICK with the Google & Amazon stores.

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

Thank you for your comment and feedback Mike, appreciated.

Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny is as WR says ported from Android. The idea & the way that this sort of thing works, is that the developer codes the game or app using software that can compile the app or game for more than one platform or OS. So the dev codes the game [or app] once, & the software spits out versions for Android & Windows for example. The main problems with this approach is that you can't have stuff that's too complicated for Android to handle, along with scaling the display so it looks just as good on a PC as it does a cell phone. The latter hopefully will be fixed in the future, now that Google is starting to let Chromebooks use Android apps & games.

An alternative is to use an Android emulator, which is basically software pretending to be a Android device, running an Android OS. Rather than trying to make an Android app or game run in Windows, & translate the touch screen controls to use mouse & keyboard, those aspects are handled, in some cases much better, by the emulator itself. Using an Android emulator can be as simple as running something like the Remix Player, which creates the virtual environment, then runs Android inside of it, or as complicated as installing a complete OS that you can boot to instead of Windows, or pretty much everywhere in between.

windowsreport[.]com/best-android-emulators-windows-10/
androidauthority[.]com/best-android-emulators-for-pc-655308/

IMPORTANT Note: Don't get any Android apps or games from anywhere besides the Google or Amazon stores, with the exception of those offered by your cellular carrier or maybe a company like Samsung if they made your device. Curious about Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny, I found it had been removed from Google's Play Store. So I went to the game developer's site, which was soon blocked by McAfee. Proceeding anyway, it attempted to install a malware app designed to look like a copy of the Flash player.

The original game was most probably OK, since Google checks them before they can appear in their store. The PC version offered is OK since it's been checked by MPC & GOTD. But the game dev  apparently later went over to the dark side, likely causing Google to pull a new version of the game containing malware. The Android version of Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny is still available from several sites for download -- whether you'd get the OK version or the malware is anyone's guess, so STICK with the Google & Amazon stores.

<ul><blockquote>...........................Moderator Comment................................</blockquote></ul>

<blockquote>Thank you for your comment and feedback Mike, appreciated.</blockquote>

Save | Cancel

Reply | Comment by mike – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#11

Nice, thank you!

Reply | Comment by Kandilce – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

#10

Finally a non-static game. At least!

Reply | Comment by Thomas Joad – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

#9

No installation problems on Win 10 x64 desktop.
This is a nice little breakout game - love the graphics and the music
BUT!!!!! I would LOVE the game if it could go full screen. The window is small and I'm glad my monitor is 19" or it would be really hard to see. I was enjoying the easy play of it (as I do tend to like to relax when playing games) when my platform stopped moving. As others have experienced, my mouse had gone outside of the playing field and I lost control of the platform. It was enough that I ended up dying on the second level.
This could be a very enjoyable game if there weren't those two problems. I can live with the small screen.... however, I'm not sure about always losing the cursor. I'm keeping it for now but not sure how often I'll be playing it. Thank you MPC and especially the GOTD team for the free game that has wonderful possibilities if they get those details fixed - especially the mouse problem!!

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

Thank you for your feedback Granny, appreciated. hope you got the fix for the game so that it can be played full screen?

Reply | Comment by granny483 – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#8

Nice arcanoid game. The game expects you to know the arcanoid rules because there’s no game-play explanation. Also the game is played in a rather small screen, which is a shame because in full screen it would be a very enjoyable game to play, with lovely graphics and a nice surrounding wizard ‘theme’. Because of the game screen size you need excellent fine motor (mouse) skills to stay within the game window. A pity, really. The game seems to be of very decent quality, so why not a bigger game window?

Reply | Comment by Yvonne – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)

HI Yvonne. :-)

Try ALT + ENTER (after the game started).
Check my reply at third post here in this page fro more information.

Reply | Comment by xilolee – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+8)

Hi Xilolee, Thank you very much! That works!

Reply | Comment by Yvonne – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)

Thanks, Xilolee! Not sure I could have played it if you hadn't posted the larger screen size tip.

Reply | Comment by RainBowTriplet – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)

#7

To all giveawayoftheday users that are having problems to download and/or install today software:

Users reported problems with these antiviruses, in past months/years: Avast, Avg, Comodo, Kaspersky, Norton/Symantec.
If you have one of those AV, you could try these possible solutions:

1) After you downloaded the package, put the setup.exe in the whitelist of your antivirus (this in case the package has been correctly downloaded)
2) disable the real-time/on-access scanning, just the time to download/install the software (then re-enable that function)
3) disable your AV completely, just the time to download/install the software (then re-enable it)
4) boot windows in safe mode with networking, just the time to download/install the software (sometimes this is necessary with kaspersky antivirus)

Hope this helps.

Reply | Comment by xilolee – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)

The package and its files were scanned with WinDefender, superantispyware free, malwarebytes antimalware free, gridinsoft antimalware: no problems found.
The package was submitted to virustotal, jotti: no problems found.
Virscan didn't start the uploading session, skipped.
VirITeXplorer engine on metadefender found Trojan.Win32.DownLoader16.CH for setup.exe.

Reply | Comment by xilolee – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

#6

Game that was installed is NOT Arcanoid but "Ashley Clark - Secret of the Ruby" HOG.

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

Reinstall the game; during installation make a note of where the game is being installed to. Sometimes the giveaway cookie becomes corrupted. I've had the same problem previously where the game installed into another game. The game you've downloaded from today's game giveaway page is not Ashley Clark - Secret of the Ruby

Reply | Comment by Chris – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

Chris, did you by any chance click the ad. in the centre of the window while the game was loading? MPC do this to promote other games, and it's not completely obvious that's what is going on when you see "name of other game" above a LOADING message.

I made that mistake myself once: just allow the game to fully load and change to the Arcanoid intro screen proper before you click anything. ;)

Hope that helps you or others here!

Reply | Comment by Cad Delworth MBCS – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+6)

Hi Cad Delworth MBCS. :-)

I didn't know anything about that ad until today.
It doesn't (and didn't) appear on my screen because I set the firewall to block all outgoing connections (but I have to create rules for every software I decide to host on my machine, the ones that needs an internet connection).

Reply | Comment by xilolee – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)

#4

Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny activated — what next?
Well, I'd like to play it next, but not sure where it is, and I don't think it is actually installing (Win10). After setup runs (with admin privilege), it took me to the successfully activated page, but I don't seem to have a game anywhere on my system. Rerunning the installer, I note that it goes directly from checking with the server to successfully activated, without actually going through any kind of normal installer (EULA, select an install directory, none of that).

Sorry, thing broke.

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

Hi gbryant, I've installed the game to three different systems and it's installed and worked okay on all three. No one else has reported this problem yet and it's been available via MyPlayCity for a few years. Maybe the problem is at your end? Thanks for posting the log file in your second post' unfortunately as far as i can see it doesn't actually say the game is broken a sit clearly isn't from my own experience. Have you tried installing it again?

It could be that your security is blocking the installation due to the presence of the Themida code that is used to protect the games executable. The team were forced to use Themida three years ago after community members started posting details of how to rip off the game permanently. Unfortunately Themida code can also be used to hide malware, so some security suites will as a matter of course block anything with Themida. to get the game installed you will need to white-list the giveaway wrapper via your security or temporarily turn off your security.

Reply | Comment by gbryant – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-1)

Ah - I did find a fault in the event log, so it just has a nice silent failure:

Faulting application name: setup.exe_Arcanoid - Ball of Destiny, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x2a425e19 Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000 Exception code: 0xc0000005 Fault offset: 0x000a2502 Faulting process id: 0x3e5c Faulting application start time: 0x01d21652d84bd65a Faulting application path: C:\Users\me\AppData\Local\Temp\{7973E38F-3E01-4819-B0EC-F53A631E6BDD}\setup.exe Faulting module path: unknown Report Id: 5629bfa6-00b6-4bdc-9ac3-1f4e587c0235 Faulting package full name: Faulting package-relative application ID:

Hope that helps someone.

Reply | Comment by gbryant – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#3

The game needs to be able to set at full screen. It is too hard to see when it is small. There was no where to turn off the sound except on the computer. The small red ball is very hard to see. It needs to be larger or a more obvious colour. Very small things are harder to see when a person gets older.

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

Thank you for your feedback hells Bells, I totally agree, unfortunately I've not found any way of making it full screen. The only way would be to use an older monitor that supports 800x600 or less, that way the window will appear much larger.

Reply | Comment by Hells Bells – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

Hi Hells Bells and Whiterabbit-uk. :-)

Alt + enter

I.e., press and hold (keep it pressed) ALT on the keyboard, then press ENTER, always on the keyboard, then release the ALT key.

By the way, I'd also like to see the option in the program itself.

Hope this helps!

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

'Scuze the late reply, thanks a million xilolee, the tip worked okay. Much better than the small screen I was experiencing.

Reply | Comment by xilolee – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+6)

Hells Bells, Alt + Enter makes it full screen. No button to turn off sound that I can find though.

Reply | Comment by Marcy – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

Hells Bells,
If you go into the Windows compatibility settings you can get the game to run in 640x480.

Reply | Comment by Michael Summerset – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+1)

Hells Bells, of course changing screen resolution has negative effects such as re-arranging all the icons on the desktop... some of us don't enjoy having to relearn icon positions or manually restoring original icon locations just to better see a small window better. Shame they could not simply double up the pixels when it was ported across from Android platform. Or add a display abstraction layer which could the ability to dynamicly resize the window without affecting the game code. I doubt the android game was $9.99 or even close, so why not offer something more for the increased price on the windows platform!

Reply | Comment by TK – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

;-)

Reply | Comment by xilolee – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#2

the game has no instructions on how to play no doubt one has to assume that this game is like similar to other arcade games. The scoring of points no indication as to how to score most amount of points.