This game is very buggy ... paddle is slow to respond, paddle sticks when it gets far right or far left ... sometimes fails to advance to next level when field is cleared.


This game is not ready for prime time.

Installed nicely on Windows XP SP3. I have the problem others have mentioned with the uneven bat movement, regardless of where my cursor is. More annoyingly, if I leave the game for any length of time, my game is lost and I have to start over. This happens even with nothing running in the background. It's a decent game, but not nearly interesting enough to have to start over each time. (And certainly not worth twenty dollars if I wanted to buy it.)


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

Thank you for your feedback Jennifer. I agree about the price. Looks like they are living in the past when most arcade games did cost nearly $20. (Pre 2008 when the recession hit)

Moderater.

I was stuck at level 45 until I had quit and restarted it several times and then it proceeded to level 46. Then when I got to level 81 it did the same thing. I finish breaking all the bricks but it wont quit. Then the paddle starts getting wonky on me and finally disappears. This happens every time I redo the level.

These 2 levels are the same ones that many others have had problems at. I never had any issues on any of the other levels at all, just these two.

Win7 2gb Ram dual core 2.8 processor blah blah blah I dont think it has anything to do with my computer but since am not really computer savvy I dont know for sure


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

Hi Rocktman, thanks' for the reply to my query.

Same experience here. Music and sound adjustment does not work and when playing the game in windows (not full screen) mode, the games loses focus of the mouse movement if the mouse is moved beyond/outside the frame of game.



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

Thanks' for the feedback Chet. :)

A nice simple little game to while away a bit of time when you ought to be doing something more important! It downloaded and installed without problem, and runs pretty well from my admittedly brief test drive.

Yes, the music may begin to grate after a little while, but that's easily turned off, as I usually do anyway. It looks good, and different from other similar games I've tried.

I nearly didn't bother downloading this one (too many games already - loads that I've played only once, or even not at all) but I think this one will be played now and again. So - thanks once more!




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

I agree Basilica. As I mention in my review I've got hundreds of Arkanoid/breakouts, but will still be keeping this one as I did enjoy playing it. When I compare it to the likes of Ricochet Infinity with its amazing graphics, level editor and almost unlimited number of bricks, bat and ball choices and literally tens of thousands of levels available for download directly from the game, Fairy Arkanoid is very basic, but I think that's why I like it. :)

Thanks GGOTD and Gambana for this game for us to try out.
Being a fan of these break out games may I make a few suggestions to improve the game.
1. make the glass bottle breakable as you will have to avoid breaking it and thus destroying the genie, this would make the game more of a game of skill.
2. Put special fast bricks they if hit would speed the ball up drastically, making it more challenging.
3. place more bricks on the screen, some killer bricks to end the level to start again.
Thanks again and hope these might be useful





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

Thanks' for the suggestions Mike, I agree they would improve the game a lot. I'd also like to see a level editor, a much wider choice of brick type, more power ups both positive and negative, maybe an upgrade system that improves the power ups power (for example the gun power up could be time limited, with extra time, or the number of bullets being increased via the upgrade system (the upgrade system could be connected to the number of elixir bottles collected). Also add floating objects that change the trajectory of the ball if hit as well as the different areas of the dwarf mines having different brick themes.

You are probably right. It has been working fine since. Thanks


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

Good :)

High Scores, Awards, and Profiles disappear if another game is played after exiting Fairy Arkanoid


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


Hi Maw, thank you for your feedback. What do you mean exactly? My awards and scores are still present and I've been playing the game on and off throughout the day as well as playing other games. My daughter also created her own profile and when I return to mine my awards are still present. Maybe there's a conflict with something you are running in the background. No one else has reported this problem so far.

Works on XP Home SP3. Installs by unzipping to C:\Games\FairyArkanoid, which means it's ours to keep. The folder C:\Games is entered as the destination by setup.exe and highlighted so maybe Edmiester #15 happened to hit some key (or spacebar) and deleted the highlighted folder, leaving the destination empty and thus "unknown". Graphics is OK, but not spectacular - probably b/c it's a flash based game. Less sophisticated than, say, Sawoid, Egyptoid or Action Ball 2 given away here some time ago but still a keeper, even if (like me) you are not an Arkanoid/Breakout junkie (haven't played any games of this kind since 1980s, when they still weren't my faves to play on my Atari). When playing in full screen mode (as I always do) I did not experience any problems mentioned by Irene @3 - the popups seem to pause the game for a while after I click OK, allowing me to regain focus on the action. The music is definitely the least annoying one I've heard in a game for a very long time, but I still would prefer to turn it off, like I always do. Anyway, thumbs up from me and thanks to the developer(s) and GGOTD.


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

Thank you for your feedback

Still stuck at level 81 and now the paddle also disappears as soon as I have eliminated all the bricks. Gonna have to delete this game. Too glitchy. Damn! get to level 81 and have to quit is frustrating


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


Hi rocktman, maybe the game is conflicting with other programs you have running in the background, your security may be causing problems, your memory use, either/or System and Graphics RAM are maxed out or your screen resolution is the problem. I've played through most of the game and have had no problems either with finishing levels, ball physics or bat movement. The game has run smoothly on the two computers I've installed it to (Win 7 system with an i7 3.4GHz quad core c.p.u. with 16GB of sysRAM and two Gainward Geforce GTX 580's with a total of 6GB of gRAM and a screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 and a Win 8 system with an Athlon dual core 3.2GHz c.p.u. 6GB sys RAM and a single Gainward GeForce 450 with 2GB of gRAM and a screen resolution of 1280 x 1024)

The game will not extract. Keeps stating cannot extract to unknown directory
GARBAGE!!!

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


You are the only community member reporting this problem today (so far). Did you check the FAQ's section over in the Game discussion forums? There is at least one fix I know of that may sort the problem out. Make sure I.E. isn't set to offline. It's needed to activate game giveaways. Also try using a different file archiver to unpack the initial download.

Hit a glitch at level 15.
It loads the game then immediately throws up the main menu screen while the game goes on in the background.
Nothing to do but quit.

I found the paddle unresponsive particularly when you have two bonuses attached to it like the sticky bar and the guns.


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

Thank you for your feedback Linda

What's those CAVEMEN going to do to that that poor lil FAERIE if I don't rescue her? They look really MEAN and NASTY! I want to hit them with that PADDLE before they hit that lil faerie with that PADDLE!

I'm going to rescue all 100 of those faeries!

This is a Fun game but that's a BIG ol' paddle. The game would be more challenging if it was shorter - or maybe curved.

The physics of the game are 'ight but they aren't perfect. Why after decades of developing games going all the way back to the ORIGINAL PONG, do companies STILL not have the angles perfect? It doesn't seem to me that should be THAT hard to accomplish


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


Thank you for your feedback swampy.

I figured out why the paddle gets sticky. I tried in windowed mode and noticed while playing that if my cursor went outside the playing area that my paddle became unresponsive and sticky. You can not 'see' your cursor but I know by where my hand is on my mouse pad that I have moved the cursor up to the top of the screen and out of the playing field. This holds true for 'full screen' as well.

This is a cute game. Unfortunately, I experienced the same sticky paddle and hint issue as noted above. These problems made it difficult to continue in the game.

Windows7 64bit Nvidia graphics card

Ok Win 8 x64 Pro. Full screen. Used kb button to turn off m&s since, as mentioned, music slider fails. Might try w/ them on but didn't miss sounds and may have helped game. Played this years back and nice to see still enjoyable. Right combo of speed & bounces. Good one for fans. Thanks guys. 7.5/10 but for free maybe make it 8.25/10

I lost this game when I upgraded to a new computer several months ago. This one is different in that there do not appear to be any hooks at all to the registry - it's a Flash game.

I actually moved the Bookstories game from the same developer (offered here last month) when I got this so I could keep the 2 from the same developer together rather than with my "1sies" games. It's 1sies, not 1sie-2sie. :)

I had to redo that shortcut and create one for this one but that's no big deal.

Although you can turn off the music, it does not take effect until the next time you run the game. You do have to exit/re-enter to actually remove that annoying music.

You cannot KEEP it in windowed mode. Regardless of how that setting is seen in the options, it opens full screen and stays that way. you can make it windowed but ONLY for the current session. That's a bit of a pain! I'll just play full-screen!

I've been playing Ricochet Infinity a lot lately and I kind of miss the right button to "recall" the ball to kind of aim it. Other than that, it's not a bad little breakout game!

I really enjoy this game. It was given away a few years ago, but I lost it. Thank you!

It's nice to see this available again. I think 19.95 is a bit pricy for this game in today's market. It should probably be cut at least in half. I have enjoyed this game for years on my older computer so it's nice to be able to add it to my (relatively) new machine.

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

Seems like they are in a time warp w.r.t. prices. That was the going rate about 6 years ago. since then arcade games have crashed. :)

Got this from gotd way back 2 6 2010! fORGOT ABOUT IT, SO I get to play today without long dialup downloadng!!! - nice game! Didn't have a config folder though?? Seems kind pointless to edit for higher score away!! Level editors would be nice for all games given away!! So far I have 168 games from Game gotd!

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

Hi Dido, the point was to be able to make it harder to get awards or extra lives. for those who find the game easy, the game could be improved by adjusting it to make it harder to gain such awards etc. As you say, the giveaway is different from the previous time this was given away as the last time you could gain access to the configuration documents via a separate folder.

I would like to be able to turn the music off. When I turn it down it does not turn down, it gives you a choice to turn down sound and music the only thing that it does is gets louder, the slider for the sound and music does not turn down. Other than that I liked the game.
Just did not want the music during the game!



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


Hi Regina, you can turn the sound off by right clicking on the speaker icon in your tray next to your clock and select Open volume Mixer. Each application or game that has a sound element will have a separate slider. Just turn the one for Fairy Arkanoid down to zero to get rid of the music; unfortunately it will also stop the sound effects as well.

The music/sounds control through menu is buggy and sloppy. The game always starts in full-screen mode no matter what the user wants and what are the game options. The music/sounds volume initially is maximal which may be damaging and ugly. The arkanoid physics is sloppy, reminds early personal computers back in '80s. The graphics is very low-resolution but nicely drawn. The music is very nice but who's able to listen to the same tune again and again so many times...

Bottom line: the idea is nice but the implementation is very very... let's say weak and outdated.


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

Thank you for your feedback Deen. :)

Thanks GGOTD and Gambana for this nice game.
It will be a keeper although I couldn't play it for hours on a row.

Downloading was a bit of a trouble, it stopped three times at 7.4 MB, the 4th time went OK though.

Nice it can be played in Windowed mode.
The paddle is a bit sticky to move around as where the bonusses fall quite fast.
I had the 'hints' on but stopped using that quite quickly, you have to click or hit the key to close that window. When you click, your mouse goes to the middle of the playng screen while the item you want to catch isn't there at all. For me it would be better to have a pop-up screen at the beginning of a new level with an explanation of the new added bonus item(s).
I played about 8 levels and it's not too hard, the levels are quite short.
Up till now I value the game a 7/10


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



Thank you for your feedback Irene, much appreciated. :)

Installs and plays without problems in XP pro. Nice game. Thanks GGAOTD and Doublegame, Gambana.

Fairy ArKanoid:

Installation:

Fairy ArKanoid downloads to a 22.5MB zip file that unpacks to a read me and a wrapped setup file (the orange colored file with the key symbol), plus there's a setup file with security (setup.gcd) that's protected from being hacked (because the previous giveaway system was easily cracked). This file may case some security software to alert the user to a possible malware attack, but it will be a false positive.

The game giveaway team check all game giveaways for malware using several well known anti -malware suites. There has never been a game giveaway infected with malware since the project started back in Dec 2006.

Some community members have been having problems installing games since the security software was added. It's been found that turning off your security or configuring it to accept the setup.cgd file usually sorts the problem out.

To register and install the game click on the orange colored icon. The installed game is 21.3MB in size. and installs to the following path by default:


C:\Program Files (x86)\Games\FairyArkanoid\Fairy Arkanoid.exe - (minus the x86 on 32 bit computers)

However, the path can be changed to suit whatever your wishes are. Once the game is installed you can delete the giveaway setup files.

I've tested the game on a Win 7 and Win 8 system and it works on both. I don't have a Vista or XP installation set up at the moment (and won't for several months until we move house later this year).









Introduction:

Fairies are captured by evil dwarfs! Destroy dungeon blocks and free fairies! Use your skills collecting golden coins, magical jewels and extra life potion bottles. Fairys' blessings and dwarfs’ curses will accompany you. May luck be your friend!

Reference accessed HERE 5th Jan 2010

The Game:



Arkanoids are one of my favourite arcade genres so it’s likely I’m going to be a little biased with my review, but I’ll try to be as objective as I can.

Fairy Arkanoid is an average game in my opinion (trying to be objective :lol: when I compare it to other arkanoids such as Shatter, Acky's XP Breakout, Ricochet Infinity, Incrediball: The Seven Sapphires, Breakball 2 Gold, Breakquest, Bricks of Atlantis, Funkiball Adventures, Rivalball tournament, Chicken Attack Deluxe, Smash Frenzy 4 (originally called Magic Ball 4), Shattera 2, Axle-B, Neo Ball, Clash, Ball Attack and Ultraball, all of which are commercial breakouts), but in my opinion there are some nice little touches to the Fairy Arkanoid that make it worthwhile downloading.

The graphics should appeal to children, though the older boys may find references to fairies a little too much and would probably never admit to their friends that they played it. :) To the rest of us, male and female, despite the simple cartoon oriented graphics, I think it looks quite professionally rendered, and I thoroughly enjoyed playing the game for well over an hour yesterday as well as when this was first given away back in 2010. The game is relatively easy; especially for anyone whose used to play arkanoids regularly. There’s an excellent number of power ups including the usual bat expanders, ball speed adjusters and guns etc, plus some more unusual ones such as ones that add more bricks to the arena if you fail to avoid collecting one of them. There can be an advantage to adding more bricks if you like scoring high. There's one that enables the last brick to be auto destroyed via an homing missile, though it's more like semi automatic because you have to activate it by clicking your left mouse button.

There are also some mini games included. The two I encountered while playing the demo included a connect 4 style game and one where you had to destroy some vases using a moving arrow that's not dissimilar to those fishing games where you have to drop a line and catch fish, (see images below) The first of these appeared when I’d completed the first stage called Misleading Canyon. There are nine stages in all with names like 'derelict coal mine', 'perilous ravines' and 'diamond mines', however when I checked out the configuration files (you cannot see these in the latest version of the game) it indicated that the mini games were dependent upon collecting five of the jewels during one level play; these are occasionally dropped by a dwarf that walks across the top of the playing area every level. He drops a variety of things from jewels, gold coins and coal, the former 2 are positive, which add points to the score and the coal is negative, and takes away a specific amount of points. Of course, if you are low on lives, collecting as many jewels during a single level can be advantageous as you'd get an additional life if you manage to collect five jewels.

There are awards made for attaining specific things such as playing the game for one hour straight without a break, winning three mini games, losing no balls for a specific number of rounds, the first one is for three rounds and for winning a specific number of levels. (See the game editing section for more details)

There are a variety of bricks from some that take several hits to destroy to ones that explode, destroying the surrounding bricks. Some levels have teleporter bricks that move the ball from one part of the playing arena to the other. Yet other bricks leave small bottles of elixir that when collected in sufficient numbers can earn extra lives. You can also earn extra lives by winning the mini games that are played throughout the game and as mentioned above can be unlocked by collecting sufficient jewels (5). I found the ball physics to be reasonable; allowing the ball to hit the bat in different positions causes the ball to ricochet off at lots of different angles. With practice you can control the ball quite well.


Editing the Game:


The first time this game was given away there was a configuration folder included, but today's game doesn't have the configuration folder. I've left this section in just in case you can still edit the game by opening up the executable (though I wouldn't recommend doing so unless you're experienced).

To edit the game you will need an XML text editor such as Apt edit (a previous giveaway) You may be able to change loads of parameters to give yourself higher scores; for example, if you change the number 25 in the following config line you should be able to gain a higher or lower score.

25

Not that changing the score is going to make much of a difference; but it may be possible to change the number of items you need to collect to earn a new life. A more meaningful change may be the awards. For example you gain an award for saving 5 fairies, which is basically completing 5 levels. You could raise or lower this number. The next award for saving fairies doesn’t happen until you’ve saved 50, then the final ‘Gold’ award occurs near the end of the game when you’ve saved 95 fairies. (only five away from the end of the game. You can change the number of balls you start with useful if you aren’t too good with arkanoids, the number of elixirs given in any level. (collecting a specific number of these will give you an extra life. You can even increase or decrease the number of bonuses to make it easier or harder. Finally it may even be possible to edit each level to make it different ( a great way to extend the life of the game once you’ve played all the levels. There’s more, but I’ll let you discover those for yourself (if you are interested in messing around with the game. I would create backups of the originals before you start to edit them, just in case you do create a problem.

Music:


There’s no way of changing the music unless you know how to edit the main game file and add the music to the coding.

The music is fairly basic, but I found I was moving my head and shoulders to the rhythm despite it hurting my back a little. I quite liked it, though it’s nothing special.















Video & Images:


You can see a couple of video's of Fairy Arcanoid HERE and HERE as well as a slideshow of around 100 images (some are repeated as I've uploaded two separate sessions) HERE




System Requirements:


O.S……………………..Windows 98/98SE/2000/Me/XP/Vista (also works on Win 7)
CPU……………….1.6Gh
System RAM…………..1024Mb

Conclusion:


I’ve been playing arkanoid/breakout games ever since the first one was released back in the 1970’s, and prior to my accident had been collecting them almost like some people collect coins or stamps, and until recently I played one or more arkanoid/breakout games almost every day; so found Fairy Arkanoid a little too easy and was able to play through the game losing only a few balls (and only was because I was busy taking screen captures while playing the game). That said I still really enjoyed playing Fairy arkanoid and will definitely be adding this to the hundreds of arkanoids I already own.

Unfortunately I felt the level layouts were not very inspiring and I think there could have been more variety with respect to brick colours, with that in mind there is the possibility of some adjustments through the configuration files so those who find it too easy may be able to make the game more challenging to play, conversely you could also make it easier to play.

That said the game has enough game play elements such as loads of different power ups and mini games that impact directly on the game by allowing you to gain extra lives as well as little extras such as jewel collections from falling jewels, or avoiding coals that subtract from your score to make it a worthwhile download.

As far as scoring goes I’d give it 7 out of 10 for playability, 7 out of 10 for overall graphics (despite what I said above) and 7 out of 10 for re-playability. (Arkanoids are always re-playable as you never play the same level the same twice). Overall an average score of 7 out of 10



Problems:

If you are posting late in the day I would also suggest posting in the main giveaway forums, in the game discussion section. If you've installed the game but it won’t work for some reason, it should still be registered, so someone may be able to help at another time. Unfortunately if your problem is actually installing it then once the giveaway period is over there’s nothing that can be done until the game is given away again (though that isn't guaranteed). It’s always worth checking out the free games sites as sometimes the games we get here are also available for free from them. MyPlayCity has the most with over 600 games to choose from. You'll also find several Arkanoid games over on Gametop (I've linked to the breakout/Arkanoid section below)

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






If you have any problems installing or getting to work 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.

There's over 30 games on sale over on Steam at the moment with discounts from 10% to 75%. You'll find all the deals via the Specials tab on Steams front page HERE. The usual weekend sales include 50% off Farming Simulator 2013 and Dishonoured plus 66% off the 24hr deal Ravaged.

You'll find many more game deals from Gamersgate, Gamestop, Greenman Gaming and GOG; all of which you can find via the Didimatic site, which I've linked to above (apart from Greenman gaming - GMG).


To be honest there are too many game deals around too list them all. Just visit the sites I recommend above and I'm sure you'll find something that suits you for a decent price.


You can get a free arcade game via Alawar's game box, just click the free game tab. It changes 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 such as the Indie Game bundles or check out the four day sales at IndieGameStand.

The latest IndieGameStand game is actually a bundle of 12 games called the Brunel Charity Game Jam Bundle, created by several developers over a 30 hour game jam session. You can pay a dollar for this game (used to be able top pay less, but they have limited it to $1 or more now). If you want the extra's in this case the source code for all 12 games you have to pay the average price. This bundle ends around 4am Sunday GMT. There's also several indie bundles over at Indiebundle.org. Each bundle has three games and costs $5 each.



Most of the bundles retail for around $5 give or take a few dollars, but you can pay as little as a dollar.



Alternative breakout/arkanoids:

You’ll find loads of good freeware arkanoid and breakout alternatives in the forums via the arkanoids thread and the free games synopsis. I’ve not updated the arkanoid thread for quite some time, so you may find some different ones in the synopsis. You can also find 12 pages of arkanoids, with 15 to a page over at Caiman’s free games web site.

From the links below I recommend Poing, Jardinains, DX Ball, Beatball, Hoowaball, Chak's Temple, Jarkanoid 2 & 3, Purebreaker 3, Powball, Takamaru, Kuruku, A-ball and most of the other breakouts from Gametop, you’ll probably recognise from previous game giveaways if you've been visiting the site since it's inception; for example A-Ball, whose original name is Nuclear Ball and Geometry Ball, which is Twinzoid. There’s also a couple more that we’ve been given previously such as Egyptoball, Egyptian Ball and Aztec Bricks. All the Gametop games are usually commercial games that are still being sold by many game distributors, but Gametop pay them a retainer to be able to give the games away (as does MyPlaycity and all the other official free games sites like Jenkat Games and FreeGamePick). As with all Gametop games, your browser opens when you shut the game down, but this is 'innocuous'. Some of the games will be configured to install toolbars and change your home page if you don’t uncheck the check boxes during the installation wizard, so be sure to watch every step of the installation procedure.




Arkanoid thread:


http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2607



Synopsis:

http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/4534



Caimans:

http://www.caiman.us/scripts/fw/fbreakout.html


Gametop Games:

http://gametop.com/category/breakout.html



Commercial breakouts I highly recommend (just google them) are Shatter, Acky's XP Breakout, Ricochet Infinity, Incrediball: The Seven Sapphires, Breakball 2 Gold, Breakquest, Bricks of Atlantis, Funkiball Adventures, Rivalball Tournament (you play against a bot AI, Chicken Attack Deluxe, Smash Frenzy 4 (originally called Magic Ball 4), Shattera 2, Axle-B, Neo Ball, Clash, Ball Attack and Ultraball.

You can see loads more via THIS link. to check out each game just click on the title of the game.

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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

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