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Is there going to be a Mac OSX version?




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??? Contact the developer maybe they can say. :)

@63: Thanks for the HKCU\Software\GrandMasterChess3 tip. It worked. I like this game and will recommend it.

#52
I have on both of my computers Windows XP sp3. I was not talking so much about the download, but more about the nagging taskbar icon and pop up which keeps on hassling me to install, and then I have to redo it the next day, because it conflicts and keep on downloading me to reinstall which keeps on failing. I tried to uninstalling and reinstalling all the .net Framework, and googling for some quick fix, but nothing did the trick so far! Funnily enough, I don't have this problem on my older PC. This is still a mystery for me...

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

Did you make sure you unchecked all the tick boxes when you installed the MyPlayCity version. I'm not getting the same problem as you so can't visializewhat the problem is. Sorry. Did you look at your event log? Restart the game, both versions starting with the giveaway version, then open your event log to see if there is anything happening at the same time.

@58: Delete the registry key HKCU\Software\GrandMasterChess3.

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Thanks GMManGMMan

The playable area is much to small for my flavour. Call it "Mini" or "Micro"-Chess. Graphics and gameplay are not bad.

Yep, I should take some more headache meds.(sarcasm)

I wasn't thinking last night when I was looking at GOG.com and Emu.com for the Battle Chess. Of course, GOG's is going to be bigger..it had more stuff in it. "Includes the original Battle Chess, Battle Chess II: Chinese Chess and Battle Chess 4000". Plus 3 manuals and 7 movies and 2 avatars.

So I will probably get the GOG one, :) since you get more for the same price.

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:) For less than $6 you can't go wrong. I wonder if that scene in Harry Potter with the chessboard (Chamber of Secrets I think) was pinched from the game. (Probably).

I could not get this game to install. I downloaded it twice, and every time I used Winzip to set it up, no luck. Said some file was missing.. So, I never got it.. Looks like a good game though.



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

Hi Craig. you can get this game free 24/7 from MyPlayCity. They have stopped th forced toolbar installations so it may be worth downloading it. Please read the section additional information at the end of myreview for more information and warnings about ensuring you uncheck check boxes. Thank you.

WARNING: This game has some serious bugs. I was testing the options and tried to see what it meant to use "1024x768" resolution. The window suddenly grew to be beyond the boundaries of my display. Since the controls are on the right, and now unreachable, I had to press A-F4 to kill the app. When I restarted the game it was still unusable, as I expected. I tried to reinstall, but IT'S NOT IN THE LIST OF INSTALLED PROGRAMS so you can't uninstall it! I deleted the subfolder within games C:\Games\ and installed the program again, but (for some badly thought-out reason) the programmers keep the settings somewhere I can't see (probably in the registry). So now I'll never be able to use this app.

Can someone suggest a solution for this idiotic Catch 22? Thanks.

gooooooooooooooooooooood

thank you

In reply to mod's comment on 35....

But how? Where do I change the full-screen settings? I tried preferences already.

Morning all. For those having problems with corrupted files there is just one cure: download it again. With such a large file as this, the chance for file corruption rises a little above naught. From my vast experience, the better the local Internet service, the less chance for corruption of a large file. Yet I have seen occasional errors even on fibre.

A good download accelerator may mitigate the problem. In fact, I have experienced much fewer problems using my download accelerator on large files than not. Plus, most accelerators DO have built in RESUME. Thus, if a glitch comes up somewhere along the line during the download, the accelerator can pause and continue whilst ensuring file integrity. I remember three years ago a large RP game here which was 400MB or thereabouts. On this occasion, the download failed part way through. I discovered this as I was heading out, but brought the laptop with me and resumed the last 50MB of download at my friends flat. Imagine the time that saved.

As far as today's chess program...
(1) I played three games. All three ended with the computer resigning after from three to eight moves. That needs to be addressed. I like finishing games vs. computer. The option to resign should only be for a human player.
(2) The grafics look peachy - yet micro. On my 16in widescreen monitor, the chessboard is much too tiny. It appears to take up about only 1/4 of the screen in 3D mode. PLUS the angle of the 3D view is atrocious. THE DEVELOPER needs to fix this as well. There should be a way to rotate and zoom in the board. P=L=E=A=S=E get rid of all of the rubbish on the screen during gameplay. Only the chessboard should be visible and then the board shant look like a one nicker toy board.

If these problems are resolved, I can see giving this 8 to 10, but for TODAY only... thumbs down.

Thank you Stephen, whiterabbit-UK for your excellent advise last week and today regarding REALORE. We have downloaded both Aquawords and Turtle Odyssey in the week past. These are both great, and we anticipate purchasing from Realore. Everyone wins. I must also thank you for the Battle Chess info. I owned a copy of that many years ago but lost it somewhere along the way. It is quite nice knowing it is back again. I always felt Battle Chess was great value for money. I cannot wait to play it again, but it shall have to wait until tonight. Have a most wonderful day.

Cheers



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Thank you Mr Snoozles

Win 7 Pro 32 Bit. Game would hang on 3rd move with 'Engine 1 – MFC Not responding’ error.

Running it in Win XP SP3 compatibility mode seemed to fix the problem.

@47: I disagree that .NET causes version conflict. Windows XP and above has a system that loads the same version of a library that a program is linked with, so that program always uses the same library it's designed to use. Same thing with .NET; that's why you are offered everything from version 1.0 to version 4.0 on Windows Update. The runtime pulls out the right assembly for use automatically.

One of the things that is annoying about .NET is how long it takes to update. I remember a few years back it took more than an hour to update .NET 3.0/3.5. With .NET 4.5 coming some time I'm not looking forward to that, especially since I'm still programming with .NET 3.5 and not thinking of upgrading any time soon. But still, at least they don't update all that often.

From my estimation most .NET programs are still being compiled to Framework 2.0, with a chunk also using Framework 3.x. 4.0 is less common because Visual C# 2010 only came out a couple of years ago. I don't see much of Framework 1.0, though, because it was the very first version and a few things that made .NET useful weren't implemented.


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Thanks :)

Hangs on my healthy W7 machine with first move. Uninstalling.

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Check out the previous comments. you just need to reboot for it to work properly.

I downloaded the game but once its done extacting and it do its thing it brings me back to this website and not the game. need hellp ASAP


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That's what happens. A webpage is opened back to the game giveaway confirmig that it's registered.. Most game giveaways install with no shortcut; you need to make a note of where it's installed to. I've posted the path above in comment # 1. Open up the games folder and create a shortcut to the deskyop.

to GAOTD users:
Do yourself a favor and buy this game if you like it it's only 6.99

to the game publisher:
Give a discount coupon to GAOTD users i'm sure that you can convert users of this awesome community to customers.

i tried 7-zip and hamster free zip archiver but both kept saying it is invalid. i tried to download it a few times and i still got the same message

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There has been 10 thousand downloads of this game with only two comlaints of problems with the file. It's got to be a problem wit your provider, or your internet connection. Try rebooting your modem/router then redownload and try again. If it doesn't work I really can't suggest anything else. I've had the same problem in the past and using a different file archiver has worked.

#About .net Framework (all versions)

The problem with .net Framework is that it creates problems with safety and the updates of Windows create conflicts and we keep having the download and the install on all the time. At first I thought this was due to a malware, but I realized that this is not so. I usually have this problem on my more recent computer with .net Framework 1.0 and even the others.
The second reason is you have 4 .net Framework altogether and it takes some memory. It is OK for big RAM computers, but some of us who are still unlucky with older PCs, prefer to pass on.
______________________________
About the game: Easy download. Good speed for my area! Probably because it is night time here! No problem with the registration. I played a bit, less long than I would have wanted it as it is a bit slow and each move seems complex to be done by the game. Probably due to my small RAM. However, it is still a keep. Despite the big download, I advice everyone to get it now! It is lovely. Just close or save the game to close it and then select exit to Windows to exit it.


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Thank you Sacha.

Had this before but since it had new stuff..downloaded it again. Had no problems with it..XP.

Thanks GGOTD and Fly Games for this game. And thanks to that Wrascally Wabbit for his review.

Got a question for you Wabbit? I was checking out that link for Battle Chess on GOG and one of the comments said.."Just a warning. This isn't the CD enhanced version of Battle Chess with the good sound effects, music and tutorials. Just the basic dos version with beep music." And they keep referring to DOSBox.

So I went over to DotEmu.com and found this..5.99 also..Download Battle Chess - PC Game - http://www.dotemu.com/en/download-game/2414/battle-chess. Now this download is only 11 MB as..GOG is 44MB.

So I am totally confused because DotEmu has no comments so I can't judge which game this one is..LOL

Got any ideas????

PS Hugs to the family.




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Hi Delenn, Thanks. If GOG says it's the special edition I would generally believe them.. I wouldalso expect that if the file size is so much larger it could account for the better graphics of the enhanced version. Judging from the images I posted above you can see that the ones from GOG are much clearer and less blocky, so i would trust GOG. If it did turn out that it wasn't the enhanced version I'd write to them and complain, but I really don't think that would be necessary.

If you consider the original game was less than 1MB in size. Of course the game does have DOSBox coded into the game, but that is less than 2MB, so, id the game is around 40MB, it stands to reason it's been improved. :) .

Have a great weekend.

i installed it wonderfully on Windows 7 64 bit

it works great

I am running win7 pro 64 bit on a quad core i7 with 8gigs of RAM, and it crashes after my first move, followed by the computers move and I make (attempt) my 2nd move. All drivers and win7 are up to date and I rebooted my PC many times.

Good news though, I got it working following a suggestion found here, see below.

# 8 re your comment "It may be interesting to see if the demo version from Fly games works."
Tried it and it works fine.

# 9 I had that error (‘Engine 1 – MFC Not responding’ error) on one of my many attempts.

#12 I tried your suggestion (I had the same problem as others of crashing after 3 moves on Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit but allowing it to run as administrator and changing the compatibility to Windows XP Service Pack 2 seems to have resolved the issues and it is now running fine. Worth giving it a try I think as this seems to be one of the better chess games I’ve tried.) except that I couldn't get past my first move.

For my installation your suggestion worked perfectly :-) many thanks.


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Good :lol:

Unfortunately, the game does not come with the game server, and neither does the one downloaded from Fly Games' website. Lucky for you, I still keep copies of old giveaways, and I found the server in one of the old GMChess3 giveaways. Unzip the contents to the GMC3 folder, and you can launch it from the game main menu. The info.txt file contains the MOTD, and it'll be sent across to clients if they request it. So be sure to change its contents. If you want to end the server, go to its output window and press Ctrl-C. http://www.mediafire.com/file/tlbm1o700ejh34a/gmchess3_server.zip

Here's also the intro video. It's large, but it's there for the sake of completeness. Same with the server, unzip the contents into the game's folder. http://www.mediafire.com/file/odg0lkgnq6jxtoe/gmchess3_intro.zip

You can have background music play in the game. Just stick them under the game's MP3 folder.

This looked very inviting. Yet I bagged out of the install after several firewall notices about proxy settings in protected registry keys. Perhaps needed to play multiplayer, but once it was knocking at proxyoveride keys I had to question whether I needed a game with that much registry footprint. I started canceling the requests but there were enough that I just killed setup in taskmgr. It's just me, I have enough trouble with proxies lately. This isn't a down vote or anything just mentioning it really sets up home in the registry to install.

Hi Stephen! Hope you and family are doing well.

Got this game installed, WinXP Pro3, but it crashed on the 3rd move every time. Well, thanks to you, and especially thanks so much for your ongoing comments - I finally read thru them and decided to try rebooting (funny, I give that advice all the time to others when installing ANY program, just to make sure all the "cards" in Windows get "lined up" properly) - and guess what, IT WORKED. No more crashes.

So for anyone who's had issues and really wants this game, just try rebooting before deleting it...

As for the game itself, it's pretty good overall, though I could use more attention on the board and maybe change to smaller or drop-down menus instead of giving half the screen over to them (does anyone really think they need to be hanging there ALL the time?), but it plays well once you get the hang of "grabbing" your piece to move it; even with hints on it isn't always immediately clear what piece you just grabbed.

The graphics are OK, just think the board's a bit small for great gameplay - and those menus, well, you certainly have enough choices! All in all, a large package for chess, but justified by all the choices I guess - and it IS great that you can play a list of problems, and even create your own.

I do like that you can change the board style/colors, and other things not related to gameplay - that's always nice. Can't speak for the AI, not a very good player, but don't doubt for a minute that it can do all that's advertised.

All in all, a keeper - maybe 6 of 10 for the size, hassle, and "clutter". Change to drop-downs and a larger board, and I'd give it an 8.
John


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

Thank you for your excellent feed back John. I agree with you on the size of the board. Though I have a twin display (32" and 25". The game looks fine on the 32" screen. :)

@16: AFAICT MFC only, and that comes with Windows.

As for .NET haters, the reason it's used is because it makes programming easier. Modern Visual Basic uses .NET, C# is practically born from .NET, and you can even use .NET for C++. The biggest reason for using .NET is automatic memory management. Not having to worry about releasing memory is a big timesaver for developers. Plus, it's easier to reuse components in .NET because all you need to do is add an assembly as a reference and all its public types are available to you. The last reason is a program doesn't need to be recompiled (most of the time) to be used on other platforms. Just get people to install Mono and the app runs more or less the same as on Windows. (Actually, there's still a lot of work to be done on interplatform compatibility, but at least some of it is there.)


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Thank you GMMan. I see the comment, not installing this becasue it has dot net framework or other programs. If I need one of those programs to run a game that I want i'll install it. I've never had problems with any of them. It's a mystery to me becasue so many users seem to complain about it and i just wondered whether I was missing something. (I should just go read up on it, but i'm too busy with other things, lol)

All went very smoothly for the download and installation. Had no problems starting the game. Installed on Intel Quad Core Q9400, Win XP SP3 with Network 4.0. I know nothing about chess, but find this SW interesting. Hope to learn to play chess and currently in Monkey Mode. I take that is below the Child Mode :) I hope. Have had a chance to surf through the program and play a game and to use my music. Quite nice. Enjoy looking forward to learning chess. Thank you GAOTD and Fly Games for the chance to learn how to play chess. and thank you for the listed sites for information. Have a nice day everyone.

Installed easily and played perfectly...the first game, The second time i played it locked up at the third move as others have reported.
Running xp with service pack 3 and an Nvidia 5500 video card. I'll try again and let you know what happens.

Installed without problems on vista x64.

Well, i did like the game, but i had a problem with the 3d, i couldn't oversee the board clear, The board is to small and to flat down, the top of the board should be lifted up a bit(don't know how to describe). I tried all the skins but couldn't find one i really liked, they work to distractive from the game for me. I didn't like the 2d neigther, but it did give me a clearer view on the hole board.

Anyway it was nice to play chess again since a very long time. I'll keep the game to play some more and see if i get any better. Maybe i'll get used to the board and pieces in the end.

Thanks ~ Fly Games, GOTD & Whiterabbit!

Tested on XP SP 3

Needs an easier exit, extremely hard to exit game, flashing buttons.

Default video should be windowed mode.

Game Locked up somehow? Un repteatable. Maybe first start glitch?

Network play | start new server, needs to be more seperated from "New Game"

Speed Control. need to be able to vary the speed.

I liked how it reads off the moves., but again speed controls?

In my opinion the author needs to look to Chessmaster 10th Edition for hints as to a friendly interface, with training mode, historical mode, 3D fighting mode, speed controls, and exit/quit right now.

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

Thank you for your feedback

I love the game. Works great in both 2d and 3d.

But I'd like it better if there had been an option not to play in full screen mode.

That's it. A great game otherwise!


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There is an option. :)

The only thing with chess programs is that they play an exceptionally strong game of chess nowadays, even at 'easier' levels. I was a strong/very strong tournament player and a good many years ago chess programs would walk all over me. At their top levels they can now beat any player in the world! I'll have to give Battle Chess a go, I might have a chance with that! :)

#16: "Does it need .Net? If so, I shall pass on this one. Thanks though.

………………………Moderator comment………………..

I really don’t understand why some users are so against installing the dot net framework; can you please tell me why it’s not wanted?"

No, it doesn't use .NET, or doesn't running in the win7 XPMode VM, where it does actually run fine in full or windowed mode. Since the Windows Virtual PC host where XPMode runs has Very Minimal graphics support -- 99%+ games won't run -- I wouldn't think graphics hardware or driver versions were issues for those having problems. Grandmaster Chess does use Internet Explorer & VFW [Video for Windows] if that gives anyone a hint of a couple of places to look when/if troubleshooting.

As far as .NET goes, Whiterabbit, whether it's good/bad is a moot point for most people as you can't hardly avoid it. I have issues with .NET versions beyond 2 in XP, 1) because it's pretty high impact, relatively speaking, & 2) in XP I've found it rather trouble prone. Otherwise .NET consumes more resources, whether you're currently running a .NET app or not, & apps that use it are often not as efficient.



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Thank you for your feedback Mike. I suppose I've been lucky for a long time as i've always made sure my computers have lots of RAM, at least the 64 bit versions. :) Though last time I used a 32 bit OS most apps didn't seem to use as much memory (usually games) as some do now so the 3.7GB of RAM was usually plenty.

As I mention below, I should take some time to read up on the subject, but rarely think about it so never get around to doing anything about it, lol; too busy moderating and trying to transfer all of my saves over from my old computer to my new one at the moment :lol:

Thanks for the Game. It installed A-OK on Vista X64. 3D View is kind of Goofy, can't quite get to the Pawns ... so I had to switch to 2D view.

Game Giveaway, could you please work on getting a "Backgammon" game!

Thanks!

#16 re your comment "I really don’t understand why some users are so against installing the dot net framework; can you please tell me why it’s not wanted?" I second your query, I really would like to know why some ppl are so against netframework; but back on topic,the only thing I would like to have is the option to using higher res than currently available, otherwise great game, no probs and thx heaps.

cable

"If you want a committed man, look in a mental hospital"

Rather crude compared to windows chess titans, I could live with that, but it is also very buggy. Tried on Win 7 laptop and XP computer, both well set up machines, running well, defragged, etc. Laptop crashed after one move, computer (XP) worked for first game, but then said 'game over' inexplicably when I took the opponent's queen with the game only half way though. Second time on the computer it crashed on the 5th move.

Sorry, but that's it for me, just not worth persevering with, imo.

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

Aorry to hear that Andy. I've played through at least one game on three of the computers I've since installed the game on (2 x Win 7 and 1 x XP) and none of them have failed me (apart from the first one, but after rebooting following installation it's worked fine since).

Works fine on Win8 Consumer Preview(32bit). Installed fine and ran straight away.

very bad! after downloading i had opened downloaded archive , and i opened setup.exe file it says cannot execute , setup.exe file is corrupt . it's very very bad that i cannot install it. can you upload a working corrupt free file......

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

Hello Syed,

There have been over 6 thousand downloads with one other user having the same problem as yourself. If you take the time to read the comments above you'll find a probable fix for your problem. The downloaded zip file worked for me and thousands of other users. It's possible that the file has become corrupted while you were downloading it, so try downloading another copy, or the file archiver you are using hasn't worked. Try one of the ones i've suggested in my post @ comment #1. Thank you.

Very nice! I will be downloading it momentarily.

I used to play Battle Chess in its day and loved it. The first version I had didn't have the color graphics like the ones you show, it was monochrome and run on the old 8088 computers. I remember thinking how awesome the game was at the time, although it did run very slowly by today's standards. Later I had the color version you show above. Now, I'll probably get the Battle Chess special edition too for old time's sake. LOL.


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The £5.99 is well worth it for the better graphics, but the free versions are almost as good. :) The game also includes multiplayer. you can find it via the following link:

http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/battle_chess_special_edition

p.s.

If you don't have a GOG account you'll find that once you've created an account you can download five other classic games for free (for example Beneath a Steeel Sky, Dragonsphere, Lure of the Temptress, Tyrian and Teenagent)

Crashed when playing in 3D. Tried Rebooting Still Crashed.

Changes to 2D and the game works great.

If anyone has a problem in 3D try using the 2D setting to play.

Thanks for the Chess Game Fly-games.



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



Hello Brian, try updating your graphics drivers and ensure you have the latest Direct X. That may cure the 3D problem. If not maybe try changing your resolution.

Great chess game!! Love the different graphics!!

doesn't work the activation code is invalid - deleted.


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

Downloads now stand at over six thousand users with no one reporting such a problem pronytius. Have you read the problems section? You may need to make sure I.E. isn't set to offline. (Assuming you are using one of the other browsers such as firefox or Google Chrome). By the way, there is no activation code given with this game, it's a dual setup and activation module that automatically activates the program once installed.

installed on
Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
HP Pavilion(2.1 GHz/64 bit/3 Gig ram).
AMD processor AMD Sempron LE-1200 2.1GHz
NVIDIA graphics chip.

I was looking forward to a great learning chess program. Unfortunately this locks up after three moves.....

Out side of some control issues I have liked most everything "Fly games" has released.

player:white
mode: solo mode
hints:on
screen: 2D visualization (to see what your doing)
Tried to use a hint to move the white knight. Game locked up on left mouse button release.....

Notes: It appears this was meant as an on-line game.
graphics are very good.

the lock up conditions makes this as beta or maybe alpha version. I'd be really mad if I had paid for this.

I'm guessing the code needs some updating, at least for solo mode.

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

Hi Al,

Did you read any of the previous comments or answers to questions? You may find the game will work once you've restarted the game, or rebooted your computer. It was suggested it could be something to do with C+ Net framework.

A nice chess program. It would be nice if you could rotate and zoom in with the board.


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

Yes I agree; I tohugh at first we may be ble to do that. Maybe to be able to at least change the angle of the 3D board a little.

Big thanks :) I just love chess, and today great surprise

Downloaded a little slow but got there. Installed a little slow but got there.
First game froze and had to rid myself of it with Task Manager.

Tried again and game seemed to work fine. Sometimes the moves took a bit of coaxing to work but worked.

I used to have this game and it worked more smoothly but this will do.

I was victorious in the game. Monkey level is tough.


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

HaHa; glayou got it to work though. :lol:

Ok - further to #7 and #8 and as advised by Looming (#12), I have reloaded the game and set the compatibility to Windows XP Service Pack 2 - now it seems to be running ok. Many thanks Looming.

Strange though that Bobby Baker (#14) reports it runs fine on their Win 7 64-Bit machine?

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


Hi Peter, glad you got the game working. The game also works fine on the two computers i installed it to (Win 7 ultimate and Pro both 64 bit, though I did initially get an error message on one of them. Rebooting solved that problem.

hey i downloaded this and i keep getting the message "the archive is either in unknown format or damaged" was wondering if you could help me out here


.......................Moderaor Comment................

Hello Darrell, I've had the same message on other downloads. Try using one of the free aechivers I've listed in my review @ comment #1. You'll probably find 7 Zip the best and should unwrap the zipped file okay. By the way, did you try redownloading it?

Crashed after no moves. Just rubbish, uninstalled. The most obvious thing wrong is the graphics are too small to see properly.


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

Just because a game crashes on your computer doesn't mean its rubbish. There have so far been four and a half thousand downloads of this game. Usually the reason why a game doesn't work on someones computer is because of conflicts, screen res issues, badly fragmented drives or essential components to run the game are possibly missingr dare I say it, user error.

If you did want to play this game you could check the error logs to see if there was a confict with one of your background programs or download the demo to see if that works. I've already suggested to someone else other fixes that you could try.

I'd agree with you if a high proportion of the community had the same problem, but it's a very insignificant proportion, which could imply that one of my reasons above is correct.