my program is not opening


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


You can get a copy free from Gametop, though the name has been changed. Just look through the action games.

Excellent merci

Greetings to all.

I finally had time to test this game. I must say, it's WAY better than some giveaways I've met here, I actuall enjoyed it, and found Incinerate to be a great game despite its size.

Ok, the story is a little bit banal - it's the same old sh*t (Earth is doomed, and you're the ONLY one who can save mankind from TOTAL DESTRUCTION), but the game actually carries on well with its promise. Your movement is fast as lightning, the moving area is wide, and there are multiple junctions where you can choose different paths, this'll ensure longer life for the game.

Upgrading the ship is also nicely designed, although I hoped something better, but this'll do perfectly. If you grab lots of Plutonium Money, y'can have Gauss Gun V3 by the end of the first level.
You also don't need to spend on ammunition or repair, since the levels are flooded with various powerups. Unless you mindlessly shoot all your ammunition away, it's very unlikely that you'll run out. I suggest using up your heavy artillery (Chaingun, missiles) at base sieges, as Gauss gun has unlimited ammo.

Very few people knows that Gauss gun has autofire (if you keep the left mouse button pressed, it will fire constantly), but that's mighty slow. If y'need hyper-fusillade, start tapping the left mouse button as fast as you can, and your Gauss gun fire will be a LOT more effective!!!

Levels are well-built, although I could imagine factories, living areas and stuff, instead of hangars and control towers everywhere. Pipelines and rail tracks were also a bright idea.

Bossfights are surprisingly easy, even the last boss was an easy one for me.

Although this game is truly fantastic (compared to most small games), there are two glitches. Very minor glitches, but glitches nonetheless (nevertheless?). The game froze for me once, when I completed level 2, and wished to advance. The second glitch is found at the last level (the crater). Some of the artillery guns are placed too far off the edge, so y'can't shoot at them or destroy'em with anythin'.

I'd give a pretty good 85%, since it's a well designed game, maybe too easy, but everything is better than being frustatingly hard, yea? No need to bash this game, people. If you want to see REALLY bad space shooters, check out G-Force Fighters, Star Evil, Cosmos cop, Megalonia, Space Dreams, Spread fire and so on (Action 52 cartridge).

How could it have been out for only an hour? Incinerate was the February 13th game and I posted on February 14th? That and I installed the game late on the 13th. I think the mod was in a time warp or something because I know I was not. Look at the time of my post 4:21 am on the 14th. Even the post above mine was made at three minutes before Incinerate expired.

Sorry if you think I should not have been able to beat the game that fast but I have beat most of the games I have downloaded from here in fairly short order (usually within a day) About the only game I have not beaten yet is Deep Voyage because I am not physically fast enough to finish level 102.


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

Hi Jim,

Sorry, the comment was amongst a load of today's comments and I was tired when I first started moderating. I though you were actually talking about todays game. My mistake.

Good game but finished it on same day it come out as giveaway whitout a large number of retries, need more lvls or to be balanced to not be so easy.

Nice game. I kind of hoped it would last longer than it did though I beat it in about two hours.


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

That's odd Jim, the game had only been posted just over an hour ago, lol
Though you are right about it being too short.Considering the game hasn't been put up on the site maybe we are beta testing the game for Gambana??? I certainly wouldn't pay the asking price of $19.95 considering most of the big game houses have dropped their prices to between $6.95 and $9.99 for each game. You can buy award winning games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl for less than the cost of this game

Maybe the reason for low rating was due to installation problems. Three times got activation successful, but error trying to extract it. Finally gave up. Can't evaluate what I can't install. The easy installs may have gone the way of the 'daily' giveaway. Since the site departed from the daily and had so many repeats, I seldom return here. When I have, I've been disappointed, except for Sky Aces. At least it installed.

Hello there, White Rabbit -- you give a wonderfully detailed review of the games here. Thank-you. This is my first comment on the GAMES part of GOTD; I visit the giveaway about every day, and have many wonderful programs as a result.

Anyway, I only have a few games on my computer, so I decided to try a couple from here recently. That Fairy Arkanoid one -- I got so caught up in it that I played to Level 93, before I made myself stop! Also liked the Deep Voyage. Other than those, I usually play card or mahjong type games.

Apologies if this is not the place for this comment (not really about today's giveaway). But I wanted to let you know your reviews and links are appreciated.

@30 I have a nVidia GeForce FX5200 128mb video card also and it works fine for me. The latest drivers for the card are not recomended, I've got the 93.71 drivers. Also, my card is on an AGP 4x slot when the card is an 8x so I do get some issues, maybe you have some hardware compatibility issues like me?


This game isn't too bad, although I do find it slightly too hard..mostly you can get killed too easily.

@33

What software does Symantec makes again? Was it Norton? If so, Norton has tons of "false positives", meaning it shows it has a virus when it doesn't.

If anyone here is using Norton, discontinue using their products after your product key is all used up, and get the following instead:

-Kaspersky
-ESET
-Avast!

Antivirus Boosters (Buy/Download these as a booster for your main Anti-virus!

-Malwarebyte
-Threatfire

What NOT to get
-Online Armor
-Norton
-BitDefender (maybe)
-Avira
-Ashampoo Firewall
-Wondershare Spyware Removal

There tons more, but those are some of the ones that I know that will work or not work. I remember testing BitDefender Trial version on my home computer and it ...............(unecessary language deleted)............. screwed up it up until something happened it fixed it.
Other than that, "Online Armor" has wayy to many pop ups asking if this is safe or not. Way more intense than Vista's or Onecare's.

Hope that helped!

~Joji~

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

I would agree with you re: Norton, but I love Online Armour and will eventually buy a key once they stop giving it away here.

Linux users, this game works with WINE.

Just wanted to say a big"thank You" to GGOTD and HRH WhiteRabbit, for the service, this game, and the helpful comments and reviews. Also A rather large "Thanks!" to the moderator(s). My children are allowed to use this site, so thanks for jumping on it, it's appreciated!
Slaphead666.



...................................Moderator Comment (Whiterabbit)........................

I've always beleived theres no call for expletives or bad language in any forum. If someone wants to swear in comany they know accepts such behaviour then fine; but when there's a good possibility that children are going to be reading comments here there's no way I'll let even the mildest of language through. It's something I've always found distasteful.

I played Incinerator. I LIKED it! Didn't get too far yet but this one's a keeper. Thanks again! (Vista Home Premium, quad-core with Nvidia 8800GT, Online Armor firewall - download & install with no problems :-)

Certainly a game I would recommend, loved it back on the previous release! :D

symantec says this has REMHEAD VIRUS

http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/d21dfbfb244867a5535f62cb1d9c9a7f61e3ccf5da1789ac7f4aaa50f48417c5-1266089830

1/40 av programs say it has problem.


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

The giveaway team test all giveaways rigorously for malware. My own security (Kaspersky) found nothing wrong with the program.

A correction to my previous comment: Whiterabbit did already mention the Freespace games in his excellent review way up at the top. Sorry, I think I was overwhelmed at all the recommendations!

Looking forward to playing this one. Thanks GAOTD and Stars Ashes.

Another good vertical scroller is Star Monkey ($15 US from Small Rockets). It works fine on my Vista system with Compatibility set to Win XP SP2, Disable visual themes, Disable desktop composition, Run as administrator. So $9.99 for Incinerate seems a reasonable price!

I'm surprised there's no mention anywhere of Descent (original, II and III) and Freespace (original and II). Not sure if they're free anyplace but well worth buying if you can find them.

Descent was the ultimate space game for me (still playing Descent III) with lots of 3D to explore on planet surfaces and underground, in buildings, etc. Many missions to accomplish, easy to save games, puzzles that are actually solvable, good first-person shooter adrenaline rushes!

Freespace looks to be more of a conquer / trade game set in space, from people who made Descent. I've only played through the training mission so far, but some people said they were looking for this type of game in earlier comments. Nice graphics, good control of ship but not easy!




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

You can get all the 'Decent' games from Good Old Games. I bought all five games (three Decent games and both of the freespace games) from GOG. There's a very good open source game based on the Sci Fi series Babylon 5 called The Babylon Project. See the free games synopsis for details. Anther one from Good Old Games is Darkstar One. You'll pay between $5.99 to $9.99

Really nice shoot'em'up game, similar to "Incinerate":
http://www.google.com/search?q="star+sword"

The screenshots make the game look interesting. Unfortunately, the game does not like my NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 video card with 128Mbytes. Too bad. Got a suggestion?

I downloaded this the last time it was offered. I assume this is the same game. Not an upgrade.

I found it to be quite difficult to get past a certain point a few levels in and stopped playing it because I couldn't get past that point.
It was kind of simple to begin with once I discovered I could just go around things and be out of the shooting range. That only worked for a few levels though.
Also there is the strong possibility that I just suck at playing games like this. I'd go with that premise and download it. You will probably have better luck than I.

I've installed the game on Windows 7 32-bit and it plays and displays fine on an LCD screen.

GMMan, the ship is a moving target, so going 'round objects saves on ammo.

Nice game so far, have to get used to the fact that the enemies are quite hard to kill. And as an alternative to this game, i can highly recommend Ikaruga! You simply have to know this game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2W4KK994WA



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


One of the modes (IKA) in rRootage (which I mention in the Shmup's thread) is based on Ikaruga. Also another game called Kairuga a one level game emulates IKaruga. I'd love to buy a copy of Ikaruga, love the game play ideas using polarity as a basis for attack and defense.

Love space games. Wished they'd make another like 'Freelancer'.

Yet another pixelated destroyer game.... haven't these run out yet and maybe, if they are still flooding the market, could you every 3 months or so slip in something else?

pʇoƃ pǝllɐɔ sı uoıʇnlos ǝɥʇ ¿ǝɯıʇ ɹnoʎ ǝʇsɐʍ oʇ ʇuɐʍ noʎ op


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


very clever. I though it was a foreign language for a moment, then realized you'd used some Greek letters.

IMHO these games are a dime a dozen. Check out Whiterabbit's thread on space games if you don't believe me.

Unfortunately, with this game I don't quite understand what I'm supposed to do. I can shoot at stuff, but it doesn't really matter if I just go around them. I don't quite understand the health system either. What's the goal? I just don't think I like this game.

Great game, I enjoyed the short play with it and I can just keep it installed forever which is a real bonus. Rendering is quite good, it actually looks very well polished for $10

The GAOTD version is clean and free of the annoying "gametop" browser pop ups. Just an easy unzip and it's installed!.

i love Shoot em ups ,but this Game is .......



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


post edited due to inappropriate language

We have youngsters visitig this site. There's no need t use such language

Ok when I got to play this one all it does is flashes the screen a couple of times and then minimizes but never plays, Installs fine since it is just a self extracting zip file but does not play. I am using Windows 7 32 bit and I know My graphics card can handle this game since I can play James Cameron's Avatar. But thanks for the game might install it on my old system and play it there.

By the way, this is version 1.0.0, same as last time. :)

"You are the commander of the spaceship, and the fate of the Earth is in your hands!"

Blimey. The Earth is doomed.

I love this game, kind of mindless and repeditive. However, I cant stop playing it!!!!! Get it you will enjoy it.

By the way, I think there are gometap trolls camping this site and repeating their URL without reading a word of other comments. I have seen it littered outside of WR's comments every time I visit. Perhaps GGAOTD could add a filter so there's less posts for mods to review.

Dont forget the Open Tyrian project folks. best Shmup IMHO.
http://tyrian2k.proboards.com/index.cgi?

This is better than cars with guns! Thank you GGAOTD & WhiteRabbit. I've always had a weakness for upgradable weapons on a vechicle, with my fondest memory being Raptor (thank you Jason) & MechWarrior2: Mercenaries. Unfortunately MW2 runs weird under windows (i.e. I won before mission started?)

Going slightly less off-topic, another old game similar to Incinerate and Raptor is Tyrian 2000, also freeware now. It even has some storyline that requires you to capture memory cubes (like System Shock 2), although I could never get them all.

I'll be trying out Universal Combat and Realms too by WR's recommendation. A nitpick for WR: I don't think Chalk is in the Long List of Schmups, although I haven't checked the other lists, since I have too many shooters to play now. Thanks again for a fun morning & keep up the good work!


.......................Noderator Comment.............

I've not updated the thread in a long time. It will be added eventually.
It should be in the free games thread though.

why are they charging $9.99 when you can get it free at gametop.com?? it's a good game and challenging


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

Techncally it's not free. the owners of Gametop pay the developer money so that they can give it away free. Elsewhere its still a commercial game.

How about some good old Match3 games again? We weren't all fed up with them, you know!

There are no good spacegames left. I know the X3 series, but they are more about building an empire then being a free rogue trader.

I would love a good spacebased game. Where I can fix my own ship
(you know, mess with your engines etc) land on planets and explore
and plenty of dogfights. But you don`t see any of those around.
Unfortunately. (Yes, I am an old 'Elite' player, even on my C=64)


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

Yeah I know. Elite was one of the first games I ever bought for my PC. I though it was amazing at the time.

You can tinker with your ship in Gratuitous Space Battles, but you don't have any control over the actual battles. There is one 3D Space arena shooter that enables you to fly from space through the atmosphere to the planets surface but the name escapes me at this time (lol)

bonjour et grand merci à toute l'équipe
Ce jeu ne peut pas être chargé , ça met fichier corrompu
bye


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


translated:

big hello and thank you to all the team
This game can not be loaded, this file is corrupted
bye


answer:

Bonjour Ray, avez-vous essayé de télécharger le jeu à nouveau. Si elle n'arrête pas de dire qu'il est corrompu essayez d'effacer votre cache ou d'essayer un progrm archive différents tels que 7 zip. J'ai eu un problème similaire avec un fichier que j'ai téléchargé sur Direct 2 Drive et essayé un archiveur différent et cela a fonctionné.

very cool game, I got it last time it was given away but had to reinstall my os since then, good to have it back. Installs easily, nice graphics, lots of weapons, although you'll probably get bored with it pretty quick but it's still a fun play. What can I say that whiterabbit hasn't already said, I give it thumbs up although I wouldn't pay $10 for it, glad to have it for free again :)
Thanks Stars Ashes and the GGAOTD team

this game is already free in gametop[dot]com
and you install it anytime, anywhere :D


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

See my review @ #1 for details

Got this one last time and I highly resommend it.

Hard to believe it only got 54% - perhpas 46% might not like this kind of game no matter what.

Graphics and explosions are superb and can be set to nice high resolutions if you want. The progression is sensible for many hours of great play.

Thanks for bringing this one back GoTD
:)


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

I agree, the very average score seems unfair considering the game is a decent one, but then the genre is one of those that you'll like or dislike, which is why the scoring was so average.

This game is free at www.gametop.com

The screenshots look the same as the version I downloaded a few weeks back from gametop.


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

Yes the game is the same as the one from Gametop, however the game giveaway version is much safer to install (no toolbar and changing home page tick boxes to uncheck) and your browser isn't opened when you close the game down. I know which I'd rather have. That said, if you miss today's giveaway it's always available from Gametop. :lol:

Go find the free version, which starts you off at a saner difficulty level and lasts longer.

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

edited comment due to innappropriate language.

Hey WhiteRabbit,

I think you can buy Raptor Call of the Shadows from the 3D Realms Site for not too much. Recently they started offering all their games as updated games to run in DOS BOX like GOG goes. I think the game I mentioned is worth checking out as well.

The real native Windows version of Raptor is being sold by MKING games.

Another futuristic game worth checking out by developer MINKG is also Demonstar. Its more arcade like.



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

Thanks Jason..... Demonstar rings a bell in my mind, lol

Looks nice :).

Incinerate: (10.7Mb)

Introduction:

Incinerate was originally given away last year in June and received lots of positive comments and out of 497 votes received a 54% positive vote. You can see all the previous comments by following the link below:


http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/incinerate/#comment-111274



Today's game is a 32.6Mb download with an installed size of 72.1Mb. Installation is a breeze; the unzipped activation/setup file installs to the following path:

C:\Games

There is no desktop icon created so you will have to create your own. If you want a start menu shortcut you will have to go into Documents and Settings which is found in the root directory (C:\).

i.e. C:\Documents and Settings\name\Start Menu\Programs\




where 'name' equals administrator, or whatever name you use for your account. Just create a new folder within the program folder and add a shortcut from the games executable file. (right click and select create shortcut then copy that to the folder you've just created - you can also use the same shortcut and copy it to the desktop or select send to desktop {create shortcut}).

Quote:

It is 2074. Astronomers from around the world are watching an asteroid crash into the surface of Mars leaving a huge crater. Clouds of dust and vapor hide the surface of the planet for several long months. Communication with all Martian research stations is lost. When the clouds clear away, people send new spaceships to the Red planet. The spaceships send back shocking news. Hundreds of plants producing arms have been set up on the maimed surface of Mars. Thousands of machines stock the mineral deposits that had been brought to the surface by the massive explosion. A huge geothermal unit is running in the Center of the crater. Its energy creates a protection shield that extends beyond the planet's atmosphere. The objective of the unknown aliens is absolutely clear: they're building an army to conquer the Earth! So people are sending a small spaceship to the Red planet with one mission: blow up the shield generator so they can launch missile attacks from the orbit. The spaceship will have to land in an isolated area, and then try to infiltrate into the alien conspiracy. You are the commander of the spaceship, and the fate of the Earth is in your hands!

Reference: accessed 26th June 09 http://starsashes.com/incinerate.html

Today’s game is a vertical scrolling shmup (space shoot’em up), with a small ship that you control with the mouse. The left and right mouse buttons select primary and secondary weapons. You can move the ship anywhere on the playing arena, avoiding buildings and other objects. You can destroy buildings, objects and enemy ships before they destroy you. Crashing into buildings and ships destroys your shields, but you can do this occasionally. You can pick up extra power ups once buildings have been destroyed. Repair droids will repair any damage caused by enemy fire or by crashing into buildings. On the way you have plenty of opportunity to pick up a variety of power ups that you can also purchase from supply depots that you’ll find shortly after starting a new level. You just have to fly your ship over the symbol that denotes the supply station. The supply depots contain several items such as rockets, armor, magazines for your guns as well as various upgrades such as your weapons and shields. You primary weapon requires magazines and the secondary weapon, which is fired using the right mouse button requires rockets. Occasionally in game you will also come across branching routes. This aspect of the game gives some re-playability to the overall game, though choosing either route doesn't look much different. :) . Provided you have completed a checkpoint, you can return to the beginning of a checkpoint by clicking on the continue button. Otherwise you'll start a new game from the beginning.

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFvkSNDrbBk

Images:


All on one page:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Incinerate/


As a slideshow:

http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/Incinerate/?albumview=slideshow

The main menu gives you access to an options menu that allows you to change screen resolutions, starting from 640 x 480 x 16 to 1600 x 1200 x 32. You can toggle between full screen and windowed mode plus change the lighting from normal to advanced, though I haven't checked what the difference between the two settings is okay, and finally there’s a sound and music slider for adjusting the volumes. The help menu is rather basic, with nothing more than the story line and an image of the various power ups available. There’s nothing about how to play the game either.

On starting the game a page opens up that allows you to create a new profile. You can set up more than one profile if you wish. Once this is done, a level map appears. I’m not sure if you can re select previous levels as I only played the one level (left it too late to play an extended game earlier this morning). Once in game you can see several symbols around the periphery of the playing area. These give information telling you how many rockets or magazines you have as well as informing you about the state of your shields.

Conclusion


I was only able to play the demo which consisted of six levels so cannot describe the later parts of this game I thought the construction of the game was quite well made and the difficulty was good enough to create a reasonably decent game, that I would say is worth a good 6 out of 10; though, that said there are many ‘shmup’s’ out there and overall I think this one is an average shooter. The above images and game play video should give you a good idea of the game.


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Alternatives:



You can get todays game giveaway free 24/7 from Gametop. Remember to watch out for toolbar and home page hijacks via checkboxes during the games installation.

http://www.gametop.com/download-free-games/incinerate/download.html



There's hundreds of space themed games available, many of which are free. They are amongst my favorite genres. The following two links will take you to threads that have links to loads of free space shooters and strategy games, then I've included a couple of sites that giveaway commercial games, after that I've listed several games I own that I can honestly say are excellent time wasters which you may consider buying - all are bargain bin games by now, then a link to a brilliant commercial site that has gathered older DVD/CD based games and removed the DRM from them and now you can download the games, ranging from a few hundred Mb, to upwards of 4Gb in size. (So you'll need a broadband connection to download them) :)

The first one is the Space Shoot 'Em ups or Shmup's: A longish list of FREE games, where you'll find a massive list of Freeware, abandonware and even a long list of browser based space orientated games. I highly recommend the following one from that thread: Fraxy, Universal Combat, Realms, and Chalk . There's more, but I'm sure you have lots to check out now. :) I hope you find something of interest. I would certainly consider buying Freespace 2 and/or Darkstar One from Good Old Games (GOG), both are 3D space simulators, with amazing graphics and a real feel for being in an imaginary space shooter. I’ve listed several very good space orientated games at the end of the review. The X3 series of games are some of the most realistic space games I’ve ever played together with the online game Shattered Horizon.



A longish list of Shmup’s:


http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/2724

I've not kept the list up to date of late, so there are actually loads more free games that are space related which you can find via the Games Synopsis:

G@rgoyles Free Games Synopsis:


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



There's also several free Shmup's (Shmup's = Space Shoot 'Em Ups) available from Gametop and FreeGamesPIck:

http://www.gametop.com

and

http://www.freegamepick.com/en/games_download.html


You'll find Arial Fire, Air Shark, Air shark 2, Forbidden Galaxy, Forbidden Galaxy 2, plus many more that are linked to via the Shmup's link I've posted above. all the games from these two sites are commercial quality games that are given away free through sponsorship. When installing these games you do need to watch your installation as some of the games do ask if you want toolbars installed or even to change your home page, however, these can be avoided simply by making sure the boxes that show up during installation are unchecked. All the games from these two sites do open up your browser when you close the game down, but there's nothing untowards about it. you are always taken to the sites home page where you can check to see if there are more games. Once you close the page, that's it.

Finally I'll list a few really good DVD based space shooters/strategy games that aren’t free and can cost cost anywhere between $10 to $50. Apart from Galcon Fusion which was only released yesterday (Friday 12th Feb) I’ve got every one of the games listed below and IMO think that all of the games are excellent. If you love anything to do with space you’ll probably love most of these games. All of them are available via steam or as a DVD.


Genesis Rising …………………. Strategy

Mass Effect and Mass Effect II …..released last week - FPS/RPG

Spaceforce: Rougue Universe .…Strategy/shooter

Sins of a Solar Empire …………. Strategy

Sword of the Stars …………..…..Strategy/shooter

Light of Altair ……………...……Strategy

X3: Terran Conflict ………...……IMO a brilliant game

X3: Reunion ………………..……expansion to the above game

Shattered Horizon …….…….….First Person Shooter set on and around the shattered remains of the moon and the international space station – amazing visuals – soon to be updated with four new maps - online only and requires Vista or Win 7 - XP not supported

Galcon Fusion …………………..Just released - a gorgeously rendered in psuudo retro style arcade strategy shmup

Gratuitous Space Battles ………………………….…strategy

Star Trek DAC ……………………………………....strategy shooter

AI War Fleet Command ……………………….…….strategy shooter


The following are available from Good Old Games for between $5.99 and $9.99

Earth 2040
Earth 2050
Freespace + Expansion
Freespace 2 (brilliant 3D space shooter)
Darkstar One (similar to Freespace 2)

You can find more SciFi based games from GOG as well:

http://www.gog.com/en/search/


I’ve posted more freeware links to space orientated games in the original comments for this game when it was given away in June 2009.


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