Really liked it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for another game like this one. Thanks, people!

The game was okish, short, and kept crashing, on two different computers. One has XP Home, the other has Vista.
Also the camera didn't zoom out far enough on a few levels, leaving you blind to certian area's unless you messed around with camera angles, wasting precious time.

Still it was good for the few hours it took to complete.


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

Yeah, I forgot to mention the camera angles. It was a complaint from previous giveaways. I also remember thinking the same thing. It did spoil the game somewhat.

I've encountered an error, some kind of bug. Yesterday I created a username and played through a few scenarios, then exited the game. Today I get on, and I'm suddenly controlling all of the ambient buildings! Every scenario I've played, new or beaten previous, I'm suddenly playing as the unclaimed buildings. Very annoying. I'm on a Windows Vista operating system.

Hi. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to download and setup before the time limit ran out. Dial up is a bitch. It certainly looked interesting. Cheers.

Problem:
On my PC (Win XP SP3) KingMania kept crashing when trying to load.

Solution:
from commandline I ran
"kingmania -directx"

And it worked!

It looked like OpenGL was crashing the game for me. Once I ran this command line once I could enter the game and I checked and the in-game driver setting was now on D3D.

If I changed it back to OpenGL, it would crash again.

Hope this helps some people.

I wont be able to moderate any more comments until around the time of the change over. It's past 5am and I need to go to bed. I'll try and answer any posts that are made from now till 8am when the change over takes place here in the UK.

Please if you do have any problems read all the previous comments as you may find your query has already been answered :)

Goodnight

Dear GGotD,
Thanks so much for what looks like another fun game!
I've downloaded & installed more than 5 games from your site, and have been pleasantly surprised each time. Every single one has worked as promised, and been lots of fun - for me and my family. The ??? problem is easily overlooked, and the fact that many of these install to a flash drive keeps me playing no matter where I am. Thank you for this service, for introducing me to fun games, and pointing me toward game designers that make low-cost quality. I'm now looking in stores for games by companies mentioned here.
Again, this game looks like great fun, works well, and installed without problem. Thanks!
Peace and Long Life,
Twonster

thanx for another good game!!! installed and runs great on my asus 1000HE, atom n270, 1.6 ghz processor, 1gb ram; i've got no idea what i have for graphics, but everything runs, looks and plays great from this site. the helpful suggestions by our friendly moderator often solves installation troubles. keep the good games coming!!!! RPGs PLEEEEEEEEEZE

Hello sir, yes you weren't sacarstic, after I commented it, I checked out the other comments and I'm like oh crap. Sorry if I ****** you off.

~Joji~


....MODERATOR COMMENTS....

I wasn't ***** off, it's just that a large proportion of the time I spend writing comments is just wasted time as I'm just repeating myself over and over. I'd much rather be playing one of the many games I've purchased recently, but have still not been able to play due to spending far too much time writing comments and posting in the forums, lol.

Downloaded this game previously and played the heck out of it. Don't let this one get away.

Additional comment that can be added anywhere appropriate in my above, or stand alone. I'd like a little more time to strategize here. It's a little too close to a "chicken dance" for me now.

Thought this would be fairly lightweght after previous comments, but after downloading overnight it has whiled away a surprising amount of a dreary Sunday afternoon. Nice one, can't wait wait for tonight's offering from GGAOTD. Better get the family some tea........

Kinda neutral on this one. Attack this circle, attack that circle. I like the building in Be A King, but, perhaps surprisingly, I find this repetitive. A lot of build options thrown at you, but you need to spend so much time attacking, that it's difficult to catch how much any one build option is doing for you. And I'd like an explanation on how to use the Croaker (Frankenstein's Monster). My enemy knows how to use it, so how do I? Instructions would have been nice, or maybe I missed them. Not down on the game, but I think it needs to be slowed down some how to increase the mental challenge. I mean, now the challenge is to attack what you can, as fast as you can, from as many angles as you can, and try to sneak in building when you can, without much of an opportunity to gauge what your builds are doing for you.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I think the game may be missing something, but I'm inexperienced in this genre, so maybe it's me after all.

Options menu? You mean in the game? Sorry, but can you please be more clear?

Other than that, I would like to get a trial version of "Alien Terminator Deluxe", but I can't find the download link anywhere. Could you please post it? I would greatly appreciate that.

I didn't know there was game giveaway of the day... only new about the regular giveaway of the day. Missed out so much! LoL!

Srry for the excessive commenting sir. Real srry.

~Joji~

....MODERATOR COMMENT....

You can get a full version copy of Alien Terminator totally free from http:\\www.Gametop.com. Watch out when you are installing it though. Make sure you uncheck the box that asks if you want your home page changes to Gametop (which you wont want).

When you first start todays game you get the main menu. From here theres an options menu. Click on that and you'll find a toggle to switch over from OpenGL to DirectX (3D3).

Oh srry, one last thing, I got lots of lines when i was testing the trial version, how do I make not have any lines?

~Joji~

.....MODERATOR COMMENT.....

Go into the options menu and switch the driver over to D3D rather than use OpenGL. Check out a previous post for a link to download versions of OpenGL. You may not have the relevant OpenGL drivers. As the default setting is set to run with OpenGL you're getting lines.

If the game doesn't run in either mode very well you may need to update all your graphics drivers. Again, all this has been mentioned previously. :)

Typo: *Now I want to unistall it, no unistaller or anything!!!!!!

....MODERATOR COMMENT.......

Hi Joji, if you read the first comment it will answer all of your queries. I've deleted the previous four posts as there was a lot of repetition.

In addition, it's not in program files or neither its in All Programs either!

Something went wrong...

While installing it, "?" were everywhere on the page! I have NO idea what's happening. When I reinstalled it, "?" appeared instead of text, but it says ???????????????????: Kingmania/common/something something

When I checked my progam files, it's not there. When I checked "add and remove programs" it's not there.

The file is not hidden or anything. Now I want to install it, no installer or anything!!!!!!!!!!

I downloaded the trial to see if it should convert its self to full version, it didn't, it was still a trial. Unistalled it, but still, my computer said that the full version you guys gave us is still hiding in my computer if I want to install it again.

Any suggestions?

~Joji~

NOT installed on my laptop. When click the set up, there were tons of question marks. I think the highlighted button meant "install" so I did that and nothing happened after. Dunno what happened. O_O

Any help here?

~Joji~


.....MODERATOR COMMENT.....

I'm not meaning to be sarcastic, but have you even bothered to read any of the pevious comments? All your questions will be answered if you would just take some time to read the comments.

Faulty! When I unzipped it and ran setup.exe, I got an install window that had ?????????????'s everywhere buttons should have text. Can't tell what I'm clicking on, so I will not recommend it at all.


.....MODERATOR COMMENT....

Theres nothing wrong with the game. It's the giveaway installer that's the problem. You can easily download the game to its default location by clicking on the bottom left button. I've mentioned where it goes in my post above. The file is perfectly safe.

W.R.

i found the camera settings under OPTIONS. sorry for the rant

What with all the ???? ????? ?????????? when running setup.exe
Thumb down when you get ???? ????? ?????????? in placem of words when running setup.exe


....MODERATOR COMMENT....

It's the giveaway installer that is the problen not Rake in Grass's game, so its rather unfair to mark the game down just because of the installer. It works perfectly well, you just have to use the bottom left button to install or the bottom right button to cancel the installation.

good game, EXCEPT: what's up with the twisting around and discombobulating everything? that takes the game away from my control, which is unacceptable. I rule my world, and if i cannot control a game (even erroneously) then it's out of here. sorry, it seemed like a nice game through the first few towns and villages. the drunken bum who put the spin in there certainly lost some playability.

HI, sorry for the inconvenience, but I'd like this game so much!

I have an XP with DX9.0c, so it's not a problem. Do you have a new idea

If anybody gets "failed to open main.cs", I suspect you created a shortcut, perhaps on your desktop. Make sure you have the "Start in" property of the shortcut set to the installed directory. The Torque game engine this game is built on (the exe) always looks for main.cs first and if it cannot find it, that is the message you get.
Also, some folks (mods included) suggested open gl, but I believe this game is DirectX. Any gamer should want to have the most recent version of DX, so follow this following link to auto update your DX:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2DA43D38-DB71-4C1B-BC6A-9B6652CD92A3&displaylang=en
HTH,
Scooby

Follow up to my previous comment, # 22. Seems it was the AV program. This never happened before?


....MODERATOR COMMENT......


Nice one, glad you sorted it. I always forget about the AV program:)

HI, Downloaded this without any great expectations but was very pleasently surpised about how playable and how much fun the game was. Looks like it could get quite challending later the game play.

Thanks GOTD

Dave

After running setup.exe, I selected not to install something that sounded like an updater, and then I got failed to connect. Tried again to run setup.exe and just get "failed to connect." Tried to dl again w/another browser, same thing.
I wonder if this NE snowstorm has disabled some connectivity.


......MODERATOR COMMENT......

Try rebooting your modem and router. If that doesn't fix it. clear your internet cache then try again. Let us know if it worked. thanks.

W.R.

To #12 - As the mod pointed out, "it seems all these games are dependent upon OpenGL, so it maybe that this is where your problem lies. either you don’t have an OpenGL compliant video card installed or you lack the drivers to run the games."

I can confirm this. In this case it's not GAOTD or the game programmer's fault.

There are two possible problem areas at hand:

1 - OpenGL is not a single standard and there are a number of ways of supporting OpenGL your video card can provide.

There are versions, typically, OpenGL v1.0, v1.1, v1.2, v1.3, v1.5, v2.0, v3.0 and a few oddballs in between.

The software basically says "I need v2.0" to your video card. Your card can do one of three things, tell the truth and say "I can do v2.0", or say "Nope, v1.1 is my max", or outright lie and say "Suuure, I can (simulate), errr, do v2.0"

Now, if the card is fast, and the software doesn't depend on a versions features too much, the card MIGHT be able to keep up. Take fog, which was added in OpenGL v1.4. If the software doesn't do any fog, then you might not notice. If the card isn't capable, then worst case, the screen will either lock up, or refresh once every couple of seconds or more. I had that happen to a GGAOTD a couple years ago. Switching the SW out of OpenGL into DX mode was not possible outside the game, so I started it, left for work leaving it running all day, then changed it after dinner when I could get into the correct menu.

If your card doesn't support (and not emulate) at least v2.0, you'll have more and more of these type issues.

Google on "OpenGL versions" for more info, or

http://gregs-blog.com/2007/12/16/how-to-find-which-opengl-version-youre-running/

for a nice rundown and util that shows what your card supports. "Core Features" is what your video card supports in hardware, without lying about what it cannot do. BEWARE: if your card is several years old, and it's showing it supports 100% of all features in OpenGL v2.0 or higher, then it's lying to this application as well.

2 - Video card conflict. There are a number of reasons.

Some video cards need the AGP buffer set as high as possible, some of them need it set for 16/32/64 Megs, and some need it set to the lowest setting. Some AGP cards turn off hardware OpenGL/DirectX support when they are set for 1x, some turn it off when they don't get the max rate they can handle. Plugging in a 8x AGP card into a 4x slot or the slot is set for 2x can do this. And some will run at 2x, but not 4x. Video Cards are a finicky bunch.

The CMOS setup is where you've got to mess around with this for the most part. And yes, it's possible to bork the system, but it's unlikely you'd do any permanent damage unless you go changing other things in there.

It's possible your power supply doesn't give the card enough power, and the card doesn't enable itself fully. Had that on one PC.

It's possible the cooling fan on the the card isn't spinning and the card won't risk overheating. Had that on another PC.

Or, your system has a software conflict.

I had a system I wanted to run a game on, and it would not work, no matter what I did. There was some system driver conflict that I could not find. Reinstalled the OS, and it did the same thing. Took the system and did my "why the heck do you build the PC that way?" method (one hd, one optical, one video, PS/2 KB, PS/2 mouse... nothing else, no network, no sound card, nada.) and the software worked. Turned out in the end that it was due to chipset driver conflicts and a problem where if you didn't install a certain driver before anything else, installing something like Acrobat Reader could destroy OpenGL and/or DirectX support. I have since crushed that motherboard with a sledgehammer while Office Space was playing in the background...

Best of luck.


....Moderator Comment....

Thanks Rocket Geek. Lets hope the guy actually bothers to come back and read your post. ;) (no offense meant Buskieboy)

I downloaded this another time it was offered. It was a fun game but it sucked a lot of active memory so it ran slow. I would have played it more if I had a better computer because it's just the kind of game that I enjoy. A great offer, GGOTD.


....MODERATOR COMMENT....

I was forced to use one of my secondary computers a few weeks ago due to the power supply dying on my main computer. It couldn't have happened at a more inconvinient time as I was just about to start playing DIRT 2 which had just unlocked from a pre-order I'd made. I was so keen to play it I though the system spec is just about okay on at least one of the secondary backups I maintain; so installed it....but it ran like it was in treacle. Guess what got it to work perfectly. Game Booster. A free frogram from IOBit software. theres no strings attached. You just install the program and, when you want to play a game that normally runs badly due probably to RAM or speed restrictions the Game Booster program turns off all non essential applications. When you've finished pl;aying your game you click on the Game Booster icon again and it switches all those back ground programs back on. Works a treat.

You can download Game Booster via the following link:

http://iobit.com/gamebooster.html

At the moment IOBit has a yellow rating from WOT. If you're not happy downloading from a yellow site try softonic which still has a green rating. Just Google Game Booster for several download sites. :) Let us know if it worked. Thanks.

W.R.

There again. (16. Vicky) I did what you suggested, but it didn't work. Any other idea?


.....MODERATOR COMMENT...

Okay I've done a little research on this as I've never come across the error message you're getting. Should have guessed though. It's usually associated with an outdated directX installation, outdated drivers, or inadequate shader support, so basically you need to update your graphics drivers and get the latest version of Direct X

If you're running XP get DX9.0c, if you're running Vista get DX10 and if you are running Win 7 get DX11

If you're not sure what your graphics chip is go to the start menu and click on run. Type in dxdiag then click on okay. When the diagnostics window opens up, click on the display tab. From there you can see whether you need NVidia or ATI drivers (It'll tell you which graphics card/chip you have). Google the home page of the appropriate driver (NVidia or ATI). You can usually follow a link from the front page to get the latest drivers. Usually they end up installing a whole load of files, some of which are unecessary, but innocuous. I use NVidia drivers and everytime I update I end up getting stuff installed to my start up. You may need to use a start up manager to stop programs from running at start up. But that shouldn't be a problem unless you are short of RAM. :) leave a message if you need more help

W.R.

After installing, it looks like you can also get per the homepage: "KingMania Advanced is a version of KingMania with shaders for Windows with DirectX 9.0c+. You can download and test the beta version HERE. The Advanced version is only a free bonus for standard KingMania owners."


.....MODERATOR COMMENT......


I think the base game has some files installed ready to accept the advanced package. I tried installing the Advanced package the last time it was given away, but it invalidated the registration, so were either getting the original 30 level game. After a previous comment I suspect we do in fact have just the base game. I'm going to try installing the advanced add-on again, but I reckon the result will be the same as before. :(

A well, I reckon most who download this will struggle to get to the final levels anyway, so it's really of no consequence. Though I'm sure there will be plenty of skillful players who sail through the whole game in record time. :)


addendum....

No it won't work. Installing the advanced package just invalidates the giveaway registeation. :(

I was unable to open the game. I get: Failed to open "main.cs".
The Be a King worked for me perfectly, but my videocard wasn't enough for Styrateg.

I hope you can help me. It's seems this game would be right for me. Thank you!


.....MODERATOR COMMENT.....

try clearing out your internet cache and try again. :) Also reboot your modem and if you have one your router.

When I try to install this game, I get all ?????????? instead of words. If I click on what would be the next button, it installs, but with ???????? in front of the name, so it doesn't properly make a folder and then I can't find the game. Is there a way to fix this? I have restarted my computer and tried reinstalling, and get the same thing every time. I'm on Vista Home 32.


........MODERATOR COMMENT.......

When you say you clicked on what should be the Next button was that the bottom left one? If so, try doing a search for the following file:

kingmania
KingMania ADV
EULA_kingmania


All of which can be found within the Kingmania folder.

W.R.

kinda reminded me of Ballerburg

I have this game from the original giveaway and really enjoy it. They "give" you a few levels so you can get comfortable so you may be deceived into thinking it's too easy but if you continue, it gets very challenging. This is definitely a keeper for me.

Once again this is a game that seems to load, but when I try to begin playing, I get either "Video failed to load", or "kingmania.exe stopped working"! The latter is the one I get with this game.
I am so sick of getting these damaged games. It seems like the ones that are the most graphic and interesting ALWAYS fail to work. I've complained about this on the site and nobody ever responds with an answer or soloution. It is so aggravating that I'm considering not bothering with this website anymore.
Seriously, why would I want to constantly download huge files for absolutely no reason?

Can anyone tell me why these games like KingMania, Styrateg, Troll, BeAKing, Crystal Cave Classic, TrickBall, and others that I've since deleted, WILL NOT WORK! No one seems to want to answer this question.
I also believe most of these are games that have the ????? installation problem. I am confidant I am loading properly as the game file seems fine, but EVERYTIME I try to run these games I get no joy




...........MODERATORS COMMENT..........

I think you are wrong when you say no one has tried to help. I distinctly remember answering your pleas for help previously on at least two games directly by adding .......Moderator Comments..... and responded seperately previous to that. you've only complained four times including this one (using the ip that you are on now, so I can't check any comments you may have made prior to that, but i can bet I answered those either directly or indirectly, so I take your accusation that no one has responded rather unkindly. The fact that most users do get these games to run speaks volumes. It has got to be something thats wrong with your system and not the files that are being given away.

The ????? problem is not a problem with the games but with the giveaway installer.

All the games that you mention are games developed by Rake in Grass/300AD. From my own limited knowledege, it seems all these games are dependent upon OpenGL, so it maybe that this is where your problem lies. either you don't have an OpenGL compliant video card installed or you lack the drivers to run the games.

As for not bothering with this website anymore, thats your perogative. But by doing so you do negate the chance that at least one game will work. Have you tried updating your video drivers or changed your screen resolution? These are some fixes that sometimes work when error messages such as the ones you are getting are implicated.


You've commented three times previously, the last time was for the game Troll, but the comment you made was dated two weeks after the game had been given away. I don't monitor every game that has been posted just in case someone decides to post a comment weeks after the event, but I did answer yours. see your comment #46:

http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/troll-game/#comments

The second time was for The Mysterious Past of Gregory Phoenix comment #21 where I suggested your comment was probably the same as Lynnes:

http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/the-mysterious-past-of-gregory-phoenix/#comments




and the first time you posted about your problem was with the game be a king: Lost lands, in your comment # 24, I answered your query at #30:

http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/be-a-king-lost-lands/#comments

You obviously either expect an immediate response or are not bothering to return to see if anyone has replied. I also noticed you posted over in the forums as well.

This is in Beta, so if anyone is having problems with it that pretty much explains it!

King Mania has been my favorite game from GAOTD in the past 2 years. While I'm disappointed today to find something I already have, I'm glad others will get to try this one! My original install (from May 25 2008) also says "kingmania + north kingdom v. 1.5" and has 41 levels, tho' I haven't gotten that far yet.

This game has a lot of imagination, nice graphics, good hand-holding to help you get started, and is fun to watch. Not too complex, good balance of tension & fun. My only wish is to save a game in the middle of a battle. Thanks Rake in Grass, 300AD and GAOTD!

I'm running this on Vista SP1, NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT graphics card in full screen mode. Looks great!

Haven't seen this game before. The screenshots look marvelous. If this plays like the early Warcraft games, it's going to be fun.

This download is corrupted, and will not install. cleared cache twice, redownloaded, each time same download corrupted.

#3 I tried it on Win 7 also (x64) and installed it ordinarily. The tutorial works perfectly with a very steady screen. Windows told me that it might have installed incorrectly but I ignored that and it seems to be fine.

Other very cool game of Rake in Grass.

Thank you very much, Gamegiveawayfotheday.

[]'s!

hmm byte for byte this seems the same as the previous instalation I did of this which I'm sure was on 25th May 2008, the RAR-SFX files reports same CRC on all the files in the current offering as in the 25th May 2008 giveaway too. Looks like identical game just repacked with a new less efficient and bad unicode set WinRAR archiver. I see no evidence for a new North Kingdom v1.5 expansion pack or anyhting different between the two builds (original and this, as I never downloaded the july 2008 repeat as I already had the march release...
So if you have either of the previous offerings of this, you don't need to download todays offering. IMHO


.....MODERATORS COMMENT.......



Hi TK, Yes, there seems virtually no difference between today's version and the last one we got, however, if you look to the bottom right of the main menu screen you'll see the following

Which would indicate to me that the game does include the add-on. Also if you look in the games folder you'll find 41 levels not the 30 quoted in the original game (just checked the original and you do see them there as well). However I've not actually played more than a few levels so can't actually confirm it.


It may be that we have to install the add-on by downloading it from 300AD's site, however, when I tried that the last time it was given away it invalidated the registration.


Addendum to the above.

I searched out my original copy of Kingmania which was downloaded the first time this was given away, and it has the same version number as todays, so TK may very well be correct in his assumption. Strange.......

I just tried to install this and got an error message that the offer for this game had expired? What gives?

......MODERATOR COMMENT......

This type of error usual;y means you need to clear out your internet cache. If the cookie related to the game giveaway site is corrupted it can cause such messages to be shown. If clearing the cache doesn't work try re-booting your modem and router (if you have one). Sometimes you just need to reboot your internet to solve the problem.

Tried it on Win7.
All the screens blink too much - even when I run in Compatibility Mode.


.....MODERATOR COMMENT.........


Go into the options menu and try changing the graphics driver from the default OpenGL to D3D (direct X) It may be a conflict due to the addition of the Northern Kingdom which is Direct X driven wheras the main game prefers OpenGL. You could also try changing the screen rersolution and pehaps trying it in a window.

Finally if none of that works try updating your main graphics drivers. (if you haven't already)

Looks like a medieval form of Defense Grid after looking at the you tube video, which is a very fun game for burning away the hours.

I'll have to give it a try.

Thanks GOATD and W.R.

General Introduction and Installation:



Today’s giveaway was originally given away on May 25th 2008. It received a positive 70% out of 412 votes and there were 69 comments which you can read HERE. There was also a thread created over in the forums for post-game problems, tips and tricks (though no one has posted any yet, lol). You can check that thread out HERE (I’ll be updating the post when I have the time later today; you’ll need to register to post any information.

It was then given away a second time only six weeks later, which probably accounts for the much lower positive score of 49% out of 573 votes. You can read the comments from that giveaway HERE

The game downloads at just over 24Mb, and the installed game takes up a little under 27Mb. The ???? problem that we have been getting recently with game giveaways during installation persists; however the game can still be installed easily by clicking the bottom left button. The default installation path is to your root directories games folder (i.e. C:\games\ - unless you have your windows installation on a different hard drive; for example I have my windows installation on my E: drive so the game installs to E:\Games\). The game version is the original plus the North Kingdom v1.5 expansion pack so this is an updated version to the one we originally received which didn't contain the North Kingdom expansion.

As is usual for game giveaways there is no shortcut created either on the desk top or in the Start Menu programs list, so you will need to create your own. The game is free standing, so can be transferred from one computer to others if you wish. If you want a shortcut in the programs list, but don’t know how to create one, I’ve posted a short tutorial which can be found in the game discussion section of the main forum. You can find it HERE.



Game Introduction:

Play a quick action strategy game, different from any you have seen before! Kingmania is a fast and simple, yet challenging, game that will test your ability to make quick tactical decisions. You control different buildings, using their power and the power of hordes of your lieges to defeat your opponents. And if you like online challenges, you can play with your friends in multiplayer mode!

reference accessed HERE on the24th May 08



The Game:

Yeah, another game by 300 A.D/ Rake in Grass; they do seem to be able to create some unusual and playable games. Kingmania is no exception, with reasonable graphics, a novel take on the strategy genre and a darned good challenge as well. King Mania challenges you to make quick tactical decisions, and build suitable defenses with a number of different structural upgrade to protect your cities.

As your army grows and your Kingdom expands through capturing your enemies cities, so does your ability to remove the rival king from his throne, which is the main aim of the game. Kingmania is a simple game to learn, but a hard one to beat. It’s also a good game for beginners and veteran strategy players alike. Don’t let the slightly childlike quality the game’s graphic style has put you off at least trying this quality arcade game. (please note its an arcade game and not a triple AA top dollar strategy game like the recently released King Arthur _ The role playing War game or Empire Total War, so don’t expect in depth resource management or vast armies.



There is a series of 41 island battlegrounds to play in Kingmania, (that includes the original game, which had 30 levels plus 11 additional levels with the addition of the North Kingdom expansion). The aim of the game is to capture and upgrade various neutral medieval structures as well as capturing and upgrading gold mines, farming villages, mage’s towers, additional castles, and scout buildings from your opponent. With these captured assets you create more troops and resources, with the goal of having enough forces to capture your enemy’s castle and eliminate any stray troops he may have wandering about.

As you progress from one level to the next, the difficulty increases from an initial easy start to ultra hard, plus there are some variations on the basic scenario. For example, in some battles, you start with two castles, in others you start with only a humble village in your possession and you must build up a mass of farmers to storm a castle.



Your troops are either knights, who can only be created at your castle, or farmers, which are created in the villages. Additional offensive capabilities are offered in the form of spells, which are available as upgrades to your castles or mage towers.

Resources such as Gold and food are gathered at either gold mines or farming villages. You use these resources to upgrade your structures by enhancing their troop production capabilities, resource-gathering capabilities, or the offensive/defensive capabilities of the troops or the structures themselves. You can get a rough idea of the number of your opponents’ troops in a given location by placing your mouse pointer over a building, but to get accurate numbers you have to capture enemy scout towers.

Basically Kingmania is a simplified real time strategy game (r.t.s.). Just like all the $50 AAA titles out there, your goals are to make sure you have an adequate production flow of troops and resources, and that you are doing a good job of shuffling them around so that you can ward off your opponent’s attacks. You must also keep building to improve your offensive capabilities, and ultimately attack your opponent’s “home base.” And again, just like the “big-gun” strategy games, winning can only come about by successfully balancing how you divide your resources between troop buildup (and between types of troops), defense, offensive upgrades and “secret weapons.”

What brings it down to the casual-game level is the reduced scope of the battles. Each battle seems to last anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes, and to the best of my recollection (I’ve not played the game since I last reviewed it apart from a quick taster last night to refresh my memory) no battlefield has more than a dozen structures to fight over. Because the structures and terrain are fixed, you won’t be building more buildings, and because the game play area is small, there’s no need to send scouts out to roll back “the fog of war.” In fact, given that the “troops” can only be moved from structure to structure, and do not engage each other outside of those structures, as far as actual game mechanics go, Kingmania could have eliminated them entirely and had the buildings slug it out with ballistic weapons. The game does allow you to save a record of your progress across the larger map, but on the other hand it does not allow you to save in the middle of a battle. In that regard it reminds me very much of the casual-game or arcade style of play as opposed to the larger more ambitious trip AAA big bucks titles.


There is a multiplayer mode, but you wont find any servers set up by the developer. You will have to host a game yourself (or one of your friends; usually the one with the best computer and the widest bandwidth. It’s relatively straightforward to set up. If you have any problems please post queries in the thread I’ve linked to above in the general introduction



The following two images are from the Northern Kingdom add-on. (all images are courtesy of 300AD)

Main game features:


- 41 levels with unique battlefields
- More than 30 structure upgrades
- 5 mass destruction spells
- 5 opponents with different strategies - find their weak spots!
- Multiplayer mode to play with your friends online!
- Original music tracks
- Northern Kingdom add-on included

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Useful Information


System Requirements:


O.S…………………………………………XP/Vista
c.p.u………………………………………1.2GHz
Video RAM…………………………….64MB
3D Video……………………………….OpenGL recommended

with the Expansion ……… DX9.0c


Video:

If you want to see what the game looks like you can watch a You Tube video of Kingmania game play HERE.
or look at loads of images all on one page HERE or as a slideshow HERE. I’ve even posted some image links from Google HERE, HERE and HERE

Reviews worth reading:

If you want to read some worthwhile reviews to decide whether this game is for you check out the following reviews HERE and some shorter comment based reviews HERE




Music


When you move your mouse cursor over a building a castle, farm or over trops moving between buildings you get appropriate noises such as the sound of farm animals if you hover over a farm, or the sound of trumpets and martial music if its over a castle. The music is also martial and almost classical in a synthesized sort of way. The sounds and music fit the games theme very well so its probably best if you leave the music untouched; however if you really hate the music it can be changed for something more to your taste. You'll have to edit the zipped game file found within the main folder. You'll find the music files within the dat\music folder within the zipped game file. There's five files all in the ogg format. You'll need to convert your files to ogg, then rename them to the titles you find (kingmania_track1.ogg etc).

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Conclusion:

I recommend downloading and trying this game out; though if you’re not sure, check out the video link that I’ve posted above as it gives you an idea as to what the game play looks like. Playing it on the hardest difficulty setting (accessible from the levels map) makes for a very challenging game. Be sure to know the game mechanics before you try it on this setting as otherwise you’ll soon lose your wizards tower and castle (and thus lose the ability to create new knights). The graphics are of the isometric form, with the ability to pan around and zoom in using the mouse cursor and simple controls that you’ll find in game. I don’t think I could play it for protracted periods though, because the game play does become a little tedious after awhile which makes this an ideal arcade game for filling up those odd few minutes you’ve nothing better to do. (I recommend playing it for no more than about half an hour at a time, but I’m not the best person to suggest such things as I find it hard to concentrate on even the best of games for more than several minutes, lol) It’s a change from the usual puzzlers, arkanoids and shooters; requiring a little strategy as well as luck to progress.




It’s definitely worth a 7 out of 10 IMO and will be staying on at least one of my computers. I discovered after checking the registry that this particular game is free standing, which means you can transfer it from one computer to another once you’ve installed the giveaway version.















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