Solve a looming mystery where dreams and magic intertwine. FREE game on GOTD!

#31

Dear users,
the problem was fixed!

Pease re-download the game archive.

Sorry for the inconvenience
GOTD team

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

Thanks for sorting it guys.

Reply | Comment by GOTD team – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+9)

GOTD team,

No worries - these things happen on days ending with a "y" ;)

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

:)

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

GOTD team,

I knew if I came back you would have all of the bugs worked out. Re downloading the game now. Thank you for your efforts GGOTD team and the moderator.

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

Thank you gpc111

Reply | Comment by gpc111 – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+3)

#1

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

I reported a possible problem with today's download after trying to install it as soon as it went live. But wasn't able to due to an error message. It now appears to have been confirmed by other community members that the download is corrupted in some way as everyone so far has reported a crc message - ''the key cannot be decrytpted''.

I'm sure the giveaway team will correct the problem at some point today. Please check back later. I will post a message at the top of my review to confirm when the file has been replaced.

Also, Xilolee posted a fix for yesterdays game that enables you to play Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny in full screen. Just hold down alt and click Enter. Thanks Xilolee.

Mystery of Unicorn Castle

In Brief

A Hidden Object game. I've been having problems unzipping the game from the giveaway zip file. Using two different archivers I get issues with both and am unable to install the game getting the message ''the key cannot be decrytpted'' hopefully it's just a problem with my download manager. I used the MPC version plus my previous knowledge of this game because I beta tested this game for Alawar several years ago (2009).

Suggestions:

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

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via MyPlayCity 24/7 HERE. The second game in the series, Mystery of Unicorn Castle: The Beastmaster, that was released several years after the original release is available via Steam platform HERE for £4.99

Installation:

The game downloads to a 137 MB zip file that unzips to two files, (an unwrapped set up exe file & a read me). The usual setup.gcd file is missing due to the problems we had earlier today with the corrupted zip file. The game still has the check boxes removed, and is smaller in size than originally quoted. Those with multiple hard drives are able to save games on any drive they wish. The newly installed game is MB in size. The game installs to the following path by default, but can be changed by the user if you prefer:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\Mystery of Unicorn Castle

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

Introduction:

Jane Morion always considered herself a normal girl. Except the time when she was sleeping. Her dreams were weird: she often imagined that she was wandering through the long corridors and vast halls of an old dark castle in search of unknown in the game Mystery Of Unicorn Castle. And then the castle walls melted away and she saw a white unicorn which came up to her quietly and gracefully. At this moment she always woke up... One morning Jane found a strange letter. It was an invitation from some Lord Morion who claimed that he was her relative. He asked her to come to England and inherit an old castle. This letter was very intriguing and exciting. Jane decided to go immediately. England was unfriendly and depressing for her. But when she reached her destination Jane forgot about it. In front of her there was the castle from her dreams. But her intuition told her that there was some secret. Are you intrigued? Download the game Mystery Of Unicorn Castle! You have to help Jane Morion to unravel the secrets that are kept in the old castle. Talk to the servants, find some clues and look for different things which might be helpful... Many of the levels in the game Mystery Of Unicorn Castle are full of interactive displays and have mysterious atmosphere. The ancient magic and the modern technology and, good and evil - everything is mixed here. While you're revealing the secrets you will find plenty of mini-games with an unexpected storyline. And who knows, you might even meet a ghost. Mystery Of Unicorn Castle is a very unpredictable game!

Reference accessed HERE. 2016

1) ... Surreal Hidden Object game

2) ... 5 distinct search methods

3) ... Solve the inheritance scandal

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

The Game:

Enter Mystery of Unicorn Castle to transport yourself into a scene that could have come from an Agatha Christie novel. Jane Morion receives a letter from Lord Morion claiming to be a relative on her father’s side and asking her to come to England regarding the inheritance of a family castle. Upon her arrival, Jane learns that others have received the same latter, and thus begins your hidden object game mystery.

Lord Morion appears in a video recording that explains one of the visitors will inherit the castle. The one who can find the secret heart of the castle earns owner’s rights to the castle. In typical mystery novel fashion, the characters introduce themselves, running the gamut from the gal who talks like a teenager, the spoiled son, a retired police inspector, a historian, and you as Jane Morion.

Oh, and to add more drama, the family is cursed. Many family members would become insane or their spirits can’t leave the castle for an eternity.

You can find objects in five ways: The standard list of objects to find, silhouettes of the objects, compare identical scenes and find differences, clear out a room of objects that don’t belong, and find pairs of objects.

Needed items sometimes hide in a box or on cabinet shelves. Before opening them, you must solve a mini-game. The gears mini-game involves putting the right-sized gears on the board until they all start rotating so you can open doors. Create match threes until the chest unlocks or turn squares with pictures to create a path from the key to the lock to unlock a secret box. Jigsaw puzzles also serve a purpose to put together things that fell apart or broke like glasses or old parchment.

Mystery of Unicorn Castle offers just the right amount of mini-games and variety. No memory game in this one! Mini-games can grow old after a few times, but these take care not to overstay their welcome in the game. Furthermore, the mini-games and different ways of finding hidden objects all have a purpose in the story – something few games manage to pull off with great success.

The scenes can take more than average time to load especially after unlocking a box. When clicking to view the options or receiving a note that you’ve unlocked the box, the dialogue box uses an unnecessary slow effect.

Click the magnifying glass for a hint, but beware you won’t get more hints until the magnifying glass fills back up. To refill it, click the flying fairies that slowly appear while you finish working the scene.

Many hidden object games come with dark scenes where you have a flashlight in the form of a circle. So all you can see appears in the circle. Mystery of Unicorn Castle offers a better way of doing dark scenes. It starts with a circle until you find candles and matches. Put the candles in the candleholders and light those with the matches for a view easier on the eyes.

The music suits the story to a tee with creepy sounds like footsteps and knocking, and you’ll see plenty of sinister-looking scenes to absorb you into the mystery. Although a couple of light cuss words appear in the dialogue including h-e-double hockey sticks and rhymes with dam. However, considering the spooky theme, it would probably be better for kids not old enough for such words to skip the game.

Edited reference accessed HERE. 25th Sept 2016

Other Reviews, Videos and a Slideshow of images showing the How to Play pages:

You can see big fish community reviews of Mystery of Unicorn Castle HERE, and more comments about the game in the Big fish forums HERE. If you want to see some game play you can see some videos HERE, HERE and HERE.

Conclusion:

Although Mystery of Unicorn Castle doesn’t last as long as might expect of a hidden object game (expect 3 to 5 hours of gameplay), it’s not a bad thing here because you don’t encounter repeated objects and scenes. Sure, you’ll revisit a room, but you never see the same objects or do the same thing twice. For example, you’ll find a list of objects to find in the kitchen, and when you return later, this time you must find pairs of objects. Games that last for a long time tend to reuse scenes and objects.

The game comes with one mode and there’s not a lot of replay value. Once the story ends – and it wraps up nicely without loose or incomplete threads – you’ve done all you can. Players of all hidden object experiences will find Mystery of Unicorn Castle a worthy adventure that offers an intriguing story without overdoing the dialogue where you do more than just seek and find.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Mystery of Unicorn Castle minus the checkboxes and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing more games in a safe environment.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

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

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

If today's game was not to your liking, you may find other games either free or for less than the price of a cup of coffee (from your favorite coffee house) via the 'Weekly Roundup of Game Deals' thread which I've posted a link to above, or HERE.
.
The latest free game over on Origin is still Nox. You can get it HERE. Please note that you do require the Origin game platform to be able to download and install the game. The PC version of ALERT: SECTOR 8 (a traditional Shoot Em Up )is also still available over on Failmids Shareware-on-Sale site HERE; plus for one more day the Queens package for Desert Operations HERE (Not a Steam key and you need to create a free account for the free to play game before you can redeem the code, which has to be completed by mid November). Thanks to Delenn for reminding me about this offer. Also available via Failmid's site is the the open world racing game The Crew (ends Monday 3rd Oct). You will need the uPlay client for The Crew. To get the game you have to log into your uPlay account, then click on the banner that says Ubisoft turns 30. This should open a new page where you can get The Crew added to your account. The Crew is also a premium AAA game and well worth getting, especially if you like open world racing games. To get The Crew the shareware link I've provided above isn't actually necessary. You just have to sign into your uPlay account and look for the Ubisoft turning 30 link, or if you don't have a uPlay account create an account HERE. Click on the green Join the Club button, get your free account, then get your free copy of The Crew.

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

DIG are still offering free Steam keys for Hacker Evolution Time Dimensions and Crystals of time. To get keys for these two games you will have to do similar activities as you do for those Steam games that have been offered for the past several months over on the game giveaway site. You can find those free Steam key deals HERE (Hacker Evolution: Time Dimensions and HERE (Crystals of Time).

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

<ul><blockquote>I reported a possible problem with today's download after trying to install it as soon as it went live. But wasn't able to due to an error message. It now appears to have been confirmed by other community members that the download is corrupted in some way as everyone so far has reported a crc message - ''the key cannot be decrytpted''.</blockquote> <blockquote>I'm sure the giveaway team will correct the problem at some point today. Please check back later. I will post a message at the top of my review to confirm when the file has been replaced.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Also, Xilolee posted a fix for yesterdays game that enables you to play Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny in full screen. Just hold down alt and click Enter. Thanks Xilolee.</blockquote></ul>

Mystery of Unicorn Castle

<blockquote>In Brief</blockquote>
<blockquote>A Hidden Object game. I've been having problems unzipping the game from the giveaway zip file. Using two different archivers I get issues with both and am unable to install the game getting the message ''the key cannot be decrytpted'' hopefully it's just a problem with my download manager. I used the MPC version plus my previous knowledge of this game because I beta tested this game for Alawar several years ago (2009).</blockquote>

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

<blockquote>If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via MyPlayCity 24/7 <a href="http://www.myplaycity.com/unicorn_castle/" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. The second game in the series, Mystery of Unicorn Castle: The Beastmaster, that was released several years after the original release is available via Steam platform <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/428280/" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> for £4.99</blockquote>

Installation:

<blockquote>The game downloads to a 137 MB zip file that unzips to two files, (an unwrapped set up exe file & a read me). The usual setup.gcd file is missing due to the problems we had earlier today with the corrupted zip file. The game still has the check boxes removed, and is smaller in size than originally quoted. Those with multiple hard drives are able to save games on any drive they wish. The newly installed game is MB in size. The game installs to the following path by default, but can be changed by the user if you prefer:</blockquote>
<blockquote>C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\Mystery of Unicorn Castle</blockquote>
 <blockquote>Four shortcuts are installed to the desktop. three of which can be safely deleted (Play Online Games, MyPlayCity Games and shortcuts to a free online game which vary each week). Also, if you don't like icons installed to the quick launch task bar, make sure you uncheck the box when the additional tasks window appears (after the Select Start Menu Folder window)</blockquote>

Introduction:
<blockquote>Jane Morion always considered herself a normal girl. Except the time when she was sleeping. Her dreams were weird: she often imagined that she was wandering through the long corridors and vast halls of an old dark castle in search of unknown in the game Mystery Of Unicorn Castle. And then the castle walls melted away and she saw a white unicorn which came up to her quietly and gracefully. At this moment she always woke up... One morning Jane found a strange letter. It was an invitation from some Lord Morion who claimed that he was her relative. He asked her to come to England and inherit an old castle. This letter was very intriguing and exciting. Jane decided to go immediately. England was unfriendly and depressing for her. But when she reached her destination Jane forgot about it. In front of her there was the castle from her dreams. But her intuition told her that there was some secret. Are you intrigued? Download the game Mystery Of Unicorn Castle! You have to help Jane Morion to unravel the secrets that are kept in the old castle. Talk to the servants, find some clues and look for different things which might be helpful... Many of the levels in the game Mystery Of Unicorn Castle are full of interactive displays and have mysterious atmosphere. The ancient magic and the modern technology and, good and evil - everything is mixed here. While you're revealing the secrets you will find plenty of mini-games with an unexpected storyline. And who knows, you might even meet a ghost. Mystery Of Unicorn Castle is a very unpredictable game!</blockquote> 
<blockquote>Reference accessed <a href="http://www.myplaycity.com/unicorn_castle/download.html?autostart=on" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. 2016</blockquote>
<blockquote>1) ... Surreal Hidden Object game</blockquote> 
<blockquote>2) ... 5 distinct search methods</blockquote> 
<blockquote>3) ... Solve the inheritance scandal</blockquote>

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

The Game:

<blockquote>Enter Mystery of Unicorn Castle to transport yourself into a scene that could have come from an Agatha Christie novel. Jane Morion receives a letter from Lord Morion claiming to be a relative on her father’s side and asking her to come to England regarding the inheritance of a family castle. Upon her arrival, Jane learns that others have received the same latter, and thus begins your hidden object game mystery.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Lord Morion appears in a video recording that explains one of the visitors will inherit the castle. The one who can find the secret heart of the castle earns owner’s rights to the castle. In typical mystery novel fashion, the characters introduce themselves, running the gamut from the gal who talks like a teenager, the spoiled son, a retired police inspector, a historian, and you as Jane Morion.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Oh, and to add more drama, the family is cursed. Many family members would become insane or their spirits can’t leave the castle for an eternity.</blockquote>
<blockquote>You can find objects in five ways: The standard list of objects to find, silhouettes of the objects, compare identical scenes and find differences, clear out a room of objects that don’t belong, and find pairs of objects.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Needed items sometimes hide in a box or on cabinet shelves. Before opening them, you must solve a mini-game. The gears mini-game involves putting the right-sized gears on the board until they all start rotating so you can open doors. Create match threes until the chest unlocks or turn squares with pictures to create a path from the key to the lock to unlock a secret box. Jigsaw puzzles also serve a purpose to put together things that fell apart or broke like glasses or old parchment.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Mystery of Unicorn Castle offers just the right amount of mini-games and variety. No memory game in this one! Mini-games can grow old after a few times, but these take care not to overstay their welcome in the game. Furthermore, the mini-games and different ways of finding hidden objects all have a purpose in the story – something few games manage to pull off with great success.</blockquote>

<blockquote><Not all is perfect. In the rooms where you clear junk that doesn’t belong, some objects actually could belong. For example, the kitchen has a fireplace, and the bellows "doesn’t belong." Why not? Bellows go with fireplaces. Rooms that call for picking up a bunch of the same thing can also be confusing. The nursery, for example, lists toys, but you might argue that some items should count as toys even though they don’t./blockquote>
<blockquote>The scenes can take more than average time to load especially after unlocking a box. When clicking to view the options or receiving a note that you’ve unlocked the box, the dialogue box uses an unnecessary slow effect.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Click the magnifying glass for a hint, but beware you won’t get more hints until the magnifying glass fills back up. To refill it, click the flying fairies that slowly appear while you finish working the scene.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Many hidden object games come with dark scenes where you have a flashlight in the form of a circle. So all you can see appears in the circle. Mystery of Unicorn Castle offers a better way of doing dark scenes. It starts with a circle until you find candles and matches. Put the candles in the candleholders and light those with the matches for a view easier on the eyes.</blockquote>

<blockquote>The music suits the story to a tee with creepy sounds like footsteps and knocking, and you’ll see plenty of sinister-looking scenes to absorb you into the mystery. Although a couple of light cuss words appear in the dialogue including h-e-double hockey sticks and rhymes with dam. However, considering the spooky theme, it would probably be better for kids not old enough for such words to skip the game.</blockquote>

<blockquote>Edited reference accessed <a href="http://www.gamezebo.com/2008/07/03/mystery-unicorn-castle-review/" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. 25th Sept 2016</blockquote>

Other Reviews, Videos and a Slideshow of images showing the How to Play pages:

<blockquote>You can see big fish community reviews of Mystery of Unicorn Castle <a href="" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>, and more comments about the game in the Big fish forums <a href="" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. If you want to see some game play you can see some videos <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mazEn3EfZJE" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szVI8JTrSz4" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lNh4GArJ30" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>.</a></blockquote>

Conclusion:
<blockquote>Although Mystery of Unicorn Castle doesn’t last as long as might expect of a hidden object game (expect 3 to 5 hours of gameplay), it’s not a bad thing here because you don’t encounter repeated objects and scenes. Sure, you’ll revisit a room, but you never see the same objects or do the same thing twice. For example, you’ll find a list of objects to find in the kitchen, and when you return later, this time you must find pairs of objects. Games that last for a long time tend to reuse scenes and objects.</blockquote>
<blockquote>The game comes with one mode and there’s not a lot of replay value. Once the story ends – and it wraps up nicely without loose or incomplete threads – you’ve done all you can. Players of all hidden object experiences will find Mystery of Unicorn Castle a worthy adventure that offers an intriguing story without overdoing the dialogue where you do more than just seek and find.</blockquote>

<blockquote>I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Mystery of Unicorn Castle minus the checkboxes and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing more games in a safe environment.</blockquote>

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

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

<blockquote>If you spend over two dollars in the Indie Gala store (they have some excellent bundle deals, but these are excluded from the offer) you will also get a free copy of <a href="https://www.indiegala.com/store/ideafactory-games" rel="nofollow">Angel Express</a></blockquote>
 <blockquote>DIG are still offering free Steam keys for Hacker Evolution Time Dimensions and Crystals of time. To get keys for these two games you will have to do similar activities as you do for those Steam games that have been offered for the past several months over on the game giveaway site. You can find those free Steam key deals <a href="http://www.dailyindiegame.com/content_contesthe.html" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> (Hacker Evolution: Time Dimensions and <a href="http://www.dailyindiegame.com/content_contestcot.html" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> (Crystals of Time).</blockquote>

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

Hi, Whiterabbit/Stephen!
Thanks for your help, always!
I know it's nitpicking but, since you seem to be reusing a text with a mistake, let me warn that "a setup.gcd security wrapper, the set up file and a read me" do not "unzip to four files", but just three... :-)

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

Hi alexyu, it's not nitpicking at all. I welcome such comments. I do have a particular document with a the skeleton of a review, that has all the codes for the hyperlinks, bold and italic codes as well as headings etc. Saves a lot of time having to write everything from scratch. I fill in the gaps, then usually proof read it to make sure there are no serious mistakes, but Sundays is not a good day for finishing reviews especially when I don't find out about a game with only hours to go. Because we go to archery every Sunday morning until early to mid afternoon (depending on the weather). I didn't know there was going to be two games today until last night, by which time we were getting ready for bed. so I got up earlier than usual this morning to work on a second review (once I'd finished the main one), but one thing I neglected to do was proof read both reviews as I finished them. Thanks again for pointing out the mistake. it's probably come about from the four desktop shortcuts that are installed when you install MPC games. I do a lot of cut and pasting to rearrange things as necessary. sometimes i miss things or accidentally pick up more than I meant to

.

I'd not actually downloaded the replacement file until reading your comment, so have only just found out today's download is different from the usual wrapped download as the security wrapper is missing totally and the executable is also unwrapped. I didn't think I'd need it because I still have the copy of this game I was given when I was beta testing the game with Alawar seven years ago. I still remember this one as it was very unusual at the time.

Hi, Whiterabbit/Stephen!
Thanks for your help, always!
I know it's nitpicking but, since you seem to be reusing a text with a mistake, let me warn that "a setup.gcd security wrapper, the set up file and a read me" do not "unzip to four files", but just three...  :-)

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

<ul><blockquote>Hi alexyu, it's not nitpicking at all. I welcome such comments. I do have a particular document with a the skeleton of a review, that has all the codes for the hyperlinks, bold and italic codes as well as headings etc. Saves a lot of time having to write everything from scratch. I fill in the gaps, then usually proof read it to make sure there are no serious mistakes, but Sundays is not a good day for finishing reviews especially when I don't find out about a game with only hours to go. Because we go to archery every Sunday morning until early to mid afternoon (depending on the weather). I didn't know there was going to be two games today until last night, by which time we were getting ready for bed. so I got up earlier than usual this morning to work on a second review (once I'd finished the main one), but one thing I neglected to do was proof read both reviews as I finished them. Thanks again for pointing out the mistake. it's probably come about from the four desktop shortcuts that are installed when you install MPC games. I do a lot of cut and pasting to rearrange things as necessary. sometimes i miss things or accidentally pick up more than I meant to</blockquote>.<blockquote>I'd not actually downloaded the replacement file until reading your comment, so have only just found out today's download is different from the usual wrapped download as the security wrapper is missing totally and the executable is also unwrapped. I didn't think I'd need it because I still have the copy of this game I was given when I was beta testing the game with Alawar seven years ago. I still remember this one as it was very unusual at the time.</blockquote></ul>

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

#65

cant seem to download it keeps saying file not found. can any one help me with this problem. please and thank you.

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

Hi Marg. :-)

Users reported problems with these antiviruses, in past months/years: Avast, Avg, Comodo, Kaspersky, Norton/Symantec.
If you have one of those AV, you could try these possible solutions:
1) After you downloaded the package, put the setup.exe in the whitelist of your antivirus (this in case the package has been correctly downloaded)
2) disable the real-time/on-access scanning, just the time to download/install the software (then re-enable that function)
3) disable your AV completely, just the time to download/install the software (then re-enable it)
4) boot windows in safe mode with networking, just the time to download/install the software (sometimes this is necessary with kaspersky antivirus)

Hope this helps.

Please excuse the late moderation xilolee, was really busy yesterday. Just like to say thanks for all of your input over the last several weeks. Very much appreciated. Particularly the full screen fix for the arkanoid game. :)

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

#64

Just downloaded the zip file. No GCD file present, but setup.exe installs without it!
Just tried to start it, and it works.
Thanks.

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

Hi valboe. :-)

That's impossible.
The setup.exe can't install a 134MB game without the game (that's in the gcd file).

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

xilolee,
That's what i thought. but the zip did not contain a gcd file and the .exe did run.
I have played the first room. So it does seem to work.
The first zip files did contain the gcd file, but coudn't unzip. So I deleted those.

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

#63

Hello, your zip file is not 3 as usual. Just readme.txt and exe.
Merci

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

Hi Drole, please excuse the very late reply. Their was an issue with the original download. It was replaced with an unwrapped version of the game. Prior to the setup.gcd file being added there always only used to be two files. I hope you got the game installed?

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

Hi Drole. :-)

Users reported problems with these antiviruses, in past months/years: Avast, Avg, Comodo, Kaspersky, Norton/Symantec.
If you have one of those AV, you could try these possible solutions:
1) After you downloaded the package, put the setup.exe in the whitelist of your antivirus (this in case the package has been correctly downloaded)
2) disable the real-time/on-access scanning, just the time to download/install the software (then re-enable that function)
3) disable your AV completely, just the time to download/install the software (then re-enable it)
4) boot windows in safe mode with networking, just the time to download/install the software (sometimes this is necessary with kaspersky antivirus)

Hope this helps.

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

#62

Things I like: nothing too difficult here, decent variety of mini-games

Things I don't like: the mini-=games do seem to repeat. A LOT. Like the turn-the blocks one to link key to lock, which gets tiresome. And the blurry look to the objects you need to find, though not so great, is actually helpful from time to time! So that one is 50-50 like or don't like.

Things I absolutely HATE: the Match-3 mini-game! I hate Match-3 games with a passion, and to find one buried in MOUC as a mini-game almost made me uninstall it on the spot. By all means have a variety of mini-games, but please DON'T EVER put Match-3 games in as a mini-game: EVER! Match-3 games are almost as hideously tedious as 'management' games and multiplayer games; I'd genuinely find watching paint dry more interesting than playing either of those (which I would only do under threat of death in the first place).

I also hate having to chase fairies (or anything else) around the screen to re-stock hints. Please, developers: I play HOGs because I DETEST 'action' or 'shooting' games, both of which I am rubbish at. Playing a HOG should NOT repeat NOT involve any chasing!!! Again, please NEVER put anything like that in a HOG! HOGs should be about finding things, solving puzzles, and NOT about beating a timer or similar shoot-em-up tactics.

(Is that enough comment about the game now, Stephen?)

Thanks to the developers for giving this away, though: it's fascinating to see an early HOG and how they have really progressed down the years!

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

Hi Cad, thanks for the excellent feedback CAD, that is exactly what I'd like to see. If someone doesn't like a game, if they explain why it may inspire a developer to create something that the community would like. I still think this place could be a great place for developers to visit, but only if we get more comments like yours and less of the other unrelated comments (to which I'm also guilty of posting). :) Have a great week. I look forwards to more feedback from you in the future.

Things I like: nothing too difficult here, decent variety of mini-games

Things I don't like: the mini-=games do seem to repeat.  A LOT.  Like the turn-the blocks one to link key to lock, which gets tiresome.  And the blurry look to the objects you need to find, though not so great, is actually helpful from time to time!  So that one is 50-50 like or don't like.

Things I absolutely HATE: the Match-3 mini-game! I hate Match-3 games with a passion, and to find one buried in MOUC as a mini-game almost made me uninstall it on the spot. By all means have a variety of mini-games, but please DON'T EVER put Match-3 games in as a mini-game: EVER! Match-3 games are almost as hideously tedious as 'management' games and multiplayer games; I'd genuinely find watching paint dry more interesting than playing either of those (which I would only do under threat of death in the first place).

I also hate having to chase fairies (or anything else) around the screen to re-stock hints. Please, developers: I play HOGs because I DETEST 'action' or 'shooting' games, both of which I am rubbish at. Playing a HOG should NOT repeat NOT involve any chasing!!! Again, please NEVER put anything like that in a HOG! HOGs should be about finding things, solving puzzles, and NOT about beating a timer or similar shoot-em-up tactics.

(Is that enough comment about the game now, Stephen?)

Thanks to the developers for giving this away, though: it's fascinating to see an early HOG and how they have really progressed down the years!

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

<ul><blockquote>Hi Cad, thanks for the excellent feedback CAD, that is exactly what I'd like to see. If someone doesn't like a game, if they explain why it may inspire a developer to create something that the community would like. I still think this place could be a great place for developers to visit, but only if we get more comments like yours and less of the other unrelated comments (to which I'm also guilty of posting). :) Have a great week. I look forwards to more feedback from you in the future.</blockquote></ul>

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

#61

Takes a while for cursor to move across screen. Keeps telling you every few times you click what to do. It gets annoying and also slows the game considerably as you have to keep clicking on the box to say OK

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

Hi Hells Bells, you may be able to cure the problem by going into compatibility and change the settings. The game was released before win 7, so maybe select XP mode and try changing some of the other compatibility settings. Have you updated your graphics driver recently? Maybe that needs updating. check the FAQ's over in the game discussion forums for more help. I've linked to the thread in my review above. Do let me know if you solved it. sorry I can't be of more help.

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

Hi Hells Bells. :-)

In the options, untick hardware acceleration.

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

Hells Bells, I assume you mean the mouse pointer when you say "cursor?" I too have Win7 (I'm NEVER upgrading that!) and the game works fine here.

Try going into Options and switch off the "fancy" pointer (or "Specific Cursor" I think they call it) if it's currently "on." so that you have your plain Windows arrow pointer back. That's how I'm running the game here!

If that doesn't improve the pointer movement on your PC, then sorry but I have no other ideas.

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

#60

still not fixed only two files included the "gcd" file is missing so no license i guess only plays partly
would have been a nice game if it installed correctly
seems to be time restricted also won't play past maybe an hour before popups start
realy messed up this time
oh well try one some other time

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

Hi John, Sundays game had problems initially. The file=s were corrupted, so had to be replaced. The final download zip contained only two files, an unprotected executable and a read me. There was no security wrapper included in the final download

Did you check the event logs for any error messages? Also check the FAQ's thread that is located in the game discussion sticky section of the giveaway forums. I've linked to it in my review. Shouldn't be time restricted? no one else has reported this problem. Sorry I can't be of more help.

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

Hi john. :-)

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

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

Hope this helps.

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

#59

So glad to see this here, as I beta tested this game many years ago for the developer and now 2 computers later, I lost track of my installation file for it. Glad to have this game again!
Thanks GAOTD and MPC.

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

I too beta tested this game :)

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

#58

Mystery of Unicorn Castle
Like others I could not get it to download and install at first, but have now installed it. And Full disclosure, HOG games are not my daughter and I's favorite, but have like a couple we've found over time.
This game has somewhat dated looking graphics, and a quickly repetitive set of mini games, although the story is pretty well done.
Did start glitching for us as well, and that is unusual of a MPC game in my experience. Will try and play it more later, but my daughter lost interest in it, and if it doesn't peak mine soon it will be one that I will uninstall. YMMV, and if you're a fan of HOG it may be worth a look.

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

Thank you for your feedback. The game was released seven years ago, which probably explains the dated graphic, but then I'm sure the first Dreamscapes HOG was released around the same time and that series, which is one of those HOG's I actually enjoyed playing throughout the whole series has excellent graphics from the very first in the series. (Dreamscapes: The Sandman is available via MPC). HOG's are not my favorite genre either, though the sequel to Unicorn Castle for example comes up to the quality of the Dreamscapes series and led me to buying it yesterday. :)

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

#57

Hi,
The game is good, but runs very slow. Download was not long, but opening it took awhile with some flashing one and off and only one file. So, I am not sure if should redo it or not. I see there was some trouble with it. The cursor moved terribly, so I immediately went into options and unchecked theirs. It moved a little better, but still tight. The game is decent, just slow movement. It is typical of these games. There is no skip and having the same puzzles gets boring. I did a few levels/rooms and was the same mainly. Graphics are average. Thanks for another game and have a great week! Lee

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

Thank you for your feedback Lee. At the time of it's release Unicorn Castle was way ahead of most HOG's apart from the early Dreamscapes HOG's, but seven years of HOG development has seen some amazing HOG's released since Unicorn Castle was released. I'm not all that fond of HOG's but the sequel to today's giveaway was one I purchased yesterday after watching some videos of game play. The giveaway wasn't configured for the latest operating systems, which could explain why it runs badly. Have you tried running it in compatibility mode for XP or Vista. I think Win 7 hadn't been released when Unicorn Castle was released early in 2009 (Win 7 was released mid summer 2009)

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

#56

This is a very annoying stupid game.

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

Hi Larry, could you say why it's stupid and annoying? It's such information that would be interesting to developers. Thank you.

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

#55

Win10 64bit Home. Game loaded fine. It did opened to windowed panel but going into options to uncheck and check Full Screen and back again got it working. Works fine now. Good game I do like the mixture of game play. Thank you. No .GCD file? Is that new, sorry if it was mentioned somewhere and I missed it.

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

Hi Suzanne, the gcd file was removed for this giveaway becasue we were having problems early in the giveaway. Everyone was getting error messages because the file was corrupted. The security setup.gcd file will unfortunately return next weekend. Sadly it's essential to stop unscrupulous community members from ripping off the games. Prior to using the security wrapper, that employs Themida code some community members had figured out a way to rip the unprotected executable, which meant they could install the game on any computer after the giveaway had ended. Not only that some of these community members delighted in spreading the knowlede on how to rip the games and software (probably bragging) and some even posted You tube videos showing you how it was done. It was actually really simple. If you knew anything about windows, you'd know that most programs when installing place the executable in the temporary folder found in the AppData/Local folders which are usually hidden from sight unless the user goes into folder options and checks the unhide checkbox. You can always tell a folder or file that has been made to be visible becasue theyhave a slightly different look to other folders (i.e. they look slightly faded). Most users never bother to do this because most hidden folders are hidden to stop you from accidentally deleting them becasue they usually contain system files or other important data that if deleted could cause problems. You can no longer rip off the executable via this method thanks to the Themida based security wrapper. The reason some anti malware programs block giveaways is because of the Themida code. Because it's so good at its job, (please excuse the anthropomorphism) hackers also use it to hide root kits, Trojans and other unsavory malware. So anti malware suites may flag it as potentially dangerous as a security measure, even if it's actually safe,

Win10 64bit Home.   Game loaded fine.  It did opened to windowed panel but going into options to uncheck and check Full Screen and back again got it working.  Works fine now.  Good game I do like the mixture of game play.  Thank you.    No .GCD file?  Is that new, sorry if it was mentioned somewhere and I missed it.

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

<ul><blockquote>Hi Suzanne, the gcd file was removed for this giveaway becasue we were having problems early in the giveaway. Everyone was getting error messages because the file was corrupted. The security setup.gcd file will unfortunately return next weekend. Sadly it's essential to stop unscrupulous community members from ripping off the games. Prior to using the security wrapper, that employs Themida code some community members had figured out a way to rip the unprotected executable, which meant they could install the game on any computer after the giveaway had ended. Not only that some of these community members delighted in spreading the knowlede on how to rip the games and software (probably bragging) and some even posted You tube videos showing you how it was done. It was actually really simple. If you knew anything about windows, you'd know that most programs when installing place the executable in the temporary folder found in the AppData/Local folders which are usually hidden from sight unless the user goes into folder options and checks the unhide checkbox. You can always tell a folder or file that has been made to be visible becasue theyhave a slightly different look to other folders (i.e. they look slightly faded). Most users never bother to do this because most hidden folders are hidden to stop you from accidentally deleting them becasue they usually contain system files or other important data that if deleted could cause problems. You can no longer rip off the executable via this method thanks to the Themida based security wrapper. The reason some anti malware programs block giveaways is because of the Themida code. Because it's so good at its job, (please excuse the anthropomorphism) hackers also use it to hide root kits, Trojans and other unsavory malware. So anti malware suites may flag it as potentially dangerous as a security measure, even if it's actually safe,
</blockquote></ul>

Save | Cancel

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

#54

So I'm having all kinds of trouble even playing the game. It'll start, then if I choose 'options' to see about screensize or sound volume it goes to a alternating dark black/light black screen that it never comes out of and I have to force close the game with task manager. This is Win7. Once I gave up on options and go into gameplay, I'm able to go to the first room and see the list of items to find... each item I find ends up sending the display back into the light/dark black screen but it'll come out of that after 3-5 seconds. Problem is, once I cleared the first room and went to the lower level one it started back up again with the black screen that would never recover. For my machine it seems I'll be unable to play this.

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

Hi Jon, sort of already replied to this via your last comment. I was replying to this comment earlier before the giveaway ended, but becasue I was distracted and had to leave the computer unattended while sorting the kids out for school, when I saved the reply, the site had timed out so didn't save my comment. I hope the compatibility suggestion helped? If it didn't make any difference, try changing some of the other compatibility mode settings.

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

So it turns out my video driver was a big part of the issue, but now that it's updated I'll get all these blue/pink/green pixels of artifacting on the screen during gameplay on occasion. I think I recall having these pixels before with other games and that's why I'd rolled back to a much older driver that didn't have that issue... and seems the even newer drivers still have the problem for me. At least it's playable now but wonder when the pixels will lead to a game crash or even worse a bsod like I seem to recall with other 'newer' drivers before now.

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

Hi Jon, Was replying to your last comment when the site timed out, so lost everything I'd typed. Please excuse my lateness in replying; I was sorting the kids out for school etc. Glad you sorted the initial problem.

Have you tried running in compatibility mode? The game was created and released before Win 7 was released, so you could try compatibility mode in XP. Hopefully that will sort the proboem. If not, check the FAQ;s thread that I link to in the review at the top of the comments.. I seem to remember there were problems with some games working with the new operating system, though I still think Win 7 has been the best win upgrade so far (I'm still running Win 7 on 2 computers {though not the one I'm on at the moment} plus I recently purchased another copy for one of the laptops.)

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

#53

Game had a good story line but would have been more enjoyable with a few different mini games. Having to do the same mini games over and over took some of the fun out of it.

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

I agree. Though this was an early HOG, when such things as mini games were not common. Things have improved massively over the intervening years. Today's giveaway was released early in 2009, over 7 years ago. The recent release of its sequel see's a much improved game, with excellent graphics, excellent animations and sound effects, plus game play id intriguing at times.

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

#52

Got it at the third Download attempt - although for some reason, once the third file had downloaded and unzipped, it started trying to unzip one of the earlier ones!

It all seems to work as it should. Bits of it are familiar - the heroine, some of her poses for example - but I don't remember the rooms and their contents, at last as far as I played it.

I'm now trying to work out whether I've met it before under a different name! Anyway, I think it was worth the effort. Not too long, nice artwork, and a story that you can follow through the castle along with Our Heroine.

Thanks for another nice little time-waster . . . sorry! I mean time-passer. Of course.

;-D

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

Thank you for your feedback Basilica, please excuse the late reply. I'm sure this game was given away some years ago, but i couldn't find any trace of it when searching past giveaways, so you could be right about the name change, though I beta tested this game before it was officially released via Alawar late in 2008 /early 2009 and the name seems right to me.

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

Don't worry about the time factor, Whiterabbit - I never do! This was a troublesome download, but worth it for most who persevered, I think.

I'm still trying to remember what the game was called when I had it before . . . but it would have been quite a while ago, on a different box. I do remember that it was one game I succeeded in getting through, right to the end - and there aren't all that many I can say that about!

So thanks again for all your efforts to keep us grumbly game fans happy.

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

:)

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

#51

game.exe keeps crashing. Will have to uninstall.

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

Hi Dan, really sorry I've got to you so late. The giveaway ended about half an hour ago. Did you check the FAQ's thread to see if there were any fixes? Also, did you download it early in the day, but not install it till late becasue if the latter is true you may have got the corrupted version. If the zip file unzips to the usual three files (read me, orange key set up and the security setup.gcd file then you had the bad download. It was later replaced by an unwrapped executable and a read me. If you still want the game, it's the same version that you can download from MyPlayCity HERE.

The main difference between the giveaway and MyPlayCity (MPC) versions is when the installer starts with the MPC version you'll notice three check boxes. These must be unchecked unless you want your home page changed to MyPlayCity, plus your browser changed and possibly a toolbar installed. Some MPC games will bring up a check-box whenever you boot up the game, others only at the initial installation. I can't say which Mystery of Unicorn Castle is.

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

#50

Thank you

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

#49

I'm enjoying this; it's more of a HOG with a story and less of an adventure game than modern "hidden object" games, and adventure games always feel like make-work to me.

The cursor was wobbly and hard to control, so I turned off "Hardware Acceleration" in the options, and that fixed it.

One thing I find very annoying, though, is that the information for the mini-games pops up several times while playing them. Yes, I read it the FIRST time; you don't have to tell me to put the gears in order every five seconds! Sheesh.

Thanks, GameGiveAway, and MyPlayCity!

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

Thank you for your feedback Corylea, I think virtually everyone who played the game was annoyed by the repeated info panels.

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

#48

I am grateful for the game. My review is that I am not much a fan of this one. It looks like it has potential but it is running super slow and the graphics are pixelated. It is of the old style of "find misc things in a room" rather than something that moves the story along. If it weren't for the poor resolution on the graphics and whatever is making it as slow as a turtle, I would play it for just something to do now and again. I do have a mild curiosity as to the story and what happens through the game but it would be too frustrated to go through it myself or search to see if there are problems on my system that could change the speed.

Another oddity with how it is acting for me is that it keeps giving me the instructions for the mini games over and over as I play. Something isn't syncing right between the hardware and the software.

It looks to be a good game for its age. Not willing to struggle with the difference that arise with trying to run it on a newer system.

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

Thank you for your feedback Gina. The sequel is far better compared to the original. it was only released last year (I think). Everything is so much smoother, clearer and the animations and sound effects are fantastic. I highly recommend the sequel, which I've linked to in my review at the top of the comments. I've added the correct coding for paragraphs for you. without the correct coding, paragraphs won't show up. I've explained this to another community member called Granny below. and included the code with explanations (just in case you are interested)

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

#47

Download and installation without a problem. This time without disabling the AV.
Under Win10 the graphics are blurry and the items are not good to see - like all of the last 3 or 4 games but still a keeper for me - I am too addicted ;-)

Thanks for this one - looking forward to the next game I like.

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

No setup.gcd file (that contains the Themida) to set your security off in today's after the initial issues. :)

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

Oh White Rabbit - sorry - I only ever click on the .exe and haven't remarked there was no .gcd file - silly me.

Thanks for pointing out.

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

#46

Looks fixed in d/l 15min ago Windows 10 x64 Pro. When hit the acceleration option the screen went black and restarted in end to end size vs the limited size default. Not sure if end to end makes for a slightly fuzzy reading but if does no problem at the smaller size. Nice sounds & music. Keeper for while. 8.5/10 Thanks.

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

#45

This is a really nice game, tanks a lot :-)

Couldn't stop playing, finished it already, but I will definitely replay it.

A few remarks, the game is very impatient! When you start a new level and don't start clicking immediately, a message pops up suggesting to use a hint. This also happens when it takes a bit of time to find an item.
In dark environments you can pick up candles and matches; it would be helpful to show how many candles etc you've got e.g 2/3.

A nice find is the timing, the game just counts how long it takes you per level and till the end of the game.

A bit disappointing were the special tasks towards the end, with the bowl she called her ancestor ghosts, but the game player never saw them, that would have been fun I think, the same for the other 2 items.

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

Thank you for your feedback Irene, appreciated

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

#44

ty i loved u games in the pat i losted them all over the years bring bak ssome of great old gamers, ty

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

#43

I'm still getting the un-unzippable problem. But I'll try again later. Looks an interesting game.

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

#42

Every time I download one of the Play City games I end up with the same game "Odysseus Long Way Home" I'm sick of this, I hate that game and now have it about 5 times on my pc. Running Win 8.1. Anyone else with this problem?
How can I fix it?

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

Hi Terri, sounds like the site cookies are corrupt. You need to clear the internet cache of the giveaway cookies. Once that's done things should work again properly. However, if they don't try checking where the game is being installed to and make sure it's the correct path (according to that I quote in my review

i.e. C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\Mystery of Unicorn Castle

I've had similar problems in the past, where games have all gone into previous games installed folders. Make sure the path is as quoted above, then if the short cut that has been installed onto your desktop isn't the correct one, follow the path the the installed MyPlayCity folder and look for Mystery of Unicorn Castle, open it up and find the correct executable, create a shortcut to the desktop and all should be well. Hopefully clearing out your internet cache at least the giveaway cookies should do the trick.

I would also suggest you check the FAQ's thread that I link to in my review above and after installing the game, if you are still having problems, open up the event viewer and check the most recent logs to see if there are any messages related to the installation. Sometimes you can get clues as to the problem via the even logs becasue they record everything your computer does. Finally it may be a conflict problem, that is blocking the installation of the latest games. todays game is actually quite different because the Themida wrapper isn't included nor is the executable wrapper. Instead we have a bare executable file and a read me.

Every time I download one of the Play City games I end up with the same game "Odysseus Long Way Home" I'm sick of this, I hate that game and now have it about 5 times on my pc. Running Win 8.1. Anyone else with this problem?
How can I fix it?

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

<ul><blockquote>Hi Terri, sounds like the site cookies are corrupt. You need to clear the internet cache of the giveaway cookies. Once that's done things should work again properly. However, if they don't try checking where the game is being installed to and make sure it's the correct path (according to that I quote in my review</blockquote> <blockquote>i.e. C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\Mystery of Unicorn Castle</blockquote>

<blockquote>I've had similar problems in the past, where games have all gone into previous games installed folders. Make sure the path is as quoted above, then if the short cut that has been installed onto your desktop isn't the correct one, follow the path the the installed MyPlayCity folder and look for Mystery of Unicorn Castle, open it up and find the correct executable, create a shortcut to the desktop and all should be well. Hopefully clearing out your internet cache at least the giveaway cookies should do the trick.</blockquote>

<blockquote>I would also suggest you check the FAQ's thread that I link to in my review above and after installing the game, if you are still having problems, open up the event viewer and check the most recent logs to see if there are any messages related to the installation. Sometimes you can get clues as to the problem via the even logs becasue they record everything your computer does. Finally it may be a conflict problem, that is blocking the installation of the latest games. todays game is actually quite different because the Themida wrapper isn't included nor is the executable wrapper. Instead we have a bare executable file and a read me.
</blockquote><ul>

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

I will clear the cache, however the game is installed in the External Hard Drive, is that the problem?

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

It shouldn't be, but maybe you could try installing it to the path suggested, then cut (copy) the whole game from the C drive and move it to your external drive. The only other thing you'll then need to do is create a new shortcut from the copy on the external. I've checked the folders where games sometimes install extra folders and couldn't find one for Unicorn Castle, so it looks like it's free standing, so should be okay to cut and paste to the new location.

Please do let me know if it works that way.

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

Thank you so much for your help, however I am no pc guru and at my age don't think that will likely change, so looks like I'll just have to forget it but I do thank you for your help, hopefully it will help someone else. I did however clean the cache and downloaded the game again with the same results. Thank you.

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

Hi Terri, if you want you can email me with details of the problem and I'll try to help. If you want I'll send you my Team Speak server address and my password and I could try and talk it through with you. you'd need to install Team speak, but we can discuss that via email if you want help. Up to you of course. I' always happy to help and definitely expect nothing in return. What is happening with your computer shouldn't be happening, so there is definitely something wrong. Maybe your computer has a virus that is causing the problem, though that's only a suggestion, so don't worry. Anyway, if you want some help here's my email. I check it most days, so if i see an email from you I'll answer back.

Whiterabbit-uk@hotmail.co.uk

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

#41

I had no difficulty downloading and installing this game. I was pretty disappointed in a number of things. I thought that the graphics were somewhat blurry, especially the hidden objects, and poorly rendered. There was a window that kept popping up every 15-20 sec. reminding me that if I click indiscriminately during a hidden objects hunt, that ghosts will pop out and I will have to start over again. And it kept popping up whether I clicked or not. Very annoying! The printed fonts during the narration are also poorly rendered and hardly distinct at all. The music was good, melodramatic and creepy. I only played this game about 15 minutes, so I may have missed some interesting segments, but there were so many things that were aggravating, that I just uninstalled it. Such a shame. It looked so interesting, so I'm disappointed.

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

Hi Suzan, thank you for your thoughtful comment. Unicorn Castle was one of the first of this type of Hidden Object. Gradually over the last several years HOG's have improved graphically. If you liked the theme, maybe you should try the sequel that was only released last year and which I've linked to in my review. The graphics are vastly superior to the original. It's actually quite cheap via Steam HERE. You can check game play out via THIS video. I purchased it earlier today after watching several game play videos and after a short stint at playing it found it vastly superior to the original that we have been given today.

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

Thank you very much about the information of a sequel. I'll certainly look into it. You're very kind to have answered my comment.

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

:)

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

#40

this is a awful game it is made totally wrong very disappointed uninstalling

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

Hi dd, can you explain why you think it's made totally wrong. It's such feedback that developers would like to hear. From such feedback they can work to make a more acceptable game. This particular game is seven years old and at the time of it's release was very unusual because most HOG's back then were like I Spy games. This developer was one of those that started the trend we see today, where HOG's have great story lines, great graphics and excellent puzzles, where you could move from room to room and return etc.

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

#39

Can't download the game if you don't send out the emails.

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

Yes you can. If your are having problems, try using a different browser to open it. Even though you may not be using Internet Explorer, it still needs to be set to online for you to download from this site.

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

#38

Used two different emails, twice (4). Did not receive emails back. Nothing.

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

Hi Skybase, what did you use emails for? There's no need to use an email or a Facebook account to gert a download for this game. Click on the 'Proceed to Download Page, then click on the Green 'Download Now - Mystery of Unicorn Castle', that should give you two choices email or Facebook. Select Facebook and when the Facebook log in page opens just close it. You don't need a Facebook account, it's there so that those who do have and don;t mind passing on info about the giveaways can do so. Once you've closed the log in page the download button will turn green again and you can download the game. I know it's become a little more complicated than it used to be, but the giveaway team have been trying to spread the word via social media. The more community members the site gains, the better chance we have of getting better games.

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

skybase,

Dear Moderator,
All this time I've been whining about facebook and never realized you didn't need an account! Guess I'm the fool and an apology is in order. I was forced to use internet explorer thought - it doesn't work with FF. Everything went very smooth downloading to vista and started the game. Everything is fine. Thanks soooooo much for the support. Thanks My Play City! The game is great.

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

No need to apologise Skybase, I'm just glad things are now sorted and there's one less disgruntled community member. ;)

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

skybase,
Your always saying to praise or suggest an improvement. I with (not complaining) with the person who mentioned that the pop up instructions coming up repeatedly are annoying. I had a hard time finding the first item and the damn thing was popping up every 30 seconds. lol
Thanks again!!!!!!

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

<

It seems an age since I beta tested Mystery of Unicorn Castle (for Alawar, where it was first released), but I do remember that annoyance. I'm sure it was mentioned to the developer at the time as well, but was never changed. I should still have my report, but that is on one of the many backup disks that were unlabelled and i'm still adding to a database to make it easier to find. Been working on that thing for over a year and still nowhere near finished. got literally tens of thousands of gigabytes of data on several hundred DVD's, at least 300+ Blu Rays (the 25GB size) and several external drives as well as loads of pen drives and SD cards.

In fact I don't remember any of the suggestions I made a the time showed up in the final release. I highly recommend the sequel though. It was released not that long ago. I've literally just purchased it today via Steam (£4.99). Everything about the sequel is far better than the original.

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

skybase, Make that TWO less disgruntled members. TO my shame, Stephen did tell that 'workaround' before and in I'd completely forgotten all about it!

Stephen: thanks for the, um … reminder.

I'll get me coat … (!). ;-)

MEANWHILE this looks like another fun Alawar HOG and I'm off to grab it now. My kinda game, as regular viewers will know.

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

Not a problem Cad, oh yeah, you can use em instead of i for italics but I'm sure you know that. I didn't actually realize you could use i on WordPress, wonder if b will substitute for strong?. :)

Ha! yes it does.

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

Stephen, I may be wrong but em and strong were latecomers to the HTML tag party, and in 98 cases out of 10, they merely do italic and bold respectively.

Oh and to granny: this site doesn't support ul tags; or if it does, they're not shown in the list above the new comment box! Also ul means Unordered List and you shouldn't use it just as a way to indent text; it's intended for bulleted lists.

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

Hi Cad, no i don't think you are. 'i' and 'b' were always what I used in the past. It was only when I came here that I met 'em' and 'strong'. With respect to indent; I realize 'ul' is for unordered text as is 'ol' for ordered text, but I initially needed something that centralized the images I posted in my reviews. I couldn't find a code for center (which is used in the forums and elsewhere). Unfortunately 'center' doesn't work in this comments section, so I found using a combination of ul and blockquote together to move the image enough to the right to be almost centralized or at least give an appearance of being central; at least on the monitor resolution I use (25'' monitor set to1920 x 1080). I've since also used it to indent groups of numbered or bullet pointed sections for example a list of features. Thanks for posting about it though.

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

#37

Downloaded fine on Windows 10 x64. I unzipped the file with no problem. However, the .gcd file was missing! I ran a virus check on the set-up file and it was fine. I'm making the assumption that the earlier problems experienced were solved by removing the .gcd file? Installed with no problem. However, when I went to run the game, it took a long time to load - not even showing the initial splash screen for about 5 seconds or so. Once it installed, cursor movement felt very slow/jerky.

The game itself looks as if it will be a good game. The mini-puzzles in the first hidden objects screen were a pleasant surprise as you usually don't come across those when you're looking for hidden objects. The graphics are good. I'm keeping it for now; however, I may try uninstalling it and reinstalling it later today. I must admit, I am a bit unsettled by there being no activation key and the hesitating movement by the cursor when trying to play the game. Will the game not be available on my computer tomorrow because it didn't activate (due to the .gcd file being missing)? Is the fact that file is missing what is causing the jerky movement or is it because I'm on Windows 10? I'm supposing that because it is a free game from MPC, it will be usable on my computer from this point on, even without the activation, but I guess I'm not sure.

Thanks for the free HOG GOTD team - they're my favorite kind of game!

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

Thank you for your excellent and thoughtful feedback granny, much appreciated. Please excuse the time it's taken to reply. I was late back from archery and have a tendency to work backwards through the comments (simply because with WordPress it's easier; (it is easier). I've added some coding < blockquote > to your comment to separate the paragraphs. If you don't use the code at the beginning and end of each paragraph with the end < / blockquote > having a forward slash included, it won;t work properly. All the text joins together with no line spaces. It looks much better with the paragraphs separated as intended. :)

<blockquote>Downloaded fine on Windows 10 x64. I unzipped the file with no problem. However, the .gcd file was missing! I ran a virus check on the set-up file and it was fine. I'm making the assumption that the earlier problems experienced were solved by removing the .gcd file? Installed with no problem. However, when I went to run the game, it took a long time to load - not even showing the initial splash screen for about 5 seconds or so. Once it installed, cursor movement felt very slow/jerky.</blockquote>
<blockquote>The game itself looks as if it will be a good game. The mini-puzzles in the first hidden objects screen were a pleasant surprise as you usually don't come across those when you're looking for hidden objects. The graphics are good. I'm keeping it for now; however, I may try uninstalling it and reinstalling it later today. I must admit, I am a bit unsettled by there being no activation key and the hesitating movement by the cursor when trying to play the game. Will the game not be available on my computer tomorrow because it didn't activate (due to the .gcd file being missing)? Is the fact that file is missing what is causing the jerky movement or is it because I'm on Windows 10? I'm supposing that because it is a free game from MPC, it will be usable on my computer from this point on, even without the activation, but I guess I'm not sure.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Thanks for the free HOG GOTD team - they're my favorite kind of game!</blockquote>

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

<ul><blockquote>Thank you for your excellent and thoughtful feedback granny, much appreciated. Please excuse the time it's taken to reply. I was late back from archery and have a tendency to work backwards through the comments (simply because with WordPress it's easier; (it is easier). I've added some coding < blockquote > to your comment to separate the paragraphs. If you don't use the code at the beginning and end of each paragraph with the end < / blockquote > having a forward slash included, it won;t work properly. All the text joins together with no line spaces. It looks much better with the paragraphs separated as intended. :)
</blockquote></ul>

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

I just went back to play some more and went into options first. I unchecked the hardware acceleration box and that took care of the jerkiness during game play. It still loads in a weird way however.

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

It's quite an old game. Maybe the latest graphic drivers don't agree with it 100%. :) Did you see the message about the fix for full scree for yesterdays game? Xilolee posted it. i.e.

Alt + Enter will change the window into full screen for Arcanoid: Ball of Destiny.

Reply | Comment by granny483 – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (+2)

I did see that fix for full screen posted in yesterday's game and I've been happily playing it ever since (except when I'm playing today's game... ;) ) That was a big help, but I never tried it until later last night and never got back in to say thank you!

My graphic's card is an older card, too. Came with my HP computer which I got in 2009. Whatever the case, unchecking that box cleared up that problem. First time I've ever had to do that - was a learning experience!

No problem about getting back late to me.... I just put it out there and if I get a reply, puts a big smile on my face. If I don't, that's OK too.... I'm trying out the coding... At first I went with what they show on top (

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

ooooppppsssss...........

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

Yes, you are supposed to remove the spaces. If I post the code with the spaces removed it disappears, but affects everything within the two sets of brackets (i.e the forwards > and backward < arrows or greater than less than symbols), it is invisible. I'll sort it for you.

The beginning of a paragraph you don't include the forward slash. that is code for end, so you always put a forward slash at the end of anything you want codes such as bold or italics which use strong and Em for their respective codes. i.e. replace blockquote with em or strong and you get italics or bold letters instead of a paragraph. to indent you use ul. I've indented the whole of this comment below the moderator comment above, you can see everything apart from Moderator comment and the line of full stops are moved slightly (i.e. indented) to the left a little. I hope the above makes things clearer. :) Code really isn't the right word to use. I'm sure such things scare some people away, but it really is straight forwards. :)

By adding two sets of ul for example, this last paragraph will be even more indented than the first, but you must put two forward slash ul's at the end to close off the ones you put at the beginning of the comment and this last paragraph.

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

Thanks Stephan! As you could probably tell, I lost the rest of my last paragraph there and didn't want to clog up the remarks here.

I've taken screenshots of what you've told me so I can find them quickly when I need them. Thank you for your patience with me - and thanks for the good games! Today's game is now acting much more civilized on my computer!

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

Your still getting it wrong. I've corrected the errors and have created a document with the main codes that you may want to use screen captured and uploaded it. you can see (and copy it yourself) the crib sheet via the images I've posted below. I hope it's useful. As for being patient I enjoy replying to community members who comment regularly. It's never a bother at all. As I'm retired (11 years now) due to a serious road traffic accident when I was 49 that left me unable to work (due to a serious broken back that was never treated so has left me disabled plus head injuries that were also not treated (basically I was sent home from the A&E department with nothing wrong with me despite at the time not being able to walk; they said it was a badly bruised lower back and sprains)

I now have a lot of time on my hands. The giveaway site is one way that I use to fill the time when I'm not helping around the house, interacting with my now teenage kids, playing games or trying to start up new projects, for example, I'm trying to digitize all of the videos I took while on vacation when the kids were toddlers and even my honeymoon (we married in Thailand 19 years ago and video taped several hours of the honeymoon. all of which need to be converted from analogue (tape) to digital (disk). I have hundreds of hours worth of video of the kids growing up, special occasions, all on tape. Also got thousands of photos taken since we went to digital camera's, but none have ever been printed, so I want to sort through all of the digital images, which will probably take months as I've been prolific at taking images. For example the last vacation we took to Bulgaria several weeks ago we took over 2000 images. I bought my first digital camera when Emily was 1 year old, so that's 14 years of digital photography. Please excuse the waffle, my opiate med shave kicked in and i always tend to waffle when that happens. :)

p.s. I've emailed you the Word Pad document, hope you don't mind.

<blockquote>Thanks Stephan! As you could probably tell, I lost the rest of my last paragraph there and didn't want to clog up the remarks here. </blockquote >

<ul>I've taken screenshots of what you've told me so I can find them quickly when I need them. Thank you for your patience with me - and thanks for the good games! Today's game is now acting much more civilized on my computer!</blockquote></ul>

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

<ul><blockquote>Your still getting it wrong. I've corrected the errors and have created a document with the main codes that you may want to use screen captured and uploaded it. you can see (and copy it yourself) the crib sheet via the images I've posted below. I hope it's useful. As for being patient I enjoy replying to community members who comment regularly. It's never a bother at all. As I'm retired (11 years now) due to a serious road traffic accident when I was 49 that left me unable to work (due to a serious broken back that was never treated so has left me disabled plus head injuries that were also not treated (basically I was sent home from the A&E department with nothing wrong with me despite at the time not being able to walk; they said it was a badly bruised lower back and sprains)</blockquote>
<blockquote> I now have a lot of time on my hands. The giveaway site is one way that I use to fill the time when I'm not helping around the house, interacting with my now teenage kids, playing games or trying to start up new projects, for example, I'm trying to digitize all of the videos I took while on vacation when the kids were toddlers and even my honeymoon (we married in Thailand 19 years ago and video taped several hours of the honeymoon. all of which need to be converted from analogue (tape) to digital (disk). I have hundreds of hours worth of video of the kids growing up, special occasions, all on tape. Also got thousands of photos taken since we went to digital camera's, but none have ever been printed, so I want to sort through all of the digital images, which will probably take months as I've been prolific at taking images. For example the last vacation we took to Bulgaria several weeks ago we took over 2000 images. I bought my first digital camera when Emily was 1 year old, so that's 14 years of digital photography. Please excuse the waffle, my opiate med shave kicked in and i always tend to waffle when that happens. :)
</blockquote>

p.s. I've emailed you the Word Pad document, hope you don't mind.</blockquote></ul>

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

#36

Thanks for fixing the file, I love these games

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

#35

Sure is a lot easier to just go to the source of the free game at this link: http://www.myplaycity.com/hidden-object-games-mystery-of-unicorn-castle/

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

#34

The moderator's comment is correct.
twice i have tried downloading and its error message is the zip file cannot be extracted due to invalidfolder

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

#33

They appear to have fixed the file. I just downloaded and it installed fine and is working.

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

#32

Perfect! Thank you.

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

#30

I get to 99% extracted and then get an error message that the .gcd file can't be completed

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

#29

Установочный файл испорчен!!!??

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

#28

How the heck is this like an Agatha Christie novel? Have you EVER read an Agatha Christie novel? Agatha Christie did not write poorly thought out, horror drivel that would be rejected by the worst comic book company in existence.

There is NUDITY in the screenshots and cursing in the dialogue. BYE BYE FAMILY SITE! We will never call you that again!

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

Have you actually played the game? Strange that the fixed file was only uploaded after your comment was made.

Reply | Comment by Swamp Thing – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (-7)

Deleted by the moderator due to inappropriate comment directed at another community member

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

I missed this last night, sorry it's taken so long to sort. To DQ, the comment really isn't acceptable as it is pointed at another community member, so i have deleted the whole comment. Please don't make personal comments about other community members it is not acceptable on this site. Thank you.

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

Who needs to play the game when you have cursing and nudity in YOUR OWN review of the game? So, I expect, unless you went out of your way to post cursing and nudity in YOUR OWN review on a FAMILY site, it's probably even worse in the game.

Besides, I know how to uncheck two boxes before downloading games from MyPlayCity. You move the cursor and click, Twice. SIMPLE AS THAT.

So, never question whether or not I've played the game again. You asked for feedback on the game, and I gave it to you. A whole lot more than the dude right here who implies he want the door to hit me in a curse word.

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

Your comments are becoming downright argumentative and sarcastic even when all I'm trying to do is explain something you've questioned. I've always allowed your comments in the past because they injected a note of hilarity to the comments section and were never inappropriate even though most of those comments were not constructive comments about the game being given away. However, recently you seem to have argued just for the sake of it. As i said in a comment to you last weekend, I will no longer respond to your comments unless they are appropriate and about the game.

With respect to the comment from whomever about the door, I missed that. It has now been deleted as it is inappropriate. There really is no need for sarcasm Swamp Thing. Your attitude is very aggressive and is not welcome here. please refrain from such comments otherwise it may be necessary to ban your IP, which in my opinion would be a great shame because you have been a regular for as long as I can remember and you would be the first.

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

Swamp Thing, I'm struggling to find the nudity and cursing you claim is present in Stephen's screenshots. I can only think that you mean the drawing of Jane lying in bed with a bare shoulder (?) and the word 'hell' in one piece of dialogue (?).

If those are what you are referring to, then while I respect your opinion, I think the vast majority of people would not even think of those as nudity and cursing, let alone consider them offensive. Even the most religious people that I know use the word 'hell' in conversation, though admittedly to describe the place opposite to heaven.

You comment does give the impression that you are trolling and not being sincere: perhaps you are not aware that that is how it looks? That said, I think you may find it very difficult to find any HOG nowadays which fits your — if you'll excuse me saying so — unusually strict definition of 'family friendly.'

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

I think Swamp Thing was just trying to stir, but i may be wrong? I was looking over the images in the review and I think he may consider the statues as being nude, though I remember when my grandparents took me to museums as a child (which was fairly regularly) I was never steered away from statues, most of which were undoubtedly unclothed, but I only saw them for what they were representative art pieces of the times. Most if not all stately homes had them and this game which is supposed to represent a Stately home would also supposedly have them. Still, I expect some could construe such things as inappropriate for their children.

What I won't be from now is drawn by the guy any longer. I've spent far too much time replying to his comments, tying to explain things that he seems to have either misinterpreted, or when he's stated some thing that is simply not true. It also seems to me like he's seen those replies as some sort of attack, though again I may be wrong. Personally I think I've been very fair, patient and understanding. I never actually wanted to become a moderator. I spent to much time doing that on gaming sites in the 90's and 2o00's and found a lot of idiots posting all of the time. At least the giveaway comments generally appear to be mainly mature adults. The reason it came about was I asked if it was possible to edit my reviews because I was always posting them with typo's etc, or I wanted to add something or even remove something, so they made me a moderator/administrator. According to the staff list I'm down as an admin, but I consider myself a moderator as I don't do anything else here. No one ever replied to anyone's queries on the site prior to that, so I took it upon myself to start replying, helping where I could. That was just before the site went to weekends only. Here I am still. Regards Stephen

Swamp Thing, I'm struggling to find the nudity and cursing you claim is present in Stephen's screenshots.  I can only think that you mean the drawing of Jane lying in bed with a bare shoulder (?) and the word 'hell' in one piece of dialogue (?).

If those are what you are referring to, then while I respect your opinion, I think the vast majority of people would not even think of those as nudity and cursing, let alone consider them offensive.  Even the most religious people that I know use the word 'hell' in conversation, though admittedly to describe the place opposite to heaven.

You comment does give the impression that you are trolling and not being sincere: perhaps you are not aware that that is how it looks?  That said, I think you may find it very difficult to find any HOG nowadays which fits your — if you'll excuse me saying so — unusually strict definition of 'family friendly.'

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

<ul><blockquote>I think Swamp Thing was just trying to stir, but i may be wrong? I was looking over the images in the review and I think he may consider the statues as being nude, though I remember when my grandparents took me to museums as a child (which was fairly regularly) I was never steered away from statues, most of which were undoubtedly unclothed, but I only saw them for what they were representative art pieces of the times. Most if not all stately homes had them and this game which is supposed to represent a Stately home would also supposedly have them. Still, I expect some could construe such things as inappropriate for their children.</blockquote>

<blockquote>What I won't be from now is drawn by the guy any longer. I've spent far too much time replying to his comments, tying to explain things that he seems to have either misinterpreted, or when he's stated some thing that is simply not true. It also seems to me like he's seen those replies as some sort of attack, though again I may be wrong. Personally I think I've been very fair, patient and understanding. I never actually wanted to become a moderator. I spent to much time doing that on gaming sites in the 90's and 2o00's and found a lot of idiots posting all of the time. At least the giveaway comments generally appear to be mainly mature adults. The reason it came about was I asked if it was possible to edit my reviews because I was always posting them with typo's etc, or I wanted to add something or even remove something, so they made me a moderator/administrator. According to the staff list I'm down as an admin, but I consider myself a moderator as I don't do anything else here. No one ever replied to anyone's queries on the site prior to that, so I took it upon myself to start replying, helping where I could. That was just before the site went to weekends only. Here I am still. Regards Stephen</blockquote></ul>

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

#27

Downloaded the game file, but cannot properly extract the setup gcd. it fails everytime. Keep getting message CRC Failes Setup.gcd

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

#26

This game won't extract properly. Such a pity, it looked interesting.

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

#25

please fix crc error and repost looks and is described as a nice game

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

#24

Downloaded but the file failed to open. Deleted the folder and tried again, but nothing would download.

It'd be great if this problem could be fixed some time today.

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

#23

your crc file to this game is coming up with fail error

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

#22

I cannot extract the .zip file: the archive is corrupt.

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

robilyn, http://files.myplaycity.com/files_downloader_temp/unicorncastle_setup.exe

Reply | Comment by PiR2 – 8 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#21

Downloaded tonight's game and it WILL NOT open. It is a huge 142 megs so I would think the dev's could ensure it worked.
"Windows cannot complete the extraction. The destination file could not be created"
NOT good enough, GGOTD

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

#20

I got a different message:-- "The destination file could not be created".

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

Sieska Cowdrey, same here -'Windows cannot complete the extraction. The destination file could not be created.' Will try again later and hope it gets resolved

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

#19

'Mystery of Unicorn Castle' zip file is corrupted

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

#18

Game will not install
says
CRC failed in Setup.gcd. File is broken.
Tried downloading twice and the file is missing

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

#17

Somehow getting the feeling that - there are too many "happeings nowadays'
i DOWNLOAD THE GAMES FOR MY GRANDCHILD - YET THIS WEEK - AGAIN THERE ARE PROBLEMS
COME ON GGOTD GET YOUR ACT STRAIGHT

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

Hi Garnet Grove, sorry if your grandchild is disappointed, the giveaway team will sort this out sometime today. At this point in time I don't know whether they are aware of the problem.

However I believe you are mistaken in what you say about happenings here at the gamegiveaway site; there are rarely any problems with giveaways. What you perceive as problems are usually those that other community member have reported, but are a problem at their end, usually some way they have their computers configured, or some conflict with other programs running in the background, for example their security may be overly sensitive etc and is not a problem from the game giveaways end.

The only problems I have seen recently at least since the changes to the site several months ago are the very first Steam key giveaway, where problems arose when the team ran out of keys very quickly (we believe some unscrupulous community members were harvesting the keys to sell on,) and the team were unable to secure more keys so the giveaway was cancelled. Otherwise, apart from not getting enough keys from developers on a few other occasions, where they have then managed to secure more keys, (but in the case of last weeks Nyctophobia, over 22 thousand keys were given away. The team were not able to secure any others, but that's not the fault of the giveaway team and certainly not an issue with the site. The only other problem I have seen here is today's zip file appears corrupted, the first time this has happened to my knowledge. In the almost 10 years the game giveaway site has been operating, the only other problems I can ever recall having seen and I've been coming here every week since the site started apart from a few weeks each year while I've been on vacation and even then I've downloaded some of the games when I've had access at the hotels I've stayed at. I've only ever had problems with one other game and that was way back in 2007 when a weird breakout was given away (can't remember it's name at this time, but I'd already purchased the game from Alawar a few years previously before I'd upgraded to Win XP. It was known to have problems when trying to run it on the XP operating system; many other community members had the same problem but those who did get the game to work were still using Win 98 or ME versions of windows. Since the introduction of the Themida wrapper many community members have had issues with installing games, but that is their security software blocking the game due to the Themida wrapper, which some anti malware suites see as a threat due to the potential to hide malware. however, the giveaway team have only ever used the Themida wrapper to protect the intellectual rights of the owners of the games license. The Themida wrapper was added due to unscrupulous community members ripping of the games that were being given away by exposing the unprotected executable, which meant they were able to install the game on any computer at any time outside of the giveaway period) and then uploading those files to peer to peer sites where thousands of other users could potentially download those files.

I would be interested in hearing what you perceive as problems, but if you do take the time to reply, please would you do so in the game discussion forums rather than here as this is meant to be a section for comments about today's game giveaway. Thank you.

Somehow getting the feeling that - there are too many "happeings nowadays'
i DOWNLOAD THE GAMES FOR MY GRANDCHILD - YET THIS WEEK - AGAIN THERE ARE PROBLEMS
COME ON GGOTD GET YOUR ACT STRAIGHT

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

<blockquote>Hi Garnet Grove, sorry if your grandchild is disappointed, the giveaway team will sort this out sometime today. At this point in time I don't know whether they are aware of the problem.</blockquote>

<blockquote>However I believe you are mistaken in what you say about happenings here at the gamegiveaway site; there are rarely any problems with giveaways. What you perceive as problems are usually those that other community member have reported, but are a problem at their end, usually some way they have their computers configured, or some conflict with other programs running in the background, for example their security may be overly sensitive etc and is not a problem from the game giveaways end.</blockquote> <blockquote>The only problems I have seen recently at least since the changes to the site several months ago are the very first Steam key giveaway, where problems arose when the team ran out of keys very quickly (we believe some unscrupulous community members were harvesting the keys to sell on,) and the team were unable to secure more keys so the giveaway was cancelled. Otherwise, apart from not getting enough keys from developers on a few other occasions, where they have then managed to secure more keys, (but in the case of last weeks Nyctophobia, over 22 thousand keys were given away. The team were not able to secure any others, but that's not the fault of the giveaway team and certainly not an issue with the site. The only other problem I have seen here is today's zip file appears corrupted, the first time this has happened to my knowledge. In the almost 10 years the game giveaway site has been operating, the only other problems I can ever recall having seen and I've been coming here every week since the site started apart from a few weeks each year while I've been on vacation and even then I've downloaded some of the games when I've had access at the hotels I've stayed at. I've only ever had problems with one other game and that was way back in 2007 when a weird breakout was given away (can't remember it's name at this time, but I'd already purchased the game from Alawar a few years previously before I'd upgraded to Win XP. It was known to have problems when trying to run it on the XP operating system; many other community members had the same problem but those who did get the game to work were still using Win 98 or ME versions of windows. Since the introduction of the Themida wrapper many community members have had issues with installing games, but that is their security software blocking the game due to the Themida wrapper, which some anti malware suites see as a threat due to the potential to hide malware. however, the giveaway team have only ever used the Themida wrapper to protect the intellectual rights of the owners of the games license. The Themida wrapper was added due to unscrupulous community members ripping of the games that were being given away by exposing the unprotected executable, which meant they were able to install the game on any computer at any time outside of the giveaway period) and then uploading those files to peer to peer sites where thousands of other users could potentially download those files.</blockquote><blockquote>I would be interested in hearing what you perceive as problems, but if you do take the time to reply, please would you do so in the game discussion forums rather than here as this is meant to be a section for comments about today's game giveaway. Thank you.</blockquote>

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