Sky Aces: World War II

#35

oops. sorry Watcher, accidentally deleted your content. ?????

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

Thanks Watcher. I've been using Camtasia, so don't really need Playclaw. with low end computers I can see why Playclaw may be of use, but I have oodles of memory and speed (3.4GHz quad with 16GB of system RAM and 6GB of gRAM). Camtasia runs great. My son will probably want it though as his machine only has 6GB of sysRAM and an older dual core 3.0GHz cpu plus 1GB of gRAM.

Apart from that I've been trying to install my copy of win 8 with no success. I think there may be an underlying problem with my present win 7 installation because whenever I try to copy a folder by right clicking explorer crashes. I can copy by dragging, but not by right clicking. Also there are other odd glitches like creating a new folder but am unable to. I reckon the system has been compromised somehow and is stopping the win 8 installer from completing. Each time I've tried it ends up saying unable to complete and reverts back to win 7. annoying at the very least. I reckon I'm going to have to reinstall Win 7 first, then try again. By the time I've done that this giveaway will be over. I'm still too ill to bother at the moment. :(

Reply | Comment by watcher13 – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#34

First, let me note that you might be able to use a joystick with this game. I read all the comments from last time and someone said you could. It may be automatically activated, like last weeks game where you could use, mouse, keyboard, and joystick simultaneously, which, with that game, caused problems.
I, too, am a Memory Access victim. Even tried a DEP exception. You can test your memory in both 7 and Vista with the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool. Just ran mine and it says I've got a problem. The bad news is that the tool won't give you any details. It just says contact the manufacturer. I'll check and see if a diagnostic tool is available. One of the ways to access the Windows Tool is to just type Memory Diagnostic Tool in Help.
Of course, that result is neither absolute evidence that there's a problem, nor should people expect that problems with this game can definitely be fixed. When Microsoft implemented the .net framework years ago, one of it's innovations was use of virtual memory. Part of that was a protocol that forced all commands to go through Windows. That way, illegal commands could be weeded out. But the older methods of coding often executed commands directly inside your CPU, or your video card chip - your GPU. That meant that the developer had to come up with instructions that worked with a wide variety of hardware. Needless to say, that didn't always work, and some applications just won't work with some hardware. That's often the source of memory violations.
I'll keep this game, because I'm getting ready to swap my current card with a video capture card and the game might work with it. This game didn't work in my previous computer running Vista - this one runs 7 - and they both have nvidia cards. This might not work well with some nvidia cards. Also, when I open my machine up, I can check my cards for dust, dirt, corrosion, proper seating. and so forth.

@JL, perhaps we should clarify, because the "3GB" limit for 32 bit system is technically incorrect. A 32 bit system has 32 lines to access/send data simultaneously. Memory needs to be addressed, just like a house address, so the maximum number of address combinations is 2 to the 32 power, around 4 gigs. The problem with this, however, is that anything that has a memory chip in your computer needs address space (address mapping) so a little of the 4 gigs will be reserved for your bios, your audio, USB, video, and so forth. 3 gigs is a good rule of thumb, but the few examples I've seen vary from about 2.7 to about 3.5 gigs. The ironic part is - the better your video card, the less of your avalable 4 gigs of ram will your computer be able to use. If you start with a video card with 1 gig of memory, your already at 3 gigs and then you've got to provide addresses for all the other hardware, so you're going to have even less RAM available. It's not that it's not there, or being used for something else. It's just that you can't call on it to use. Think of it like having only 4 billion telephones, but more than 4 billion places that need one. The ones that are left out, you can't contact to tell that you have work for them.
Actually, this limitation was eliminated from Intel CPUs long ago. Intel found a way to access 64 gig of ram in a 32 bit system. Mac and Linux don't have the limitations, but Windows implements it artificially because the increased addressing can cause stability issues in Windows. In fact, many businesses that use Windows server 2003 or 2008 defeat the limitation. It can be hacked in any version of Windows, if you want to risk potential instability. In some versions of Task Manager, you can check what's lost. It's listed as "Reserve Memory".

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

Thanks for your feedback Watcher. sorry for the delay in moderating. Also nice explanation of the 32 bit memory limits. Best explanation I've ever read. :) I've managed to get the game working with no MAV's on four computers. One using 2 x Gainward Geforce GTX580 Phantoms, 1 with a Geforce GTX 275, 1 with a Geforece GTX 450 and 1 x Geforce GTX 460. all of course NVIDIA cards.

I didn't bother to check whether the game worked on the laptop. I may see if the game can be transferred directly as I think this game is a free standing one. That said, other Sky Ace programs have lost their registration after I've reinstalled windows. The alternative is to try the MyPlayCity or Gametop versions.

First, let me note that you might be able to use a joystick with this game. I read all the comments from last time and someone said you could. It may be automatically activated, like last weeks game where you could use, mouse, keyboard, and joystick simultaneously, which, with that game, caused problems.
I, too, am a Memory Access victim. Even tried a DEP exception. You can test your memory in both 7 and Vista with the Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool. Just ran mine and it says I've got a problem. The bad news is that the tool won't give you any details. It just says contact the manufacturer. I'll check and see if a diagnostic tool is available. One of the ways to access the Windows Tool is to just type Memory Diagnostic Tool in Help.
Of course, that result is neither absolute evidence that there's a problem, nor should people expect that problems with this game can definitely be fixed. When Microsoft implemented the .net framework years ago, one of it's innovations was use of virtual memory. Part of that was a protocol that forced all commands to go through Windows. That way, illegal commands could be weeded out. But the older methods of coding often executed commands directly inside your CPU, or your video card chip - your GPU. That meant that the developer had to come up with instructions that worked with a wide variety of hardware. Needless to say, that didn't always work, and some applications just won't work with some hardware. That's often the source of memory violations. 
I'll keep this game, because I'm getting ready to swap my current card with a video capture card and the game might work with it. This game didn't work in my previous computer running Vista - this one runs 7 - and they both have nvidia cards. This might not work well with some nvidia cards. Also, when I open my machine up, I can check my cards for dust, dirt, corrosion, proper seating. and so forth.

@JL, perhaps we should clarify, because the "3GB" limit for 32 bit system is technically incorrect. A 32 bit system has 32 lines to access/send data simultaneously. Memory needs to be addressed, just like a house address, so the maximum number of address combinations is 2 to the 32 power, around 4 gigs. The problem with this, however, is that anything that has a memory chip in your computer needs address space (address mapping) so a little of the 4 gigs will be reserved for your bios, your audio, USB, video, and so forth. 3 gigs is a good rule of thumb, but the few examples I've seen vary from about 2.7 to about 3.5 gigs. The ironic part is - the better your video card, the less of your avalable 4 gigs of ram will your computer be able to use. If you start with a video card with 1 gig of memory, your already at 3 gigs and then you've got to provide addresses for all the other hardware, so you're going to have even less RAM available. It's not that it's not there, or being used for something else. It's just that you can't call on it to use. Think of it like having only 4 billion telephones, but more than 4 billion places that need one. The ones that are left out, you can't contact to tell that you have work for them.
Actually, this limitation was eliminated from Intel CPUs long ago. Intel found a way to access 64 gig of ram in a 32 bit system. Mac and Linux don't have the limitations, but Windows implements it artificially because the increased addressing can cause stability issues in Windows. In fact, many businesses that use Windows server 2003 or 2008 defeat the limitation. It can be hacked in any version of Windows, if you want to risk potential instability. In some versions of Task Manager, you can check what's lost. It's listed as "Reserve Memory".

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

Thanks for your feedback Watcher.  sorry  for the delay in moderating.  Also nice explanation of the 32 bit memory limits.  Best explanation I've ever read.  :)  I've managed to get the game working with  no MAV's on four computers.  One using 2 x Gainward Geforce GTX580 Phantoms, 1 with a Geforce GTX 275, 1 with a Geforece GTX 450 and  1 x Geforce GTX 460.  all of course NVIDIA cards.

I didn't bother to check   whether the game worked on  the laptop.  I may  see if  the game can be transferred directly as I think   this game is a free standing one.  That said, other Sky Ace programs  have  lost their  registration after I've reinstalled windows.  The alternative is  to try the MyPlayCity or Gametop versions.

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Reply | Comment by watcher13 – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#33

I enjoy this game and I am getting accustomed to the controls. The first campaign mission is a spawner so there is a no win situation there. I succeeded the 3rd level flying with friendlies and the mission had definite winning conditions.

Scenario file has a glitch.

I solved the game to desktop problem by creating a shortcut and setting compatibility properties to win95, disable visual themes and disable messages. Works ok.

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

No need to apologise for 2nd post. I copied the main body of it to your 1st post. ;-)

Thank you for your feedback. Much appreciated.

Reply | Comment by mikecimerian – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#32

I often wonder why a developer does not put in the ability to change control orientation. Change the dive from mouse ahead to back etc. Is this something that is simply too difficult to program? (seems like an obvious requirement to me)
Anyway, I only got to try this for about 20 seconds before I ran into the same problem as many others. The game just keeps jumping back to desktop view (Win 7) even tried the compatibility mode but no good. I would have liked to try this game.

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

I've corrected the mistake Gary. ;) Sorry to hear you've not got it working. Try the versions I've linked to near the end of my review. They are from MyPlayCity (MPC) and Gametop so you'll need to watch out for toolbar installations, but they can be avoided y unchecking the boxes during installation and at the moment with MPC games every time you start the game up. (They tend to change every several months so months from now things may improve. there was a time when you had to install the toolbars to play the games. If you didn't allow the toolbars they would lock you out of the game. Gametop is less aggressive than MPC but they have less choice. also check out FreeGamePick.

Reply | Comment by Gary – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#31

Nice game, but bad the training crush and the window is minimize to the win 7 bar.

Reply | Comment by rub – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#30

I did it several times.. finally it installed into C:\program Files.. after about a minute automatically switches from game to desktop.. by the time it switches back it crashes.. if it switches successfully it goes 15 seconds and switches desktop again.. too bad looks great.. needs further Win 8 testing... Win 8 is going to be everywhere soon..

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

I tried to install my copy of win 8 yesterday. It went through all the stages then at the end said was unable to install reverting back to Win 7. Now I need to find the hard copy they sent me. Forgot where I put it, lol. Wanted to get it installed this weekend. I think it failed because I have a recurring problem with win 7; when i try to right click and copy a file or folder explorer crashes, Grrrr

As for the game, read over the FAQ's section that i posted in the Game Discussion sticky section. I've linked to it in my review at comment #1 (see the problem section). :) If you still can't get it to work, try the version available from one of the free sites. I've included links to all the Sky Aces games that are available for free in the section after the main review. ;-)

I love all types of flying games.. Having purchased a large percentage of flight oriented games that have been released since F19 way back in the late 80's. Even though todays giveaway is very basic for a flying game I've had a lot of fun with it. Well worth persevering if you like arcade flyer's.

;

Reply | Comment by MrLatin – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#29

I tried to install on Win 8/x64 .. says its activated.. but never see it extract to Games... not found in any directory.. like it never installed.. help please... is it tested for Win 8?

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

Do a search for the following:

SkyAces2.exe

If you don't find it, reinstall the game making sure you make a note of the path. sometimes the games can install to a previous games path (usually a corrupt cookie) so check to see if its installed to last weeks games folder as well. Once reinstalled make a shortcut from the executable (SkyAces2.exe)

Reply | Comment by MrLatin – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#28

I figured out the crashing problem.. I misread the 'boost' button instructions. The "A" button is for 'boost'.. the "Z" button is for
'deboost'. I was using 'Z' for boost.

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

Silly Billy ;-)

Reply | Comment by HOSS – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#27

Not fun for me. Too difficult to control the planes. Screen flashes and jumps in time to the machine gun. The camera lags behind your movements so it is hard to follow your target and just fly straight.

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

Hello Savo, how much System and video memory do you have? Try using the free game booster and as suggested earlier the RAM booster.

Reply | Comment by Savo – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#26

failed to launch the programe

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

Check the FAQ's section that I link to in the problems section. you'll find a fix for that problem there. :)

Reply | Comment by sti – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#25

Ha Ha Ha - the "splash2.jpg" is a fail, NOT a problem, because that's what the picture IS - it's just a blue background with the words "splash2.jpg" at the bottom in white!

I installed this next to my other version, and compared the .jpgs, and the original version has an actual blue picture with "Fly Games" and a "2" on it, so someone must have forgotten to include that in this version.

Mystery solved, folks - it's a glitch, nothing more.
John

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

:)

Reply | Comment by JL – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#24

This game was a good attempt. It's a shame that the music track (1) is actually better than the "controls". And sadly, they are "atrocious". Uninstalled in less than 10 minutes. Thanks GAOTD.

Reply | Comment by Ears14U – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#23

I got this when it was offered in 2010, and I looked to see when it was offered but like Stephen mentioned it's no longer in the list. The game runs well on my Toshiba laptop under Vista Home 32, as well as on my aging desktop under XP Pro (neither of which are "power" machines), and it's fun, plus a bit of a challenge, so I've kept it and still play it. There is a learning curve but it's not difficult, and as someone mentioned up and down take a little work to get used to and I admit that I have to practice a bit before getting into missions.

Overall, it's a nice game, good graphics, has replay value, and I consider it a keeper - tho I'm not sure my version is the same as today's - my .exe version says 1.0.0.1 in the properties - can anyone verify that it's the same one? I give this a 7 of 10, only because of minor quibbles, but as I said, IMO it's a keeper!

Also, I use the Dataram Ramdisk on both machines; I can load games like this into it (it also helps to use GameBooster on the laptop) and it does speed many things up - nice tip #14! Some games won't cooperate with any Ramdisk, but for those that will it really helps; same with GameBooster - and there are free versions of both, so if anyone is having problems with lag and slow loads that's a good way to try to get a free speed boost and fewer problems, well worth the time to install and configure, IMO. The freeware Ramdisk works well with a 32bit OS and 4GB RAM (since a 32bit OS can only "use" @ 3GB) and the paid version lets you use much more than 4GB, so you can create large virtual disks with that.
-----------
Stephen, hope you all get well soon!
John

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

Thanks for your feedback and wishes. :)

Reply | Comment by JL – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#22

The game installed fine in Windows 7. I too get the voice in the background but I think it's Russian.. it's faint so you may need earphones to hear it over the other sounds.

I had the crashing problem also.. it would start fine but I would soon lose control and no matter what I did it would crash. I tried both keyboard and mouse control, and I tried tutoral and quick game and crashed everytime. :( I do not excel at this type of game but I should be able to at least last more than 30 seconds :!:

Thanks Whiterabbit for you dedication to the project despite your recent illness(es). For a volunteer, you certainly go the extra mile week after week. :)

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

Thanks HOSS. If i hadn't had my accident I doubt I'd have had the time to do what I do now. I don't do as much as I used to.

Reply | Comment by HOSS – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#21

Even if YOU know what "is" World War II, nearly 80% of others never heard of it. Even in England, which had half of its cities destroyed, the kids are ignorant, asking if Hitler was "a German football (soccer) coach."

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

The percentage you quote is way to high here in the West. You could be right if you take the whole world into account, but even then WWII has been perpetuated through film and game. The World Wars are part of the British National Curriculum, so all children in the UK (apart maybe from those that are home schooled, but even then there is a requirment for home schooled children to follow specific guidelines) will at least be taught the basics of what the war was about and who was involved.

Reply | Comment by fermier – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#20

Installed fine, but when I play it keeps jumping back to my desktop. The game is minimized. I go to the taskbar, bring the game back, it flashes on the screen and them minimizes again.

The kids love the helicopter game given away earlier that seems very similar, so I hope I can figure out how to make this one playable.

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

Try going into compatibility mode if that doesn't work update your graphics drivers. /also try changing your monitors resolution. check the FAQ's over in the 'game discussion' forums (look in the sticky section)

Reply | Comment by Kids Dad – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#19

WABBIT!! Long time no chat. Sorry to hear you've been ill, hope you get over it asap.

What a huge coincidence. I only whimsically log on to GAOTD these days, so imagine my surprise to see you touting SkyAcesWW2 V3.1. About once a year I get a hankering to play Sky Aces (old familiar story, lost it during a HD crash several years back) and only just last week tried downloading two freebies:

Sky Aces: World War II (free to try version) from CNET
and
SkyAcesWorldWar by Falco Games (V3 not V3.1... only 23mb, much smaller that today's but then perhaps that stupid wrapper is the cause of bloat?)

Alas, I, too, am a victim of the "Memory Access Violation" discomboblulation. (encountered with both the above V3 and today's V3.1) SysReq says this game runs on Vista and 7, but pray tell, HOW???

I don't have time or patience to waste slogging through 18 threads of search results and experimenting with umpteen configs on the off chance something will finally get a game to play. One would think a game manufacturer would include a simple test that would RUN on install, perform a quick system's check and clearly STATE what's missing and how to resolve the issue rather than this cryptic, frustrating and essentially USELESS "memory access violation" error. I'm guessing MSFT is to blame for obsoleting things they SHOULD permit to run by providing an isolated sandbox. Compatibility mode rarely works for me. This needs DirectX7, and MSFT won't even all me to install DirectX9c because I'm not running XP! They're all idiots.

I keep as current as possible (and affordable) - drivers, etc. ATI's Catalyst Control updates about once a week. My graphics card works with everything I've wanted to try including new second life viewers and high end graphics art packages.

Guess I'll never again enjoy the thrill of crashing old planes into the ground as in days of yore.

Anywho, happy holidays from across the pond, ya mangy old wabbit.
~Same old grumpy Rune

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

Hi Runesage yes its been quite some time. Apart from the fixes I've posted over in the Game discussion forums (I've linked to it in the problems section of my review) I can only suggest you try the ones I've linke to via MyPlayCity etc near the end of my review. they are the same games but with the usual additions that you get with MPC.

There's some excellent arcade flyers now available via Steam such as Dogfighter that play similarily to the Sky Aces games but with far better graphics and coded for the latest operating systems:

Dogfight 1942 £11.99 (also two dlcs at £3.99 each)

http://store.steampowered.com/app/217790/

Dogfighter £6.99

http://store.steampowered.com/app/42500/?snr=1_7_suggest__13

The Steam Christmas sales will probably be starting in just over 2 weeks where you'll get these for half price. you can also get them elsewhere as well form Gamersgate or Gamestop. Neither of the latter require a client, but you can play Steam games offline as well. Dogfighter is closer to Sky Aces but DogFight 1942 has a little more to enjoy.

Have a nice Christmas Runesage and do drop by the forums sometime.

WABBIT!!  Long time no chat. Sorry to hear you've been ill, hope you get over it asap.

What a huge coincidence. I only whimsically log on to GAOTD these days, so imagine my surprise to see you touting SkyAcesWW2 V3.1. About once a year I get a hankering to play Sky Aces (old familiar story, lost it during a HD crash several years back) and only just last week tried downloading two freebies:
 
Sky Aces: World War II (free to try version) from CNET
and 
SkyAcesWorldWar by Falco Games (V3 not V3.1... only 23mb, much smaller that today's but then perhaps that stupid wrapper is the cause of bloat?)

Alas, I, too, am a victim of the "Memory Access Violation" discomboblulation. (encountered with both the above V3 and today's V3.1) SysReq says this game runs on Vista and 7, but pray tell, HOW???

I don't have time or patience to waste slogging through 18 threads of search results and experimenting with umpteen configs on the off chance something will finally get a game to play. One would think a game manufacturer would include a simple test that would RUN on install, perform a quick system's check and clearly STATE what's missing and how to resolve the issue rather than this cryptic, frustrating and essentially USELESS "memory access violation" error. I'm guessing MSFT is to blame for obsoleting things they SHOULD permit to run by providing an isolated sandbox. Compatibility mode rarely works for me.  This needs DirectX7, and MSFT won't even all me to install DirectX9c because I'm not running XP! They're all idiots.

I keep as current as possible (and affordable) - drivers, etc. ATI's Catalyst Control updates about once a week. My graphics card works with everything I've wanted to try including new second life viewers and high end graphics art packages.

Guess I'll never again enjoy the thrill of crashing old planes into the ground as in days of yore.

Anywho, happy holidays from across the pond, ya mangy old wabbit.
~Same old grumpy Rune

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

Hi Runesage  yes its been quite some time.  Apart from the fixes I've posted over in the Game discussion  forums (I've linked to it in the problems section of my review) I can only suggest you try the ones I've linke to  via MyPlayCity etc near the end of my review.  they are  the same games but with the usual   additions that you get with MPC.

There's  some excellent arcade flyers  now available via Steam such as Dogfighter that  play similarily to  the Sky Aces games but with  far better graphics and coded for the latest operating systems:

Dogfight 1942  £11.99 (also two dlcs at £3.99 each)

http://store.steampowered.com/app/217790/

Dogfighter  £6.99

http://store.steampowered.com/app/42500/?snr=1_7_suggest__13

The Steam Christmas sales will probably be starting  in just over 2 weeks  where you'll get these for half price.  you can also get them  elsewhere as well form Gamersgate or Gamestop.  Neither of the latter require a client, but you can play Steam games offline as well.  Dogfighter is closer to Sky Aces but DogFight 1942 has  a little more to enjoy.

Have a nice Christmas Runesage and do drop by the  forums  sometime.

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Reply | Comment by RunesageMagik – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#18

I cannot start the game as clicking on the .exe results in an "unable to set graphics mode" error. Any ideas?

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

Try updating your graphics card.

Reply | Comment by Bob – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#17

Downloaded and installed ok, extracted the zip file with 'Express zip'.No problems. Long extract time, about 15 minutes, to C:Games the default.
Runs well my 3.2 Ghz, 2006 Dell, + Radeon x1650 pro graphic card + 3GB DDR2 RAM. Using Windows 8 pro 32 bit. Full screen display + full res. Nice graphics, with lots of ground detail and smoke rising.
Mouse control is fine, but best to test up & down first and avoid crashing into the ground. Thanks to author and GAOTD for this software.

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

Thak you for your feedback Mike

Reply | Comment by Mike in UK – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#16

Win 8 Pro x64 plays it full screen (size options). Had to mess with compat & run as admin. Crashed in tutorial but ok in quick game. Seemed when doing initial loading the green bar only goes about 80% so maybe tutorial doesn't fully load. In game the tone is like Helic. Odd to play a WWI style biplane as Novice with a big red Soviet era WWII star on it. In quick game kept circling around & around blasting at anything in range but never scoring even gimmie hits. Finally just wiped game. Guess ok for fans. Thanks guys.

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

Thank you for your feedback Beergas

Reply | Comment by beergas – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#15

Crashes to desktop..... A LOT shame cos it looks good Windows 7 32bit 4gb

Thanks anyway

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

Try playing it in compatibility mode. This is quite an old game, so may perform better in XP. Also make sure you've checked the Admin checkbox.

Reply | Comment by Richard Smith – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#14

Today's game, like [b]Helic[/b] before it, did not run on my Windows 7 machine. Ironically, those same games used to play on my antique Windows XP tower, which had been kitted with a dedicated 3D card.
As the forums' moderator suggested, I downloaded today similar games from one of the websites which publish third-party games. AFAIK, [b]Sky Aces[/b] and [b]Sky Aces 1918[/b] are 2 of the games that work perfectly on Windows 7, without the need of a high-end graphics chip to boost performance.

Incidentally, a utility called [b]RAMdisk[/b] may help to speed up some of the casual (standalone) games, when they are run on "sluggish" computers. The developers offer freeware and commercial versions of their program.
http://memory.dataram.com/products-and-services/software/ramdisk

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

Thank you for your feedback puddy tat. :)

Reply | Comment by puddy tat – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#13

Hi GGOTD & WR ... WR, hope you are feeling Better!:)

Installed A-OK on Vista Hm Prem.,X64. I tried playing it ... on start-up it says "Splash2.jpg" that is not so cool. I tried to set up my plane and play the game, but got Stuck in some kind of a loop and never could get the game started. So, I ESC and got out of the game. Then tried play a QuickGame version and this time it worked.

I think it is a Fun game but it will take a little getting used to, to get it down pat.

Thanks for the Game, waiting for the Repeat Giveaway of Playrix "Around the World in 80 Days"! :)

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

Thanks G

You can get Around the world in 80 Days for free from MyPlayCity. Though please do remember the warnings I usually give about MPC. I'd check Gametop first as they are not as aggressive with toolbars etc.

Reply | Comment by G – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#12

[i]"If you’ve got an old computer this would be the setting for you; though we’re talking computers made at the turn of the millennium, lol."[/i]

And what's [i]wrong[/i] with "computers made at the turn of the millennium," Stephen? It's very likely that the computers which run your bank, or your local power station, are of that age.

I own three PCs: one dates from (as you would say) "turn of the millennium," one is two or three years younger (not sure, I got it second-hand), and the third is a laptop bought as a birthday present for my wife earlier this year.

All three are in active use, and GGOTD programs usually run just fine on all of them. Don't be so "PC ageist" in future, please! :D

PS: Hope you are feeling better this week?

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

Thanks Cad; sort of had a relapse.Was getting better mid week, but regressed. My wife hasn't been able to speak for over a week. ;-)

Nothing wrong with computers 12 years old except they wouldn't run any of my present favorite games. :) Though you are right about banks etc. I know some of the college computers are at least a decade old. and the primary school my kids went to were using the old desktops that really were desktops. looked like 286/386/486's from 20 years ago, lol.

Reply | Comment by Cad Delworth CEng MBCS CITP – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#11

I get what sounds like a French, narration playing whilst during the flying lessons, is this correct?

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

Hi Catman, I only checked out the flying lessons briefly and didn't get the French narration, maybe I didn't check for long enough? Lets see if anyone else reports this language glitch.

Reply | Comment by Catman – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#10

Says in-game on the title screen "v3.1", for those who'd like to know the version number given away today...

Reply | Comment by Avid Gamer – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#9

Couldn't run it on Win7 x64.
While it's full-screen, it keeps minimizing.

Reply | Comment by Giorgos – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#8

I'm also getting the dreaded MAV - pity, really would have liked to try this out. I using XP SP2 ( run as admin)and compatibility mode doesn't work. Any more suggestions?

Reply | Comment by Grey – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#7

It looks like a fun game, but unfortunately for me, I have carpal tunnel and arthritis, so keyboard controls make it difficult to play.
I have to pass, but wish you all well and hope the game meets your expectations.

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

The game can be played just with a mouse or trackball. Using a mouse with more than three buttons is better, but there's no reson why a simple three button mouse can't be used. :)

Reply | Comment by Joe – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#6

Unfortunately I get this merciless message "Memory Access Violation" (Windows Vista SP2 fully patched, ATI Radeon Mobility HD 2300 (no new drivers available since 2008... :/ )

If I really have to uninstall the game: Would be ok to just delete the folder? There's no regular uninstall option.

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

Hi Ceb65, Yes, you can uninstall Sky Aces by deleting the folder. Most giveaways are like this. They are free standing, which means there are no important files installed elsewhere on your computer (for example game saves in the hidden 'AppData' folder or in 'My Documents', nor are there any important registry entries.

Check the FAQ's I've posted in the Game discussion forums. you may find a fix for the MAV problem

Reply | Comment by Ceb65 – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#5

Seems like a good one, definitely a keeper. Really thanks GAOTD team!

Reply | Comment by O Poutsos mou Htan Edo – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#4

hello all

thank for moderator for your last week answer,
i am sur it's not an hardware problem because i clean all my computer regularly, and reinstall all. the problem is just on Splotches game.
i haven't this problem in Sky Ace

it's maybe an incompatibility with cheep-set (it an laptop computer) ?
probably, with certain software i have this incompatibility.

i have any problem with Sky Ace, just a question why in the music the 35 first second have Russian prey ?

thank for the now download.

but i hope you re-up Rubicon (http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/rubicon/)
all week i expect and i prey it's the good week when you re-up it.

it's maybe for Xmas ? i trust

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

Hi Sacha, you could be right re the incompatibility issue. If you really wanted to play the game you could try turning off background programs one at a time to see if one of those is incompatible with the game. The free version of Game booster can be set to turn off program. It also automatically turns off loads of window based programs that are not needed to run games. The beauty of Game Booster is that once you've finished playing your game the latest version automatically turns all of those background programs back on, or earlier versions just by the click of a button. The developer of Game Booster used to give it away free, but earlier this summer decided to start charging for it after the last big update, but you can still get free versions from elsewhere on the web. Razer also do their own version of Game Booster. Its free for customers, but not sure whether you can get it free if you've never purchased products from them (They are my favorite manufacturer of keyboards, Mice, mouse mats and other stuff useful to gamers).

:)

The developer is Russian. I think the slight glitch is that the game hasn't been fully 'cleaned' for the giveaway. Thankfully it doesn't take away fro the games enjoyment.

Unfortunately I have no way of predicting what games we get in the future. At most I get one days notice, sometimes two, which usually gives me time to prepare a short review. Rubicon was one of the last games given away while we were still getting games every day. It is from the same developer as todays game, so there is a possibility that we may see it again, but I cannot say for sure.

hello all

thank for moderator for your last week answer,
i am sur it's not an hardware problem because i clean all my computer regularly, and reinstall all. the problem is just on Splotches game.
i haven't this problem in Sky Ace

it's maybe an incompatibility with cheep-set (it an laptop computer) ?
probably, with certain software i have this incompatibility.

i have any problem with Sky Ace, just a question why in the music the 35 first second have Russian prey ?

thank for the now download.

but i hope you re-up Rubicon (http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/rubicon/)
all week i expect and i prey it's the good week when you re-up it.

it's maybe for Xmas ? i trust

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

Hi Sacha, you could be right  re the incompatibility issue.  If you really wanted to play the game you could try  turning off background programs   one at a time to see if   one of those is incompatible with  the game.  The free version of Game booster  can  be set to turn off   program.  It also  automatically turns off loads of window based programs that are not needed   to run games.  The beauty of Game Booster is that once you've finished playing your game the latest version automatically turns all of those background programs  back on, or earlier versions    just by the click of a button.  The developer of Game Booster   used to give it away free, but  earlier this summer   decided to start charging for it  after the last big update, but you can still get  free versions  from elsewhere on the web.  Razer  also  do their own version of Game Booster.  Its free for customers, but not sure whether you can get it free if you've never purchased products from them (They are my favorite  manufacturer of  keyboards, Mice,  mouse mats and other   stuff useful to gamers).

:)

The developer is Russian.  I think the   slight glitch is  that the game hasn't been fully 'cleaned' for the giveaway. Thankfully it doesn't take away fro the games enjoyment.

Unfortunately I  have no way of predicting what games we get in the future.  At most I get one days notice, sometimes two, which usually gives me time to prepare a short review.   Rubicon was one of the last games given away while we were still getting games every day.  It is    from the same developer as todays   game, so there is a possibility that we may see it again, but I cannot say  for sure.

Save | Cancel

Reply | Comment by Sacha – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#3

.........Bewerkt te wijten aan ongepast taalgebruik............

het douwnen duurt bijna een uur.

..........................Moderator Reactie............................

Er is echt geen noodzaak om zweren. De download snelheid is afhankelijk van het aantal gebruikers aan het downloaden bent op een bepaald moment. Als je wacht tot later op de dag nogmaals te proberen en vind je de download snelheid is toegenomen.

Zo niet en je bent zo ongeduldig dan niet de moeite. kon je altijd proberen de gratis versie die beschikbaar zijn vanaf MyPlayCity of Gametop. Zie de links die ik heb geplaatst aan het einde van mijn review.

Reply | Comment by JanWillemKees – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#2

Hi Stephen. I am glad you are feeling a bit better. I am not a fan of shooter games, but thought I give it a go. I chose Training Novice and was well on my way. Before I knew it my plain crashed. So I start again and am waiting for instructions how to play the game. I had to press Z and went on flying again and before I knew it my plane crashed. Third time I tried I got instructions, so I was really glad, but then all of a sudden I went to desktop view. I went back to the game, but immediately it went back to desktop view. Third time I stayed in the game, but needless to say my plane crashed again. Apart from the mishaps, I do not think this is my kind of game and will give it a miss. I was not too impressed by the graphics either. I hope the shooter fans will enjoy the game though. I still have plenty of enjoyable games to play thanks to GGotD.

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

Thanks Merlyne,

I think the problem with this game is that you are not able to change the controls. The planes pitch is controlled by the up and down movement of your mouse. The developer has coded the movement to emulate the use of a joystick with movement of the mouse forward as being to dive and movement back to climb. For me this feels the wrong way around and i initially had the same problem trying to control the plane. I kept crashing because when I wanted to climb I moved the mouse forwards which sent me into a death dive straight into the ground.

Like any game, if you aren't used to the controls it can take a while to get used to them, but once you've had some practice you should find the game much easier.

Regards

W.R.

Reply | Comment by Merlyne – 12 years ago – Did you find this comment useful? yes | no (0)

#1

Sky Aces: World at War II

Installation

Sky Aces: World at War II downloads to a 38.9MB zip file that unpacks to a read me (that contains simple installation instructions as well as the terms and conditions of the giveaway), plus a setup .gcd security file that stops users from being able to lift a reusable executable from the temp folder and the dual setup and activation module. To install the game click on the orange key icon. This will install Sky Aces to the following default path, which can be changed by the user if they wish:

C:\Games\SkyAcesWW2_GAME

No shortcuts are installed to either the desktop or the Start Menu/Programs list, nor is there an uninstaller. to uninstall the game just delete the installed games folder. The game works on Win 7, XP and Vista. I've not tested it on Win 8 and no longer have copies of ME and 2000 installed. There is a good chance the game s will play on earlier operating systems, but I can't say for certain.

Introduction:

Sky Aces: World at war II was previously given away almost 3 years ago (Jan 2010) where it received a positive 49% out of 364 votes wit 89 comments which can be seen HERE. Today's version is v3.1 Ignore the missing jpg image during the initial start up of the game This is a similar problem to the game we got a few weeks ago called Helic. I think someone fixed it by going into compatibility mode and playing it in XP with SP3 (It didm't work for me). It was mentioned that it was caused by a missing codec though jpg signifies an image as opposed to a video, so I'm not sure whether that is the problem.

Sky Aces: World War II is an arcade aviation simulator dedicated to the events of WW II, and the airplanes participating in the conflict over the whole world. This updated version includes improved graphics, better frame rates, new features, improved user interface and HUD plus experimental support for local network games with two players. The distinctive features of the game are models of airplanes of elaborate detail, copied from drawings and historically colored. Using slightly simplified physics, learning the controls of the airplanes is accomplished quickly and easily while providing for a fun gaming experience. NOTE: The game is not a full fledged simulator and cannot make a pilot out of you; instead it lets you experience, from virtual piloting, a maximal adrenaline rush.

Reference accessed HERE Jan 2010 (The page no longer exists and there's no reference to Fly games in the admin panel)

The Game Basics:

The preferences menu enables you to tweak the game for either speed or graphics quality by changing the rendering. Lower render quality giving better speeds. If you've got an old computer this would be the setting for you; though we're talking computers made at the turn of the millennium, lol. Most computers should be able to max out the settings and enjoy a thoroughly decent arcade game. There are three modes, training, instant action (quick game) and campaign. You get to choose from several (11) WWII planes, each with it’s own characteristics, though most are locked at the beginning of the game. The game play is relatively easy. Though there are three difficulty settings from Novice, Veteran (Soldier) or Ace of Aces, to make it harder. You can also change the environmental characteristics for example play at night, early in the morning or on a bright sunny day if you play in the instant action mode. The plane is controlled by either the mouse or the keyboard. The latter being more responsive. Unfortunately there’s no joystick or game pad facility, but I’m sure that Xpadder program that’s been mentioned previously will enable those with an aversion for the keyboard to play this game. (Unfortunately it’s no longer freeware).

The campaign consists of 33 different missions, which take place on five different maps (this could possibly be ten depending upon which side you choose to play from as thee appears to be 10 different campaign settings, but only five are available from the allies and five for the Japanese and Germans. When playing in instant action mode you also get to choose one of four different areas, that are Twer, Seliger, Murmansk and Belgorod. There are five nationalities, Russian, English, American, Japanese and German each with their own planes to fly. There are 23 planes in total to choose from, but these are limited to the Nationality you choose to play I found some bugs n this part of the game where choosing a particular nationality wouldn't necessarily allow you to choose the correct planes) . I do think the maps are rather similar after perusing the game for the past half an hour; but the same enthusiasm is there from when I first started to play the demo.

All ground and air targets are destructible. If you crash you even make a dent in the ground or come plummeting to earth if you hit a barrage balloon or other plane, lol. There are seven types of weapon which are selected using the mouse wheel or appropriate key binding. These include the primary and secondary machine guns, large and small bombs plus three types of rocket, fixed, air to air and air to ground missiles. There's no facility to change the key bindings which is a pity as we all have our own preferences.

Controls:

Movement......................................................Mouse axis or arrow keys
Increase or decrease throttle..................A and Z
Fire Gun.........................................................Space or LMB
Bombs...........................................................LMB
Rockets..........................................................Alt
Menu...............................................................Esc
Pause..............................................................P
Camera Angles............................................C, V and B
Toggle Map....................................................F2
Zoom..............................................................Left Shift
Select Weapon...............................................Mouse Wheel

Features:

• Easy to learn and fly

• raining missions for learning the game

• 25 airplanes

• Instant action and campaign game styles

• Ability to adjust render quality for slower computers

• Three levels of difficulty

• Soundtrack

System Requirements:

• Windows 98/ME/XP/Vista
• Pentium III processor
• 256 Mb RAM
• 50 Mb hard drive space
• 32 Mb video memory
• Sound card
• DirectX 7

Conclusion:

My advice give it a try, even if you don’t like airplane shooters; this one is different from your F19’s (the first flight simulator I ever played that fit onto a single 1.44Mb diskette), Battle of Britain, IL-2 Sturmovik, Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X, and Red Baron or more recently released games such as Heroes over Europe, Battle Stations Pacific and Midway, Top Gun, Heroes over Europe, Tom Clancy's HAWX I & II, Pacific Storm: allies, Dogfighter, Combat Wings: Battle of Britain, Air Conflicts: Secret Wars, Blazing Angels, Wings of Prey, Microsoft Flight (the base game is free), Rise of Flight, and IL2- Cliffs of Dover as well as several others that I've played over the past several years in that Sky Aces is a very basic arcade shooter rather than a true flight simulator (Not that all of the titles I've mentioned above are true simulations, some are as arcade as you can get, but they all differ from Sky Aces in their realism. Sky Aces is pretty basic, but IMO still very playable. There’s no steep learning curve or realistic flight simulation. In Sky Aces you are flying right away, with minimal controls to worry about. All you need to do is stay alive by avoiding the computer generated enemies.

Unfortunately I was a little disappointed with this release as I was expecting some improvements over the previous release (that’s over six years old now), The graphics are an improvement over its predecessor, but the world graphics are still rather unrealistic, I was expecting a much bigger improvement on the graphics side of the game. That said, (as I’m spoilt for choice as I have all of the titles mentioned above) it’s still a very playable arcade shooter that you can literally play straight out of the box as opposed to a higher learning curve for some of the titles mentioned above (e.g. Microsoft Flight Simulator X - I've still not got the hang of flying most of the planes that come with the base game) and is worth a decent 7 out of 10 IMO

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Other Game deals:

I'm still not 100% from last weeks illness, so today's game suggestions will be similar to last weeks, just a list of places to visit. Steam have another sale on, this time to celebrate the release of their new addition to the Steam platform. That is Steams Big Picture. A new way of browsing Steam. :) It's not as extensive as the Thanksgiving sale, but there's still a good number of games in the sale. You can see most of the games on sale via Steams 'specials' list, accessible from the main Steam store page. That list only goes up to 100, but there are more. The 24 hour sale is called Tryst an action strategy game and the weekend deals are FTL (Faster Than Light) a strategy simulation and Hotline Miami . Check out Didimatic for a full list of sale items on Steam (as well as GOG, Gamestop and Gamersgate games) HERE. That link takes you to the full list of games on sale from all of those providers. You can select individual providers by clicking on the bar just below the header. Steam has 123 games on sale. You can also check out Gamersgate separately HERE and the game discussion forums where freeware games and game deals are always being posted HERE. They have daily deals over the festive season with up to 80% off plus the holiday bundles. The first holiday bundle costs £2.50 (approx $3.75) then the next one you get 25% off then the next 50% etc. There are three bundles left, two of which unlock next week and in a fortnights time. If you started with the first holiday bundle two weeks ago, this weeks will be half price and the final holiday bundle will be free if you purchased all the previous ones. That said, even if you've missed the first two bundles, the first you purchase at £2.50 is a bargain with four decent indie games in the package. This weeks Holiday bundle is called Indiefort Oxygen bundle and includes the
four games Alien Hallway, Eryi's Actions, Bridge It and Terrorhedron 3D (Coop tower defence). Basically if you purchase this weeks and the next two (Indiefort Ignition and Indiefort Liftoff bundles) instead of costing £7.50 (approx $11.25) for 12 games they will cost you £5.63p (approx $8.44)

There are yet more bundles available, for example the Humble THQ bundle which now includes eight AAA games that can be had for less than $6 (The Company of Heroes trilogy, Red Faction Armageddon plus dlc, Metro 2033, Darksiders, Titan Quest and Saints Row the Third). (check the thread over in the forums for video and images of each game HERE).

The Bundle Stars bundle went live last week and is still running with yet more AAA games. You can get Men of War: Vietnam, Off-Road Drive, Reign: Conflict of Nations, Death to Spies: Moment of Truth, Death Track: Resurrection, Real Warfare: 1242 and Real Warfare: Northern Crusades for only £5 (~$7.50), that's 95% off the usual cost of these games. (Notice that two of the bundles give you nearly all of the games in the Men of War franchise; the only one missing is Men of War: Assault Squad.

There's a new bundle available called that contains Shadows of the Vatican part 1, Delve Deeper + dlc, War of the Human Tanks, Eversion and fibrillation (pay what you want. if you pay more than the average of $2.76 you will also get The Adventures of Shuggy, Stay Dead, The 4th Wall and Flibble with extras that include the sound tracks from five of the games.

The Indie Royale: Winter
bundle has three days left to run and includes Greed corps, Hamlet, BIT.TRIP RUNNER, Conquest of Elysium 3, Leave home and They breath.
Groupees, Be Mine 6 Bundle contains Eschalon Book 1, Ceville, Paranormal, with bonus games Enclave Gold and Monarchy.

Details of all the bundles still available can be found HERE in the Game discussion forums.

Also check out the didimatic site for other deals from Gamestop and GOG HERE, plus for deals on Indie games go to Desura and click on the on sale or Alpha funding tabs for some excellent bargains, finally you'll also find great sale bargains on Gamefly and GreenMan Gaming Finally, Alawar's free game (via the gamebox) has changed for everyone now to Finding Doggy, which is a similar match 3 to 4 Elements, though not as colorful or sophisticated.

All of the bundles I've mentioned above are superb value for money. My personal favorite would be the Humble THQ bundle, partly because its the best value for money compared to the rest with over $300 worth of games (when first released) for less than $6, but also because I love all of the game sin the bundle and they have already made millions on the deal, some of which will go to charity.

You can get games similar to Sky Aces: world at War II from MyPlayCity (MPC) and Gametop. Please do remember the warnings about unchecking the tick boxes during the installation of these games and in the case of MPC, each time you start the games up, otherwise you will end up with a new toolbar installed and your home page changed.

Sky Aces: Verden Sky also known as http://www.freegamepick.com/download-free-games/sky-battle/" rel="nofollow"> Sky Battle

Warlike Flyboys WW3

Helicopter Wars (aka Helic)

Sky Battle: WW2 (This is the same as today's game)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Problems:

If you have any problems with the game, either installation issues or getting the game to work check out the FAQ's section over in the Game discussion forums. you can find it HERE

If you are posting requests for help late in the day I would suggest posting in the main giveaway forums in the game Game Discussion . If you’ve installed the game but it won’t work for some reason, it should still be registered, so someone may be able to help at another time. Unfortunately if your problem is actually installing it then once the giveaway period is over there’s nothing that can be done until the game is given away again (though that isn’t guaranteed). It’s always worth checking out the free games sites as sometimes the games we get here are also available for free from them as well.

Request for Help:

Developers rely on good feedback to improve their games. If you download this game please take some time once you’ve played it a while to leave some constructive feedback either positive or negative. The more constructive feedback we get, the more likely developers are going to give more games away. The giveaway site already has a very good standing with the search engines. Developers want their products out there on the WWW, this site has the potential to do that. The game giveaway project gives away on average between 9 to 17 thousand downloads for each game depending upon what genre and how obscure the game is. That’s a lot of homes these games are being downloaded into and a lot of 'potential' cash that’s being lost by the developers. If we get better games because of better feedback, the community are likely to continue to benefit from the generosity of the developers. Satisfied community members are then more likely to visit the home sites of those developers and purchase games that they may not have bothered with before they discovered the developer via the game giveaway site, thus giving the developers more incentives to give away even more decent games.

Please leave some feedback once you’ve checked the game out. It can be positive or negative, but please explain what your reasons were for the feedback you post. You could also leave suggestions for improving the game, for example, this game could do with more block types for the levels editor, add more power-ups, describing the ones you think would be suitable, add some mini games (which seem all the rage in some arcade games now) or enable the user to be able to change the in game music easily.

Thank you in advance to all those who take the time to post a constructive comment.

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen

Sky Aces: World at War II

Installation

Sky Aces: World at War II downloads to a  38.9MB zip file that unpacks to a read me  (that contains simple installation  instructions as well as the terms and conditions of the giveaway), plus a  setup .gcd  security file   that stops users from being able to lift a reusable executable from  the temp folder and the dual  setup and activation module.  To install the game click on the orange key icon.  This will install Sky Aces to the following default path, which can be changed by the user if they wish:

C:\Games\SkyAcesWW2_GAME

No shortcuts are installed to either the desktop or the  Start Menu/Programs list, nor is there an uninstaller.  to uninstall the game   just delete the installed games folder. The game works on Win 7, XP and Vista.  I've not tested it on Win 8 and no longer have  copies of ME and 2000 installed.  There is a good chance the game s will play on earlier  operating systems, but I can't say for certain.

Introduction:

Sky Aces: World at war II was previously given away almost 3 years ago (Jan 2010) where it received a positive 49% out of 364 votes wit 89 comments which can be seen <a href="http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/sky-aces-world-war-ii/#comment-124828" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. Today's version is v3.1 Ignore the missing jpg image during the initial start up of the game This is a similar problem to the game we got a few weeks ago called Helic. I think someone fixed it by going into compatibility mode and playing it in XP with SP3 (It didm't work for me). It was mentioned that it was caused by a missing codec though jpg signifies an image as opposed to a video, so I'm not sure whether that is the problem.

<blockquote>Sky Aces: World War II is an arcade aviation simulator dedicated to the events of WW II, and the airplanes participating in the conflict over the whole world. This updated version includes improved graphics, better frame rates, new features, improved user interface and HUD plus experimental support for local network games with two players. The distinctive features of the game are models of airplanes of elaborate detail, copied from drawings and historically colored. Using slightly simplified physics, learning the controls of the airplanes is accomplished quickly and easily while providing for a fun gaming experience. NOTE: The game is not a full fledged simulator and cannot make a pilot out of you; instead it lets you experience, from virtual piloting, a maximal adrenaline rush. </blockquote>

Reference accessed <a href="http://fly-games.com/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=31&amp;Itemid=30" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> Jan 2010 (The page no longer exists and there's no reference to Fly games in the admin panel)

The Game Basics:

The  preferences menu  enables you to tweak the game for either speed or graphics quality by changing the rendering.  Lower render quality giving   better speeds.  If you've got an old computer  this would be the setting for you; though  we're talking computers   made  at the turn of the millennium, lol.  Most computers should be able to max out the settings and enjoy a thoroughly decent  arcade game. There are three modes, training, instant action (quick game) and campaign. You get to choose from several (11) WWII planes, each with it’s own characteristics, though most are locked at the beginning of the game. The game play is relatively easy. Though there are three difficulty settings from Novice, Veteran (Soldier) or Ace of Aces, to make it harder.  You can also change the environmental characteristics for example play at night, early in the morning or on a bright sunny day if you play in the instant action mode.  The plane is controlled by either the  mouse or the keyboard.  The latter being more responsive.  Unfortunately there’s no joystick or game pad facility, but I’m sure that Xpadder program that’s been mentioned previously will enable those with an aversion for the keyboard to play this game. (Unfortunately it’s no longer freeware).

The campaign consists of 33 different missions, which take place on five  different maps  (this could possibly be ten depending upon which side you choose to play from as thee appears to be 10 different  campaign settings, but only five are available  from the allies and five for the Japanese and Germans.  When playing in  instant action mode you also  get to choose  one of four different  areas, that are Twer, Seliger, Murmansk and Belgorod.  There are five nationalities, Russian, English, American, Japanese and German each with their own planes to fly.  There are 23 planes in total to choose from, but these are limited to the Nationality you choose to play I found some bugs n this part of the game where choosing a particular nationality wouldn't necessarily allow you to choose the correct  planes) . I do think the maps are rather similar after perusing the game for the past half an hour; but the same enthusiasm is there from when I first started to play the demo.

All ground and air targets are destructible.  If you crash you even make a dent in the  ground or come plummeting to earth if you hit a barrage balloon or other plane, lol.  There are seven types of weapon which are selected using the mouse wheel or appropriate key binding.  These include the primary and secondary machine guns, large and small bombs plus three types of rocket, fixed, air to air and air to ground missiles.  There's no facility to change the key bindings which is a pity as we all have our own preferences.

Controls:

Movement......................................................Mouse axis or arrow keys
Increase or decrease throttle..................A and Z
Fire Gun.........................................................Space or LMB
Bombs...........................................................LMB
Rockets..........................................................Alt
Menu...............................................................Esc
Pause..............................................................P
Camera Angles............................................C, V and B
Toggle Map....................................................F2
Zoom..............................................................Left Shift
Select Weapon...............................................Mouse Wheel

Features:

•	Easy to learn and fly

•	raining missions for learning the game

•	25 airplanes

•	Instant action and campaign game styles

•	Ability to adjust render quality for slower computers

•	Three levels of difficulty

•	Soundtrack

System Requirements:

•	Windows 98/ME/XP/Vista
•	Pentium III processor
•	256 Mb RAM
•	50 Mb hard drive space
•	32 Mb video memory
•	Sound card
•	DirectX 7

Conclusion:

My advice give it a try, even if you don’t like airplane shooters; this one is different from your F19’s (the first flight simulator I ever played that fit onto a single 1.44Mb diskette), Battle of Britain, IL-2 Sturmovik,  Microsoft’s Flight Simulator X,   and Red Baron or more recently released games such as  Heroes over Europe, Battle Stations Pacific and Midway, Top Gun, Heroes over Europe, Tom Clancy's HAWX I & II, Pacific Storm: allies, Dogfighter, Combat Wings: Battle of Britain,  Air Conflicts: Secret Wars, Blazing Angels,  Wings of Prey, Microsoft Flight (the base game is free), Rise of Flight, and IL2- Cliffs of Dover as well as several others that I've played over the past several years  in that  Sky Aces is  a very basic  arcade shooter rather than a true flight simulator (Not that all of the titles I've mentioned above are true  simulations, some are   as arcade as you can get, but they all differ from Sky Aces in their realism.  Sky Aces is pretty basic, but  IMO still very playable.  There’s no steep learning curve or realistic flight  simulation.  In Sky Aces you  are flying right away, with minimal controls to worry about.  All you need to do is stay alive by avoiding the  computer generated  enemies.

Unfortunately I was a little disappointed with this release as I was expecting  some improvements over the previous  release (that’s over six years old now), The graphics are an improvement over its predecessor, but the world graphics are still rather unrealistic,  I was expecting a much bigger improvement on the graphics side of the game.  That said, (as I’m spoilt for choice as I have all of the  titles mentioned above) it’s still a  very  playable arcade shooter that you can literally play straight out of the box as opposed to   a higher learning curve for some of the titles mentioned above (e.g. Microsoft Flight Simulator X - I've still not got the hang of flying most of the planes that come with the base game) and is worth  a decent 7 out of 10  IMO

<size=4>Other Game deals</size>:

I'm still not 100% from last weeks illness, so today's game suggestions will be similar to last weeks, just a list of places to visit. Steam have another sale on, this time to celebrate the release of their new addition to the Steam platform. That is Steams Big Picture. A new way of browsing Steam. :) It's not as extensive as the Thanksgiving sale, but there's still a good number of games in the sale. You can see most of the games on sale via Steams 'specials' list, accessible from the main Steam store page. That list only goes up to 100, but there are more. The 24 hour sale is called Tryst an action strategy game and the weekend deals are FTL (Faster Than Light) a strategy simulation and Hotline Miami . Check out Didimatic for a full list of sale items on Steam (as well as GOG, Gamestop and Gamersgate games) <a href="http://didimatic.com/dd/en/onsale/" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. That link takes you to the full list of games on sale from all of those providers. You can select individual providers by clicking on the bar just below the header. Steam has 123 games on sale. You can also check out Gamersgate separately <a href="http://www.gamersgate.co.uk/" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> and the game discussion forums where freeware games and game deals are always being posted <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/forum/17" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>. They have daily deals over the festive season with up to 80% off plus the holiday bundles. The first holiday bundle costs £2.50 (approx $3.75) then the next one you get 25% off then the next 50% etc. There are three bundles left, two of which unlock next week and in a fortnights time. If you started with the first holiday bundle two weeks ago, this weeks will be half price and the final holiday bundle will be free if you purchased all the previous ones. That said, even if you've missed the first two bundles, the first you purchase at £2.50 is a bargain with four decent indie games in the package. This weeks Holiday bundle is called <a href="http://www.gamersgate.co.uk/indiefort-bundle" rel="nofollow">Indiefort Oxygen bundle</a> and includes the 
 four games Alien Hallway, Eryi's Actions, Bridge It and Terrorhedron 3D (Coop tower defence). Basically if you purchase this weeks and the next two (Indiefort Ignition and Indiefort Liftoff bundles) instead of costing £7.50 (approx $11.25) for 12 games they will cost you £5.63p (approx $8.44)

There are yet more bundles available, for example the <a href="http://www.humblebundle.com/" rel="nofollow"> Humble THQ </a> bundle which now includes eight AAA games that can be had for less than $6 (The Company of Heroes trilogy, Red Faction Armageddon plus dlc, Metro 2033, Darksiders, Titan Quest and Saints Row the Third). (check the thread over in the forums for video and images of each game <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/21170" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>).

The <a href="http://www.bundlestars.com/" rel="nofollow">Bundle Stars</a> bundle went live last week and is still running with yet more AAA games. You can get Men of War: Vietnam, Off-Road Drive, Reign: Conflict of Nations, Death to Spies: Moment of Truth, Death Track: Resurrection, Real Warfare: 1242 and Real Warfare: Northern Crusades for only £5 (~$7.50), that's 95% off the usual cost of these games. (Notice that two of the bundles give you nearly all of the games in the Men of War franchise; the only one missing is Men of War: Assault Squad.

There's a new bundle available called <a href="http://bundle-in-a-box.com/" rel="nofollow"></a> that contains Shadows of the Vatican part 1, Delve Deeper + dlc, War of the Human Tanks, Eversion and fibrillation (pay what you want. if you pay more than the average of $2.76 you will also get The Adventures of Shuggy, Stay Dead, The 4th Wall and Flibble with extras that include the sound tracks from five of the games.

The <a href="http://www.indieroyale.com/" rel="nofollow">Indie Royale: Winter</a>
 bundle has three days left to run and includes Greed corps, Hamlet, BIT.TRIP RUNNER, Conquest of Elysium 3, Leave home and They breath. 
Groupees, Be Mine 6 Bundle contains Eschalon Book 1, Ceville, Paranormal, with bonus games Enclave Gold and Monarchy.

Details of all the bundles still available can be found <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/forum/17" rel="nofollow">HERE</a> in the Game discussion forums.

Also check out the didimatic site for other deals from Gamestop and GOG <a href="http://didimatic.com/dd/en/onsale/gamestoppcdownloads/" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>, plus for deals on Indie games go to <a href="http://www.desura.com/games" rel="nofollow">Desura</a> and click on the on sale or Alpha funding tabs for some excellent bargains, finally you'll also find great sale bargains on <a href="http://www.gamefly.co.uk/?adtrackingid=goouk001#axzz2DmszmJiA" rel="nofollow">Gamefly</a> and <a href="http://www.greenmangaming.com/" rel="nofollow">GreenMan Gaming</a> Finally, Alawar's free game (via the gamebox) has changed for everyone now to Finding Doggy, which is a similar match 3 to 4 Elements, though not as colorful or sophisticated.

All of the bundles I've mentioned above are superb value for money.  My personal favorite would be the Humble THQ bundle, partly because its the best value for money  compared to the rest  with over $300  worth of games (when first released) for less than $6, but also because I love all of the game sin the bundle and    they have  already made millions on the deal, some of which  will go to charity.

You can get games similar to Sky Aces: world at War II from MyPlayCity (MPC) and Gametop. Please  do remember the  warnings about  unchecking   the tick boxes  during  the installation of these games and in the case of MPC, each time you start the games up, otherwise you will end up with   a new toolbar installed and your  home page changed.

<a href="http://www.myplaycity.com/search/?query=sky+aces" rel="nofollow"> Sky Aces: Verden Sky </a> also known as <a href=" rel="nofollow">http://www.freegamepick.com/download-free-games/sky-battle/" rel="nofollow"> Sky Battle</a>

<a href="http://www.myplaycity.com/warlike_flyboys/" rel="nofollow">Warlike Flyboys WW3</a>

<a href="http://www.myplaycity.com/helicopter_wars/" rel="nofollow">Helicopter Wars</a> (aka Helic)

<a href="http://www.freegamepick.com/download-free-games/sky-battle-ww2/" rel="nofollow">Sky Battle: WW2</a> (This is the same as today's game)

<size=4>Problems</size>:

If you have any problems with the game, either installation issues or getting the game to work check out the FAQ's section over in the Game discussion forums. you can find it <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/topic/11647" rel="nofollow">HERE</a>

If you are posting requests for help late in the day I would suggest posting in the main giveaway forums in the game <a href="http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/forums/forum/17" rel="nofollow">Game Discussion</a> . If you’ve installed the game but it won’t work for some reason, it should still be registered, so someone may be able to help at another time. Unfortunately if your problem is actually installing it then once the giveaway period is over there’s nothing that can be done until the game is given away again (though that isn’t guaranteed). It’s always worth checking out the free games sites as sometimes the games we get here are also available for free from them as well.

<size=4>Request for Help</size>:

<blockquote>Developers rely on good feedback to improve their games. If you download this game please take some time once you’ve played it a while to leave some constructive feedback either positive or negative. The more constructive feedback we get, the more likely developers are going to give more games away. The giveaway site already has a very good standing with the search engines. Developers want their products out there on the WWW, this site has the potential to do that. The game giveaway project gives away on average between 9 to 17 thousand downloads for each game depending upon what genre and how obscure the game is. That’s a lot of homes these games are being downloaded into and a lot of 'potential' cash that’s being lost by the developers. If we get better games because of better feedback, the community are likely to continue to benefit from the generosity of the developers. Satisfied community members are then more likely to visit the home sites of those developers and purchase games that they may not have bothered with before they discovered the developer via the game giveaway site, thus giving the developers more incentives to give away even more decent games.

Please leave some feedback once you’ve checked the game out. It can be positive or negative, but please explain what your reasons were for the feedback you post. You could also leave suggestions for improving the game, for example, this game could do with more block types for the levels editor, add more power-ups, describing the ones you think would be suitable, add some mini games (which seem all the rage in some arcade games now) or enable the user to be able to change the in game music easily.

Thank you in advance to all those who take the time to post a constructive comment.</blockquote>

Regards

Whiterabbit aka Stephen

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