Guess what I found on the website regarding the game not loading.

Q: After installing The Cursed Wheel game it doesn't work, or I get an error window saying something about OpenGL and the game closes or runs too slow. What's happening?

A: OpenGL is a technology that speeds up your computer when displaying complex graphics. The problem is that by default most computers don't have it installed, so you need to download it yourself (it's completely FREE!). As this can be a complex process and depends on your graphic card's manufacturer, we provide you an utility called Driver Upgrade System by Phelios Inc, that tells you where do you need to go in order to download what's needed. You can install this utility from the shortcut called 'Upgrade Drivers' created when installing The Cursed Wheel. After installing it, run it and click the Visit button in order to access the OpenGL download website. If you have any problems doing all this feel free to contact our tech support and we'll help you upgrade your drivers.


I wont load anything that I dont need, even for one game.

Thanks.

""Suzanne, if you come back, try running it as administratror, if you haven’t already. ""

As I said in my post No.10 I had already tried that. And I have never had a problem with loading games from GGOTD until this one.

Thanks, but no thanks. :)

The Cursed Wheel is fun. Thank-you. Thumbs Up.

Got this last time. Not in love with it, but it's a good game that obviously appeals to many. If you think about it, it's really a match 3 ball shooter in reverse. Instead of shooting 'em, you catch 'em.

Debating whether to post at all at this late time. Saw Suzanne's post much earlier and decided to do some reasearch on a Vista theory I have. Suzanne, if you come back, try running it as administratror, if you haven't already. I've developed this theory that not everyone's user account permissions are the same, because I believe that some of the OEMs and vendors do some modifications on the permissions. That's probably to get all their OEM software to properly install or to combat some security issues that were driving everyone crazy when Vista first came out.
For example, my User Account Control didn't display a lot of the well documented HIPS like learning behavior that many people have complained about. I believe that's because the OEM or vendor worked those bugs out ahead of time. I know this sounds like a crazy theory, and I couldn't find the evidence to prove it on my quest today, but I still think I'm right. So I'd try to run it as admin., just to test. Then there are ways to change permissions if you don't want the lower security of running on admin all the time.

I intermittently have the same problem with previous days comments as weezie seems to. When you click on the "view all comments" it just kicks back up to the top of the comments. I believe it's an intermittent script error. I reload the page and then it behaves itself. Weezie, you may either have to update your browser, or get the latest Java package. Last time I checked it was version 6.12. If you're way older than that, the bug may not go away. Try reloading the page before you do any downloading, though.

I've read some conflicting opinions on whether today's giveaway will run on Vista or not. I downloaded, installed and played this game with not a single hitch other than the excruciating boredom and sore clicking-digit it caused. I will state here as I have on GOTD...Vista users, whether 32 or 64-bit should ALWAYS install ALL software in "run as administrator" mode. Simply drag the setup file from the extraction window to your desktop, right-click the setup icon and choose "run as administator". This method has been suggested off and on in the past by GOTD and GGOTD moderators and is not meant as advice...it's just plain simple and it works.

I very much appreciate the hard work and dedicated effort put forth by all the folks at GOTD and GGOTD...but this game is not that great and I became quite bored with it very early on. Thanks, but no thanks.

I got the 'purchasing the full version..." message as well. I think it pops up randomly in the puzzle level (which is probably the only demo level).

I did get the game to work fine after the total system crash I got late last night. Odds are I had been running too many programs during the day and this caused the problem.

As suggested I've reinstalled the game, this time being sure that there is no "/" but only "\" in the path (if that is really important). This time I didn't get any warning from Windows Vista. However, it this hangs after around 6 levels in puzzle mode, and I still get the same tooltip that I mentioned in message #19: "Purchasing the full version of the game you'll be able to upload your highest arcade mode scores in your online ranking and show your friends who's the best." Honestly, I've not tried the arcade mode, but I don't see any other indication that the game is a demo. Pity for the crashes. Also, honestly, the game is not that great fun...

Downloaded, installed (I think), but now what? How do I get it to run? I followed the instructions in the "read me" part and when I click on setup, it just tries to install again. Confused here. I have Vista 32 bit, 1 year old PC.

@28 Weezie
The archived comments are still there. Just hidden. When ypou go to the screen that shows the old game you only see the first three and underneath is in big yellow letters "View all comments »". Click on that and the rest of comments will come up.

the keylogger from the other day said it was trying to log my keystrokes too Fred.
Anybody else have this happen?

I got this last time, and I have vista. It works well on my computer. Thanks for the wonderful games :D

Have this from last time... a good giveaway. Thank you to GGAOTD.

>21(dog) LOL! Your post made me chuckle, posting on a gaming site when you don't like games. I'm sure there's lotsa book sites out there to "Kindle" your imagination. ;)

Hi again Weezie,

Try clearing out your internet cache. (right click on your internet icon and select internet properties (assuming you have I.E. - forgotten what you do for Firefox, but easily Googled). That may clear the problem.

To Kim,

Yes as this is a freestanding game you can just delete the installed folder. The only registry entries will pertain to unzipping the program and maybe a few orphan entries. If you really feel the necessity to, you can easily clear these by opening the registry editor. Start Menu - Run - type regedit - ok then go to the toool bar and select edit - find. to scroll through to each find use F3. delete as you find any entries. Do make a back up/restore point before you start though just in case you accidentally delete something you shouldn't.

Uneventful install on XP Home/SP3. Graphics card: Radeon X1550 1680x1050 running digital mode.

Clicking on tce.exe caused my desktop to go black, with game window flashing distorted white squares at various points. Bounced PC and tried again to same effect. Uninstalled. Thanks anyway!

Yes Stephen, except for the most recent one which would be yesterday's comments. Anything older than that won't work or I'll get the first 2 or 3 comments that's all. Weird enough huh? Since I'm fairly new here, I thought that that's the way it was. Like if you can't download the game after the 24 hours are up so are the comments. I really don't know and can't figure out how to solve this very annoying problem. Again, thanks for your time. BTW congrats on the magnificiant work you do for us and GGOTD.

How do I uninstall it, there are no uninstaller in control panel - all programs, should I just delete the folder, and if so don't it leave reg keys and behind.

===================Edited by Moderator================

Sorry E*Dawg,

As much as I agree with what you said, it isn't the place to attack a specific person on these comments section. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions about a game. Unfortunately yours was just a personal attack rather than a comment directed at the game so I had to delete it in its entirety

I can't explain why that happens weezie. Very strange. Does this happen with every previous giveaway?

WR

Hi Stephen,
Thanks for taking the time. What I mean is, when I click on the search engine to view all comments I only see the 2 or 3 comments shown before clicking. Then if I try to click on lets say 110 comments it sends me to view and back and forth. For example: I tried to look at March 1rst' comments,the Archibald's game... I click on view comments and all I get is your intro Stephen plus 4 paragraphs of "The Game:", up to ..."You will also find save points in each level which enable" and then it cuts off. Did the clicking here and there but nothing works. Hope I made myself clear. Again thanks for your time. Also thanks GGOTD for the fun games.

The Anti-Logger given away a few days ago on giveawayoftheday comes up and states the game is trying to log my keystrokes.

Thanks! This one is definitely a challenge! And it works perfectly on Windows Vista 32 bit.

Funny how people say it doesn't work on Vista, but I'm running Vista Business SP1, and it works fine.

The only thing I had to fix was the way it extracts. For some reason, it tries to extract to C:/Games, but Windows paths, unless under special circumstances, need to use a \.

I fixed that, extracted, and tried it.

Didn't like the game, but it certainly DOES work on Vista.
Funny enough, I have an integrated graphics controller by Intel, and yet it works, too. :)

Works on all of my computers, vista hp.32 is a little tricky , if yoy turn off a fiew things first like that, are your shure you want to allow this, built in pop up. and the spyware terminator , untill you get it installed, then turn every thing back on. it runs great. dont have a 64 machine yet so cant say any thing about that one.but all xp,all flavors and vista 32 hp,h, and b works. And yes I like match 3 games .This one is fun untill you get a cranp in your click finger. $19.95 ? yes I will buy this one.

Works fine on windows vista home premium. Cute little game. Will have fun with this one as a time waster although I am sure it will get harder as the levels increase. Love match threes and this is a nice little twist on them. Thanks GGOTD.. this is the first one I have chocen to DL in quite a while.

I have Vista 32 Bit and I had the game installed & working in less than 3 minutes! Thanks GGOTD!

This is terrible, thumb's down! I never liked games. Prefer books.
p.s. I thot only Roman emperors used their thumbs to decide things?

Hi Paolo
All games given away via this project are full version games. If you end up with a demo it will be because it wasn't installed properly. The message does sound like you have a demo rather than the full version so I would delete it from your system and re install it again before the giveaway ends tomorrow morning.

As for the crash, maybe try defragging your drive. If it's badly fragmented it can cause problems with games crashing randomly, (or does it always crash at the same point?)

Interesting... I've tried the puzzle mode and everything worked fine. (Vista ultimate 32 bit. Windows complained that the game may have been not installed correctly, but everything was fine.) At some point (around level 8) the tip at the beginning of the level said something like "If you buy the full version of this game you get..." . After that level the game crashed. Is it really a complete game or a demo or something?

I picked this game up last time it was given. It's a nice one to have and my 6 and 9 year olds like playing it in the lower levels. It works fine on my Vista and from a pin drive. I do have a few slow times every now and then, but it may be some of the stuff running in the background of my system at times. Otherwise, no complaints. Thanks GAOTD!

Windows vista ultimate here, and a "no go" here, was not able to play game...loaded fine but when i tried to play i got a .exe failure. oh well.

Hi Naomi, comment #13, do you have a graphics card and how old is it? Also have you updated your graphics drivers recently? You my find the problem will right itself by updating your graphics drivers. You’ve probably got either an ATI or an NVIDIA graphics chip, so it will be easy to get the latest drivers. When you go to their site you have to fill in some basic info such as the product type for example Geforce, the OS, and what series of graphics card you have (for example I have a 7900 a 8600 and a 8800, these are from the 7 and 8 series.



Get NVidia drivers HERE

Get ATI drivers HERE


If you don't know what your graphics card/chip is, you can easily find out by going to the start menu and clicking on run. Type in dxdiag and then click okay. This opens the dxdiagnostics panel. Click on the display tab. From here you can see which graphics card you have which tells you the product (eg GeForce) and the series number, both of which you need when you go to the respective web sites.

To the right you can see what driver is being used.


Finally, you may need to update your DX9.0c drives as well.

Two great giveaways today. Just about £50 worth! When GAOTD gets it right it is surely one of the best sites on the Net

Works fine on Vista!

Had no trouble downloading and installing (XP SP3) but just like last time this was offered, the game didn't fully load, meaning all I could get was pastel colored squares in a wheel shape, no way to match anything except by guess work. For a cursor I had a large green square. In Options, there were sliders for music and sound, a large green square for a cursor, but when I place the green square on a slider it doesn't change the music. It does, however, work on the other parts of the options menu, and other menus. My screens do not look like the screen shots you showed. I had this trouble last time I tried to use Cursed Wheel - maybe it really is cursed. Anyone have any ideas what is wrong? Apparently it's my problem, since everyone else seems to have no problems (except Vista users). I'd love to try this game, but it's impossible to play like this. BTW, I tried the forums and it's not accepting my username and password for some reason, that's why I'm posting here.

Works pretty fine in vista.

rhemaange (6) - I got this game previously and it DOES work on 32-bit Vista. I've got no problems and never have!

I downloaded this game and everything loaded fine, but then to go and play the game was a disaster. Something about tcw.exe file wouldnt load. I have Home Basic Vista. The HUGE.log file was written to the file and when I removed that, the game at least loaded but each time I loaded another box would come up saying.. could not write config file make sure have read and write permission on the fi.....

I then pressed enter as the mouse would not go pass the screen. When I did that the game started to load. But that was it, a little game and then nothing. I even loaded the game with Run as Admin.

I dont believe it works for Vista. Going to delete the files now.

this looks great, but unfortunately i have windows vista...

I downloaded it some time ago when it was a giveaway, but it does work on Vista 32-bit. So everyone: just try it, in many times it does work!!

Hi Weezie, what do you mean exactly?

You can access any comments from previous giveaways by using the search engine at the top of the page, then you have to click on View all Comments. This will tehn open up all comments available for that particular giveaway.

I hope this helps.

Does NOT work in Vista. Don't even TRY to do so. :o( I tried & it crashed my machine big time.

I have Vista HP 32-bit

Moderators Note.....

Please ignore the statement above that says this game doesn't work on a Vista platform. Some community members are reporting that it does work.

Downloaded fine on XP SP2. Looks like fun - I much prefer untimed games so I will likely play puzzle mode a lot. I forgot how to drop the balls and had to quit my game to get back to the tutorial. Then when I tried to start another puzzle game my system froze (although I had a regular windows cursor, which didn't do anything - the game cursor wouldn't move). I couldn't even do a cntl-alt-del to get either the windows manager or to reboot. I ended up having to power off to close it.

I will still keep it and try it later after my system & I get a few hours sleep. I hope everything is okay then as this looks like a keeper.

Thanks Penguin; it was a typo - I'd cut and pasted the link into the appropriate code and missed a letter. The link has been fixed.

regards

Whiterabbit

The Audio Converters link doesn't work.

Picked this up last giveaway and it is still a challenge...Thanks giveaway!

The Cursed Wheel:

10 second review:

If you don’t want to read my full review, here’s a 19 second quick review. :lol: I’d give The Cursed Wheel 8 out of 10, It‘s an unusual slant on the match three genre with three distinct modes of play to keep you entertained. Well worth downloading if you haven’t already got it from a previous giveaway. It’s free standing so can be played from a flash drive and/or can be transferred from one computer to another. Excellent giveaway. :)

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Main Review:

Installation:

The Cursed Wheel received 51% of 328 votes when it was given away back in January 08, and only 48% of 467 when it was given away last November 08. Don’t let the poor voting put you off though as this is quite a versatile game despite it’s match three connections. (b.t.w. - I don’t mean to imply match three’s are rubbish by that last sentence – I’ve bought several match three games over the last year {eg Luxor: Quest for the Afterlife, 4 Elements, Call of Atlantis plus others I got free for beta testing}).


Read November 08’s comments HERE

Read January 08’s comments HERE

Installation is a breeze. The zip file, which is just over 12Mb unzips to two files, the read me and a dual activation and set up file. The installed game is around 29Mb and you have access to the game via the start menu or a desktop short cut. The following is quoted from the developers download page:

Discover the ancient secret hidden by the Mayan pyramid! Use your skill and dexterity to spin the cursed wheel, beat the Stone Guardian and loot the treasure!
Get ready for some action! Play as much as you want in Arcade mode. Random levels that never end, your skill sets the limit! Slow paced play in Puzzle mode. Get through the pyramid in Maze mode, up to 10 different ones! 4 difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, Hard and Extreme. Can you beat them all? Easy and intuitive control, just use your mouse to play! Featuring stunning graphics and an awesome soundtrack. On-line high scores ranking for Arcade mode. Show your friends who’s the best!

Reference accessed 14th November 08

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Game information:

The option menu is very simple with only sound and music sliders and a window toggle. There appears to be no help menu, but when you click on the start button you get four choices one of which is a basic tutorial level:

• Tutorial – Several windows pop up giving you pictorial prompts, as well as a few tips

• Puzzle Mode - This is an un-timed mode. You are given in game tips as you progress initially.

• Maze Mode - You have to avoid the guardians of the maze, collect items and get to the treasure chamber without being caught.

• Arcade Mode - This is a single level that ends when you are unable to match any more gems together. It becomes increasingly difficult as you progress.

Check out the screen captures by following the links below. There are over 40. Most of which show the various in game tips.

Images:

All on one page:

See images all on one page HERE

As a Slideshow:

See slideshow of Images HERE

Maze Mode:

The Maze mode is similar in game play to the Arcade mode, but is distinctly different to the Puzzle mode. I spent more time on the maze mode as I was intrigued by the level selection, which is basically a hidden maze that as you progress through it the tiles next to the level you previously chose will appear. If you come to a branch in the maze all possible routes will be shown, but only the beginning of each. At the start of the Maze game you only have one tile to choose from, the rest of the maze is blank. There are blind ends which are shown as red tiles. Do not try to move further along a blind end (you will be given the choice when you’ve finished that particular level) because if you do, the game ends. Somewhere within the maze is a map that will reveal the entire maze and enables you to finish the maze game quicker if you wish. I’ve taken several screen captures of the maze as I progressed through the game, but have deleted the particular screen capture that shows the whereabouts of the map, though if you really want to know where it is, a careful look at all the appropriate screen captures will give you a clue as to where it is. ;)

Marbles fall at a pre determined speed which depends upon which difficulty level you choose. There are four difficulty settings, Easy, Normal, Hard and Extreme. You have to move the rings so as to capture the marbles. You must ensure that the topmost space on the outer ring (that is the one at 12 noon,/em>) is always empty, if it isn’t when the next marble falls the game will end.

Arcade Mode:

The arcade mode is a single random level the gets harder as you progress. There are four difficulty settings for this mode as well and are the same as those you get for the maze mode. The game play is basically the same as the Maze mode apart from the fact that it’s an endless puzzle as opposed to completing different levels.

Puzzle Mode:

In the Puzzle mode the game board is already full of marbles. The aim is to empty the three rings of marbles. You do this by matching up sets of three. This game is timed, but I didn’t think to check to see how long a level lasted. Playing on normal I played for over nine minutes, but taking a Screen capture crashed the game. There were no difficulty settings in this mode as far as I could see. You can move any combination of rings to make a match of three marbles. While moving the ring you may find that you create more than one group of three. You’ll see what I, mean when you play the game. Right clicking your mouse button will cause a marble to drop from the dispenser at the top of the playing field. As with the other two modes you can see up to ten marbles, so it is possible to plan your move ahead a little, though not too far ahead as the way this game works when the rings are relatively full of marbles it’s easy to make matches. Once a space has been created by matching three marbles (at which point they disappear) moving either of the middle or outer rings will cause the first marble to be placed over the gap to drop down into the space in the central ring. The aim of this mode is to clear all the marbles from the board (though I think that’s an assumption because the help menus are not very clear) so before you move either of the outer rings (in relation to the innermost ring) move that ring so that the space is filled (though this may cause a marble from a space elsewhere to be filled)

Looking in the games folder it appears that there are 10 different mazes to work through, so this mode should hold your interest for some time to come (assuming you enjoy the game in the first place).

System Requirements:

OS…………………………………………………Windows 98 or newer
Processor……………………………………..500 Mhz CPU
System RAM………………………………….128MB
Video RAM…………………………………….16MB Graphic card.

Conclusion:

This game is excellent. All three modes are enjoyable and in my opinion this game will give many hours of entertainment. It’s easily worth 7.9 and maybe even an 8 as I think if I lose this one I’d be tempted to buy it. (though it's unlikely that I will because it is free standing as already mentioned above) It’s not like your usual match three games and I take my hat off (not that I wear one) to the developer for coming up with such a great take on the match three genre. To have three modes is even better.

The only down side is that there is no easily accessible help menu, which would make this game complete, though there is a basic tutorial level that takes you on a short pictorial journey through the simple moves. There are also quite a few in game tips that cover such things as bonus marbles such as color changers and bombs. I would suggest to the developer that he adds a comprehensive help menu to the main menu which could include all the in game tips and a list of all the bonus marble as well as a description of each game mode. You can access a brief description of each game mode by holding your mouse pointer over each mode in the menus, but a more in depth description would be much more welcome placed in a help menu via the main menu. You could also add a slider for controlling the speed at which the marbles drop in the maze and arcade modes. This could even be placed in the level itself, so that if you find the level too slow or too fast you can adjust it more easily, though there are four difficulty settings together with the right mouse click to enable the marble to drop faster .

Despite me thinking it was a brilliant game it actually received more negative reviews than positive the last time this was given away. If you like match three games in general check out Gametop for several freebies in this genre.

Link to several free match three games

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Useful Information:

Music:

If you don’t like the music, you can change it by going into the sound folder and replacing the correct files with something you like though you will need to convert the file to an .ogg file and rename it to the one you are changing. I would suggest that you create a backup folder and place those files you intend to change into that rather than overwriting them. You can download a suitable audio converter from the freeware library. The following link takes you to a list of several that are available for free:

Link to Audio Converters

Other games with a circular concept:

If you like the circular concept then try Zenerchi, which is a much more polished looking game (IMO), though it doesn’t have as many game modes to play with; or alternatively you could try an excellent circular breakout, or in this case BreakIn. I’ve had BreakIn for nearly three years and have still to beat it. It’s much more difficult than your usual breakout and finally Circulate, another match three with a difference. You can find links to these games in the forums via the following link:

Checkout demos of similar games HERE

Thank you Merscom LCC and the GameGiveaway team for a great game.

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If you have any problems running this game please post them in the forums where it will be easier to sift through the comments that are made throughout the next 24 hours. To post you'll need to register in the forums. Thank you:

Go HERE to post any problems with this game