It is a good match 3 game with a twist.It makes it more challenging when sections get blocked. Keeper. Thank you GOTD & Stars Ashes.

Thanks for a very nice game! During game play, the "level information box" in the upper left hand corner is partially covered up by the game board when you have more than 100 hidden coins. This same "level information box" is partially covered up by the 'treasure map pieces parchment' and the 'level stats parchment' when you complete any level. This is the only software correction I found and I have completed the entire game.

I had no trouble installing the game. I like the darker colors of the game. Until I got to level thirteen; the game crashes every time I try to launch it. I personally think this is built it to the game as a "you want it; buy it" deal. Which makes this actually a demo instead of the full version with out having to call it a demo.

I missed the giveaway because I was not at my computer over the holiday weekend. I don't play a lot of match-3 games, but from the screenshots, I'd say I was attracted to this one because of the "drab" graphics. I love the brown and beige tones they used. It would be a relaxing change from the usual bright flashing colors. I agree with the suggestion above--minigames are a must in match-3's. If you run it again, I'd try it out.

so i downloaded this yesterday a gave it a quick run. It seemed worth a try, at least when i had time later. All seemed well(yesterday) and when i went to play it today, it opened up to a black screen w/ a popup window saying," somethinsomething.oog/ogg file bad.
i cant remember if it was oog. or ogg. i had to close about 30 of these and when done it stopped working.
I'm sure it was something i did, be it settings or some other action, but usually they activate automatically using the setup.
alas, i don't know if anyone else had the same problem, or if this will be read or posted since the giveaway is over. i just wanted to let you guys know what happened. Thx as always!

Nice game play but I found that it stops working when i got to level 21... no indications of why, just crashes when I hit 'Play' at level 21.

Other than that, I like the graphics and game play.

First the positive's...well only one really, installed on Win 7 32bit without a problem
Now the negatives....Game crashes after every level, repetetive, monotonous, no variation whatsoever. on the treaure hunt section you have to keep on and finish every level even after you've found all the treasure.
Not much thought has gone into the designing of this game, it could've been fairly decent with a little more imagination, to be honest this thing should be freeware, I can't imagine anyone paying for this crap.

This is a great game! I'm a sucker for Match-3 games, so I enjoyed this one a lot. It's not very different so far from the basic Match-3 games, so some people might find it dull, but I really like the pirate theme. I just wish there was a little more story.

I'm really Sorry Fred, I accidentally deleted your post while doing a spell check on my reply. I must have double clicked, which highlights all the text in the window, then pasted my moderator reply. Things are really manic here at the moment. However, I do remember the gist of the post you made about two separate user checking the game, one of whom found the game boring after level three and the other got to level 20 and said they felt that there was something missing from the game.
You also mentioned some examples of what you though were better constructed match threes such as one of the atlantis series plus a couple more.


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




Thank you for your feedback. I agree with you that there is something missing from the game. Try a demo of one of the Puzzle Quest games. They are match threes with an RPG element attached. Where you can upgrade your character who fights various enemies using various matche threes as weapons, collecting gold to purchase potions, and casting spells that are determined by other match threes etc. There are several of the sub-genre around, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, Puzzle Quest 2 and Puzzle Quest: Galactrix being the most notable (the latter is a space strategy as opposed to sword and sorcery). There are others that include card based strategy games coupled with match 3 such as Gyromancer. There are more, but names escape me at the moment. We actually got one a few years ago via the game giveaway project.

Gyromancer:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/23380/

Puzzle Quest 2:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/47540/?snr=1_5_9__13

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the warlords:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/12500/?snr=1_5_9__13

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/23500/?snr=1_5_9__13

Runs well enough, but I was bored with it in a couple of minutes. It reminds me of The Great Pharaoh, which is similar and about as boring.



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

Probably the subtle shades of brown. Something a little more colorful would have been better. The overall game is okay, just not inspiring.

This gane has relaxing music, but alittle too relaxing! Kinda prefer match 3 games like one of first games I ever downloaded back in 2003!
That game was Santa Balls , (which was free way back when! Thanks for the game! Since almost Xmaas, a link for - free unline or downloadable game - Sants Balls -
http://kewlbox.com/games/gamedetail.aspx?gameid=54 Merry Xmas!


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

Thank you for your feedback

Fun little Match 3. Ghosts add to it, yes. Game options well designed for relax/timed. Didn't have prob seeing timer fuse burning down. AI decent. Just enough for a fast in/out to pass a few levels.
Win 7 x64, full screen. Might mention once again that I use the Send to option to create a desktop shortcut, not the regular Create shortcut in the RMB menu. Don't know why but always works.
Thanks GOTD for wrap up to nice weekend.



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

Thank you for your feedback

nice game - works flawlessly, and is addictive... It's a keeper for us.

one suggestion: allow matching to happen while blocks are falling, rather than preventing movement until the previous action resolves itself. It's likely more difficult to program, but would make the game much more immersive - instead of move... watch... move..., it becomes move..move..move.

it's a small thing, but makes match-3 games much more interesting. one example of this type of behavior, and a game i've now played to level 2000 :-) is "frosty splash", given out here a year or two ago around christmas time. it keeps going, and you never have to wait for the game to catch up...

hope this helps. keep up the great work (egyptoid, etc).

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

Thank you for your feedback

Installed on my Alienware running Win 7 and it crashed just after level 6. Fun game, but if it's going to crash, not worth the time.

UPDATE : Reloaded it and got two more levels before it crashed again. Love Match-3, but deleted it.

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

thanks for your feedback

I've tried downloading this game several times--from both sites and always end up with the following error screen: C:\Sam\Downloads\TheFlyingDutchman (1).zip is not a valid Win32 application.
My system info:
OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Version 6.1.7600 Build 7600
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name SAM-PC
System Manufacturer TOSHIBA
System Model Satellite L555
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T6600 @ 2.20GHz, 2200 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date TOSHIBA V1.60, 9/3/2009
SMBIOS Version 2.5
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7600.16385"
User Name Sam-PC\Sam
Time Zone Central Standard Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 3.96 GB
Available Physical Memory 77.8 MB
Total Virtual Memory 7.93 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.11 GB
Page File Space 3.96 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

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

Are you trying to run it from the zip file or have you extracted the files first? If it's the former please unzip the package first before running the setup file.

If it's the latter try using a different archiver such as 7-Zip Hamster Zip or J-Zip. I linked to four different free file archivers yesterday that you could try. I've had a similar problem when using WinRAR so used 7-Zip and that solved the problem. Please leave a message to say whether it worked or not. Thank you.

I have a Dell T3400 Intel Duo running Win 7 64-Bit with 8GB Ram and a 1GB graphics card.The game downloaded just fine, but had to install it twice. After 1st install it kept locking my pc up, so I deleted the folder and ran a reg cleaner to get rid of any left-overs. I then re-installed and even with the above suggestions it still locks up my pc.

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

I really can't suggest anything else Donald. Hmmmmm, Maybe try updating your graphics card. If you aren't running windows updater then get the latest version of DX9.0c, if you are then you don't need to. finally try turning off desktop composition to see if that fixes the problem. Oh yeah, you could try using Game Booster (available for free from IObit) which turns off background programs with a toggle to turn them back on once you've finished playing your game. The problem could be caused by a conflicting program. Game booster may help. If not you could try doing a clean boot then gradually turn on all of the processes that have been turned off until you find the offending program that maybe conflicting with the program.

Quickly popping in to deliver a tip: These days, the mirror download link leads to the same location as the main download link.

@28: Try a download manager. A fair one is FlashGet, though if you want to play it absolutely safe, you can try Microsoft Download Manager.

Basic but playable match 3. Not really much to say about the game as it's nothing special. Crashes regularly on my Win 7 x64 box, though it remembers which level I was on, but it doesn't remember sound settings.

Pet peeve: I really wish game programmers would remember that a lot of people have dual monitors, and games shouldn't screw up the screen. At the very least give us the chance to start in windowed mode instead of starting full screen and then giving the choice.

another very nice game from Stars Ashes. The game is relaxing and fun. Thanks again.

@ Jason i'm having the same problem with the sound file is bad
—————————
DATA/sound/MenuSound.ogg
—————————
OK
—————————

I tried your fix but still am getting the same, and game won't load. Anyone else have any ideas???


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

Try downloading the demo, install it to a different location than swap the sound files over. hope it works.

Can't play the game... It starts, shows a black window and freezes the entire PC

Running Vista and way within the required specs. what a pitty.

Any suggestions ?

Took me several trys to get it to download, finally got the mirror site to work on the 3rd try.

Okay... got it out of my computer... thanks for the non-response,,, I had to call a programmer to fix it... thanks

Couldn’t get it to download. Tried several times.

Played the first four levels so far

I like this one. The ghosts mean you have to plan a tiny bit more than in regular match-3 games. The slight shift in play makes this one stand out (just a little)

With the graphics, I like the sepia-tone as it adds to the pirate theme. Unfortunately with my system it is sometime difficult to see. The ship's wheel emblem looks very different to me when on the light brown background compared to the dark brown background -- so sometimes I miss matches because of this.

Thank you for the giveaway!

I tried to uninstall so that I could get a fresh download, but my system says that it is being used with another program and it won't let me,,, it does not come with an uninstaller.... I tried just deleting and the system says that I am not allowed. Has this game hyjacked my computer??? Please advise... Thanks


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

Annie, I am a volunteer moderator, who has a young family. Usually I try to moderate as often as possible (often staying up for up to 20 hours each day over the weekend just to make sure I moderate frequently), but some weekends I just can't devote every waking hour to moderating. I had to go out for several hours today then help my son prepare a presentation on Neil Armstrong for one of his English lessons, so Moderation was of secondary importance to me today.

The game is free standing which means that you just delete the installed folder. To get rid of the message you were getting you could first try and close the conflicting file by opening up Task Manager (Ctrl Alt Del) then closing the file via the processes tab . If you couldn't locate it, restart your computer, then delete the game folder.

In reference to posts 3 and 4. You guys must not be paying attention. Egyptoid 2 was just given away on October 29.

OOps.. forgot to mention that I have Vista 64 bit
Thanks

DataSound file is corrupted... I tried what #25 suggested but a window pops up and says that the folder is being used access denied.,,, Help !!

Nice match 3. I like the "frozen and blocked" squares with the ghosts/skulls. Nice touch. You have to plan moves that way. The colors are fine but the objects themselves need to be more defined. They need to stand out a bit more...Maybe a bolder black. Music..so so. It's a keeper to waste time..Wonder what happens after the you get the 42 map pieces? Only had the time to play 4 levels so far.

Sorry Wabbit..just couldn't bring myself to download another HOG yesterday.

Thank you so much GGOTD and Star Ashes for a fun game. And Wabbit for his review. You deserve to sleep in if you want. :)

Good match 3 game, a keeper for sure.
#8: Had the same problem, went to the folder and unzipped it from there. Ran right away. I use 7zip by the way.

Thanks

To #8 (Phil K)

Installed and plays well on Win7 (64-bit). Maybe you should at the usuall suspect. Are you running the newest graphics driver?

Sergio

Wow two days in a row! Match 3 games are another of my favorites, right along with Mahjongs & hidden object games!

Couldn't get it to download. Tried several times from both links and it only downloaded part of the file each time. The download wouldn't resume either as it set the file size as complete even though it was obviously a smaller file than quoted. Gave up!

Not bad. There are a couple of things I like. Music isn't bad, though it's on a short loop and would be better with a few more minutes of the composition in there. The bonus or penalty tiles are different enough to keep your interest for at least one playthrough.Graphics are, well, interesting. Not your normal bright and shiny match three. And that's why I'm keeping it. This is good for people who get headaches and have trouble with the bright and shiny and/or flashing stuff. On something like Bejeweled 2, which is still one of my favorites, if I can play it at all I have to close my eyes and look away a lot. Don't have the same problem with flashing in Fishdom but even that gets a little bright sometimes. This one has a more subtle palette.

So I may not keep this forever, but for right now it's a good alternative to all the flashy stuff I have.

Cool game. Like the fact that there is a relaxed mode!!

I figured how to get the ogg files to work... the install created a DATA/Sound folder. Once I renamed Sound to sound then the game started to play. That's very strange because I'm on a Windows Vista PC and the filesystem is case insensitive.

I get the following error for all sound files...

---------------------------
sound file is bad
---------------------------
DATA/sound/MenuSound.ogg
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

The files are there and look to have data.

Please advise.

I found it a nice little match-3. It wasn't "special" in that there were "new" features but it had the common "powerups" and "penalties" that pop up from time to time in these games.

The untimed mode makes it a more relaxing game and that's the reason I play games - to relax!

It's obviously a newer game in that it recognized the full-screen version of my resolution (I'm wide-screen so it just changed the 1280 to 1024) which makes it a nice sized windowed mode. I prefer to play in windowed mode if reasonable so I can "multi-task" -- pause the game to chat with a friend online and then go back while I wait for her response.

Hi,

I have installed this a few times on my Gateway netbook that has a limited version of Windows 7. I cannot get it to work. I comes up with a window that says The Flying Dutchman has stopped working and then it gives the option to close the program (the only option). Anyone have suggestions?

Thanks,
Faith

Nice run of the mill game. A keeper for me because it is easy on the eyes and not so gaudy. Play this one when mellow.

Installed and plays on Windows7 64bit.
This is a nice match 3 game for all skill levels....from easy + relaxed (me) to difficult + timed (my granddaughter).
I like the sound effect of coins plinking when I make a match on a dark tile (my grandson claps for me :)).
My suggestion is an option to restart the level. That option would be nice for those of us who complete levels with more luck than skill.
Thanks to Star Ashes for a game that can be played by beginners and experts.
Double thanks to GGOTD for a weekend of 2 free games from 2 genres (I like and appreciate both games).

Worked fine for me in Win 7 x64bit.
Thanks for the match-3 game, simple but fun. :-)

Worked just fine for me on Win7 64bit. Not really my cup o' tea but the wife loves them so sent the link her way.

"Slept in huh?? You silly Wabbit" in my best Elmer Fudd voice.*lol* I think we all need to do that every so often. Not a bad game. So far easy to play. Graphics aren't too bad. It's an older game so there's no way they can compare to the graphics in games made nowadays.

In regards to "that web site" discussed yesterday, I think HOGs are offered the most because they are what people are buying. If you go to the games forum (any HOG) forum, you'll see that they get a lot of reviews in comparison to other game genres forums. I started out with Match 3 games and loved them. But then the devs started making the games hard before the demo was even over, so I didn't buy most of the games I demoed. I purchased a game once thinking I could finish it, but I couldn't. The game got too difficult too early. There was a TM game that I thought was good. The devs made other games too. I emailed them from their web site and told them I liked the game and asked them if they were going to make more of them. I got a rather quick reply....same day. The person who replied to it was one of the devs. He said they probably wouldn't be going to because the game didn't sell very well. They didn't want to put a lot of money and time into a game if it wasn't going to sell. The game didn't get very many reviews either.

If there's a game you like, even on here, let the devs know. They want to know what games the people want and what games they will spend their money on. I know a lot of the games on here are older games and many of them are fun, but they still need to know you liked their game. I don't mean every game you download or buy, but at least every now and then, let them know.

Have a great day everyone Thanks again WRabbit.

Works fine with my Win7 64bit. Nice game, thank you.

Phil K, you may not have enough video memory.

Pretty standard and somewhat dated match-3 game. There's no hammer to deal with those pesky leftover boxes. There also seems to be little advantage in matching 4, 5 or more objects like there is in games such as Big Kahuna Reef or bonuses that can be earned like in the Cradle Of games. The program seems to lack a WOW factor. There is nothing here that would encourage anyone to buy the game for any price.

Non si riesce ad estrarre in windows 7 64 bit, peccato doveva essere bello.

To the developer, change the 'subtle shades of brown' to subtle shades of blue or green on the games screens, would make playing much more enjoyable. Colour does matter! Otherwise not bad match 3 game.

Would not properly install on my windows 7 64 bit computer went to play by hitting .exe file and all the ogg files say won't work and may have not installed correctly. Does not make icon on start menu I was doing that and decided to try the game first didn't play and used the .exe file from the C: games folder. Now what?