OK, can't even submit html this way....more trouble than its worth. I will likely simply avoid your offerings and advise others to do so as there is a serious trust issue here.

HTML Velow

Your comment program does not appear to allow an image to be pasted into the comment

It's doubleclick, a commonly used ad server and the source code is in the html for this web page if I am reading it right:







If you wish to contact me via my email, I'll send you the screen shot as an attachment. I am spending way too much time trying to convince you there was a problem with your system or its ad delivery and it put unwanted garbage on my PC.

Ist there a new game coming this weekend?

Don't suppose anyone still looks on this page except me, but I understand what Jim P is talking about. It's the DoubleClick ads directly below the game title and to the side of it. In my case those are advertising some accounting software and some crap which is supposed to stop snoring, I'm sure the mod (Whiterabbit, I gather?) has something else showing.

For Jim P's wife obviously another ad was shown - one which features an inviting but fake download button. These "fake button ads" are commonly placed on sites where you download files, in order to trick unwitting people to install the underlying malware. I can't believe a computer specialist would not know about this already, but there we are.

A tip to avoid this in the future, is to always check where a link goes before clicking it. Unless you use Internet Explorer (don't do that), hovering the mouse cursor will show the target of the link at the bottom of its window, and in this case it clearly points to DoubleClick instead of GOTD. You can be confident that ad providers will never give you a legit download link.

Now, although I would lay the responsibility on the one clicking the button, GOTD would do well to block out that particular "advertiser" from the ad rotation (I'm sure Jim P can identify where the link goes for you). Assuming DoubleClick provides that option, that is.


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I do... :)

I will go so far as to add that the same link is right there on your page even as I write this...adjacent to the block of text for the game is a huge button labelled "Start Download - Free version" which is obviously supposed to entice someone to click there to obtain the free game. Not very nice since it apparently is where3 the garbage programs came from. Let me know if you feel you don't see it and I'll send that screen shot I have. I don't think your company is telling you everything they are up to.


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I don't see the download button? Maybe you have some adware installed? I've had this problem previously and had to format my disc to get rid of the rubbish? Are you seeing this button on both computers? On the first page of the giveaway there should be a large yellow button that says 'Proceed to download page'. This takes you to the giveaway page where you should find (on the day of the giveaway) a link to the right of the information panel that allows you to download the game giveaway.

Once the game giveaway is over the download button disappears. If you are still seeing a button, you've possibly got a problem with your browser.

Post a screen capture so that I can see what you are talking about?

Thanks.

I'll be happy to send you a screen shot and show you exactly what I clicked on on your web page that started this little dance. I sat here and watched your program download, ran it and watched it start installing this stuff. It told me exactly what it was doing as it went. Hard to be mistaken about such things when you watch them happening in front of your eyes and when tol bars suddenly install themselves in your browser inf ront of you.

You seem to have "sponsored" links masquerading as the download link for the game and my wife pointed out the rather obvious and huge "Download" button was not actually the one one is supposed to click.

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Hi Jim, I don't see this download link you are describing.

"W.r.t the MixiDJ Toolbar. There’s no way it was installed via the game giveaway file. I can assure you that the game giveaway team throughly check all games before allowing them to be downloaded by the community."

I am the person who got the load of **** from your download. I have been a computer specialist for more than 30 years and I do know what I am doing and what is and is not on my PC.

There is a very large "Download" adjacent to the free game of the day offer...that link was *loaded* with garbage, almost everything *but* the game in question. Here is the link to your own web page:
http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/the-flying-dutchman-3/

Look immediately to the right of the text about the game for the *huge* download button.

I'm going to have to spend a lot of time working over my wife's system as she has downloaded a lot of your games and I now have to wonder just what else you may have snuck onto that system based on what your download tried to do to my PC.


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It's odd that out of nearly 6 thousand downloads only you reported this problem. Also you said you installed to two computers; one of which didn't have the problem; those facts alone speak volumes. I'm sure you are mistaken in your belief that the game giveaway infected your computer. Sorry you feel the way you do.

As I've said many times the game giveaway team thoroughly check all giveaways using the latest malware suites. Not just one but several. They know palming off games loaded with malware would seriously harm their business.

Even computer experts can get it wrong.

By the way, I've been in and around computers since the mid 70's, (that's 40 years). Although I've not worked in the computing industry for many years, I've known my way around computers since the early days working on some of the large computers in the 70's (as an electro-mechanical engineer), and have owned, built, maintained and used personal computers since they became available to the masses in the mid 80's.

I like the game I wish I could figure out how to save a game instead of starting over every time. For some reason it does not store players names or game progress.

I downloaded and installed Dutchman, and it works fine, seems to be a fun game. But when my husband installed it, it also installed the MixiDJ Toolbar onto his system. :/ This is nasty malware, the kind that fights you when you try to remove it.

The only obvious difference between our systems is that he has Windows 7 and I'm still running XP. If that doesn't make a difference then I don't know what it is, but be careful when you're installing this thing.


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Hi angle, sorry for the delay in replying to your comment. I've not got my system set up properly yet.

W.r.t the MixiDJ Toolbar. There's no way it was installed via the game giveaway file. I can assure you that the game giveaway team throughly check all games before allowing them to be downloaded by the community. The project on the game side has now been running for almost 7 years and there has never been one game infected with malware of any type.

If there was a problem it must have already been present on your XP system (possibly via a trojan). Also if it had been from the giveaway site there would have been a lot of community members reporting this issue; as it was, no one else reported this problem out of the thousands of community members downloading and installing this game. The game has been given away five times now from the same developer and there has been well over 30 thousand downloads in that time.

The animations are super slow, obscuring the playing field long after each match is made, which often makes me have to wait for many seconds before I can see the next move. Also, even when I *can* see the next move, I tend to find myself having to wait until the last move is completed before I can make the next one, as the game refuses to register the move until it's done processing. These problems are really annoying to me and completely put me off playing.

In the three levels I played I could not see any particularly good stuff to raise the game back to be even an average match 3, so this got an immediate uninstall. Cannot recommend, not for 10$ or even for free.


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Thank you for your feedback Bovi.

#10 sounds like your firewall is blocking the wrapper that GGOTD uses to pack the install file. make sure you allow your firewall to allow setup.exe otherwise you will get that error.

Whiterabbit-uk, in previous giveaways, the version number was at the bottom center of the options page. The one I have from a previous giveaway is version 1.0.4, dated 10/25/2011

registers ok but refuses to install. freshly downloaded three times and the same thing each time

Hello :)

I cant install :( Failed to connect. Try again later. Whats the problem?

"Main living room with smaller sitting room and large hallway are all getting solid oak flooring... The rest of the house is going to be marble floors."

If/as applicable *might* want to have them get a little extra so they can leave you with spare tiles & wood flooring -- stuff happens, & it can be rather challenging trying to match the original later on. Also, purely FWIW, from what I've read, & contrary to what you might expect, carpet in the kitchen is allegedly more sanitary, has less bacteria growth etc. than smooth flooring. Used to do a bit of flooring, & have always felt carpeting was the easiest to maintain, & when or as necessary, replace -- it's not as durable as hard flooring, but unless you put down a floating wood floor, it's more forgiving of life's day to day insults & much easier to replace.


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good idea getting extra. :)

Apologies if maybe Off Topic...

"My only complaint would be in regards to the mouse setup."
"I use razer mice which can be configured to swap functions easily. There are several manufacturers of mice that sell excellent mice with the qability to configure the various buttons on a mice."

I *think* that some few games take over the mouse so proprietary customization software may not always work, but I could be wrong [hope I am in fact].

FWIW it seems there are loads & loads of wired gaming mice using the same optics, most often with switchable resolution, so it can be as twitchy or slow & accurate as you like -- they're often on sale between $5-$35 at places like newegg.com. The number of additional buttons & whether they use their own software [vs. Windows] varies. Logitech mice can all use Logitech's software, which allows for re-mapping, automatic individual game settings etc., & it lets you set & use mouse acceleration -- a fast but short move sends you across the screen, which is nice if/when you have limited mobility. Unfortunately Logitech mice, particularly their more expensive models, often suffer switch problems/failures -- get a good one & it's great, but get a bad one & it may only be usable for weeks, or days. The last expensive Logitech mouse I had took 6 or 7 tries before they sent a good warranty replacement, & judging by customer reviews, the problem has not gone away.

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I used to use Logitech mice until I purchased my first razer mouse some years ago. What impressed me about Razer mice was the quality of the materials used as well as the ability to change the mouse dpi settings on the fly. Wyhen I'm playing an FPS game I can quickly swap dpi settings to make it easier to say use a sniper rifle by 'slowing' the mouse down, thus making it easier to aim, speed it up when using a close quarters weapon like an SMG. All of my Razer mice are still in use and work well. :)

When I attempted to install "The Flying Dutchman" I got an error message that the offer was no longer available. This was at around 6:45am EDT (Sept. 29, 2013) and, yes, my computer's date and time is set right. Any idea what I can do about this?


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Hi echo, Try deleting all files associated with the game then redownload and install. Clear out the internet cache before you redownload.

No problems installing or running on Win 8 x64. Pretty run-of-the-mill match three game - nothing really special, although the piratical/nautical theme is a nice variation on the usual stuff. I did get a kick out of the GOTD/StarsAshes splash screen at the intro - nice touch and a tip of my hat to the programming team for the idea.

Installed fine on Win 8.1 runs smooth and is a great game. no complaints here.

Use oak or harder (red may do better in long run)

May not want to carpet livingroom - a nice rug may be preferrable
(we only have carpet in bedrooms and the much underused livingroom - never replaced carpet ruined by washing machine.) - consider it an investment...

Regards to your significant others,
(smiley thingy)


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Main living room with smaller sitting room and large hallway are all getting solid oak flooring (honey colored), we will be adding large rugs to all three rooms/hall. Whave a second living room up in what was the loft area that is going to be our home cinema room; that as well as all bedrooms will have carpets. The rest of the house is going to be marble floors. :)

Hey Whiterabbit,
you said that there are better match 3 games at MyPlayCity, Gametop and FreeGamePick??
What are in your view the BEST ones that can be downloaded for FREE over there?
Thanks in advance.


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Hi Andrea, the folreally entertain you:

Atlantis Quest
Around the world in 80 days
Call of Atlantis
Cradle of Rome
Cradle of Persia
Farmscapes
Finding Doggy
Sky Bubbles Deluxe
ZZed
Treasures of Montezuma
Treasures of Mopntezuma 2

Of the ones above I love Treasures of Montezuma I & II and Sky Bubbles Deluxe. I've not played all of the match three's listed over at MPC so there may be others that are just as good.

Download and install was as easy as always. My only complaint would be in regards to the mouse setup. I only have the use of my left hand, so I have my mouse buttons reversed for left handed use. This game doesn't recognise that input and uses the typical right handed configuration. If it weren't for that I'd be keeping this game. Thanks for offering, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to pass this time.


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Hi Lanto, thank you for your feedback. I'm also left handed. I use razer mice which can be configured to swap functions easily. There are several manufacturers of mice that sell excellent mice with the qability to configure the various buttons on a mice. (Razer even do a mouse with at least 16 buttons, unfortunately that's designed for right handed people). :(

http://www.razerzone.com/gb-en/store?src=pgm.81593600&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=razer&utm_campaign=adwordsukbrandrazer

Hi Folks, I'm almost back. My internet connection was finally reconnected yesterday late afternoon, unfortunately I am having problems with drop outs big time, so have contacted my provider (Virgin Media), who are sending out an engineer on Tuesday. I will try and moderate as often as possible, but am still extremely busy unpacking, decorating and moving stuff around so that our new flooring can be laid. (got well over 200 meters to sort with wooden flooring, marble tiles and some carpeting) So I can't dedicate my usual time to this project. Once things have settled down and my internet connection has been fixed, I'll be back as normal.

Sorry for the lack of moderation over the last few weeks. My friend David who stood in for me occassionally last year when I was having computer woes sadly passed away some months ago, so there was no one I could ask for help over the last few weeks.

The following review was posted last time this game was given away last year. I'll add images later.



The Flying Dutchman - in the ghost prison:

Installation:

The Flying Dutchman downloads to a 45.6MB zip file (1MB smaller than previously) that unpacks to a read me and dual activation module, which for the newcomers to the game giveaway project means that once you've installed the game it automatically registers, that is, there's no registration code to input. The game installs to the following path:


C:\Games\TheFlyingDutchman\TheFlyingDutchman.exe

There is no shortcut installed so you'll have to follow the above path to create your own shortcut. To uninstall the game just delete the installed folder (there is no uninstaller). The game works on Win 98, XP, Vista and Win 7. The installed game is 73.4MB (the same as the previous time this was given away). There is no version number (or at least I couldn't find one.

You can change the in game music by replacing the appropriate ogg tracks with renamed tracks from your own music collection, though you will have to convert them to ogg vorbis audio files. Also the sound effects are mixed up with the music so you’ll have to search through the files for the music files. Some media players will play ogg files so you may be able to find the music tracks by clicking on each file.

Introduction:

http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/the-flying-dutchman-2/#comment-442512


This was previously given away last Christmas where it received a positive 69% out of 247 votes with 37 comments which you can read HERE. It was also given away November 2011 where it received a positive 68% out of 329 votes with 61 comments which you can read HERE and again June last year where it received a positive 65% out of 283 votes with 52 comments which you can read
HERE

For ages sea voyages have threatened of dangers. The sea always has its tribute from vanished ships making all the traces of wrecks inaccessible in its depths. But sailors still believe in their last chance for salvation. The legend says that if you underwent a shipwreck with no hopes for reprieve, you must jingle coins. And then you will behold the Flying Dutchman – the Ghost Ship. Its crew will take you wherever you want to go in the world. But for each day you will pay gold. If there is no gold left, you have to play a game with the crew of Flying Dutchman – the game with your life at stake. Victory will assure enough gold till the end of the day. But defeat will make you prisoner of the Flying Dutchman…forever!

Reference accessed HERE Nov 27th 2011

The Game:

The Flying Dutchman is a basic match three with decent graphics. It’s not Treasures of Montezuma, Atlantis Rising, 4 elements or Fishdom, but it’s decent enough for me to keep it in my games library. When I read the reviews over on Big fish I got the overriding impression that most negative comments were towards the ‘drabness’ of the graphics. That said I actually found the graphics were decent and well done. It’s not brightly lit up like some match threes, more like subtle shades of brown, but it fits in with the theme of the game.

From the options menu you can select from three different difficulty settings Easy, Normal and Hard as well as adjust the screen resolution from between 640 x 480 through to 1600 x 1200. There’s the usual sound and music sliders. You can create multiple profiles. Once you’ve created your first profile you can then choose between two different modes of play, Quest, which is time limited and Relaxed which isn’t. The timer is a barrel of gunpowder with a fuse.

There is a help section that tells you how to play the game. The last time this was given away Suki recommended that you read the help section prior to starting the game as it's not always clear what you need to do. Briefly, in timed mode you have to collect all the gold coins hidden under the dark colored decking of the Flying Dutchman by creating matches of three or more blocks. We all know how to play match three’s so I won’t bore you with the mechanics of the game. Clearing away matches of three or more is akin to scrubbing the floor of the decks. Once you’ve cleared the deck of all coins in timed mode or scrubbed the deck in untimed mode the level is complete. As you progress through the levels you will meet ghosts. If you create a match next to a ghost the match will be cursed and frozen or locked (depending on whether it wears a red or blue headband for a certain amount of time, but if you can create matches of three ghosts you can destroy them. Destroying these ghosts earns you very generous bonuses (500 points). You’ll find four different power ups, the bomb that destroys all nearby objects, holy water which removes curses, holy fire destroys all the ghosts of pirates and lightning that destroys all objects in the line that it is activated into. To activate a power up you just have to move it to the next tile. Every time you activate a new power up a note on it’s function will pop up. You can turn off these messages if you wish by un-checking the box at the lower left of the message.

Completion of each level earns you a part of a treasure map that is divided into 42 pieces. Once you’ve collected all 42 pieces you then get to do the treasure hunt, which I’ve not played through to, so can’t tell you what it is. I presume more levels. You can follow your progress on the levels map. At the end of each level you get a report of how many gold coins you’ve collected, the number of bonus points, collapsed objects and ghosts. To proceed to th next level just click on OK.

System Requirements:

OS: Windows XP/Vista though it also works on Win 7
DirectX: 8.0
CPU: 1.0 GHz
Memory: 128
Hard Drive Space: 79





Reviews, Video and Images



You can find videos of game play HERE, HERE and HERE.

You'll find several short user reviews from BigFish HERE



Conclusion:

The Flying Dutchman is a reasonable match three. There’s nothing outstanding about the game, but IMO it’s worth keeping, especially if you are into the match three genre. If not, there are far better free match three’s available from various sources. You’ll find some of the best match threes over at MyPlayCity as well as a few other free game sites such as Jenkat Games, Gametop and FreeGamePick, but, as always, be careful when installing as you may end up with toolbars etc if you don't uncheck the boxes. :) The addition of the ghosts adds an extra challenge to the game and can often confound your quest to complete the level. I was stuck on one level for ages due to the ghosts, lol. They add a difficulty that's not always present in some match three games. I scored the game a 6.4 using the parameters below.

Scoring


Gameplay – 7
Graphics – 7
Audio – 7
Re-playability – 6
Originality – 5

Total = 6.4






Suggestions to the Developer:

• Add more power ups

• Include some mini games

• Improve the story

• Add a ghostly screensaver that you can earn by completing the game

• Create more contrast between the tiles

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