gbswales: Well, I want to preface this by saying I completely get your point. However, because of the way the power ups on one of the gems work, the timed mode is actually part of the strategy of the game. I mean, the game could work without it, but it would would peel off one of the layers of depth to the game. Sorry the game doesn't work for you, but there are soooooo many other match 3 games out there that I'm sure you can find something better suited for you.

gbswales, I agree!

Michael Iavecchia, Perhaps you can try the Windows compatibility troubleshooter, I have often run it BEFORE even launching the game for the first time to avoid any problems.

I googled your error and found that there are quite a few reports of this with respect to games. Some examples are that it doesn't run under a Virtual Machine or a misconfigured profile. Maybe check out some of the solutions to see if anything relevant to your issue pops up. Hope you can resolve it easily, maybe create a new profile specifically to run games and see if it improves things at all.

Buster, update I ran a different software to unpack the zip file and it installed at first I was a app called peazip to unpack the file that may have been the problem

joanne seguin,
i really liked it...is there a possibility if a dl from play city it will eliminate this?
i was at a lever where i needed to get 36 gems, so i was pretty far in.
the screen froze..nothing i click one would work but i could hear a click sound when i clicked on "menu" i had to use task manager to close it down! this is my 3rd montezuma game and it was my favorite! :(

joanne seguin,

"is there a possibility if a dl from play city it will eliminate this?"

It's possible, but I *think * the download from BigFish is more likely to have some difference in the game's files or code, though while they offer a 1 hour trial, you'd have to pay for it. Steam also has it on sale for $0.69, and that version would have better odds of working for you IMHO.

Being that it froze after ~1 hour, it's also possible that some other program or process started up in Windows, e.g. an anti virus scan, & that was the cause.

joanne seguin, you might be able to fix this with the Windows compatibility troubleshooter. I had something similar happen with a previous giveaway and I was able to fix it that way. Wishing you success with this method.

Юрий, Hi Yuri

The game is not free in the sense that it is always free or freeware. It's actually a commercial game originally sold via Alawar. and is still sold at various game sites, for example HERE, HERE and HERE (£0.49 with 90% off until 9th July).


The developer has come to an arrangement where they allow the game to be downloaded for free, however there is a small non monetary price to pay through low level adware being included with games from those sites where you get it free. It's one of the reasons the game opens to the host site when you first install it, and it advertises a game each time you boot the game up while the game is loading plus and whenever you close the game down it will open your browser to the site where you got it for free. Every time your browser opens to one of those sites and whenever you boot the game up, they earn money, part of which is split with the developer. It's a way that older games like Treasures of Montezuma 5 can still make a reasonable amount of money for the developer. If they relied solely on sales, there would be very little income for a game that was released years ago.

The giveaway version has had part of the adware removed (the folder that contains the toolbar installer), so its worth downloading it from here rather than directly from MyPlayCity or any one of the other sites that allow free downloads.

This situation became common practice following the financial crisis back in 2008 when arcade games dropped in price significantly, from an average of $19.99 per game to less than $6. Many small development houses went bankrupt and even some of the big name developers that created AAA games such as THQ (who developed the Red Faction franchise and the Company of Heroes franchises. Also the developers of the AAA Bioshock franchise also went bust after that crisis. So, these free sites blossomed after that crisis, as did the indie game bundles where you could buy games for up to 95% off their usual prices. Sadly many of the indie bundles you can buy today are filled with dross (usually made with free game engines, or ones such as RPG Maker, that is often on sale via places like Steam. I got a whole raft of RPG Maker dlc's plus the base engine from one of the Humble bundles several years ago, that would have cost me around £150 to buy direct from Steam, but I got the whole lot for £5. I've seen hundreds of RPG Maker games released on Steam over the intervening years usually by wannabe game developers. There are exceptions to what I said above about most indie bundle being dross, i.e. some bundles are still pretty good deals for example the Humble bundles especially the monthly bundle that you subscribe to and where for $12 a month you get around $150 worth of decent games. and Indie Gala, both of which were front runners in that side of sales.

p.s. i'd already linked to MyPlayCity's page for this game, but for those who miss today's giveaway.