Finally saw your reply - and putting it in compatibility mode fixed it. I also played as administrator, so I'm not certain which did it, but I suspect it was compatibility mode. No idea why others with Win 7 Pro 64 didn't have the problem - though they may have gone to compatibility automatically without mentioning it as a problem. But I can now read the dialogs, and the game is quite playable. Really annoying at times, when it uses up a clue on this thing I've clicked on a dozen times but I need something to use it...but playable.


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

Glad you got it to work. :)

Way late, but I'm hoping someone who solved this problem will see it. It's clicking through the dialogs automatically! This makes it a little difficult to see what I'm supposed to be doing. All the bits with someone talking (the old man, the young man, the opponent) the speech bubbles appear on the screen and instantly go away again and the next one opens. It stops when it gets to the one where I'm supposed to choose an answer - but since I haven't been able to read the question it's a little difficult.

As far as I can tell I don't have any buttons pressed down (there's no problem in other windows, including here), my mouse is working fine (it's a little oversensitive in the game - it's a bit hard to move it precisely - but that's manageable as the dialogs aren't), and I cannot figure out what the problem is. I've got it set on silent music and low sound, full screen, and hints. Help?

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

Hi Jim,

There will be hardly anyone bothering to check these comments out now seeing as its almost the end of the giveaway, (only 6 minutes). Apart from checking your mouse for one of those sensitivity buttons (mine has two - a plus and a minus), which allows me to adjust the sensitivity of the mouse on the fly which is very useful when I'm playing certain games where accuracy is important (e.g. using a sniper rifle in a FPS game). Usually these type of buttons are just below the mouse wheel, or you may find one on the bottom of the mouse in the form of a small button (I found one on a mouse I'd had for several years, but had never known what it was for, partly because I'd not bothered to read the instuctions until I'd stumbled upon them while clearing out a cupboard) :). That said, standard mice may not have this feature.

I'd post a request for help in the forums. At least you have the game installed, so you can ask at your leasure. I'm sure if anyone can figure it they will post.

Have you tried adjusting the resolution, or turning off certain graphical features via the Properties/Compatibility route? I had mine set for Windows XP (Service Pack 3) and it works perfectly. It was a pre Vista game, so it's likely to work better if you try compatibility mode for XP. Also make sure its being played with Administrative priviledges.

Also try playing in windowed mode. If the items are too small but it does help the problem with dialogue automatically moving on before you've been able to read it, you could reduce the monitor resolution temporarily so that the window is the largest you can get with the settings your monitor allows. Generally modern monitors won't go under 800 x 600, but you may be able to go smaller (the smaller the resolution, the larger window size you'll get).

Finally, you could try mixing the giveaway version with the MyPlayCity or Jenkat versions (I'd go for Jenkat). Firstly make a backup of the game and use that to mix and match in a different location, maybe the desktop just for the sake of ease of accessibility. Try swapping files over between the two versions. It'll be trial and error, but you may find it will work. Before you do try this make sure the free version from MyPlayCity or Jenkat does work first. :)

Do let me know either way if you managed to sort it and what helped. I'll then add the fix to the FAQ's section over in the Game Discusion sticky section. (It'll let me know that you saw this reply).

Oh yay! an untimed HOG from Alawar! That's made my weekend.

I usually whip through Hidden Object scenes, but these are really difficult! I may have to put on my small-object-repair magnifier glasses and sit 5" from the screen. I'm not finding the objects blurry, especially compared to some of the HOGs I've played lately from MPC -- they're just too small and/or well-hidden.

I ran into the same Hint problem as Jeff, #8, and agree that the hints could be clearer, and I've turned the Music all the way down on the Settings screen because it was annoying; but I really like the interactive and multi-location aspects of this game, and the way you have to think about some of the objects, too.

Thank you Alawar and GGOTD, and Stephen for your always-great review!

Hope the house is coming along well, Stephen :-)


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

Thanks for your feeddback Mac

As for the house. It's coming along fine. Though the planning officer, who is new to the job, made a stupid mistake (that our architect said he'd never seen done before) in that he didn't send out letters to all of our neigbours to inform them of their right to send in any objections to our extension. He'd said on Friday that it was going through, but becv=casue he's new to the job, his boss wanted to do a final check; who discovered the error, so we have to wait until another consultation period is over (three weeks).

Oddly, when we first checked the planning applications online, we noted that there had only been three neigbours informed and we knew we had one more next door, plus a house whose back garden touches the corner of a smaller square plot of ours that's attached to the bottom cornewr of our main back garden (odd sort of shape) at the back of our bungalow. Unfortunately we didn't think to query it at the time. :(

Just getting to this rather late. I had the same problem as Phil, I think it was. The game opened at about 65% of the screen. I tried to get full screen mode but it kept unticking it in options. This was on my Windows 7 machine and I've had this problem before. I then downloaded it on the Windows XP and was able to get full screen.

I can tell I will be living by the walkthroughs on this one and sometimes those aren't helping much either. A challenge for me that will have to wait until a day when I am not so busy. Only suggestion so far is please let us skip the plane and thunderstorm in the beginning. I have had to restart a couple of times and it is annoying to not be able to click and proceed. I notice there are 'skip' buttons later.

Thanks for the game, I'm sure I will enjoy it once I have time to actually play it.




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

Thank you Lonni

Oh yay! an untimed HOG from Alawar!


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

:)

I downloaded this and it says it installed and activated correctly but I can't find the exe file or any file that allows me to run the game? What am I missing?


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


Hi Wendy, Follow the path I included in the Insrallation section of my review (Offhand I think it was:

C:\Games\Treasure Masters_game

Try searching for the executable which is TMInc

Most game giveaways don't leave shortcuts in the srart menu or on the desktop. you have to note down where ytou installed them to, them follow that path to create a shortcut (right click then select Send to - Desktop (Create shortcut), or alternatively select from the right click menu Create Shortcut, then copy that to the desktop.

If you still can't find the executable, try reinstalling the giveaway. Very little time left, but so long as you have the unzipped contents of the downloaded giveaway, you can usually still install it for at least an hour after the giveaway has finished. Hope this helps.

The game will be on your computer. It's a case of looking thropugh you Program File (x86) folder for Treasure Masters_Game, or looking through your game folder (on the C drive, unless you changed the path yourself)

Addendum,

just realized that sometimes when I install a game, it tries to install to the prevous games path (something to do with the cache needing clearing). If none of the above resolved the problem you are having, check inside the folder of the last giveaway that you installed. you may find the Treasure Masters folder there?????

Vista Firefox here. I have to Run as Administrator to start the game. Sounds like a keeper. Thank you.


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

:) Thanks for the Vista feedback. Hopefully if those experiencing problems read my FAQ's, they should be able to fix the problem.. :)

This game is ridiculously hard! I've clicked a hint, had the circle appear on the screen, and STILL could not see the item. "Hidden" doesn't mean "invisible."

I've uninstalled it, because it's just not fun for me.


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

Easy for some, but hard for most. :) sorry to hear you decided to unistall. If you decided you wanted to play again Jenkat and MyPlayCity have free copies of the game; and, if you get stuck, there are walkthroughs both written, images and video. I've linked to one in my review above.

Thanks to Alawar and Ca$a for this game.
Downloaded and installed on my wife's pc not a hitch.
I'm figuring it must be pretty good as she has been playing it for quite some time today and the cussing is getting louder. That means she's finding it to be a challenge.
Thank you so much GameGiveAway for keeping her occupied. No "honey DO" list today!
I only wish it had come out during football season.


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

Haha, the last time i managed to distract my wife was when I'd installed RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 for my daughter and my wife took over, got hooked then proceeded to play all day.

This game is not downloading on my computer. I do have Vista 64 bit. When I try to open it it says "bad header."


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

Vista shouldn't be stopping you. what browser are you using? If you are using Firefox, make sure that Internet Explorer is still set to online. Check out the FAQ's that I've linked to in my review above (see comment 1)

I'm really enjoying this game: just the right level of difficulty for me. :)

A tip for those who (like me!) find the 'blurriness' of full-screen mode makes it very difficult to see or find items: turn full screen mode OFF. Trust me on this one! Although the window is somewhat smaller, everything is much SHARPER as well. I can only presume this is because full-screen mode is 'faked' in some way which causes that 'blurriness.'

Thanks to Alawar and Ca$a for this lovely game!

And thanks to Stephen for the note about Jenkat Games!


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

:) Thanks again CAD.

Incidentally, the music.dat file is a packed file of some sort which contains a number of OGG format files. All of the .DAT files seem to be archived/compressed using the same packing mechanism. If it helps anyone out there, the first four bytes in each file are SPAK.

Bizarrely, Media Player Classic (a.k.a. MPC) is able to PLAY the music.dat file! Or at least, the FIRST file 'hidden' in it. The same applies to all the .DAT files which contain sound, so if you want to hear the first speech clip (which is in Russian) for example, use MPC to play the file speak.dat.

Presumably then, if you know how to unpack and repack those files (it's not a format I know, and my copy of 7zip doesn't seem to recognise it either), you could in theory replace the music with different OGG files. Of course, you would need to name your replacement files with exactly the same names as the original files within music.dat if you wanted to try that.




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

Thank you for your feedback CAD, wonder if you need a specialist editor to open the dat file? The following tell a little more about opening a dat file. Apparently its best if you use the program that created it.

http://www.online-tech-tips.com/computer-tips/how-to-open-dat-files/

or


http://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/open-dat-file-extension-in-windows-quickly/


there are loads of entries if you use Google. Maybe one may tell you how to find out which program created it. Some programs like Microsoft word always code into the documents details of the program that created it, maybe the same goes for most other programs of this nature?????

This was one of the early HOGs that I played when it was the free game of the day on Gamehouse a few years back. Although it was Ad-supported, I thoroughly enjoyed it and in fact it went a long way to kindling my liking for HOGs. The storyline is a bit obvious but it's none the worse for that, and the HOG elements are quite challenging. I wouldn't recommend it to people who really don't like hunting for very small objects, but for me that's one of the delights of HOGs.

One thing I particularly liked about Treasure Masters Inc was the way that the object hunting sometimes needed you to think laterally - for example, if you're asked for several of a certain object then they aren't necessarily all the same sort of thing especially if the name of the object can have more than one meaning. I like to use my brain rather than just hunt for things and this game made me do that. I like HOGs that include mini-games as well and that is another good element to this game particularly in terms of using things you've found in order to find others.

I'm very grateful to GOTD and Alawar for offering this one as it's one that I lost when my PC crashed, and I'd rather forgotten about it.



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

Thank you for your feedback Margaret. Much appreciated.

In treasure masters stuck in museum Can't get anywhere to set off smoke detector! Can anyone help? TYVM!


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

You'll find a link top a walkthrough and tips in my review above. If you can't find it, post over in the game discussion forums. 80% of community members have been and gone by now, with just over 8 hours left of todays giveaway.

I want to join Gordon Jones on a thrilling seek-and-find adventure across the globe and become caught up in a breathtaking race to unearth an amazing artifact!

I guess over ten and just under a dozen mini games means that there are... Oh! Oh, I got it! There are ELEVEN mini games! That's an odd number. HAHA! Get it?

Can something really be an "instant classic?" And if something can be an "instant classic" doesn't that mean that it is old and out-of-date immediately? Kinda like the laptop computer I bought last year?

Blurry, huh? Blurry is BAD! Un-blurry games are MUCH better!

HOG's are growing on me. I don't finish them quickly, though. I'm still playing "Mysteries of Mortlake Mansion" and will finish it before I start a new one. This sounds like it will be very similar,however. Should be fun!

We need some more FROGDOM games, dudes! It's been a LONG time since we've gotten a new one!



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


Thanks for your feedback Swampy.


On the subject of Instant Classics. My brother released an album back in the early 80's while with a band called The Notsensibles called Instant Classic. It featured one of their single releases that re entered the British charts on the death of Margaret Thatcher several weeks ago, (and was featured in the film Iron Lady - the song was called 'I'm in love with Margaret Thatcher (I'm in love...with Maggie T)'.

I played this game quite some time ago. The plot won't grab you and as I recall it's a straight HOG so no fancy achievements etc. But it's good and long and there's a variety of things to do and it will keep you busy on a day when you're bored. I enjoyed it.

Thank you so much GameGiveAway and Alawar. This games looks great. Alawar usually has great games and this is a good one. I have played it online and it is wonderful to get the full version. Thanks again.

We've seen some top notch games here from Alawar Entertainment recently and this is no exception. This game is well designed, has charming graphics and is in a class above the average HOG, with its embedded puzzles integrated into the hidden object search.

It wasn't hard to sell me on this game as I am predisposed to like anything with a nautical theme, but I particularly like the jaunty approach taken here. There's a wacky sense of humour in the graphics and the HOG design which really makes me smile. I do agree with Stephen that the slight blurriness of certain graphics (mainly text) is an issue, but luckily it's not too jarring given the old fashioned visual theme.

I have one suggestion for Alawar. If you are releasing a game called Treasure Masters, why not create a folder called Treasure Masters (instead of Treasure Masters_game) and an executable called Treasure Masters.exe (instead of TMInc.exe)? It's a teeny, tiny little annoyance having to rename your game and its folder every time.

GOTD fans like myself don't always have the time to stop and say thanks, especially on a sunny weekend, but the high rating and noticeable lack of complaints says it all. Thanks very much as ever to Stephen for his detailed, thoughtful review, and to GOTD and Alawar for this lovely game. Your gift is appreciated.


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

Thank you for your thoughtful feedback Julia, glad you liked the game. :)

The game is at least challenging. The bad thing about this is that what makes it challenging is the confusing hints when using the magnifying glass and in other cases as well.

I used a hint twice (second time to confirm the location after the first hint yielded no clear result). In the office in chapter 1, a hint pointed at the two white square switches at the bottom of the staircase on the wall. These switches had no use and I assume it had meant to look in the second location on the map(?) If that was the case then it would have been better to point to the map button. In another case it pointed to an item in the cabinet that was nearly completely hidden by another object. Clicking where indicated did nothing until I noticed the item behind the other object. It might be better to accept the click even if the target item is behind another one. In the safe inside the diary, there was a set of keys and this was an item I had needed but the keys in this location were not available to be picked up (it was elsewhere).

A little more clarity on the hints would turn confusion and frustration into a more clever and thought-provoking experience for the player.

So far the game is okay but I dislike the confusion and had to refer to the online walkthrough for help.





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

Thanks for your feedback Jeff, much appreciated. It's quite an old game now. I see to remember this was a complaint when I did the beta testing, but it wasn't addressed.

OOooo! A HOG today! Will definitely download and try it shortly! HOGs are one of my favourite game genres, as regulars here may know. :)

Stephen: you thought this might have been given away here before, but it wasn't? I think I know the GGOTD you are confusing today's HOG with, but as my HD crashed a while back, I can't tell you the full name of the previous giveaway without trawling through my backups. :( What little I do remember about it is that there was a female character who had to keep 'diving' to find objects to get 'money.' It was a reasonable enough HOG, if I recall. It MAY have been a Playrix game but that could be completely wrong! Does that help you trace it? If not, it may jog another user's memory.





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

Thanks for your feedback CAD. No I don't recall, but then I'm not renowned for my memory as I once was. I'll check through the archives if I get time. Been wanting to play a couple of my new acqusitions all day, but have been busy with the new house. Going to play some as soon as I'm done moderating. :)

If anybody is wondering, it does seem to install and play just fine on Win7 64 Bit. That's as far as I got. The default installation is a folder called c:/Games which doesn't exist in Win 7 so I had to hunt for it. Seems a little slow and I agree with you Stephen, the music is awful. Will try later in the day to start hunting for objects in junkpiles but I'm getting pretty bored with these types of HOG games and this one doesn't seem to have anything storywise to hold my interest.


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

Thanks for your feedback Pea, there have been literally a thousand plus HOG's released over the last few years, many of which are much better than this one. That said, it was one of the first to use mutiple areas on a single level and to include mini games. Many others copoied the idea. It is a little dated now, but, apart from the music it's a playable game.

Ha - downloaded and installed, works perfect but stupid me is alrady stuck in the first picture without clues left ;-)

Will have to look for a walkthrough - I like the game it's harder than others but totally cool!


.......................Mooderator comment..................

Anu, I posted a link to a walkthrough in my review (see comment number 1)

looks like a game I can really like thanks

The game barely takes up HALF the screen. Maybe 65%. Settings do nothing. I feel as if I'm playing through a bloody keyhole.
Is there a way to make it full screen ? The "full screen" selection just takes it to 65%, deselecting makes it a small square.


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

Sorry its taken me so long to reply Phil. It wasn't intentional. When I first read the problem, I tried to figure out a fix, then I
got distracted (phone calls) then forgot. It ended up out of sight. It was only because an indicator on the admin panel said there was still one comment to moderate that I remebered, almost 18 hours after you posted.

I never did figure out the problem. I suggest you go to the FAQ's I've posted over in the game discussion forums. There are a couple of graphic related FAQ's there.

Looks like a good game! Thumbs up gotd and Alawar! Be cool if
Alawar gave us these large files games for free through their gamebox and smaller file games through gotd! Question to lovers of gotd - I have old computer XP and use internet exployer and sometimes use firefox! Last couple weeks I push proceed to download page which opens page then = internet exployer repeatly fails - (We were unable to return you to giveawayoftheday.com.
Internet Explorer has stopped trying to restore this website. It appears that the website continues to have a problem.) This does not happen with firefox! Does not happenn with any other web page with exployer?? Anybody else having this problem! Fortunately firefox saves the day and I can get my fav web page - gotd - always thumbs up for gotd!


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

sorry I can't help you in the I.E. problem. I used to use I.E. almost exclusively for years. When chrom was released I started swapping betwween the two, but having had problems with I.E. a few months ago myself I've dispensed with it altoghether since installing Win 8 several weeks ago. I can still call it up if I use the search function, but all shortcuts have been deleted apart from the actual program.

Treasure Masters

Installation

Today’s giveaway downloads as a 115 MB zip file that unpacks to a read me and a wrapped setup file (the orange colored file with the key symbol), plus there's a setup file with security (setup.gcd) that's protected from being hacked (because the previous giveaway system was easily cracked). This file may case some security software to alert the user to a possible malware attack, but it will be a false positive.

The game giveaway team check all game giveaways for malware using several well known anti -malware suites. There has never been a game giveaway infected with malware since the project started back in Dec 2006. (The owners know that allowing such things would compromise their buisness, so they make sure all software given away via the giveaway and gamegiveaway sites are throughly checked for all types of malware before allowing community members to download any files.

Some community members have been having problems installing games since the security software was added. It's been found that turning off your security temporarily or configuring it to accept the setup.cgd file usually sorts the problem out.

To register and install the game click on the orange colored icon. The installed game is 282 MB in size and installs to the following path by default:

C:\Games\Treasure Masters_game


The path can be changed to suit whatever your wishes are. Once the game is installed you can delete the giveaway setup files. The game doesn't install shortcuts to the desktop and start menu programs list and there is no uninstaller. To delete the program you simply delete the installed folder. (Basically the game is free standing).

Treasure Masters works on both my Win 7 & Win 8 computers.
I don't have a Vista or XP installation set up at the moment (and won't for several months until we move house later this year).

If you miss today's giveaway it's available from MyPlayCity (MPC) HERE 24/7, but do bear in mide the potential for toolbars and home page changes everytime you boot up an MPC game. You can also get it for free from Jenkat Games HERE

Introduction:


I thought this game had been given away previously, but couldn't find it in the game giveaway archives via the admin panel. I beta tested this for Alawar around 3 years ago. As mentioned above you can get this for free 24/7 from MyPlayCity and Jenkat games The difference between the giveaway version and MPC's is there's no chance of a toolbar or your home page being hijacked. I've not used Jenkat in ages so don't know whehter there are any problems. I've heard that you get clean installs. (Will check it out soon to confirm).

Join Gordon Jones on a thrilling seek-and-find adventure across the globe and become caught up in a breathtaking race to unearth an amazing artifact! Download and play this instant classic today!
Gordon Jones had just lost his grandfather and inherited his family treasure hunting business when news of a sunken ship - one that holds an amazing artifact within its barnacle-encrusted belly - reached his ears. Soon after those life-changing events, a mysterious stranger appeared offering to buy his company.

Join Gordon on a thrilling seek-and-find adventure across the globe and become caught up in a breathtaking race to unearth the artifact! Relaxing mini-games and exhilarating object-hunting challenges just scratch the surface of what Treasure Masters Inc. has to offer. Download and play this instant classic today!

Reference originally accessed HERE 8th June 2013

The Game:

When you think about hunting for hidden treasure, you're probably picturing a dashing archaeologist like Indiana Jones. Despite the romance of outrunning giant boulders and pits of snakes, most amateur treasure hunters rely on simple shovels, metal detectors and diving rods to seek out their miniature fortunes. Treasure Masters, Inc. is a hidden object adventure that takes players across 48 levels, including numerous inventory-based puzzles and just under a dozen mini-games. You won't even get dirt under your fingernails.

Gordon Jones is shocked when his adventure-seeking Grandpa Jack disappears mysteriously while flying over the Pacific Ocean. He's even more surprised to find out that he's the sole heir, set to inherit the family treasure hunting business. It seems that Jack had some sneaky rivals and business competitors who had plenty of reason to put him out of business. Can Gordon solve the mystery of his Grandfather's disappearance while still taking care of business?

To complete each chapter in the game, you'll need to locate all of the items in the rooms on your map screen. Some of these items are described in words, while others are shown as outlines. Along with hunting down objects, you'll also find yourself completing many challenging inventory-based puzzles. These will require finding certain items on your list, and using them to complete various tasks, such as catching a butterfly with a net. Puzzles that require inventory items will be highlighted by a briefcase cursor.

Other times you must manipulate objects to reveal items on your list, like opening the blinds to see the moon. These spots are highlighted by a hand cursor when scrolled over. Often you will need to look inside an item to find more hidden objects, like opening the refrigerator to find a cake, or sorting through drawers to find an assortment of items. The inclusion of multi-step processes to uncover objects adds a great deal of challenge to the overall game play.

At the start of each chapter you'll be given a number of hints. You can buy additional hints by finding golden coins and exchanging them (3 coins = 1 hint). If the hint redirects you to another room or area, it doesn't count against your total.

Players can select between relaxed and timed modes. In timed mode, you'll be asked to beat the clock, and failing to meet your goal means you must replay the entire (long) chapter. In relaxed mode you can take as long as you like, however clicking incorrect objects darkens the screen until eventually it's pitch black. The screen will gradually brighten again with no penalty, so this serves to act as a deterrent for random clicking rather than a true punishment.

It's possible to switch modes during gameplay, but doing this will require you to replay the current chapter. Given the length of each chapter that's rather undesirable, so it's best to try and change modes after you start a new round.

This is one of those games that grows on you the more you play. It's biggest strength is the overall challenge of finding objects using multiple steps. For example, you spot a key which is at the bottom of a fish tank, but there's a man-eating piranha inside. You must first flip off the light to see the fish net. Then, use the fish net on the carnivorous fish. Once you've freed the key, you can finally open a cabinet where other items are hidden. This type of process adds a lot of depth, and makes Treasure Masters, Inc. stand out from the other hidden object games that flood the market.

If you decide to play in timed mode, you'll find it extremely tough to win. The game is slightly different each time you play, so you can't always benefit from past experience either. Unless you're a die-hard fan and whiz kid when it comes to hidden object games, relaxed mode should prove challenging enough for most players. It's a real bummer if you lose right at the end of a timed round, and must replay the whole chapter to continue.

On the downside, the graphics are done in photo realism which is slightly blurry, though it doesn't strongly impact the experience. The characters are also a bit unusual, with faces that appear pasted on bodies in a sometimes awkward manner. You might also want to play with the speakers off, since the background music is short and loops continually, so it can get a bit irritating if you play for extended periods. However, the overall challenge of the game makes up for any small frustrations over the production values. The story itself is pleasant to follow, with good dialog that allows users some interactivity, although it's not particularly original or engaging.

With so many hidden object games to choose from, it's great to see one that attempts to stand out from the crowd and requires a bit more from players. If you've gotten bored with the normal click and find routine, Treasure Master's, Inc. offers a more complex hidden object challenge that encourages players to think and really explore the gaming environment. It's geared for experienced gamers, rather than newbies to the genre, which definitely makes one worth checking out for hidden object junkies.

Edited reference accessed HERE 1st June 2013

Hints, Tips and Walkthroughs:
I'm not going to post a walkthrough, just give you a link to a decent walkthrough over at Gamezebo. you'll find it on the tips and tricks page HERE


General Tips:

1) ... At the beginning of the game you can choose to play in relaxed mode (no timer) or you can play against the clock.
2) ... It may be hard for some to complete the levels if they are playing against the clock. You may want to consider turning the timer off at the beginning of the game.
3) ... If you chose the timer and you see that it's not working out too well, you can choose to disable the timer at any time. You will just have to start the level you're on over, not the whole game.
4) ... Some things around the room need to be opened in order to locate certain items. Whenever you see the cursor of a moving hand over an object it means that item can be interacted with in some sort of way.
5) ... For example, it may mean that you can open a door with the hand or turn on a light. Whenever you see the hand appear, click on your mouse to see what it will do.
6) ... There are 2 parts to the search list. On one side, you will see a silhouette of some items that you need to look for in the scene. On the other side, you will see a list of items. If any of those items has a number next to them, it means that you need to find that many of that particular item in a scene.
7) ... If you see an item with a lock on it that means that item is locked and will not be revealed until other actions have been performed. It may involve a puzzle of some sort.
8 ) ... Most of the time items will not all be confined to one room, you will need to click on the map and search other locations as well. Often one item that is needed in one room to interact with something in a room will be in a different location.
9) ... For example, you need a key to open a cabinet, get the key from another location in the map, the key will automatically go into inventory. Return to the original scene and take the key from inventory and place it on the cabinet to use it.
10) ... When you click on the small inventory box (brown box) in the lower right corner, you will see all the hotspots light up.
11) ... Items are very hard to find in this game, a lot of times items blend in really well with the background.
12) ... When you're presented with a silhouette of an item to find, keep in mind that item may not be facing the same way as in the picture.
13) ... If you click on teh bubbles floating up the screen in water scenes your water tank will be replenished.


Hints:

1) ... Look for gold coins that are scattered throughout all locations. For each three coins that you find, you will earn a hint.
2) ... Some coins are very hard to see and you may only see half of the coin at a time. Look for coins hidden inside the pages of books or behind pictures
3) ... If you run out of hints, you can purchase one by clicking on the magnifying glass that is on the lower left side.
4) ... Each hint will cost you 3 coins. Just click on the "BUY" button when the pop - up window appears.
5) ... If you click on a hint and the item is in a different part of the room, like in a hotspot, the cursor will tell you to click on the "back" button on the top left side.
6) ... When it tells you that the item is in another location you will not lose a hint. You can click on the hint again once you get to the other side.


Cursor:

1) ... Your cursor will turn into different objects depending on what kind of item you touch. Each cursor has a different function
2) ... The Hand is used to open and close things, turn the lights on and off etc. Whenever you see the hand you will know that clicking on it will reveal something that's hidden, like something behind the curtains or a window.
3) ... When you see a cursor with a magnifying glass it means that you can get a close - up view of that item.
4) ... The open box with a question mark means that object needs to be interacted with something else in order to access it.

Video:

You can see several video's of Treasure Masters via the following videos HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE (French), HERE (German), HERE (Spanish), HERE (Dutch) and HERE. Sorry, couldn't find any other language versions.



Music:

The music files are in the form of a .dat file, so, unless you are adept at editing files, you'll probably not be able to change the in game music. You can turn off the music via the options menu or via the Volum Mixer (accessible by right clicking on the speaker icon in the tray next to the clock)

Conclusion:

Treasure Masters is an okay HOG as far as HOG's go, it was one of the first HOG's I came across when i was still playing the games several years ago that had multiple screens in a sinfgle level, and, at the time I was very impressed. The overally quality is lacking compared to more recenmt HOG's, but it's still a reasonably playable game. There's an eclectic mix of area's to observe and find hidden Objects. My recommendation is for you to try it for yourself. There are the odd confusions over the description of words, but generally you shouldn't have much difficulty. Thankfully there's a non-timed mode, so there's no rush to complete a level for fear of running out of time.

Pro's:

Challenging gameplay that involves multiple steps. Interesting inventory-based puzzles. Flexible relaxed and timed modes.


Con's:

Graphics include slightly blurry photorealism. Short looping theme music. Need to replay lengthy chapters if you lose.



Scoring:

Game Play - 7.5
Graphics – 7
Replayability – 7.5
Music - 6 (It's always hard to score this one)
Originality - 7

Total 7 out of 10

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Suggestions to the Developer:

• Enable users to change the music

• Add more mini games

• Improve the story

• Include a screensaver, that you earn for completing the game

• Update the graphics and get rid of the blurry photorealism.

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Problems:


If you have any problems installing or getting to work today's game please go HERE for help. I've posted all of the common problems and solutions in a FAQ thread, which you can find in the sticky section of the forums by following the above link.

If you are posting late in the day I would also suggest posting in the main giveaway forums, in the game discussion section because I cannot moderate 24hrs a day over the weekend. 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). Sometimes you can still register the game after the giveaway has ended so long as you managed to start the download before the giveaway ends. I've tested this and sometimes the grace period lasts for up to 2 hours, but more often than not 1 hour is the norm.




It’s always worth checking out the free games sites because sometimes the games we get here are also available for free from them. MyPlayCity (MPC) has the most with over 900 games to choose from. Today's game (as already mentioned above) is available from ) HERE. The game is also available from Jenkat Games

If you do download any other games from MPC or the other free game sites 'do' watch out for toolbars etc. Make sure you uncheck the checkboxes during installation, and, in the case of MyPlayCity, everytime you boot the game up. .

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Games, Games, and yet more Games plus Download, Installation & Game play Problems:



If you're looking for something other than today's game check the didimatic site via THIS link for some brilliant deals.

Steams weekend deals includes two games on the free weekend play scheme. Saints Row The Third with 75% off if you decide to purchase (this is a wacky game on the line sof GTA IV) plus you can also play Civilization V for free till sunday evening. You can also get 75% off Civilization as well. (Amazing deals considering both games cosat a fortune when they were released with all their dlc's. The gold edition of Civilization V has all of the dlc's included apart from the latest Brave New World. Saints Row The Third: - Full Package also contains all dlc and costs a measly £6.24 (similar price to an arcade game but you are getting a full on AAA game)
There's 75% off Roller Coaster Tycoon 3: Platinum, 75% off Civilization IV, 66% off Anna, 75% off Civilization III, 50% off Cubemen 3, 75% off Vessel, 66% off the Lunar Pack (Wake & Lunnye Devisty), 66% ofRetrograde, 75% off Tryst, 75% off APOX & APOX: Legend, 75% off Chains, 66% off Sugar cube: Bittersweet Factory, 60% off The Journey Down: Chapter One, 50% off Retrovirus , 50% off Penny Arcade's The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 plus over 80 games or dlc's on sale at the moment on Steam with discounts from 10% to 750%. You'll find all the deals via the Specials tab on Steams front page HERE. The 24hr deal is 75 % off the brilliant Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 Platinum






On sale over at at GreenManGaming are Defiance for 30% off, 75% off Civilization V Gold, 50% off Stealth B*****d (swear word), plus loads more. Check all GMG deals HERE. There's a 20% off voucher that can be used with most of the GMG digital games.



You'll find many more game deals from Gamersgate, Gamestop, and GOG; all of which you can find via the Didimatic site, which I've linked to above.

To be honest there are too many game deals around too list them all. Just visit the sites I recommend above and I'm sure you'll find something that suits you for a very decent price.


You can get a free arcade game via Alawar's game box, just click the free game tab. It changes approximately every month If that's not enough, check out the Game Discussion forums HERE for details of other games either free or on deals such as the Indie Game bundles or check out the four day sales at IndieGameStand.

The latest IndieGameStand game is the excellent Dawnstar a 3D space shooter. If you pay over the average price which at the moment stands at $1.60 you'll also getBonus extra's. The game has been put in the greenlight category on Steam. If it's Greenlit, you'll also get a Steam key on top of the CD and desura Keys. You'll find the deal HERE. This deal ends on Sun 59th June around 4am GMT (less than a day)

There's also indie bundles available over at Indiebundle.org. Each bundle has three games and costs $5 each for the basic bundle plus a few dollars more for extra games. Check the Indie bundles HERE
There's more Indie bundles such as the newly released Indie Royale and Weelkly Humble bundles as well as a couple more that you can find via the Game Discussion forums. All bundles are excellent value for money :). For most of these bundles you need not pay more than $5 for several games that would usually cost you a lot more. You'll find links to all of these bundles in the Game discussion forums HERE





A 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

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