Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru
Hi Dragonlair, I'm really not sure? Most of the Alawar games I have were bought or I got free for Beta testing. Most of the ones given away via the game giveaway project and via the gamebox, I'd already purchased, so I have the original registration codes to reinstall if anything goes awry. I format my computers fairly regulariky, so I cahn't really say how games remain or not a demo, using Gamebox. It is still in Beta, so maybe it's a glitch. I would certainly contact Alawar on the issue.
Regards
Whiterabbit
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru
Thanks for the Reminder Firebride. I'm hoping Alawar will give away a game that I've not already purchased sometime soon. Does this version of Strikeball 2 have the expansion pack included? They seemm to be combining all the expansion packs from the older games into theoriginal. For example Hyperballoid complete which is now more than half price off has all the level packs included and makes the total number of levels come to 1000. More than enough to keep any arkanoid fan occupied for many months.
I do prefer Strikeball 2 though. The game has been upgraded to Strike Ball 3 now. The latest version is similar to number 2 but has some new power ups and the graphics are slightly improved. Get this free bargain while you can though as it's much better than Magic Ball 2 that many used to rave about.
Regards
WR
WR,
The description of the game (when you first start the game) that says "Thank you for your Registration", says there are 200 games. I noticed there are 400.
There are 100 each for 4 "packs". They have names but you have to have the game loaded to see them. I think the first is "original" if that means anything.
The description at the site makes a comment about those having Strike Ball 2 (not deluxe) getting a discount to get the "deluxe" so I'm guessing it has all available games (but no level editor that I noticed).
It is very good. It's like the Magic Ball series but I have not seen the slowdown that I see in the busier levels of Magic Ball 2. Maybe, I'm just not far enough yet. I think I'm in the 30s for the Original Pack. Watch out for those "pointy" blocks falling at you. Don't let them hit you! The ones with the points sideways are fun - they keep moving until they can't move and THEN you can destroy them. :]
I just played the game again - and got hit by the "aggressor" blocks before I even noticed they were coming at me! I was busy trying to keep the ball going - there's not much room at times between the paddle and the blocks.
I did check the 4 "game packs". They are: Original, Deluxe, Extra and Amazing. Again - according to the files, there are 100 levels in each pack.
Tizz,
No, that's not the problem. There's no rhyme or reason as far as I can tell what is considered demo and what is considered. All are full games and all have been played. I've not seen one "revert" and some were never downloaded from the Gamebox. Many of the demo vs. full games were downloaded from here. Strike Ball 2 Deluxe is the first one that has changed from demo to full and I'm still not sure how that happened. All I know is one install was demo and after an uninstall and redownload/install, it shows as full!
If you have ANY game that you know to be a full game - DO NOT play it under Gamebox if it thinks it's a demo. I have NO idea what that will do to the stats/licensing for the full game! I would not take the chance of losing a game you like and got for free by experimenting this way.
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru
If you are seeing 400 it means the expansion pack has now been incorporated into th game. It seems alawar are doing this with all their er games, which is brilliant for those who didn't buy the expansions previosly as you will still be able to use your original activation codes. I'll have to re download Magic ball 2 as I only bought two of the three 9or 4) expansion packs they released. If you have the original magic Ball installed from the Game giveaway, it will probably be worth downloading the demo of Magic Ball 2 as you should then get the expansion packs added. So long as you still have the registry entries in the registry, the game will remain a full version. though just as a safety precaustion I'd advice creting a restore point just in case.
The original Strike Ball 2 deluxe had the first game incorporated into the game (hence the name Deluxe), though they continued to sell the original at a knocked down price. The Deluxe version had 200 levels made up of 100 levels from the original and 100 new levels (100 seemed the going rate for most arkanoids at the time, lol). Then they released two expansion packs both of 100 levels each. So it definitely looks like they have been added. This is where I always lose out becaue i buy them when they are first released. I've just been checking the fileplants Direct to drives offers for this week and nealry all the games which they are now selling for $5 I paid top dollar for. Though I reckon it's not always quaranteed that a game will be sold off so cheaply. I think it must be the present ecomnomic down turn thats creating all these amazing bargains. As i aid in another thread earlier today; there are so many different game houses/developers that are selling off games at amazing bargains, it soon eats away at savings and fills your hard drives, lol.
I'm sorry that you haven't been able to sort out the problems you've had with the game box Dragonlair. As I said above i've personally never had any problems with it, but I have all the activation codes for my Alawar games.
Regards
Whiterabbit
Actually, from GOTD, Magic Ball, Magi Ball 2 AND Magic Ball 3 were available. I got all three. I'll have to take a look and see if I can get more puzzles that way. I'll also check to see what "level" (demo of full) that Gamebox thinks I have of them. Thanks for the hint.
If we have MagicBall 2 from GOTD, are there still more puzzles? What about the original Magic Ball and Magic Ball 3? Also, should we install them OVER what we have or to separate folders and then copy over the pertinent files?
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru
Strike ball 2 Deluxe was also a giveaway as was most of their other arkanoid collection. (Neo Ball, hyperballoid, Aquaball Timebreaker and Roboball) Though they never gave away Clash ball and Action Ball, both of which were better games in my opinion. I remeber joining the giveaway project a couple of days after Magic ball was given away. That was before the game giveaway started. The first game I got from the project was TVI arkanoid, which was one of the only ones that I actually hadn't bought previously. :)
I got Magic Ball 2 before I got Magic Ball. I think 3 came later. However, you didn't answer my questions! Which games should I play with and how? I noticed that Gamebox sees all three as "full" so I shouldn't have problems with the registration and I have made a restore point.
WR, your trick worked but not quite the way I expected! I have the first three Magic Balls from here. Based on what I can find, I got them in reverse order - 3 then 2 then 1.
You never answered whether to install over the existing program so I looked at the registry. Since the place of install was in the registry, I installed the "new" Magic Ball 2 OVER the existing one (after creating a restore point). Avira got a bit upset with the install but did it at my insistence. However, when I tried to play it after the new install, it said it was a trial version. Oops! I restored my system using the restore point and then tried the game again. It was back to the full version (thankfully) but it also now has 2 extra puzzle sets (Bonus Pack 1 and Bonus Pack 2).
I don't see any place to select any "packs", (just sections for Magic Ball 3) so before I even try this hokey setup again I HAVE TO KNOW. Are there any bonus packs for the original Magic Ball or for Magic Ball 3?
Thanks for the extra puzzles. :-))
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru
Sorry, I was distracted earlier. We've had friends of the kids here all day so it's been a little hectic. Yeah you can just install over the old games. Under no account use an unistaller though as this may wipe your rgistry entries.
Of the three Magic Ball games Magic Ball 3 has to be the most fun. i was disappointed when I beta tested Magic Ball 4 as there was nothing new added. I was hoping for even better graphics, and more power ups. Still it's as good as Magic Ball 3. :)
WR
I realized that I should not use the uninstall. I was a little surprised to find it switched from full to demo, though. I was even more surprised to find the 2 extra game packs after the restore.
What I have for Magic Ball 3 has 4 "sections". All the levels in each section has a similar theme. My question was "Are there more puzzles besides these 4 sets?" Will this same trick work for 3? The graphics on the first are a bit more primitive and with Strike Ball 2 Deluxe, I probably don't need those. I just want to know if I can get more puzzles for 3!
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru
Strike ball 3 has no expansion packs yet. It was released eqarlier this year they have been dumbing down the arkanoids recently because apparently they don't sell very well. (I personally love them) and have bought hundreds over the last decade.
Crazy, lol)
I think you are mis-understanding my question. I'm not asking if Strike Ball 3 has any expansion packs. I'm asking if Magic Ball 3 has any expansion packs.
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru
Sorry, it was late and I was a little stressed about not getting the Unreal Tournament servers up on time. it was around 3am in the morning, lol.
No, they have never made any expansion packs for Magic Ball 3; instead they took 2 years to release Magic Ball 4 (which I've always considered an expansion of MB3, lol). It was was released almost 2 years to the day after [b]Magic Ball 3 was released. I did ask on a number of occasions over on Alawar’s comments section if they would consider releasing a levels editor, but they had answered that it was difficult to create a usable levels editor for 3D arkanoids; (to which I replied that there were level editor's for a couple of 3D arkanoids, one of which they already developed/sold called X-Ray Ball) and Adventure Ball, which was sold by Real Arcade and Reflexive (who are now owned by Real Arcade). The latter was a really easy to use levels editor, and the games was better than Magic Ball 2 in my opinion. Though there were two even better 3D arkanoids available around the same; (see below)
You can see from the images below that there is little difference between MB3 and 4:
Magic Ball 3:
Magic Ball 4:
[Wheras there was a big difference between the graphics in Magic Ball 1, 2 and 3 (plus there are more power ups as you progress from 1, to 2 to 3. Magic Ball 2 was the only game in this series that had some expansion packs released. One was called the Spring pack and another the Valentines pack (I bought those), I'm sure there was another, but can't remember its name. I've yet to reinstall Magic ball 2, so don't know whether all the expansion packs have been incorporated, but I reckon they have because three other arkanoids (Hyperballoid Complete (released elsewhere as Hyperballoid Golden Pack), Action Ball Deluxe and Strike Ball 2 Deluxe, have all had their expansion packs incorporated into the main game over the last year or so. (I wish I'd waited as I hardly touched any of the expansion packs, lol)
Magic Ball 1:
Magic Ball 2:
Adventure Ball:
Finally my two 'most favorite' 3D arkanoids from this period were Actionball Deluxe, which also now has extra levels incorporated into the full version (I forgot about that one in the list above re expansion packs), plus it had boss battles at the end of several levels, as well as some unusual power ups and the particle physics when the bricks were being destroyed were fun, there were also robots to destroy in each level, the number you destroyed determined the number of extra levels you got and even better 3D arkanoid game called Incrediball: The Seven Sapphires, which had a really cool story line (which was original for an arkanoid), as well as some amazing power ups, great graphics and mini games incorporated within the main game. You had to hit certain sequences to unlock the mini games and there was an free levels pack to add, with a promise of more, but they never appeared.
Actionball deluxe:
Boss Battle:
Incrediball: The Seven Sapphires:
Mini Games within the main game:
Here's a video of Actionball Deluxe, unfortunately I couldn't find one for Incrediball and haven't the time to create on at the moment.
Actually, there are two or three other 3D arkanoids that I think are much better than the Magic Ball series; the main reason being that they were more challenging or had unusual game play elements to the that made them better (IMO). They were Neo Ball, Arcon toys and one I've forgotten the name of (which had brilliant brick physics, a little stone age man who threw or kicked the ball and some unusual power ups) (both the ones I mention were previous giveaways that were also given to us from Alawar) (I may post images later, 'I didn't intend to spend so long on this thread, lol')
Edit:
I remembered the name of the third game. It's called shattera. there were a couple made, though one actually had a name change when sold via reflexive arcade.:
Shattera:
Neoball:
Arcon toys:
I could only find a low res image of Arcon Toys and I don't have a screen capture device installed on my lap top, which is where my copy of Arcon Toys is installed. The main attraction with Arcon Toys was the unusual arena, which used to move and some power ups took you into the arena and the camera would follow the ball. The image shown above almost looks like a 2D game, but it isn't. Plus it also had some unusual graphics. Neoball had different shaped arenas for each level plus unusual power ups plus graphics comprable to Magic Ball 2.
Of course alawar have since released a newer version of Actionball called Actionball 2 and also the 2D arkanoid Hyperballid 2. Oh yeah, i've just remembered about Roboball, which was an okay game, but it took a retrograde step back from Magic Ball 3, which was released around three months before Roboball. Images later (maybe).
Thanks, WR! That was the answer I needed. I was kind of hoping for that answer since it ended up so weird with what I did for Magic Ball 2.
Before I played the little trick of the over-install, I had one pack (original) of 125 levels. Afterward, I now have 3 packs (original, Bonus Pack 1 and Bonus Pack 2) each with 125 levels so I tripled my fun! I now have 375 levels with Magic ball 2 along with those from Magic Ball and Magic Ball 3.
I currently have 8 breakouts from Alawar (mostly from here). I have Aquaball, Hyperballoid Complete (with the extra packs as per your suggestion a couple of years ago on that - each at 50 levels), Magic Ball, Magic Ball 2 and Magic Ball 3, Roboball, Strike Ball 2 Deluxe (the one that started all this) and Time Breaker.
I know I have only a fraction of what you have but I only have one machine and my external hard drive is for backups. However with about 415 games, my collection isn't exactly trivial (especially if you ask my husband). ;)
Thanks, again.
Diane
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru
The more games the merrier as far as i'm concerned. I do sometimes find it hard to choose what to play, but to be honest, I've always got something that will fit my mood.
Aquaball and timebreaker are also great arkanoids. If you ever get the chance to get the two I mention were my favorites i hihly recommend them. Another one called Clash, which is also available from Alawar is excelent. It's got odd graphics, but i really like it.
Apart from the Ricochet series from Reflexive, one of the best all round arkanoids I've ever plaed is called Acky's XP Breakout. Superb game play, with some unusual elements, but also surprises cropping up throughout the game. It also comes with a levels editor and some custom made levels from the developer. It's several years old now so the graphics look a little dated, but it still looks good. It just doesn't have the polish of say Magic Ball 3 & 4 or Ricochet.
I'll have to list my top 10 later. got to get homework ready for when the kids get back from swimming, then write up todays free game. :)
later
WR
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru
This months free Alawar game is Snowy: Lunch Rush
W.R.
You may also want to make sure you play it OUTSIDE the manager. AGAIN, I downloaded and unlocked it, but it thinks it's the trial version within Gamebox. It's fine and says "Thank you for Registration" when played independently.
GMMan, Hexadecimal Blacksmith
Blocked
Funny thing I've noticed. You can actually pay for the Game Box. I wonder what the point of that is. Costs $6.99 as usual. http://alawar.com/order.php?ID=2927
I've decided to rinstall Game Box to see how they determine which game is free.
Gamebox is free! Check out the link to it: http://www.alawar.com/game/alawar-game-box/
GMMan, Hexadecimal Blacksmith
Blocked
I've managed to find how the thing sees which game is free. The data for it is downloaded with its content pack refresh. It's in the page page_start.xml. So I can't force it to give me a free key for some random game. Well, now I know.
BTW, the free game this month is Mysteries of Horus.
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru
Thanks GMMan. someones already posted details elsewhere, but it's good to keep it in the same thread.
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