Hi Pixiey, you need to install the Alawar gamebox beofre you can download the free games. Once you have it installed you'll see the free games tab on the main GUI.
You can download the gamebox HERE
Alawar's FREE Game of the Month - Sprill for Jan 2013
(232 posts) (39 voices)-
Whiterabbit-uk
Games GuruPosted 12 years ago # -
Whiterabbit-uk
Games GuruLatest Alawar freebie is Land of Runes
Posted 12 years ago # -
Alawar Freebie for July, 2012 -- Magic Shop. It's a match 3.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Whiterabbit-uk
Games GuruThanks for the update Dragonlair
Posted 12 years ago # -
Delilah - I'm playing it from a copy I got from JenKat Games some time back. I got past 10 easy. I got suck at 15 for a little and I can't get past the last level. I need 42,000 points on that level and can't get to 40,000!
Posted 12 years ago # -
Whiterabbit-uk
Games GuruThis months (Aug) Alawar freebie is Sprill
Posted 12 years ago # -
Thanks, kvtto!
It took a while for me to get my copy of Gamebox to update the list (It's a long standing problem that they have never explained what's wrong) but I do see it now.
I think it's the same as Jungle Quest available at Jenkat games (free). However, I'm going to give it a try to see if it does what Jenkat's game did. The version from Jenkat was so old that if you grabbed some of the powerups too fast, it would get moving faster than it could handle and crash. I was never able to complete it because that LAST level had to get moving that way.
I'll give it another try this way and cross my fingers (at least the hand NOT on the mouse).
Posted 12 years ago # -
Whiterabbit-uk
Games GuruThanks for the update. Great game. If you don't have ths it's well worth downloading alawars game box just to get it.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Delilah
MemberDragonlair, the copy of Curse of Montezuma that I got yesterday from the Alawar Gamebox "blows up" every once in a while, too. I don't remember any consistency to it, tho. It does seem to save my progress when it does it, and it hasn't done it yet today. I haven't had any problem getting the gamebox to load. How's your luck running now?
The game seems to be a sequel to the first Treasures of Montezuma, with Cathie Jones as the granddaughter of Emily Jones, the archaeologist from the original game. It's a decent story line, with good, altho timed, Match-3 play and lots of colorful jewels and powerups.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Prince Rajkumar
MemberFriends the game box link provided is not working. Please fix the link.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Delilah,
It may be related to Treasures of Montezuma but is also quite different. It has a "grid" rather than boxes and it is quite common to match diagonally and on a curve. There is one level where one diagonal was not allowed but I don't know why. There are also gaps as you go along making the matching a bit more difficult - you have to "read" the grid.
I still have not gotten it to crash. I'm on the 5th or 6th chapter now and I'm well into "shielded", frozen and even steel tiles but no crash. It is getting more difficult to get a "gold medal" on the first try. I sometimes go several levels farther to get more powerups and then go back and redo the silver levels trying for gold. I've got coins galore by trying the same level over and over before!
There is an occasional problem when you get it exploding and cascading fast that one tile doesn't fall all the way into place and you get an overlay of 2 tiles but no tile at the bottom. You can still swap at that level and the problem eventually seems to clear itself. You just have a problem at the bottom where there is no tile.
I may contact Jenkat and tell them my experiences, hoping they can work out a better version of the game (that doesn't crash at the drop of a hat).
Right now, I've got 2 or 3 silver medals and the rest gold. I have not completed the game. When I get to the last level that caused me so many headaches before, I'll know for sure if this game is "fixed".
Posted 12 years ago # -
StevieD
MemberPrince777222 (and anyone else) you can still download the game box from thie page :-
http://company.alawar.com/technologies/a_player.phpPosted 12 years ago # -
I did finally get it to crash and it was a strange crash. I got 2 big blast powerups side-by side near the bottom (right side) and when I matched one, the other followed. The resulting cascade from the top must have caused more blasts because I barely made the match and the blast start and I suddenly was looking at my desktop - NO GAME! No warnings, no errors, no game. As Jamie Hyneman of "Mythbusters" would say, the game just "went away"!
Now that I have something to go on, I will report this to Alawar. I have far more chance of getting SOMETHING from them than from Jenkat who has no control over the games.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Delilah
MemberDragonlair,
I got it to crash on the last level, too, and I wasn't even trying. Same as your experience; it just went away, but really fast, no "do you want to send the error info to Microsoft?" message like I usually get. It's the gamebox version, that I just got a few days ago. Win XP Pro SP3. And when I slowed down to try and get thru that level, of course I timed out, so still haven't completed the last level. Yeah, I need to contact Alawar, too. And I had the overlay problem, too.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Delilah
MemberOkay, I finally got thru the last level of Curse of Montezuma. I decided I didn't care if I got thru it or not, and just played for fun, and sure enough, that's when I completed it! Now I'm playing with another name, and trying for better scores/times, but haven't figured out how to repeat the last level in an Episode. Maybe it's not possible?
Posted 12 years ago # -
Delilah,
To repeat the last level, just click on the "photo". That brings back the "chapter" and allows you to replay any of them.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I finally got the game to crash with the trace program running that they asked me to use. This time, all I did was request level 14 of that last chapter and I suddenly only saw the tracer window!
I ran the report and sent it to them. Within an hour or two I got a response -- update your DirectX and graphics drivers.
If you use the OLD form of the Alawar site (the new format doesn't show the minimum requirements for games), you will see that this game has a MINIMUM requirement of PIII 750! What difference does it make WHAT my driver and DirectX is with that old.
Also, the trace log I sent them included a report on my system -- with DirectX 11 clearly listed.
They did not even read the report they told me to send them! I am not happy at all.
Posted 12 years ago # -
BTW - to repeat the last level, you have to exit out of that "epilog" and then restart the game and do that last level again. It's a bit of a pain for that one specific level. All other levels can be replayed easily by just clicking on the photo and then the "page".
Posted 12 years ago # -
Delilah
MemberThanks, Dragonlair! And good luck with Alawar... sounds like their Customer Support isn't as good as their games. Or maybe it's just freebie games where you don't get very good support. I really don't like their new site format; it just looks like change for the sake of change to me.
Posted 12 years ago # -
The one BAD thing about their new site is it does NOT show the minimum requirements to run a game. That was critical with my fuss with them. Also, you have to expect that the games that show up free are OLD! That's the problem. They're so old, it's not worth chasing down and fixing the problems on these games.
In my case - they finally admitted they could not reproduce the problem. Intermittent problem -- I'll believe that! They gave me another game and I was happy. I've been wanting 4 Elements II so that's what I chose.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Alawar finally changed their free game of the month. It's now "Finding Doggy". I needed to re-do that one after a new computer install so the timing was perfect!
Posted 12 years ago # -
Delilah,
I pulled a little trick Alawar taught me, changing the config.xml file and deleting two files in the ProgramData folder for the gamebox and the new game appeared.
I did it for another reason (a known bug in Gamebox) but it worked.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Terri, there is a bug in the gamebox (I've complained about it and was simply told - it's beta) where it doesn't always update. This is the trick I've found (and you often have to swap back and forth between the two settings).
1: make a copy of config.xml in the Gamebox folder - name the original config-old.xml
2: edit the copy and change "config.xml" to "config_full.xml" on the "<ServerConfig>" command (3rd line in the file)
3: In ProgramData\AlawarGamebox\ (you may have to un-hide the folder) delete config.xml
4: In ProgramData\AlawarGamebox\Temp\delete player.xml and player.zipThen start GameBox and you should see the change.
You may have to swap back to the "old" config so just rename the "new" config.xml file to "config-new.xml" and rename "config-old.xml" to config.xml. The deletions are the same. They just rebuild themselves.
I was originally given this trick because Gamebox doesn't show all the Alawar games. It still doesn't, even on my new machine but it's better. Maybe because everybody is getting re-installed on a fresh system.
That should help everybody get the update. It's a pain in the neck (and the other end of the spine) but it does work.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Hi Dragonlair
I tried to do this on mine but my config file is different to yours,
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
- <AlawarArcade>
<ContentURL>http://www.alawar.com/export/player_xml.zip</ContentURL>
<ContentVersion />
<TemplateURL>http://player.alawar.com/common/content/template.zip</TemplateURL>
<TemplateVersion>0.0.0.223</TemplateVersion>
<WebUpdateURL>http://player.alawar.com/common/webupdate/webupdate.xml</WebUpdateURL>
<ClientVersion>0.6.5.0</ClientVersion>
<MaxGameDownloads>2</MaxGameDownloads>
<DownloadGamesAsExe />
</AlawarArcade>Any ideas what I have to do/change?
Thanks John
Posted 12 years ago # -
John,
That's the wrong config.xml. That's the one in ProgramData\AlawarGameBox.
You want the one in Program Files\Alawar\AlawarGamebox (or Program Filex (x86) if you're on a 64 bit processor).
Posted 12 years ago # -
Hi Dragonlair,
I don't have any config files in E:\Program Files (x86)\Alawar\AlawarGameBox My games partition so can't edit anything there.
Does the settings in the gamebox options page affect the location of these files? My games should be installed in E:\Program Files (x86)\Alawar.
John
Posted 12 years ago #
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