Dark & Eerie Games Thread 1

Yikes - I opened my game manager and it's there, too, as one of my downloaded and ready-to-play games! WTH?

ETA - Their FB page is an utter mess with angry complaint after angry complaint. Apparently they closed their office in Cork and let a bunch of employees go, and I'm guessing this is just the beginning of 'those' kinds of changes.  

I just saw this link over at the Pub, off to read it now:

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/brierdudley/2013/08/21/big-fish-games-cutting-jobs-closing-offices/

I just went and looked at their FB feed. They have brought a complete sh@#-storm down upon themselves. (sorry for the swear... I usually don't, but this time it seemed appropriate. Forgive my potty mouth.) They deserve every single complaint they get and more. I've got one credit, and once I use it, I'm canceling my membership.

This time they've gone way too far.

I'm not big on cursing, myself, but sometimes it's necessary to truly convey what I'm feeling.  No worries, there's only one word I can think of that really bothers me (starts with a 'c'), and I can't imagine any of us using it.

So, what I'm saying is that "shit storm" seems highly appropriate at the moment!  I really don't know what the hell Paul is thinking...

Back on the game front, though, I finally finished and reviewed Twin Vaccine last night.  Not worth getting the CE, but definitely a great SE!

I am now the "proud" owner of BF Casino or whatever it is too!   (And from the look of things, we will need LOTS of chocolate to wash people's mouths out with!)

From the article mentioned above, it would appear that Casino is Big Fish's signature game series now. Goodbye MCF?

ETA - And I just checked BF site again. It seems the Casino game forum - you know, the one with all the heavily "edited" customer complaints? - has been removed. No 1-star reviews up either. My, my.

I noticed it's gone, too, R-Mom. I'm all for the "Stand By My Game Company" mentality, in times of trouble or change, but this is seriously bordering on the ridiculous.
The decisions made in the last month have been detrimental to this once great game company, shattering all the trust I've ever possessed with them.
I read the article, also. I can understand the direction the gaming community is headed, with the apps and the Android devices, etc. But I don't see why the PC/Mac players have to be shoved aside. Is there no room for a co-existence with neither side having to suffer?
I also have a hard time feeling sorry for a company whose revenue last year was over 200 million dollars.

Have any of you noticed a notepad file that suddenly appears on your desktop called 'debug'? It's been reappearing on mine ever since I got the new BFGA and I didn't realize what the heck it was until today when I couldn't get rid of it. I just finally decided to read it again because the first time it just looked like a bunch of gibberish. It has something to do with an error in the BFGA. The only problem I've had with the BFGA is not being able to open it once in a whlie. Just wondering if it's only me. Add it to the list of other problems I've had since updating FF.

Fairjuno, before CCC closed, I noticed people posting about this "debug" file appearing with the installation the crappy new GM. I don't know exactly what it is nor do I know if the problem was ever solved.
The debug file seems to show up whenever it wants.

I would assume (I say this loosely) BFG is working on the problems many people are still having with the crappy new GM.

Thanks, dj. I was just curious. At least I know what it is now. I had been doing my best to ignore it because I was afraid of what it might be...lol. Then today it finally mentioned something about BF when I tried to delete it. I sent them a message, but I don't expect much to come of it. I don't even care as long as the GA works. When I couldn't get it to open today, I thought I might have a panic attack...lol. I told my dh, I don't know what I would ever do without BF.  Hopefully that's not something we'll really have to worry about.

lol, Fairjuno, I know exactly how you feel with tech issues & no games. I get a sick feeling when I have problems.
I probably wouldn't get sick if I was computer savvy.

I have finished Final Cut: Encore and I thought it was a good game though I think I liked the first one just a wee bit more.
I love to watch Eipix's credits, they crack me up!
In Encore, there's a "Secret Eipix Gameplay Chapter" located in the Extras. The beginning starts out with a short, but sweet, interactive tour of their office. It was cool!

I've got Nightmares From the Deep 2 loaded and ready to go.....

Alright folks, I've got that requested tutorial all typed up and ready to go!  In case you didn't already see it, you can find it here:

Storing BF Games on External Drive / Accessing Games WITHOUT the GM

Fairjuno wrote:Have any of you noticed a notepad file that suddenly appears on your desktop called 'debug'? It's been reappearing on mine ever since I got the new BFGA and I didn't realize what the heck it was until today when I couldn't get rid of it. I just finally decided to read it again because the first time it just looked like a bunch of gibberish. It has something to do with an error in the BFGA. The only problem I've had with the BFGA is not being able to open it once in a whlie. Just wondering if it's only me. Add it to the list of other problems I've had since updating FF.

I have noticed the debug file---I just let it sit there.   Honestly,  I thought it had something to do with when I was attempting  (w/o success) to get Dracula and Alpha Polaris to run.   I did a disk cleaning and Ccleaner and a couple of other things,  so I just left that little debug icon alone.
Its not bothering me---so I'm not going to bother it.

I see the link for my question about Storing BF games on external files.  Thanks.....I go in with
trepidation......

Oh wow, that looks like a lot of tech stuff we have to do in order to put our games on an external hard drive.  
I have rummaged around in my Program Files before because I had to run a game as administrator. I'm very intimidated by all that computer speak. Ewww, it gives me the chills.

Well, I have a question. I don't have an external hard drive yet, so does size matter? (I'm cracking myself up) I mean, say you have a lot of games, do I have to buy a big hard drive? Hmm...maybe I could dwindle my list of Favorites down, gosh, that's still going to be a bunch of games.

You said it better than me, dj. It's my "games" I can't live without. Now with Genki's solution, I don't actually need the gm.   

Lmao luvtoread! No doubt...  I actually thought (more like hoped) that by deleting it, it would then leave ME alone.  Oh well.

Over at Challengers I just saw this post from  Cheshire Cat:

I wouldn't really advise on downloading all your games on an external. Remember when mine got fried? It might have been old age, but is also quite possible that it died because of overheating

There isn't a good way to back up Big Fish games, since they don't give you the install files If you install them on an external you will also play them from your external (which can cause overheating) and you can't hook that external up to another computer and expect the games to play: they won't!

You are still depended upon your game manager and Big Fish activation software. Your game manager is installed on your C:\ drive and that's where the index to the game files is. So no matter if you install all your games on your C:\ drive or on an external, you will only have them as long as the lifespan of your computer! That is, if BF would go out of business, which I highly doubt!

I was just talking to popla about how you could safeguard BF games, not that we think it is necessary, just a talk about hating the fact that there's is DRM on it, which makes you depended of BF services!

A good way would be to install them on a brand new hardisk that has only windows installed on it and directly make an image of that disk. You could decide later if and when you want to build that hard disc into a new computer and you would then have the image as a back up

If I would have a pc custom build just now (which I am thinking of, since my computer is getting old, but I have no money to do it right now)
I would maybe do just that. But now, with my 5 year old pc? No way! And besides, it is over 300 games!


So.....I am getting a headache:     

Re BF...There's a very interesting article at www.Gamezebo.com
Didn't take long for the BF news to hit the fan !!

ETA: Marianne

Well, I wrote a post & then someone knocked on the door & now I don't know where my post went. It might be somewhere around here.

So, luvtoread, what I'm reading is, it's not a good idea to transfer games onto an external hard drive because we still need the GM?
We only have the games for the life of our computer. If we have to buy another computer...goodbye games?
That wouldn't be a good route for me because my desktop is 6 years old and I have the biggest part of my games on it.

Oh, geesh, I'm starting to get a headache, too!

DJ, look at the top right of the forum, and you'll see three links:

• View posts since last visit
  
• View your posts
  
• View unanswered posts
  

All three can be VERY useful, and are accessible no matter what page you're on.

If you accidentally (or on purpose) get the new GM, you can always bypass it using the info in post #2 HERE.  I know it looks daunting, but it's really super-easy!  The hardest part is making sure that you can view the hidden files, and the instructions should be clear enough to get you through it (I hope!)

Oh, thank you, Genki. I've seen it before but I forgot about it. I'm very scatter-brained today for some unknown reason. I think I'll go play my game & relax.

Anyone else noticed that there haven't been any games that are even close to tempting lately on BF? Or is it just me?

It might be just me.  

Esme wrote:Anyone else noticed that there haven't been any games that are even close to tempting lately on BF? Or is it just me?

It might be just me.  

The lights went out for me awhile back. I started visiting other sites and got into Adventure games...now I'm hooked. Marianne

So, do we need the game manager or not? I'm so confused. Genki's instructions lead me to believe we don't.

That would suck to have my external hard drive burn up after putting all my games on it though.

You MUST have the game manager, but if you use my workaround, you don't ever have to open it except to download / activate games.

You don't need to use the GM even in your current setup, whatever it is. Game .exe files always work. Just make sure you don't have "open GM after playing a game" ticked in GM options.