Hi all.

I'm not a techie at all, but wanted to offer something I've encountered with some games.

A couple of games that I've played, required me to edit my anti-virus scan settings, and add the game file to be "excluded" from "real time scanning", before I was able to run the game.

American McGee's Alice was one.

FWIW.....

joe

Yes Robert, I tried that yesterday, the key that says F8. That was when I got the keyboard not working message & my cursor siezed up. It did not take me to the menu. I tried it 2 or 3 times with the same result.
Off to Pilates now to calm down.
I will try the F8 thing two more times when I get back & then turn the PC off in disgust,
Thanks for being patient with me.
Joe, I have never heard of being excluded from real time scanning, is it complicated ?

Oops! The cat just stepped on the keyboard. Sorry about the double post.

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I know it can be scary when you start doing things on your computer and Windows starts flashing all those "your computer will never run again!" messages. It sounds to me like you probably aren't getting the timing quite right on the F8 key. You have to press it rapidly over and over again while the computer is booting up. If you begin tapping the F8 key too soon, some computers display a "keyboard error" message. If you get to the screen where you can boot into Safe Mode, don't be alarmed when everything looks strange. Safe Mode disables everything but the most basic requirements for running the computer.

This link might help you out. Being able to boot in Safe Mode is a good thing to know how to do for many reasons.

Safe Mode

You clicked "reply" instead of "edit"

I've done that a few times myself, Draclvr.

Well, after reading everything... I don't feel alone, but not encouraged... I have 2 machines one meets, the other exceeds the specs. The one is XP Home and the other Vista Premium. The one that exceeds is the Vista. The install screen come up on the Vista, but never actually installs. Just sits there. I tried going through the file and using set-up.. no go. On the XP machine it installs fine, the opening cut scene plays and the new game screen comes up at the end but I can't use the cursor to click "new game". I can't get into the read-me until I can get a file extension registered for rtf. What, pdf wasn't good enough? At any rate, I'm going to work on the read me issue, and see if I can find out anything there. I'm thinking it may be the security on Vista that I may have do something with. But the XP business has me stumped.

dwn_force, have you tried booting in safe mode to install the game?

The TAC web-site really needs to offer some online support for this game.

No, I haven't tried the safe mode thing, yet. Just in the off chance it will run, I'm going to try installing it on the 98 machine I have for older software. Wouldn't surprise me if it ran fine. I really don't care where it runs as long as I can play it. But when I built the one for Vista, I went for the best graphics I could afford, plenty of memory and a fast processor. And here I am hoping it will be OK on 98?? I agree about the support from TAC that you mentioned. I waited for this game Grrrr.

Right. Please do not laugh. Came back from Pilates, calm & serene. Glared at the PC & when it said F2 or F12 I pressed F8 and it worked. Went to safe mode, the game was not very keen to instal but I did it ! Thought I would give it a play in safe mode - it would not run, encountered a problem & had to close the same as before.
So undeterred I rebooted & went into my normal PC screen. It will not work.
Oh help - it can't just be me, can't the programmers make a patch ?
I am giving up before I start throwing the PC on the bonfire,

I would suggest you look in your game's manual for tech support contact information. I don't know anything else to try.

Well, I got it to run on XP. Oh the controls are torture! At least to me. Now I have to get it to let me look at the ledger. There must be a way to flip the pages. I never did the safemode thing, I can see that it is not guarenteed. . I checked out a site from Greece, and they suggested not purchasing until a patch is released.

No, Robert! It was the cat. Honest. Yeah, yeah, THAT'S the ticket!

When I checked the TAC website yesterday, they still listed this game as not yet released?? Methinks they would have their own games current on their website??

Use Wordpad to open rtf files. Or MS Word should be able to open them too. Maybe they have some info on the controls.

The cat clicked on reply while you weren't looking

Blame the poor cat...shame on you.

One would also think they could have tested this game more thoroughly. I guess the only thing to do is contact them. Wouldn't it be something if they responded by saying "this game has not been released yet...sorry for the inconvenience".



What did you do? Maybe JennyP will be able to use the same solution.

Maybe I shuld get my cats to try & run it :cat:
I think I will put the game calmly & serenely to one side & start saving for a new PC.

Robert, thanks for the additional info via e-mail. I shall let you know how it all turns out once the card arrives. To the point others have mentioned, the support is terrible. The first thing I did was e-mail TAC, they of course have yet to respond. I'm sure it was the belated July 4th weekend. Ha! In any case, I also had a lot of issues getting the program to install on Vista. It did eventually come up, but not through autoplay, and once it was installed it ran fine. But it's not just you Jenny, believe me. One would think they'd have a bit more for you on their website.

They've always been slow putting up support info for their new games. And for the past few years they seem to put up the same support page for all their games. It always looks like ***this***. Very rarely is there anything specific to the game you're looking up, unless they happen to have a patch for it.

Dead Reefs was developed by ***Streko-Graphics*** (developer diary link ***here***). Dreamcatcher/TAC is only the publisher. When you ask Dreamcatcher/TAC for help, they'll give you basic troubleshooting information and maybe forward a description of your problem to the developer (in this case, Streko-Graphics). They are probably getting a lot of requests for help like yours.

Yes. I've noticed that too about the TAC web-site, Jenny. They rarely address any game specifically. It's almost always "canned answers".

JennyP. What brand and model computer do you have? I wouldn't run out and buy a new computer just because this game is giving you problems....especially since it's also happening to so many other people. A simple hardware upgrade may be all you need. As long as your computer has a decent video card and enough memory, it should handle any adventure game you want to play (assuming the game itself doesn't have issues)

I really didn't do anything, It would install with no problem on XP. It was getting it to play. The controls were giving me grief. That and the fact that I had to change the resolution in the settings. The default was to far out for my monitor, And the screen kept popping to black. That I figured out. So I don't figure that I was any help.


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How did you get it to install and run on Vista? I could get the install screen, select install and then it would just hang there. I tried to go through the file and use set-up with no luck. I'm curious...

Has anyone who has Dead Reefs and Windows Vista tried to install it to Documents instead of the Program directory??

inferno

No, have you tried it? And did it work?

Sometimes installing in safe mode will get you around that.

I think Inferno was suggesting to "install in My Documents". That has resolved some problems with other XP games. Check the Vista compatibility sticky topic.

I don't have Vista --- but when I was teaching it to my Mom (she has it) I noticed that it doesn't say "My Documents", Robert.
It just says "Documents".

inferno

I installed the game through the run command on Vista. It delayed but eventually did come up. The problems I referred to were that I most certainly had to reset my windows explorer several times due to the same thing you were mentioning. (Essentially, installing it every which way but Sunday and then waiting for it to just sit there and not respond.) I also had to do it again when I re-installed the whole thing due to the graphics problems I've been having. Once again, it didn't just install right from inserting the CD, but using the run function as described in the manual (running the Setup.exe file) did work. No bloody clue why it takes all day. And I didn't save it to anywhere special, just the default place.

Vista is a new OS and i don't think much testing for Dead Reefs was done with Windows Vista.

If I may, I will join in also.

After the installation, I get this message:

"Dead Reefs. exe has a problem and must close.......
You can tell Microsoft about your problem....or not."


Specification of my Laptop:

Toshiba MCHAR10ACP02F
Intel(R) Pentium(R) M
Processor 1.86GHz
1.86GHz. 512 Mo RAM
N Vidia GEFORCE GO 6600
DirectX 9.0c
Window XP



Thank you in advance for your good advice.

Chief