Testing Wanted: Hamsterball Web

[Raptisoft]

Hi all,

We've just about completed a web version of Hamsterball. It requires only a few tweaks in order to be released (the bigger stumbling block is redesigning the web site to accomodate it).

It's an ActiveX plugin, which might turn some people off. However, for those that aren't, please visit here:

http://www.raptisoft.com/testarea/testx.html

Just click the "test game" link there to test the game. One thing we are looking for in particular is whether the game produces a general protection fault when you close down the web window. Also, the first screen you see should display "CLICK ANYWHERE TO BEGIN" and some instructional text over the autoplay window. That text has not appeared on some computers, in some instances, and we're not sure if we've fixed it completely, or if we've fixed it only for the computers we tested it on.

* * *

About ActiveX, and what this plugin does, for those in concern: The ActiveX plugin in a dll. It sits in c:\[windows dir]\downloaded program files under the name "RaptisoftGameLoader." It can be removed by right clicking on it and selecting "remove." It is only invoked when you visit a page that needs it, it doesn't go into startup or anything. (To remove, you need to close down the Raptisoft web page first)

What it does is download a mini-set of Hamsterball game files to c:\documents and settings\[current user]\Application Data\Raptisoft. It's safe to delete that directory completely. (Note that depending on your windows settings, "Application Data" might be a hidden directory).

* * *

[luggage]

Hi

Worked fine here.

HP Pavillion ze4355
512 DDR Ram
XP 2500
Windows XP
Some strange mobile video card

[AVataRR]

works great,

amd athalon 1800xp
256mb ram
geforce4 ti4200
windowsXP

[Fost]

It might be worth having a notice for non-ie browsers, or just showing them the download for hamsterball gold, since activex controls obviously won't work for them. They are still a tiny percentage, but it's nice to explain to them what has happened and give them an option (Popcap even had this problem, although they might have fixed it, and Real Arcade doesn't even work - they just put up a notice telling you to use ie :confused: )

Also, in XP Service Pack 2, they have changed all the dialogs, the process looks like this:
http://www.moonpod.com/board/images/misc/hamster-activex-stage1.jpg

When you click on the text, you get a small menu with the option to install the control, then:
http://www.moonpod.com/board/images/misc/hamster-activex-stage2.jpg

[Morphecy]

Worked nicely here too...

AMD XP 2000
512 DDR Ram
geforce4 ti4200
Windows XP

[mkovacic]

"Me too"...

AthlonXP1700@2400
1GB RAM
Radeon 9100

[Night Elf]

It worked OK!

Pentium III 700 MHz
256 MB RAM
GeForce FX 5200
Windows XP Pro

[Raptisoft]

Thanks, everyone.

Yikes on those dialog changes... now I wonder what I'm going to have to do to adapt to that....

[Dan MacDonald]

Yes it worked great, not in firefox though :)

I'm curious, how did you render to the activeX control window? I was only able to perform GDI operations on it, not initialize a D3D or OGL device on that window?

[GameStudioD]

It didnt run on Mozilla for me. I ran it in Explorer and it crashed. The downloadable version of Hamsterball doesnt run on this computer, so I didnt expect the web version to either.

P4 3.0 G
Intel Integrated Graphics 64 MB
Windows XP

I will try it on my other computer that actually has a videocard.

[Mark Fassett]

I don't understand why anyone would expect it to work in FireFox or Mozilla. They don't support ActiveX.

[Sid Egg]

It works, but, you need settings, I had to change color mode or something on the real one to get it so it wasn't solid purple, and, in this, it is solid purple like it was on the full demo.

[Fost]

I don't understand why anyone would expect it to work in FireFox or Mozilla. They don't support ActiveX.
You are assuming that consumers even know (of care) what activex is. Quite right too - why should they care how things work; it's our job to make it easy for them. I think bare minimum, it should at least tell them why there is a problem though, or better still, just offer the download of the demo version so they are none the wiser.

Oh, I never mentioned - works fine, and runs as beautifully and polished as ever. :)

[Mark Fassett]

You are right - customers don't know better, but on a board full of people that should know better, just saying it doesn't work seemed dumb to me. Of course it doesn't work. Tell him what he needs to know, which is what you said. "Customers don't know, so you need to do something about it."

[Raptisoft]

It works, but, you need settings, I had to change color mode or something on the real one to get it so it wasn't solid purple, and, in this, it is solid purple like it was on the full demo.

Aha, the famous "safe mode" problem. I think we'll probably set the web version to always run in safe mode. I wish that DirectX had some sort of cap to tell me if it was going to fog the whole screen, though. :mad:

GameStudioD... it just crashed? I'm not familiar with that video card, is it hardware accelerated? If you didn't have DirectX8 on that machine, the loader should have told you that you needed it.

All the FireFox, etc, people: The newest version on the site will give a message if ActiveX is not available. However, I think I'll end up setting it up so that the 'play now' button on the main board will go right to the download page instead of the webgame page if they don't have a compatible browser. That seems the most elegant thing to do.

Thanks everyone, again, for testing.

[Raptisoft]

I'm curious, how did you render to the activeX control window? I was only able to perform GDI operations on it, not initialize a D3D or OGL device on that window?

I dunno... it just worked. I used the ActiveX window instead of the window handle I'd normally get from CreateWindow, and all ran fine.

[Sid Egg]

Works now.

Btw, I think you should limit it a little bit more, I have never 'maxed' out the demo?

[Sunshine]

Great game! Awsome Marble Madness clone, and the hampster is cute too :)

Ran fine on my system and the download time was not too long either.
Win 98
Athlon xp2000
256 ram
Geforce 2ti
52 kbps dial-up modem

[Mithril Studios]

Both download and activeX worked fine on my machine

Athlon 1 GHz
Windows XP
256 MB ram
32 MB GeForce II video
cable modem

Anthony

[Raptisoft]

The HB Web version has been updated to handle SP2. Which is, lemme tell you, an incredibly ugly system for game sites. :(

Well, we're almost ready to release this. Thanks, everyone, for your testing!

[Nemesis]

What compatiblity problems did you encounter with SP2, if I may ask?

[Dominique Biesmans]

Well done. Worked like a charm here (Win XP SP2 IE6, Pentium 2.4, crappy onboard intel video). No crash at exit.

Played smooth as well in usch a tiny window. The only thing I missed was mouse control? I remember playing a beta of hamsterball quite some time ago and it used mouse controll. Not that the keyboard controls are no good, it's just that I expect anything web based to be completely mouse controlled.

Needless to say, it didn't work in firefox. I wonder if it would be hard to make a firefox (netscape) compatible plugin (or what were they called) that behaves in the same way?

Good job overall! The smooth install & download is on par with the activex thingy popcap does.

[Raptisoft]

Nemesis:

It's mostly an issue of screen layout. In original XP, the ActiveX is transparent, and it pops up a "do ya wanna accept this" dialog box. It's very easy to throw an image behind the ActiveX that says "You'll need to click yes on the next window."

With SP2, the entire ActiveX is colored white, so you can't put an image behind it. It also forces you to click either on the ActiveX, or on a little bar under the explorer toolbar, in order to install it. Then, you have to go through ANOTHER dialog and click "install." So a one step process becomes a three-step process.

In some ways it's elegant, but I can see it becoming a little more intimidating to the user. Will probably cut down on accidental installs, though.

Dominique:

In order to support mouse, we'd have to lock the cursor into the window. I think that would terrify web players. In the end, we just decided to leave it out.

And thanks for the compliment! That's about the highest one you can give. :)

[Nemesis]

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I've been hearing some negative comments on SP2 and I was wondering what's the real impact of it.

Needless to say, you have a top-notch game!

[nemo54321]

I don't know what I did wrong, but it wouldn't play on my computer. Everytime I hit the arrow keys to steer the hamster the game would pause.
:confused:

Dell Dimension
2.8 Pentium
512 RAM
Generic Video

-- Joe Hawkins

[Raptisoft]

Nemo: That's strange... do you have something running that takes focus when you hit keys? The game is set up to pause when it loses keyboard focus, so if you hop out to another window, it doesn't cost you your game.

In this situation, it's not "what you did wrong" it's what we did wrong. :)

[nemo54321]

I have no idea what's stealing focus.
But, I'll look into it. I thought it might be my pop-up blocker, but nope... I'll check some other software I have running in the background (messangers, P2P Managers...)

Also, it only happens when I push the arrow keys... A-Z, 1-2 are all just fine... *shrug*

I'll try to keep you posted.

-- Joe Hawkins

[nemo54321]

Okay... I pushed a whole bunch of buttons and my arrow keys started working... I'll try to narrow that down for you.

It was the alt key... I have no idea. I click the link, then click to start, and then I have to click alt to start the game... There you go.

-- Joe Hawkins