To Ceri:

I've managed to get back to my main email i.e. whiterabbit-uk@hotmail.co.uk, so use that to email me. but also as a back up send the same message to Whiterabbit-moonrising@hotmail.co.uk as I think someone is trying to hack my shorter email.

For the past several weeks if I try to access it in the afternoon, it nearly always says I've tried my password too many times and locks me out, even though I haven't been trying to log in. My password is nearly 80 Alphanumeric numbers & special characters, so whoever's been trying for a couple of months thankfully hasn't gained access. I think it's because of my Steam account, which has a lot of unredeemed games in my inventory that could be stolen if they gained access. I used to have thousands of pounds worth, but over the last year have managed to sell quite a few, but there's still a lot left that I'm sure scammers are trying to steal.

I also keep changing my password, in the hope that whoever it is, will give up.

:)

To Ceri:

I've been locked out of the above email after accepting the use a pin instead of my password. The following day I tried to access my email but couldn't remember the 7 number pin. However, I can access my other email Whiterabbit-moonrising@hotmail.co.uk via a second computer. I think the pin is just tied to the computer I was using at the time. email me on the Whiterabbit-moonrising email

;)

Stephens email: Whiterabbit-uk@hotmail.co.uk

Just revisited this page as I've been reinstalling a lot of my old arcade games. Sadly a lot of the links I posted over the last 18 years are no longer accessible and all of the images of game play have disappeared. Some I posted on Photobucket using a free account. Several years ago, Photobucket decided to reduce the number of images you could upload for free. I'd created several Photobucket accounts as I was always posting images over on the giveaway site and here in the forums. When they reduced the number of images you could upload for free, they locked all my accounts and said if I wanted to see them again, I would have to pay a monthly fee.

I may over time update this post as I think it's an important resource.

Finally, you mat find many of these games over on MyAbandonware HERE

Action Ball

Great News, one of my all time favorite 3D breakouts Action Ball is finally being released on steam sometime in March this year. The developer released the sequel Actionball 2 back in 2020 and in one of the discussions posted a comment saying that if 100 community members liked the comment, he would release the firs tone. Well, it never got to 100 I think it stands at 64 votes), but he's still releasing it, Yeah!

Chak's Temple

Also, available free is another excellent and unusual breakout called Chak's Temple. The developer made this freeware over a decade ago, yet I still see it being sold on some of the shareware sites. I know it was made freeware because I was in touch with the developer at the time.

I've checked several download sites, but most of the files I downloaded were suspect with up to 20 malware hits. The only site I downloaded a copy that was totally free from malware hits was from My Real Games HERE; I checked it against Virus Total and it was given a clean bill of health. You can see the result of the scan HERE

I've not yet had the pleasure of downloading and installing any games from My Real Games; so cannot say what sort of system they use; suffice it to say that all the free game sites I know of that stock games permanantly or for extended periods all have an advert based giveaway so that they can pay the developers for allowing them to give them away.

It was originally given away HERE way back in April 2007, where it received a positive 88% from 269 votes with 64 comments.

I've started to update some of the comments, adding new links and later images of the games I've mentioned. So far I'm still working on the first comment, which has a lot of different games mentioned. Some of the links are broken, so I will be searching for suitable working links. I've also started to add links to security scans for the games I've links to downloads.

Just an update and trying to consolidate any threads that contain breakout related information.

The link to download custom made levels within the game Ricochet Infinity was closed down a few years ago. It was possible back then to add thousands of fan made levels directly from in game.

Thankfully I found a site created by fans of the game that has managed to save most of the best level sets; and are available to download and manually add to your installed version of the game.

You can find the thread called Ricochet infinity downloadable Level Sets - STILL AVAILABLE as of Nov 2019 HERE

It seems the game is no longer available via Amazon, but you can get it from one of the decent abandonware sites. I've linked to those in the thread above. i.e. HERE

Last year Steam released Action Ball 2 a decade plus old breakout on Steam. I posted a review of the game because it is one of the best 3D breakouts I've ever played and is still among my top ten breakout games I've ever played. If the comments section of the review I've posted updated links to several (originally commercial but now free) breakouts that are definitely worth checking out.

You can find the review HERE

Whiterabbit I am so sorry that you've had to go through all of this. Of course if you hadn't, we might not have had your wonderful presence on this forum.

Thanks for the update WR. I also have been looking at old threads. It's like a time capsule of sorts. Seeing all the old posts from many no longer with us. Surprised these forums have lasted this long and hopefully will continue.

In a more altruistic vein, there’s Hope that someday what happened to you won't happen to so many other people…

What happened to you was in great part a result of incompetence, worsened by institutional favoritism towards wealthy corporations, investors, and individuals. Worldwide, populations are starting to vent their frustrations. NOT taking Anything away from the Black Lives Matter & related protests, the underlying issues are anything but new. Very many feel that it’s finally taken hold because of all these other frustrations that have been building, that people have finally taken a good look and the majority [~60% according to polls] said, ya know, they’re right.

People have been increasingly dissatisfied with healthcare industries that are less culpable for misdeeds than the average auto repair shop. In many countries, bumbling missteps during this pandemic have only amplified our concerns, bringing them front and center. In the US there’s been a litany of mistakes, but just one, the prominent campaign to Not Wear masks, born out of fear that hospitals wouldn’t have enough – and not publicly countered anywhere by any medical authorities or experts – is particularly tragic. Published studies say wearing a mask reduces spread by up to 85%, and while non-medical face coverings are not as effective, if you estimate a 50% reduction, that would have meant saving over 60,000 lives just in the US! [I’m staying away from the political aspects -- people in the middle, not the extremes, are upset and worried about this stuff regardless their political leanings.]

Our legal systems are in as bad if not worse shape. It was decades ago that TV shows became popular, teaching us that it was the quality, the ability of the lawyer that determined the outcome in any court case. And that of course means lots of money to hire these legal masterminds. In the US at least, stories about bad &/or biased judges have been popular for well over a century, e.g. hanging judges in the wild west. In the US it’s gotten to the point that the political parties advertise that if they’re in office, they’ll appoint judges biased to their perspectives. Which is all to say that the vast majority of people truly believe that money talks when it comes to justice, as seen by the insurance company tying your case up for years – as seen by the lack of justice when it comes to the poorest communities and people of color in the US. There’s really no excuse for either.

Life has changed for all of us – the pandemic made sure of that. And the popular sentiment revealed by the protests makes clear that we won’t blindly accept a return to the exact same pre-pandemic normal. That doesn’t mean drastic changes overnight, no matter how much some people say that’s the only way forward. But it does mean change – how much change is yet to be determined, in part by if a vaccine to the virus works, which is uncertain… there’s zero scientific evidence that we can become immune, & if so, for how long.

I was looking through some of my old private messages to see if there were any I could delete because my inbox was full. This prompted me to look through some old threads I'd started and consequently I came across this old thread that was last added to a decade ago. After a little thought I decided to add an update as a lot happened after posting my medical woes.

Following the confirmation that my back had been broken in that accident, now almost 15 years ago, I decided to take legal action against the woman who had caused the accident. I was quite shocked when her insurance company contacted me to inform me that if there was any settlement i would only get 50% of the compensation becasue according to their records, I was partly to blame for the accident. I contacted them to ask why they thought this becasue I was hit from behind while cycling to work. I'd been in the correct lane and had been doing everything a cyclist should do when on a dangerous interchange. I was informed that the lady who had hit me had reported to her insurance that I'd moved across from an inside lane to the central lane and she had been unable to avoid me. I replied informing them of and sending a copy of the police report that indicated that the defendant i.e. the woman who had hit me, had reported not seeing me at the time of the accident, so i pointed out to the insurance that how could she report that I crossed over lanes when she'd said at the time that she hadn't seen me.

Several years later I was in conversation via Team Speak with a good online friend who I'd met via this site. Sadly he passed away back in 2013 following chemotherapy for a slow growing cancer (that the doctor had said would take upwards of 30 years to kill him, but had still advised he undergo chemo'); the chemicals they used damaged his heart and he died following a heart attack a few months after stopping the chemo'. He was a pharmacist and after a particular discussion we had talked about regarding our medical issues (we invariably talked about them in the early days), he said I think from what you have said that you are not producing some important hormones (that turned out to be Cortisol, Growth Hormone and Testosterone) and he suggested that I should get my bloods tested, which I did. By this time I'd been seen by several different specialists because that accident had left me with lot of medical issues; some of which to this day have still not been resolved. Anyway, it transpired that I wasn't producing three particular hormones which incidentally are produced in the Pituitary located in the brain. Oddly I wasn't informed of the results and nothing was done about this following the tests, so things continued onward. I was seeing a pain management specialist who had been employed by my solicitor as part of our defense against the defendants (by this time I'd been told that I must involve the NHS in the legal case as it was they who had sent me home with no treatment and therefor were complicit in many of the issues I was now suffering). While being examined by the pain specialist, she noticed the results of my blood tests and was shocked that nothing had been actioned. As I was seeing her privately she immediately booked an appointment with a colleague of hers, who was an endocrinologist. The following week I went to see her and she immediately took more bloods and got the results in less than half an hour. From those results she said I wasn't producing three important hormones. She then sent me for an MRI and before I left the private hospital four hours later I'd been informed that I had received some brain damage at the time of the accident (something I'd always believed myself, but no doctor had listened). Part of the damage was located around the pituitary gland, which explained the almost total absence of those hormones (Growth hormone is important for the repair of damaged cells as well as healthy muscle, how our bodies collect fat, the ratio of high density to low density lipoproteins in our cholesterol levels and bone density. In addition, growth hormone is needed for normal brain function. Testosterone, which apart from its obvious effect on libido is also important for the regulation of bone mass, fat distribution, muscle mass and strength, and the production of red blood cells. also cortisol, which is an important hormone that regulates a wide range of vital processes throughout the body, including metabolism and the immune response. It also has a very important role in helping the body respond to stress. I now have to take various drugs and inject myself with growth hormone every day for the rest of my life.

We were almost at the end of my legal case when I'd received this new information. I discussed this with my solicitor and was told that if they entered the new information into the legal case it would almost certainly extend the case for a minimum of another 3 to 4 years. We'd been fighting already for several years and were dog tired of all the consultations I'd had to attend on behalf of the defendants who were trying their best to mitigate the compensation. They even searched right back to my teenage years (1970's)to see if I'd had any back injuries that they could then say were the actual injuries I was claiming for; so I decided not to include the brain damage in the claim despite it being a significant injury and would potentially double the compensation I would eventually receive. Two years ater we were finally approaching the time when a court date would be announced. At the same time a beautiful bungalow in a perfect spot came on the market. We had been looking at bungalows for a couple of years, but they tended to be a lot more than a traditional two-story detached home and also way out of our budget at the time. (The cheapest we had seen was approaching (£600 000/$900 000 - exchange rates at the time were hovering around $1.5 to the pound), so I decided to accept the last offer they had made a few months previously. The Queens Council that was representing me advised me to carry on as he reckoned even without the head injury being counted he would get another 50% on top of the offer they had made. However, the bungalow was selling for significantly less than all the others we had seen (£425000), so I decided to accept and immediately put an offer on the bungalow. We moved into that bungalow several months later.

Recently I was seeing another sleep specialist as the sleep apnoea had become worse. My previous interactions with the sleep service had been of little use. They had confirmed that I was suffering from sleep apnoea, but they had determined from some sleep studies where I'd had to stay at the hospital wired up to loads of monitors that it was only mild, so I was discharged with no treatment. On my latest visits they have now changed their diagnosis and I've been prescribed CPAP, which I'm hoping will help. I've yet to receive the equipment. One surprising outcome from this latest consultation was that I was told that it was almost certain the injury to my brain that was causing this central sleep apnoea.

Apart from the above everything is hunky dory. :)

B.T.W, both Ionball 3 and Energy Invasion have since been released on Steam since I posted about them previously.

Other breakouts that may be worth buying if you are really into breakouts are the 3D breakouts Grey Cubes (only £0.79/$0.99) and
Breakout Invaders (£2.79)

I've been revisiting some of my old breakouts recently, and have even contacted a few of the developers asking if there is anything in the works. for example, Caromble is still in early access despite being four years old now. I originally gave this a thumbs down in my Steam review becasue I felt there was issues with the bat being too sluggish (resulting in lots of lost balls, plus the ball physics was way off IMO. Well I'm happy to report that after a recent play through I can say both of those issues have been sorted by the small development team, who I believe work together most Friday evenings on fixing bugs and adding more content to the game. I must say I'm actually really impressed with what they have achieved and would highly recommend the game.

Sadly, two of the decent breakouts that were available on Steam have since been removed for various reasons. The first was Ricochet Infinity, which I still consider one of the best breakouts ever made due in part to loads of original power ups, a massive variety of brick types and a decent level editor as well as lots of ball types and bats, each with its own peculiarity and the availability of literally tens of thousands of free levels (via level sets ranging from a few levels to over a hundred) directly from in game. Amazon purchased the license from Reflexive Arcade several years ago and kept the upload site open until earlier this year. Those custom levels are no longer available because Amazon shut the site down. They have also removed the game from sale for now. You can still buy it via sites like Big Fish games,(HERE) but the game has been cut in half because of the inability to access all of those levels. If you can find anyone who downloaded them previously and still has the game installed, it is possible to add them to your game as you literally just drop them into a level folder. I actually have some, but not all. I downloaded several thousand levels years ago before Infinity was released and all of those levels from previous versions of Ricochet still work with infinity, though they are not as exciting and varied as the Infinity levels as there were many more brick types and backgrounds available for infinity. I'm sure someone somewhere will have uploaded some of those level sets, trouble is finding them.

Another excellent breakout that has been removed was Reaxxion, that had a brilliant bat mechanic, which enabled you to create balls from the bat and then rebuild the bat by collecting drops of mercury that were dropped from the bricks you'd destroyed. Other original ideas in that game such as collecting some of the balls which then were converted into a special more powerful power up made it a must buy for any breakout fan. That is also still available from the big name distributors such as Big Fish (HERE).

The only other 'really' decent breakouts available on Steam are Shatter and Ionball 2: Ionstorm, though
Ionball 3 that was released last year looks decent, but I've curtailed my spending on games significantly over the last couple of years (after spending over £40 000 on games since joining Steam in 2009) so haven't had chance to play it yet. It sort of reminds me of Luxor Evolved the ball popping and last in the series of the Luxor match three game with respect to its neon like graphics.

Just bringing this back to the front page as we have just been given a Shmup (Sat 1st sept 2018. :)

The following are some breakouts released on Steam over the last few years. There are more, which I'll add as and when I find them.

Simple Ball Extended Edition
Breakout invaders
Magical Brickout
Pingball VR
Ze VR
Ark Box Unlimited
Grey Cubes
Mondrian - Abstraction in Beauty
Evil Orbs
Caromble!
Brick Breaker
NANOS
Ball of Wonder
VReakout
Block Blowout
Constricting Cubes
Ionball 2: Ionstorm
Ready, Aim, Splat! (VR)
DeathMetal
Kuraburo Kai
HoloBall

Not released yet:
Energy Invasion
Ionball 3

:)

Thank you, WhiteRabbit.

Here's more Shmups and similar games to find on Steam. most are decently priced. With the changes made to the giveaway site, to get to the correct Steam page you will need to copy paste the links I've provided. Hyperlinks no longer work properly. some security measure I think.

Gal-x-e http://store.steampowered.com/app/473510/ £1.59

Lew Pulsipher's Doomstar
http://store.steampowered.com/app/504750/ £6.99

............................................................................................................[/size]
Zenodyne R http://store.steampowered.com/app/466820/ £6.99
[center]

RX Squad http://store.steampowered.com/app/494120 £1.59

Galactic Fighters http://store.steampowered.com/app/513960/ £0.79

Bitmaster (itch.io) https://comigo.itch.io/bitmaster $0.99

Solar Shifter EX - http://store.steampowered.com/app/363940/ - £5.99

Starship Command (Itch.io) - https://evglabs.itch.io/starshipcommand $5 or more

Starship Corporation - http://store.steampowered.com/app/292330/ - £14.99

Star Drifter - http://store.steampowered.com/app/485330/ - £0.79

Super Space Pug - http://store.steampowered.com/app/466840/ - £0.79

Stardust Galaxy Warriors: Stellar Climax - http://store.steampowered.com/app/389650/ - £6.99

Space Codex - http://store.steampowered.com/app/469890/ - £079 (£0.39 till Oct 3rd 16)

Star Chronicles: Delta Quadrant - http://store.steampowered.com/app/383330/ - £0.79

Space Pirates and Zombies 2 has just gone on sale for the next 48hrs on steam. You can find the deal HERE.

The game is still in early access, so what you see in the following videos HERE, HERE and HERE, is not the final game. I have not checked through all of the content of each video so cannot guarantee any inappropriate language that I may have missed.

In SPAZ 2 you must survive in an evolving post apocalyptic Galaxy. The zombie threat is defeated, infrastructure has collapsed, fuel is scarce, and scavenging means survival.

Initially the Galaxy contains hundreds of fleets, each trying to survive. AI captains do everything the player can. The player is not special and is not the center of the Galaxy.

As resource scarcity becomes critical, ships come into conflict just to survive. Factions may form for protection or split due to starvation. Old friends must become fodder.

Stronger factions establish and defend territories, set up resource hubs, and establish star bases. Weaker factions may resort to banditry. Each captain is unique, persistent, and shapes the Galaxy.

When factions meet, combat is usually the result. While the strategic side of SPAZ 2 is about exploration, territorial control, and faction building, the action side of SPAZ 2 is about ship construction, tactics, and salvage.

Combat creates damaged ships and dead crew, but it also provides new salvaged parts. All the parts in SPAZ 2 are modular and randomly generated. If you see something you like, break it off an enemy, grab it with your tractor beam, and connect it to your ship. Ship construction can be done live during battles, though sometimes beating an enemy to death with their broken wing is also fun.

Back on the star map, battles will attract other captains looking for salvage. Take your new parts and run. Upgrade, repair, and prepare to fight another day, for darker threats are about to emerge.

Key Features:

1) ... Two hundred persistent Captains that are able to do everything the player can, including forming dynamic factions, building structures, controlling territory, and going to War.
2) ... A true living galaxy that is not player centric. It will develop differently each game through the interactions of the agents.
3) ... Build your own faction from nothing.
4) ... Randomly generated modular parts. Build the mothership that suits your play style, on the fly, in seconds. Every part has its own unique stats that contribute to the mothership. Every part has its own hull integrity and damage states. Every part is a real, working, ship component.
5) ... Strategic ship building. The mass, location and shape of parts all matter. If a part blocks a turret, it will not fire. If a ship is too long, it will turn slowly. Too many engines will mean too little power for weapons. Every design choice counts.
6) ... A fully physics based 3d environment where everything is destructible, takes damage from impacts, can be grabbed and even thrown at enemies with the tractor beam.
7) ... Natural movement and controls. Movement is on a 2d plane and screen relative, much like an FPS. The combat feels like huge pirate ships battling on an ocean. Focus on tactical positioning and manage system power to unleash hell at the right moment.
8) ... Epic ship to ship battles. Tear the enemy apart piece by piece over minutes, instead of seconds.

You can actually get The Renegades of Orion 2.0 via the Otakumaker Bundle 17 at the moment, which is available HERE till 26th October next month. Also included in the bundle are five other games:

Pills4Skills
The Grandfather
The Lady
Volstead
Alien Run

The total cost of the bundle is less than the cost of The Renegades of Orion 2.0 at only $1.49 whereas on Steam the game is $1.99 pl;us you get the other games. If you are into giving games as presents to friends and family, Otakumaker have some very generous offers. You can get two keys for each game for an additional $0.50 and 5 keys for an additional $1.50 and 10 keys for each game for an additional $3.50.

I'll be giving away a lot of games once the review site that Whizzy (giveaway name) Mavadelo (Steam name) has created for me is ready. So such deals are perfect for me. I've already been purchasing bundles from this site, but only recently started to get 5 or 10 bundles. I have over 10 000 spare Steam keys, so it's going to take a long time to give them away. :)

Renegades of Orion 2.0

You can check out Renegades of Orion 2.0 via the Steam store by copy and pasting the following link into your browser. Clicking on hyperlinks now only take you to the home page even though the address is correct for the games page:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/434780/

A long time ago in another dimension called the astral plane, began a great battle. The battle was between Forces of Light against Renegades of Orion.

The Black Magicians and Reptile Creatures. They fight to be the kingdom of Earth. During this battle there was a transfer of consciousness of a fighter who had the most power of cosmic light. He's called Shen!

With intention to join the troops of Orion and to fight the renegades. Take the divine crystal to raise its power. If you falter the devil catches you!

In the new version The Renegades of Orion 2.0, Now there is a crystal (Divine crystal) which guarantees more power. He appears randomly.

There are more demons, some totally take your power. Other makes you go back to the beginning of the stage or even before that.

The dynamics to remain free of these demons and gain power through the crystal to make sure you skip the level.

"Another good detail of the game! Enemies and obstacles (except bosses) always arise from random and unpredictable in every time you play."

Here are some more Shmups and other related shooters that are on sale over on Steam until the 3rd October. I'll be leaving these up even when the sales end as they are related to this post. I may consolidate the whole thread once I've added the shmups released over the last several years. At least those available on PC.

For some reason, linking directly to the Steam page from these forums no longer works, so I've had to remove the codes that allowed you to click on the name of the game. instead I've had to post the direct links, but clicking on these will only take you to the sales page and not the actual game. To do that you will have to copy and paste each link into your browser to see the Steam page. The giveaway site have added something to the forums that won't allow direct links, but only to the home page.

I will see if I can find an alternative method when I have time.

Shmup Love Boom - 70% off £0.59
http://store.steampowered.com/app/387110/

Renegades of Orion 2.0 - £1.59
http://store.steampowered.com/app/434780/

Void - £3.99
http://store.steampowered.com/app/503710/

1917 - The Alien Invasion - £3.99
http://store.steampowered.com/app/470060/

War Birds: WW2 Air strike 1942 - £1.39 (50% off till 3rd Oct)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/451670

Bladestar - £2.44 (65% off till 3rd Oct)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/424760/

Infinity Wings - Scout & Grunt - £0.99 (50% off till 3rd Oct)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/448790/

Freespace 2 - £3.49 (50% off till 3rd Oct)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/273620

Uriel's Chasm 2: את - £0.99 (75% off till 3rd Oct)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/414580

Zotrix - £2.49 (75% off till 3rd Oct)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/343280/

Zotrix - Solar Division - £6.99 (Tower Defense in space)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/351720/

CDF Starfighter VR - £8.49 (15% off till 3rd Oct)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/433190/

Naval War: Arctic Circle - £3.74 (75% off till 3rd Oct)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/200050/

Fair Strike - £0.69 (75% off till 3rd Oct)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/352120/

Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War - £3.35 (30% off till 3rd Oct)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/273600/

Space Codex - £0.39 (51% off till 3rd Oct)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/469890/

LUFTRAUSERS - £1.74 (75% off till 3rd Oct)
http://store.steampowered.com/app/233150/

Hi Delenn, yeah, sadly Scubaguy passed away some years ago (not sure if you knew), though I don't know what happened to Lockett or Webmaster?

I so miss Lockett, webmaster and, especially, Scubaguy. ;(

P.S. See, StrayCat, it worked. Thanks!

It's about time I started to update this thread; especially considering Shmups are still one of my favorite arcade genres.

Just found the following bundle called Fall Gamebundle, that includes 3 space based games two of them shmups and one strategy game. They are Battlestorm, The Fleets of Sol and Astrokill. You can pick all three up for a little over $3.50. I've added a few more space oriented games to the Shmups thread, all from bundles that are live at this time.I've only checked the indie Gala and Game Bundle sites so far. There are at least 60 bundles live at the moment. most bundles retails for much less than $5, so you may find some excellent shmups if you check through the indie bundles that I've linked to in the Weekly round up of games thread over in the Game discussion sticky section. The three space games are worth more than that the cost of the whole bundle alone, in fact, the cheapest of those three games Battlestorm costs more if you buy it directly from Steam. All games come with Steam keys. You can find the deal HERE.

The following are several other space oriented games you'll find in one of the several Indie Gala bundles that are available at this time. You'll find Indie Gala
Idie Gala Prime Bundle includes Nightork Adventures - Beyond the Moons of Shadalee - Pilot your spaceship through procedurally generated dungeons Fight against evil demons, to save the galaxy in 30 missions, or IACTURA - It is your job to save the planet from its decay. Only you can prevent an extraterrestrial species from taking over all of humankind. G Prime - a gravity gripping steampunk slingshot simulator. Space Ranger ASK - a classic arcade shoot'em up game, featuring asteroid blasting, spacemen rescues, UFO destruction, asteroid mining and Boss fights! Two excellent real time space battles waged with waves of fighters and massive battleships are available in the form of Haegemonia: Legions of Iron and it's stand-alone expansion Haegemonia: The Solon Heritage are available via the Anuman Interactive bundle and you'll find even more space oriented games in the The Indie Gala Mogul bundle for example RX Squad a side scrolling smup (ground based). You can find the Indie Gala bundles HERE

There's another bundle on the Game bundle site that is soon to end called The LaborDay Bundle that also has a decent Shmup called Nordenfelt, which you can find HERE and see on Steam HERE. The usual cost of that game is £5.99/$8.99 but you can get it and nine other games for $3.73 (approx £2.88)

AStrokill

Battlestorm

Fleets of Sol

Haegemonia: Legions of Iron

Haegemonia: The Solon Heritage

bringing this to the front page due to a brreakout being given away on sunday 21st august 2016

I've been reinstalling every week, but still show Sprill. I probably need to delete all the registry entries and start again. I'm not bothered about this months though. I 'm sure I beta tested it, so will probably have a key somewhere (If I've not given it away. I gave quite a lot of my Alawar games away a few years ago.

Alawar finally updated the Free Game of the month for this month (but I admit that I hadn't checked for a week or so).

It's Sunshine Acres (Time Management).

I had to play the game with the config files AND the temp files AND run the Gamebox Updater to get it to change.

I have no idea why some people cannot see some of the files I see, and even more so, why it doesn't update itself monthly like it's supposed to do!

I tried that AAUpdater and got no error. Maybe there's an error in your install. However, after doing that the free game was empty. I finally played my game (described previously) to change the conf.xml file in the Gamebox folder and got a new game I haven't seen before - Fashion Craze. I think it's Time Management so I will skip it but at least I found it.

Fashion Craze is available 24/7 from Jenkat Games and MyPlayCity. Jenkat installs to 2 places in Program Files (x86) and MyPlayCity also installs to Program Files. Jenkat does no hijacking, though.

As for the other issue - my link to the gamebox on the site still works. It's the old format so it appears that they are phasing it out. The link is here: http://www.alawar.com/item/alawar-game-box/

It would be a shame to lose the gamebox because installs from the site do not allow you any choice as to where to put the game. It assumes Program Files (x86)\Alawar -- ignore the (x86) if you are running 32 bit. However, if you can download and install through the Gamebox, you can specify where to put the download file and where to put the final installation.

There's a funny little trick that works for SOME games but not all. If you cannot download and install through Gamebox (cannot find it listed), you MIGHT be able to get Gamebox to control the location of the installation by doing this:

1 - Download the game installer

2 - Move the installer to wherever you have specified in your Gamebox options for the downloads to be placed.

3 - Load Gamebox

4 - Look for the new game in your list of game.

5 - If you find it, click on "Play" and it will install it where you have told Gamebox to install games.

If it's not there, this trick won't work. I have no idea why it works in some cases but not others. I found it by accident when I was transitioning to a new computer a few months ago.

I think I found out why my gamebox isn't updating but I still don't understand it.

In the folder there's an entry named AAUpdater. When I doubleclicked it, a text file appeared in the folder. The file says:

info:Updater started (should be written on exe path)
ERROR:LastErr:Can not create file "exe_path.txt"(The system cannot find the file specified.)
debug:exe_path.txt not found

Because I don't understand this sort of thing, I made a blank txt file and named it exe_path.txt but got the same message.

Walthomas, I tried the link which worked for me last month but that one is gone too. It looks to me like they might be trying to phase it out and so doesn't update. Actually, this doesn't really make sense because it updates for some people and not for others so I have no idea.