Portable games from Big Fish

Now how did I miss this? It must be new...you can put select BFG on a U3 smartdrive (usb drive) and take your games with you...now I can play at work during lunch without having to download anything on my work computer...if I'm understanding this correctly...whoohoo

Here's a link BIg Fish Portable Games

BFG Guy...how come you didn't tell us about this?

oh yeah...it looks like you can use club credits too!

edit: here's a link to Gamezebo article

That's very cool Phantom, thanks for the headsup!

Ana

Sorry -
Did not know how interesting this would be. To get these games you need a U3 compliant USB "thumb" drive. You can install them to the thumb drive and play them on any computer you plug the thumb drive into.

I'm a gadget geek...so I love all that techy stuff...I went to walmart after work, picked up a 8 gb sandisk drive and am heading to bfg now...

I checked them out on Best Buy's website. Mothers Day is around the corner.

I have been doing this for some time to make room on my hard disk for the "long" games that take more space. It's very handy and no trouble playing from the flash drive.

I believe this is different by not requiring any part of the game on the hard drive of the computer Adorable.

Ana

yep...when you install one of these not a single file or registry setting is touched on the computer...when you remove the flash drive, your computer is EXACTLY as it was before you installed the game.
If you do this with normal games, they set registry settings and other things on Windows.

Sandisk is a HUGE company and this was a big deal for BFG and them. Most Sandisk thumb drives will come with a few free BFG games already on them and they sell 100's of millions of these drives a year.

That's quite the partnership with Sandisk! Congrats!

To clarify, only the ones offered on the sandisk subdomain of BFG (sandisk.bigfishgames.com) will work as a truly portable game on the U3 drives, correct?

correct!

Where can I find these sandisk thingies in Canada, any idea?

jldcat, you can get it direct from Sandisk here or find a retailer that carries a U3 enabled disk by you.

Ana

jldcat, I just checked futureshop.ca and bestbuy.ca. They have them at bestbuy.ca but not futureshop.ca (yet).

I'm a former Ontarian, born and raised (only left about a year ago) and waving to you and your snowy wonderland.

I just got a U3 drive and of course I didn't do a great deal of research as I didn't realize there were only a few games that would work with the U3. I just figured all the games would work....darn. Oh well, now that I have it I'll just have to use it.

Now, how do I use it? I've never used one before so am completely clueless. I got the Sandisk Cruzer Titanium USB Flash Drive, 4GB.

On BFG there is a game that says "free U3 game" now do I download the demo onto the drive and then when I activate it, it won't cost me anything?

Jldcat, I'm not sure if a U3 drive is the exact same thing as an external hard drive or a normal flash drive.

If so, then it works just like the drives inside your computer. You download or install to it, and then you run your game (or work on a document, listen to music) ect from that drive.

You just plug that drive into your computer, and operate from there. The big thing about the BFG games that run on the U3 is that nothing will be installed to the computer--everything stays on the U3, so you could play games on your lunch hour at work without having to worry about non work files being on your work computer.

If you download a games specified as a U3 game to your flash drive, then when you install and run it--all to the flash drive of course, you will have the same 60 minute demo time as you usually do.

and have fun.

there are almost 100 games at BFG sandisk site .
They work as people describe above. They do not work wit hanything other than U3 drives (U3 is a technical standard) and the USB drives will say "U3" on the packaging.

You install games on them just like you would to your hard drive, but they leave your computer hard drive untouched, so when you unplug them you can plug them in any computer and continue playing and the original computer has not remnant that the game was ever installed.

What about the games on the site that are labeled free? I believe there are 4 of them. Do I just download them to the U3 drive and then click to activate and they will activate without taking a credit or asking me to buy a credit?

Also, will there be more games coming available that will utilize the U3?

jld, help me out here. I don't see any games labeled Free. Where exactly are they? Can you link me there please?

Hi looney4labs,

The link is in the first post of this thread. It will take you to the main screen showing some of the games for the U3 drive.

If you go to "all games in the U3 pull down, the free games are the ones with the little green fishy guy beside them. There's an MCF, Atlantis etc all free.

I have a question though for BFG-Guy if he comes back on.

I own Escape from Paradise already so I downloaded it from the U3 game list.(I clicked on "download the demo", I want to activate it so I can play it from the U3 but it is asking me for a license name and activation code and I don't know what they are looking for.

jldcat, I do believe you will need to repurchase the games if you want that version. It is a bit like buying a Pc game and then buying the console version. It is a whole different thing.

Ana

So I have to re-buy a game I already own just to be able to play it off the USB? That doesn't sound fair does it? I understand what you mean about a pc game and console game but in this case aren't they the same thing? I think I'm a bit confused.

Not the same at all. It isn't a regular flash drive you are talking about, you are talking about a whole different programming that goes into these to make it work without downloading anything on your hard drive. It is a different version that is why it has it's own section.

Ana

Jld, I think it's because the games are a different version so that it doesn't put anything on your hard drive.

Thanks, I see the fish now. Thanks. I would looking for a big "Free games" banner.

My assumption would be since they say "free" that they are.

I think I see what you mean. I guess because I didn't see anything in the threads about having to re-purchase the games I didn't think you would have too.

I deffinately wouldn't have spent $60 buying the U3 drive knowing that. Oh well, buyer beware I guess.

jld, try one of the free games.

You can use a flash drive for any thing--I back up documents etc to mine.

Yes a flash drive is useful but I already have 2 of them with all of my other stuff on them. A 512mb for work stuff and a 2GB for my pictures. The only other thing I do on this computer is play games.

I'm sure it will be of some use eventually. At least now I know that if there is a game I like to check and see if it's U3 compatable first before I buy it.

There you go!

jldcat, do you play on other computers a lot? Is that why you purchased the U3 drive?

Ana

No, I don't play on other computers. I actually bought it thinking I could free up hard drive space. I play on a laptop and only have an 80GB hard drive and with the amount of games I already have on it....well you know..LOL

I mistakenly thought I would be able to download all of the games I had already purchased and then take them off the hard drive. If I had known that I had to re-purchase and that there were only a small number of games I like, I likely wouldn't have bought it. I'd probably have put the money towards an external hard drive instead.

But like I said, buyer beware and eventually I will find something to use it for or maybe give it away or something.

jld, Linda talked some time ago about how she moved her BFG games to an external drive and took them off her hard drive. So if you are just wanting to play them on your computer but free up space, you could do that.

Let me see if I can find that post.

edit: Didn't find that one, but did find one from Adorable.

That would be wonderful looney4labs. It will be a while before I can afford one, I'm on unemployment at the mo, but maybe I could put it on my birthday list...LOL

jld, I'm confused.

All I was saying was to transfer the games you now have to the flash drive you bought and play them from that. That way you would be using that drive you spent money for, and freeing up hard drive space at the same time.

Course, I would try one game first to make sure it worked

Oh sorry, I read your email and only saw "external drive" in the first part...LOL I thought you meant an external hard drive.

I wonder how she can play her games on a flash drive though? I've tried it with my other flash drives and it doesnt work. Man, how confusing is this? It's Friday though so I'm not surprised that my brain left for vacation before I did....HAHA

Well, why don't you try downloading a demo to the flash drive and see if it will play that way? I would think it should, but that's just me thinking

OK, I tried downloading to the flash drive but while it saved the "play my games" icon on the drive, it saved the game to my hard drive.

Maybe what I'll do is email BFG support and see what they have to say. I was kind of hoping BFG-Guy would check back but he's likely too busy.

Sorry jld, I don't know what to tell you, but I think emailing or chatting with live support(next week when they are open again) is your best bet.

If you do, please let us know what they say as it is a topic many folks are interested in.

As requested in the rules, I cannot stress enough the importance of not using this forum to get through to BigFish. Please use the BigFish Support.

BFG-Guy is not here to help guide anyone through support for getting games running etc. He pays a well trained staff to do that for him. I am certain he has a full day and when he does visit here it is not for that. If you enjoy his visits here, make them enjoyable and not a chore. PLEASE contact them directly through the appropriate channels.

Ana

Sorry Ana. I guess I just got carried away. You know how sometimes you just get "into" a conversation. I, by no means, want to make BFG-Guy uncomfortable in any way and this conversation was not meant to slight bigfishgames in any way. He's great for coming here and keeping us updated on things.

I did contact customer support and if it's OK I will post the answer here for anyone else who may have the same problem.

Please do post the answer jldcat, others may run into this problem also.

Sue

I will do that texaslady, thanks!

I heard back from Bigfish support. They asked for a lists of the U3 games I had purchased previously and they will send me the activation codes for them

I think that means that you don't have to re-purchase U3 compatible games which is wonderful!!

-------------------------------------

Ok, after I emailed the games I had purchased I got another email back telling me that they are indeed different versions so 2 games have to be purchased in order to have one on your hard drive and one on the U3.

So, I wouldn't advise spending the money on a U3 unless you don't own the games on the U3 bigfish site.

Here is a link to the help section for the U3 drive.

http://sandisk.bigfishgames.com/help/index.html

That's really good news jld