I have the game Halloween Chronicles: Evil Behind a Mask from Steam. (It is a Big Fish game.) I went to play it today and it would not open. Norton quarantined two different things and removed the .exe I guess.

These are the two Norton problems. The first one I know is sometimes a false positive but still worries me and the second one worries me more. I uninstalled the game and reinstalled it to see if there was any change but there is not.

Heur.AdvML.C

Trojan.Gen.9

What do you think?

I feel confident in saying that these are both false positives.

I actually found a developer on Steam (this was for a different game) who posted this when someone asked about their having gotten a Trojan.Gen.9 message when downloading their game:

When I looked up Trojan.Gen.9, it said it was a virus. I would definitely contact Big Fish. Can't imagine what a file like that would be doing lurking in a Big Fish game.

I don't know... if it's a false positive, why is it called that name? Does Norton just assign a fake name to something? This is one of the reasons I don't use Norton! FAR too many false positives.

I'm sure it's all OK, oldbroad, but I'm with you... a little nervous about that one.

Oldbroad got the game from Steam, not Big Fish.

You could always write to Domini if you are still unsure. They are good about answering their emails, in my experience. I could give you their email address for technical support/queries. You could also write to Steam.

Here are two threads for two different games from Steam where Norton issued this same false positive:

Steam Thread #1

Steam Thread #2

Thank you.

Norton doesn't give me many false positives and I would rather that, than just get a virus.

Marian, I'll take that Domini info and see what happens. Maybe I will try contacting Steam also.

If it was only that Heur thing I would ignore it, but as I've said before, why bother having an antivirus program if I'm just going to ignore everything it points at.

Yeah, I just read the "This is a Big Fish Game" in parenthesis!

I have downloaded and played this game before, but my download was from Big Fish. I had no issues with it.

Here is the page where you can write to Domini:

Contact Domini

Just click on where it says "open a new ticket."

According to my son, he has never heard of a virus being present in a Steam game, ever, but I do understand your caution. These messages can be scary. You can also write to Steam about it if you want, although Steam has a page here discussing this topic of "antivirus software reports Steam games are malicious."

I had an antivirus years ago called AVG - it was like Norton in that it just had too many false positives. I remember trying to install So Blonde from my CD and it kept quarantining the exe file. I finally got rid of AVG and got a different antivirus, having decided that life was stressful enough without adding to it in this manner - and I have never once regretted making the switch.

Thanks. I opened a ticket with Domini and looked into Steam Help but did not contact them. Being a Steam and Big Fish game I'm leaning towards trusting it but will try to wait to see what Domini says.

The problem is, how can you be sure it is a false positive? I'm not talking about just this game right now; I'm talking about any of the times a warning like that might pop up.

Well, this is all making me feel a little better about this thing! I also got rid of AVG and Norton because of too many false positives. Plus both were resource hogs, although I think Norton is better now. I switched a long time ago and haven't regretted it for an instant. Haven't had a virus or any other kind of malware in over 20 years.

I've never had any viruses that I know of either and have always used Norton.

Just want to say I'm with oldbroad as regards Norton in that I would rather have a false positive than a virus.
Plus the false positives I HAVE had from them over the last 30 years could be counted on one hand.
I have used Norton on every computer I've ever had and never had a virus on ANY of them - and I think the days of possible resource hogging are many years in the past.

I agree, Mad. I thought the resource hogging was taken care of. In my opinion, you should use whatever makes you comfortable. I don't use Norton and have also never had a virus, so being virus free is not specific to Norton. It still ranks very highly along with Bitdefender and Webroot. I use what Jenny100 - gads, I miss her! - always recommended... a combination of the built-in Defender in Windows and Malwarebytes Pro. A good friend uses Webroot and has also never had a virus in over 20 years. I always says the BEST anti-virus is that person sitting in front of the keyboard!

So true!

And I miss Jenny every single day.

Oh, I am in no way claiming being virus free is specific to Norton, Draclvr.
But I do think Norton deserves a shout

And I believe the behaviour of the person operating the computer is an absolutely crucial element when it comes to not picking up a virus or malware or whatever.

(Although I am probably manically over cautious in that respect, truth be told !! )

Better over cautious than sorry, right? Shout out to ALL the effective anti-virus programs out there that help keep us safe!

And remember, if Norton, AVG, Avast, Kaspersky, etc., give a potential false positive, please, Please write to your Anti Virus software company with the Attached potential false positive to let them know about this, all Good Companies will get back to you after revising this false positive and let you know if this indeed if this is a Virus, if Not, you will give them a chance to fix it in their Database.

I know Kaspersky will do this because I used KIS in the past for a long time and I am a member of the K. forum and they do respond fairly quickly to these situations, and I imagine Norton and others would do so.

Thanks for your response Starcom. I actually thought I did this (report to Norton) and open a ticket with Domini, but apparently I didn't manage to do either correctly.

I think I will just play a different game for now and try this one again in the future some time.

Good advice, Starcom. But from what I've read on some of the tech forums I hang out at, Norton doesn't do anything about these. Still doesn't hurt to report them.

Tonight I started conducting an experiment. I downloaded several Big Fish (publisher) games and listed them along with some others I have already played that I know worked fine. So far on the list, I have 12 games, 5 of which I've played. Three others work fine and have 3 different developers.

The four games giving me problems are all developed by Domini games. Two of them have the Norton problem as listed prior and the other 2 play but without any video. There is sound and a cursor but they have a black screen.

I guess I will try to check all the Domini games to see what I find and then try emailing them again. At this point, it seems to be a problem with them. This may take awhile.

The Norton warnings would probably happen on both your Windows 7 and Windows 10 computers, but I am wondering if you have tried the Domini games on both operating systems otherwise? I would like to know if you have the no-video problem on both of them. And I assume you had never tried downloading and installing these Domini games before?

I have had no issues whatsoever with Domini games and I have most or all of them. This is on both Windows 7 and Windows 10.

I'm glad Marian raised the question about them playing on your Windows 7 computer too.

No, I have not yet tried them on Windows 7 since I just had this brilliant idea late yesterday. I am sure Norton would still be a problem; don't know about the video thing. I'll check it out though.

I'm quite sure I must have played Domini games before as I also have most or all of them. I just don't know if I've played any of them through Steam. That's part of what I want to try to figure out and why this is going to take awhile.

So, I have tried a few more Domini games and have another one with the Norton disapproval and another couple with no video, even the ones from Big Fish. The ones with no video that I have tested on Windows 7 DO work there.

Is there something in my Windows 10 system that might be preventing some game video playing, and if so where do I find it? I have not run into this problem yet with other games though (only Domini) but will have to test some other games out now to be more sure about that.

I hope I am not going to have to stop purchasing Domini games as they are about the only casual developer left it seems.

Yes, I had a feeling that the no-video-problem games would work on Windows 7. I am not sure why Windows 10 is not playing nice with them - maybe there's some recent Windows update that messed something up. That is just a wild guess, though. If it is something like that, I imagine a fix from Domini would be forthcoming as you would not be the only one experiencing this. Again, this is something you could write to them about.

I agree with contacting Domini especially since you have already done a lot of research.

Thanks Marian and Draclvr. This type of research is when I don't like my slow download speed. Also, having to try to look up the developer, etc. The Domini site only shows 71 games but there are many more that are not listed there as far as I can tell. On my Windows 10 I only found 1 Domini game that I played before and that one still works fine. Actually, there is another one but I didn't try that one as it is showing an update is available and I don't feel like updating.

I did try to open another ticket with Domini just prior to this posting. I'll see what happens. I have not created an account and signed in there but it doesn't appear that you have to, but maybe that's why I didn't get a "ticket" last time. I did not get one this time either but it says "support ticket request created".

I was wondering if my video drivers may be too new for their games or something? They are up to date and were updated a couple of weeks ago. I would not try to roll them back though for Domini!

I never created an account with Domini when I wrote to their support team and I did hear back from them in a timely manner.

I forget - what video card do you have in that Windows 10 computer?

AMD Radeon RX 5700.

Good to know Marian. I do hope I'll hear back from them this time. I thought maybe I did something wrong last time.

That's a good card, but not super top of the line, so I don't think it should be causing your problems. But be sure to mention your video card.

My video card is quite low-end now and it runs the Domini games just fine.

What I was getting at Marian was that sometimes updating drivers messes things up. I don't know why it would only mess up Domini games though.

I had already contacted Domini Drac, so I can't mention the video card now unless they get back to me.

Yes, I knew what you meant. It seems unlikely that a video driver update would mess up your Domini games; I agree.

Three more Domini games bought at Big Fish that have no video in my Windows 10 computer.

Still no response from Domini, including no Ticket number to check on.

Isn't there somewhere in my Windows 10 computer or Video Card that I can look that might be causing this problem? Although, it does seem to be only Domini games at this point.

I am quite disappointed and will not be purchasing any Domini games for awhile.

That is odd to me that you haven't heard back from them. As I said before, I had no problems getting a pretty prompt reply. When I did it, though, there was no mention of getting a ticket either.

I realize that it is a problem that needs solving, but I am not understanding why playing them on Windows 7 is not an option?

I can play them in Windows 7 Marian but for several reasons it is not a GOOD option.

1) I try not to be online on Windows 7 too much (downloading).

2) My Windows 7 computer won't last forever (and Best Buy won't touch a Windows 7).

3) You know I have over 1,000 casual games and just cannot get to all of them in a timely manner. Yes, I suppose I can try to figure out which of those 1,000 games is Domini and then try to play them all before playing other games but I don't choose to play that way. (The Domini site only lists 71 games as I mentioned before, but there are many more that are not mentioned. Do you happen to know of a complete list somewhere?)

I have no idea! I can try doing a web search, but not sure that it won't come up with that same 71. I wonder of some of those games are no longer sold or something?

They are still being sold Draclvr. For instance, there are 5 Fairy Godmother Stories games which are all Domini (according to Big Fish) but I see only 2 of those listed on the Domini site (under Windows).

Here is a complete list.

I see the Fairygodmother games listed there. Is this is the list you found on the Domini website, oldbroad?

The Domini website does not list everything on the list that I linked to.

Strange...

I have noticed in the past that some of these casual game developers do not necessarily list on their website all of the games they have ever developed, particularly if there are a heck of a lot of them such as Domini.

Thank you.

From that list, I have all but 11 of the games, with 6 of them being on my "to buy" list). I have only played 3 of them, 1 in 2019 in Win 7 and 2 in 2020 in Win 10 (and they still work). Most of the rest of them have not been downloaded and tested but of the ones that were 3 show Trojans and 10 have no video in Win 10.

I will have to download some more games from some other developers to see if they work in Win 10 or not. Possibly it is just a Win 10 problem though nobody in the Casual forum seems to be having problems (which would indicate my computer if I have problems).

Marian (or anybody), maybe you can tell me some games you've recently downloaded to Win 10 that work so I can test those out on my Win 10? And your version of Win 10.

Are you specifically talking about downloading from Big Fish? I have probably downloaded at least a dozen or more in the last month - both new and old games. All work perfectly on my Windows 10 computer.

Could your Norton be blocking the video in that one game too? Just grabbing at straws here!

No, I don't believe Norton has anything to do with this problem.

I know I recently played the 2 Legendary Tales games, Mystery Case Files: The Revenant's Hunt, Halloween Stories: Horror Movie, and 2 Living Legends games on Windows 10 with no problem, so I guess that might be enough to know it's not Windows 10. I was just thinking that I could try a game that I know somebody else tried.

Hmm, let's see. I think the last Domini game that I played on Windows 10 was Spirit Legends: The Aeon Heart CE. As you know, I have never gotten a virus or malware message from any game of Domini's and all were downloaded from Big Fish. Also downloaded and played on the Windows 10 was the Haunted Hotel: The Past Redeemed CE. If I can remember any others, I will add to this post.

My version of Windows 10 is 10.0, build #19042, Windows 10 Home 64 bit.

My son suggested that with your Domini games with a black screen and no video, have you tried hitting alt + enter while on the black screen to put it into windowed mode? He is curious to know if you still get a black screen and no video then. Just a little troubleshooting suggestion.

Thanks for the suggestion Marian. I just tried the 3 games I downloaded yesterday and they still have a black screen in windowed mode.

My version is 21H1, build 19043.1237.

Yes, my 3 games with the virus notice are from Steam. I don't really want to purchase the games on Big Fish just to see what they show though. Not at this time anyway since I have the video problem also.

I will try to download those 2 games to see.

Edit: I am currently downloading Spirit Legends: The Aeon Heart. When it is finished and I see if it plays or not, I will shut Norton off for a bit and try one of the games to see if the video works. If the video works with Norton off, I would still consider it a Domini problem though as other games work.

Thanks for trying windowed mode.

I don't understand why you aren't getting a response from Domini either. That stinks.

I do wish we could get to the bottom of this. This sort of thing would bother me a lot until I figured it out.

Okay. finished downloading Spirit Legends. No video. Disabled Norton auto-protect, still no video. Also tried one of the games I had windowed without the Norton and still no video.

I think I give up. Maybe it will right itself in the future some time. Meanwhile, my list of Domini games to purchase will grow as I don't want to add any more games to my already own list if they won't run right.

That was pretty much what I expected to happen. I'm at a loss to know what the issue is. Hopefully Domini was respond some day.

I lied. I tried one more game - an older game - Mystery Tales 1: The Lost Hope (apt title). It works!!!

Yay!

That was the very first Collector's Edition that Domini released.

That game was from Big Fish. The most recent game of that series, Master of Puppets, I bought from Steam and it has no video. Someday I'll download the rest of the games in the series and maybe I can pinpoint it to a specific time frame, not that that will help me.


Edit: The 2nd to the last game Til Death (bought from Steam) gives me a Malwarebytes quarantine: Malware.Heuristics.1003 (just as in the link below - same game). This appears to be a false positive from several things I read. The solution is supposed to be to turn off "Use expert system algorithms to identify malicious files”. That is already off in my Malwarebytes program so I can't do that. ??

https://forums.malwarebytes.com/topic/277099-false-positive-on-game-file-malwareheuristic1003/

Just wondering, did you see my edit above regarding the malwarebytes quarantine?

I know you are getting tired of me posting about this but it's making me crazy. I really, really do think I'm about done now. Here's what I've found out.

Thirteen games I downloaded that came out between 2014 and 2018 all work fine in Windows 10.

Eighteen games I downloaded that came out between 2019 and 2021 - NONE of them have video in Windows 10 (well, at least not the 14 that didn't get quarantined anyway).

So, what does that tell you? What changed with the games that affects my computer but nobody else's? I guess I am The Chosen!

Hi oldbroad, regarding your statement:
You could just download the Free Trial version(s) of the games in question to see if they work on your computer, maybe see if it is a problem with Steam or not. Just a suggestion and best of luck getting your games to work.

Thanks Starcom. I had thought of that but actually since those 4 games all fall under the years that don't work on my Windows 10, I don't really want to bother with that either. Since these are all Domini games and I haven't had any problem so far with other developers games, I believe it is Domini, not Steam (or a Domini/Steam combo anyway). That one with the Malwarebytes, I have from Steam, but the poster in the forum there was a BF customer service rep as far as i could tell.

It could be that the version of your video card drivers does not work well with the way that Domini programmed certain games.

Domini should be informed about your issue. I am tempted to write to them about something, anything, to see if get a response.

Yeah. I've mentioned the video card before. It is a card that just came out in July 2019, the same year the Domini games stop working.

Do you happen to have Mystery Tales: Til Death? If so, would you be willing to install it on your Windows 10 to see if Malwarebytes quarantines it? This one I'm not really afraid to bypass as I see it addressed in their forum with a BF CS person but I'm just curious. The reason Malwarebytes gives for that happening doesn't seem to pertain to me. Though, the game being from 2020 I will have to try it in Win 7 anyway. Maybe Malwarebytes won't quarantine it there.

Sure, I can install Mystery Tales: Til Death. I have never had Malwarebytes quarantine anything that I have downloaded from Big Fish, but I don't mind doing it nevertheless. I have installed this game on my Windows 7 before with no issues. Will edit this post after I have installed it on my Windows 10.

Okay, I installed it on the Windows 10 computer with no problems.

Thank you so much Marian for going the extra mile for me!

Glad to try to help.

Steam has 3 of the Domini games I don't have on sale. Two for $4.49 and one for $6.29 (CE's) but I'm afraid to buy them .

I understand, oldbroad. I know I would buy them anyway if I knew that one of my computers would run them, but you have already explained your reservations about that.

It's just that I like to play the game series in order and since I haven't even started most of these series ...

Also, still worried about the Norton messages - afraid I'll get more and still afraid to ignore the ones I already got.

But, that being said, I'm still undecided about buying them!

And I just finished playing Halloween Chronicles, Behind the Doors which is a Domini game.

Yeah, Steam has that one but it's not on sale - too new.

Just to update this. One of the games that I bought from Steam that Norton had a problem with is The Christmas Spirit: Grimm Tales. I took a chance and re-bought the game from Big Fish during a BOGO sale and it installed and is working in my Windows 7. The other Domini game I bought in that sale was the first Twin Mind game (because I already had the second one and like to have the series). I did look in Norton history after installing both of these games and while they downloaded there were a whole bunch of "unauthorized access blocked" messages regarding Program files X86 Raptr - Action unspecified (59) (something like that). I did Google to learn something about this, so I am not asking for any help; just adding an update here.

Unauthorized access blocked

This is probably pretty much the same thing that you read, but I am posting it just in case. The first reply to the question is what is pertinent.

Thanks Marian. What I Googled had to do with the Raptr part.