Hi friends,

Please - if you have any problems with the other forum - contact them privately or use their forums - which ever is applicable. Thank you.

Passing this along from Retrobabble on the Technical Talk forum:

Finally, here's my solution that ended up working. (This is after two weeks of "not enough storage, Internet Explorer script issues", etc.) I removed the current Internet Explorer on my computer and installed the latest version (IE8). Deleted cache and temp files. Rebooted. Didn't work. Second reboot did.

Thanks to Jessica at BFG who mentioned that the game manager was tied into Internet Explorer. I'd been playing in Firefox and assuming that the manager worked from it.


Edited on 02/27/2011 at 11:15:17 AM PST

I'm a bit confused here. I have used Firefox for a couple of years and the game manager has always worked for me.....even the new version. How is it that it is supposedly tied to IE?

You'll have to ask BFG. It wouldn't be the first time a third party application made use of IE services.

(I don't use IE either, but the IE code resides on Windows systems whether or not it's ever used for bringing up the IE browser.)

Now this is indeed strange because I only ever use IE for reading the news in the mornings - I always always use Firefox for everything else.

But for the last 3 days I have not checked out the news and therefore not run IE at all...... and what do you know.....the Games Manager seems to be behaving itself again.......... Coincidence or what??

Big Fish really should make their Game Manager so it does not depend on other Microsoft apps (or parts of Windows) that may be different between Windows computers. Otherwise they can't test the Game Manager properly. They'd have to test it on every one of their customers' computers to be sure it would work -- something they obviously aren't going to do.

The app under discussion here is IE 8, which installs on everything from XP to 7. (To be precise, it installs over the version of IE (6 or 7) that is already there. Microsoft has made IE part of Windows. Even if you are not using it, it is always there.)

Much as I dislike IE, having it in place as part of Game Manager doesn't seem like so much to ask.

Of course, if I were still running 98, it would be a different story.

But having a particular version of IE is different from simply having IE. Every version of Windows has IE of some sort. Why should the Big Fish Game Manager be so reliant on using a particular version of IE. Besides IE8 there have been suggestions involving reinstall/update of .NET and enabling DCOM server process launcher (which may have been disabled by antivirus as a security feature). Why should the Game Manager have to rely on so many things that may be configured differently on different computers?

I suspect because it's easier for tech support.

It looks like Big Fish is trying to establish, as much as it is possible on four different flavors of Windows (2000, XP, Vista, 7), a common platform. Same browser, same vintage .NET, same system services.

It would help if Big Fish were explicit about this rather than having customers learn for themselves that something is missing or outdated or turned off.

Of course, informing people that a certain set of software and services is necessary for the games to work properly takes away from the happy and carefree vibe of the site. ("A new game every day...and don't forget to update .NET!")

I use Firefox as my primary web browser but do have IE7 installed on my computer as well. I haven't had any problems with the new Game Manager, even though I haven't bothered to upgrade to IE8. I'll be doing that pretty soon, though.

An outlier!

Could well be one of those "Though it'll work with 7 for some folks, we would prefer that everyone upgraded to 8" situations.

I downloaded and played Curse of the Ghost Ship with no problems...only to find out Big Fish had taken it off the site because it was too broken to work for most customers.

To be clear, Game Manager works on all XP and later versions of windows and does not reqire any other products. The only time it uses IE is if you go into advanced settings and change to the "Alternate Method" under "network Connection". If you do that, it uses IE's network protocals instead of the standard ones that come within Game Manager. If you do this, it works with any version of IE 6,7, or 8 but sometimes 8 works the best.

So no other software is required for it to work and there are no outstanding issues with the current version of Game Manager. If you are having issues, Tier 2 tech support at BFG can solve your issue.

Hope that helps.

Paul

And what if we dont ever use I.E. Paul? It works the same for Firefox?

I've had no issues with the new Game Manager and I've always found BFG to be helpful when I have had problems with their games.
But I have been apalled at the lack of information on BFG site regarding the Game Manager problem which has affected so many people. Why do we have to have BFG-Guy posting this helpful information on this thread on this website (but very many thanks to you BFG-Guy for doing so)?
What about all the people who don't know about Gameboomers but buy their games from Big Fish?
In my opinion BFG made the classic error that so many organisations make when a problem arises - they clam up, first of all being in denial that there is a problem, then keeping everything so low key that no-one knows what the heck is happening and if things have been fixed or not.
Bad handling for such a (usually) smart organisation.

Please keep this in mind...



Please and thank you....

Thanks for stopping by BFG-Guy! We appreciate the info.

Ana

No. The network protocols for IE and Firefox are different.

That said, doesn't matter if you never use IE because, use it or not, IE is part of Windows.

If you go into Advanced Settings and use the "Alternative Method" under "Network Connection," you're using IE's network protocols. You won't see the IE browser come up, but you are using IE's network plumbing.

Make sense?

Not really, MrLipid

Sorry, Ana, for posting here again - I have now PM'd BFG-Guy

Sorry Boobie, it was not directed to you. It was in regards to comments complaining about BFG Forums. Complaints regarding other forums should be directed to that forum. We appreciate the same courtesy from other forums.

Ana

I do keep the BFG Manager in the same file in case I need to use it. However, I found from another of your posts, that I actually AM using the BFG manager, just not directly. Clicking on the game icon also starts the GM. I had to select the option to not show the Manager when I close a game, so that should have been a clue to me - just never picked up on it!

Whenever I download a new game or a demo, the GM and More Games icon are downloaded - again. I just delete the duplicates and keep one.

New Game Managers coming at Big Fish. Scheduled to go live at 2 PM PST.

PC: (version 2.0.1.43)

Mac: (version 2.1.0.11)

Drop over to the Technical Talk forum and look for the announcement near the end of Have Any Questions Regarding the Game Manager?

That is all.

I just updated to the newest version of the Game Manager.

This new one doesn't work with my XP computer either. Still gives the same kernel32 errors when I try to start up a game from the Big Fish shortcuts or when I try to start up the Big Fish Game Manager directly:

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/1554/err2b.jpg
http://img638.imageshack.us/img638/715/erof.jpg

The games I've already installed work if I play them directly from the game exes, but I can't install any new ones.

I wish they'd go back to the old Game Manager. That one worked fine. The new one doesn't seem to work with XP SP1 or earlier versions of Windows.

What if you updated to SP2?

Gil.

I'd loose easy install of all my old Windows 2000 and XP adventure games -- stick the CD in the drive and let it do whatever it wants. I don't enjoy having to tweak 5 different things to get my old games working any any more than anyone else. Having easy install of my old adventure games is worth more to me than playing new Big Fish games.

The most annoying thing is that the Big Fish games themselves play fine. I just can't play new ones without a functional game manager. I have no idea why the kernel difference between XP SP1 and SP2 would matter to the Game Manager.

There's your answer then.