Lost Chronicles: Salem - New IHOG on BigFish

You can download Lost Chronicles: Salem here.



As always, please remember to come back and tell us what you think.

Happy Gaming,
Ana

Thanks Ana! Salem seems to be a very popular place to visit these days. I've been there in real life. I'm sure it was much more frightening back in the day than it is now.

The developers of this game are from Vast Studios, who also did Nightfall Mysteries: Asylum Conspiracy and Nightfall Mysteries: Curse of the Opera. I'll definitely give the demo a try.

Hi, Becky and Marian!

Becky, you took the words right outta my mouth because I was thinking exactly the same thing as I was watching the video on BFG.

Marian, if it's the same developer, I'm there. Both games you mentioned (especially "Asylum Conspiracy", which I could not drag myself away from) are among the best casual games I've played.

Susan

Just finished the game. That was great. I missed 3 of the animals with my heirloom, but got all the others.

Glad you enjoyed it, Tammy. I've only played about 15 minutes of the game so far but first impressions are favorable.

Tammy, was it as good as the Nightfall Mystery games? You seem to have finished it rather quickly.

thracia

Glad you got to finish it. I hit a huge glitch just after I placed the model buildings. The screen went black, but I could still see the hint button which was still working. The skip button was ready, but wouldn't work. I have now started again with a different profile. A lot of people over at BFG are reporting all sorts of glitches.

Doreen

Ouch, Doreen! Fingers crossed that the second time through will work for you.

Welcome to GB Marian, And I hope second time around works for me too, as it really is a good game--right up my alley.

Doreen

Downloaded fine, began playing, getting into the story, but as the demo progressed, gameplay became more and more sluggish...

Playing this now and I really like it. No problems at all. Great game!

I used a game credit on this game today and so far the game runs well and isn't misbehaving.

I began playing this game yesterday and am loving it! I was distressed this morning to read about the "g" word, however. Hopefully!!! I won't experience any glitches today. Stay tuned.....

I had the same problem as Doreen had. At the Putnam house,study,model town puzzel I placed the buildings in correct slots and then the screen turned black. I can not trigger the hidden object scene to get the key to open the drawer to get the evidence. So close to the end. I'm not going to start ocver under a different profile. I will have to wait for BFG to fix the glitch.

Awww Chick, that's the pits. Here's hoping the developers will get a fix for that soonest.

Has anyone finshed this game?

Chick, I've seen some people on the Big Fish forums who state they have finished the game with no problems. Earlier in this thread, Tammy also says she has finished the game.

Just finished the demo. I had a slight problem when picking up the cart wheel at the gazebo. I lost everything in my inventory and could not move at all. I exited the game and resumed the game, and I was then able to move on further.

I quite like this game - Salem sure is a popular venue at BFG just now

I started the game under a different profile and everything worked out OK. It went much faster the second time around.

Doreen

If it is infact a true glitch and BFG does fix it. Will a new download usualy let you play under the first profile or will you have to start from beining?

That depends on the game and where it puts profiles/game saves on your hard drive. I'm not sure how this game handles profiles and will have to take a look at the game files.

It does appear that this game uses Adobe Shockwave Player, so make sure you have that installed. This is not to be confused with Adobe Flash Player, which is a separate program.

Finished the game. It was good. No problems at all through the entire game.

Excellent news, Gail! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I too have finished the game, but not without my share of problems.
Glitch/whatever caused my game to lag, crash,
a number of times,
but I stuck with it and finished w/o having to resort to a re-load or re-start.
This one held my interest more than their prior entries,
and the Salem Witchcraft Trial theme was good,
yet still had that 'NatGeo' game feel underneath.

I finished the game this morning. I am so happy that I did try the demo (almost didn't because of all the complaints on BF). I did not have any problems with the game at all. Also, this game was not a short game for me. Took my time, finished all the mini games, which I love. I think I must be a really slow player because it took me over 5 hours to finish the game. Great game.

Kate Anne! What's next?

Fantastic game I was having so much fun without any problems and then it happened. I went to dip the bucket in a mud puddle at town and doom came to the game when I dipped the bucket into the mud puddle in the form of a black screen, lockup not able to do anything except go to menu. Restarted and where others who had same problem lost their entire inventory,

I had most of my inventory intact but missing was most important Bucket and a dull knife. I restarted again and the same thing happened and no way to get the items back.

Missing inventory is the most common bug in the game. so heads up on the warning ahead of time, buyer beware. I usually do not replay games so I am waiting to see if there will be a fix, otherwise I will ask for a refund. The thread is full of so many of us complaining of missing inventory. The first time this happened to me was in 13th skull but update fixed the bug.

I don't understand what is happening with BFG quality so many games are giving many people big problems like inventory missing, or logging out and losing the save game, seem to be the most bugs lately in the last 3 games for me. If you don't believe me read the BFG Forum so many angry customers is not a good thing for a game company even though the customer service is good, they refund the games, you buy the game because you want to play the game. Just my 2 cents worth.

Gail to you finishing the game. Seems your one of the fortunate ones not to have any problems with the game, it appears to be a rare thing.

Can you please tell me if your using Vista? What video card your using? I am trying to figure out if there is a connection to the bug in the game and our OS and video card. Since I am one of those where my inventory items go missing. Thanks

EDIT Sorry Mods just realized I double posted. Drats! I will spank myself for you!

No problem, Sherryah. I combined your two posts.

Hi looney

I don't have anything new to play so I am going to replay Dark Tales EAP Black Cat. Hopefully something good will be out this week. I am waiting on 2 CE's to be released as SE. Going to go see if Mudrock has made an announcement of the games for this week.

I promised myself that I wasn't going to play anymore casual games after the '13th skull' but I had some punch points to use up so I bought this one & a couple of others!

I loved this game but it took me quite a long time to work out that I had to do something more with the 'family inheritance' ring than just click it once on all the creatures! I couldn't understand why in my notebook they all remained as shadows afterwards! When eventually I realised (by looking at the instructions!) I went back & did the proper thing! - and I only missed one!

It's certainly a game that I enjoyed more than the other Salem game I bought with punch points: Hidden Mysteries, Salems Secrets - it's very good if you like lots of hidden object screens & too many places to keep backtracking to to progress! - too 'messy' for me!

Well, I wasn't one of the very few lucky ones to finish this game! Playing was flawless until I got to the village puzzle near the end. It was then I got the dreaded black screen. BAH!

I've contacted BF to see if a "fix" was being planned but in the meantime I've learned a very valuable lesson: Don't buy a game when it first comes out! I plan to wait to see what glitches others experience before I buy any game. I had intended to buy a couple of CEs this month, but those, too, I put on hold.

In the couple of years that I've been buying casual games...plenty of them in fact...I've never been this nervous about quality. That's a shame, too, because I have really enjoyed almost all the ones I did buy, but these glitches are becoming all too frequent in my opinion.

Sorry for the negative post, but I was thoroughly enjoying this game. What I don't enjoy is having to reinstall and restart a game just because the developer didn't beta test it before it went on sale.

There! I've had my say. Now I'll go have a nice cup of coffee with plenty of sugar in it. Maybe that will sweeten my disposition. Think so? Keep your fingers crossed.

Barb

Sherryah, I played on Vista Home Premium. NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE n Force 430 I had absoltely no problems at all. Guess I was lucky.

...I am curious...who or what's Mudrock. I love reading about upcoming games.I googled the word but didn't see anything that suggested casual gaming.
Thanks

Mudrock is the Director of Content at Big Fish Games. Every Monday he posts a "sneak preview" in the Chit-Chat Forum on Big Fish, usually mentioning three to four titles of games that will be released during the upcoming week. His weekly post is stickied near the top of the Chit-Chat forum.

Sometimes games that he mentions end up getting set back for one reason or another, so the titles he mentions are not carved in stone in terms of getting released that week, but it does give us a general idea of some of what we have to look forward to for the week.

Here's the link to where he posted yesterday.

If you have played Dark Tales: Edgar Allan Poe's Murder in the Rue Morgue, there is actually a reference to Mudrock in the game. It was a fun "Easter egg" of sorts, an inside joke for those in the know.

_______________________________________________

Update: A new version of this game was released yesterday (December 8th). Fixes are as follows:

soft lock issues with the game
video and graphics issues

I am waiting for the backup disk. It should arrive in a couple of days!I have been to Salem also. I would love to go back someday!

I was happy, happy this morning to see the "fix" for this game listed. I installed it but I'm not so happy now. It doesn't fix the black screen at the village puzzle. I suppose I'll be told to uninstall/reinstall the game and start over....not a pleasant thought...but there's no assurance that the black screen won't happen again, is there?

These problems are turning up way too frequently in the latest batch of games. I miss the quality control I've been used to having in BF games.

Barb

I just took a look at the Big Fish forums and one of the mods suggests starting a new profile to ensure that all the fixes will be implemented.

I understand your dilemma, though, and I of course can't give you any guarantees that your problem with the game won't recur. I'm in a similar situation with the 13th Skull, where the game didn't save my progress correctly when I was 80% through the game; I've since downloaded the update, but haven't decided whether or not I want to replay from the beginning. I'm leaning towards "yes," but not right now.

Unfortunately there are often all sorts of variables when it comes to fixing problems of this nature. Hopefully this new update will fix the problems for most.

I only started playing casual games a couple of years ago. First off I played the old games that came recommended - RT Ravenhearst, Azada etc.
I never experienced any glitches but maybe that was because they had been around some time and already had been "fixed".
Then I selected what I wanted to buy from the new games that came out and didn't have any problem with these either. About 6 months ago I encounted my first glitch in a game. Since then there have been quite a few games that have needed a "fix" and I've twice been given a refund.
It does seem to be happening more frequently. Now I check the forums and wait to see if there are any problems with a game before buying. I am buying far fewer games as a result.

I read all your opinions and really don`t know to buy it or not as you have said that it too short.

Hi Foma, and welcome to GameBoomers!

I purchased the game and am not finding it too short, but perhaps others can give you some additional opinions.

"Short" is really sometimes subjective when it comes to a game, determined by whether or not you skip puzzles, if you play without taking a break, etc. I have played games before that were described as "short" by some, and I didn't find myself characterizing the game the same way. I am, however, a "take-my-time" kind of player.

Hi GBC
Thanks for letting me know what video card you are using, I now know it is not a Nivida problem.

Cappy I had the same problem in the village I dipped the bucket into the mud to wash tavern windows and the bartender must have taken revenge on my computer because dreaded black screen came. I exited and logged back in again only this time the Bucket was missing from inventory along with a dull knife. This isn't good because we can't get the inventory items back again and can't go on with the game.

As for update it did not WORK for me. The only thing I was told to do is delete the game and start over with a new game and profile. I hate doing this its like spending hours of time reading a good book, only to find out you have to start reading the book again from the beginning.

I don't do this and lately game quality has not been good with games BFG is releasing. Not sure if they are not listening to beta testers or what is happening. something has changed. It use to be so rare that I had a game that had a glitch in it not anymore.

Missing inventory seems to be a major problem. We need save games we can save ourself so at least we can go back to last good saved game, and not be forced to start over again.

I dread restarting this game with no guarantee from what I have read that the fix even works. I play games to relax not be stressed and angry because quality control fails. It is not just my computer BFG Guy has many angry people venting on the forum over this game and others where inventory comes up missing. I love my BFG been member since 2004 if memory serves me correct from the beginning. I buy games nearly every day of the week, and always the CE so needless to say I am a great customer as my bank statement shows.

My husband says he wishes he could buy stock in BFG with all the money we spend there. LOL

I do hope whatever the problem is BFG Guy will figure out a way to back up our games before the dreaded black screens where inventory items go missing along with the crash.

The update didn't work for me either, Sherryah. I refuse to yet again restart a game just because "somebody" didn't take the time to develop it properly. And, there's no guarantee the problem won't still be there in the restarted game.

More and more there are issues with the games coming out...almost all the new games, in fact. There is a CE game that just came out today and ALREADY there are pages of complaints on the BF forum about the game not running properly. I would love to know why BF puts up with it....and why they continue to promote a game with known problems. It must be counter productive for them to sell a game then have to issue a game credit, as well as frustrating for the techs who have to deal with disappointed, irate customers.

I have really loved these games and have purchased many. I'm just not buying as many any more. I don't buy any other product with my fingers crossed that it will function the way it should, and games are no exception. I would LOVE to get back to a situation where I can push the buy button several times a week with confidence.

Barb

I just wonder how many people are chosen for the beta testing for each game? It should be sent to very many people in order for it to be tested properly.

I have beta tested a few games recently but my remarks and comments and spelling errors were in fact not taken on board when the game was released about one week later. Perhaps the beta testing should in fact be done well before just one week before the release date so that developerss can in fact remedy any bugs instead of just ignoring them and simply releasing the game as is.

I recall BFG-Guy on the Big Fish forums saying that there are beta tests that go out well before a game's release, and then there is another kind of beta test that you can receive that is considered to be a "pre-release" survey. The latter is to ensure that there are no download installation problems or obvious technical issues like getting a blue screen. So, if you get a beta for a game and then that game is released within a week, it was sent out for different reasons than the ones you might assume.

I do agree that there have been more problems of late with games. I myself have encountered zero issues with the new CE Haunted Legends whereas some folks are complaining about the game being laggy. It's hard sometimes to know which problems are system specific and which are global when you are reading the technical-problems section of the forums.

Ah - I had no idea that there were two categories of beta testing. But if people are still finding bugs and errors in the pre release survey, then it seems that there may be a problem with the beta testers. Thanks for putting me right, Marian

chrissie: Please help me understand what to do with Family Inheritance. I read all I could on the BFG forum and in the walkthrough and I'm still not sure how this works. So far, I've placed the dreamcatcher on two different "familiars". I get one or two lights and the dreamcatcher goes back into my Inventory. The animal remains where it was.

Sparkle, from what I can recall, when you place the ring over a familiar, there are 4 areas that light up on the ring, gradually, one at a time. You need to click on each of those areas when they light up.

There are sometimes more than 4, maybe 6 or 7 and sometimes you need to go around twice.

The most important factor is timing, if you miss clicking while it is lighted up, it will go back into the inventory. You need to be right on the money when clicking.

Thanks, Flo; I haven't gotten very far along into the game and have only seen 4 lighting up so far, so we appreciate the additional information.

Thanks, Chrissie. I'll give it a try. Thanks goodness for Gameboomers. I would never have figured this out otherwise. Still playing demo and was trying to decide about using my membership credit to buy. If I can master this aspect, I might go ahead. It's a nice game.

I think as far as Beta testing goes, they need to know a few people who have specific types of systems so they can all be covered, and also to be able to test the whole game and not just a trial length. Many of the games seem to be showing glitches that are not in the time period of a beta tester, so they would not have been picked up.

You need to remember that the "beta tests" that are sent out willy nilly by the portals are really meant to get a feel of how you like the game. They are not really a truw beta tests that a smaller group would do that actually plays the whole game beginning to end, usually multiple times to find the issues. It is also very difficult because not only does your computer specs come into play, but the software, antivirus, peripherals, personal settings you have so on your computer also effect the gameplay. Aging computers that people insist are state of art are also an issue. They get outdated before you know it.

Ana :wave:

Gotcha!

I downloaded this one yesterday and got the green gem glitch. I am disappointed because graphically, historically, imaginatively Lost Chronicles is head and shoulders above the Salem game that I downloaded today to try for an hour. I'll give a couple of examples. The horses in the glitch free game have no tack; the harness disappears. Also the spinning wheel is for cotton. Does anyone know if cotton was being spun in 1692 Salem? Flax or wool seem more likely to me.

Anyway, I think there is a lot to be said for the planning that went into Lost Chronicles. Scotching the familiars is an amusing touch as is vice and virtue matching. I would like to see more from the people who came up with Lost Chronicles: Salem if the technical end improves.

I purchased this game on Tuesday and, up until I entered the servant's quarters, it ran flawlessly. I picked up 2 feathers near the entrance and placed them on the doll. When I clicked underneath the bed to pick up the next 2 feathers, my game froze, and the only way I could exit was through the Task Manager. When I returned to the game, the feathers I placed on the doll had disappeared and there was no longer a hot spot underneath the bed.

I immediately checked out the BFG forums and discovered that other people ran into the same glitch, as well as a few others further along in the game. I read that an updated version was available, so I uninstalled the game, downloaded the new version and reinstalled with a new profile. Naturally, I had to start the game over again, so I am not a happy camper. If I run into the same glitch again, I will be requesting a credit from BFG.

I realize that it's impossible to test games on every conceivable computer configuration (I've been able to play games that others couldn't get to run, and vice versa), but it's frustrating so many games are being released lately with glitches that are not unique to one or two people.

Susan

It is frustrating, Susan. And it's a puzzle to determine the reason why some games get glitched and others do not. I just now finished this game and didn't have any problems with it whatsoever. I hope you are able to finish the game this time.

Hi, Marian!

I was able to finish the game this time, so the updated version obviously fixed whatever problem was causing the glitch I encountered. I'm glad because I was really enjoying it when I hit the brick wall.

Susan

Great news!

i also got the glitch at the town model. All of my inventory disappeared. I just exited the game and went back in and everything was back and I could continue and finish the game.

I thought I had a glitch at the town model too, until I noticed that my town-model pieces had been set down in front of the board on which you place the pieces and that they had disappeared from my inventory. Then, when I found the last piece, I was able to then move all the pieces into position. I'm now wondering if perhaps a few of the people who thought their pieces had disappeared just were not understanding how the interface worked at this point. I found it a curious design decision and a little confusing (i.e., non-intuitive).

After playing 1/2 of the demo, and reading comments, I decided to "trash" this game. The catching the familiars with the family heirloom was like nails on a blackboard to me! Oh well.

Hi all, hope this goes to Chronicles -Slem
I was playing it yesterday when I got to the cleaning of the cabin- that's where my screen went black & inventory disappeared. I got out & went to BFG, GB'rs forums & just read all the problems-took about an hour. I went back into the game & there was my inventory, no black screen & I was able to finish the game with no more glitches. WEIRD!!!
It does seem there are many more problems these days. Maybe the Fish got to big for the pond???

BigFish does not make these games, they only help distribute them. These are multiple developers that have issues.

Ana