Help Buying Commercial Game

[Shirohagen]

Hi guys, sorry to ressurect this old issue (http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=16844&st=45) but I STILL haven't been able to play Pinball Dreams on my GP32. I REALLY want to support the GP32 by buying commercial games, but it seems to be being made so hard for me! As I said in my previous posts, I have a Mac, and so had to wait for a visit to my parents to install all the PC only stuff and authenticate my GP32. I bought Pinball Dreams OK, and downloaded it but didn't realise it had to be installed (D'oh) When I got home I was unable to do this on the Mac and so resolved to wait for my next visit to my parents.

Well, here I am a month later and the .zpk file seems to install fine with GPManager, but will not run on the GP32 no matter what launcher I use. I thought maybe my .zpk file was corrupt somehow after having been copied and stored on my Mac so as Gamepark won't allow me to redownload the game I paid for, I was forced to buy it again this weekend and download it fresh. Unfortunatley this has not helped, so I've bought the game twice and STILL can't play it!

I was wondering if any of you guys had any advice? I am only at my parents until tomorrow and after that will have to wait a couple of months for access to a PC to clear this up. My new download of Pinball Dreams is also now only active for the next 14 days. I haven't emailed Gamepark as I dread the language barrier and they wouldn't reply in time. Damn, their games buying system is crappy!

Help!

R

 

[spaceboygp32x]

Hi guys at sorry to ressurect this old issue (http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=16844&st=45) but I STILL haven't been able to play Pinball Dreams on my GP32. I REALLY want to support the GP32 by buying commercial games, but it seems to be being made so hard for me! As I said in my previous posts, I have a Mac, and so had to wait for a visit to my parents to install all the PC only stuff and authenticate my GP32. I bought Pinball Dreams OK, and downloaded it but didn't realise it had to be installed (D'oh) When I got home I was unable to do this on the Mac and so resolved to wait for my next visit to my parents.

Well, here I am a month later and the .zpk file seems to install fine with GPManager, but will not run on the GP32 no matter what launcher I use. I thought maybe my .zpk file was corrupt somehow after having been copied and stored on my Mac so as Gamepark won't allow me to redownload the game I paid for, I was forced to buy it again this weekend and download it fresh. Unfortunatley this has not helped, so I've bought the game twice and STILL can't play it!

I was wondering if any of you guys had any advice? I am only at my parents until tomorrow and after that will have to wait a couple of months for access to a PC to clear this up. My new download of Pinball Dreams is also now only active for the next 14 days. I haven't emailed Gamepark as I dread the language barrier and they wouldn't reply in time. Damn, their games buying system is crappy!

Help!

R

​

you have freelauncher or european firmware right?

 

[Shirohagen]

I have Aquafish multifirmware 5.01 which includes the Euro BLU firmware, Pacrom & Windups. I've tried to run the game from all of these with no success. If it's down to the launcher rather than the game installation, what should I use to play it? I usually run all my software from Windups.

R

 

[yaustar]

while you are at your parents look for the app that unpacks the .zpk to it's individual files and take a copy back home with you...

 

[spaceboygp32x]

while you are at your parents look for the app that unpacks the .zpk to it's individual files and take a copy back home with you...

​

Im home from work at 5 - ill email it to you!

do you have a card reader?

 

[Shirohagen]

Yeah I have a card reader, I did try doing something like that with virtual pc on my Mac but without any luck. I could have been doing any number of things wrong though and like I say perhaps the file was corrupt.

My email address is email@holster.co.uk

Cheers!

 

[spaceboygp32x]

Yeah I have a card reader, I did try doing something like that with virtual pc on my Mac but without any luck. I could have been doing any number of things wrong though and like I say perhaps the file was corrupt.

My email address is email@holster.co.uk

Cheers!

​

what you want to do is extract the game and then manually copy it into the correct folders on the SMC...

just noticed you run pacrom

that can cause problems

use the eurofirmware!

 

[Shirohagen]

I'll give it a go, but I'm not holding out much hope. The Euro firmware in Aquafish's MF is different, as the PC Link doesn't work, perhaps this affects its ability to run commercially signed games?

R

 

[spaceboygp32x]

I'll give it a go, but I'm not holding out much hope. The Euro firmware in Aquafish's MF is different, as the PC Link doesn't work, perhaps this affects its ability to run commercially signed games?

R

​

email sent - hope it sorts it - I think it might be a firmware issue though

anyone else know??

sPaCe h34r:

 

[Quiest]

Macs are just trouble, that`s why I hate them.

 

[Shirohagen]

Well, I've tried everything I can think of to no avail.

I've tried using GPManager on the PC to install the .zpk, which seems to work fine as the files are extracted but the game won't launch on the GP32.

I've tried manually extracting the files and copying them over but the result is the same as above

I've tried using the Mac OSX command-line extractor which again seems to work but the game won't run.

I've downloaded the .zpk 3 times, and used 2 different SMCs

In all cases the game is present in the launcher with the right icon etc and looks like it's loading for an instant but then flicks back to the launcher. I'm starting to think it may be a problem with the authentication of my GP32, perhaps my flashed firmware launchers can't replicate whatever security measure they need to like the real thing and there's nothing actually wrong with the Pinball Dreams files themselves...?

Anyway, I only have use of this PC until this afternoon so I've backed up the extracted game files to take home and hope I find a way to run them. Maybe I'll have to run a specific launcher for Pinball Dreams, or I might have to flash my firmware again, but I don't want to go back to the official Euro FW!

Has anyone else had these problems with downloaded software from Gamepark? I looked on their site and there's no way to contact them to even explain the problem.

PS Quiest: The Mac isn't the problem here, if Gamepark made the GPManager software for the Mac, or just generally made their commercial software arrangement more sensible then it would be fine. It's been a nightmare this weekend trying to do even the simplest thing on this dirty PC, I feel violated.