Q: A downloaded game crashes or has problems, how do I update my video graphics
drivers?
A: Many of our downloadable games make heavy use of the Microsoft DirectX,
OpenGL, and separate video card drivers. If your game has problems or crashes,
you can typically fix the problem by updating ALL OF THESE.
See the following to get the latest Microsoft DirectX drivers.
www.microsoft.com/directx/
See the following to get the latest video card and OpenGL drivers based upon
what video card you have. The latest OpenGL drivers are typically automatically
installed when you update your video card drivers.
www.ati.com
- (very common) If you have an ATI Technologies based video card.
www.nvidia.com
- (very common) If you have an NVidia based video card.
www.3dfx.com
- If you have a 3DFx based video card.
www.matrox.com
- If you have a Matrox based video card.
If your video card is not in this list, try this site that has a large list
of video card drivers.
www.computerhope.com/drivers/video.htm
To determine what type of video card your Windows computer has, go to your
Windows control panel, select the display icon, from the display properties screen
select the settings tab then select the advanced button, from the driver properties
screen select the adapter tab. ATI and NVidia video cards are most common these
days.
Q: Game displays "Havoc Xtra Required", how do I get the Havoc
Xtra?
A: The Havoc Xtra is required by some of the Shockwave games to display in
3D. Simply play the following free online demo version of the following game to
cause the Havoc Xtra to be downloaded to your computer.
Play Vertigolf
Online Version
Q: Don't see how to download game, what can be downloaded?
A: Only some of our games are available for download. See the following link.
Downloadable Games area.
Q: I am getting a virus warning message from a downloaded game.
A: Please note we rigorously test our games using many current virus scanners and
our games are 100% spyware, adware, and virus free.
Sometimes a virus or spyware scanner incorrectly identifies our games as having a virus,
trojan, or spyware. If this happens please update your virus scanner
and the problem will typically go away. Otherwise look for and use a setting in your virus
scanner that will disable the scanning on the directory where the game
is installed. You could also temporarily disable your virus scanner, however we do not recommend
this and if you do be certain to re-enable it after you are done so that you stay protected.
Q: Java game is not working. How do I install or enable Java?
A: Either your computer does not have Java installed or you have Java disabled.
Note Microsoft Windows XP does not come with Java built in,
you must download and install it from the following.
To download and install java please click the following link to download the
latest version of Java.
java.com/en/download/
If you may already have Java installed, then you may simply have it disabled.
Using Internet Explorer, to check if Java is enabled select tools from the
main menu select internet options, select the security tab, then select internet
under the zone selection area. Move the slider bar to Medium, High safety disables
Java for example. If you are using a custom security level then select the custom
level button and make sure that Java permissions is set to enable Java and that
Run ActiveX controls is enabled. Also, make sure you have the JIT (just in time)
compiler option turned on from the advanced settings tab for best performance.
Using Netscape Navigator, to check if Java is enabled select edit from the
main menu then select preferences. From the preferences screen select advanced
from the left selection area. From the advanced settings make sure that enable
Java is selected.
Q: Flash or Shockwave game is not working. How do I install or enable Flash
or Shockwave?
A: Either your computer does not have Flash / Shockwave installed or you have
Flash / Shockwave disabled.
See the following link to download and install the Macromedia Flash plugin.
Download
Flash Player
See the following link to download and install the Macromedia Shockwave plugin.
Download
Shockwave Player
You may already have Flash / Shockwave installed but simply have it disabled.
Using Internet Explorer, to check if Flash / Shockwave is enabled select tools
from the main menu select internet options, select the security tab, then select
internet under the zone selection area. Move the slider bar to medium. If you
are using a custom security level then select the custom level button. From the
security settings screen make sure that Run ActiveX controls is enabled. The High
safety disables ActiveX for example. ActiveX must be enabled to use Flash or Shockwave.
Q: ActiveX game is not working. How do I enable ActiveX?
A: ActiveX works only with Windows computers and Microsoft Internet Explorer
. Sorry Firefox, Netscape, and Mac OSX are not supported.
Note: In many professional work or school environments ActixeX is disabled
and you may be locked out from enabling it. If so we suggest trying the game from
home.
Using Internet Explorer, from the main menu select Tools then Internet options,
select the Security tab, then select Internet under the zone selection area. Move
the slider bar to Medium. If you are using a custom security level then select
the custom level button. From the security settings screen make sure that Run
ActiveX controls is enabled. The High safety disables ActiveX for example.
Q: I see a "You do not have Javascript enabled" message. How do
I enable Javascript?
A: Either you have Javascript disabled within your web browser settings or
you are using a really old web browser that is not Javascript enabled. If you
are using a really old web browser such as Netscape 2 or Internet Explorer 2 or
below then you need to get out of the dark ages and download an up to date browser.
See more details on what browser you should
be using.
Using Internet Explorer, to check if Javascript is enabled select tools from
the main menu select internet options, select the security tab, then select internet
under the zone selection area. Move the slider bar to medium. If you are using
a custom security level then select the custom level button. From the security
settings screen make sure that Active Scripting is enabled.
Using Netscape Navigator, to check if javascript is enabled select edit from
the main menu then select preferences. From the preferences screen select advanced
from the left selection area. From the advanced settings make sure that enable
Javascript is selected.
Q: I click the Play Online button but nothing happens
A: Either you have Javascript disabled or you are using some sort of ad blocking
popup program that is mistakenly conflicting with our popup windows.
We have seen ad blocking programs such as Web Washer that mistakenly block
our game play popup screens. Please uninstall the ad blocking program to allow
the games to work.
Please see also how do I enable Javascript?
Q: I have a PC and the games are running slow
A: There are a few possibilities.
Your system may be slow. Most of our action games will run fine on a
200 mhz system or above.
Your windows display color depth setting may need to be changed. In
most cases using 16 bit color depth (aka high color or 64,000 colors) is best,
otherwise use 32 bit color depth (aka true color or millions of colors). Using
8 bit color depth (aka 256 colors) depth will run slow. For example, on my 1.1
Ghz Athlon system Realspace 2 will run slow if 256 color depth is used instead
of 16 bit color. To check what color depth setting you have, go to your windows
control panel, double click on the display icon, from the display properties screen
select the settings tab and examine the setting in the colors pulldown box.
Your windows display driver may need to be updated. For example, when
the default Windows display driver was installed we have seen a good 600 mhz Athlon
system run Realspace 2 really slow (RS2 is a very performance intensive game).
That system had an ATI Rage video card so we installed the ATI video driver for
it and the game then ran great. To check what driver you have, go to your windows
control panel, double click on the display icon, from the display properties screen
select the settings tab then select the advanced button and from the driver properties
screen select the adapter tab. The display adapter driver should be displayed.
If this is the default windows driver then it definitely needs to be updated.
Typically, the video driver for your video card will come with your system. You
should also be able to download the video driver from the website of your video
card maker. Here are the site of the more popular video card makes... nvidia.com,
ati.com and 3dfx.com.
You may have the Java JIT (just in time) comiler turned off. Using Internet
Explorer, to check if the JIT compiler is enabled select tools from the main menu
then select internet options. From the internet options screen select the advanced
tab. Find the Java VM section within the settings and make sure the JIT (just
in time) compiler option turned on.
Q: I have a MAC and the games are running slow
A: The MAC G3 and G4 platforms support Java but the JVM (Java virtual machine)
on these systems appear to be quite slow. MAC OSX will support Java 2 and will
provide better performance. As for MAC systems running an older MAC version, we
currently (as of Jan 01) do not know of any solution to this problem. We have
had reports from users using older Power Macs that the games run great. It appears
to be a problem with the G3 and G4 models. If anyone has more information on this
subject please let us know
Q: What browser should I use?
A: For best results use IE 4.0 or greater. Netscape 4.06 or greater is also
fine although on most systems it is somewhat slower. IE 3.x and Netscape 4.05
or below are also supported but not recommended because they use JDK 1.0 and are
slower.
Netscape version 6 uses JDK 1.2 which appears to run some Java games quite
a bit slower. If you experience this problem, please use IE instead.
Q: I have Linux/UNIX system. Can I play the games?
A: Absolutely, Java supports multiple types of systems! All you need is a browser
that supports Java. We have seen our games run on many different types of UNIX
systems. If you are using the X11 GUI interface, make sure you are running the
games directly on that UNIX system otherwise you may bring your server and network
down to a crawl (guess how we found this out!).
Q: I have Web TV. Aare there any games I can play?
A: Yes, the game's called get a real computer. Sorry but our games don't run
on Web TV.
Q: My high scores are not being saved
A: Either you were not connceted to the internet when the game finished or
you are connected to the internet using a proxy / firewall. Sorry high scores
do not support a proxy / firewall. To check if you are using a proxy / firewall
try logging in to one of our multiplayer games and see if you can get connected.
Q: I forgot my login and password
A: Use our forgot
password screen to have our site send you an email with your login information.
Q: I want to deactivate my account / registration
A: Login to My HeavyGames.com and use the member info tab and un-check any options where information
may be sent to yourself. Thus we will not contact you any further.
Q: How do I enable cookies?
A: You must have cookies enabled to be able to login to our web site. Using
Internet Explorer select "Tools" then "Internet Options" from
the main menu, select the "Privacy" tab on the options screen, then
select the appropriate setting. We suggest medium to block appropriate 3rd party
cookies while enabling the current website's cookies.
Q: Cannot access multiplayer game
A: Either you are using a proxy, your firewall prevents you from connecting
to our game server, or our game server is temporarily unavailable and you should
try again later. Sorry our games do not support a proxy server. If you are behind
a firewall ask your system administrator to open port # 1755.
If you've accessed our multiplayer games before but is now not working, please
contact us to let us know.
Q: Can I license your original games?
A: We have many games available for webmasters to use for free on your website.
See our free games for your website. Sorry
we do not license paid copies of our original games.
The other games displayed on our site and not available in our website free
content section are not ours to provide.
Q: Can I download or copy the games to my site?
A: We have a few of our games available for free, see free
games for your site.
All other games are not available for download. Please make links to our site
instead. Our orignal games and all content on HeavyGames.com are copyrighted material of AltoParc and cannot be duplicated without
express consent of AltoParc. If you have a special arrangement you wish to discuss
then please contact us
