tournamentgames.com

We just released our newest game to a few beta testers yesterday, 5x5 Deluxe. In 5x5, you race the timer trying to get the best hands possible on a 5x5 grid. Currently there are 6 tournament variations, ranging from easy to hard. Some of the variables include, face down cards pre-filled in each slot, joker cards, re-deal and discard.

There have been some players that are unable to play the game, possibly due to either video card / video card drivers, or out dated DirectX. And with your help, we can nail down these compatibility issues so that more people will be able to enjoy the game. The installer for the game includes a small program from Microsoft, that will check, and update your DirectX if needed. But, for now updating your video drivers is still up to you. One way to find out about your video driver is by running the DxDiag program. You can run it by clicking your Start button, then in the Run box, type

dxdiag

The resulting information will give you all kinds of neat details about your computers ability to run DirectX based games. Be sure to look for the "Drivers" section located on the second tab. It will tell you the date and version of your driver. Then you can check the website of your card's manufacturer to determine if there is a more recent version available.

The game requires at least DirectX 9.0c, and the latest version is actually 11. Read more at http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-US/directx/

We are hoping to gather as much feedback as we can during this phase, in hopes to make the game as playable and as fun as possible. If you have any suggestions, please let us know!

Feel free to use this forum thread to post any feedback, questions, suggestions, etc.. And if you do not already have access to 5x5, just send us a support message, and we will make it happen for you

Thanks!
eric

Here is a small program that will gather the DirectX Diagnostics information for you. It will open a window with all the DirectX goodness inside. You can copy and paste this information into an email to [email protected]. If you are having problems with 5x5, or any other game, this will give me more information to be able to help. -eric

Hey Eric! Thanks for letting me try out the new game. Couple of things. I do like the game. I would however like to see game rules and instructions to ensure I am playing correctly. Also, to insure I am making all the moves that are available to me. One more thing. The start up time is a little lenthy. Other than that, it's a great game. Keep up the good work Eric!

Thanks again,


pinkybuzz24

Thank you for volunteering to test the game! Yea, the load time is kinda slow. I am working on that. Also I should have some instructions written up within the next few days. I will let everyone know when I get them ready. By the way, when the game is loading, what part seems to be the slowest? Next time it loads up, check out the lower left, and let me know what loading section seems to take the longest. Also, about how long does it take to load on your PC?

From the looks of all the DirectXDiagnostics files that you are sending in, it appears that one thing is common. The video card drivers are out of date. You can see this by looking for the section in the diagnostic text that looks like this:

under
---------------
Display Devices
---------------

look for

Driver Date/Size: 2/27/2004 02:50:50, 1865600 bytes

As you can see, this one is just a little bit out of date! Since the display is such an important part of computering, it is always a good idea to keep this up to date. What I have been doing for everyone is going through the DirectX Diagnostics file and looking for the part that looks like:

Card name: VIA/S3G UniChrome Pro IGP

This, along with the section that says what operating system your computer is running:

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3

With these two pieces of information, our friend google, and a few minutes of time, we can find out where to get the most recent version of the video driver.


Feel free to try this on your own after running the diagnostics utility, or you can send me the file (via email please), and I will locate your driver for you. Although, it would be a good exercise for you to do this and find out that it is relatively painless. You might be surprised at how it helps your computer run better when you have all of the drivers up to date. -eric

hello,
I have still been unable to get 5x5 to run on my desktop, but have been playing it some on my 10 inch notebook. I too notice a long load time. It seems to be the whole process takes time not just one item. It stays on each item for about 3 or 4 seconds but that adds up to about 50 seconds load time in all. At least on my machine. My favorite game is pool because it seems to be mostly skill and a little luck. Most card games require at least as much luck as skill to get the right cards at the right time. Is there any chance for another skill game similar to pool?
As far as the play of the game it seems to play smoothly with no glitches. I will play it more often if I can figure out how to get my desktop to play it. My little notebook computer screen is really small for game playing. Old eyes ya know. lol
Sam

Hi Eric,
So far everything has ran well on my computer. I like the game because it is quite a challenge for me anyhow, don't know if it is just a blonde thing but i will get it figured out eventually, There is one person, bossy I think was the name keeps me on my toes.lol. But anyhow, great game. Thanks for letting me try it out and I will continue to play it and if I see anything or notice I will let you know, but so far so good. Thanks, Dee

Hey Eric...the game is running fine on our computer....our video card is Nividia GeForce 7600GS and we are running Windows XP Media Centre Edition...occaisionally the sound disappears....some people are saying that it is slow to load....we timed it and it took20 seconds to load a game....the time it slowed was for "cards" and for " hand indicator" hope all this helps....thanks again for letting us play....Beryl a.k.a adamy1098

I guess the game works as it is - I just don't know if I'm playing right or if there are other things to do. Do you have an instructions sheet for us? I'm really not sure what to do - except make the best poker hands? how do you turn cards over?

I agree, it does take quite a bit of time to load, especially compared to the other games. Maybe I'm just not that great of a poker player, but I'm not doing too well when I do play

Hey Eric and all!
As a spy i generally don't speak in public, but i thought i'd share my basic stratigy since i'm hogging a lot of the high scores.
I start with high goals, royal or straight flushes. so i organize my cards to go from low to high accross of the same suit. if i get and ten then a king i put the king in the 4th row 10 in the first, then try to match up my 2,3,4 of a kinds going down. I use the bottom row for garbage cards, if i'm not getting any of a suit i will sometimes sacrifice one of the top four rows and try to get a hand in the bottom. The cards often leave me with diminishing goals :O when this happens i try to go ahead and fill flushes but try to avoid riuning my 4 of a kind oportunities as i do. So i may not fill a flush if i already have a 3 of a kind going down in hopes of getting the 4th. I try to leave slots in my garbage row open if i have a chance to get 4ok or a full house i will fill that one last! As far as the games with the skip button i use it early and often if i don't like the card. This is probably not a big bit of imformation for most of you but maybe it'll help some.