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Does it freeze at 7% perhaps? In that case, just wait until it's finished extracting. It's not really stuck, the progress counter just doesn't increase until a particularly large file has been copied.

That would certainly cross a line we shouldn't be crossing.

It's in the cipher you find in the Dutchman's room. However, it's in code. The local (self-proclaimed) expert on cryptography can help you. (albeit somewhat reluctantly)

I'd start singing, but I don't think your sense of musical taste would be able to handle the assault. So I'll just go and wish you a very happy birthday.

The CD version comes with a DVD case and physical copy, the download naturally doesn't. The CD version is somewhat more expensive, but it's good if you like to watch your game collection on a shelf and if you like the idea of always being able to reinstall the game without hassle. The CD version's money goes completely to us, the downloadable version's profits get split between us and the publisher hosting it.

Happy holidays as well.

Welcome to the forums, Mikesukat.

Sorry, but we don't endorse posting downloads of copyrighted software on these forums. (at least not without permission of the copyright holders)

Reviews are never objective. Comparing them only shows how different individual reviewers reflect on different aspects of the game. The main consensus seemed to prefer the 2D art over the 3D art.

If you're sitting on the barstool, you'll have to click the hand-icon on Al himself to get off the barstool.

I realize you may have already obtained some pre-emptive congratulations, but I believe it is mandatory that you get at least your own birthday thread here.

So, happy birthday and lotsa luck and hapiness.

While Al Emmo himself is a gemini, the person who voiced him is a scorpio and his birthday happens to be...today. (or, if it's still the 31th at your place, tomorrow)

Happy Birthday, Chris.

It's great to hear you enjoyed playing Al Emmo. It's so nice to hear people had old-fashioned fun going through the game.

I don't think MI is referring to AGDI remakes specifically.

I guess most of us were waiting for Brit to answer since she's the one who came up with the game's foundation ideas, but she's extremely busy as of late, so I'm not surprised she didn't answer immediately.

My guess as to the "mature" subject matter would be that the people who "grew up on the adventure classics" are all well over 13 already and that was our primary audience. There's a great variation of different comedy-styles in the game and comedy based on suggestion and innuendo didn't really seem that out of place in a setting where "hospitality houses" were typically quite common. We didn't want to become raunchy, so we tried limiting those particular jokes to mere suggestion. (so we could always say it was the player's dirty mind, rather than anything WE wanted to suggest )

Quest for Glory 2 VGA is produced under the AGD Interactive label and is still in production.

As for another commercial project...as Daniel mentioned, sales are an important factor in the decision whether or not to start another project. There's no point in starting another commercial game if it's not deemed viable from a financial POV. Regardless of financial success of Al Emmo, a hiatus will be taking place anyhow, as Britney recently got into the law enforcement academy and for the upcoming months, she doesn't even have enough free time to sleep sufficiently, let alone stomp another project out of the ground.

You got all the way to the meta-meta easteregg?

We actually did read it, but I wasn't so sure whether you just wanted to share your opinion or get some sort of discussion going. All I'll say is thanks for buying the game and taking the time to play through it and reviewing it and I'm sorry to hear you didn't enjoy it as much as we were hoping you would.

The shovel dissapeared from my inventory in Chapter 8.  I walk out of the cabin while night is falling and have it.  Then Al goes to the X spot.  All is good, I still have the shovel.

Then I leave the 'X' spot to go to town.  When I reach the town screen, the shovel has vanished from inventory.

Do I need the shovel later in the game?

About the shovel:

[spoiler]It's a red herring. The player is given the impression he can use it to create a tunnel to the path leading to the mine, but it'll always break. It's removed because it's just intended to cause a little confusion at that particular screen, not in any scene down the road. You never use it in chapter 9.[/spoiler]

Perhaps at the place I'm stuck in Chapter 9?

This appears to the be the show stopper for me.

Where exactly are you stuck?

Cool. Interesting detail is that some of the few cons the reviewer points out were taken out just before the game shipped. (such as the unavailability for clues in that puzzle that was mentioned, which was a bug, and the exit arrows)

Seems like it, but I'm kinda at a loss what kind of trigger. The cabin can wait until chapter 8, btw. What you should do in chapter 7 is:

[spoiler]Deal with Everette. After he walks off with his "captives" and you take the plunger, the barbed wire blockades should be gone and if you have the stone map (which you got at the end of chapter 6), you should be able to visit Rita.[/spoiler]

The installation has always been slow for me. I think a really heavy compression was put on the files in order to fit everything on a single CD, which means extracting it is slower. Hopefully, it's a consolation that after installing, you won't need the CD again.

It doesn't freeze. The game's installer measures progress by the absolute number of files (rather than size) it has copied. At 7%, the biggest file of all, the sprite file is being extracted and copied. After that file's copied, you'll see the progress meter rush forward again. I have a very slow system and it takes my computer like half an hour to get past that 7% spot. Just have patience...installation takes a little while but it shouldn't hang.

Whoa!!! Do you really mean to tell me you received your copy and beat the game already? You're certainly the speedy one.

But I'm very happy to hear you enjoyed playing it.

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

It does indeed seem the game has a slightly steeper "getting into"-curve than we initially expected. Whenever we sent the game to someone, we always got very positive reactions. Thing is...before the demo shipped, those people were mostly beta testers and reviewers. Beta testers don't shut off a game after a few minutes and start playing something else and most reviewers know that unless they play the game all the way through, people are not likely to give their review much credit.

The good thing is that things can only get better. We've had people who loved it from the start and loved it all the way through and we've had people who had their reservations at the start, but grew to really like the game as they got into it. We still have to find people who started liking Al Emmo, but grew less and less enthusiastic as they progressed through the game. I'm pretty sure that mouth-to-mouth advertising about the full game will convince a nice amount of people who had their reservations at first to try and get into the game again and come to the discovery that it's a very fun thing to play.

[Update: December 7th, 2010]

Update: December 7th, 2010

Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine version 3.0 has been released! This is the first major release of the game since 2006.

Download the new version from here   (Free 60 Minute Trial)

Price: $9.99 USD

Upgrading to version 3.0 is free for customers who purchased the game directly from Himalaya Studios. If you purchased the Digital Download version, simply uninstall your old version, then re-install version 3.0. The same serial key number you were allocated will work.

If you purchased the CD version of Al Emmo and the Lost Dutchman's Mine from Himalaya Studios and would like to upgrade to version 3.0, please send us an email at mailto:replacements@himalayastudios.com">replacements@himalayastudios.com, quoting your order reference number and/or shipping address where the game was sent to, and we'll assign you a new serial key that works with the Digital Download version of the game.

Important:  Please note that savegames from previous versions of the game are not compatible with v3.0!

The main addition to 3.0 is the implementation of higher resolution modes which allows for a more detailed Al Emmo character sprite.  A full list of additions, features, improvements, and bug fixes is below:

CHANGES TO VERSION 3.0
----------------------
WARNING: GAME SPOILERS AHEAD

- Added: Support for higher resolution graphics
- Added: Direct3D driver mode
- Added: a more highly-detailed Al Emmo sprite in high resolution modes
- Added: proper Windows Vista & Windows 7 support and functionality
- Added: an Exit button to the title screen
- Added: a checkbox to the installer asking whether the user wants to create a game desktop icon or not
- Added: Better-looking top corner page-turn menus and clearer bottom-left corner map menu
- Added: the current Act number to the top GUI bar
- Added: the ability to press CTRL+C to quickly clear any characters in GUI text boxes
- Added: visual "Continue" and "Replay" buttons to the GUIs that appear after the Comic Cutscenes
- Added: the ability to dismount the saloon barstool by clicking the Walk icon
- Added: an advance hint in the mines about the imminent flooding river booby-trap
- Added: some replacement Andretto speech lines and lip-syncing in the mines
- Fixed: potential permission conflicts under Windows Vista and Windows 7 accounts without Admin privileges
- Fixed: save-game files potentially getting misnumbered and overwriting existing save-games
- Fixed: Centered All GUIs
- Fixed: Dragging the Music Volume slider to the very bottom will now mute game music completely
- Fixed: several instances where the wrong mouse cursor was being made active after closing GUIs
- Fixed: being able to pour the flask of water from the upper window of the Hospitality House
- Fixed: Made Al Emmo stop walking when the Rita Flyer and Business ID Card items are clicked on him
- Fixed: bugs where Al could pass into non-walkable areas of the Saloon, Indian Plateau, & Bull Pen screens
- Fixed: a bug where clicking through narrator speech when viewing the saloon Drink Menu closed the menu
- Fixed: a bug where exiting a screen could cause Al Emmo glide without using his walking animations
- Fixed: Disabled the CTRL+Q hotkey for the Quit GUI when a map GUI or similar close-up GUI is on-screen
- Fixed: the Exit Arrow icons so that they revert to the Wait icon as soon as Al Emmo begins his exit
- Fixed: Made Rita's gate easier to click when opening/closing it. Also fixed the opened gate's z-order
- Fixed: some omitted Rita speech lines when talking to her about the location of the Miner's Cabin
- Fixed: Viewing the Rita Flyer and Andretto ID card close-ups will now stop Al from moving
- Fixed: Prevented the player from viewing the Rita Flyer during timed-events
- Fixed: a bug where turning Special Effects off would make sunlight beams appear inside buildings/houses
- Fixed: being able to walk through the 2 Plateau Indians when standing behind the pair and talking to them
- Fixed: a bug where the Trial Door's text parser sometimes permitted incorrect answers
- Fixed: a bug where Al could clip through the Aztec Altar
- Fixed: Prevented the player from being able to read the journals while in the mine (which caused issues)
- Fixed: Implemented some hotspot adjustments, making their shapes and sizes fit the scenery more accurately
- Fixed: various walk-behind masking and walkable area glitches
- Fixed: some incorrect mouse icons on various GUIs
- Fixed: several minor spelling/grammar errors
- Fixed: other small glitches and bugs
- Changed: The game no longer uses a music.vox file. Both sound and music resources are now stored in audio.vox
- Changed: Rita's house now shows on the map after first seeing her in Act 1 (previously it showed in Act 2)
- Changed: The game now natively plays Ogg Theora video files, preventing potential video stream freezes
- Changed: Save-game and character export files are now stored in the user's My Documents/My Saved Games folder
- Changed: the game's installer to use Inno Setup for better compression and performance




September 6th, 2006

IT'S OUT!!!

Yes, folks. After years of work, Al Emmo has finally been released. It's shipping today and those of you who pre-ordered it should expect it to arrive on your doorstep very soon.

This is the end of a loooong road and it feels good to know we've finally reached the finish line. I'd like to extend my thanks to the following people...

- All the people who beta tested and reviewed our game. The game's quality is higher than it was before and more people know about it.

- All our fans who've supported us and stood up for us more often than I can either count or mention.

- All the people who pre-ordered the game. May your gaming experience be a good one.

- All our modellers and animators who've worked so hard to get the game characters transferred to 3D.

- Michael Freeman who didn't just work on the animations but also drew those awesome comic scenes.

- Eriq Chang for creating several fine backgrounds and an awesome site.

- Charles Hutchins for putting such an obscene amount of time into the 3D movies.

- Britney's uncle and Anne Steinmetz for the help and advice on the sidelines.

- Chris Jones for his great technical support.

- Tom and Dianne Lewandowski for creating the wonderful soundtrack of the game.

- Daniel for having to come up with so many different things to say about cacti and red rocks, as well as for writing the amazing dialogue that makes up the heart of the game.

- Sean for all his help on the forum, the server and the online store...as well as being such a gracious host.

Awesome interview, Britney.

I didn't know how to say "Forum- and guestbookmaster" in dutch. Sue me.

Initially, the game will be only available on a CD that gets shipped to our customers. At some point in the future, we'll probably add a downloadable version as well.

The game has been delivered at the printer and should be finished for distribution within now and 2 weeks. Distribution will mostly take place over the internet.

We appreciate your patience...the release date is almost there.

I guess the CD printing company isn't going to give you the ultimate birthday gift today (the game in its full printed glory), but I nevertheless hope you have a wonderful birthday today with all your friends.

Cheers to a year that will be remembered as D turning point in your life.

4 words, Brit. I....DON'T...THINK...SO.

If you're really that anxious to have more European adventures, get back here on the double.

And yea, Stijn is a doozy...for years, I thought it was "Sti-gin".  Stijn was so kind as we continually butchered his name.  Even when he explained it, I still butchered it for a while...I was making it much more difficult than it had to be.  It's sort of like, "Stein"...as in a beer Stein:)

That explains the difficulty in house-training you guys into using my real name instead of my internet name at a time everybody else was already adressed by his or her birth name. Getting to that phase was a victory on its own.

And yeah, the closest thing native english speakers get to my name is the word Stein. (it's not QUITE the same) A native english speaker trying any harder to speak typically dutch vowels results in said speaker pulling some funny faces, as I've had the pleasure of learning earlier this year.

(not that you are a horse, Britney, or anyone else for that matter lol)

She does have a ponytail most of the time. (sorry, that one was an oldie)

I noticed that there's a bit of a conflict in how Al's name is pronounced (specifically accents). Al seems to always refer to himself as "Al Emmo" but everybody else in the game says "Al Emmo". I was wondering what the proper pronunciation is.

Uh...I see no written difference between those two. We on the team mostly use the variation that sounds like "Alamo".

Don't worry Jan, in the end Deb and I split your Pannenkoeken!!

It was only fair to allow you two the pancakes so Britney and I could concentrate on the peasant boys.

Thanks everyone. I promise that everyone will get a piece of cake under the condition they drop by to pick it up themselves.