Game Development Community

Ignition Problem

by Gareth Davies · in Site Feedback · 01/03/2003 (8:02 am) · 11 replies

The weekend I encounted a strange problem with what I assume is the "ignition" library built into the new software.

Having installed and authourised all the products on my laptop (Chain Reaction, Robot Battle, Marble blast etc.) they all seemed to work fine. So I disconnected my laptop went home.

Now the moment I got home I launched Marble Blast and it immediatly asked for my serial number again. That mildly annoyed me so I tried Chain Reaction / Robot Battle and they had the exact same problem. At this point I was grumbling about piracy protection only hurting legit users etc. But thought i'd try and find the problem.

It seems that if you disable the network adapter (not just disconnect it), which is what I do when my laptop isn't attached to the network it forces the serial number entry (not that it helped of course). Re-enabling the connection allowed full access to any of the products without having to re-authorise. This is 100% repeatable on my system.

Not exactly an enormous problem, but wouldn't modem users be in a similar situation? I.e. no active connection etc.?

Am I alone with this problem (or the only person on this planet that wants to play games on the move?).

Sorry if this is a stupid place to put this, since it seems to apply to all the ignition titles I didn't know which forum to use.

About the author

Professional Procrastinator. Currently playing around with cloud based MMO systems (specifically Scala on Google App Engine) Meh, i'll finish this later.


#1
01/03/2003 (8:14 am)
Thanks for posting this bug. Great timing, Tim is working on an ignition update now. When finished it will be rolled into all the products we have available on our site.

--Rick
#2
01/08/2003 (5:39 am)
Rick, will this update allow me to play Marble Blast on a computer not connected to the interet at all? I have a machine at home (I'm on a work machine right now) that has NO internet at all. Yeah and I get no cable tv or phone service (except cell), but alot of us in the Colorado Rockies are still in the dark ages. ;)

But anywho, I just purchased Marble Blast for my computer at home only to find out that I can't use it! Will this new patch help people like me out? Or can I get some sort of refund? (I'd rather have the game working though, not a refund)
#3
01/08/2003 (6:17 am)
We plan to have an offline machine registration process by the end of this month (Jan 2003). You will need to access the web from some machine to register and get an activation key file but not the machine the game is on.

--Rick
#4
01/08/2003 (6:36 am)
Sorry to butt into a thread I know pretty much nowt about, but for all the problems and annoyances that have been posted on the forums about the Ignition system it seems to be doing its job of reducing piracy.

There is a website you can watch to see what games have been pirated and most likely downloaded by a million people and still doesn't have any of the games currently on sale here listed and I find that amazing. For the fact that the news of games getting pirated/cracked usually gets to this site about a week before they actually release, Sim City 4 is already there, I find it great news that the Ignition system has held off this activity for so long.

Good on you Garagegames guys, it seems like you've hit on a winner there.
#5
01/08/2003 (7:07 am)
Chris, I think that's because GG is below the radar at the moment, not because anyone that has tried has had problems cracking ignition :(

But for the moment that's a good thing as well! :)
#6
01/08/2003 (7:16 am)
If you've seen some of the absolute crap they crack its mad to think they wouldn't have noticed garagegames with a bit of quality, but you're more than likely right :)
#7
06/29/2005 (10:50 am)
Hi!! I'm Spanish and I speak also English. I have one problem. When I start tennis critters i see that i enter a registration code but i don't find this registration code. Please, help me. Where can I find this key??? I have got the "ignition". Thanks and sorry if i don't speak English well.
#8
06/29/2005 (11:03 am)
Look into the MyAccount link at the top of page : you should have your ignition key for tennis critters in the colum called Ignition on the line where the Tennis Critters entry is.
#9
06/29/2005 (3:07 pm)
Nothing. I don't see the ignition key. I click on My Account and I can see this collums: 1- Edit preferences, 2-My profile, 3- Edit profile, 4-Change passwords, 5- New plan and 6- Mailing list, but I don't see collum called Ignition. Thanks.
#10
06/29/2005 (3:50 pm)
Then, you haven't bought the game have you ? You need to buy it to get an Ignition key...
The list of products you bought is the first item on that page, so if you're not seeing it, it's probably because you don't own a license for it

Edit : forgot about the multiple accounts possibility, how dumb of me ;) Thanks Pat
#11
06/29/2005 (3:55 pm)
...for this account.

You will only find the information regarding the ignition key if you sign in to the same account you used to buy it.