I recently posted info about our game hitting beta. After a great to do list from folks here (actually 99% Scorpio, thank you!) it's much leaner and faster. Please take a look and give me feedback on any improvements you would recommend. Specifically I would like to hear about the gameplay and "fun" aspect of the game. Thanks everyone.

Go here:
www.nutrigames.com
Download Hyper 21

Hi Josh,

The loadings times are much better now. The new fade looks better as well.

Unfortunately, all the other alt+tab and flicker problems remain for me.

I also noticed that the uninstaller leaves a bunch of empty folders and the EXE was write-protected (which generates a prompt from the uninstaller--and the EXE remained on my hard drive).

I didn't have a ton of time to test (we're crunching to finish our contest game right now) but I hope this is somewhat helpful for you.
-Scorpio

Loading time was quick.

Anyway, do you really have permission to use the song by The Black Lotus? There's nothing that the demo scene musicians hates more than getting ripped off by lazy game makers or other "musicians" trying to sell their music (this has happened several times). I'm just checking :)

I have to say I didn't like the game that much though.. it's basically just a game about adding numbers, which isn't all that fun. YMMV...

Oh and the uninstaller didn't work properly, it left a few directories and the exe just as Scorpio says.

Thank you everyone. If anyone out there has a p200 to pII 300 I'd like to see how the game works on lower end machines. Any feedback there would be greatly appreciated.

Scorpio: Thanks for taking a look again. Unfortunately, I don't think there's anything I can do about the alt-tab problem. I'm using blitz3d and don't have as much control as I would in directx (I remember reading about how to solve this problem in directx, once upon a time...). Don't think I can do anything about it...but it does work fine on my machine (I know, that really helps you a lot!). Also, we fixed the problem of files being write protected. Thanks for noticing.

Henrik: Yes, I have permission. The Black Lotus wrote the music for us personally! He is encouraging me to build my programming skill level so he can help us do an RPG game. (My dream as well!). I appreciate your comments about not finding the game fun, do you think there is any way to help with that? (Probably not considering the gameplay revolves around making 21's but it's worth a shot!). Maybe I'm an idiot, but what does YMMV stand for? Also, thanks for the uninstaller bug. We've fixed that (but we may not have uploaded that fixed version yet).

We're waiting for MindVision to approve us using the Vise installer (free for approved shareware apps!) then we'll switch and use that installer. You guys may want to check it out-very feature rich:
http://www.mindvision.com/Pricing/shareware.asp

YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary :)

I don't know what to do about me not thinking the game wasn't very fun.. but people have different tastes.

I ran your game on my test machine, which is a Pentium II 300MHz with an old Diamond Viper 330 graphics card. Here are my impressions, some of them are specific to the machine I'm testing it on and some not: From the first "click to continue" until the "Yummy," it took 43 seconds to load.
By the third time I saw that screen wipe I knew I could do without it. :) Once is enough. Then it happens again before every hand, and that one is the longest, taking 18 seconds to complete.
The mouse cursor is a laggy. It's not so bad when accessing the menus, but it gets a little in the way when playing the game. Perhaps there is some way of increasing mouse sensitivity?
Click response time is also slow. I have to click and hold a half second for it to register. I don't mind the half second, I just don't like that if I don't hold it down long enough the click is ignored.
I'm not a fan of the song, but maybe that's just because it's somewhat short. It sounds a bit like the accompaniment for a magic act in Las Vegas. ;)
The rules say you must click on cards adjacent either "vertically or diagonally", but the Making 21s screen shows an example where you grab horizontals and that's allowed in the game. Also, on level 5 (bonus level?) it appears diagonals are no longer legal, but I didn't see that in the rules either.
Initially, when I was confused, I wanted to go refer back to the rules, but F1 didn't bring up the help screen. I didn't know at the time going to the main menu would hold my game in place and I could get the rules from there. Still, a little help button on the right panel wouldn't be bad.
During the first run for the game, I hit "click to continue" on the nag screen just after the bonus screen, and without clearing the screen it overlayed the text "Level 6" and "Click left mouse button to begin" -- then the game froze and crashed. Hrm. The 2nd time it didn't crash, but it did overlay that text.
The game is unbelievably easy and slow on the PII-300, even on hard level. I mean I walked away from the test computer about five minutes ago and that hand is still slowly sashaying along the top with only 7 rows of cards up. I'm going to get some iced tea and a granola bar, maybe sit out in the sun, then come back and finish the level.
I like the game concept. I agree with the others who said you need to get the file size down as much as possible, although this is a good start. :)Good luck with the game.