Telltale Games

BadServo · 12/26/2008, 01:20 pm

I just wanted to jot up this quick missive in the hopes of helping others avoid this situation.

I am a huge fan of Telltale Games. Sam & Max prompted me to sign up for GameTap, and is the sole reason my subscription has continued. I also bought the first episode of SBG4AP, with intentions of upgrading to the season after the holidays when time permits playing them. ^_^ I enjoy episodic games and am proud the be a customer of a one of the genre's pioneers.

Here's where the rub come in...

A coworker of mine is a huge gamer, and like me really laments the death of classic adventure games. I bought him a retail boxed copy of Sam & Max Season 1. He seemed really pleased and eager to try it out.

The following day, he reported that he was never able to play any of the games. He reported an unusual amount of "disc thrashing", and multiple securom error messages. One of which was that he was unable to play due to disc emulation software. There is no such software installed. He uses linux and boots into Windows exclusively to play games. There's practically nothing installed on the system save for steam and game installs. He told me he tried some troubleshooting steps and reported his problems on the Telltale forums but was unable to rectify them.

After he related these issues to me, I felt so bad that I immediately re-purchased the Season 1 pack directly from the Telltale store in digital form. I explained to him that this had been the method of purchase I'd used in the past and had never suffered any such issues.

I'm a little miffed at having to pay a total of $70 for his gift, but that I can live with. More importantly I want to know why these problems have arisen. I know that Securom is present on the downloadable versions as well, and yet they've posed neither of us any issues. Is Telltale using some newer or more stringent version on the disc-based releases?

In closing, I just want to say that I'm sorry my friend's introduction to a great company was tainted by these problems. Hopefully I've set things right. I would strongly encourage anyone reading these words to purchase Telltale products, but to please do so through it's own store (or possibly Steam), it may save you trouble in the long run.

Emily · 12/27/2008, 08:08 pm

I'm sorry to hear about the problem. We use SecuROM on our downloads as well as on our disc products, so the fact that the downloads seem to be working and the disc wasn't doesn't necessarily prove anything about third party versions vs. Telltale's own versions of the games. In general we try to be very unobtrusive with our DRM but sometimes this sort of thing can happen, especially in unsupported setups such as the Linux setup you've described.

Although Linux is not a supported platform for the Sam & Max games, there's an extensive thread about running the games in Linux here that may be helpful.

BadServo · 12/27/2008, 08:48 pm

Thank you for your reply.

I'm admittedly not an expert, but the variance between distribution mediums is all we could come up with given the evidence. The account-tied Telltale verification is very unobtrusive, that's why I'm not particularly upset at Telltale. I just wanted to warn others that might have the same issue.

Although I did want to clarify, that the issues described in my original post were all experienced under Windows. He has a completely separate drive with Windows installed for playing games. As such, I feel we can eliminate unusual or unsupported setups as a probable cause.

He now has the downloadabel version and is having no problems with it, so it's no longer an issue for him specifically. However, he'll likely regift the original retail copy. So I'll make note of the Linux methods for future reference.

Cheers

**Jake** · 12/27/2008, 09:20 pm

This might be goofy, but it could be related to the disc itself -- as in, a manufacturing defect or something. I doubt you can, but if you have another PC laying around with the same model CD or DVD drive as your friends' PC (or, really, any other PC at all, I guess) it might be worth giving it a try. Early on, especially with the first run of the retail discs, people reported some funkiness with some drives. It was usually the disc showing up blank, not crazy drive-eating-itself noises, but you never know.

12/26/2008, 01:20 pm	#1
BadServo Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 4	S&M S01 Retail Issues I just wanted to jot up this quick missive in the hopes of helping others avoid this situation. I am a huge fan of Telltale Games. Sam & Max prompted me to sign up for GameTap, and is the sole reason my subscription has continued. I also bought the first episode of SBG4AP, with intentions of upgrading to the season after the holidays when time permits playing them. ^_^ I enjoy episodic games and am proud the be a customer of a one of the genre's pioneers. Here's where the rub come in... A coworker of mine is a huge gamer, and like me really laments the death of classic adventure games. I bought him a retail boxed copy of Sam & Max Season 1. He seemed really pleased and eager to try it out. The following day, he reported that he was never able to play any of the games. He reported an unusual amount of "disc thrashing", and multiple securom error messages. One of which was that he was unable to play due to disc emulation software. There is no such software installed. He uses linux and boots into Windows exclusively to play games. There's practically nothing installed on the system save for steam and game installs. He told me he tried some troubleshooting steps and reported his problems on the Telltale forums but was unable to rectify them. After he related these issues to me, I felt so bad that I immediately re-purchased the Season 1 pack directly from the Telltale store in digital form. I explained to him that this had been the method of purchase I'd used in the past and had never suffered any such issues. I'm a little miffed at having to pay a total of $70 for his gift, but that I can live with. More importantly I want to know why these problems have arisen. I know that Securom is present on the downloadable versions as well, and yet they've posed neither of us any issues. Is Telltale using some newer or more stringent version on the disc-based releases? In closing, I just want to say that I'm sorry my friend's introduction to a great company was tainted by these problems. Hopefully I've set things right. I would strongly encourage anyone reading these words to purchase Telltale products, but to please do so through it's own store (or possibly Steam), it may save you trouble in the long run.

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12/27/2008, 08:08 pm	#2
Emily Formerly of the Telltale Team Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: San Francisco Posts: 4,549	I'm sorry to hear about the problem. We use SecuROM on our downloads as well as on our disc products, so the fact that the downloads seem to be working and the disc wasn't doesn't necessarily prove anything about third party versions vs. Telltale's own versions of the games. In general we try to be very unobtrusive with our DRM but sometimes this sort of thing can happen, especially in unsupported setups such as the Linux setup you've described. Although Linux is not a supported platform for the Sam & Max games, there's an extensive thread about running the games in Linux here that may be helpful.

12/27/2008, 08:48 pm	#3
BadServo Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 4	Thank you for your reply. I'm admittedly not an expert, but the variance between distribution mediums is all we could come up with given the evidence. The account-tied Telltale verification is very unobtrusive, that's why I'm not particularly upset at Telltale. I just wanted to warn others that might have the same issue. Although I did want to clarify, that the issues described in my original post were all experienced under Windows. He has a completely separate drive with Windows installed for playing games. As such, I feel we can eliminate unusual or unsupported setups as a probable cause. He now has the downloadabel version and is having no problems with it, so it's no longer an issue for him specifically. However, he'll likely regift the original retail copy. So I'll make note of the Linux methods for future reference. Cheers

12/27/2008, 09:20 pm	#4
Jake Telltale Team Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 5,843	This might be goofy, but it could be related to the disc itself -- as in, a manufacturing defect or something. I doubt you can, but if you have another PC laying around with the same model CD or DVD drive as your friends' PC (or, really, any other PC at all, I guess) it might be worth giving it a try. Early on, especially with the first run of the retail discs, people reported some funkiness with some drives. It was usually the disc showing up blank, not crazy drive-eating-itself noises, but you never know.