Installation

Like many online games, Puzzle Pirates requires a download before you can play. But don’t be afraid! The installation of Puzzle Pirates is a relatively straight forward process that shouldn’t cause any worries for an intrepid Pirate.

You can email us using the Puzzle Pirates Support form if you’ve tried to download and had a problem. We’ll be happy to help in any way we can!

This section is provided to help explain what’s involved in downloading the game. If you’re ready to start playing now, you can skip the information below and go straight to getting the game:

Download site

Otherwise, it makes sense to start with some information on what you’ll be installing:

Puzzle Pirates is a java-based game. You’ll actually be installing a Java client when you download the game. When you play, the Java client connects to our Puzzle Pirates servers. The server manages all the information about your Pirate and allows you to use the game puzzles, talk to other players, and so on.

The client software comes in four parts and totals around 46 megabytes.

• 400kb Installer
• 12mb of Java 1.5 (optional, may not be required)
• 4mb of Client Code
• 30mb of Artwork and Sound

Generally, download time is 7 minutes on DSL (768k) and around 1 hour 45 minutes on a modem (56k).

Depending on your operating system, the download is going to require you to click to accept the game a couple of times. These steps are in place to make sure you’re aware that the installation is occurring. Generally, you’ll get the same kinds of message whatever you try to install, so there shouldn’t be any reason to worry during this process.

Below, we’ve provided some useful points that will hopefully get you through any problems with the installation process.

What is this Security Certificate for?

When you choose to create a pirate and launch the game from our website, you may see a Grey Havens security certificate pop up. You must agree to trust it so that our installer program can copy the game guts to your computer. If you click “no” or “don’t trust” on this window, the installer program will give an error.

In this case, you can either close your web browser and open it again for a second chance to trust our certificate, or choose to instead Download the game to your computer and install it from there. You will still be able to create a new pirate if you choose to download.

What Platforms are Supported?

Puzzle Pirates runs in Java 1.5 and is presently supported on Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, and Vista, on Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger”, OS X 10.5 “Leopard”, on Linux and other Unix platforms.

What is the Minimum Specification machine?

We recommend that Puzzle Pirates is played on a 500mhz Pentium II with 256mb of memory or better. Puzzle Pirates does not require any particular video card. The game uses about 100mb of disc space at minimum.

It may be possible to play with a lower specification machine, but it’s not advisable. You may experience delays in crowded scenes, and occasionally puzzles may fail to start properly due to client lag.

How do I play on Mac OS X Tiger/Leopard/Yosemite?

In order to play on Mac OS X, you simply need to have the latest Java release from Apple, then click here to download the installer for Mac OS X.

If you have OS X 10.4.11, you can upgrade to Java 5.0 by downloading it from Apple’s website. Java 5.0 fixes many of the graphical glitches present in Java 1.4.

Unfortunately, Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” or higher is required and earlier versions of Mac OS X will not run Puzzle Pirates in a playable state. Regarding minimum specs, any Mac that runs 10.4 comfortably should run Puzzle Pirates, but more memory is definitely an advantage.

Looking for another version of Java?

Java 7 can be found at the Oracle website:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jre7-downloads-1880261.html

Java 6 can be downloaded from the Apple support website:
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1572

You will need to run the “Java Preferences” utility in /Applications/Utilities/Java/J2SE *.0 and set the default version of Java to *.0 in order to have Puzzle Pirates use that version of Java.

Firewall and Connection Problems

What Ports does Yohoho! use? I am behind a Firewall.

Puzzle Pirates uses TCP over ports 47624 and 4007, along with port 80 for in-game web pages.

I am having Proxy problems

A proxy server may cause problems when you start the game, including seeing a dialog box asking you for your Proxy settings. You should be able to find these in your browser settings; look until Tools, Options, Connections, LAN Settings or the settings button for your particular connection. Unfortunately if this doesn’t work it gets a bit fiddly, you may have to take a look in the Technical Issues forum. If you are sure you don’t have a proxy, please make sure that you are not running any software firewalls that are blocking Puzzle Pirates from connecting to our servers – common culprits include Windows Firewall, Norton Internet Security, or ZoneAlarm. If you are running a software firewall, make sure that “javaw.exe” is on the list of programs authorized to connect to the internet.

Windows Issues

My virus scanner gives me an alert when running Puzzle Pirates?

Virus scanners often interfere with games, although we have had no recent reports of this happening with Puzzle Pirates. Please contact Support with details. We assure you that there is no virus contained in Puzzle Pirates.

If you encounter such problems please make sure you disable any Virus Scanner you’re running when trying to update Puzzle Pirates. Also check the Technical Issues forum for the latest on any known problems. You can use the Puzzle Pirates full installer to correct any problems with our dynamic launcher or corruption of your game files.

Java fails to initialize when I run Puzzle Pirates

Some folks have trouble installing the new version of Java that comes with Puzzle Pirates. To fix this, please do the following:

Go to the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Programs. Look for “Java 2 Runtime Environment”, and remove that.

You may need to reboot. Then just try running the Yohoho installer again. Please contact Support if this fails.

HTTP Error Downloading Client

For the installer to work correctly, the 32-bit version of Java must be present on your computer. For newer computers, this will require you to specifically download the 32-bit version of Java.

Mac Issues

On Mac OS X Tiger or Leopard, I get an error, ‘Java Application has Unexpectedly Quit’

The most likely cause of the problem is that Java is in a broken state from when you updated your system to Tiger or Leopard. You can check by opening Terminal.app (In the Applications/Utilities folder) and typing:

java -version

If it responds:

HotSpot not at correct virtual address. Sharing disabled.
java version “1.4.1_01”
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.1_01-69.1)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.1_01-24, mixed mode)

then Java is broken on your machine. But fear not! Apple realized it was their installer that caused this and has a fix available at:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=120274

which you can download and run, which should get you going again!

Performance Problems

You could try switching off Sound, this may help considerably. Make sure that you are not running any other programs. Puzzle Pirates does like to use memory, if you notice your harddrive chunking a lot then this is probably the issue.

Digest.txt Problems

If the application fails to launch because it’s missing digest.txt, then you’ll need to delete the following three files and relaunch the application: getdown.txt, version.txt, and digest.txt. The following are some example installation paths where these files can be found:

• Windows
  • C:\Program Files\Three Rings Design\Puzzle Pirates
  • Steam: Right click on the game title then choose Manage local files to open the folder
• Mac
  • /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/yoclient
• Linux
  • /home/<username>/yoclient

Searching your computer for yoclient will find any relevant installation folder(s), including the location of files for browser launches.

Puzzle Pirates makes my MP3s/Movies/etc. Booch

Puzzle Pirates has been known to be a bit of a processor hog, so it may interfere with your MP3 player or other software. Assuming that you have a fast machine and should be attempting to run Puzzle Pirates along with the latest pirate shanties, this is a Java problem that we hope Sun are doing their best to resolve.

Uninstall

How do I uninstall Puzzle Pirates?

On Windows go to the Start menu, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, and Uninstall Puzzle Pirates. You may also wish to uninstall Java 1.4 via the Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs.

If you’re using Unix you should be able simply `rm -rf yohoho` from the installation directory and bid the game farewell.

On Mac OS X, simply dragging the Puzzle Pirates application to the trash will completely erase Puzzle Pirates from your computer.