Tiki Brothers Help with Way To Go Bowling!

Green: Red, I’m soooo BORED! I’ve finished my badges for the week, and surfing is out of the question since its freezing cold outside, plus my wet-suit is at the dry cleaners. Haha, how ironic.

Red: Well, umm. Well, why don’t we go bowling?

Green: Dude, the bowling alley is closed, they are resurfacing the lanes! Bah!

Red: What did you expect after you tried bowling with soccer cleats?!? Anyway, I meant Way To Go Bowling!

Green: They wanted to charge me TWO DOLLARS to rent shoes! Plus, those cleats gave me better footing. And that reminds me!

Hi Everyone! Welcome to Tiki Brothers Talk Tech!

Red, would you be so kind as to read today’s pogo-bowl related question?

Red: Hah! I don’t get you Green. One minute you’re the nicest Tiki in the world, the next minute your gluing quarters to the sidewalk outside the café and laughing your self to sleep at night. Anyway, here is today’s question.

Barry of Whackamole, Idaho, asks:

Dear Tiki’s, I am just having the worst luck trying to play the new-fangled Way To Go Bowling. Any tips on making it work? I don’t want to miss any badges!

Green: Oh great! Barry, you didn’t tell us exactly what your problem is, so it looks like we are going to have to go down the laundry list, eh Red?

Red: Yup, let’s start with getting the game. If you want to download it, get the free 60 minute demo of Way To Go Bowling here. Like most of Pogo’s downloadable games, simply hit the “Try Free” button, and a message should pop up asking if you want to open it or save it. Save it to your computer somewhere easy to find. I suggest putting it on your desktop.

This is when things change a little bit. Way To Go Bowling is a big game. Compared to your usual downloadable Pogo game, Way To Go Bowl is about 3 to 5 times larger. This means the download time, too, will be about 3 to 5 times longer. On some fast internet connections, like high-speed, you will likely hardly notice the difference, but if your on dial-up, be prepared to wait. It could take several hours, or all night.

Green: Your patience will be rewarded, trust me! So, now you are downloading and twiddling your thumbs, and wondering what to do with all your new-found free time right? Great! Let’s check Way To Go Bowling‘s dreaded System Requirements! (Queue the scary music!)

Red: Oh yeah, Way To Go Bowling is a 3D game. It requires a bit more “horsepower” from your computer than any other Pogo game or Pogo To Go game out there. Don’t fret though, most computers bought within the last 4 to 5 years can play the game without problems, or with just a few tweaks. And Green and I are going to help you figure out if you can play or not. Honestly the very easiest way is to just download the demo and give it a shot, especially if you have a quick Internet connection.

Green: Great, so now, as you’re downloading, look to the right side of the screen and you will see the system requirements for the game. And I will show you the easy way to see if you meet those system requirements. The first thing you will want to do is open your start menu, then click on “run”. In the “run” box type “dxdiag” (without the quotes) and hit “OK”. If you have Windows Vista, just click on the Windows button then start typing “dxdiag” and hit enter.

Now you will see a program come up called “DirectX Diagnostic Tool”. It sounds scary, I know, but really, it’s no big deal.

Red: As we have talked about before, sometimes the same part of your computer can be called different things, and this might be one of those cases. The rule of thumb is, if any of your system specs are under the requirements the game might have trouble running. Here are the requirements and here is where you find that info in DirectX diagnostic Tool.

Green: If any of your computer specs are not up to snuff, well then I recommend calling your nephew and asking if he has any old computer parts he is trying to get rid of, hehe.

Red: Don’t listen to Green! Actually, your best bet is to talk with someone knowledgeable about computers and ask for advice on what you can do to give your computer the ability to play the game based on the system requirements. Or, if you have some time, simply try downloading the game and seeing if it works. If it doesn’t, you will know why.

Green: So, lets say you’ve already installed the game and you’ve double checked the system Requirements and your computer should be able to play the game, but something or other is wrong. The most common complaints we have heard include blank screens, slow performance or missing graphics. All these issues are fairly common with 3D games, and most of the time, it is related to drivers. More specifically, you might have out of date drivers.

Red: Green and I have discussed drivers before, but we are going to try to give you a concise exercise on updating your video drivers to the latest version. First, go back to your DxDiag program and click on the “Display” tab. Don’t panic, there is a lot of (mostly useless) information displayed there.

We are looking for 3 pieces of information in particular.

First and second, on the left side, under “Device” get the information next to “Name”. It will usually be the manufactures name and then the type of video card you have. Great, now look at the right hand side of this screen and look at the “drivers” section. Look for the “Date” section. Grab that date.

Green: If that driver date is more than, let’s say, six months old, its time to update your video drivers. Browse to the manufactures website of your video card. It is usually the name of the manufacturer of the video card, with a “.com” after it. Check with your computer manufactures if you have any questions. Now, ninety-nine percent of the time, there will be a “Drivers” link somewhere on their website, or some sort of customer support screen.

Red: Follow the instructions on the website to download and install the latest driver. After installing, reboot your compute then try the game again. Click here to for more information on updating drivers.

Green: So, now you may be asking “what if my drivers are up to date and I am doing everything else right, what else can I try?” Well, try this; disable some of the sounds in Way To Go Bowling. The easy way to do this is by browsing to where Way To Go Bowling is installed, and run the “No Sound” launcher.

Red: You can find this “no Sound” launcher easily by doing the following:

Click on your “Start Menu” and click on “All Programs”, then “Pogo Games”, then “Way To Go Bowling” then *Right Click* on the icon for the game and choose “Properties”.

A little window will pop up. Simply click on the button that says “Find Target…”. The folder where the game is installed will instantly pop up.

In this folder look for the file called “Way To Go! Bowling – Sound Disabled”.

Simply double-click on that file to play.

Green: The game should start as normal (sounds and all!) but, when you get into the actual gameplay, the sounds will be disabled, to improve compatibility.

Red: Okay, so now, you have the tools, the knowledge and the hints and tips to play Way To Go Bowling without a hitch. So Green, anything else you wanted to mention?

Green: Wha? I wasn’t listening…. I’m working on a 7-10 split here! Gimme a break!

Red: Green! You are impossible! *Sigh*

Thanks everyone! If you liked this article, make sure you send an email to the Pogo Editor!

Green: A helpful reader of the Tiki Bros. pointed out to us another few quick tweak you can do to Way To Go Bowling. (You know who you are!)
Simply launch the game, then click on the button for “Options” from the main menu. On the “Game Options” screen uncheck the following: “Full Screen Mode” and “Millions of Colors”. Next, at the bottom of the screen under “Level of Detail” section, press the left arrow and set it to “Low”. Hit the Close button, than try the game again. Good Luck!