Seahaven Towers Frequently Asked Questions
Updated 2003.08.29

Why Didn't I Receive an EMail with my Registration Name and Serial Number?

With the incredible increase in spam these days, a number of ISPs are using filtering software to block unsoliticted junk email. Unfortunately these measures are not always as discriminating as they might be, and occasionally the automatic notice sent to you that contains your Registration Name and Serial Number will be blocked. If you do not receive such an email, please contact us using our online feedback form. Select Contact in the menu above, or just click here.

When Registration Can't Be Updated (2.0.2 release, improved in 2.0.3)

A problem has been reported wherein the program could not be registered, neither by the embedded purchase process nor by manually entering the registration. The bug in this case is that the program should have provided more information as to why the program could not be registered. What was happening was that this particular family was using multiple accounts on their MacOS X computer, one login account for each family member. Seahaven Towers was installed, and authenticated, by one family member but the attempt to register it was being made from a different account, and the MacOS X file system denied the change request. The workaround for now is to always to use the same account for installation,embedded purchases, editing the registration, or upgrading. The fundamental problem arises simply because MacOS X supports user accounts, and all the benefits and restrictions that come with that. What we can do is detect and handle this situation a bit more gracefully, and hopefully we'll be able to offer that in a future release.

Activation Problems

Window and controls activation is a bit off. If you have a Seahaven window active, and click on the content region of another Seahaven window, the window highlighting is not set correctly. This is easily remedied by clicking on the window title bar (fixed in 2.0.3).

Spinning Rainbow Thingy on Dual-Processor Machines Running MacOS X 10.2.3 (2.0.1 release)

One customer has reported one instance of the spinning rainbow cursor of death when running the 2.0.1 release on a multiple-processor G4 system running MacOS X 10.2. Turning sound effects off, in the Seahaven Towers 2.0 Options menu, seems to eliminate the problem. So far, other customers who had this problem in the Seahaven Towers 2.0.0 release have not reported seeing this issue, so there seems to be some improvement between the two releases. We overhauled the sound handling code for the 2.0.1 release. We will continue to gather data on why this might be occurring. We would greatly appreciate a bug report on this problem if you see it, for we've never seen it in Beta testing, only on customers' machines where it is of course difficult to gather information on the underlying problem.

Spinning Rainbow Thingy on Machines Running MacOS X 10.2 (2.0.0 release)

Three customers have reported that they get the spinning rainbow cursor of death when running on a multiple-processor G4 system running MacOS X 10.2. Two customers saw the problem on a single-processor system running MacOS X 10.2. Turning the sound off just within Seahaven Towers 2.0, using the Options Menu item Turn Sound Effects Off, seems to fix the problem as a temporary workaround. We have installed a fix to this problem in the 2.0.1 release, and while the problem occurs much less frequently in the 2.0.1 release, there is still one reported incident of the problem occurring. We would greatly appreciate a bug report on this problem if you see it, for we've never seen it in Beta testing, only on customers' machines where it is of course difficult to gather information on the underlying problem.

Archive Double-Clicking Problem (fixed in 2.0.1)

No one seems to have run into this problem before it got fixed, but in case you're still running the 2.0.0 release, here's a description of the problem. If you happen to have an Archive with a Seahaven game in it, and double click on the Seahaven item to play a game directly from there, do not double click on the same Seahaven item again while the original Seahaven item window is still open. In such a circumstance, closing the original Seahaven item window will cause the application to quit unexpectedly. What is supposed to happen is the original Seahaven item window will come back to the front. A line of code was inadvertently left out. This has been fixed in the 2.0.1 release.

Highly Embarrassing Scoring Screen Issue (fixed in 2.0.1)

If you happen to be looking at the scoring screen and try to Undo or Redo, it works, sort of, although it's not supposed to. Very embarrassing. A fix for this appeared in the 2.0.1 release.

Highly Embarrassing Solver Issue (fixed in 2.0.1)

Be very wary of last minute changes. In this case, a bug was fixed just before release that made the solver work quite a bit better than it used to. Unfortunately, it also introduced a bug that allowed certain winnable games to be reported as not winnable (a yellow bar in the solver display), even though a move of a single card would clear the remaining eight cards from the table. How embarrassing. This problem was discovered by the same customer that discovered the Highly Embarrassing Scoring Screen Issue, and we are most grateful. This customer is good! This customer is very good! A fix appeared in the 2.0.1 release.

Text editing issues (Clear menu item problem) (fixed in 2.0.1)

Text editing isn't used in very many places, but it has given us some problems. We haven't seen any issues with the GM release (other than the Clear menu item problem) but it hasn't had the kind of exposure it will get with the public starting to use it. One known problem occurs with the use of the Clear menu item, which will cause the application to detect a potential problem and quit in an effort to save the user's data. The workaround is to always use the delete key and never the Clear menu item. This is fixed in the 2.0.1 release.

Also, from time to time we've seen some problems with importing text from the system clipboard. This produces a scary error message but doesn't do much else. If you copy the text again from the source it often works just fine the second time. This has not been addressed in the 2.0.1 release, but we are beginning to suspect that it may be an interaction with the debugger used during development. No customer has reported seeing this as yet.

Missing fonts problem (improved missing font handling in 2.0.1)

One user discovered a problem at launch time. The application displayed a somewhat cryptic message (Font "" not found) and quit (it doesn't crash, it just figures out it can't continue and shuts down). There are at least two bugs uncovered by this error message, one of which being the cryptic error message itself and the second being the fact that a required font is not among those expected to be found on MacOS. The workaround is to install the missing font, which should be readily available from a variety of public sources or from your MacOS system disks. The hard part currently is figuring out which one is missing, and we're still working on that part of the problem.

Here are the fonts currently required (one or two of these fonts should not be in the list, and that problem will be corrected at the next release): Geneva, Charcoal, Chicago, Times New Roman, Monaco, Courier New, and Verdana. In addition, for text editing, you should have Arial, Arial Black, Comic Sans MS, and Georgia. It was our belief that all of these fonts would be available on every system running either MacOS 9 or MacOS X, but that appears not to be the case. While the missing font problem has not been isolated, version 2.0.1 handles this situation more gracefully and should allow the program to continue launching, albeit possibly with display of the incorrect fonts in certain places.

Got "Expired" button when installing on a second machine (MacOS X) (improved handling in 2.0.1)

One user installed Seahaven Towers on a second machine for another family member, and upon launching the application the middle button on the splash screen was dimmed out and said "Expired." This prevented the user from entering the Registration code and getting the application to run. The "Expired" button should normally appear only after the end of the trial period, but in this case it was happening at first launch. The basic problem is that the application could not create a required file. The user also reported that the application was placed on the family member's machine by dragging the folder containing the application from the user's machine to the family member's machine after mounting the family member's machine as a shared disk. Under normal installation, Installer VISE will create the target folder, and set the permissions of that folder. Dragging the folder will cause that folder (the Longwood Wizards Guild folder ) to inherit the permissions of its parent folder (/Applications/), and the inherited permissions may not allow for the creation of the required file.

We are continuing to work on reproducing this problem. In the meantime, we strongly recommend that installation be done only by using the installer. If you arrive at this situation by having dragged the Longwood Wizards Guild folder to /Applications on another machine, we recommend that you delete the Longwood Wizards Guild folder that you created by dragging and run the Seahaven Towers installer so the Longwood Wizards Guild folder is created with the correct permissions.

We have modified how this is handled in 2.0.1 so that the fact that the registration information cannot be created and/or modified will be called out explicitly.

Got "Expired" button after trial period expired and can't enter registration (MacOS 9.1, MacOS X) (fixed in 2.0.1)

A problem was discovered with handling of the trial period. If you allow the trial period to expire while you are running the 2.0.0 version, your only options are to Cancel (quit/exit) or Buy Online...; the middle button is "Expired" and is disabled. Since you already have a valid Registration, you won't want to choose the Buy Online... button because that would just lead you towards buying another license. If you find yourself in this situation, we strongly recommend that you download and install the 2.0.1 version which allows you to enter your registration right on the main splash screen.

Seahaven Towers doesn't remember my options settings

Actually, this isn't a bug so much as it is a lack of a feature, which lack is caused by the fact that the program has not yet been registered. Seahaven Towers 2.0 uses a document centered approach, meaning options are saved when you close a document (file). During the evaluation period, the saving of documents is disabled; when you close a document it quits without offering to save your changes. If you register the program (which you can do at any time if you discover that you'd like to save an interesting document) then document saving is enabled. After you have registered the program, the options you have selected will be saved when you close the document.

Is there any documentation?

Yes. The built-in help system contains a lot of information about the game.

Why do you require authentication on MacOS X?

We install the game so that all users can play it, not just the person who installs it. To do this, Apple recommends that we use the Applications Support folder, and to do that on MacOS X requires that authentication be used. We tried it without authentication and it wouldn't install. We place the application in the Longwood Wizards Guild folder which is in turn placed in the Applications folder for locally shared applications. We also install a small number of winnable games in the Longwood Wizards Guild folder which is in turn placed in the Applications Support folder for locally shared applications. On MacOS X we do not put anything into the folder called /System.

On MacOS 9, the Applications Support folder is placed by MacOS utilities in the System Folder, and we install the Longwood Wizards Guild folder there, and our support files go inside that folder. On MacOS X, the Applications Support folder for the local domain is placed by MacOS utilities in the /Library/ folder, and we install the Longwood Wizards Guild folder there, and our support files go inside that folder.

When Installer VISE detects that there is more than one system folder, it will ask the user to decide where to put resources that belong in the System Folder. What it is really asking is where it should find the Application Support folder, which may in fact be in the System Folder for a system running MacOS 9, but it will be in the /Library folder for a system running MacOS X.

Where is the log file?

Our Beta testers didn't want one, but since then at least two users have indicated a very strong preference for having one. What do you think?

What are Archives for?

Archives allow you to share interesting games with friends without sending along all your scores and statistics. They also allow you to easily send along several games at a time. But, the most interesting aspects of archives will be more evident once our second and third products are available for sale.

Should I report a bug?

Yes, please. Our resources are pretty limited so we can't guarantee when a bug will be fixed or if it will be fixed, but we are certainly striving to make our products as good as possible, so we'd like to hear about problems.

How do I report a bug?

Please use our online feedback form. Select Contact in the menu above, or just click here.

What information should I include with the bug?

It would be helpful to know what OS you're running, how much memory you have, and what computer you're using to run the software. If the problem shows up as an alert with a cryptic number in parentheses, sending us that number (which pinpoints where the error is) would be very helpful.