This FAQ has been organized by subject matter, so click on a specific subject below to see questions related to that subject, or scroll down to see all frequently asked questions.
Yes, absolutely. Every level has been tested numerous times and is completely solvable. There are currently 18 levels, and each one is winnable.
Now, that said, it's important that the game be running smoothly on your computer, with a decent frame rate. If the game runs slow or jerky--especially on levels with lots of animation and things moving--then you may not be able to win those levels. See the next question for into on how to get the game running at proper speed.
Make sure you have the latest version of Java installed. You can find the link to the latest Java version from the Gumball Gauntlet home page.
Note also that you should have a reasonably fast computer-- something purchased within the last few years or so. But by no means does it need to be a "powerhouse" computer. Just something with relatively moderate capabilities. A CPU slower than 500Mhz is probably not going to cut it, and we really recommend 1.5Mhz and up for the best gaming experience. In the future we plan to offer a "graphics card enabled" version that will let you offload graphics tasks to a capable graphics card, which should make the game playable on older computers that have decent graphics cards.
The game buffers one keystroke. That means that quickly hitting "UP, LEFT" will cause the ball to move up as far as possible, and then move left as far as possible. The idea is that if you know where you want the ball to get to, you never have to wait for the ball to completely stop before giving it the next direction in which to move.
If you make a mistake and don't want the ball to move two steps, just hit the original direction again. For example, suppose you hit "UP, LEFT" but don't really want the ball to go left after it goes up. Just hit "UP" again before the ball finishes its current movement. The game only remembers the last buffered key.
You'll soon get very used to the key buffering, and you'll be glad you did because it really comes in handy for big levels with lots of ball movement, like the Amazing level.
Make sure you already have the latest version of Java installed. You can find the link to the latest Java version from the Gumball Gauntlet home page.
Java is both a programming language and an environment in which programs run. In some ways it's like Flash. Just as you need to install Flash in order to run Flash programs (whether they be Flash games or animations), you must install Java in order to run Java programs. Gumball Gauntlet is a Java program and thus requires that you have Java installed.
Note that once you install Java, you're ready to play any game that uses Java, not just Gumball Gauntlet. There are many games that use Java. Of course, just as with Flash, you will have to update your version of Java from time to time, but this isn't required very often.
Why didn't we just use Flash? Well, Java has many advantages over Flash--too many to list here. But here's a big one: Java is free for both end-users and the programmers who develop the programs. Flash is free for end-users such as yourself who use the Flash programs, but Macromedia (the makers of Flash) charge programmers money to make programs with Flash! Java is completely free.
When you start the game, the first time you try to load a level it takes the Mac version up to a minute to load it. I don't know why this is. It probably has something to do with the Mac OS X giving the game the file permissions it needs so it can read in the level file. If you're a Mac expert and know the exact reason, please drop me a line. At any rate, this only happens for the first level loaded after starting the game. After that, you can load level after level and it only takes five seconds or so.
This is a known problem in the Mac version and eventually it will be fixed. What happened is the game tried to restart itself, but failed. But don't worry--your fullscreen setting was saved. Simply restart the game again, and it will start with the setting you indicated.
By the way, to really enjoy the game in fullscreen mode, you may need to configure your monitor settings if your have a widescreen (aka "letterbox" or "16:9") monitor. Try it first; if the game looks "stretched" horizontally in fullscreen mode, then you need to configure your monitor/graphics adapter to suppress widescreen mode.