You can buy the game by going to the buy page and clicking on the 'Buy Now' button for your preferred currency. The payment is handled by PayPal's secure web site, where you can choose to pay by credit card or through a PayPal account. Creating a PayPal account is quick and easy, and this will enable you to pay via a bank account if you don't have a credit card.
Once the payment is accepted, you will be shown a 'payment completed' page on the PayPal site, which will then automatically redirect you back to a page on the armadillorun.com web site (just leave the browser window open and it should automatically change, but there's a link you can click if it doesn't). From this page, you'll be able to download and register Armadillo Run.
You will also be sent a confirmation email, which also contains your link to download and register Armadillo Run. If you do not receive your confirmation email soon after your purchase, check your spam filter as it may have filtered it out.
While all standard credit cards should be accepted, gift cards, prepaid cards, virtual cards, or one-time use cards may not be accepted by PayPal because of the security checks they have in place. If you do not have a standard credit card then it is possible to pay from a bank account by creating a PayPal account and linking it to your bank account. See the PayPal site for more information.
No, the game's only available as a download. It's less than 2MB in size, so it should only take a couple of minutes over a dial-up connection.
Not at the moment, but I plan on making both MacOS and Linux versions.
Yes, but because it's only available as a download there won't be anything physical to wrap up and give.
After you've purchased Armadillo Run, you will be sent an email which contains your download/registration link for the game. This is all that is required to download and install the game, so if you either forward this email to the recipient or print it out and give it to them, this will enable them to install the game.
No, you can get to your download/registration page by going to the registration page and entering your current registration code. If you have lost your download/registration link and all previous registration codes, you can get a reminder email sent to you from the registration page. If you no longer have access to the email address used to purchase the game then please contact me.
Yes. Providing the game by a download rather than on a physical medium does not negatively affect the lifetime of the game. After purchasing the game, you can expect to own it as you would any other game on CD/DVD (but with the extra benefit of being able to get it back if it's lost or damaged). You will need a computer to play the game, but since the x86/Windows platform seems well established with backwards compatibility a priority (even if it's emulated), this should not be a problem for a long time.
I will continue to provide the web site for the foreseeable future. If at some point it becomes uneconomical for me to continue doing this and I decide to stop, I will release the game into the public domain so that people can continue to use it. I think it's a great shame that some fantastic games are no longer available to buy but are largely forgotten by their owners, who seem to have no intent of using the intellectual property but have not placed them in the public domain, preventing their legal use. This will not happen to Armadillo Run.
The registration process is designed to protect against piracy. I have tried to make the registration code system allow all legitimate use of the game, including simultaneous installation on multiple machines and installation on machines without Internet access.
When you install the game, it will ask you to register it the first time it runs. It will give an install code which you need to copy and paste into a box on your download/registration web page (a link sent to you in your purchase confirmation email). This will generate a registration code which you need to copy and paste back into the Armadillo Run window to register the game.
Each new install will generate a different install code, and requires a new registration code. You are initially limited to generating a maximum of 10 registration codes, but this is increased at the rate of one per month to allow for reasonable personal usage of the game for an unlimited time.
Each registration code is specific to a computer's network interface (the hardware MAC address of the primary network interface). If the network interface is no longer available (if it's physically disconnected or set 'disabled' in Windows), then the game may require re-registration. If you switch back to using a network connection which has already been registered, the game won't require re-registration. If you re-install the game on the same computer (for example, if you re-install your operating system), you won't need a new registration code - your previous registration code will still be valid.
You can download the game and get a new registration code by clicking on the download/registration link in your purchase confirmation email or going to the registration page and entering your current registration code. If you have lost your download/registration link and all previous registration codes, you can get a reminder email sent to you from the registration page.
Yes, you can install the game on multiple computers from a single purchase - you don't need to buy a separate copy of the game for each computer you install it on. You'll need a new registration code for each computer you install the game on.
You can download the game and get a new registration code by clicking on the download/registration link in your purchase confirmation email or going to the registration page and entering your current registration code. If you have lost your download/registration link and all previous registration codes, you can get a reminder email sent to you from the registration page.
Installing the game on another computer does not require you to remove it from the computer it was originally installed on - you may use the game on both machines simultaneously.
Yes, but you'll need a way of transferring the install code to a computer with Internet access to generate your registration code, and transferring this back to register the game. A USB flash drive is probably the easiest way of doing this.
You can download the game and get a new registration code by clicking on the download/registration link in your purchase confirmation email or going to the registration page and entering your current registration code. If you have lost your download/registration link and all previous registration codes, you can get a reminder email sent to you from the registration page.
Minor revisions will be made to the game over time to incorporate enhancements and fix bugs. You will always have access to the latest version of the game from your download/registration link.
You don't need to uninstall any previous versions of the game before installing a new version (but you can if you want - it makes no difference). All your settings will be preserved (your progress, levels and solutions will not be deleted) and you won't need to re-register the game.
The demo is totally separate from the full version of the game. After purchasing the game, you will be given a download/registration link where you can download and install the full version of the game.
The demo version can be uninstalled either before or after you install the full version.
Armadillo Run requires a PC with an OpenGL-compatible graphics card or a motherboard with OpenGL acceleration. Most modern computers will have one or other of these, but some older ones may not.
The graphics card or motherboard chipset requires a software driver to be installed to fully utilise the hardware. This will typically come on a CD packaged with your computer or graphics card, or it can be downloaded from the manufacturer's web site. The most common graphics card manufacturers are NVidia, ATI and Intel.
To identify your graphics card:
If the display drivers for your graphics card or motherboard chipset are not installed, the game will probably run very slowly.
Some display drivers have bugs which can cause graphics corruption, no graphics display at all (a blank screen) or a program crash. In these cases, downloading and installing the latest stable driver for your graphics card should fix the problem. If the problem persists, please contact me.
To install a new driver, follow the manufacturer's installation instructions.
If you have a laptop/notepad computer, it may be best to first look for a driver provided by your laptop manufacturer for your specific model rather than direct from the graphics chip manufacturer, since there are sometimes drivers released which are tailored to specific laptop models.
The drivers for some VIA/S3 Graphics graphics chips don't seem to support OpenGL, causing Armadillo Run to run very slowly (this problem has been confirmed with the drivers for the UniChrome and UniChrome Pro IGP chips). Unfortunately there is nothing I can do to fix this problem, but there is a work-around. The GLDirect program (which is now freeware) translates OpenGL calls into equivalent DirectX calls, which are supported by the VIA/S3 Graphics drivers. After installing it, you'll need to set the configuration. In the Main tab, under the Set Rendering Options section, select a Non-Shader driver and Hardware acceleration.
Armadillo Run uses your desktop display configuration (screen size and colour depth). If you are using a high resolution and have speed problems, you could try switching to a lower resolution or run it in windowed mode in a smaller window.
If you still experience speed problems, you can adjust some in-game settings to trade visual quality for speed. Just click on Options from the main menu and set Graphics quality to Medium or Low. Turning off the level background may also achieve a small speed increase. You can also turn off the title screen animation if it's causing a slowdown when navigating the menus.
If you've found a bug in the game, please contact me to let me know about it.
New levels can be downloaded from the level download page. You'll need the full version of Armadillo Run to play new levels (you can't play them with the demo).
There are two types of levels: normal and spectator. Normal levels are like those that come with the game - you have to build something to get Armadillo to the portal. Spectator levels don't require you to do anything - you just sit back and watch them (some of these are quite ingenious).
Yes, to upload your levels go to the level upload page. Most levels will be approved and put on the site within a few days, but I don't guarantee that all will be (for instance if a level is too similar to another).
You can submit either single levels, or a level set. A level set is a sequence of levels (where they must be completed in order) and can include extra levels, which are initially hidden, but get unlocked by achieving a high score (which gives an extra challenge).
See the manual for more information on creating levels.
Instead of making levels which require you to build something to get Armadillo to the portal, some people like to make levels which don't require any input but are just interesting to watch.
You can get hints on how to complete the normal levels by going to the hints page. Use it sparingly otherwise it might spoil the fun!
Yes, just go to the solutions page to see how other people have completed levels. You'll need the full version of Armadillo Run to view or edit these (you can't use them with the demo).
Yes, to upload your solutions go to the solution upload page. The solutions for each level are ranked by score (money remaining) and the cheapest gets displayed on the main page.
Yes, I generally have no objection to the distribution/broadcasting/public performance of screenshots or footage of the game.
Yes, please contact me if you would like to use Armadillo Run in an educational setting.
I don't currently have any plans to release Armadillo Run on any console platform. Apart from the financial barrier on some console platforms, I don't think the various control mechanisms are as suited to the game as a mouse - a touch screen may seem the perfect match, but I think the low fidelity would soon cause frustration. There are also technical difficulties inherent to some platforms and the game is quite processor-intensive which may rule out handheld systems anyway.
No, armadillorun.com is currently the only place to buy Armadillo Run.