March 11, 2007.
Is Microgaming Software Good Or Bad? Slow Downloads And New Games Updates.
Microgaming is the most popular online gaming software that is offered by dozens online casinos today.
It's likely that the top end quad core machines will shortly become the minimum requirement to
have an all round fun experience at Microgaming (MG) casinos. You can simultaneously update three MG casinos, four causes problems...
My Dual Core machine has far less trouble running a game while updating, indeed
it can handle three simultaneously playing MicroGaming casinos, with slight wobbles evident at four. Once updated,
MG casino software tend to run OK because the PC is doing only the one thing, running the games.
Multiple casinos on a single PC
I've always been of the mind that you should find one good casino per software type and be loyal to it, and it will be loyal to you!
Assume you have ten MG casinos loaded.. That's why you're running out of disc space! And downloading the casino the "normal way" can
take two to four hours! Somebody can download a full install for an MG casino in 15 to 20 minutes, with a further 10 mins for the
whole install process. The full install insists on loading itself
entirely into RAM to self extract, far too big a mouthful when it gets to around 300 MB.
Heavy Updates
Unfortunately, they don't keep it up to date, and it often lags several months behind on the update cycle. A few groups provide a
download for the full install. And when when it comes to updates, download and install a couple of games can take 2 (or more)
hours on 1.5 mbp DSL. Everything else on the net zooms along, but the MG casino downloads still chug along, spitting and sputtering
and grinding...
I presumed casino downloads would then be a breeze. Only the new games will not be available, everything else will work in the state
it was in the month prior. In such a case, the casino behaves as though it has yet to be issued, no spluttery games etc. It's not possible
to alter the system environment to prevent an MG casino from "seeing" the monthly update.
Slow downloads
The common package PKZIP extracts files and puts them in a tree of directories beneath the main directory,
which can be chosen by the player. What is wrong with being able to download the entire compressed 350Mbyte casino package in a single
go (a download manager would be useful here), and install everything locally in one operation.
However, the download managers cause problems in themselves on many systems, as they attempt to manage the download as though the system was
on dial-up. As to speed, the full casino
is 600+ MB, large, but not 4 hours worth! Many have fast broadband, and it would be simpler to directly download the casino file.
Software bugs
There is also an old bug in the AutoPlay feature of
Thunderstruck slots, another where the first two reels stop and 3 - 5 just keep on spinning away,
until you crash out of the game. It has nothing to do with connections, as the result has reached the client and displayed on first
two reels. Although online casino where I played are looking into this, it seems they are getting nowhere once they have to refer
the problem onwards, presumably to MG. Even a complete clean out and reinstall from scratch has not helped, despite taking nearly
10 hrs in total for the pair.
What on Earth, Harvey's and some of the other variable multiplier slots have software bugs too.
New games
What do we have now - something like 200 games? With about 50 - 60 games to be released every year?
I would recommend that Microgaming software developers take a month or two off from churning out yet more new games which players are hardly
crying out for, and spend it
reviewing and finding ways to improve the overall software package to make it more user-friendly. Either give players the choice to only
download the games they want, or download just one 'package' of casino games per computer which can be accessed
and used by All
Microgaming casinos.
Monthly Upgrades When Microgaming releases new games each month, it seems they update all
the existing games also. Why do they do this? When players download a casino for the first time it takes 3-4 hours for the full package to install.
Imagine a new online gambler downloading a MG casino for the first ever
time to try it in practice mode - what is their initial impression going to be? Moreover, during this time the games are subject to slow
play and long connection delays, particularly noticeable on slots when the reels can spin for up to a minute or even more! Check out
reviews of the popular Microgaming slots here.
In conclusion I would say that although MG online casinos offer the largest number of top-quality, feature-rich state-of-the-art games,
the players have to either play at only a few MG casinos (thus loosing free spins/welcome bonus opportunities) or play reduced no-download Flash version
of MG casino software. Moreover, modern Microgaming games are only suitable for those who have broadband Internet connection.
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