As some of you already know, the JA Shop is now open. Six new games have just been added:

Aura 2: The Sacred Rings

The Book of Unwritten Tales

Dreamfall – The Longest Journey 2

Egypt 3: The Egyptian Prophecy

The Experiment


All with the exception of The Book of Unwritten Tales offer free trials.

All games currently appearing in the store are reflected here:
http://www.justadventure.com/shop/?a=2

Games will be continuously added and announced, so do check back often. Thanks!

I personally played the Book of unwritten tales and I must say it was hard to walk away from the computer after getting started. 

Support

The shop looks very nice.  What kind of DRM does it employ?  Does one have to be online like Origins/ Steam?  I have an offline PC that I use for games that I buy on discs. Will I be able to transfer any games that I buy from the JA store to this PC, and does the JA store still ship any atcual bricks-and-mortar discs?

Hey Trav,

     We are using a brand new method of DRM to help gaurd our stuff against piracy. It basically protects the main executable and it's resources. It does not require an internet connection after activation, but currently it does require one for initial activation. yes we do plan on adding discs to our menu in the near future, however they won't be made of brick and mortar they will be shiny round things called plastic CD's. Although I can't directly comment on Steam or Origins, I think that our service is more suited for this speccifc type of gaming. Thanks for the compliment we worked very hard to give it a nice look and an ease of use, you'll find the same in the instalation and activation process with the games as well as the trials. Thanks again.

Support

Originally Posted By Support

yes we do plan on adding discs to our menu in the near future, however they won't be made of brick and mortar they will be shiny round things called plastic CD's.

 

LOL 

I hope you'll be adding more games soon, and actual discs (shiny plastic ones..

Hope it goes well with the store in the meantime and good luck!

Thanks so much Trav. Are you on vacation in a murder mystery? Man that'd be awesome wouldn't it. No we just have to find someone to finance and organize it. LOL Hope your havin some fun.

Ah, I'm glad to read that the store is back!  Thank you.  ^_^

In principle I really like the idea of a trial system - especially given that games don't often have separate demos. ^_^

Hmm...  May I ask a few questions regarding your trial system, please?  I hope that you'll not take my hesitance amiss; after all, DRM systems can be dodgy things at times (for which reason I these days try to avoid middling- to heavy- DRM, in some cases, at least).

First of all, I understand that you might be reticent to reveal too much of the mechanism behind your DRM; doing so could potentially weaken it, after all.  However, what are you willing to tell?  Does it install anything, or run at startup, for example?

Secondly, what happens if one gets a new computer?  Is that a second activation, and if so, does that work with the original download, or is one expected to re-buy the game?

If subsequent re-activations or re-downloads are called for, what happens if the store is discontinued at some stage?  (I might suggest a blanket patch to unlock downloaded games if that happens, should this be viable.)

Third, what is your policy on backing up these downloads?

Finally, if I do decide to back up a download, and do so after activation, should my backup be still activated when I next come to install it?

Hi Thaumaturge,

Yes, we are going to keep some of the details to ourselves for security reasons, that said unlike some other systems we do not manipulate or change any of your system files or drivers. If you get another computer that would be a second activation, you should not have to re-buy the game. We are very reasonable & understand that people do get new computers & many have multiple computers, so if you needed more activations its not a problem. 

Re-downloads are also not a problem, if you ever need to re-download a purchase you can easily do so. Just open a helpdesk ticket & provide your user name along with the game you'd like to download & we will email you a link to re-download your game.

Backing up the game installation files is [size= 9pt; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif]recommended. If you ever have to re-install a game it may need to be re-activated which is not a problem, just open a helpdesk ticket & we will take care of it. Also if you have saved game files you should backup the saved game files so you won't have to restart your game from the beginning in case of a computer crash. 

If you have any more questions just let us know & we will answer as long as it doesn't compromise our security. 

Thank you for those clarifications, digitize - I appreciate them. ^_^

Overall, it seems to be rather better than some such systems, although I might worry about what might happen if the site were to go under.  Thank you in particular for allowing backups!

Thank you again! ^_^

Your very welcome Thaumaturge. 

Ahh, yes, we do have something in place to take care of everyone if the site does go under, I'm sorry but we really can't elaborate on that for security reasons. 

Fair enough - the main thing, for me at least, is the reassurance that there is some such mechanism in place.  Thank you again! ^_^

My apologies that this is a double-post, but a post in another thread here prompted a new question, if I may: If I buy the game without taking the demo, are activations still involved and do I still get the DRM, or can I just download the game and install it?

The game would still require activation.

The great thing about our Trial system is that when you download the Trial you have the entire game, you can try it out for a bit, make sure it runs well on your computer, if you like it, pay for it & go right back to playing from where you left off. Its different from a demo in that respect. 

Fair enough, and thank you.  I do recognise the system as an advantage when one does want to try the demo first; I was just hoping to be able to avoid the DRM entirely.

However, my impression is that the DRM used here may not be as heavy as some others, so don't worry, I haven't ruled out buying from the store here. ^_^