If your problem/question is not covered by the topics below, please contact Technical Support for help. If you are looking for specific game rules, please visit The Games area. This page was last updated on September 15, 2001.

BINGO:
1. Is there an auto-daub?
2. How do I declare BINGO? Where is the BINGO button?
3. I have played for 3 hours straight, and I still haven't won a single game. Are you sure there is nothing wrong somewhere?
4. How do I mark numbers on the card?
5. Why are there 2 different marker colors?
6. Why are not all 75 numbers called in some games?
7. What if there's more than one winner?

GENERAL:
1. What do I do with my points? Does the site offer prizes?
2. How does the rating system work?
3. The game freezes a lot, I always get disconnected, is there something I can do?
4. What is Flash? Why do I need it to play on this site?
5. Where can I get the latest version of Flash?
6. I am having problems installing the Flash update, what can I do?




BINGO:
Q. Is there an auto-daub?
A. NO. You need to manually mark the numbers in order to win. While most players will appreciate not having to mark anything anymore, here at ToTheGames.com, I encourage player participation and feel that you lose the fun in playing if you are not actually playing anymore. I would not like to hear WordHunt players later on asking me to let the computer play for them too so they can chat at the same time ;-) There are some useful functionalities built in the bingo game to aid in marking numbers on your card, making marking easier than usual, without doing the actual marking for you.


Q. How do I declare BINGO? Where is the BINGO button?
A. There is NO bingo button. The game declares bingo for you automatically as soon as the last number you marked completes the winning pattern.


Q. I have played for 3 hours straight, and I still haven't won a single game. Are you sure there is nothing wrong somewhere?
A. Each player gets 6 random cards, so everyone gets equal chances of winning the game. The computer will only compute how many calls are needed for each card to win the current game, this is how it is able to report the 1TG/2TG/3TG statistics, but this does NOT affect who wins a particular game, nor does the computer favor one player over another.

If we assume that each game lasts for 5 minutes, and if we assume that there is an average of 30 people playing at the same time, and if we further assume that NO player is supposed to win more than one game for each hour, this means that there are 12 games for every hour, and 12 unique players will win (one for each game), leaving 18 people not win a single game who will all probably claim that they have been cheated ;-) This is just a very basic example, since there are a lot of factors involved (not all games will take as long as 5 minutes, sometimes there are 70 people playing at the same time, and this 70 will not necessarily be the same 70 players to play the next game since people come and go anytime etc). How many of you can go to a real bingo hall, play for 3 hrs straight, and claim that everyone in the room will actually win at least once?

Taken from another perspective, the "best" bingo player for August 2001 has played more than 1000 games, and only won about 35 of it. The only way to increase everyone's chances of winning, is to have less players for each bingo game, that is why I will be adding more bingo game rooms soon.

I know everyone can formulate their own theories and disprove whatever I just explained above. I can't really think of anything else, except to say that I am sure there is nothing wrong in that area of the game, all the cards and all the games are completely random, and I don't have control whatsoever who wins a particular game.

Bottom line: Bingo is a game of chance, in other words, just pure luck. Some players are just more lucky than the others. If you do not win a lot (or not at all), try your luck in the next games. If you still don't win, then perhaps you are as unlucky as I am in actually winning the lotto, see I've been trying my luck on that thing for YEARS now and I still haven't won *smile* ;-)


Q. How do I mark numbers on the card?
A. Just move your mouse over to the numbers, no need to click the mouse!


Q. Why are there 2 different marker colors?
A. One color is used (red by default) if the number that was marked falls in the winning pattern. Otherwise the other color (blue by default) is used. This is to help you spot if you are close to winning the current game and what numbers you need to form the winning pattern.


Q. Why are not all 75 numbers called in some games?
A. The game will only call the numbers that are needed in the current pattern. For example, if you are playing Four Corners, only the B and O numbers will be called, because the other balls are not needed anymore to complete the winning pattern. This speeds up the game considerably, and saves you the trouble of marking non-winning numbers on your cards.


Q. What if there's more than one winner?
A. The points are evenly divided among the winners.




GENERAL:
Q. What do I do with my points? Does the site offer prizes?
A. Please note that this is a personal site, it is not being maintained by a company, everything you see here is just a one-man effort, so I am not really able to offer any prizes or drawings. Points are used for player statistics/rankings only, and may be reset anytime. The ranking/rating system is still being finetuned so stay tuned for site updates.


Q. How does the rating system work?
A. All games at ToTheGames.com are rated. The rating system for each game are all variants of the Elo system being used by the US Chess Federation. It provides a quick assessment of the skill level of a player. Please check the How Games Are Rated section for more information.


Q. The game freezes a lot, I always get disconnected, is there something I can do?
A. Freezing happens due to several factors, so there is no single solution for everyone. Sometimes, your connection to the Internet suffers from some slowdown, and I can not really do anything about this, a 5-second problem with your connection can already affect the stability of your game. For bingo, the most obvious sign is if the balls stop from being called, and after awhile, you suddenly get 2-3 balls almost at the same time.

Try to browse other sites, and see if you experience any slowness in general. For dial-up users, you may try disconnecting from your ISP, then reconnect again, perhaps you can get a better connection that way. I am on dial-up myself, and I do this sometimes if I see that my modem is connecting at slower speeds than what I normally get. However, this does not really solve intermittent connection problems. In my case, for about 1 hour that I am online, my connection will slow down for a few seconds every now and then. It is not very obvious when you are just surfing the web, but if you are playing a game that needs a stable connection for straight hours, then the problems gets magnified.

Sometimes, the machine itself (from my end) may be under heavy load, and/or it may also be experiencing slowdown reaching connections of some of the players. The server running the games right now is just a Celeron 500 Mhz computer with 128MB of RAM. This is really NOT enough with the traffic the site is getting now, but I am not sure when I can upgrade the server.

Other factors include how fast your computer is, how many applications you are currently running etc. Generally, I would recommend that you don't run too many applications while playing the games. Close any browser windows that may be open at the same time. I will also be adding options later on to turn off some features of the game for those who have slower computers.

I understand that some of you will have cable/DSL or even better connections, have the latest and fastest computers, and still experience problems once in awhile (or all the time depending on your luck ;-) I am sorry that I can not really possibly fix everyone's problems one by one, so I just like to assure everyone that I always try to find ways of improving everything :-)


Q. What is Flash? Why do I need it to play on this site?
A. Flash is a browser plugin technology that Adobe has developed. It is the "engine" behind such sites like ToTheGames.com, making it possible to make sophisticated online games and applications at a fraction of the size of most downloadable games (and even java applets in most instances).


Q. Where can I get the latest version of Flash?
A. Click on the graphic below to check your Flash version. You will be prompted to update your version if you don't have the latest one installed.


For Internet Explorer users, the version should be Flash 8.0.24.0 or higher
For Netscape Navigator users, the version should be Flash 8.0.24.0 or higher

While you can still play the games even if you don't have the latest Flash version (as long as you have version v8.xx), it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you upgrade to the latest version for better game performance. A number of issues that are specific to the Flash player itself (not the games), have already been resolved by the latest patches.


Q. I am having problems installing the Flash update, what can I do?
A. Below are some tech-notes taken directly from the Adobe site that may be helpful.

How to uninstall the Adobe Flash Player plug-in and ActiveX control:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_14157&sliceId=2

How to remove the Macromedia Flash Player ActiveX control:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_12727&sliceId=2

Troubleshoot Adobe Flash Player installation for Windows:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_19166&sliceId=2

Flash Player audio failure on Windows:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb402691&sliceId=2

Flash Player 9 installation fails on Macintosh:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=4aa64290&sliceId=1

Registry permissions required for Flash Player install or update:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_19148&sliceId=1

Troubleshooting system registry issues that prevent Flash Player installation:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb400116&sliceId=1

Download SubInACL from Microsoft to fix permission issues that prevent the Flash Player installation:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=fb1634cb&sliceId=2

Safe versions security restrictions when installing Flash Player:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=kb402435&sliceId=2

I am still having trouble installing Flash Player. Where can I get support? :
http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/

Where to get Flash player for a different platform:
http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/alternates/

Version test for Adobe Flash Player:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=tn_15507&sliceId=2