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« Blogs Index < Game Guides < HATPC Guides
« Livio's Blog

LEAVING ALL OF THIS UP FOR HISTORICAL PURPOSE, BUT REALLY YOU CAN IGNORE ALL OF THIS AND JUST USE FLASHPOINT TO PLAY HATPC. SEE THIS POST IF YOU WANT MORE DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS


Once again, I'm rewriting an existing guide. Or rather, instead of making a "How to open" guide, I'm making one solely focused on the problems you can face when trying to play Hannah and the Pirate Caves (HATPC). I designed this guide like a flowchart to make it easier and faster to work through.

STEP ONE: Try Again

Just open and close the game window until it finally works. If it still doesn't work after about three tries, move on to the next step.

STEP TWO: DGS Error?

If you get a DGS Error, it is most likely the fault of neopets.com. Although, this theory has never been proven. Wait a few hours or a day, and if you still get the error, move on to step three.

STEP THREE: Which browser are you using?

HATPC is a very old Shockwave game, so it does not work properly in all browsers anymore. We find that HATPC works best in Google Chrome (download: here) and Apple's Safari (download: here). Many users on this site prefer to use Chrome for HATPC. EDIT: Chrome has betrayed us. Use Safari.

If you are currently using a different browser, that may be the reason why you cannot play HATPC. Download either Chrome or Safari, then try opening HATPC from one of those browsers by clicking here. If you still can't play, move on to step four.

Side note: If you do not want to change the browser that you normally use, you may be interested in some added convenience in another of my guides, which teaches you how to create a desktop shortcut that will open HATPC from any browser.

STEP FOUR: Do you have the latest version of Shockwave Player?

http://get.adobe.com/shockwave/
Visit the above link and download the latest version of shockwave. Beware of any offers to download a free toolbar or security scan. I suspect them to be safe, since they are from Adobe, but they are an annoyance.

Try opening HATPC again, by clicking here. If still nothing, go to step five.

STEP FIVE: Try visiting the game files directly

Click here: http://swf.neopets.com/games/g349_v9_99392.dcr

This is known to work in every browser except Internet Explorer  9.

If it still doesn't work, see the next step.

STEP SIX: Try clearing your browser's cache

Your browser saves a cache for many web pages in its attempt to cut back on loading times. Some of our users have found that clearing their cache enables them to play HATPC again.

To clear your cache in Chrome, click on the wrench icon at the top-right corner of the screen. Then click on "Options". An Options window will open up. Click on the tab called "Under the Hood". Right under the "Privacy" heading, click on the button that says "Clear Browsing Data...". Another window will open. In this window, uncheck everything except for "Empty the cache". Under "Clear data from this period:", select "Everything". And finally, click the button "Clear browsing data".

To clear your cache in Safari, click on the gear icon at the top-right corner of the screen, and click on "Reset Safari...". A window will open. uncheck everything except for "Empty the cache". Then hit the "Reset" button.

Try opening HATPC here.

If it still doesn't work, you can also try deleting all other forms of browsing data, and this usually works for most people.

Finally, if it still doesn't work, try clearing it again! Surprisingly this does make a difference quite often.

If even that doesn't work, move onto the next step.

STEP SEVEN: Maybe it's not your fault

There have been times in the past when HATPC wouldn't work for anyone because something would go wrong with neopets.com's game servers. This is similar to the DGS Error problem in Step Two, but neopets is clever, always finding better ways of screwing up HATPC. While in the past, the game used to go down occasionally, it seems very rare these days. However, the possibility is still there. To make sure if something is only happening to you, try asking other Interguild members if they are having any difficulties opening HATPC. If they are having the same problems as you, then it's possible that something's temporarily gone wrong with the game.

STEP EIGHT: Try downloading someone else's cache

We've now moved on to a daring step. We will now attempt to get HATPC to work for you by downloading almost 290 MB 755 KB of my own cache so that HATPC will always work for you. However, this cache is for Google Chrome only, so if you do not have it, download it here. However, Chrome must be closed while you follow these steps.

This method was developed when I noticed that there was something in my cache that allowed HATPC to work for me, and when the cache was cleared, it no longer worked. Luckily, I saved a backup of my cache, and I tried to find out what file was in there that was allowing HATPC to work. However, because I did not know what I was doing, removing things from the cache made it very unstable, as Chrome would sense errors and automatically change things to fix them. Therefore, I was not able to reduce the file size of the overall cache that you must download.  However, so far this method has managed to fix HATPC for two people: jellsprout and Yaya.

Also, I am sorry I cannot provide any support for non-Windows users.

Here are the steps to successfully replace your cache with mine:
  1. If on Windows Vista or Windows 7, go to:
    C:Users[USERNAME]AppDataLocalGoogleChromeUser DataDefault

    If on Windows XP, go to:
    Cocuments and Settings[USERNAME]Local SettingsApplication DataGoogleChromeUser DataDefault

    The [USERNAME] represents the name of the user that you are currently logged into on your computer. There will be a folder named after that user name.

    If you are having trouble finding some of these folder, it may be because they are hidden. Click on the Start menu at the very bottom-left corner of the screen and type in "folder options" into the search. Click on the "Folder Options" program that comes up. Click on the "View" tab, then look under the group of options under "Hidden files and folder" and select the option to "Show hidden files and folders". Now try again to find the above folder locations.

  2. Delete the following folders entirely:
    Cache
    Media Cache
    (if you don't want to lose your caches, for whatever reason, you may want to just rename those folders in case you want to keep a backup).

  3. Open this: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0By4BC80t6oOoNzQ5YjZhNzctNWY1NS00M2ZmLWEzNWYtNjk3NGI2Njk3YjY4&hl=en&authkey=CN3A8PAK

  4. Take the two folders inside that zip file and extract them to your "Default" folder, mentioned in the first step. Make sure that the Cache and Media Cache folders within the zip file are placed directly into the Default folder. You do not want them to be inside a new folder (which may be automatically called "ChromeHATPCcache").
Now that you have successfully replaced your cache, try to play HATPC here. If you have any problems with this complicated step, please ask for help in the comments below.

If this doesn't work, try going through this step again, but instead use this cache: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0By4BC80t6oOoNzlkNGIzMjktMWUwZC00YTgyLWJiOTUtNjk5YzMyMjAxYTZh&hl=en
Be aware that this file is nearly 290 MB.

STEP NINE: Ask for help

If you still can't get HATPC to work, just post a comment below. Try explaining in detail what happens when you try to load the game, and I or some other members will try to figure out what's wrong.
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User Comments (290)
« Forum Index < The Hannah and the Pirate Caves Board
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DeathBunni X
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Tuesday, July 27 2010, 4:43 pm EST
Eww, school.

Age: 26
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Oops nevermind it works! Sorry for the confusion.


  
jellsprout
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Tuesday, July 27 2010, 4:46 pm EST
Lord of Sprout Tower

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All of us were in the same position you were and we are glad to help you out.


Spoiler:
DeathBunni X
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Tuesday, August 3 2010, 9:51 am EST
Eww, school.

Age: 26
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Gender: Female
Location: Midwest
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Heheh... I'm on my dad's laptop and it doesn't work. (Something happened to my other laptop which made it lag up real bad). I did everything though. It's designed for windows xp but windows vista capable... I think maybe from 2003-2004? It works fine though, normal amounts or lag and stuff.


  
Livio
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Wednesday, August 4 2010, 4:39 pm EST

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yeah HATPC's really been breaking down lately for a lot of people. If this keeps up, HATPC may break forever.
jazz
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Wednesday, August 4 2010, 4:41 pm EST

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Maybe it's because they're trying to fix the uploader glitch?
Livio
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Wednesday, August 4 2010, 4:48 pm EST

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no, the uploader page should have nothing to do with the game's files.
shos
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Wednesday, August 4 2010, 7:26 pm EST
~Jack of all trades~

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'Livio' said:
yeah HATPC's really been breaking down lately for a lot of people. If this keeps up, HATPC may break forever.
seriously, just use chrome, it works best, and always.


Quirvy
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Wednesday, August 4 2010, 7:38 pm EST
  

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cool, except I use chrome too, but I still get shockwave errors every week or so where I have to clear my cache and restart my browser(I think) to get hatpc working again.



spooky secret
Bmwsu
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Sunday, August 8 2010, 11:41 pm EST

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'Livio' said:
what's the exact error that you get?


It never loads.  It's a blank screen.


Livio
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Monday, August 9 2010, 12:21 am EST

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Regardless of browser? Hmm, you may have to download shockwave for each browser individually. Did you do that?
Bmwsu
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Monday, August 9 2010, 3:16 pm EST

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It's the whole site!  Neopets.com, K12.com, Subeta.com, those are a few sites that don't load ANYthing.


Livio
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Monday, August 9 2010, 3:30 pm EST

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sounds like they're blocked. If you want to get access to them, you'll have to find out where your blocks are and how to change them. Maybe ask your parents about it.
Bmwsu
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Monday, August 9 2010, 5:11 pm EST

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Even my dad couldn't figure it out, because K12 was where I did my school.


Livio
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Wednesday, August 11 2010, 6:54 pm EST

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That cache was so huge that I decided to take it off the server. Maybe we should use megaupload instead. I have no experience with uploading to that site, and for all I know that file could be too big for the free version...
bunneh
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Tuesday, August 24 2010, 10:01 am EST

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Not Found

The requested URL /hatpcfiles/ChromeHATPCcache.zip was not found on this server.

??? broken link ???
Isa
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Tuesday, August 24 2010, 10:04 am EST
No. I'm an octopus.

Age: 31
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Yeah, I can't open it either.

Did you try the other steps?
Livio
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Tuesday, August 24 2010, 12:19 pm EST

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'Right before that, I' said:
The file necessary for this to work was so big that I decided to take if off the server.
Isa
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Tuesday, August 24 2010, 12:26 pm EST
No. I'm an octopus.

Age: 31
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You think there's no sites that let you upload things larger than 250 MB for free? Geez...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=upload+files&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
Livio
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Tuesday, August 24 2010, 12:29 pm EST

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actually I was just being lazy. I started uploading it to megaupload a few minutes ago. It's still got a long way to go.....
Livio
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Tuesday, August 24 2010, 12:46 pm EST

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rainalonto
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Sunday, October 3 2010, 3:46 pm EST

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Thank you so much this really helped me. I used option 5 and it worked perfectly
jenniamelia
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Sunday, October 3 2010, 4:58 pm EST

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Ugh, I have a Mac and all of these options,save for using Safari when I go on to play it are all PC based, which would be fine if I was at home.
Are there any Mac solutions that don't involve me switching browsers from Firefox to Safari (because I honestly prefer Firefox)
Isa
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Sunday, October 3 2010, 5:01 pm EST
No. I'm an octopus.

Age: 31
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The problem with using Firefox is that you can't play user levels, therefore we're not using Firefox at all. I think that the steps should be roughly the same though (try clearing your cache for starters). However, I'd recommend that you boot up Safari first and see what happens.
jenniamelia
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Sunday, October 3 2010, 5:28 pm EST

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I don't care bout playing the user levels, I just want to play the game.

But I'll try Safari.
Livio
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Monday, October 4 2010, 6:53 pm EST

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actually, I can't get HATPC to play at all on my Firefox.

and tell me if you get the game to work jenniamelia.

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