Sail Simulator 5 Deluxe Edition - PC

I received my simulator to find out that it was sold to me illegally. The licenses were invalid, and I couldn't use the game.

From the game publisher's tech support:"Unfortunately the license codes you purchased are invalid due to licensing conflicts. If you would still like to use Sail Simulator please return your current copy and order direct from us through [...]."The Demo copy I tried worked very well and appears to be an excellent game with great graphics and a realistic sailing simulation, so I would give the game 5 stars. but you can't buy it from Amazon, or any other boxed set retailer.

Good experience so far! I downloaded the free demo version and thus had an idea what to expect from the Deluxe version.Let me make clear I'm not a game guy, but as a Sunfish sailor with a new computer with killer specs I had a gift wish for a sailing simulator. This one I found as the latest version of an established program of its type and sent for it. I've never ever TRIED to operate ANY kind of sailing simulator prior to this.As for gaming, I CAN offer this experience: long, LONG ago I received an Atari 2600 "River Raid" patch for high score achieved proven with a photograph of the TV screen with the score and also add one continuous TEN hour all night session playing "Grand Theft Auto III" once and I was big into Berzerk (with evil Otto)...and OH YES....Windows Minesweeper the advanced screen with 99 mines, twice successful! (yeah, big deal)I'm happy with what I've found so far in Sail Simulator 5 Deluxe but the learning curve is there and I suppose it's not at all bad. The sailing "feel" for the two small boats (Hobie and Lazer) I've tried so far is great and that includes part of the full range of adjustable effects. It's hypnotic to operate when you get flying in the "zone" and hear the wind, rigging and waves. Lots of meters if you want them and the controls are smart I think, but again I have no other similar experience.You can save the sailing "situation" and pick it up next time and it allows apparently MANY sailing situations to be named and saved for later. Interesting that. The adjustable specifications for boats, crew, wind and water is HUGE in possibilities, more than I understand presently, as is the Internet or computer network live competition capability with other virtual sailors in the world.I have Windows 7. The install was fine but I did have a glitch with my dual monitors for the final setup which I resolved. It was NO FAULT of the Sail Simulator 5 Deluxe program however. Initially by default the program would open ONLY in the smaller of the two monitors, locked in and NOT minimizable/moveable and NOT what I wanted. Then I got involved with the dual monitor display settings and main/secondary monitor choices to make it work. This was somewhat tedious because the Sail Simulator 5 Deluxe advised getting the latest drivers for my video card, which I did from the convenient link for AMD found in the game program's instructions. Thus I got a pretty fancy program from AMD that coddles my high end video card with online tech-love but also gave me a zillion checks and tweaks for the two displays that takes a real pro to use fluently. I got the game to open/operate on the large monitor(best of the two), but the normal Windows desktop wallpaper on the smaller monitor would show a small border of blank screen(the wall paper shrunk!)which was irksome. FINALLY...in the Sail Sim 5 Deluxe start up screen, give me a big "DUH" when I FINALLY selected a "Display Settings" checkbox marked "Windowed", making the program open up in a typical "Window" that I could maximize/minimize in EITHER monitor to use like any other window. So in the end, the "Windowed" checkbox CHECKED allowed the program to open in a moveable window and everything else stayed normal. Though I get a very narrow "window strip" just along the game screen top edge (can it be removed?), the program experience is essentially the same as the 100% monitor occupied image, and the program doesn't dominate the computer as before....plus consider the next paragraph.As tedious as the last paragraph is, just one thing more. In the Demo and the purchased program, opening in the smaller and then the larger monitor after I adjusted the settings, there was no typical mouse pointer on the game display to activate the controls.(incidentally, you can use a dedicated game controller if you have one but I don't) In this mode of play (NON-"WINDOWED") the navigation in the game setup is done by the tab/enter/pointer keys and the game screen controls have no MOUSE POINTER, yet the control buttons at the play screen bottom flash when activated by what should be the mouse pointer which remains invisible. No Mouse pointer is visible in the game setup and the game screen on my equipment. In the end....when the now well cited "Windowed" box was checked, I got my CONVENTIONAL mouse pointer to show, not only in the game screen controls, but also the pre-game setup which allowed you to skip using the tab/enter/pointer keys if you want. I wouldn't be surprised if these little quirks have a toggle or whatever to make it all work out, buried deep inside the layers of control, but who knows? You know how computers are by now, even if you don't! I solved it and maybe it's an issue that only applies to multiple monitors. Don't let it put you off. Computers are like that. Try the Demo. It's free on the official website shown below or at [...]The Start Screen has a button for the Game Manual (PDF file) containing 52 pages that would be smart to read at least once to optimize the play. I began the first few pages and scanned the rest and it looks pretty good. A few links are embedded, the one I used for the AMD driver website included. The publisher has a help desk via e-mail placed early in the manual, but I haven't used it so far.Here's the official website for the Sail Simulator 5 Deluxe game community which has a forum and the world rankings and such:[...]Lotsa people are REALLY into it! For me, I'm enjoying it too as a rookie. I give it all the stars as long as the program runs stable for me.

You can't activate this software. You can install it but you will never be able to play it. Save your money.

First bought the download would not activate so I contacted Stentec and they told me there was a licensing problem and could not activate. Bought the hard copy same thing will not activate because there is a licensing problem. Bottom line you will not play this game unless you purchase directly from Stentec.

What a complete disappointment! My nephew was soooo excited to receive this gift only to discover that it was a "pirated" copy and did not work. Needless to say this greatly affected both my faith and trust in Amazon. This will greatly affect my decision to purchase products from Amazon in the future!!!Fred Murinofmhmrgln@yahoo.com

The software was a gift to our son and he is so far unable to load it because it says the licensing numbers are invalid. He said he would try to contact the seller.

The activation issues listed in the many reviews of this product are not simple installation issues. The manufacturer of the software [...] will not support any activations issues on this software purchased from anywhere but their website. Their only solution is to return the software. Either purchase the software directly from them or do not purchase it at all.