Hi everyone, some virus protection programs have incorrectly added the Aveyond games to their virus list. You'll know if your anti-virus software added your game to the list because your game will suddenly be gone from your computer.

To tackle the problem, I need anyone who has a problem with their anti-virus and an Aveyond game to list the following things in this thread:

1) Anti-virus name
2) Anti-virus version
3) Game that anti-virus deleted
4) Date when the deletion occurred

We are going to work the virus companies for the next two weeks to get our games off their lists for good. I have worked with some of them before and our games always come back as "false positives". We have never had a virus in our games.

UPDATES FROM VARIOUS ANTI-VIRUS COMPANIES:

Norton - Symantec [November 24, 2009]
We are writing in relation to your submission through Symantec's on-line Security Risk Dispute Submission form for your Aveyond: Gates of Night software being detected by Symantec Software. In light of further investigation and analysis Symantec is happy to remove this detection from within its products.

The updated detection will be distributed in the next set of virus definitions, available daily, or weekly via LiveUpdate, depending on Symantec product version, or daily from our website at



F-Secure [June 9, 2009]
Our analyst has verified that the file is mistakenly detected as malicious. A database update will be released to resolve this issue. While the database that contains the fix is not yet out, you may advise your players to exclude the file from Real-time Scanning:

http://support.f-secure.com/enu/home/ ... /fsis2009/virus_q06.shtml


Kaspersky [June 10, 2009]
Hello,
did you mean Backdoor.Win32.DsBot.abr?
If so, the problem is already fixed.

ZoneAlarm [June 11, 2009]
Thank you for contacting ZoneAlarm Technical Support. The detection is a false-positive and it will be fixed in the next update.

Kaspersky [September 23, 2009]
Sent another message to Kaspersky to remove our games from their list... again. This is the response I got:

Hello,

We were unable to reproduce the detection.
Please update your antivirus bases.
If the problem persists, please send a screenshot of detection.

AVG [September 24, 2009]

Dear Sir/Madam,

thank you for your e-mail.

We would like to inform you, that none of the game files provided at the mentioned web links is detected by AVG with current virus definitions database as a threat. Please verify, that the virus definitions database version is 270.13.112/2391 or above. This information can be found in lower left corner of AVG user interface.

Amanda, just thought I'd mention it here in case you didn't see it in the other topic, although this may well have no bearing.

Even though I've uninstalled the game every time, I still had a Game.exe file in the folder, along with the Aveyond - Lord of Twilight.exe. It also still had the old .ini and .rgssad files. I went in and manually deleted them this morning, although I was having no anti-virus problems.

This may have happened because several of the builds uninstaller didn't work from the Install window. (I had to manually double-click the uninstaller those times.) So, this may be something only beta testers would have, since we had the problem with uninstall not working from the Install window.

But just in case game.exe could still be there in other people's installations, I thought i should mention it.

Well, its fixed now. But it did give me a big head-ache. Still, it might happen with chapter 2 so:
1.Kaspersky Lab.
2.version 7.0.
3.Aveyond LoT(Well, it didn't delete it, but a message telling me it was a trojan program kept showing up and I couldn't play it, though nothing got deleted.)
4.June 7th I think.

Hmm, just a 3 days ago I scanned my computer and my Zone Alarm detected LoT as a virus.
But now I updated the anti virus, and it no longer identify it as a virus.
If I did everything right.

Ahem....sorry to do this again, but I had to change my current anti-virus program for various reasons.

1.K7TotalSecurity
2.Version 9.7.0233
3.Aveyond LoT
4.June 22nd

I installed the latest build of Averyond II I downloaded today and my antivirus/antispyware totally freaked.

Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.MR4

Said it was infected with Win32.Spybot, deleted the EXE, and said my system might have been compromised and suggested that I reboot and perform a full system scan.

It also tripped my Ad-Aware Plus AE 8.04, except it detected it as a generic Trojan.

Everytime I try to install the download from http://www.amaranthia.com/modules/ole ... /product.php?product_id=2

and run Aveyond-Eans-Quest.exe Norton keeps giving me the warning that Aveyond2.exe is infected with the W32.Spybot.Worm, and then it erases the Aveyond2.exe file from there.

It's not a good thing.

Please fix this error soon.





Merging with Virus topic
~Argoyle

Do you know what version of Norton you have?

I am not positive this is virus-software related, but most likely.

The exe file on my C drive is gone. Tried to reinstall the game. Executable disappeared. I installed the game to an external drive, where it works (but slowly). Copied the executable back to the C drive. Saw it vanish from the folder after about 5 seconds.


1) Anti-virus name: SOPHOS ANTI-VIRUS
2) Anti-virus version: 7.6.10 (most current)
3) Game that anti-virus deleted: LORD OF TWILIGHT
4) Date when the deletion occurred: Sometime between 6/18 and 7/22, and numerous times on 7/22.

I have not checked the other AV games, but I can if needed.

Yup, the software will delete the exe file, when it thinks it's a virus.

A quick fix is to go into your virus software settings and tell it to ignore Aveyond stuff.

OK, I added in to the exclusions list in Sophos.
Game stayed in the folder longer, until I tried to actually run it.

Now CounterSpy reports:
"A potentially dangerous program, Backdoor.Win32.DsBot.abr (aveyond - lord of twilight.exe), is being started."

Actually I am thinking it is CounterSpy and not Sophos that is the problem. Let me see if I can figure out what version of CounterSpy I have and how to add exclusions and turn it off.

Program just got deleted again.

Edit: I cannot figure out exclusions in CounterSpy, but my security definitions are
supposedly up-to-date as of today.

Edit2: It is definitely CounterSpy (now at least). When I shut down CounterSpy, the game stays put and I can run it from my C drive. So I do have a fix, of sorts.

Amanda really has to think about changing Amaranth's coding practices, if possible, to stop these false positives. It's just ridiculous that Amaranth Games software seems to trigger just about every major antivirus/antispyware program out there and it's not just one game, it's a number of different games/versions.

Sometimes the AV/AS is in itself a little buggy because it has to update it's exclusion list and part of the exclusions just happen to trigger programs that are normally harmless, but include the ".exe" or the ".com" as part of the excluded list.

I have CA Internet Security and at first, AV and LoT were detected as trojans. After finding out where to put them in to not be detected as viruses, CA seemed to no longer detect them as viruses, but now whenever I have to download some programs (exe) and files (zip), it turns out that CA turns it into an (EFW)file.

The only way to get the program to download/run/install is to turn off the AV/AS/Firewall first to get it or start it up, then turn back on the AV/AS/Firewall and keep an eye out for a popup asking you if you want to allow or stop access to the program.

So many don't pay attention to it and just click it or hit enter without looking at it, which can cause the AV/AS/Firewall to block or permanantly not allow it to run the program. I had to actually fully uninstall the AV/AS/Firewall then reinstall it just to allow it to run my blocked program(s).

I use McAfee, Adaware, and Spybot and have never had a problem with false positives. I guess I just have a lucky combination of programs.

I figured out how to get my program out of quarantine on CounterSpy. So, everything is working fine again.

Now...do I want to play LoT all the way thru again before next Friday?

1) Anti-virus name: viper
2) Anti-virus version: definetions version 5282 current
3) Game that anti-virus deleted: Aveyond lord of twilight
4) Date when the deletion occurred: today 7/24/09

...um, so on computers it's saying these games contain viruses but your telling us they don't contain viruses even though these really good anti-virus companies are saying otherwise? COMPLICATED! I don't want to sound like I am not trusting, but ever since my computer got a virus in it, I have tried to be more cautious, so you are sure these games contain no viruses? I don't want to harm my computers

All games from Amaranthia.com are absolutely 100% virus-free.

I think the main issue is that the program used to make these games uses a generic game.exe in there somewhere. The virus programs see that game.exe as a little suspicious.

1) Anti-virus name: McAfee
2) Anti-virus version: 13.3, (DAT version 5708.0000, creation date 8/13/09)
3) Game that anti-virus deleted: Aveyond, Aveyond II, Yummy Drink Factory, Lord of Twilight, Gates of Night
4) Date when the deletion occurred: today 8/13/09, within the last 20 minutes.

I know absolutely nothing about computers, and I can't answer all of your questions, but we have AVG, the free version and it says that Aveyond 1 has a virus.