Online Java and Flash Games

Thank you for the response, demondragon6.
The behavior you described makes me think that the cause of the problem on your machine is the lack of RAM. I don't know for sure how much memory is available to a Web browser on PowerPC, but it looks that it is limited. That is why the browser closes while running "heavy" games. How much RAM is in your system? I recommend that you monitor the memory usage with a system utility. You can also try installing the latest Opera - maybe, it will differ from Firefox and Safari.

Well, I've got Java so that's good. However, in the Java cache in my library the only thing even close to

deployment.javapi.jre.1.5.0.args= is a file called "deployment.properties". It shows up as a blank page icon and is listed as a document.

Yes, this is the file I was talking about. Can you open it with a text editor? And find the line that starts with "deployment.javapi.jre.1.5.0.args="? If such a line is missing, insert it into the file, the inserted line should look like this:
deployment.javapi.jre.1.5.0.args=-Xmx256m -Xms64m
This is what I asked you to do in the previous message, sorry for not being clear enough. However, now I'm doubting that this editing will help. I have read more articles and threads related to the problem you are experiencing and came to conclusion that Safari on a computer with an Intel processor can fail to recognize the Java runtime installed via the Update manager. That is, the problem is specific to Intel machines and Java SDK installed using the Update feature of Mac OS. In September another user came across the same issue as you - it was reported here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1708113
If you read the thread, you will learn that the user could successfully run Eclipse, so Java worked for ordinary applications and the problem only was with Java applets in Safari. Apparently, the Update manager doesn't enable Java for applets or doesn't set some required parameters in the system. Therefore, I recommend that you download a separate installation package from this page:
http://support.apple.com/downloads/Javafor_Mac_OS_X_10_5_Update2
and install it into your system over the existing Java installation which was made via the Update manager.
If you do it and this doesn't solve the problem, try editing the "deployment.properties" file as I described in the beginning of this message.
I'm looking forward to hearing your results.

A follow-up to my last message - if you are not aware how to install a program from a .dmg file, please read about it here:
http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/zanswers/779
The process is simple enough, hope everything will go smoothly.

Well, I tried both solutions and neither has worked. But, I appreciate the effort you've gone through to help me.

Well, we've gone a long road, I believe we should be close to an end 🙂
There is one thing that confuses me in the configuration of your system - the counter on my Web site told me that you are using Safari 4.0. All messages I read were related to version 3.x of this browser. Maybe - if my counter doesn't lie 🙂 - the problem is peculiar to Intel machine and Safari 4.0 ... It would be nice if somebody else shared their experience about running Java applets on a computer with the same configuration.
Meanwhile, let's check if the issue is only reproduced in Safari. Please, download Opera from this page:
http://www.opera.com/browser/download/?os=mac&ver=9.64&local=y
Install it and make sure that Java is enabled (it should be by default): go to Tools > Options, switch to the Advanced tab, select the Contents category and see if the Java box is checked. If it is, try loading a page with a Java applet using Opera and let me know if you get any error messages.

Sorry, missed that you specified the amount of RAM in your original post. 768 SDRAM should be enough. Yet it depends on how this memory is used and how much of it is available to the browser.

I installed Safari 4 in the vain hope that it would work better. No such luck.

However, Opera seems to work just fine. The game site I can't load in Safari opens without problem. I opened your site and the game I clicked on loaded without problem. Now I just have to figure out how to play it!

I'm glad to hear that, finally, you are able to play Java games! 🙂
It's a pity though that the built-in browser doesn't work as expected. Most users won't guess to install Opera or Firefox 😟 Maybe, this bug is only in the beta version of Safari 4. Hopefully, Apple developers will read the thread and will fix the issue.
As for the games, if you experience any difficulties understanding the rules or playing them, please do not hesitate to let me know about it - I will improve the documentation. It should be easier than investigating an issue on a remote Mac station 😉

I had the problem in the previous version of Safari, as well. 3.whatever.

Thanks for all the help!

I'm glad to hear that my piece of advice has helped you.
My main tutor - Google 🙂 - provided me with a very informative page where you can find a description of the memory types displayed by the Activity Monitor:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1342
Apparently, some applications running in your system occupied that 232.84 MB of RAM and didn't use the data for long, so this part of RAM was marked as Inactive. However, this memory wasn't freed when the browser needed more memory to run the games and it had to use virtual memory (the disk space). This is how I would explained the reason for the games to work slowly or even crash the browser. Now you closed some apps and that Inactive memory becamed free and thus the browser didn't have to use the disk memory which is much slower than RAM.
I don't know if it is possible to add some RAM to your system or to replace the existing memory module, but I would recommend you to do it: SDRAM is slower than DIMM, so if your PC supports this memory type, upgrading to DIMM would speed up your machine.

You are welcome!
Well, the behavior of Safari in regard to Java applets is puzzling me more than all of my logic games together LOL.
Maybe, if you left Safari 3, installing Java Update separately would repair it? I think that the problem is browser-specific, it definitely has nothing to do with the Java runtime. Most likely, Firefox will work properly. Anyway, I recommend that you contact Apple support and let them know about the issue so that they have fixed it in the final release of Safari 4. I think that I cannot report it as I'm not their customer.

I just spent two hours at the Apple store having them look at my computer and try to figure out why Java doesn't work. They couldn't figure it out and were going to charge me 75 bucks to continue looking at it. I was like, no. I'll be okay and came home and looked it up.

And what you said worked perfectly for me. So I just want to say thank you. You made my life easier.