I found the solution to the ticking memory connection problem. Remove all versions of the Java Run-time Environment (JRE) and then install Java SE Runtime Environment 7u21 (Update 21). Java is at update 75 at the time of this post, so you have to dig a little to find this older version of Java.
I am not able to play BlastOff with the
Description: Ticking memory connection
java.lang.NullPointerException: Ticking memory connection