Page 1 of 1

Sort of old-ish new member, or new-ish old member

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 10:13 am
by pippa
Hello.

I originally joined this forum a few years ago, but never really participated and soon left because I couldn't get the hang of emulators and technical things like that. (e.g. I didn't even know the difference between tape files and snapshot files, which the emulators' documentation never bothered to explain, just assuming you'd somehow magically know it already.)

I suppose I should've asked here for help, but you're all so clever at the technical stuff, I didn't want to make myself look stupid, so I just gave up and didn't bother.

Anyway, recently I decided to have another go, and I think this time round I'm getting the hang of loading programs in emulators (HURRAH!!!) so I'm looking forward to re-playing all those old Quilled games I enjoyed in my (not-exactly-misspent) past. No offence to modern IF writers, but their "interactive stories" just aren't the same as those old adventures.

Bear in mind, the last time I played games like these was on an actual Spectrum and PCW 25 years ago, so I'm seriously out of practice. I'll try to join in your group games (e.g. Aftermath) but please be patient because I'll probably be lagging way behind you, asking for hints at every step of the way, until I get back into the swing of things.
:)

Re: Sort of old-ish new member, or new-ish old member

Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 12:19 pm
by Mark
pippa wrote:but you're all so clever at the technical stuff, I didn't want to make myself look stupid,
I take exception to that, hehe... I am a complete illiterate in all that technical stuff :wink:

Welcome back to CASA.

Re: Sort of old-ish new member, or new-ish old member

Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 1:59 pm
by Gunness
Welcome back into the fold - always good to see "old" members resurface :) And feel free to ask any tech questions you come across.

We don't have a beginner's guide for the Spectrum, but if you're new to the BBC, C64, Amstrad or Dragon, we have guides to get you started on those formats :)

Re: Sort of old-ish new member, or new-ish old member

Posted: Sun Feb 27, 2011 10:36 pm
by terri
Welcome back, Pippa.

Don't worry about the tech stuff. The only emulator I can use with reasonable success is the Spectrum. The others I play so rarely, I forget how.

Anyway, Mark and I can help you with Aftermath, if you wish (and until he writes the solution). A reasonably well-written game, with the exception of the eerie, smelly room puzzle. One hint to get you started - some objects are needed more than once.

BTW - how does one access those guides you were talking about, Jacob? As I mentioned I forget what to load where.

Re: Sort of old-ish new member, or new-ish old member

Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 5:14 am
by Gunness
The guides are available by clicking their respective platforms.

Re: Sort of old-ish new member, or new-ish old member

Posted: Mon Feb 28, 2011 9:51 am
by pippa
Thanks everyone. :D

Re: Sort of old-ish new member, or new-ish old member

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2011 12:12 am
by terri
Sorry, it was Juan not Mark who played along.

Re: Sort of old-ish new member, or new-ish old member

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 11:42 pm
by Alastair
Gunness wrote:The guides are available by clicking their respective platforms.
It is a bit of a convoluted process to reach a guide: you have to either click on a platform link from within a game entry, or do a direct search for that platform, either way you then have to click on the "starting guide" link to reach the guide. In addition to the above why not add direct links to the guides from the "Articles" section?

Re: Sort of old-ish new member, or new-ish old member

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 12:20 am
by terri
Thanks Alastair. It was a bit convoluted to find. I eventually did find it, but probably couldn't do it again. I believe I may have saved that web page, specifically. At least I hope I did. Just checked - yes I did. Now, if someone could tell me how to sort all my favourites into alphabetical order...speaking of technologically illiterate...

Re: Sort of old-ish new member, or new-ish old member

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 2:44 pm
by Gunness
Alastair wrote:
Gunness wrote:The guides are available by clicking their respective platforms.
It is a bit of a convoluted process to reach a guide: you have to either click on a platform link from within a game entry, or do a direct search for that platform, either way you then have to click on the "starting guide" link to reach the guide. In addition to the above why not add direct links to the guides from the "Articles" section?
The rationale behind this is:
You come across a game for a machine you're not familiar with (perhaps you've clicked the random game link on the front page). You see that the game runs on a Dragon 32. What to do?
For me, the most obvious way to proceed would be to click on the Dragon 32 link to learn more about that machine. But that's just me.

Of course, you can also start out with an interest in a given platform and in that respect I can see that the current setup might not be the best. So linking in the articles section does make sense. I'll look into it.

Re: Sort of old-ish new member, or new-ish old member

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2011 10:40 pm
by Alastair
There's no reason why there can't be two ways of reaching the guides.