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Table of Contents
1. How many of your games are suitable for vision-impaired and blind people?A: My first attempt at writing a computer game for the blind was released in November 2004 and has proved a huge success. Encouraged by this I have resolved to try to adapt more of my games for the vision-impaired and blind people and to this end I have created the Blind-gamers series of computer games. All games suitable for blind people are to be found on the Blind-gamers page. Click here to visit the Blind-gamers page. Unfortunately, all the games to be found on my Products page and the What's New page are not suitable for vision-impaired and blind people. I always welcome suggestions for new games, so if you are blind or vision-impaired and you have a game in mind which might be adaptable for blind people, email me and let me know. Click here to email your suggestion for a new game for my Blind-gamers series. Back to Top
2. Why can't I download games directly from your website?A: Games cannot be downloaded directly from our website because it is created in the 10MB of FREE web space provided by our Internet Service Provider (ISP). There is simply not enough room to store the web pages, the screenshot images, and all the other associated bits and pieces as well as the .ZIP files for each downloadable program. Additional web space costs money and this would prevent us from offering the programs as FREEWARE. Besides, sending the programs to you via email, allows us to provide a personalized service which is not available from those sites which permit automatic downloads. Remember, when you talk to Spoonbill Software you are talking to a REAL person! Back to Top
3. How do I uninstall one of your games?A: All Spoonbill Software products install in a non-intrusive manner. That is to say, all the files required by the program are located in a specific folder created just for the one program. Data and other associated files may be stored in sub-folders of the main folder. No .dll files are installed in the Windows folder, no entries are stored in the Windows Registry. So, to uninstall any piece of software is merely a matter of deleting the main program folder and all its sub-folders. Back to Top
4. Are your games truly freeware or is there some catch?A: All games from Spoonbill Software are truly FREEWARE. There are no nag screens, no advertisements, no time limits on their use, no suppressed features which can only be activated if you buy. All games are fully functional right from the start. Back to Top
5. How can you offer your games for free when there are no adverts?A: I am a retired computer programmer and I have for years written computer games as a hobby, first for my children and now also for my grandchildren. As I've accumulated more and more games, I thought it would be a good idea to share them with other people too. That's when I created my website, Spoonbill Software. As I am retired on a pension, I have no need of the extra money that selling my software could generate. To save the hassles of creating a commercial website, managing the cash flow and dealing with all the tax implications that this would involve, I decided that anyone who wanted my software could have it for free. You don't get much in the world for free these days, so I thought it would be a refreshing change! Back to Top
6. What will my email address and details be used for?A: I have no commercial affiliations. I am a retired computer programmer writing games for my own enjoyment. I guarantee the confidentiality of your details and will not disclose them to anyone else. I retain your email address, name and country of residence in my Address Book for the sole purpose of contacting you in the future, if and when bug fixes, enhancements or upgrades are made to the games you have previously requested. If at any time you wish to be removed from my Address Book, all you need to do is to contact me and I will gladly delete your entry. Whenever I send a bulk email to a group of my users, for instance when an upgrade to one of my games is released, I always send the email as a Blind Carbon Copy, BCC, so that the recipients cannot see the other people's email addresses. Back to Top
7. I requested three games and only received one. What happened to the others?A: When you request several games at once I try to send all the games, each attached to a separate email. For those with large mailboxes, this does not present a problem. If you have a small mailbox (particularly if you have a free email such as hotmail) your mailbox may not have the capacity to receive all the games and the other emails get rejected and returned to me. If you access your emails via a website such as www.msn.com or www.yahoo.com, it is your responsibility to clear your emails after you have read them. If you don't, they build up and leave even less space for a big email such as mine with a game setup file attached. If you subscribe to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and you download your emails with Outlook Express or a similar email client to your local machine, the emails are transferred to your machine and are automatically deleted from the ISP's email server. In this case, providing you check your emails regularly, there should be enough room to receive a few of my games. On average, each setup file is approximately 1.5 to 2MB in size. The sizes are given on the Products page to allow you to work out if there will be enough room. In the event that one or more games cannot be delivered because your mailbox is full, they are returned to me and I then send a short problem report email (with no attachment) to inform you of the problem and ask you to let me know when you have cleared your mailbox. On one or two occasions I have been unable to deliver even the short problem report email and so have had no way of getting back to the person requesting the game to let them know of the problem. I do try several more times over the ensuing days but it is time consuming and could be prevented if you make sure that there is room in your mailbox before requesting the games. Of course, if you request, say, 10 games, I send them a few at a time - never more than 5MB - until they have all been sent. Back to Top
8. Some of your games require DirectX. What is it and how do I get it?A: DirectX is a Microsoft Applications Programming Interface (API) specifically for use with multimedia applications. Windows 98 and subsequent Windows operating systems (OS) come with DirectX already installed. Windows 98 came with an earlier version of DirectX which is not suitable for running any Spoonbill games which require DirectX. If you try to run a game with an out-of-date version of DirectX, you will get an error message which mentions a dynamic link library (DLL) called ddraw.dll and the program will abort. This is because a bit of program code which the Spoonbill games require, is not present in the older version of DirectX. The later Windows versions, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows XP etc. do not have a problem. The DirectX supplied with the OS, although it might not be the absolute latest version, does have the requisite entry point in the DLL. The best advice is "suck it and see." Just run one of our games and you'll soon know whether or not it works. The latest version of DirectX is always available for free download from the Microsoft site. Click on this link to download the latest version. Back to Top
9. What made you choose Spoonbill for the name of your website?A: A
few years before I created my website in 2002, (which wasn’t until I retired
in 1999 and moved from Perth, the capital of Western Australia, down to Albany)
we visited the Perth zoo and they had a section dedicated to Wetlands birds. One
of the birds was a very friendly spoonbill called “Spoony”. He would perch
on a nearby railing and you could go up to him and stroke him and he would
sometimes peck your hand. But a spoonbill’s beak is rounded at the tip (like a
spoon) and so it didn’t hurt. He was a great favourite with our grandchildren.
He was famous and he even featured on the cover of the Perth Telephone Directory
one year. A year or so after his appearance on the telephone directory he
disappeared and was eventually found in a neighbouring garden some days later.
He was returned to the zoo but unfortunately died not long after. The next time
we went to the zoo, we asked a keeper where he was and were told the sad story.
So, when I created my website to share my games with the world, I thought of
Spoony and named my site in memory of this gentle creature.
Back to Top10. Why can't I receive a game via my work email?A: Often your work email server is part of your office local area network. Office networks are most often set up with firewall software to protect the network servers and workstations from being devastated by a virus or other malicious tampering. Your office depends on the reliability of its computers to transact its daily business. A server crash due to a virus or malicious tampering could bring the business to its knees with subsequent loss of income until the virus can be removed and the network reinstated. Depending upon the seriousness of the crash, the downtime could be minutes or days. To guard against this eventuality the firewall software is set to filter out anything which could conceivably conceal a virus. Executable programs and zip files containing executable programs are common vehicles for installing a virus on your system. Microsoft Word .doc files which include macros are another favorite transport medium. Spoonbill Software games are distributed by attaching a zipped setup file to an email. The zipped file contains a single executable file which when unzipped and run will install the game on your computer. But it may not make it past the firewall filter and then it will be returned to me, undelivered. Besides, I don't suppose management will construe receiving games by email as part of office business! The best thing to do, if you are unsure of whether or not your work email will reject an attached zip file, is to provide me with your personal home email address and not your work email. If you do not have a personal email address, you can always create a free email address at www.yahoo.com and I'll send the game to that. Back to Top11. Why can't I receive a game via a gmail address?A: Whenever I send a game to a Google gmail address the email, including attachment, is returned to me as undelivered. Google's virus and spam filters are too strict to receive attachments which contain executable files or zip files containing executable files such as the setup files for Spoonbill Games. Spoonbill Software games are distributed by attaching a zipped setup file to an email. The zipped file contains a single executable file which when unzipped and run will install the game on your computer. But then it will be returned to me, undelivered. It not only returns the original email but also the complete attachment which can take up to 10 minutes for me to receive on my slow dialup line. This then prevents me from downloading my other emails until the email returned by Google has been downloaded. So sending my games to a gmail address is futile. The thing to do is to provide me with your personal home email address and not your Google gmail address. If you do not have a personal email address, you can always create a free email address at www.yahoo.com and I'll send the game to that. Back to Top12. I cannot install the game. My computer tells me it is blocking the attachmentA: Here are a couple of suggestions, one of which should solve your problem. Back to Top
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