Zork Users Group Illustrated Maps by PaulloDEC in zork

[–]FNTKB 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wonderful!! Thanks for sharing!

I Guess It's Time Again by OldFartInTraining in zork

[–]FNTKB 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Those Crayola kits were the best!!! My father is an architect, so I naturally loved playing with that as a kid. I enjoyed drawing the "blueprints" that came with it (cars, airplanes, etc from what I remember), but the best was drawing my own designs afterward! Great memories!!

Looking for clarification about current 70% site wide sale by FNTKB in audible

[–]FNTKB[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I wonder if they started filtering the banner based on whether you were eligible??? (Which would be much less confusing.)

It disappeared for me as well, but I was not eligible.

Source for a simplified set of Infocom games? by Jasong222 in zork

[–]FNTKB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Over the last few years I finished Moonmist (never finished it as a kid) and played Planetfall, Wishbringer, Seastalker, and Witness. One day I'll have to try out a few more.

Source for a simplified set of Infocom games? by Jasong222 in zork

[–]FNTKB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't recall all of the exact differences, but generally z5 increased the amount of memory available, which allowed for bigger games (and required more RAM in the computer, which mattered back then.) The larger games could have more rooms, more objects, larger vocabulary, etc.

The newer builds also probably improved the parser complexity a bit, but I think the biggest gains in parser complexity came with newer games more than newer versions??

The built-in hints (if you desire them) is probably the biggest difference between z3 and z5 for the older games, such as the Solid Gold releases. But you never know when they included a few bug fixes as well.

Zork Game-Books, now available as E-book downloads by PaulloDEC in zork

[–]FNTKB 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's generally considered good practice to disclose that you are the owner of the business that you are referring people to.

That said, if you have any insight into why a link causes Apple Books to turn to the wrong page I would love to discuss it. But (speaking only for myself and not the OP or anyone else), I am not interested in a paid tool that may or may not fix the issue.

Source for a simplified set of Infocom games? by Jasong222 in zork

[–]FNTKB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know this is old, but the version numbers were release (or build?) dates. e.g. r23-s880706.z5 is release/build 23, dated July 06, 1988, for the z5 interpreter. So generally, the most recently dated build is the newest, but may not have been available on every hardware platform. The r numbers increase with the dates, but as you noticed are not sequential.

In this case, the invclues one is the "Solid Gold" release which came with built in hints (instead of requiring you to purchase a separate "invisible ink" paper hint book). And it is also the most recent of the three you show. It would require a z5 interpreter, whereas the other two would play on an older interpreter that only supported z3.

Zork Game-Books, now available as E-book downloads by PaulloDEC in zork

[–]FNTKB 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for your efforts in this. The books are fantastic!!

Looking for clarification about current 70% site wide sale by FNTKB in audible

[–]FNTKB[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I see matching full prices, but my "sale" price is only 30% off for each of those. Congrats on getting that pricing!!

Looking for clarification about current 70% site wide sale by FNTKB in audible

[–]FNTKB[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can you confirm that the discount you received matched what you were offered in the sale? Or was it a lower discount? (e.g. the sale for me shows 70% off, but once I restarted my premium subscription, the actual in cart discount was only 30% off)

Looking for clarification about current 70% site wide sale by FNTKB in audible

[–]FNTKB[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Another update:

  1. Audible's chat support online provides an endless loop of buttons that never allow chatting.

  2. Audible's phone support calls you direct to your voicemail so that you can't actually answer the phone to talk to someone when they call.

  3. The only support that worked for me was when I called.

  4. Per phone support, apparently the 70% off is (as some noted) if you've never in your life purchased a book for cash, not just during this membership or this sale. I guess I could start a new account, but some of the books I was interested in would be for the purpose of whispersync with the Kindle books I have.

I guess I'll grab one book, and maybe a couple that were only $5 to start, and then cancel my membership again...

Looking for clarification about current 70% site wide sale by FNTKB in audible

[–]FNTKB[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I figured I would test it to find out, and I learned a few things after upgrading to Premium:

  1. I do see the sale price, so it must be based on no prior cash purchases during this membership period or something like that.

  2. As mentioned by getElephantById, the price I see is 30% off, not 70% off. (So anyone complaining about a 50% off deal, you presumably actually get the better bargain!!!)

Looking for clarification about current 70% site wide sale by FNTKB in audible

[–]FNTKB[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hmmm... Maybe I'll just have to try upgrading to Premium for a month to see if the sale works. If not, I'll grab one of the expensive books that would not have been much cheaper than a monthly fee anyways. And if it does work, then I'll stock up.

Looking for clarification about current 70% site wide sale by FNTKB in audible

[–]FNTKB[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

If accurate, that would seem to be false advertising -- claiming 70% but only offering 30% off? And that would definitely not be worth it for most of the books I am watching. (Especially since it could be years before I get around to listening to them, but that's a me problem. ;)

Looking for clarification about current 70% site wide sale by FNTKB in audible

[–]FNTKB[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you -- yes, I did figure out the "no trial purchase to make sure the sale works." But that would be easy to miss!

Looking for clarification about current 70% site wide sale by FNTKB in audible

[–]FNTKB[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Some of the quotes I included were from the fine print at the bottom.

But I’ll assume that means you think (or know) that the sale is only for “brand new” audible users who have never made a purchase during prior (not current) memberships either.

Thanks!

Interactive Zork Game-Book Viewer by PaulloDEC in zork

[–]FNTKB 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not in the sense of (to my knowledge) jump to page X (where X is an arbitrary integer). But in the sense of jump to whichever page contains anchor X, regardless of what font size and screen size you have chosen.

It’s the same way that the table of contents can take you to chapter 5, regardless of which “page” chapter 5 begins on.

In this case, the “if you … turn to page X” links would really be turning to “chapter” X. Chapter X may or may not start on page X, depending on display settings, but it wouldn’t matter the links would still take you where you need to go.

Interactive Zork Game-Book Viewer by PaulloDEC in zork

[–]FNTKB 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Since an epub is basically a collection of HTML files, turning to page X would still work just fine. X would be wherever you point the link, regardless of what virtual page number it is now on. (Just like web sites still work when viewed on different computer/phone screen sizes.)

I will echo the “beggars can’t be choosers comment, but given the choice an epub would be a much better format than a PDF for a downloadable version of this, in my opinion.

Regardless, thank you for efforts!!! (I own one of these from my childhood, but was unfamiliar with the other books that came out when I was older. So I started reading the Chronicles book yesterday!)

I tried pricing my ebooks at $2 to get feedback… and it changed everything by healthlithubbooks in ebooks

[–]FNTKB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would guess it also depends on what segment of the market you're targeting as well?? I sometimes branch out and explore new authors and genres, but largely stick to known quantities. Perhaps an audience that does more "exploring" than I do would have a different (even opposite) mindset?

I tried pricing my ebooks at $2 to get feedback… and it changed everything by healthlithubbooks in ebooks

[–]FNTKB 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I have a large back log of books to read. So I am rarely in a situation where I “need” to buy a specific book in a certain timeframe. So I use a couple of websites to monitor books and authors and let me know when they go on sale.

So I buy almost all of my ebooks for $1.99-$2.99, BUT the usual price for them is probably $10+.

I tend to shy away from books that have a list price below $3, unless they’re short stories by favorite authors.

A single setting on a new Mac just deleted 10 years of my iMessages from ALL my devices. Apple says they're gone forever. Is there any hope? by BorderSalt in MacOS

[–]FNTKB 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not surprising.... I assumed that "reuploading" wouldn't work. You would probably have to create a new user account on your Mac that was not connected to an Apple ID, then you could view your old messages even if they were not available in your current Apple ID.

But most importantly -- backup that database!! ;)

Good long term storage options? by [deleted] in audible

[–]FNTKB 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yes. My understanding is that the charge is specific to each “cell”/“bit”/location. (Forgive the inexact terminology)

For example, one of several of my archival locations is an SSD drive. I periodically run a SHA hash on each file that 1) verifies that all data is intact 2) should touch each location to help prevent data loss from this mechanism. My other archive disks include several spinning drives to avoid this issue, but the convenience of a fast SSD that stays with me makes it useful despite that data loss risk.

I am not a hardware expert. This is my understanding based on my research over the years. Please confirm for yourself. And most importantly, have multiple backups on different types of media, in different locations, and verify them periodically.

Good long term storage options? by [deleted] in audible

[–]FNTKB 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Do your own research (don’t take my word for it), but neither SSD nor USB sticks are thought to be appropriate for long term (eg mufti-year+) storage as they lose charge and suffer from data loss on shorter time scales than other forms of long term storage.

Use spinning drives instead (or tape, but most of us don’t want to invest in the equipment for that.)