Decklin's Domain Computers - recommended utility and other software downloads

I truly believe that, from my own experience over the years, the best way to test any computer system is not to buy and install a suite of regular boring old office products, but to get involved with the internet game playing community. It will not be long before you end up downloading some beta version of a game and wrestling with installation problems before you even begin to get to find the bugs in the game itself!

Lets assume this is you, its way back in the 1980's and you've managed to get the program's opening page to actually appear. What's that box you see in front of you? Well - its likely the configuration screen where you have to set up your audio card, the video adapter and preferred input i.e. keyboard, joystick or mouse. Finally you get that all worked out then what? Another screen - what connection protocol are you using to play the multiplayer version of the game? Are you playing locally or over the internet? What is NETBIOS? What does it mean by TCP/IP? Who in the heck was Baud anyway and why is his rate so important?

By the time you actually get this thing figured out and working, summer's over and your buddy down the road that you were going to play with has moved! Its just as well, as you've now realised the graphics aren't quite right anyway and its going to take a couple of semesters to get that sorted out

OK I know graphics cards and operating systems have gradually become more sophisticated, and plug and play has made a lot of things much more straightforward .... but there are still occasions when you might have need of some of the applications described in these pages.

I have used at some time or other, all the programs referenced here. In fact, even the oldest still come in useful from time to time.

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Downloading files can be extremely time-consuming, particularly if you have a slow internet connection. Its even worse when the file is 90% downloaded and the family dog disconnects the modem. There are several very good applications that help the download process become a lot more reliable and speedy than the default Windows methods, the best in my view is GetRight from Headlight Software ...

Headlight Software

If Steve Rimmer (the brains behind Alchemy Mindworks) ever meets my friend Eug he should probably give him a big fat commission ~ or at least a free copy of Coven. It was Eug that passed on to me a dog-eared floppy disk with Graphic Workshop for DOS, since then I've kept buying Steve Rimmer's entertaining text books on graphics of various kinds and even registered lots of his shareware software - I have a nagging suspicion I've registered the same software more than once. His writing style is entertaining to say the least, readers of his books may note some re-working of the same ingredients from time to time but all is readily forgiven and I'm really glad Fluffy didn't eat the Peacock.

I currently use Graphic Workshop Professional, Gif Construction Set and several other of Alchemy Mindworks' applications and recommend you take a look.

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What Alchemy Mindworks did for my graphics requirements, GoldWave does for audio. This is certainly one of the better shareware sound editors you can find anywhere.

Simply superb Sound Editor ...

... rotidE dnuoS brepus ylpmiS

No matter which way you look at it !

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When I'm at work, and the game server needs attention, I use GoToMyPc ...

I run small game servers from my home network more or less 24/7. One runs a DEMISE: Rise of the Ku'Tan demo game where as many as 1,000 players will log on and off during a year. I also moderate a few bulletin boards - related tothese games - where the age range of the players extends from 8 to 80 - at least among those who will admit any age! These are not private forums or games and from time to time some obnoxious board trolls need to be controlled just a tad. You may not know it, but most people who use the internet have their unique IP address stored at every server they visit and most administrators of Multi-Player games can read the IP address in real time. I needed to deal with several of these 'people' and the trace software I used .. Neotrace Professional ... is now part of the McAfee suite!!

Sad but true - we all must practice "safe computing" these days and McAfee is a 'one stop shop' for several essentials.

Its likely that you've heard about the need for "firewalls" these days, what with so-called denial of service attacks on major Internet corporations and institutions almost a daily occurence at times. For those computers I have networked at home, the router provides a certain level of security, but the one that has the important stuff on, that needs to be on-line most frequently, I have set up with ZoneAlarm Pro.

Warriors II is a free web-based game loosely based on Nordic mythology. All you need is a valid email address and time to play at least once every thirty days ! An interesting application of ASP (Active Server Pages), Warriors II has perhaps 20,000 players world-wide. The appeal of this type of game is that it runs in your browser and you don't need to download any code to play.

Maybe its the long, dark winters, but Finland produces more than its fair share of talented programmers. There's an excellent and powerful application which is "totally freeware" that may be downloaded from ToniArts.
Easy Cleaner can be used to clean unnecessary files from the Windows registery, removed duplicate files and much, much more.

Copyright © 2001, 2002, 2003 Decklin's Domain All Rights Reserved Revised - 2003/August/2 Contact - decklin@pacbell.net URL - http://www.decklinsdomain.com


	Dungeon Tested Software by Decklin