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Spotling's

Norn and Grendel Paradise

Frequently-Asked Questions

• How to Surf the Internet
• When Are You Going to...?
• Creatures Questions
• Duh?
• Newbie Questions
• COBs
  • How to download
  • How to unzip and install
  • Object Injector doesn't work
  • I Wanna create my own COBs!
  • How to create sprite files
• Norn Pose/Dancing Norns
• How to Create a Website
  • HTML
  • Music/MIDI files
• Who Are You?

• How to Surf the Internet

  It takes too long for all the pictures to load. How can I get the pages on your site to load faster?
  • Get the fastest modem you can afford, and make sure your internet server is providing service at the same or faster speed.
  • Text-only loads much faster than text + pictures. On your browser, you can change the setting so that only the text loads. On Netscape click on "Edit", "Preferences", "Advanced", then uncheck "Automatically load images", then press the "OK" button. It is similar on Microsoft Internet Explorer and probably on other browsers, too.
  • Instead of just clicking on a link, right-click and select "Open in new window". You can be looking at one page while several other pages are loading. That way, you won't have to sit around waiting.
  • If all else fails, make use of the time you have while waiting for a page or file to download. If your computer has enough memory, you can run Creatures while you are on the internet. Or you can take care of your Tamagochi, stretch, have a snack, go to the bathroom, etc. (If you are *truly* addicted to the internet, you actually look forward to something taking a long time to come in so you can go potty! hahaha)
  
  

• When are you going to...???

  When are you going to... [Fill-In-The Blank: put up more stories, make more COBs, answer my e-mail, update the website, etc.]
  • As soon as we possibly can! Believe me, if we could, we would push computer 24 hours a day, every day. Unfortunately we have to do stuff like push food, push shower, push sleep, plus we have to push homework, push chores, and push animals. So, we are doing the very best we can to keep up with everything. Thanks for understanding and being patient.
  
  

• Creatures Questions

  There are lots of other Creatures sites with good FAQ pages, so we won't attempt to reproduce them all here. Please see our links page or go surfing on some of the Webrings. Also take a look at our Hints & Tips page. Here are some sites with very informative FAQ pages.
  • David Chess's Creatures Stuff
  • Alexander Laemmle's Beowolf's Homepage
  • Lummox Jr's Norn Underground
  • Ping's Norns
  
  

• Duh?

  This is an actual e-mail that we received. Honestly! We did not make this up.
  "I have lifekit 1 and I downloaded a grenorn (it looks like a grendal but sounds like a norn) and it's PURE grendal, it's not even a little bit norn, then I downloaded some bunny norns and a forest norn with grendal legs, and it's a forest norn with a santa body! What's wrong with your stuff? If you arent really going to have grenorns for download, please do not say that they are!"
  • If you send us an e-mail like this, do not expect a personal reply. We will not respond to rude questions. Please learn some netiquette. (We will, however, answer questions -even those requiring lengthy, complicated answers - if you ask nicely.)
  • Please learn how to read and follow directions. As stated on the website, you have to have the proper Body Data and Sprite files for the Grorns, Bunny, and Santa Norns to work. If you do not have them, those Norns will look like whatever their default sprites look like. The Grorn files are available at Hippy Norns Hangout and the Santa and Bunny Norn files are from Norn Holiday
  
  

• AOL/Newbie Questions

  Here is another e-mail that we actually received, believe it or not.
  " Hey. I don't have a zip drive,so I can't download norns from your site.PLEASE get some non-zip norns on your site!"
  • Sometimes when we read our e-mail we start looking around for Allen Funt and his Candid Camera. And we are awfully tempted to join the WolfPack. But it wasn't that long ago that we were Newbies ourselves, and a few kind, patient people helped us get started, so we will do our best to help anyone who is honestly confused about something.
  • I think you are getting zip drives and zipped files mixed up. Zip drives and zip disks, such as the ones made by Iomega, are storage systems that have the advantage over floppy disks of having a larger capacity and can hold more data. On the other hand zipped files are compressed files, which require less space. To zip or unzip files you need something like WinZip.
  • We cannot upload .cob and .exp files to GeoCities, so we have to put up zipped files for you to download. If you cannot unzip them, please e-mail us and tell us which COB or Creature you want , and we can send it to you as an e-mail attachment.
  
  

• COBs

  What is a COB?
  • A COB is a Creatures Object that you can inject into Albia, such as food, toys, plants, and animals.
    
    How do I download a COB?
  • Click on the picture or the link. A little window should appear. Select "Save File". Select the disk or folder where you want to put your file, then click on the "Save" button.
  • If you need more detailed instructions, here is a WordPad file, How to Download and Install COBs
    
    How do I unzip a COB?
  • There are several software programs that you can use to unzip compressed files. If you need one, go to the WinZip site and download WinZip.
    
    I have AOL and I cannot download zipped COBs and Norns. Could you put unzipped COBs and Norns on the website?
  • Sorry, we tried, and GeoCities doesn't seem to recognize the *.exp and *.cob files, so we cannot put them on the site. If you can receive e-mail attachments, please let us know which ones you want and we can send them to you.
    
    Help! My Object Injector doesn't work. What should I do?
  • Go to the CyberLife site and download the updated Object Injector. If that doesn't work, you may have to export all your Norns and Grendels, uninstall and reinstall Creatures.
  
  
  How can I create my own COBs?
  • There are several COB Editors available on the internet. Our favorite is Alexander Laemmle's Creatures Object Editor (COE). You can get COE from Beowolf's Homepage.
    
  • There are COB tutorials at Slink's Burrow, Lummox Jr's Norn Underground, and Ping's Norns.
  • If you've never made a COB before, start off with something simple like a Shower, Food, Plant, or Toy. Later, when you have more experience, you will be able to tackle the Vendors and more complex objects.
  • The easiest way to make a new COB is to take a look at the macroscripts of a similar COB. It is a lot easier to make a few modifications on an existing COB, instead of trying to come up with the whole thing from scratch.
  • Here are some examples of how to create a new COB by modifying an existing COB
    • Shower COB Tutorial: Gumby Doll & Tutorial
    • Plant COB Tutorial: Coming Soon
    • Animal COB Tutorial: Coming Soon
    • Vendor COB Tutorial: Snack Vendor & Tutorial
  
  
  How do I create a sprite file?
  • If you are really good at drawing, it is possible to draw the pictures directly into the Sprite Editor, but it is a lot easier to draw the pictures with a graphics program, save it as a .bmp file, then convert the .bmp to a .spr file. We use Corel Photo Paint because it came free with our computer. Adobe Photoshop is wonderful, if you can afford it. Most computers come with some graphics software, but if you need one, you can download Paint Shop Pro.
  • Black is the transparent color in Creatures, so fill in the background with black. If you want part of the picture to look black, use very dark gray.
  • Open up the Sprite Editor in COE by clicking on the icon that looks like a blond Norn. If your sprite file will have only 1 picture, it is easy to convert the .bmp to a .spr file. Click on "Tools", "BMP to Sprite converter", "Files", "Load .bmp file", and select the name of your .bmp file. Then click on "Files", "Save as .SPR file" and type in a name (must be 4-letters long).
  • If your sprite file has several pictures it takes a little longer to convert all of the pictures. First, create a new sprite file. Click on "Tools", "Sprite file creator..." and a little window pops up. Type in the number of pictures your sprite file will have, and the size in pixels, then click on the "Create Sprite File" button. Type in a name for your new sprite file (must be 4-letters long). Then, one-by-one, convert each .bmp to a temporary .spr file. Number the first one 0, and the second one 1, etc. such as whpe0, whpe1, etc. Then open the first file, whpe0, by clicking "File", "Open Sprite File...", and selecting whpe0. Put it on the clipboard by clicking "Edit", "Copy". Open up the new sprite and paste the first picture onto pose 0 by clicking "Edit", "Paste Sprite", and save it by clicking "Files", "Save Sprite". Then copy whpe1 and paste it onto pose 1, etc. Keep repeating this process until you have pasted all the pictures in, then you can delete the temprary files. Yawn...it gets very tedious if your sprite has a lot of pictures.
  
  
  

• Norn Pose/Dancing Norns

  How do you make those dancing Norns?
  • Get NornPose from Norn Underground.
  • You may need CMDIALOG in order to run Norn Pose.
  • After you save several pictures from Norn Pose, use an animation program, such as GIF Construction Set from Alchemy Mindworks, Inc.
  
  
  

• How to create a website

  What is HTML?
  • HTML stands for "Hypertext Markup Language". It is the language computers use to create websites. Here are some sites where you can get an introduction to HTML.
    • The "Home Page" Home Page
    • CoolNerds
    
    How do I put Norns on my website for other people to download?
  • Here are the HTML tags for Downloadable Norns. (Zipped WordPad file)
    
    Where can I get music to put on my web page?
  • There are lots of sites where you can download MIDI files, such as The Best MIDI or Ifni MIDI
    
    How do I put music to put on my web page?
  • Here are the HTML tags for putting MIDI files on your website. (Zipped WordPad file)
    
    
    What song is on the [fill-in-the-blank] page?
  • If you scroll all the way to the bottom of the page you'll find the name of the song.
  
  
  

• Who are you?

  Who are you? How old are you? Are you a boy or girl? Where do you live?
  • The website is named after Spot. She is a very cute mixed-breed dog. We are Spot's pets. Joy is 15, Elise is 11, and Julie (our Mommy) is old. hehehe All of us are female. Our Dad and our other dog, Benji, don't play with Creatures. We live in Hawaii. You can find out more about us if you go to Spot's Home Page and look on the Me and My Family page.
  

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  Norn and Grendel Paradise

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  Bohemian Rhapsody
  by Queen