Compatibility Notes

On the fly compression, such as AutoDoubler, Stuffit Spacesaver, AIC, and so forth, is not so much incompatible with POD as pointless. POD is already compressed.

Virtual memory may cause POD to grind to hang. RAMDoubler is fine, as long as you have enough physical RAM to run POD.

System 7 is required to run POD. It may run under System 6.x, but we make no guarantees and will not fix any related incompatibilities.

POD may be very jerky if control panels are left running in the background, or if File Sharing is switched on.

POD may fail to update the screen properly after a screen saver such as After Dark has blanked the screen. In compatible mode or on a Power Mac you can force a redraw by pressing command-space (to toggle full screen mode). Screen savers that dim the screen palette (such as Alsoft’s ScreenEclipse – our favourite) are perfectly compatible.

Fast mode (on 68k machines) does not guarantee background tasks any processing time. Nor can a game of POD in fast mode be switched to the background. In compatible mode, and on Power Macs, you can reduce POD to a window with command-space, and then background it by clicking somewhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

Cluebook. It has been suggested that a cluebook be made available to registered players. (Or we could release a special easy mode for magazine reviewers…) Unfortunately, I like using DOCMaker for such files and there is no obvious way to distribute a version that only unlocks for registered players other than to do our own DOCMaker (which would be kind of pointless). If there is sufficient demand, I would be happy to provide such a document to everybody. As an interim measure, I’ve inserted an Oracle.

Q. Does POD quit or crash after a certain amount of time.
A. There is a 60 MINUTE TIME LIMIT until you register. In 1.0 and 1.0.1 this meant that POD unceremoniously dumps you after about 60 minutes. In 1.0.2 and later, the game is less antisocial.

Before sending me questions on POD, please check the following list and please try the latest version (1.0.3 as of writing this sentence).

Also: read the Hints section of the documentation; it was compiled by our play-testers. 

Q. Is there any faster way of registering than by snail-mail?
A. Not at this time. We will send you your serial number by e-mail if we have an address. We are working on Visa/Mastercard registration.

Q. Does POD require 256 colours?
A. It requires 16/256 colours/greys and 3MB of free RAM. 

Q. Does POD require a 640x480 display?
A. POD supports 512x384 and 640x400 displays. (Some ancillary displays are lost, which can be quite annoying.) 

Q. Will POD ever run by modem?
A. Maybe. It depends on the amount of demand for this feature. It will also require a pretty fast modem (but these are getting pretty cheap). 

Q. Will POD ever run across the internet?
A. Not until they add a few lanes to the “superhighway”.

Q. Will POD ever run on something like Outland?
A. Outland currently does not offer fast enough response time for POD or, as far as we can tell, any arcade-style games. Pity.

Q. Will POD ever support >4 players?
A. Very likely. 

Q. Will POD ever support >4 characters?
A. Extremely likely. 

Q. Is POD restricted to fantasy?
A. POD (MARS) is not restricted to anything. 

Q. If we make scenarios, how different can they be from POD?
A. Totally. Characters can look different, act different, change form, whatever. You probably can’t implement Maelstrom as a MARS scenario, but you could get pretty close.

Q. Will POD ever support gamemastered play? (I.e. one or more superusers who can modify the scenario on the fly, and operate NPCs as puppets.)
A. Either it or a later product we release will. 

Q. What is it with POD and multiple monitors?
A. Fixed in 1.0.1. (Fingers crossed.) 

Q. What is it with the Starmetal Dart?
A. Fixed in 1.0.1. 

Q. There’s this bug where a tome keeps coming back!
A. It won’t take you past level 5, even in the registered version, and it’s there deliberately! (Until 1.0.3 whereupon it was removed to avoid having to answer email to this effect.)

Q. There’s this bug where you can loot your own corpse. If you do it for long enough, you’ll be rich!
A. Whatever turns you on. (BTW: you lose a level every time you die; but you can never drop below level 0.) This is definitely not a bug.

Note: in general, any magic item that hoses you is a trivial scripting error. Tell me the name of the item and we guarantee a fix in the next release. 

Q. What the hell am I supposed to be doing?
A. The documentation now includes useful background information.

Q. How does the magician select spells?
A. Read the documentation. In summary, the spells are: * basic magic missile * multiple missiles * blade barrier * energy wall * fast transportation * seeking “blue bird” 

Q. How do I play POD on a Powerbook?
A. [,],\, and ‘ for left, forward, right, and back off. [1.0.1] 

Q. Is save disabled until you register?
A. Yes. 

Q. Why isn’t this documented?
A. It is now.

Q. We’d like to try networking before we buy. Why can’t we?
A. Good point. We’ll address this in a future release (1.1 probably). 

Q. Network licenses are too expensive!
A. A network license includes single player mode and allows four players to play simultaneously for ONE payment of $40.

Q. Why isn’t POD compatible with my favourite extensions.
A. We’re sorry but we cannot support compatibility with all extensions. POD is compatible with ALL the extensions we use. The only extensions we know cause problems are:
• Anything that puts POD in the background (especially in fast mode) without paying for dinner and drinks first. E.g. Darkside of the Mac.
• Anything that switches screen depths on the fly after POD thinks it knows what the screen depth is.

Q. What is it with POD and Q660avs?
A. Try installing system 7.5, or wait for our compatibility kit.

Q. What is it with POD and PB5x0s?
A. Try installing system 7.5, or wait for our compatibility kit.

Q. What is it with POD and DayStar PowerPro accelerator cards?
A. We don’t know. Give us one and we’ll find out. 

Q. What is it with the magician?
A. She’s got more strange capabilities than anyone else and was harder to debug.

Q. The magician gets stuck all the time, why?
A. Her collision mask sucked in 1.0 and 1.0.1. It’s better now. [1.0.2]

Q. The diminution spell (rat-form) seems to hose me all the time.
A. Yeah. Shouldn’t have put it in. 

Q. How do we develop scenarios?
A. Get in touch with us. We haven’t decided how we’re going to release our scenario development tools yet, and we’re willing to listen to your ideas. To develop scenarios you need: (a) time; (b) dedication; (c) ideas; (d) some scripting ability; (e) some writing ability; (f) no fear of ResEdit; (h) a colour 68040 Mac with at least 12MB of RAM. (h) Artistic and (i) animation abilities are a bonus. 

Q. Will POD remain shareware?
A. It depends. 

Also, please note: Any error in which you go to the wrong room, or a teleporter or ladder or stairwell hoses you (or sticks you in the middle of a room), is almost certainly a one-line scripting error. If you can tell us exactly where you were (say “gps” in a speech balloon, and your location name will appear in a thought bubble) we will fix it promptly (ish).

In general, we will try to fix all errors that are brought to our attention. Some errors, involving unusual hardware configurations, are beyond our means to follow up.