delenn13,

Thanks Delenn. :) Hope all is well with you and yours. Stay safe. Both my kids are now home from university. both universities are closed until further notice. Callums end of year exams (usually in May/June) are now an open book exam, which means he can work from home. I told him, open book exams are not as easy as he may think. I had to do one for my Masters degree and it was hard. Michelle is streaming her lectures to her students from home as well. So we are ensconced in the house with infrequent visits to the local store to try and pick up essentials. I've been using online shopping for years becasue I can't get to the store on my own. since last week every delivery spot for the next three weeks has been taken within 3 to 4 minutes of the new day opening at midnight, whereas before the pandemic, you could still get spots for the next day (let alone three weeks) hours before that particular day was closed. I have so far not been able to grab a spot, partly because so many people are trying to grab the spots, the site takes minutes to load whereas if you log in before midnight you can get to the delivery page almost instantly, but there are never any spots left. Crazy.

More free stuff....

Figment, Tormentor x Punisher, and World War Z free @Epic Games Store
Free Now till - Apr 02 at 11:00 AM EST.

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/figment/home

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/tormentor-x-punisher/home

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/world-war-z/home

_____________________________________________________________________________
Between Two Castles (Free on Steam until March 30, 2020)

Another game put up for free because of COVID-19.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1158500/Between_Two_Castles__Digital_Edition/

This is free to claim and to keep forever, it's actually a rather fun and interesting board game, for the people who are into that.

David,

Hi David, sorry, I usually include details of the controls, but didn't have much time with yesterdays game (I didn't know we were getting a game until later in the day because there was no indication we were getting a game when I checked the usual time games go live) so neglected to include the controls as I was busy with other projects. Unfortunately these cheap games use free or very cheap game engines that don't include the ability to add a help section, or you have to buy add-on packs. that make the engine expensive if you want to add different themes etc; for example, the latest RPG Maker game engine costs around £60, but if you added all of the add-on packs it would cost you approaching £4000 (the RPG maker games cost almost 25% more in the US); (or it may have been that the developer was too lazy to bother). With respect to the controls; I've always found the WASD keys a pain to use for movement (being a left handed person). If its possible to remap keys I always change WASD for the arrow keys as its far more comfortable to use for me; unfortunately remapping with this game is also not possible.

Whiterabbit-uk, hi .
A long time ago I've read about a program that
let you remap all the keys of the keyboard , but
I can't remember it's name .
Do you have any info about it ?

JEDIGEG,

Hi G,
Microsofts own free software called Mouse and Keyboard Center plus some others such as:

SharpKeys
AutoHotkey
Key Tweak
MapKeyboard
Key Mapper

You should be able to download each one of the above via the hyperlink I've included for each application. You'll also find details of most of the ones listed above HERE and HERE.

Did any one of the above ring a bell? :)

Whiterabbit-uk, at first glance , they didn't .
Maaaaybe AutoHotKey , but I am not sure .
I will check them out and I will let you know .
Thank you very much for the info and the time
you've spent to help me .
I knew I could count on you . :-)

I can't remember if it was free , but I've just remembered that
you could create "profiles" for any game you wanted to play
and "hot keys" leading to them .
So , every time you started a game , and pressed the hot key ,
you would have the keys already modified and ready for you .

About the today's game ...

My Win XP PC Specifications
Windows XP Pro 32bit , Intel Core2Duo E8500 3,16Ghz ,
4 Gb memory (DDR 2) , NVIDIA GeForce GTX460 768Mb .

Downloaded and installed without a problem .

System Requirements : Windows XP\Vista\7\8\10

It doesn't work under Windows XP .

Error : not a valid Win32 application

JEDIGEG,

I can remap my keyboard; a Razer Black Widow Ultimate Stealth, which I paid around £120 several years ago. (I ended up with three as I loved them so much) It has five memory/macro keys so that I can set the keyboard up for various configurations (though I have to use Razer Synapse application and the macros are stored online); however, I've actually never got around to doing it so far. I should as it was one of several reasons I purchased that particular keyboard (also I liked the green lit keys, the mechanical actuation, the sensitivity and the simple looking layout). The five memory keys are on the left. It's actually totally black (apart from the green LED's that light up the keys), not grey like in the image. You can remove the key covers and swap them around if necessary. I had to swap the Z and Y keys as I accidentally purchased a German version which has those two keys swapped around.

JEDIGEG,
According to the specs on Steam it should work on XP. Maybe there is something you are running in the background that is causing this issue as you always seem to have issues running these mid week games?

If you do remember the name of the application, please do let me know (better to email me) :)

Whiterabbit-uk, it's a beautiful keyboard with very nice
features , but the £120 price is to expensive for me .
I knew there were keyboards with those abilities
(physically swap the keys) and I knew their prices ,
so , I had to focus to the software solution .
Who knows , maybe some day , when I'll win the
lottery , I will by one of those keyboards and a brand
new computer along with it ... :-)

JEDIGEG,

Hi G, Sorry, I was just illustrating what the keyboard looked like,, I've been really lucky and sometimes don't think when I post such things,, again sorry. I wish I could send you one of my spare keyboards but the postage is ridiculously expensive and would cost significantly more than what you could buy a second hand one for. It's a pity the parcel services to and from the US are so expensive i.e it would cost a lot more than what you could buy the keyboard via eBay, otherwise I could have given you an older model I have. My daughter spilled some orange juice on it and ever since a couple of the keys have become very sluggish as the juice penetrated the mechanical key mechanism, plus one of the LED's no longer works and a couple of the vowel keys are so worn you can no longer see what the letter is. (You can buy replacements). A friend posted me some coffee beans for Christmas that he'd roasted himself (they were beautiful) but it cost him $40 just to send them to me. I purchased a Novint Falcon controller several years ago (before it was available in the UK) and it cost me over £70 just for the carriage.

There are a lot of gaming keyboards out there, but a lot rely on fancy gadgets and multiple coloured keys etc.

After trying a few different gaming keyboards e.g. the Logitech G19, I settled on the one I illustrated after it was recommended by a friend. Sadly it was rather expensive at the time of purchase; however, that particular keyboard can now be purchased new for around $70 and if you were happy to buy a second hand one (they are built like a tank i.e. very sturdy) you can get the same model (Black Widow Ultimate Stealth 2014) for around $20 and even cheaper if you keep an eye open on eBay. I saw one of the latest Chroma versions going for £25 which is amazing considering that particular madel is still £120. The ultimate stealth refers to the quieter key presses. The Ultimate version as opposed to the Ultimate Stealth is noisier and the key actuation required a weaker key press. With the Ultimate you can literally just touch the keys with a slight depression and it will actuate. Also the Ultimate has blue LED's as opposed to Green for the Ultimate Stealth. The ultimate stealth requires a slightly deeper actuation, so is slightly slower than the Ultimate. The keyboard was designed for gamers and being able to press a key even milliseconds faster than someone you are playing with in a PvP situation could mean the difference between winning and losing (not that I'm competitive).

Whiterabbit-uk,
don't worry my friend ... :-)
You didn't cause any bad feelings to me .
I've loved computers for all my life and I am always "drooling" over
some new gadget or PC component ... :-)
You know how people are ... everyone would love to have a Ferrari
or a Maserati , even though they know that this kind of cars will
never be theirs ... except from the "lottery" factor ... :-)
Anyway , I am not in the market for a new gamers , or any kind of
keyboard .
Due to my aging hardware (2005) and problematic Winndows XP
installation , I don't play games so seriously as I've used to .
As for the games not working on my system , I am having problems
only with the games from Falco .
Most of them are working just fine under Windows 7 , but a few are
refusing to work either way .
I am considering to do a fresh installation of Windows XP , just to see
if the Falco games will work , but I need a new hard drive to do that ,
so , again I must wait ...the lottery ... :-)
I am not worried ... I am pretty sure , it's a matter of days (two or three
thousands) , until I hit the jackpot ... :-)
I have build the ultimate PC in my head , more than a thousand times ,
so I know exactly what I will buy ... :-)
Until then ... patience ...

david maguire,

Hi David, stay safe. regards Stephen