Help!

Common problems are shown below, if none if these match your dilemma then please email support@faraway.co.uk also be sure to check out the new player section of the web site. Note this page is shared by Tartarus and Kalevala, so please read with that in mind.

Hotmail users

True as of 24 Sept 2002.
If you use hotmail and have spam filters turned on you cannot play Tartarus with this email address. Hotmail spam filters currently block all email from the relay and game server.

 

How do I get it working under Solaris?

You will need the Java Runtime as usual. If you unzip the download (you will need a winzip compatible utility) you simply have to open up the tartarus.html page within netscape and it will work. To run it stand-alone you must do the following (this may be a little out of date):

a)Install the java runtime.
b)Unzip the download (I'm afraid you will need a winzip compatible zip utility)
c)Ensure you have no classpath set
unsetenv CLASSPATH
d)Find the JRE that came with the runtime. For example a user jgibbons had
netscape installed, so the plug-in put itself in
~jgibbons/.netscape/java/bin/

e) Change directory to the Tartarus install directory
f) Run the Plug-in JRE
~jgibbons/.netscape/java/bin/jre -cp tartarus.jar Tartarus
g) The game client will now be running!

Does it work on a Mac? (last checked 19 July 2001)

This was submitted by a player (thanks Jim). Basically the advice is that it's not easy to get it running on a mac...

I believe I know how to get your client to run in a Mac. It isn't easy and use of the Swing libraries complicates things but I was able to get my client to run on a mac by doing this and it is somewhat similar to the tartarus client.

First the mac owner must install the latest versions of MRJ and MRJ SDK (even if they are not going to develop code themselves). In the MRJ SDK is a program called JBindery. JBindery provides launching services for Java applications and applets on a Mac - it is similar to the java command line program but is graphical. In it you provide the class to be executed and the classpath you need to run the app. You can also muck with a lot of other things but those are the biggies. Then the application will run.

You have to get the mac swing library and make sure the class path points to it correctly. JBindery can also "repackage" a jar file to provide a Mac wrapper that will make it executable on a Mac without having to dink with JBindery to run it. This is what Mac people do when they develop java apps.

The mac wrapper is a mac executable program that will launch the JVM and execute the class files. The java programs must be made to "look like" a mac program. There is a manual in PDF format included with the MRJ SDK that has examples of Unix java comand line commands and how to translate them to JBinder fields. It was the only helpful book I have ever found that was written by Apple.

I hope this helps. It took me months to get this information and to make it work. If I were you I would just tell the mac world "too bad you have a mac" and forget about trying to get stuff to run on it. The average mac user will find all of this too hard.

I'm running in the browser, but nothing works

The most likely problem is that your browser does have the Java Plug-in installed, consult the browser guide. If it the java runtime doesn't get automatically downloaded by your browser then the simplest thing is to go to the Java site and download it by hand.

Problems at work

It may not work over the Internet if you are running behind a corporate firewall which strips out Java applets. In this case inform your security people that Java is the safest technology on the web and they should reconsider their position. You should also download a local copy - it will easily fit onto a floppy if you are not allowed to install to your hard disk!

It runs OK for a while and then dies

This is probably a problem with memory. The solution is to close down all other applications, restart the browser and try again.

It ran OK last time

If you were running the Tartarus client within the browser, and then you used the browser to view other web sites, and then return to Tartarus it may not work correctly. Usually it will be fine, but the simplest solution is to close down the browser and restart.

I can't read my go reports (Tartarus problem only)!

This is more serious. Read the help pages about getting last goes reports and make sure you understand the mechanism. If the report message does not contain ---TITANS--- at the start then your email system is encoding all mail messages. This is very unusual and you should consult your system admin., or service provider to determine what is going on.

There will also be occasional major upgrades to the game client which will not be backwards compatible. In other words, check out the web site and see if there is a new version of the game client.