Answers to common questions:

Ponds & Streams: Installing the whole program onto the computer so that it can be used without having the cd in the cd drive

Animals of the British Isles: Error message

Using on a network: saving games onto the server

If you have any problems or questions, please email: spiny@spinysoft.co.uk and we will respond quickly.

Spiny Software cd-roms are designed for use in both schools and homes, for single use and on a network. Our newest cd-roms offer a choice of full install or quick install during the installation process but in our older cd-roms, clicking on the Install button of the program loads the minimum number of files onto the hard drive of the computer. This means that the cd-rom needs to be in the cd-rom drive whenever the program is used. To get around this, please follow these steps -

Full install onto the hard drive - Windows

1. Insert the cd-rom, click on Install and install the cd-rom in the usual way. (If you do not use Autorun, open the cd-rom, double-click on setup.exe and run the setup program).

2. Quit the installer.

3. Now copy all the remaining files from the cd-rom to the location you have chosen to install the cd-rom on the hard disc. You need to copy all the files except the installer (setup.exe) and the Autorun files.

[To see the files on Windows XP, click on Start then choose My Computer. Select the cd-rom icon by clicking once on it, then go to File and choose Open. You can now see all the files on the cd-rom and can copy them onto the hard disc.]

4. Click on the application to run the program. If it doesn't work at first check that you have copied all the files.

Full install onto the hard drive - Mac

1. Insert the cd-rom, and drag the folder labelled "drag to hard disc" to wherever you want to keep the program on the hard disc.

2. Now copy all the remaining files from the cd-rom to the same folder. The files that you need to copy are lower down, below the file that you have already copied to the hard disc.

Animals of the British Isles: Error alert
You may have a problem running Animals of the British Isles on machines with MORE than 512 MB total RAM. This is a documented problem with all cds of its age that were made with Macromedia Director, and causes the an error alert "Director Player 6.0....at least 3MB virtual memory to run".

There are various solutions to this problem, but the first thing to do is to copy all the files from the cd onto the hard drive of the computer so that you are not running the program off the cd-rom. Having done that, the first and easiest potential solution to the problem is to run the program in compatibility mode - right click on the Animals.exe icon and choose properties. Click on the Compatibility tab and check the box for “Run this program in compatibility mode". The default option of Window 95 is probably the best choice in the dropdown box below.

If that method doesn't work, then an alternative is to alter Virtual memory settings, setting both the Initial and Maximum size to 4000MB. This usually solves the problem and allows the program to run.

Using on a network: saving games onto the server
If you are running Ponds & Streams or Butterflies, Bugs & other Beasties and would like to save the saved games data on the server, please contact us and we can send you updated files which have this capability.