Welcome to Esmerel, Home of the Waldings

(And of Unicorn Quest, the kids' typing tutor game for one or two hands)

Welcome to Esmerel, home of the Waldings. Grab yourself a candy apple and some hot cider, and come enjoy the site!

Ann Ewan's second fantasy book, Brondings' Honour, has been released. This time the Waldings have made it into the book! We can't wait to read it! Here's where you can read all about Ann's exciting books, Brondings' Honour and Firedrake. Here's a link to Ann's upcoming events.

Waldings love to get mail, but we're having a lot of trouble with spam. Please put our secret code (it's "fox" - shh) in the subject line when you write to us.

Paths to Take through Esmerel

• Is this your first visit? Grab some sausages with maple syrup, join the dancers as they weave in and out of the wagons, and find out about Esmerel and the Waldings.
• Mel & Mel posted a couple more restaurant reviews after their Collingwood vacation.
• The Mathemagician is back in camp complaining again, this time about a radio ad. Apparently it claims that a monkey who types for 3 million years will end up typing Shakespeare, and the Mathemagician doesn't believe it. Does anyone have any personal experience with monkeys typing Shakespeare? At least it has stopped him complaining about Jodie Foster's math in the movie "Contact."
• Are you curious about how the Internet works? The programmer's soapbox explains IP and Internet routing.
• Head out on the open road with other long-suffering commuters on their way to work.
• Read some mixed metaphors on the wordlore page.
• Visit the theatre district to hear stories of Conaria.
• Discover the future on fortune-tellers' row, or try to win some ribbons on gamers' aisle.
• And if you came to visit our camp because you saw the article in the Washington Post, the information is posted on that old notice board over there.

We have the following customized versions of Unicorn Quest available:

• Missing little fingers
• Missing little and ring fingers
• Missing little finger, right hand
• Missing index fingers
• Missing index finger, right hand
• Missing index finger, left hand
• Missing ring finger, right hand
• Missing ring finger, left hand
• Missing little finger and ring finger, right hand
• Missing little finger and ring finger, both hands
• Missing ring and middle finger on left hand, index and middle finger on right hand
• Left hand thumb only, full right hand
• Ring fingers only

If you are interested in any of these versions or would like a different one, contact us and let us know.

Thelion's Toolshop is open for business, and you can pick up his DOS utilities. Or, if you want some awk scripts, Rob finally got them all unpacked.

Download a copy of version 3.1 of Unicorn Quest! (zipped file 170K, expands to 648K including the zip file). Works for right hand, left hand, or both hands. Visit Thelion's shop for more information about it.

Alternatively, you can get Unicorn Quest by ftp from Garbo, or from Simtel. The file is called uquest31.zip.

Unicorn Quest is a DOS program, which means it works fine under Windows. It can be unzipped with WinZip, JustZIPit, or pkunzip. If you are running Windows and have WinZip installed, then after Unicorn Quest has been downloaded to your machine:

1. Right-click the file (called uquest31.zip or unicorn.zip) and select WinZip > Extract to folder > C:\uquest31 (or whatever name ends with uquest31).
2. Go to the new uquest31 directory and double-click the unicorn (or unicorn.exe) file to play the game.
3. Type your name and press Enter. (Since Unicorn Quest is a typing tutor, it does not recognize the mouse.) Use the arrow keys to select the hand you want (Both is the default) and then press Enter to start the game.

You can have Unicorn Quest take up the whole screen by pressing Alt-Enter. (Press Alt-Enter again to get the other icons back.)

If you don't have WinZip, you can get it from:
http://www.winzip.com

JustZIPit (a simple, powerful, and free ZIP program) is available from:
http://free-backup.info

And if you have more questions, contact us and ask. Please put our secret code (it's "fox" - don't tell anyone) in the subject line.

This site made possible by Sufficiently Advanced Technology and hosted by Connected.

Esmerel last updated 08 January 2009, a cold and snowy day. This site is maintained by Stewart.