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Hi

I tried your game via emulator (thank you very much for the clear instructions) and find it an excellent and clever experience, as all your games I've played so far. Great work!

I have a knack for obscure ancient hardware and never get tired of it because I'm fascinated by how ingenuity and creativy of the homebrew scene can transcend the technical limitations of such machines. I have an extensive collection of TI calculators (one of my favourite gaming platforms) and some old ZX Spectrum machines but I never had the pleasure to own a Psion 3. 

Now I wonder if I should acquire one of these devices for myself to play your game on the intended hardware. What's important to look for and purchase? 

Thank you and all the best

Thanks for your comment! I'd definitely recommend getting hold of these machines, but there are things you have to look out for because of their age. The issues I can think of right now are: (i) check for evidence that it works; in online sales you want pictures of the machine switched on, with a screen display lacking blotches or missing vertical pixel lines, (ii) check that the hinges and surrounding area aren't cracked or broken.

If you find a machine that looks fine there might still be minor problems with it that can be worked around. The machines have a metal tongue that sits between the two AA batteries, and in a few of my machines that's broken or missing, but you can still power the machine up by inserting a piece of foil between the batteries to make the contact. The batteries are awkward to put in with this problem but you get the knack of it soon enough.

Since these machines are battery powered, all you really need are the computer itself. But to get 3rd party software onto them you'll also need the 3-link, a serial cable with a dongle in the middle containing a ROM with the comms software (a Series 3c or 3mx don't need the dongle as they have the software in ROM, but their cable still has a bespoke connector at the Psion end). And to connect to a modern machine you'll need a USB-to-serial adapter.

You'll probably want memory cards for storage too, proprietary cards called SSDs (solid state disks) on the S3 family. There are two types: Flash SSDs, where space is not freed up by deleting files and are therefore more suitable for archiving or storing the software itself, and RAM SSDs that work like modern storage and are therefore good for files that get saved often. I especially recommend a Flash SSD for installing software to so that it's not taking up main memory, especially on machines with 128k or 256k of memory.

I hope this helps; if you need more information let me know!

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Hey

Fantastic, thank you so much for taking the time and elaborate. I found a good offer for a Psion 3 256k in reasonably well condition, plus a connection cable and a flash SSD with 256k. Now for the USB to serial-adapter and I'm ready to go. :)

It feels like a new world opening up to me which is really exciting. I like such closed and technically limited systems very much, they are like reminiscences of the golden age of computing in the early 80ies where every last bit of memory was important and where clever use of the limited resources allowed for some of the most creative and fun games

A funny thing by the way: Your game's graphics immediately reminded me a bit of the TI-84 classic Joltima. Joltima was my gateway game in the world of programmable calculators - and Dragonfell is my gateway in the realm of Psion Series 3. 

Joltima looks like so much fun! I hope you enjoy playing with the Series 3 as much as I do.

(+1)

You should definitely check out TI-calculator gaming and programming if you don't know it already. There are dozens and dozens of great games and applications for these devices, especially for the TI-84 Plus (the classic monochrome one, not the later rebrandings TI-84 Plus CSE and CE) and TI-89 Titanium, ticalc.org's archives are choke-full of great stuff: https://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/

I'm sure I'll have great fun with the Series 3 - I look forward to dive in this new ocean of possibilities. Thank you again for your help. 

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Hi

I have everything ready - a working Psion Series 3, the 3Link, an adapter. Unfortunately PsiWin doesn't seem to install under 64bit Windows anymore. How do you transfer data to the device? Thank you!