Download instructions for new Gemfire scenarios (PC/SNES)
Copyright (C) by dorafans.com 1998-2008
http://www.dorafans.com/
Last update: 2008/05/20

This guide contains the following sections:

A. Download Procedures
B. Points to Note During Loading
C. Difficulty Levels


A. Download Procedures
======================

1. PC version

Since all savegames of PC Gemfire is in the form of .gem files, the procedure is quite simple. 
Just right click the link to the .gem file, select "Save As" and store the file in the Gemfire 
directory. Use the load game function to start the game.

2. SNES version

The download process is complex. To play SNES Gemfire, you normally load the GEMFIRE.SMC file 
using ZSNES. However, the save games (both 1 and 2) are stored in another file GEMFIRE.SRM. This
 guide assumes users use ZSNES / ZSNESW to play the Super Nintendo version of Gemfire.


Unlike in PC system, you cannot direct load save games from custom files in SNES system. 
Therefore, after you have downloaded the scenario file, e.g."s2-5cry.srm", you need to save it 
as "GEMFIRE.SRM" in the same directory with the GEMFIRE.SMC file. To avoid overwriting your old 
save game, you need to manually backup the original "GEMFIRE.SRM" before downloading.

The overall download procedure for SNES is described as follows:

1. If you have old save games in Gemfire, backup the old GEMFIRE.SRM file. This can be done by
 renaming or copying the "GEMFIRE.SRM" to something else. 

2. In the scenario web pages, after the question of "Rule the XXX family?", right Click "Yea" 
and choose "Save As". Save it as "GEMFIRE.SRM" in the same directory as "GEMFIRE.SMC".

3. Start Gemfire by loading the "GEMFIRE.SMC" as usual.

4. In the scenario menu, move the cursor to Save Game #1 or Save Game #2 to start the game.

These steps cannot be skipped due to the design limitations of the ZSNES engine.



B. Points to Note During Loading
================================

(For both PC and SNES versions)

Some of the new scenarios (e.g. Scenario 5) may deliberately set the game year to Year 0 to 
trigger random events / annual adjustments on vassal stats during the start of Year 1. If you
 load these save data in-game, you may find yourself starting at an unknown city with corrupted
 information. In this case, you may simply say "Yea" to "All done ?" to move on.

This problem occurs because Gemfire does not have consistent logic in the load game function. 
Therefore, always load new scenarios from the scenario menu.



C. Difficulty Levels
====================

All new scenarios are divided in to 10 grades denoted in signs of military commands:

1 - The game is very easy. Even a person who plays the game first time can win.
2 - The game is easy to most people.
3 - The game is easy, but may be limited to those who have some experience in playing Gemfire
4 - The game is slightly easier than mediocre
5 - The game is not too hard, not too 'soft'
6 - The game is hard to those who have less experience in playing Gemfire
7 - The game is difficult to most people. However, Gemfire experts will find it ok.
8 - The game is very difficult to most people. Experts only !
9 - The game is extra-hard. You may be destroyed shortly after the game starts.
10- The game is the hardest of all. There are odds that you can never win no matter how hard you try.

by Dorafan, Dorafans.com Gemfire Research Lab
http://www.dorafans.com/