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Here are some of the most frequently asked questions

1. How many of your games are suitable for vision-impaired and blind players?

2. How do I uninstall one of your games?

3. Are your games truly Freeware, or is there some catch?

4. How can you offer your games for free if there no adverts?

5. What will my e-mail address and my details be used for?

6. What made you choose Spoonbill Software for the name of your website?

7. Can I run your games on my tablet or iPhone?

1. How many of your games are suitable for vision-impaired and blind players?

A: My first attempt at writing a computer game for the blind was released in November 2004 and has proved a huge success. Encouraged by this I have resolved to try to adapt more of my games for vision-impaired and blind people, and to this end I have created the Blind Gamers series of computer games. All games suitable for blind players are to be found on the Blind Gamers page.

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2. How do I uninstall one of your games?

A: All Spoonbill Software products install in a non-intrusive manner. That is to say, all the files required by the program are located in a specific folder created especially for the one program. Data and other associated files may be stored in sub-folders of the main folder. No DLL files are installed in the Windows folder, no entries are stored in the Windows registry. So, to uninstall any piece of software is merely a matter of deleting the main program folder and all its sub-folders.

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3. Are your games truly Freeware, or is there some catch?

A: All games from Spoonbill Software are truly FREEWARE. There are no nag screens, no advertisements, no time limits on their use, no suppressed features which can only be activated if you buy. All games are fully functional right from the start and don't cost you a cent!

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4. How can you offer games for free if there are no adverts?

A: I am a retired computer programmer and I have for years written computer games as a hobby, first for my children and then for my grandchildren. As I have accumulated more and more games, I thought it would be a good idea to share them with other people too. That's when I created my website, Spoonbill Software. As I am retired on a pension, I have no need of the extra money that selling my software would generate. To save the hassles of creating a commercial website, managing the cash flow and dealing with all the tax implications that this would involve, I decided that anyone who wanted my software could have it for free. You don't get much in the world for free these days, so I thought it would be a refreshing change!

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5. What will my e-mail address and details be used for?

A: I have no commercial affiliations. I am a retired computer programmer writing games for my own enjoyment. I guarantee the confidentiality of your details, and will not disclose them or on-sell them to anyone else. I retain your e-mail address, name and country of residence in my data base for the sole purpose of contacting you in the future, if and when bug fixes, enhancements or upgrades are released for the games you have previously requested. If at any time you wish to be removed from my mailing list, all you need to do is to contact me and I will gladly delete your entry. Whenever I send a bulk e-mail to a group of my clients, for instance when an upgrade to one of my games is released, I always send the e-mail as a Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) so that the recipients cannot see the other people's e-mail addresses.

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6. What made you choose Spoonbill Software for the name of your website?

spoony the spoonbill

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A:  A few years before I created my website in 2002, (which wasn't until I retired in 1999 and moved from Perth, the capital of Western Australia, down to Albany on the south coast), we visited the Perth zoo which had a section dedicated to Wetland birds. One of the birds was a very friendly spoonbill called "Spoony". He would perch on a nearby railing and you could go up to  him and stroke him and he would sometimes gently peck your hand. It didn't hurt because a spoonbill's beak is rounded at the tip (like a spoon). He was a great favourite with our grandchildren. He was famous and he even featured one year on the cover of the Perth Telephone Directory. A year or so after his appearance on the telephone directory, he disappeared and eventually turned up in a neighbouring garden some days later.  He was returned to the zoo but unfortunately died not long after. The next time we went to the zoo, we asked a keeper where he was and were told the sad story. So, when I created my website to share my games with the world, I thought of Spoony and named my site in memory of this gentle creature.

7. Can I run your games on my tablet or iPhone?

A: All games on the Spoonbill Software website are written to run exclusively on equipment running the Windows operating system. Any Windows OS which can run 32-bit applications, can run Spoonbill games. This includes Win 7 64-bit, Win 8 and Win 10 machines. The games will also run on Mac iOS providing you are running a Windows emulator. The games will not run on phones or tablets.

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