If any of the pictures I'm using violates someone else's copyright, let me know about it and I'll take it down and replace it.

This website was optimized for Netscape 3+, but has been adjusted so that it'll work correctly with MS Explorer 3 as well (use both in full-screen mode to see all the navigation tags clearly). Return navigation tags were added to the end of all stories since MS Explorer returns to the previous page in a framed set of pages when you use the navigation "back" button, not to the calling frame as Netscape does. In other words, they don't take you back to the same place.

The 16-bit version of Netscape Communicator 4 for Windows 3.x does not always behave well in all circumstances. In fact, it's so erratic (commonly crashing the user back to the C: prompt) that I can't recommend it at all. If you're using Win 3.x, Netscape 3 and MS Explorer 3 work a lot better. Netscape 4 for Win95 seems to behave quite well.

The music should start automatically in either Netscape or Explorer. An icon allowing you to stop it or pause it is in the upper frame of each screen, you can roll it into view with the upper frame scroll bars if you want to shut it off or pause it (or restart it). There is also the option of changing the background music. To do this, use the tiny scroll bars at the top of the page (the upper frame scrollbars) to roll the frame up until you can see the words "CHANGE BACKGROUND MUSIC." Click on the words. You'll get a new window with more than fifty different musical selections. Make your choice, then:

1. If you're a Netscape user, just scroll to the bottom of that page and click "close this window;" that'll return you to Sam's Place.
2. If you're an MS Explorer user, the first time you do this you'll get an odd- looking screen with a message only you can read. Follow the instructions in that message.

Momentarily (how long "momentarily" is depends on how fast downloading is tonight), your selection will begin to play. You can do this from any screen beyond the opener (the street scene), as many times as you wish.

IF YOU AREN'T HEARING THE MUSIC or if the music turns itself off when you change pages (without more music starting), you probably don't have your browser properly configured for MIDI files yet. If you're using NCSA Mosaic you will not hear the music since Mosaic does not support MIDI. Internet Explorer 3 users: you may find that you don't hear the music at Sam's Place even though on some other sites, you do hear background music. This is because I have not used Microsoft's "BGSOUND" tag in conjuction with Netscape's "EMBED" command anywhere (this creates problems for MS Explorer 4 users, causing the music to start twice and overlap with hideous results). If you experience problems, the next paragraph has the solution:

The most trouble-free audio plug-in I've found so far is the old reliable, NPAUDIO.DLL. Once you've gotten a copy of this file (it's about 271K large), you simply place it in your Netscape or Explorer plug-in folder (in the case of Explorer you may have to create a directory called "PLUGINS" in your MSIE directory to get things to work right) and they'll then play all the MIDI files correctly. Some others will work in places; Crescendo, for example, works fine with Netscape (and allows you to turn the volume up and down, which NPAUDIO.DLL does not), but seems to cause Explorer some nuisance problems. I've tested NPAUDIO.DLL with Netscape 3, Communicator 4, and MS Explorer in both Windows 3.x and Windows 95 environments, and it works well everywhere. NPAUDIO.DLL is "shipped" with many versions of Netscape, but if you don't have a copy you can download it from the "downstairs" part of this site. You can now click "back" to go back to the opening screen, or click on the neon sign above to start. Have fun.

best,