WARNING: Unfortunately, Internet Explorer 4.0 handles cookies differently from Netscape, and makes it difficult to modify cookies directly (if at all). However, the cookies in Internet Explorer 4.0 appear to be preserved, even during a system crash. Thus, the information contained within this document pertains only to Netscape users.
Despite recent paranoia about cookies and privacy (cookies even made it into Time Magazine!), cookies are relatively harmless. They are small files, limited to 4KB in size, and only 300 of them may be stored on your hard drive. Furthermore, a single web site may only write a maximum 20 cookies (I have heard rumors of less) and may only access cookies that match their domain. However, evil abounds on the net, and some folk, particularly advertisers, will take advantage of cookies to infiltrate your privacy, sometimes using cookies to "track" your web surfing activity. Fortunately, defending against such abuse is easy. For more information about keeping yourself safe from prying eyes and about cookies in general, visit http://www.cookiecentral.com.
If you are using a Macintosh, search for the file "MagicCookie". It is located in your Netscape preferences folder which is stored in your System folder.
The steps outlined below describe how to directly modify your cookie file on the fly, or at least, how to save cookie data to a separate text file as a precaution against browser failure.
Step 1: Open Your Favorite Text Editor. While The Dark Core is running, open your favorite text editor, such as Notepad or Wordpad for Windows95, or Simple Text for Macintosh. Set up a new page.
Step 2: Activate the Save Game Easter Egg. Click on the disk icon found in the Dark Core control panel to open the Disk Options Window. While holding down the ALT key (for Macintosh users, hold down the META or APPLE key), click on the "Save Game" button. After your game is saved, you will notice an ugly line of text appear in the text window of the game. It may look something like this:
beach.html+moongate01.html+forest.mid+beach.aiff+honor+summ+NULL+NULL+NULL+0+0+0+0+0+0+0+0+0+0+north+0+000000000000000000111111111000000100001
Step 3: Copy the Save Game Data. As you probably guessed, that ugly string is the data for your saved game (Yep, that's all there is to it). Copy the string. At this point, you can either paste it into your text editor and save it for future cookie editing or immediately paste it into your cookie file. When you wish to edit your cookie file, follow steps 4-7.
Step 4: Open your Cookie File with your Text Editor. The location of your cookie file is dependent on your browser version and your operating system. Consult Where Do I Find These Cookies? for details.
Note:Although Windows users can open the cookies.txt file with any text editor, Macintosh owners may encounter some difficulty opening their MagicCookie file. See Notes for Mac Addicts for further details.
Step 5: Ignore the Warning in your Cookie Header and Make a Backup. Specifically, dismiss the " # This is a generated file! Do not edit" header. If you are concerned about damaging your browser, then simply make a backup copy of your cookie file before proceeding.
Step 6: Edit the Dark Cookie. When you successfully open your cookie file, you will see something like this:
# Netscape HTTP Cookie File # http://www.netscape.com/newsref/std/cookie_spec.html # This is a generated file! Do not edit. FALSE /D%7C/multimedia/darkcore FALSE 946616400 darkCore beach.html+moongate01.html+forest.mid+beach.aiff+honor+summ+NULL+NULL+NULL+0+0+0+0+0+0+0+0+0+0+north+0+000000000000000000111111111000000100001 www1.nisiq.net FALSE /~jimmeans/falcon FALSE 946684799 JSFALCON 5130 www.cisfi28.demon.co.uk FALSE /millennium FALSE 2125405149 LastVisitJS Sunday%2C%20May%2018%2C%201997%20%2010%3A19%20AM
Each row after the header represents a cookie and each column represents data stored within that cookie. Ignore all the columns except the last two on the right. In the second column from the right, page down through the file until you located the name "darkCore". This designates the cookie that The Dark Core writes to your disk (In the example above, it's the first cookie in the file and is highlighted by italics). Once you locate the Dark Cookie, replace the string in the next column (In the example above, this text is in bold) with the data string you copied in steps 1-3. MAKE CERTAIN THIS STRING IS ALL THAT YOU REPLACE. DO NOT remove the TAB in between the last column and the column before it. DO NOT EDIT ANYTHING ELSE (unless you really want to).
Step 7: Save Your Cookie. Once you save the cookie, the data is permanently stored on your disk. If your browser crashes, you can safely reload your game when you restart Netscape. That is all there is to it.
Notes for Mac Addicts: Opening your cookie file will require some special handling.
Step 4a: Before editing your MagicCookie file, you will have to find a program that is able to display and edit file types and creators. One excellent program is Snitch.
Step4b: Using your editing program, change the file type of the MagicCookie from COOK to TEXT.
Step 4c: You can now open the MagicCookie file with your favorite text editor. Follow steps 5-7 as described above before proceeding.
Step 4d: Change the file type of MagicCookie back to COOK. Make certain that its creator type is set to MOSS.
Step 4e: Your game is saved! And who said Macs are easier to use than Windows machines?