Dark Sentinel

The Emperor's Hammer Dark Sentinel is the official newsletter of the Emperor's Hammer Strike Fleet. It was formerly published on a recurring basis. Although no longer produced, it serves as a key historical record of activities within the Emperor's Hammer from its founding in January of 1995 until about 2010. The earliest newsletters are notable for serving as the foundational documents for the Emperor's Hammer as a whole.

Archived copies of the Dark Sentinel can be found at the official Emperor's Hammer newsletter archive.

History

Early versions of the Dark Sentinel (up to NL #34) were published in Windows Write (.WRI) format. Beginning with NL #5, the Windows Object Packager was used to embed additional files into the base newsletter. Icons within the base newsletter were linked to embedded objects, and double clicking the icon would load the embedded document. Because modern software will not read Windows Write files, the contents of most of these early editions have been converted to HTML format and are accessible online.

Beginning with NL #13, additional attached files were distributed with the newsletter. These additional files are currently only available in the original version of the newsletter that is made available in .ZIP archive format.

NL #35 marked the transition to the Word Document (.DOC) 6.0 format. These editions continued to use the embedded object technique.

Beginning with NL #48, the newsletter shifted to publishing in a native HTML format. These newsletters can be viewed online, as well as downloaded, at the newsletter archive. Unlike NLs #13-47, the additional attached files are also available through the HTML version on the site.

Issue #60 was a special edition, The Best of The Dark Sentinel, published in recognition of the 5th Anniversary of the founding of the Emperor's Hammer. This issue summarized significant events between NLs #1-59, and is an excellent resource for finding out about the history of the Fleet within the first five years of its operation.

Technical Information

The .WRI files of NLs #1-34, originally developed using Write within Windows 3.1 and earlier, cannot be effectively opened on modern systems. WordPad within Windows XP is the latest application known to effectively open the Write documents in a fashion that maintains the accessibility of the embedded document objects. Users will likely need to enable legacy converters as described in Microsoft KB 883090.

The .DOC files of NLs #35-47 can be opened with a modern copy of Microsoft Word, however the user may need to update their Trust Center settings (File Block Settings tab) to enable opening Word 6.0 files and/or Legacy Converters for Word.