I tend to play games behind the times as well, it saves me money. :-) My tip to you is don't get bent out of shape over a certain weapon or magic. you'll find that a certain weapon will start working pretty good, or a certain spell works pretty well against all sorts of monsters for many levels straight, then all of a sudden it gets really tough... just keep trying different weapons and spells than you're used to. Monsters that shrug off one kind of attack crumble under another.

Calvin