First and most important, Magic Contest is not Bridgemate. Bridgemate support is given by your local Bridgemate reseller.

However, life would be very simple if everything is either black or white. Since Magic Contest and Bridgemate work together, it is difficult to draw a line and say that one problem belongs here or there.

If you feel that you have technical Bridgemate problems you must try to find somebody local that can help you in setting everything up. With a little effort, it’s not that difficult to make it run.

There is a simple checklist you can go through:

1. Have you installed Magic Contest and Bridgemate Control Software (BCS) correctly?

Both products come with instructions on how to download and install them. BCS is downloaded from the Bridgemate website. Magic Contest is installed according to the e-mail instructions.

2. After having connected the Bridgemate server to your computer, start BCS from your computer’s Start menu. Does it say Connected or Not connected at the top left of the window?

If Connected, then all is good and you can close BCS. Otherwise, this is a technical matter that you or the Bridgemate reseller has to solve before continuing.

3. Now start Magic Contest and create a contest with a few tables. The general contest settings are not important. Then select Contest menu > Bridgemate > Create database. Does BCS start correctly, and is the server still connected?

If BCS does not start correctly, you might have to tell Magic Contest where BCS is located on your computer. This is done through Contest menu > Settings > Bridgemate and the Bridgemate Control tab. Click Locate the program file and select the file location according to where BCS was installed on your computer.

4. If BCS starts correctly, can you enter results in your Bridgemates? If you can, do they appear in BCS?

If you cannot get this to work, it is strictly a Bridgemate problem. It usually has something to do with how the Bridgemates are programmed, or possibly what channel the Bridgemates run on. Please contact your Bridgemate reseller for support.

5. At this point, or actually directly after the Bridgemate database was created, Magic Contest will ask you to import results. If you answer Yes, do the new results that show in BCS also show in Magic Contest?

If Magic Contest created the Bridgemate database correctly, BCS started correctly, the Bridgemates work and results show in BCS, and no results are imported in Magic Contest, this is where it gets tricky. At this point you can contact me, because I can no longer give general advice.

6. And so on…