Simply stopped

When the car 'died', did it just suddenly and completely quit, or did it slowly sputter and die? This symptom may help to better focus on the problem.

If the ignition failed, then this should not be a big disaster, but requires some patience to troubleshoot it. If you have a voltmeter or can borrow one, then this should be fairly easy to troubleshoot. Since you seem willing to read and educate yourself, I would start with a schematic for your car; it wil lmake it a lot easier to converse on this forum about what to look for. Go here and download both A and B pages of your year car's schematic.

If you just want to throw a part in it to see if you get lucky, then try installing a new ballast resistor; they are pretty cheap.

As said above, this problem extremely rarely involves the alternator or voltage reagulator. Focus is on the ignition and fuel supply.