BIKE BATTLE - THE DEMOS ======================= This package contains two demos: - DEMO1: "WATCH AND WONDER". This tests your graphics and sound. - DEMO2: "PLAY AND GET ADDICTED". This tests your joysticks also. * First, try BBDEMO1.EXE: - start it from the Windows file manager. - The main menu should appear, with blue shiny letters and a heavy background tune. If you hear no sound, your Windows system has no sound. In that case, check the manual about what to do. - If you hear something, press the space bar. - After the sounds are loaded, press space again to continue. - We hope(!) you'll now see and hear a fascinating demo. - If the moving objects on the screen leave red tracks behind them, go back to the main menu, press 'X', and try it again. - If you hear no sound during the demo, or if there are other problems, read the manual for detailed informations. DEMO1 is limited to two screen resolutions, 640x480 and 800x600. DEMO2 and the full version could handle any screen resolution. WHAT IS BIKE BATTLE ALL ABOUT? You see two triangular "FightBikes" driving through a fighting arena. The fighting arena contains grey walls and blue weapons. The main target is to blast hell out of the other player. To do so, the bikes pick up weapons by bumping them. Every Bike must collect protection shields. If it drives through a wall or if it's hit by some weapon's output, it looses a shield. As soon as all shields are lost, the next hit terminates the Bike. If DEMO1 runs for at least 10 minutes with a good sound, prepare your system for the DEMO2: * First, your system must support two joysticks. It is expected, your PC has two gameports to connect two joysticks, or a special cable that connects two joysticks to one gameport (we've never seen such a thing, but rumors say it exists :-). Look for two joysticks with two axes and two buttons each (do NOT take 'flight sticks' with 3 axes/4 buttons!). Be careful, some of the cheaper joystick models might be too inprecise. * Second, your Windows 3.1 must have a joystick driver. If it doesn't, install the driver supplied with this demo the following way: - copy IBMJOY.DRV and JOYSTICK.CPL to your WINDOWS\SYSTEM directory. - edit SYSTEM.INI and add in the section [drivers] the following line: JOYSTICK=IBMJOY.DRV - restart your Windows. - In Windows, open the system control settings. You must find a joystick symbol there. double-click on it. Try to calibrate your two joysticks. - If one joystick isn't recognized by the system, click on the 'drivers' symbol of the system control settings, and check the settings for the 'microsoft game adapter joystick driver' there. Two 2-dimensional joysticks must be selected (not a single 3-dimensional one). - If this is the case and your system still can't handle two joysticks, there might be a hardware problem (maybe jumper settings), or the joystick driver just can't handle your hardware. Try other drivers (some are found on Shareware CD's or in the Internet, others are delivered with the joystick). If you have more than 2 gameports, try different Joystick/Gameport combinations. Check the jumper settings of your Sound- and/or Gameport card. * If you have prepared your system, start DEMO2 with BBDEMO2.EXE from the Windows file manager. - the title screen appears, in blue shiny letters. - select the number of humans players, which is the same as the number of joysticks you have available, by pressing 'H'. - select the sound quality that your sound card supports. Usually, simple sound cards support 22 kHz, a SoundBlaster 16 supports 32 kHz. Press 'L' to switch the quality. - press the SPACE bar. - the sounds are loaded, the game begins. If you managed to play the demo with working sound and two joysticks for a couple of days, you may order the original version of BIKE BATTLE. How to do that is desribed in ORDER.TXT. WHAT TO DO IF THE DEMO CRASHES: If it crashes without playing any sound, buy a SoundBlaster 16, install it (with it's Windows drivers, of course) and try again; with this sound card chances are best that it will work. If you can't connect two joysticks, buy another adapter card, e.g. a multi-I/O card with game ports. Furthermore, best use a freshly-installed native Windows 3.1 without any subversive extensions, or a Win-OS/2 Session. Win-OS/2 may require some fondling with the settings for memory etc; see WINOS2.TXT for an example. Always make sure your Windows has enough virtual memory (must be adjusted in Window's "386 Enhanced" settings). Also check the Internet for newer versions of the demo; see WHERE.TXT for possible sites. If the demo still doesn't work despite all this work, we're very sorry and cannot help you. Unless, of course, you buy another PC and try it again. List of files ============= BBDEMO1.EXE The playback demo BBDEMO2.EXE The playable demo BB.INI Configuration file for BikeBattle SNDCHAN.DLL BikeBattle's sound DLL IBMJOY.DRV Joystick driver for Windows JOYSTICK.CPL Joystick calibration program for Windows DEMO640.xxx Playback demo files for 640x480 resolution DEMO800.xxx Playback demo files for 800x600 resolution SND\*.* Soundfiles, micro package (just for initial tests) README.TXT Introduction text for the package MANUAL_E.TXT BikeBattle manual, english, ASCII format ORDER.TXT Informations about how to order, only to be read if demo2 was tried successfully WHERE.TXT where are the Bike Battle Demos available