Superbike 2001 is the officially licensed game of the World Superbike Championship. This demo just gives you a taste of the full game whose features include:
Full championship mode across all 13 tracks that make up the real Superbike World Championships, all accurately modelled down to the last detail.
All official teams and all 25 riders from the Championships. This includes legendary machines such as the Ducati 996, Honda RC45, and Kawasaki ZX-7RR, and World famous riders such as Carl Foggarty and Aaron Slight.
Incredibly realistic bike physics, meaning superb handling and spectacular crashes.
Groundbreaking Artificial Intelligence. Computer opponents are aggressive, performing overtaking manoeuvres, avoiding obstacles and riding right on the bike's limit.
Various difficulty levels and rider assistance, allowing you to increase realism as you increase your skill.
Split screen mode allowing you to have a one on one duel with a friend.
It is recommended that the game is run with a computer installed with DirectX 7. The game will run using DirectX 6.1, but some graphical features may not be fully functional, depending on the configuration of the PC being used.
The full release version of the game comes with DirectX 7.
The Windows 95/98 version of Superbike 2001 requires a minimum of 32MB of RAM to run. If there is more memory available, you should experience better game performance in all areas.
b) Running the game under stressful Windows 95/98 conditions
At Electronic Arts we strive to bring you the best in graphics, audio and gameplay. We are always pushing the envelope of computer performance. While we have made every effort to ensure that Superbike 2001 multi-tasks with all Windows 95/98 applications, we recommend that you shut down other applications and run Superbike 2001 by itself when possible.
c) Superbike 2001 does not fully support the Alt-Tab function to switch between the game and other applications, including Windows. Most of the time, however, the function can be performed without any problems, but with some PC configurations, it may result in a loss of some sounds and graphical corruption when returning to the game. In this case, quit the game and re-load it.
The frame-rate (speed) at which the game runs is very much dependant on the graphics card in your PC and your PCs processor speed. However, there are ways to improve the frame-rate in the graphics options in the game.
Going to the graphics options and pressing the 'start' button will automatically set your graphics options in order to get the best frame-rate, whilst keeping the level of graphical detail as high as possible. If you want to get a better frame-rate, you can turn some of these options down further, although this will result in lower graphical detail.
You can use the mouse or keyboard to navigate the game interface. Click on buttons and icons to select modes and options. If using the keyboard, use the cursor keys to move between the buttons, the tab key to move between panels and the 'Return' key to confirm/toggle selections. The keyboard is also available to enter information or send chat messages when playing other users via modem or network.
Joysticks/gamepads will not operate until you are in a game, except in the controller select screen. The game will automatically detect the type of device you are using and set up the optimum configuration for it. You can change the controller set-up manually and assign keys or buttons to perform actions.
If a key is already in use, assigning that key to another function will swap the keys for both functions. When assigning keys remember, when changing player 1's keys, player 2's keys may also change. Both players cannot use the same keys.
To bring up the in-game menu, press the escape key and navigate the menus the same as you would in the Front End of the game.
If you are experiencing problems with your video card and Superbike 2001, try updating your video card driver by downloading the latest driver available from the video card manufacturer. If there is no improvement, try using the latest driver provided by the video chipset manufacturer. Your video card chipset is the video processing chip located on your video card. If there is no information in your video card manual or website, check the video card for an identifying chip with the chipset manufacturer's name on it. Some popular video chipset manufacturer's websites are listed below:
Note that if you have a Voodoo 2 chipset, this card supports a maximum resolution of 800x600 (unless running two Voodoo 2 cards with the SLI link cable). If available, selecting a higher resolution than this may cause the game to crash. Please do not use a resolution higher than 800x600 in this case.
If you experience problems, please contact your card manufacturer or chipset vendor to get the latest drivers.
If your card has D3D support and is not one of the chipsets above, the 3D Setup program will default to Software Rendering. In some cases, this may run faster. However, if your D3D card has 4mb of texture memory (or AGP texturing), you can choose D3D support in the graphics options in game. Please note that other cards have not been tested and may not work with Superbike 2001.
If you experience problems, please contact your card manufacturer or chipset vendor to get the latest drivers.
The Recommended drivers for the TNT/TNT2/TNT2Ultra/GeForce/GeForce2 cards are the Detonator drivers found on www.nvidia.com. Recommended versions are 3 or higher.
Superbike 2001 defaults to a screen resolution that provides the optimum balance between good graphical detail and a high frame-rate.
Superbike 2001 works with most standard DirectX compatible video and sound cards. Below are listed some troubleshooting hints for a few cards that may present some problems.
a) Problems when using Matrox G400 with a 3D sound card
If using a Matrox G400 in conjunction with a 3D sound card (e.g. Sound Blaster Live!), you may have to adjust a video card setting in Windows before the game will run. To do this, right click on Windows desktop and click on properties in the window that appears. Go to the Settings tab and click on Advanced. Then select the Options tab and uncheck the box next to 'Bus Mastering' in the Performance section. You will have to restart your computer for the setting to take effect.
The game will now run, although performance may be slightly affected.
b) Yamaha Waveforce XG sound card
It is recommended that you update to the latest drivers for this sound card (available form http://www.yamaha.com/). Old drivers for this soundcard play all Superbike 2001 sound at half-speed
c) Unsupported features
Some video cards don't support some features available in the game. For example, the Intel i740, Permedia 2/3 & ATi Rage Pro don't allow Real Shadows, Rendition Verite 2100/2200 doesn't support sky. These options are greyed out in the graphics options and are therefore unselectable. However, these cards do support normal shadows which are activated by turning Photorealism 'on'.
Some sound cards don't support EAX or A3D, these options will also be greyed out.
d) Real Shadows
On some video cards, Real Shadows may cause graphical corruption. If this is the case, please update your video card drivers available from your card's manufacturer. If this fails to resolve the problem, play with Real Shadows turned off. (Normal shadows will work if Photorealism is turned on in the graphics options).
e) Problems with RIVA 128
It is possible that the NVidia Riva 128 video card may have some minor corruption on and around the track. If this is the case, please update your video card drivers available from your card's manufacturer.
f) Problems with Verite chipset
Rendition v2200 video card may have some graphical corruption in the game engine. If this is the case, please update your video card drivers available from your card's manufacturer.
When changing the controller configuration in the game using the Microsoft Sidewinder series of controllers, you will see that instead of the letter of the button pressed appearing in on the screen, a number is used instead. This is because the game uses Windows to decide on the name of each button, and Windows refers to each button as a number.
e.g. if you press the 'A' button on the Microsoft Sidewinder Joypad, it will appear in the game controller configuration screen as the number 1. The letter 'B' will be referenced as number 2 and so on.
This causes no problem in the game, although it may be confusing when looking at the controller configuration and deciding which key you have assigned to a particular function.
When playing in Split Screen mode, it is not recommended to have player 2 using the keyboard to control the bike if player one is also using the keyboard. This is due to the way that some systems handle keyboard management. If possible, use another control type (e.g. joypad) as one player's control method.
In the graphics options, some video cards may allow you to select very high resolutions (1600x1200 & higher) to run the game in. Although the game does support these reolutions, your monitor probably doesn't. Attempting to run the game in these high resolutions may cause your monitor to display a black screen or give the message 'Out of scan range'. It is therefore not recommended to use a resolution higher than 1280x1024 before consulting your monitor's manual or contacting the manufacturer.
We do not recommend using Windows multitasking whilst running the game as this may cause graphical corruption. If this occurs, it will be necessary for you to quit the game and re-load it.
Automatic Braking in the rider assistance options means that you don't have to worry about braking at all - the computer will do it for you. You may find that it is hard to win a race whilst this is turned on, as you won't be able to out-brake your computer opponents. It is recommended that you use Auto-brake to learn the braking points on the track and turn it off when you're used to the game. However, having rider assist turned on will aid you with your braking if you brake too late and apply extra braking pressure if necessary.
