Lemmings for OS/2 Demo - READ.ME ------------------------ Welcome to the 8-level Lemmings for OS/2 Demo! This file contains information you need to install the Lemmings for OS/2 Demo, and additional information not included in the product documentation. This README file is divided into the following categories: - Before You Install the Lemmings for OS/2 Demo - Software Requirements - Hardware Requirements - Known Problems - Documentation - Service and Technical Support - Reporting Defects - Getting Help - Installing the Demo - Ordering the full version of Lemmings Before You Install the Lemmings for OS/2 Demo --------------------------------- Software Requirements --------------------- The Lemmings for OS/2 Demo requires OS/2 Warp, including the MMOS/2 multimedia extensions. While you are not required to run the game with sound effects or music, the MMOS/2 extensions must be installed anyway, as the game relies on their presence. Hardware Requirements --------------------- Lemmings for OS/2 will run on any system which supports OS/2 Warp and the multimedia extensions, has a color display capable of supporting 256 colors or more and which is supported by the DIVE subsystem (part of OS/2 Warp), and has sufficient free memory to allow the game to run. As the game does not require very much memory, it should work on most systems with 4 Megabytes of RAM or more. For the best performance, however, you should have a system with at least the following specifications: - 486/DX66 processor or above - 8 Megabytes of RAM - a sound card supported by the OS/2 MMOS2 extensions, including Digital Audio and MIDI support The most significant performance enhancement you can have is an advanced video adaptor, with an on-board accelerator. Faster video cards can result in a speedup of Lemmings from two to four times! Known Problems --------------- There are a few problems which might appear with Lemmings for OS/2 which we already know about, and are working to correct. Most of these have to do with the interaction between Lemmings for OS/2 and various system drivers, such as the DIVE (Direct Interface to Video Extensions) drivers and others. If you encounter one of these, our apologies, and our assurances that the problems are being addressed, and appropriate measures to correct them will be publicized once they are known. Here is the list of problems we know about: 1. Certain video cards offer 256-color support, but are not supported by DIVE. ATI Graphics Ultra Pro cards running in the 8514/A mode are one such card. Unfortunately, there is nothing to be done for this problem, except to upgrade to a newer video card. The symptom of this problem is that when you attempt to start Lemmings for OS/2, the Focus Studios logo will appear, but then the game will silently terminate. If you do not get a Lemmings title screen within a very few seconds, or do not get a dialog explaining that an error has occured, this is likely to be the problem. 2. DIVE currently has problems with pointers if the pointers are generated by software, and not by the hardware on your video board. This is the case for some older video boards, or many video boards if you have redefined the standard OS/2 pointers to ones of your own design which use more than two colors. The symptom of this problem is unexpected disappearance of the pointer while playing Lemmings for OS/2. At the present time, the only thing you can do to deal with this problem is to move the pointer (which you, unfortunately, can't see) off of the Lemmings window, click (which should restore the standard system pointer), and then move over the Lemmings window and click to activate it again. This problem is currently under investigation, and IBM hopes that it will be fixed in future versions of DIVE. 3. On systems with some video cards and the latest beta version of the DIVE DLL, a problem exists which results in an incorrect rendering of the Lemmings for OS/2 game screen. Typically, the control panel part of the screen will appear normal, but the game screen itself will be obviously in the wrong colors. This problem is under investigation, and appears to be a defect in the beta DIVE.DLL. If you are not using the beta DIVE.DLL (available only to OS/2 developers at the present time), you should not see this problem. If you do, please report it (see the "Reporting Defects" section). If this is, in fact, a problem with the beta DIVE.DLL, it will be fixed for the release version. 4. On some systems, typically those with Creative Labs sound cards, if both music and sound effects are enabled, one or the other (usually the music) will suddenly stop working, and not be able to restart. This is almost certainly a problem with the Creative Labs OS/2 sound drivers, and until Creative Labs releases new drivers which address this problem, the only solution is to enable only music or only sound effects, and not both. As of this writing (December 13, 1995), there were a new set of drivers newly available in beta form from Creative Labs, but we have not had the opportunity to test them to see if this problem has been corrected. Documentation -------------- The online documentation supplied in the "Lemmings Information" file should be all that you will need. Just double-click on its icon to read it. Service and Technical Support ---------------------------- This is a demo version only. Therefore, no service or technical support for this product will be provided. Reporting Defects ----------------- If you discover a problem with Lemmings for OS/2, we'd like to hear about it. It's entirely possible that some problems may exist which have not yet been found and dealt with (but be sure and check the "Known Problems" section of this read.me file to see if your problem is already known!). Should you encounter a problem we don't know about already, we would be very pleased if you'd report it to us. Currently, there are three methods you may use to report a problem: 1. Report by mail - send your problem report to: Focus Studios Cambridge, MA 02139 Attn: Lemmings Problems 2. Report by e-mail - e-mail your problem report to: ohno@lemmings.com (really!) 3. Report by fax - fax your problem report to (617)497-0587. Direct the fax to the attention of "Lemmings for OS/2 Problems". Please note that whatever method you use to report problems, you will not receive a personal reply. But rest assured that your input is both desired and appreciated; in fact, several of the thorniest problems we faced in creating Lemmings for OS/2 were solved only because of the assistance provided by those who reported them. So, thanks in advance for any bug reports! Installing the Demo ------------------ Installing the Lemmings for OS/2 Demo is just a matter of double-clicking on the "Install.exe" icon on the installation diskette (or in the installation folder). You will be led through the installation process. Ordering the Full Version of the Game ----------------------------------- The full version of Lemmings for OS/2 is available directly from Psygnosis, by calling the Psygnosis order line, 1-800-GET-PSYG (1-800-438-7794) after December 1st, 1995. At the time of writing (December 13), the actual price had yet to be determined. Further information is available from the above number. Thank you for trying the Lemmings for OS/2 Demo!