BATTLECRUISER:3000AD TROUBLING SHOOTING FAQ =========================================== Date : 10-12-97 Author : Derek Smart, 3000AD Support : www.bc3000ad.com Email : support@3000ad.com ================================================================================ 1: BC3K System Requirements ================================================================================ .PROCESSOR : Pentium 166 or higher .OPERATING SYSTEM : MS-DOS 6.0 or higher or MS-DOS mode under Windows 95 is also supported .VIDEO CARD : VGA card with 1MB RAM or VESA compliant SVGA card for 640x480x256 gameplay. VLB or PCI card is highly recommended. .HARD DRIVE : Full install - 160MB + 20MB for swap file. Partial install - 55MB + 20MB for swap file. .CD-ROM : 2x MPC-11 compliant or higher. .MEMORY : 8MB minimum. 16MB recommended. .CONTROLLER : Microsoft compatible mouse is required. A joystick or other flight controller is optional. .SOUND CARD : Supports most major sound cards. ================================================================================ 2: INSTALLATION PROBLEMS ================================================================================ -Method #1 Insert the cd-rom in the drive, change to the drive and type 'install' and press (omit the quotes) If prompted for the language type, enter the number but DO NOT press ENTER. Follow the on screen graphical prompts. After the installation in finished, you will be prompted to setup your sound card. Select your digitized music card, test it and DISABLE the MIDI card. BC3K does not support MIDI music. If the installation refuses to run or after it is finished some files are not copied to your hard drive. Try running under a pure DOS environment or MS-DOS mode, if you are running under Windows 95. If you still cannot get the graphical install to run, try Method #2 below. - Method #2 Instead of running the graphical install, try running the text version by typing 'install t' and press (omit the quotes) If that does not work, have some aspirins nearby and try Method #3 - Method #3 - 1. From DOS or from MS-DOS mode under Win95 create a directory on your hard drive for the game, i.e. md c:\bc3k 2. Copy the ENTIRE cd-rom contents to the install directory, i.e. Here, I assume that z: is your cd-rom and c:\bc3k is the install directory copy z:\*.* c:\bc3k /s 3. Change to the install directory and configure your sound card by running the setup program cd c:\bc3k setup Be sure to disable MIDI and _test_ the digital sound driver 4. Back in DOS, you MUST now create a file required by the game. The file should be a PLAIN TEXT file like the one created by Notepad. Type these lines in the file EXACTLY as you see them. with NO spaces!!!! Substitute the 'cd-rom' and 'home' parameters to suit your environment. DO NOT put a colon after the cd-rom parameter. Save the file as BC3000AD.INI and it MUST reside in the ROOT of where you installed the game, i.e c:\bc3k [BC3000AD] cdrom=z home=c:\bc3k version=1.00 install=full ptefiles=bc3lib3.res 5. Once you've done that, let's see if the game will support your video adapter. Remember, I know nothing about your machine so I'm just doing the best I can. Please bear with me. Anyway, type this command from your install directory to see the list of support graphics cards. If the one used by your machine is not listed, you MUST locate and use a VESA driver. You can download SCI-TECH Display Doctor from www.scitechsoft.com . It's the BEST on the planet. Period. It's GUARANTEED to work with BC3K if it supports your card in VESA mode. bc3000ad /v? If your card IS supported, start BC3K using it's profile number. See below. To proceed further, we're going to assume that (a) your video card is supported or (b) it wasn't, so you went ahead and downloaded SDD which you have now installed. So, onto step #6. If you got this far, we're in business. This may seem long winded but I'm a perfectionist, I do this everyday and I WANT you to PLAY this game. 6. If you have to use VESA mode, load the VESA driver via your autoexec.bat file, reboot the machine so that it is activated and fire 'er up in VESA mode using the special commandline parameter as follows: bc3000ad /v1 If your card is supported, then fire 'er up using it's profile number detected in STEP #5 above. i.e if your card has an S3 chipset, you would type bc3000ad /v21 If you are welcomed by an intro, you're in business. You can watch it or you can cancel it with ESCape key Once you get to the Main Menu, select Quit to DOS and let's proceed. 7. In this step, we're going to assume that you have all the latest patches. To apply the patches: - Change to your BC3K install directory and unzip the patch file. Be sure to read the README.TXT file if there is one included. Once you have unzipped the patch file, use the following to apply the patch. For the US version, type: updateus x (where x is the cd-rom drive letter) For the UK version, type: updateuk x (where x is the cd-rom drive letter) *Note: You MUST have the cd-rom in the drive!! You can later print the BC3KVER.TXT file which contains patch update news and BC3KEYS.TXT which contains the revised keyboard commands. 8. Once you're done applying the patches, run the game as in STEP #6 If all goes well, you're in business. Welcome to GALactic COMmand, commander. Welcome to the future. 9. Simulating a partial install to save disk space: You can save about 95MB of disk space (depending on the size of your disk clusters) by deleting ALL the files in the following directories. DO NOT remove the directories themselves and the cd-rom MUST be in the drive when playing the game! c:\bc3k\anim c:\bc3k\pte c:\bc3k\ste c:\bc3k\previews (UK version only) ================================================================================ 3: VIDEO PROBLEMS ================================================================================ 1. If after you install the game you get a General Protection Fault when you try to run it, you may have to configure BC3K to use your video card. Remember, I know nothing about your machine so I'm just doing the best I can. Please bear with me. Anyway, type this command from your install directory to see the list of support graphics cards. If the one used by your machine is not listed, you MUST locate and use a VESA driver. You can download SCI-TECH Display Doctor from www.scitechsoft.com . It's the BEST on the planet. Period. It's GUARANTEED to work with BC3K if it supports your card in VESA mode. bc3000ad /v? If your card IS supported, start BC3K using it's profile number by typing bc3000ad /vn Where n is the number of your graphics card returned by /v?. For example, if your card uses the S3 chipset, you would type.. bc3000ad /v21 2. If your card is not supported in it's native mode, i.e, not listed when the /v? parameter is used, then you have to use VESA mode. Load the VESA driver for your card and then start BC3K with.. bc3000ad /v1 If you don't have a VESA driver, the best universal one is available from Sci-Tech at www.scitechsoft.com. ================================================================================ 4: PREVIEW MANUAL ================================================================================ A preview release manual is available at the Take 2 or 3000AD web sites in a file called BC3KMAN.ZIP. It does not contain screen shots but the final version being released with the upcoming v1.01D will. You need the Adobe Acrobat Reader v3.0 to access the manual. You can download it at www.adobe.com ================================================================================ 5: RUNNING UNDER WINDOWS 95 ================================================================================ Though BC3K is not supported under Windows 95 except in MS-DOS mode, some have been able to get it to run by creating a desktop shortcut using the following settings. Refer to your Windows 95 manual for details on how to create a shortcut. Create the shortcut on your desktop. Make sure the command line and working directory BOTH point to the BC3K install directory. If you will be forcing a video mode using the /v command, then remember to add this parameter at the end of the command line. Once you've created the shortcut, open it up and make the following changes to it's settings. Note: ON = tick mark OFF = no tick mark Program - close on exit = ON If you decide to run in MS-DOS mode if running from Win95 using this shortcut doesn't work, then you can configure MS-DOS mode by clicking on the 'advanced' tab. Memory - Total = AUTO Initial Environment = AUTO EMS memory = AUTO XMS memory = AUTO Uses HMA = ON DPMI memory = AUTO Screen - Full Screen = ON Dynamic Memory Allocation = OFF Misc - Allow screen saver = OFF Always suspend = OFF Idle sensitivity = LOW (all the way to the left) Mouse exclusive mode = ON