浜様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様融 Quick manual and troubleshooting guide for FUTURE DIMENSION by CREW242 (c) 1995 by Crew242 (c) 1995 by Lifetimes 藩様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様夕 ===> Distributors/Publishers for this and other great games (Business Simulations, Strategic Games, Role Playing Games, Adventures) all over the world wanted. See below. 浜様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様融 First INSTALL Future dimension, then start with Start: FDD [/C] (for Setup) System Requirements: pentium/486/386 or AT+ compatibles at 33+ Mhz 1600 KBytes EMS (recommended) or 768 KBytes XMS 250'000 Bytes DOS memory with EMS & NoSound/GUS 540'000 Bytes DOS memory with EMS & SB/SBPro 570'000 Bytes DOS memory with EMS & other cards 590'000 Bytes DOS memory with XMS & GUS only VGA/MCGA Adapter Mouse/Joystick/Keyboard CD-ROM drive with Multimedia Extension SB/SBPro/SB16/PAS+/16/Gravis UltraSound (1 MB) rec. EMS manager (EMM386/QEMM386/Windows) recommended DOS 5.0+ and MSCDEX 2.22+ recommended Smartdrive 5.0+ (CD-ROM caching) recommended For all soundcards except GUS: 1600 KBytes EMS must be available & EMM386: It must be set EMM386.EXE D=48 option in your CONFIG.SYS & MS Windows: It must be set DMABufferSize=048 in Windows' SYSTEM.INI Gravis UltraSound & Windows: DMA does not work. Use channel 0 for no DMA Keyboard controls: Esc = Quit Pause = Pause Cursor = Direction Control Space = Smart Bomb Ctrl = Fire CapsLock = Permanent Fire Alt = Change Input Device F1 or F = Switch FX Mode F2 or M = Switch Music Mode 藩様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様夕 様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様 Thanx to beta testers, friends & cheerleaders: Yves Braun, Thomas Meyhack, Philippe Deecke, Maurizio Palumbo Timo Ludwig, Arjan Brussee, Oliver Kferstein, Christian Kndig Tim Sweeney, Kewl John Ricochet Smith ;) 様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様 Troubleshooting guide & game support: If you want to know what's new for the game then check out the CompuServe Forum of Lifetimes with "GO LIFETIMES". For problems check troubleshooting guide below first. 1. Problem: If I want to play with joystick, my ship steers always in one direction although I dont do anything? Solution: At startup with fdd.bat or fd.exe the joystick should be in central position because it autocalibrates at startup. 2. Problem: My Screen remains black? Solution: Check the horizontal centering in the setup or try the option 'short playfield' for laptop screens. 3. Problem: My soundcard does not work? Solution: Check all values for your soundcard in the setup first. 4. Problem: Why isn't there any autodetection for soundcards, base port, dma number, irq number and that stuff I don't know? Solution: An autodetection routine cannot be save enough that means that programs often crash while autodetecting because they run amuck at I/O ports and if there are some sensitive cards for networks, SCSI, cache controllers they simply lock up. You can be sure that the numbers required for your soundcard are easy to find in the soundcard's manual. 5. Problem: The sound on my Soundblaster seems to be slower if some animations run on the screen? Solution: This is a problem that shows up in average on 1 of 100 Computers. It seems that the problem is located in the BIOS or the CD-ROM device driver. During harddisk or CD-ROM access they clear all IRQ's, that the soundroutine needs to play at proper speed. You may try to update your BIOS or your CD-ROM device driver. 6. Problem: I have problems to make the sound work? Solution: Try different DMA and IRQ numbers. Check the right Baseport. Especially the DMA number can cause problems. Gravis UltraSound allows the numbers 0,1,3,5,6,7. 0 means NO DMA, 1,3 are 8-bit channels and 5,6,7 are 16-bit channels. The main difference is that 16-bit is 4 times faster than NO DMA and twice as fast as 8-bit. Unfortunately some ISA mainboards with special Chipsets do not work with 16-bit DMA. This problem is known for some Opti Chipsets. 7. Problem: When I want to hear CD sound while playing it always abrupts immediately without fading out? Solution: The CD sound is mixed by the soundcard. Check if 1. you are listening directly to the CD-ROM drive with earphones or with chinch connection. You should connect you CD-ROM line output with your soundcard's CD input or if not available with your soundcard's line input. Then you must take the output of the soundcard to listen to it. 2. your soundcard does have a mixer compatible to Soundblaster Pro. If not then you can only look out for new soundcard driver releases for Future Dimension. It is intended to release a driver for PAS and for Soundblaster AWE32 some time. 3. you have a Gravis UltraSound Board Version before 3.7 You can figure that out by looking at the soundcard. There are some remarks like ASSEMBLED IN CANADA BY ADVANCED GRAVIS AND FORTE and the version number REVISION 3.4 or something between 1.0 and 3.7 or higher. Unfortunately only boards with a number 3.7 or above does have a mixer built in. For older boards there is only the possibility to upgrade with a 16-bit daughtercard or to get a new card, eg. UltraSound MAX. 4. you have got any soundcard at all. If not we recommend following cards dependent on quality and compatibility: Best quality: Gravis UltraSound MAX, Gravis UltraSound Good quality: Pro Audio Spectrum +/16, Soundblaster 16 Medium quality: Soundblaster Pro Low quality: Soundblaster (mono) 8. Problem: When I want to change the FX volume in the Options Menu it does not take effect immediately? Solution: When using a Soundblaster the FX volume change does take effect after the next change of a song. This is a problem of performance because the FX samples must be recalculated. 9. Problem: Some FX sound really bad actually they sound like random noise? Solution: You are using a Gravis UltraSound that has less than 1 MB onboard memory. For proper output you need 1 MB. You can easily upgrade by adding some DRAMs to your board. 10. Problem: After I have changed a song in the Music Menu, I cannot hear FX anymore in the main menu? Solution: This is not an error. In the Music Menu FX are not loaded to speed up song changes. 11. Problem: Sometimes the gameplay slows extremely down especially in higher levels? Solution: You are obviously using XMS. This is not to recommend especially if your computer is slow anyway (< 486 50Mhz). Make at least 1488 kbytes EMS available by installing a memory manager, eg. EMM386, QEMM386, 386MAX. 12. Problem: The animations are not smooth at all on my system? Solution: With full installation you need a harddisk that performs at least 600 Kbytes per second. This is quite slow for a harddisk that you can assume that your harddisk is fast enough. Try to defragment your harddisk or avoid disk space doubler, eg. double space, etc. With minimum installation you need a CD-ROM drive that performs at least 300 Kbytes per second (double speed). Try to use a CD-ROM cache program, eg. buffered device driver, Smartdrv 5.0. 13. Problem: The CD-ROM sound does not work? Solution: There could be several reasons. Check if 1. you have properly chosen the CD-ROM sound in the setup. Switch to CD SOUND MIXED in the Game Options of the setup. 2. your CD-ROM is audio connected to your soundcard. Refer to your CD-ROM's and soundcard's manual to establish an internal audio connection. Note: The audio connection is not provided by the use of the CD-ROM interface on your soundcard. It is necessary to make a seperate connection. 3. there has been an error message. - If not, chances are that your CD-ROM driver does not meet the specifications although it passes all checks. In this case you cannot use CD-ROM sound output. - An error message can be one out of 3 categories: - CD-ROM drive not ready Put in an audio CD or close the tray. Make sure that you use unit 0 if your CD-ROM drive can handle multiple CDs. - No CD-ROM or MSCDEX.EXE not present Make sure that you have properly installed MSCDEX.EXE (Microsoft CD-ROM Extension for DOS). - No multimedia abilities In this case you cannot use CD-ROM sound output. 様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様 Last hints and tips: 1. If you use a PAS+/16 or SB16 you should set your individual Gain (x2,x3,x4) with the tools shipped with your soundcard. Future Dimension doesn't change this value not to replace the default. It is also not recommended to use the built in bass boost because the heavy bass of the game even the CD sound may easily crash. 2. If you use a PAS+/16 or SB16 and the sound stops or slows extremely down then your system is overloaded because the calculations for the sounds are very heavy. The sound routine performs 16 voices with 16 bit, stereo panning, interpolation and 44100 Hz and if you do not have a high end system it is recommended to use a samplingrate < 44100 Hz. In case of the SB16 a 16 bit sound is only possible by using a DMA number between 5-7. 3. If you have several CD-ROM drives in your system you can select the correct drive by setting the DOS drive letter manually. For example you have 2 CD-ROM drives D: and E:, then Future Dimension would automatically use drive D: but you can force drive E: by the option '/E:', eg. 'FDD /E:' 4. With a 4x speed CD-ROM drive you have enough performance potential (600 Kb/s) to use animations of higher quality even with minimum installation. Use option '/4', eg. 'FDD /4'. If you do not use it the first time after installation then you have to use option '-' once too. 5. Combining Himem/EMM386, Mitsumi double speed CD-ROM, animations from CD-ROM (Minimum Installation), SB/SBPro/SB16/PAS+/16 sound and option /X (XMS) with the Mitsumi device driver will cause a system crash, because the XMS manager (HIMEM.SYS) cannot handle CD- and sound requests properly. You can eliminate this error avoiding the option /X or replacing the XMS manager (Qemm, etc.). 様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様 We're looking for distributors/publishers all over the world. If you're interested, please contact Mr. Joerg Walkowiak at LIFETIMES for details. And the other way round: you have written a great game? Or your company has no distribution in Germany, Austria and Switzerland? Fine, we're interested! LIFETIMES/Expert Software Tel. 49-2361-36267 Pestalozzistrasse 6 Fax: 49-2361-652744 D-45661 Recklinghausen BBS: 49-2361-373214 Germany EMail: 74431.712@CompuServe.COM CompuServe: "GO LIFETIMES" 様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様様