The Last Express Interactive Demo Windows 95 (ExpressW.exe) & DOS (Express.exe) Introduction July 24, 1914. The great nations of the world are poised on the brink of war. Into this tense, volatile mix roars the fabled Orient Express, the epitome of luxury, power and decadence, crossing Europe from Paris to Constantinople... You are Robert Cath, an American fugitive. You have joined the train at the request of an old friend, Tyler Whitney. The demo begins at 5:30 pm on the second day of the journey, just before Vienna. By this point, we are already deep into the story. The demo is intended to give you a sense of the atmosphere and feel of the game. It allows you to explore a small part of the train and encounter a few characters. Feel free to explore and soak up the ambiance. Within fifteen minutes, one of the passengers will be killed. Your goal is to prevent this from happening. Playing The Last Express Demo When you launch The Last Express Demo, you will see a screen with a map depicting the route of the Orient Express on the left, and a large antique egg on the right. To start the demo, move the cursor over the clock face on the egg. The words "Continue Game" will appear in the upper left corner of the screen. Click on the clock face to play. Your Inventory The icon in the upper left corner of the screen acts as a pull down menu. To see what items you are carrying, click and hold the mouse down on the inventory icon. To examine an item more closely, drag the cursor to the item you are interested in, and release the button. Fights At one point in the demo, you may find yourself under attack. When your opponent comes after you with a knife, move the cursor to the lower half of the screen and click the mouse when you want to dodge. You can't hit back in this fight. Just hold out as long as you can; someone is coming to your rescue... Egg Clock As you play, your progress in the game is saved automatically. The large egg clock on the main screen keeps track of the time. If you want to pause or see what time it is in the game, click on the small egg icon in the lower right corner of the screen. This will return you to the egg clock screen. To resume play, click on the clock face. When you are ready to end your play session, click the Quit button in the lower left corner of the screen. The next time you launch The Last Express Demo, the egg clock will let you pick up your game in progress exactly where you left off. Rewinding When you're at the egg clock, you have the option of rewinding it. This lets you "turn back the hands of time" to try a different course of action. To rewind, click the red jewel on the left side of the clock. To fast forward, click the red jewel on the right side of the clock. (You can only fast forward up to the point at which you left the game. It is not possible to fast forward into the future.) This feature is especially useful for the full game, which covers the entire three day journey from Paris to Constantinople. By contrast, the demo takes place in the brief space of 30 minutes just before the train reaches Vienna. Screen Saver This demo includes a promotional slide-show for use in stores. If the game is left unattended on the egg screen for three minutes, it will automatically start running a slide show of screen-shots from the game. You can interrupt this at any time by moving the mouse; but if the slide show finishes, the save file will be reset so that a new user can start the interactive demo fresh from the beginning. About the Full Version Smoking Car Productions' "The Last Express" is a 3 CD-ROM product (Windows 95/DOS/PowerMac). It has 30-40 hours of gameplay, more than 30 characters, nearly 800 dialogs, over 300 cut-scenes, 35,000 frames of hand-painted animation, and 3,000 rendered backgrounds. You can explore seven train cars, sneak into other passenger's compartments and search their luggage, climb out compartment windows, and run along the top of the train. The Last Express is published by Red Orb Entertainment, a division of Broderbund Software. French and German versions are available from Broderbund Europe. A Japanese version is available from GameBank Software. For more information or to purchase The Last Express, please call 1-800-548-1798 or visit the web site at http://www.lastexpress.com Hardware Specifics Windows 95 The Win95 version of Express does not require DirectX, but will use it if you have it. The biggest advantage of DirectX that our tests have found is that it will automatically switch video modes if you are not already running in HiColor (16-bit) mode. DOS Sound Blaster Compatible Cards Some sound cards may be advertised as being 100% Sound Blaster compatible but still may not work with The Last Express. This is because many 16-bit sound cards only emulate 8-bit Sound Blaster cards. The Last Express requires a 100% Sound Blaster 16 compatible card, with the BLASTER Environment String set correctly in your AUTOEXEC.BAT. To make sure your BLASTER String is set correctly, run the diagnose application located in your Sound Blaster 16 software directory. Sound Blaster IRQ settings above 9 usually do not work correctly under DOS, and The Last Express will give you an error if your BLASTER Environment String contains an IRQ above 9. The easiest way to change your card's IRQ is to change the BLASTER Environment String and then run the diagnose application with a /S command- line parameter. If you have a good reason to believe your card will work with a high IRQ setting (e.g. in a DOS box under Windows 95), you can run EXPRESS with a /ForceIRQ command-line parameter to force The Last Express to try and run with a high IRQ. Memory The Last Express requires 500K free conventional memory and 7100K free XMS memory to run. VESA Compatible Video The Last Express supports the VESA VBE standard for Super VGA graphics. Many Super VGA graphics cards are VESA VBE compatible at the hardware level, requiring no special action on your part to get the game running correctly. If you are having problems running this game with the graphics card in your computer, try the following steps: 1. If you have the VESA VBE driver that came with your graphics card, then install the driver and try to run the game. Most VESA VBE drivers can be installed from a program that you run at the DOS command line. Consult the documentation that came with your graphics card or computer system for installation instructions and VESA VBE compatibility. 2. If you cannot find a VESA VBE driver for your graphics card, please contact your graphics card or system manufacturer. You will most likely be able to download a driver or have them send you one by mail. 3. If you do not have a VESA VBE driver for your graphics card or your VESA VBE driver does not work with The Last Express, then you may try a 3rd party display driver, such as SciTech's Display Doctor. Copyright Software Copyright (C) 1997 Smoking Car Productions, Inc. The Last Express is a trademark and Broderbund is a registered trademark of Broderbund Software, Inc. All rights reserved. Windows 95 and DirectX are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation, Inc. All other company and/or product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective holders.