PC & Mediji 1997 January

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---------------TABLE OF CONTENTS--------------- SECTION 1 - HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS DEMO SECTION 2 - ABOUT THIS DEMO SECTION 3 - SETUP PROCEDURES A. MS-DOS B. WINDOWS 95 SECTION 4 - COMMON SETUP AND CONFIGURATION PROBLEMS A. SOUND SECTION 5 - BEFORE RUNNING THIS DEMO SECTION 6 - TROUBLESHOOTING STEPS A. MEMORY B. VIDEO C. SOUND D. PERIPHERALS SECTION 7 - CREATING A BOOT DISK SECTION 8 - THREE WAYS TO PLAY FROM AN MS-DOS PROMPT A. MS-DOS 6.22 B. MS-DOS MODE C. MS-DOS PROMPT OF WINDOWS 95 SECTION 9 - IF YOU STILL HAVE PROBLEMS... SECTION 1 - HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS DEMO IBM PC-compatible computer Pentium 90 MHz processor or higher 8 MB RAM 2 MB of uncompressed hard disk space (not including 5 MB for downloaded files and 9.5 MB for decompressed files) 16-bit high-color SVGA video card with VBE 2.0 compatibility 100% Sound Blaster 16 compatible sound card Microsoft MS-DOS 6.22, Windows 3.1x, or Windows 95 operating system Gravis MultiPort is supported (for two-player fun!) SECTION 2 - ABOUT THIS DEMO Here is some important information that you should know before you set up and start playing the Blast Chamber Demo. The game requires at least 2 MB of UN-compressed free hard disk space. Blast Chamber Demo will not work properly using compressed hard disk space (such as Stacker and DoubleSpace). Blast Chamber requires MS-DOS 6.22 or later. Other operating systems (e.g., OS/2 Warp and Windows NT) are not supported. Although Blast Chamber might work just fine with them, we have not tested thoroughly with them. If you have a problem using unsupported operating systems, it is best to contact the operating system company to try and work out compatibility issues. Blast Chamber for MS-DOS requires that your system has a standard VESA video driver. Please verify that you have one loaded before launching Blast Chamber for MS-DOS. SECTION 3 - SETUP PROCEDURES A. ----------MS-DOS---------- (1) At the DOS prompt, log into the directory where you have decompressed the Blast Chamber Demo (we assume you decompressed the Blast Chamber Demo to the C:\BCHAMBER directory). (2) At the C:\BCHAMBER prompt, type SETUP and press Enter. (3) Follow the on-screen instructions carefully. (4) When setup is complete, you will be given the choice of starting the Demo or being returned to DOS. From DOS, to begin playing the Blast Chamber Demo, type BLAST and press Enter. B. ----------WINDOWS 95---------- (1) Double-click on My Computer. (2) Double-click on the hard drive where you decompressed the Blast Chamber Demo (for these instructions, we assume this is drive C:). (3) Double-click on the folder where you decompressed the Blast Chamber Demo (assuming you decompressed the Blast Chamber Demo to the C:\BCHAMBER directory). (4) Look for the Setup.exe icon in the BCHAMBER folder. Double-click on this icon to start the Blast Chamber Demo Setup program, and follow the on-screen instructions. (5) After setup is complete, you will be offered the choice of playing the demo or exiting setup. (6) To play the demo after it has been configured, double-click on the My Computer icon. In the window that opens, double-click on the icon for the hard disk drive where Blast Chamber was decompressed. Look for the BCHAMBER folder icon. Double-click on this icon to open the folder; look for the BLAST.EXE icon and double click on it to start the game. If the above process does not work for you, click on the Start button, choose Shutdown and restart the computer in MS-DOS mode. At the MS-DOS Prompt, go to the directory where you decompressed Blast Chamber and follow the MS-DOS instructions above. NOTE: If your system came pre-installed with Windows 95, you may not have the necessary MS-DOS drivers for your sound card to play the game. Please contact your system manufacturer for these DOS drivers. SECTION 4 - COMMON SETUP AND CONFIGURATION PROBLEMS A. ----------SOUND---------- In order for Blast Chamber to run properly, you must correctly select and set your sound device for digital audio. Selecting an incorrect sound device or setting may cause Blast Chamber to lock up or play with poor sound and choppy video. If you are unfamiliar with your sound device and its settings, we recommend you let the installer auto- detect your sound card. Auto Detect feature will attempt to identify your digital sound hardware and settings. Select "Attempt to configure sound driver automatically" and proceed with the Auto Detection sequence. The program has a list of sound cards and tries to match your card to one on its list. If the card responds to the matching process, then the card's name and the program's best guess of its settings are displayed. At this point, if you know the card it selected is wrong, read further to find a solution to your problem. Otherwise, select YES for "Test Sound Effect Driver?" If your Digital Sound Device has been set correctly, you will hear an audible sound confirming a successful match. Some sound cards do not react well to the matching process and may lock up your computer. If this happens, restart your system and try the manual method for selecting your sound device. Some sound cards can be mistaken for other cards. As such, the Auto Detect may incorrectly identify a card and the Test will not provide an audible sound indicating a successful match. In this case you should try the manual method for selecting your sound device. Here are a couple of methods to try and find out what your sound card and the proper Port, IRQ and DMA settings are for your computer: View your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files which are found at the root directory of your hard drive (note: some Windows 95 users may not have these files). Look at the lines that load the set parameters of your sound card for clues to what the I/O Port (A220), IRQ (I5) and DMA settings (D1) should be set to. Also, for more clues type SET at a MS-DOS prompt and press Enter. Look at the BLASTER = line. Record that information and use it to manually detect your sound card. NOTE: Many sound cards will pass the test when Sound Blaster is selected, as many can emulate an 8-bit Sound Blaster. For best sound quality, we recommend you select a sound device that best matches your 16-bit sound card. We also recommend that you always try to configure for 16-bit sound. Selecting 8-bit (e.g. Soundblaster) will cause poor sound quality and may affect movie playback speed. SECTION 5 - BEFORE RUNNING THIS DEMO When playing the Blast Chamber Demo, we strongly recommend that you run under the following conditions: Before playing, close all other applications and disable your screen saver. We highly recommend running Blast Chamber Demo as a stand-alone DOS application. SECTION 6 - TROUBLESHOOTING STEPS A. ----------MEMORY---------- Blast Chamber Demo requires a minimum of 8 MB of main memory (RAM). On some machines, even if you have the required 8 MB of RAM, Blast Chamber may report that you do not have enough free extended or conventional memory. During game start up, Blast Chamber will determine if there is enough free memory to properly run. If it is determined that there is not enough memory available, then the program will let you know how much additional memory is needed. In many cases you may be able to remove/disable only one or two TSRs (Terminate and Stay Resident programs) or drivers that are not needed to run Blast Chamber, to make this memory available. You might also try disabling SMARTDRV, changing your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT so that some of your drivers are loaded into conventional rather than high memory or setting your EMM386 line to NOEMS. Since these modifications affect your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, you should consider making these changes to CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files on a boot disk. See section on creating a boot disk. B. ----------VIDEO---------- This demo supports the VESA VBE standard for Super VGA graphics. Many Super VGA Graphic 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 video problems running this demo, contact your video card manufacturer for assistance. ***Question*** I Have a Cirrus Logic video card. When I try to play the game I receive scrambled video. What do I do? ***Answer*** Your card is most likely experiencing difficulties meeting the VBE 2.0 mode required to play the game. Please contact your video card manufacturer for assistance. ***Question*** I have a Trident video card and I can't get the game to start correctly ***Answer*** We suggest you try playing in MS-DOS Mode. Please follow these instructions: (1) There is a file named TRIVESA.EXE on our web site. It contains updated video drivers which you require for the game to play. Our web site is at http://www.activision.com/. Choose [Customer Support] then [Downloads] to locate the file. (2) After TRIVESA has been downloaded exit to DOS MODE. (3) Type TRIVESA, from wherever it was downloaded to. If you do not know where it is, go to DOS Mode type CD\ and press <Enter>, then type DIR TRIVESA.* /s, and press <Enter>. (4) Follow the instructions that occur after typing TRIVESA. If after you still have problems, please contact Trident at 415-691-9211. ***Question*** I can not seem to get my ATI video card to support 2.0 VBE. What should I do? ***Answer*** If you are unable to play in either the Windows 95 or DOS modes, please contact ATI at (905) 882-2626. The ATI cards have many different BIOS versions. Each BIOS version does something a little different. Example: Some support VESA 2.0, some just 1.2. Some older drivers work with WIN95 for our games, while other newer ones may not, depending on the BIOS. Using a program they supply, ATI can help find your card's specific part number. ATI Customer Support can then use your part number to find your card's BIOS. After the correct BIOS is determined, ATI can determine the card's features and help troubleshoot your video problems. ***Question*** I am experiencing slow game performance. What should I do? ***Answer*** We recommend playing in 320x200 resolution if you are experiencing slow game performance. To change the resolution setting in Windows, double-click the Setup.exe icon. In DOS, type Setup at the C:\BCHAMBER> prompt (assuming you decompressed the Blast Chamber Demo to the C:\BCHAMBER directory), select "Resolution Setup" and select 320x200. C. ----------SOUND---------- In order for Blast Chamber to run, your sound card must be configured for digital sound. Please use the SETUP utility provided with the game. In the PC environment, sound card detection and configuration is often difficult process. Although many cards can be automatically detected and configured, there are cases where this is not true. It is often necessary to use a manual card selection (select a card manufacturer and model) and configuration.(select I/O, DMA and IRQ). Because of the complexity of some sound cards, it may be necessary to try several options. ON SYSTEMS WITH A SCSI DISK CONTROLLER, YOU SHOULD SKIP THE AUTO DETECTION ALTOGETHER. You should always use the Test option to verify that a valid configuration was selected. It is often possible to determine the resources needed by your sound card (resources include I/O address, DMA channel, and IRQ interrupt number), either from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file (if in DOS), or from the SYSTEM utility (if in Windows 95). To run SYSTEM utility from Windows 95, select Start, Settings, Control Panel, then select System icon. When in the SYSTEM control panel, select the Device Manager tab, select "Sound, Video and Game Controllers", select your sound card, and the Resources tab to see the settings for your sound card. A typical entry in the CONFIG.SYS file would be as follows: SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 T4 This indicates I/O port 220, IRQ 5, and 5 for high DMA (i.e.16-bit sound). Whenever possible use high DMA. Many software configurable sound cards require that a separate utility is run, before the card can be used. For example Sound Blaster 16 requires that the card is configured using the SB16SET utility. Please refer to your sound card manual for the method used for your card. IF YOU DO NOT CONFIGURE YOUR SOUND CARD CORRECTLY, YOU MAY EXPERIENCE DMA OR IRQ CONFLICTS WITH OTHER CONTROLLERS (E.G. NETWORK CARDS WILL FAIL). ***Question*** My Program runs under MS-DOS but not under a Windows 95 DOS Prompt. ***Answer*** The DMA used for your sound card for DOS and DOS Prompt may be different. You may have to reconfigure the sound card settings, by typing SETUP from wherever you decompressed Blast Chamber to (e.g. C:\BCHAMBER). ***Question*** My sound cards worked fine before I ran the Blast Chamber Setup utility. Now they do not work. ***Answer*** On systems with two sound cards, it is not always possible to detect both cards at the same time. Within the SETUP utility you should configure your sound card using the manual mode (do not use Auto Detect). ***Question*** I am using arrow keys to select the sound card and arrow keys to select the resources, but the card still does not work. ***Answer*** You must press enter after you highlight the sound card name. Only after that can you select resources for that card. ***Question*** On my Compaq machine the SETUP auto detects the card as Sound Blaster, but I know that it is not correct. ***Answer*** Try to manually select ESS AudioDrive. ***Question*** I have an IBM Aptiva with a MWAVE card (i.e. sound/modem card). I am getting choppy sound and video. What should I do? ***Answer*** We are sorry, but the Blast Chamber Demo, which utilizes the Miles Sound System, does not support the MWAVE sound card. Try turning sound OFF in Setup.exe by selecting "None" for Sound FX. ***Question*** I have a Packard Bell and have no sound when playing the MS-DOS demo of Blast Chamber. What should I do? ***Answer*** Please use the mixer utility provided by Packard Bell. Follow the instructions listed below for volume control settings. (1) From DOS Mode prompt type CD\SOUND144\UTILITY and press <Enter>. SOUND144 can be replaced with FORTE16 or SOUND16A depending on the sound card you have. (2) Type MIXTSR and press <Enter> (3) Hold down the ALT key while you press the / key. (This will activate a menu.) These will be your options: TAB = Moves your selection choice to the next device to manage. Right arrow = Turns the volumes up. Left arrow = Turns the volumes down. S = Save E = Exit Once you are finished choosing your settings in the volume control area follow the next 2 steps. (1) Type CD\BCHAMBER and press <Enter> (2) Type BLAST and press <Enter> D. ----------PERIPHERALS---------- ***Question*** I am experiencing difficulty in selecting options and controlling the onscreen player with my gamepad. ***Answer*** The gamepad may not have been configured properly. Exit Blast Chamber Demo. Ensure that the gamepad is securely plugged in. In Windows, double-click the Setup.exe icon (or in DOS, type SETUP at the C:\BCHAMBER> prompt), select "Control Setup" and follow instructions for configuration. Make sure that you have installed the gamepad manufacturer's drivers for DOS (not just for Windows); refer to the instructions that came with the gamepad or contact the gamepad manufacturer. SECTION 7 - CREATING A BOOT DISK If you experience problems playing Blast Chamber or receive messages telling that you do not have enough memory to play. You will probably need to create a Boot Disk. A Boot Disk lets your machine boot from a floppy disk and will not load memory-extensive programs, freeing more memory up for Blast Chamber. These instructions assume that you are in MSDOS, not in Windows 95. Step 1: Place a diskette in your A: drive. The next step will erase any data on the disk, so a new, blank floppy disk should be used. Make sure that the disk is the same density as the drive (use a 1.44 MB disk in a High Density 3.5" drive, etc.). Step 2: At the C: prompt, type FORMAT A: /S and press Enter. The DOS Format utility will format the disk and add the necessary DOS files required to boot from the floppy disk. Step 3: Change to drive A by typing A: and pressing Enter. Then type EDIT CONFIG.SYS and press Enter. The DOS Editor program will appear. Type in the lines following [CONFIG.SYS] in the example below. When you are finished typing the lines, press ALT-F to bring up the File menu, and then type X to Exit the DOS Editor program. When it asks you if you want to save your file, choose Yes. [CONFIG.SYS] DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM. SYS DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS DOS=HIGH,UMB FILES=40 BUFFERS=15,0 STACKS=9,256 (Optional: insert your VESA driver line here) In the CONFIG.SYS file shown above, replace the last line in the example with the line from your current CONFIG.SYS file on drive C:, if your graphics card requires a VESA driver. Step 4: Type EDIT AUTOEXEC.BAT and press Enter. The DOS Editor program will appear. Type in the lines, like the [AUTOEXEC.BAT] example below. When you are finished typing the lines, press ALT-F to bring up the File menu, and then type X to exit the DOS Edit program. When it asks you if you want to save your file, choose Yes. [AUTOEXEC.BAT] @ECHO OFF PROMPT $P$G (Insert your PATH statement here) SET SOUND=C:\SB 16 SET BLASTER=A220 15 D1 H5 P330 T6 C:\SB I6\DIAGNOSE /S C:\SB 16SET /P /Q SETMIDI=SYNTH:I MAP:E C:\MOUSE\MOUSE.EXE CD\BCHAMBER BLAST In the AUTOEXEC.BAT file shown above, you would replace the third line with the SET PATH command from your current AUTOEXEC.BAT file on drive C:. You may also have special lines in your C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT file that help your sound card to function properly. It is very important that you copy those lines into this new file on A: so your sound card can work. Replace the examples on lines 4 through 8 with the appropriate lines from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. If you do not know which line from your current AUTOEXEC.BAT are for your sound card, you should contact the hardware manufacturer of the item in question. Line 9 which loads your mouse driver is only an example. The command to load your mouse driver is most likely different than our example. Replace line 9 with the command that loads your mouse driver. Note that the mouse driver is not needed for the Blast Chamber Demo, since the mouse is not used by the demo. So you could leave this line out entirely. Step 5: Leave the disk in the drive and reboot your system. The demo should start and everything should be working properly. NOTE: Some systems require special steps in order to boot from a floppy disk. If you are not in the Blast Chamber directory after attempting to boot from the floppy, contact the system manufacturer to learn what steps must be taken to start from a boot disk. SECTION 8 - THREE WAYS TO PLAY FROM AN MS-DOS PROMPT The demo version of Blast Chamber can run from a DOS prompt or from Windows 95 (assuming that your Windows 95 system is configured properly). With today's PC compatible systems, there are three ways to get to the DOS prompt: A. ----------MS-DOS 6.22---------- Booting into DOS 6.22 (also called by Windows 95 "Previous version of MS-DOS" ). This is a good method to run Blast Chamber, and it is the only way on a system without Windows 95. On systems with Windows 95 you may be able to select this mode, during booting process, by pressing the F8 key. Depending on the method used to install Windows 95, this option may not be available. Advantage: Avoids potential conflicts between Windows 95 display & sound drivers and the DOS drivers used by the Blast Chamber demo. SETUP works reliably. Disadvantage: On systems with Windows 95, your 16-bit CD-ROM and Mouse drivers may not be installed (CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files may have to be updated). But remember that the Blast Chamber Demo doesn't use the CD or the mouse. B. ---------MS-DOS MODE---------- Boot into DOS 7.0, by clicking the START button, then choosing SHUTDOWN. Now choose RESTART THE COMPUTER IN MS-DOS MODE. Advantage: Avoids potential conflicts between Windows 95 display & sound drivers and the DOS drivers used by the Blast Chamber game. SETUP works reliably. Disadvantage: On systems with Windows 95, your "old style DOS" CD-ROM and Mouse drivers may not be installed, and you may have to find and load 16-bit drivers in order to be able to access the CD-ROM drive, or the mouse. But remember that the Blast Chamber Demo doesn't use the CD or mouse. C. ----------MS-DOS PROMPT OF WINDOWS 95---------- To use the MS-DOS prompt of Windows 95, click the START button, then choose PROGRAMS. Now choose MS-DOS Prompt. Advantage: Guarantees that the CD-ROM driver and the Mouse driver are available (without a need to load older 16-bit drivers). The Virtual Memory available to Windows can also be used by the game (this improves performance of the game on machines with more than 8 MB of RAM). Disadvantage: It is often impossible to do automatic sound card detection, since Windows intercepts all of the I/O and IRQ requests, and returns unpredictable results to the auto-detection software. Even after manual setup, there is a potential for DMA or IRQ conflicts between the resources allocated by the Windows 95 Resource Manager, and the resources detected by the DOS setup program. On some systems (we have seen this on an HP machine) the VESA BIOS calls are not supported in the DOS Box (i.e. They are supported in MS-DOS MODE). SECTION 9 - IF YOU STILL HAVE PROBLEMS... If you have any comments, questions or suggestions about the Blast Chamber Demo or any other Activision product, please feel free to contact us. Before contacting Customer Support, please consult this Blast Chamber Help file. It contains the answers to some of our most frequently asked questions and may quickly provide a solution to your problem. If, after reviewing this Blast Chamber Help file, you are still experiencing problems, please feel free to contact us through any of the services listed. So that we can better help you, please be at your computer and have the following information ready: 1. Complete product title (Blast Chamber Demo for DOS). 2. Exact error message reported (if any) and a brief description of the problem. 3. Your computer's processor type and speed (e.g. 486DX2/66, Pentium 90...) 4. Video and sound card makes and models (e.g. Diamond Stealth 64 video, Sound Blaster 16 sound...) Online Services --------------- Internet E-mail: support@activision.com World Wide Web: http://www.activision.com Services with Activision Forums, E-Mail and File Library Support: America Online: Use keyword "Activision" to locate the Activision forum. CompuServe: 76004,2122 or [GO GAMBPUB] Activision BBS: 310-479-1335 Up to 28,800 baud; Settings: 8 Bits, No Parity, 1 Stop Bit (8, N, 1) North America ------------- In the U.S. Fax: 310-479-7355, 24 hours a day FaxBack: 310-473-6453, 24 hours a day Mail: Activision Customer Support P.O. Box 67713 Los Angeles, CA 90067 Phone: Call our 24-hour voice-mail system for answers to our most frequently asked questions at 310-479-5644. In the UK and Europe ---------------------- Activision Long Island House, 3A 1/4 Warple Way London, W3 ORQ United Kingdom. Technical Support: 0990-143-525 Customer Service: 0181-742-9400 You can contact UK Customer Service between the hours of 1:00pm and 5:00pm (UK Time) Monday through Friday (except holidays). In Australia and the Pacific Rim -------------------------------- Activision Australia and Pacific Rim P.O. Box 873 Epping, NSW 2121 Australia Technical Support: 1902 962 000 SECTION 10 - JUST FOR FUN If you read all the way down here, you deserve a small reward. You can take screen shots of Blast Chamber Demo (suitable for making wallpaper or anything you like). During the game, hit F1. This feature will pause the game, take a snapshot, and save it in C:\BCHAMBER as a targa file. It can then be opened using a standard image reader.