PC/CD Gamer UK 17/PCGAMER17.bin/text/isle.txt

Text File | 1995-12-21 | 31KB | 654 lines

------------------------------

BATTLE  ISLE  3
------
PC GAMER FEBRUARY 1996
DISK EDITOR:  TED OÆNEILL

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


IF YOU WOULD PREFER TO FOLLOW THE STORY, DO NOT READ ON!

MAP    WON:                LOST:

1.     Destroy all Maltieri units

2.     Capture Mala Kanda
    Capture Ireti
    Find and capture wreck
    Destroy all enemy units

3.    Capture Umo
    Capture Entala
    Capture shrine
    Destroy all enemy units

4.    Capture Kai HQ

5.    Capture Gatno                Loss of own HQ
    Capture P2

6.    Capture airplane factory

7.    Capture Lurs
    Capture Esto

8.    Capture Drullian HQ            Loss of own HQ


9.    Find and occupy secret depot        Loss of own HQ


10.    Capture Drullian HQ            Loss of own HQ


11.    Capture Lurs                Loss of Kol-Lorz


12.    Occupy Urelis' bunker            Loss of own HQ


13.    Occupy centre of Hol-Lonk        Loss of Pem-Pont
    Occupy Federation HQ
    Capture Texol

14.    Occupy Federation HQ            Loss of own HQ


15.    Occupy Drullian HQ            Loss of own HQ


16.    Occupy Federation HQ            Loss of own HQ


17.    Occupy Magalo
    Occupy Ekopan
    Occupy Bunka

18.    Occupy Andau
    Occupy Malati

19.    Capture Haris' villa            Loss of Parliament Building
    Occupy Stock Exchange
    Occupy barracks
    Occupy power station

20.    Capture research laboratory        Loss of own HQ







Video for Windows(TM) 1.1e

Most of the videos supplied with Battle Isle 3 have been produced using the INTEL
INDEO Codec version 3.2. To play these videos in Windows(R) 3.11 you will require at
least Version 1.1d of the Video for Windows(R) program.
Some manufacturers of graphics cards supply a specially adapted version of the program
with their cards. If you have already installed Video for Windows(R) on your computer
we advise you NOT to install the version 1.1e supplied by us.
Version 1.1e is usually NOT necessary to play our videos; Version 1.1d is sufficient.
You should therefore install Version 1.1e ONLY IF you have not installed any version of
Windows(R), or if you can not play our videos with the program which is installed at
present.

Virtual Memory

Battle Isle requires approximately 30 MB of main memory. In Windows(R) you can
provide a program with more main memory than you actually possess. To do this,
Windows(R) uses the so-called virtual memory; that is, it uses the hard disk's memory
and "fools" Battle Isle 3 into thinking it is RAM.
The advantage of this is that, if you have more than 8 MB RAM, you can make full use
of your actual main memory, ie the more RAM you have, the faster the game will run.
If you only have 8 MB of main memory you will have to make the rest available as
virtual memory. The following section explains how to do this.

Windows(R) 3.11 Virtual Memory

- Open the "Main Group" program group and start the "System Control" program
- Select "386 expanded"
- Select "Virtual Memory"
- Check the size of your present swap file ( = virtual memory). Is it larger than
23,000KB? If so, you do not need to do anything else, and can close the window again.
If not, select "Change".
- Look at the "Recommended Size". Is it equal to or greater than 23,000KB? If so, enter
a value equal to or greater than 23,000KB and click on OK. It is better to use a
permanent swap file than a temporary one. After doing this you will have to start
Windows(R) again.

If the recommended size is too small, there may be two possible reasons for this. One
reason may be that your hard disk is fragmented. Windows(R) requires connected blocks
of memory. Go into DOS and start a defragmenting program (for details of how to do
this, consult your DOS manual).
The other reason may be that you have loaded too many driver programs. Windows(R)
3.11 can use up to three times the available main memory as virtual memory. Create a
simple CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT in which no superfluous drivers are
loaded. In particular you should avoid using SMARTDRIVE, or make sure you do not
assign more than 256KB memory to SMARTDRIVE. Operational memory can also be
created if you do not use network drivers. Windows(R) usually only requires the
command

DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS

in the CONRIG.SYS file to start (drive and path may be different in your system).
Virtual Memory in Windows(R) 95

If you have at least 23 MB free on your hard disk, you do not need to take any further
action; Windows(R) 95 will recognise this and will make sure that enough virtual
memory is available. To make enough space available on the hard disk, you may have to
delete a few files which you no longer require.

Screensaver

If your screensaver is set so that it is active while the videos are being played, the videos
will not be able to restore themselves afterwards, and the final part will be played with
the wrong palette. This only applies to the video presently being played, not to
subsequent ones, so it is not serious. As the introduction runs for more than 11 minutes
you should turn off your screensaver for this period, or move the mouse from time to
time so that the screensaver is not activated.

Introduction

If you wish, you can fast forward the introduction to the next part of the action by using
the SPACE key, and you can quit it by using the ESC key. Depending on your graphics
card and CD-ROM drive it may take a few seconds before the program responds.

Network Mode

In network mode the participating computers alternately read and write the files on the
network drive.
To set up the network drive, use the NETWORK SETUP program in the Battle Isle 3
program group. Select a drive and directory to which all the participants have write
access.
Windows(R) 95 and Windows(R) NT are designed for network use, so you should not
have any problems with these systems.
Windows(R) 3.11 however will often display an Error message because too many people
are trying to access the network at once. If this happens, click several times on the
"Repeat" button. Remember that network games will still be saved on the network drive
even when you turn your computer off. If you still cannot make Windows(R) 3.11 access
the files after you have clicked on the "Repeat " button several times, re-start Battle Isle
3.

NOTE:

Do not forget that the first player in a network game must have completed his first move,
ie he must have pressed the Change Player button, before the other players can start their
moves. If the first player quits the game before pressing the Change Player button, the
whole game will be invalid and will have to be deleted from the network.

As a general rule, the network game scores are treated just like ordinary files, ie they can
be deleted, or sent to a fellow player on disk or by modem so that he can copy it into his
network directory and make the next move. If you are not in a network but would like to
start a postal game, simply chose any directory on your hard drive to act as a network
directory, or directly to the disk drive. The *.SDI files thus created will contain your
scores.

Campaign Mode

This section describes the basic rules of the Campaign Mode:

ALL your units will accompany you from one map to the next. If a unit is not at full
strength when you complete a map, it will be repaired and will have one experience point
deducted.

If you had 3 heavy tanks on the previous map, with 6, 4 and 2 experience points
respectively, but only have two tanks on the next map, one of the tanks will have 6
experience points and the other 4. The tank with only 2 points will remain in the
weapons pool and will be deployed again on a later map.

At the beginning of a map you always have the same units on the map! However, the
more experienced units you have in the weapons pool, the more of the inexperienced
units which are present from the start will be replaced by experienced ones from the
pool.

Repeat System Check

If you want Battle Isle 3 to repeat the system check which was carried out when you
started the program for the first time, start the Battle Isle 3 icon SETUP. You may need
to do this after installing new hardware or software. The scores you have saved will not
be affected by this procedure.

The SDI.INI File

This file is in your Windows Directory. The following section describes some of the
most useful commands.

[FILES]                                                        PATHx=
These run from PATH0 to PATH9. The first two must remain empty, the second must
indicate your game directory on your hard disk, and the third must indicate your CD-
ROM drive.

SDIPATH=
Must indicate your game directory on your hard drive.

[ADVANCED]

REMOTEPATH=
Indicated your network drive.

AVICHIP=
YES or NO, depending whether you have an AVI accelerator card.

ONLINEHELP=
YES or NO, depending whether you want to have the Online Help to be on or off from
the beginning of the program.

[STARTUP]
(These values are set by the system test and should only be altered by experienced users)

PLAYVIDEO=
YES to play normal videos, NO to turn off all videos.

PLAY_320_200=
No if you do not want to play any videos in 320 * 200 mode, YES if you do want to play
them. You must then also enter YES as the PLAYVIDEO command, otherwise this
command will be ignored.

PLAY_ZOOM=
NO if you do not want to play any videos in AVI accelerator mode, YES if you do want
to play them. You must then also enter YES as the PLAYVIDEO command, otherwise
this command will be ignored.

PLAY_BIG=
No if you do not want to play any intermediate videos. These videos are 640 * 480 in
size, larger than the standard 320 * 200 videos, and can sometimes cause problems.
Enter YES if you want to play them, in which case you must also enter YES as the
PLAYVIDEO command, otherwise this command will be ignored.

USEFX=
USEFM=
YES if you want to play sound effects or music, NO to turn them off.

AUTOSAVE

If your computer crashes or you have any other problems, your last score will always be
safe! Battle Isle 3 has an Autosave function, so that your last two scores are always saved
in position 9 or 10 in the SAVE menu.

Problems with videos

Playing videos in Windows(R) is not always straightforward; version 3.11 in particular
can often cause problems.

These problems are usually caused because the video drivers supplied by the
manufacturer of your graphics cards are defective. Even if the drivers function
satisfactorily in normal use they may still contain faults which can make them unsuitable
for playing videos.

One fairly common fault prevents the videos from being played against the scenic
background, so that they can only be played against a black background. Battle Isle 3
recognizes these problems when you first start it and will automatically change the style
of presentation if necessary.

Some drivers can be so faulty that they will cause the videos to crash. In this case,
Windows(R) will issue an error message reading "MMTASK ERROR". Next time it is
started, Battle Isle 3 will recognise the fault and switch mode to play the videos against a
black background. If the videos crash repeatedly, Battle Isle 3 will note this and give you
the option of playing without videos.

These problems can be solved in two ways. You can try to obtain a new driver from your
graphics card manufacturer, or you can see if the driver from another graphics card will
work on your system. As all graphics cards use chips from a small number of
manufacturers there is a good chance that, for example, you will be able to use a driver
from a Shareware CD.
A better option is to update to Windows(R) 95. In our tests, this system has proved to be
far more stable than version 3.11, and it was possible to play the videos on all types of
equipment without any problems at all. If at all possible we would recommend that you
should change to Windows(R) 95 if you have any problems with your graphics.

Experience has shown that zooming videos, either in 320 * 200 mode or with an AVI
accelerator, can cause problems if the system is running in 16-Bit color mode (65536
colors).

In general, many Windows(R) 3.11 versions are very unstable due to the numerous
additional modules which are added and removed over time. In some cases it can help if
you re-install Windows(R) 3.11 from scratch. As already mentioned, the biggest problem
is caused by faulty video drivers. A later section of these instructions contains part of the
WinG(R) Readme file, in which Microsoft refers to problems with the WinG Library;
and the problems referred to there also apply to videos.

If the automatic check described earlier has turned off the videos, you can try manually
to find the "border" up to which your system is able to play the videos. You can do this
as follows:

- In the [STARTUP] section, enter ERROR_311=1

- Enter all PLAY_xxxx commands as NO

- Enter the command PLAYVIDEO=YES

- Now try to start the program and see if the videos are being played.

If yes, try entering ERROR_311=0

If this works too, try entering PLAY_BIG=YES. This will enable you to play the text
inserts at the beginning of the chapters, which are played in 640 * 480 format.

Video size is too large

If you use the double size or full-screen settings as the standard setting when playing
videos in the Media Player, Battle Isle 3 will automatically do the same. However, this
can often be unattractive. You can prevent this from happening by setting the video size
in the Media Player to "Normal" and "Play in Window", and then defining this setting as
the standard setting.

Problems with the WinG Library

This Library is a system extension for Windows(R) 3.11 which compensates for the
system's deficiencies in its graphics capabilities and allows the system to display graphics
of a similar quality to Windows(R) 95 and Windows(R) NT. WinG is automatically
installed at the same time as Battle Isle 3. As this is a relatively recent product, some
graphics drivers may cause problems with this too. Usually the program crashes during
the first self check which WinG Library carries out before the program is started for the
first time, but sometimes this does not happen until you have been playing for a while.
Here too we recommend that you obtain a new driver from the manufacturer of your
graphics cards or, better still, that you update to Windows(R) 95.

Other User Interfaces than Program Manager

Windows(R) 95 contains a number of user interfaces which give the system a different
appearance. These interfaces are frequently not compatible with Battle Isle 3, and you
should therefore turn them off altogether and start Battle Isle 3 from the ordinary
Program manager.

Not Enough Memory

If a message appears during the game telling you that there is not enough memory
available, you will have to increase the size of the virtual memory. If you are using
Windows(R) 3.11 it may help if you start the computer without SMARTDRIVE and
network drivers.

Problems with Sound Effects or Music

Setting the sound cards in Windows(R) 3.11 can sometimes cause problems. If you have
problems, check your driver setting and the MIDI Mapper, both of which you will find in
the System Control program. Often you will have to adjust all the voices in the first Patch
Table to your sound card; for details on how to do this, consult your Windows(R)
manual.

In Windows(R) 95 you will find the appropriate settings under Multimedia in the Setup
Program group. Select ADVANCED / MEDIA CONTROL DEVICES / MIDI
SEQUENCER / SETTINGS and enter the make of your sound card. It is usually not
necessary to do this, however, as Windows(R) 95 recognises your hardware and
automatically carries out the necessary settings.

Problems with Videos in Windows(R) NT

In Windows(R) NT you have the problem that the screen mode can not be changed while
the program is running; this means that videos can only be played in their original size.

In addition, a kind of colored flash appears at the end of the video; this is a result of
certain peculiarities of this system and is unfortunately unavoidable.

Where to Get Help with Windows(R) 3.11 Problems

As has been pointed out several times, Windows(R) 3.11 is fairly unstable and is
consequently not ideally suited to run such a large, hardware-intensive game as Battle
Isle 3. If you encounter problems with the program's stability, the following tips may be
helpful:

- Re-install your Windows (R) 3.11 from scratch
- Re-install your video driver. Try with 256 colors at first, then with 64K colors.
- Install Video for Windows(R) 1.1d if you have it. If you have a choice between version
(d) and the version (e) supplied by us, you should install version (d) manually. (Because
of a licensing dispute between Microsoft and another company we are unfortunately
prevented by law from supplying version (e)).
- Now re-install Battle Isle 3 from scratch. When it first starts up, the program will ask if
you want to install Video for Windows(R) 1.1e. If you have already installed version (d),
do not install version (e). If you have not installed version (d), install version (e) now.
- Start Battle Isle 3 again and follow the instructions for carrying out the system check.
                                                               The best advice we can give to Windows(R) 3.11
users is -Install Windows(R) 95! Our tests have shown that hardware which could only
be used unreliably or not at all in Windows(R) 3.11 generally performed perfectly in
Windows(R) 95.

Windows(R) 95 is our operating system of choice for Battle Isle 3.

The Window Suddenly Stops Enlarging or Moving

In 64K color mode some Windows functions work differently or not at all, including the
locking of the mouse cursor. This means that the program automatically stops enlarging
or re-positioning a window when it has reached a certain size or a certain position, even
if you have not released the mouse button.

The Chip Window Will Not Accept Any More Mouse Clicks

When multitasking it may happen that mouse clicks are ignored. If the Chip Window is
open at the time, it can not be closed with the mouse. If this happens, press ESC.

Extract from Microsoft's WinG Library README File (by kind permission of
Microsoft)
                                                                                                                             Microsoft
WinG version 1.0

This file describes known bugs, gotchas, and helpful hints for the WinG Version 1.0 final
release.

ISVs may want to distribute portions of this readme file that describe configuration bugs
along with shipping products that use WinG.

WinG version 1.0 provides fast DIB-to-screen blts under Windows 3.1, Windows for
Workgroups 3.11, Windows 95, and Windows NT version 3.5. WinG will not run on
Windows NT version 3.1 or on earlier versions of Windows.

WinG requires a 386 or better processor to run. WinG will not run on a 286.

Known Bugs and Limitations

The following are known problems with useful tidbits of information about WinG
version 1.0.

- On Windows 3.1, WinGBitmaps must be 8 bits per pixel and must be created with full
256 entry color tables.

- WinGDCs are NOT palette devices. You must change their color tables using
WinGSetDIBColorTable, not SelectPalette.

- WinGBitBlt and WinGStretchBlt only support bltting from WinGDCs to the screen.

- Using BitBlt and StretchBlt to blt from one WinG to another can be very slow when a
clipping region has been selected into the destination.

- WinGBitBlt and WinGStretchBlt may return different values than StretchDIBits for
identical blts.

- A few GDI APIs do not work correctly with WinGDCs:

StretchDIBits will not bit 24bpp and 16bpp DIBs into an 8bpp WinGDC.
FloodFill with a NULL brush draws incorrectly
FloodFill outside of the bounds of a WinGBitmap can flood the entire image
Brushes created with CreatePatternBrush with a WinGBitmap fault when selected into a
WinGDC on Win3x - use CreateBitmap(8,8,1,8,0)
DrawIcon will crash
WinGBitBlt and WinGStretchBlt will not always blt to the correct location when you
have changed the Viewport and/or Window origins using SetViewportOrg or
SetWindowOrg

- You cannot change the origin of halftone brushes created by WinG.

- Noticeable timing differences have been found while running the WinG profiler on a
computer connected to a network. For accurate results, disconnect your computer from
the network the first time you run a WinG application. After the profile is complete, you
can plug the net in again. NOTE: Microsoft is not liable for any damage you may incur
by incorrect handling of your computer hardware.
- WinGBitBlt and WinGStretchBlt use a slightly different color matching algorithm than
StretchDIBits when blting an 8-bit image to a 4-bit planar display such as a standard
VGA. Mixing WinG and StretchDIBits on these displays may produce odd results.

- WinG relies on the mmsystem timer drivers to determine display performance. If
mmsystem.dll and timer.drv are not installed correctly, the results of the performance test
may be incorrect. mmsystem.dll should appear on the drivers= line of the [boot] section
of system.ini, and timer=timer.drv should appear in the [drivers] section of system.ini.

- WinG version 1.0 does not yet use standard DCI because of time constraints.

- "Just in Time" debuggers install a fault handler in a chain along with the WinG display
performance profiler. If your debugger reports a fault during the WinG display
performance test, pass the fault on to Windows instead of invoking your debugger.

Driver-Specific Problems

WinG depends on Windows display drivers written by independent hardware
manufacturers for much of its speed. Bugs or performance problems in third-party
display drivers may cause problems in WinG. In many cases, the video card
manufacturer has already fixed the bug, and upgrading your display driver will often
clear away problems.

There are some specific "bugs" in display drivers of which you should be aware. The list
below is not intended to slight the manufacturer of any particular card or driver.
A list of stress-tested configurations is available on the CompuServe WINMM forum and
ftp.microsoft.com.

Some names in this list are trademarks of the respective manufacturer.

- Early drivers for Diamond Viper cards included a "Power Palette" option that is no
longer supported by Diamond. They recommend that you upgrade your drivers if you
have this option. WinG may be slower when power palette is enabled.

- IBM no longer supports the IBM ThinkPad 720c. There are some problems using
WinG with the ThinkPad 720c display drivers.

- Cirrus drivers before version 1.43 have many known bugs which have been fixed in the
more recent drivers. Be sure to upgrade your drivers if you are still running with this
version.

- Some ATI drivers offer a "crystal Fonts" option. Turning Crystal Fonts on in 8-bit
modes sets up a non-palettized driver that can slow WinG significantly.

- The ATI mach8 Radical drivers cause a number of problems in both WinG and in
Windows with some versions of the ATI chipset. Beware.

- The ATI VGA Wonder drivers (W31-*.drv) will crash during a call to StretchDIBits in
the profiler. Users can run the SVGA256.DRV driver shipped with Windows.

- Many micro Crystal drivers have problems with StretchDIBits, so they crash during
profiling.

- Early ATI Mach 32 PCI cards have a hardware timing problem and will hang while
blting. ATI will replace these cards free of charge.

WinG is incompatible with the #9GXE "TurboCopy" mode. Use the #9 control panel to
disable TurboCopy (it is off by default).

WinG uses a GetPixel to synchronize with display hardware when writing directly to the
screen. The ATI Mach 32 driver's GetPixel does not work properly, so it is possible to
use GDI to draw to the screen, then use WinG to blt to the screen and have them
overwrite each other. Be careful when mixing GDI commands and WinG blts to the
display.
- The Orchid mmtllo.drv driver for the Prodesigner IIs has duplicate system colors,
which prevents applications from getting an identity palette and greatly reduces the
WinG blt speed. A workaround is to set SYSPAL_NOSTATIC mode or use the standard
Tseng ET4000 drivers instead of the mmtllo drivers.

A Note on Speed

WinG is designed to be the absolute fastest way to blt DIBs under Windows. The goal,
achieved in many cases, is to blt at memory handwidth to the display device.

On most 8bpp devices, if you use the recommended DIB format (returned by
WinGRecommendDIBFormat) and set up correct identity palette, you should get 1:1 blt
speeds comparable to BitBlt, which blts device dependent bitmaps (DDBs) to the
display. The timewing sample application will show you various blt speeds on your
display.

The WinGRecommenDIBFormat API will tell you whether to use top-down or bottom-
up DIBs for fastest unclipped 1:1 identity palette blts. If you plan on using other types of
blt (such as stretching or complex clipping), your application may want to time top-down
versus bottom-up blts at run time. See the WinG help file for more information.

Copyright Notes

Windows 95 is a registered trademark of Microsoft or the property of Microsoft.
Windows NT is a registered trademark of Microsoft or the property of Microsoft.
Window 3.11 is a registered trademark of Microsoft or the property of Microsoft.
Video for Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft or the property of Microsoft.
WinG is a registered trademark of Microsoft or the property of Microsoft.
INTEL is a registered trademark of INTEL or the property of INTEL.
INDEO is a registered trademark of INTEL or the property of INTEL.
All other product names referred to in these notes are the property of the respective
companies.

This product was produced using the Microsoft Visual C++ 2.0 Compiler.
This product contains Microsoft's Video for Windows and Microsoft's WinG Library.


LIST OF MISSION OBJECTIVES

If you are not able to play any videos, the following list of Mission Objectives will help
you to play through the Campaign Mode:

IF YOU WOULD PREFER TO FOLLOW THE STORY, DO NOT READ ON!

MAP    WON:                LOST:

1.     Destroy all Maltieri units

2.     Capture Mala Kanda
    Capture Ireti
    Find and capture wreck
    Destroy all enemy units

3.    Capture Umo
    Capture Entala
    Capture shrine
    Destroy all enemy units

4.    Capture Kai HQ

5.    Capture Gatno                Loss of own HQ
    Capture P2

6.    Capture airplane factory

7.    Capture Lurs
    Capture Esto

8.    Capture Drullian HQ            Loss of own HQ


9.    Find and occupy secret depot        Loss of own HQ


10.    Capture Drullian HQ            Loss of own HQ


11.    Capture Lurs                Loss of Kol-Lorz


12.    Occupy Urelis' bunker            Loss of own HQ


13.    Occupy centre of Hol-Lonk        Loss of Pem-Pont
    Occupy Federation HQ
    Capture Texol

14.    Occupy Federation HQ            Loss of own HQ


15.    Occupy Drullian HQ            Loss of own HQ


16.    Occupy Federation HQ            Loss of own HQ


17.    Occupy Magalo
    Occupy Ekopan
    Occupy Bunka

18.    Occupy Andau
    Occupy Malati

19.    Capture Haris' villa            Loss of Parliament Building
    Occupy Stock Exchange
    Occupy barracks
    Occupy power station

20.    Capture research laboratory        Loss of own HQ