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Wing Commander IV PCCD Demo ----------------------------- (C) 1995, Origin Systems, Inc. This document may not, in whole or part, be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated, or reduced to any electronic medium or machine readable form without prior consent, in writing, from Origin Systems, Inc. Origin Systems, Inc. believes the information contained in this document is accurate and reliable. Origin Systems, Inc. reserves the right to update this manual at any time and without notice. This file will be updated continuously and can be found on our BBS 512-346-2BBS (2227) & on the Internet (ftp.ea.com /pub/patches/wc4demo.txt). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This help file has been provided as documentation for Wing Commander IV. It details key commands, features, and the most common questions asked and their answers. To print a hardcopy of this file, at the DOS prompt, change to the drive of your CD-ROM drive (i.e. "D:") and type : PRINT README.TXT [ENTER] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Index [1.0] General Notes [1.1] About Wing Commander IV [1.2] Features [1.3] Scores to beat... [1.4] Tips on Gameplay [2.0] System Requirements [3.0] Boot Disk Configuration [4.0] Install Program [4.1] Joystick Calibration [4.2] CPU Benchmark [4.3] Video Benchmark [4.4] CD-ROM Benchmark [4.5] Sound Card Compatibility [5.0] Game Controls [6.0] Troubleshooting [6.1] General Info [6.2] Questions and Answers [6.3] Known Problems [6.4] Problem CD-ROM drivers and their updates [7.0] Windows and OS/2 Compatibility [8.0] Miscellaneous [8.1] Can I play the game from my hard drive? [8.2] Can I change the time limit? [8.3] What files accompany the Wing IV Demo? [9.0] Origin Catalog [10.0] Origin Customer Service/Technical Support [11.0] Disclaimer ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [1.0] General Notes [1.1] About Wing Commander IV Welcome to Wing Commander IV. This latest installment in the Wing Commander series puts you back in the shoes of the Terran Confederation's Colonel Christopher Blair, to investigate the skirmishes with our long-time allies, The Border Worlds. This demo has a promotional trailer which loops endlessly or until the Escape key is pressed, at which point the Demo switches to gameflow mode. From gameflow, one can choose to fly the demo mission or review the trailer. Upon completion of the Demo Mission or hitting ALT-Q, the demo returns to gameflow. When you select to fly the demo mission, you will be at the helm of the Confederation Hellcat. The mission has a default time limit of 5 minutes. You start on the BWS Intrepid. Use A to take off from the ship, or fly out manually by using + to increase your speed. The control type selected in the install program will be used to maneuver your ship. To autopilot to where the enemies are, press A once. You will see a view of your ship flying by on its way to the enemy. Once you reach the second action sphere, a pirate frigate and its escorts will be continually jumping in until the time limit expires, or you die. The circular display with the red dots on it is your radar. If you maneuver the ship so that one of the dots is in the center, you should be able to see it in front of you. It will be bracketed by a red box. Maneuver each of the enemies into the crosshairs on the screen and fire. If you hit them, you will see a blue shield effect. Fire until their ultimate destruction! You can also fire missiles at it using the Enter key or by pressing both buttons on the joystick. If the screen appears too bright, try pressing Ctrl and the Left arrow key. If the screen appears too dark, try pressing Ctrl and the Right arrow key. To exit the Demo, press Alt-X from gameflow or spaceflight. [1.2] Features Wing Commander IV features many new improvements over Wing Commander III. These include : o Digital Music o Realistic textures for the spaceflight objects o Cool cockpit huds o New weapons/missiles o Improved movie player allowing the playback of 16-bit color/16-bit stereo movies! o New explosion effects [1.3] Scores to beat... So, you think you're pretty good, eh? You pathetic descendant of MONKEYS! Beat these kill scores! (See the notes at the bottom...) KILLS (@) KILLS (#) Anthony L. Sommers (asommers) 20 12 QA Project Leader J. Allen Brack (Number One) 19 12 QA Assistant Project Leader Todd Wachhaus (Viper) 21 12 QA Assistant Project Leader @ - Battle was ACE AI, any guns, NO missiles, no invulnerability, collisions ON, default timer (5 minutes), score was represented by the kill counter. # - Battle was ACE AI, Stormfire ONLY, NO missiles, no invulnerability, collisions ON, default timer (5 minutes), score was represented by the kill counter. [1.4] Tips on Gameplay 1) Balance your power settings at the start of the mission 2) Switch to full guns and synchronize (CTRL-G) 3) Watch out for those rear turrets on the Tbolts!!! Ouch!!! 4) As soon as you finish one fighter, immediately move to another! 5) You've got to know when to use afterburners, especially when tailing fighters... 6) Be careful not to ram the enemy ships, you get no kills that way. 7) Have fun! It's only a game... -ALS, TAW & JAB ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [2.0] System Requirements Wing Commander IV CD-ROM system requirements (which are absolutely needed to play the game) : i486DX2/66 Processor or higher 8 MB of RAM (7 MB of XMS) 360K Conventional Memory MS-DOS 5.0 and up Double Speed CD-ROM Drive (300,000 bytes/second transfer rate) VESA Local Bus Video Card 100% Microsoft compatible mouse 20 MB of free hard disk space System Recommendation - VGA : i486DX2/66 Processor or higher 16 MB of RAM (15 MB of XMS) 500K Conventional Memory Quad Speed CD-ROM Drive (600,000 bytes/second transfer rate) VESA Local Bus Video Card 100% Microsoft compatible mouse 20 MB of required hard disk space Sound Blaster or 100% compatible sound card for Digital FX/Music Joystick System Recommendation - SVGA/Optimal : Intel Pentium 75 MHZ or higher 16 MB of RAM (15 MB of XMS) 500K Conventional Memory Quad Speed CD-ROM Drive (600,000 bytes/second transfer rate) PCI SVGA video card 100% Microsoft compatible mouse 20 MB of required hard disk space Sound Blaster or 100% compatible sound card for Digital FX Joystick (Flightstick Pro or Thrustmaster) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [3.0 ] Boot Disk Configuration Almost all problems can be solved by making a boot disk for Wing Commander IV. Regardless of the total amount of RAM and/or conventional memory, processor speed/power, etc., the boot disk will set up your computer specifically to run Wing Commander IV. Expanded Memory Managers (EMM386, QEMM386, 386MAX, NETROOM, etc.) are not needed and if configured incorrectly, will often conflict with our own protected mode memory manager. It is recommended that you create a floppy boot disk for Wing Commander IV. If you have a blank floppy disk for your A: drive, the program BOOTDISK.EXE can be used to assist you. BOOTDISK.EXE examines your hard drive CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT and determines the best configuration for running Wing Commander IV. All you have to do is put a blank floppy in the drive, type BOOTDISK at the CD-ROM drive prompt, and press [ENTER]. Once the boot disk is finished, simply reboot your machine with that disk in the A: drive. It's that easy! To make a boot disk for Wing Commander IV manually, please use the following instructions : 1) Place a blank disk in drive A: 2) Type C: and press [ENTER] 3) Type FORMAT A: /S and press [ENTER] 4) Type A: and press [ENTER] 5) Type COPY C:\CONFIG.SYS and press [ENTER] 6) Type COPY C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT and press [ENTER] 7) Type EDIT A:\CONFIG.SYS and press [ENTER] 8) Different computers have different sound cards, CD-ROM drives, etc. Therefore, after the first 5 initial lines, we cannot list out the exact lines needed. However, the original lines from your hard disk CONFIG.SYS will be there, and you can try to make sure lines of the CONFIG.SYS on the boot disk read somewhat like the following : DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS DOS=LOW FILES=25 BUFFERS=99 SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS\ /P DEVICE=C:\<path>\<possible sound card drivers> DEVICE=C:\<path>\<CD-ROM drivers> DEVICE=C:\<path>\<possible mouse driver> Lines to make sure you want to remove from the CONFIG.SYS of the boot disk : DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE ... DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\IFSHLP.SYS DEVICE=C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE ... 9) After you are finished with the CONFIG.SYS, press [ALT-F], then [X], then [Y]. You should return to the A: prompt. 10) Type EDIT A:\AUTOEXEC.BAT and press [ENTER] 11) Similar to CONFIG.SYS, since different computers have different sound cards, CD-ROM drives, etc., we cannot list out the exact lines needed for the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. However, the original lines from your hard disk AUTOEXEC.BAT will be there, and you can try to make sure lines of the AUTOEXEC.BAT on the boot disk read somewhat like the following : @ECHO OFF PROMPT $p$g PATH C:\DOS C:\<path>\MSCDEX.EXE ... <possible soundcard lines (SET BLASTER=, SET SOUND=, etc.)> <possible mouse driver line (C:\DOS\MOUSE or C:\MOUSE\MOUSE)> Lines to make sure you want to remove from the AUTOEXEC.BAT of the boot disk : C:\DOS\SHARE.EXE ... C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE ... 12) After you are finished with the CONFIG.SYS, press [ALT-F], then [X], then [Y]. You should return to the A: prompt. 13) Reboot your computer with the new boot disk. You may now try to install/run the game! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [4.0] Install Program The first time you run the Wing Commander IV Demo, the game will automatically run its install program. This program allows you to setup sound cards, set save game directories, test machine speed, etc. [4.1] Joystick Calibration If the program detects an active gameport on I/O Port 200 or 201, you will be asked to calibrate your joystick. As you move your joystick around, the X and Y coordinate numbers shown at the bottom of the screen should decrease as you move to the upper left and increase as you move to the lower right. Follow the on-screen instructions to calibrate the joystick. Once initially calibrated, a rectangular cursor SHOULD appear in the center of the grid. Move this cursor to the four corners of the grid and then SMOOTHLY through the inner portions of the grid quadrants. The cursor and corresponding numbers at the bottom of the screen should adjust according. If your cursor flickers between positions or jumps unexpectedly from one location to another as you move it, then your joystick as not calibrated properly for one of the following possible reasons : 1) Joystick Port Conflict: Two active joystick ports on the same system will confuse the calibration routine and produce erroneous data. SOLUTION: Possible locations for joystick/game ports can be found on either a) the sound card, b) the i/o serial card (where your mouse might be plugged into) or c) a separate gamecard (usually speed-adjustable). Only one of the ports can be active. Check the respective manufacturer's documentation to find out what settings need to be made to disable one or more of the conflicting ports. 2) Poor Initial Calibration: Try again by pressing any key other than <ESC>, and recalibrating. 3) Machine Speed Conflict: Some gameports cannot handle the speed of some computers, especially Pentiums. As a result, the calibration information returned to the software routine is inaccurate. SOLUTION: Your system may benefit from the purchase of a speed- adjustable gamecard. These gamecards allow the user to adjust the rate at which the joystick calibration can actually speak to the joystick hardware. Some of the tested gamecards include the Thrustmaster ACM, the Gravis Eliminator, the Kraft Game Card and the CH Gamecard 3. 4) Bad Joystick Hardware: Unfortunately, some joystick hardware gives out after repeated usage. If you have checked the other 3 possibilities and you still have trouble calibrating, try attaching another joystick from a friend's computer. This may help you pinpoint the problem. [4.2] CPU Benchmark Prior to configuring your machine for Wing Commander IV, the installation program will perform a benchmark on your system. It will attempt to load an object in SVGA (if a VESA-compatible driver is detected) and draw that object as fast as it can on the screen. NOTE: If the benchmark only detects VGA, the results will be INACCURATE as the test assumes SVGA results. Please load a VESA-compatible driver even if you choose not to run SVGA in one or more portions of the game. Once complete, the results of the WC4 Benchmark will appear at the top of your screen. If they vary excessively, please read the following information and recommendations : -- How is the CPU tested? WC4 makes a purely mathematical calculation and determines the response time. This relies on 100% of the processor speed. -- What do the numbers mean? Listed below is the estimated breakdown based upon results received during testing of Wing Commander IV: +-------------------+-------+------------------------------+ | Pentium 120 | 2 | Pentium Class CPU Speed | +-------------------+-------+------------------------------+ | Pentium 90 | 4 | Pentium Class CPU Speed | +-------------------+-------+------------------------------+ | Pentium 60 | 6 | Pentium Class CPU Speed | +-------------------+-------+------------------------------+ | DX4/100, DX4/75 | 7-10 | High-End 486 Class CPU Speed | | and DX2/66 | 10 | High-End 486 Class CPU Speed | +-------------------+-------+------------------------------+ Ratings of 11 or higher indicate that you do not have the processor speed to play Wing Commander IV. We do not recommend that you attempt gameplay on a machine with this rating. Ratings of 0 indicate that you have a computer that rates faster than the technology available at the release of this demo. Never to fear though, Wing Commander IV incorporates a limiter to insure that the game is playable on the next generation of processors. -- What kind of performance should I expect? Space flight depends HEAVILY upon the CPU speed of your system. But this will only work up to a certain point as defined by the speed of your video. For example, a Pentium computer with an ISA video card will bottleneck due to the slow video card performance. Switching from SVGA to VGA will help alleviate this dependency upon the video speed. -- How do I improve this rating? A) Ensure that you have your Internal and External Cache enabled for your CPU. Contact your computer manufacturer to investigate these settings further. B) Upgrading your CPU and motherboard is the only other way to improve this performance. Some of today's systems have included the use of ZIF Sockets that make CPU chip upgrades easier. Doubling your clock speed may be as simple as putting in a new CPU. Contact your computer manufacturer for details about your specific system and its possibilities for upgrade. [4.3] Video Benchmark The game runs in VGA 320x200 256 color mode and SVGA 640x480 256 color mode. However, SVGA mode is ONLY accessible if you have a VESA driver installed or your video card has VESA built in. If you don't have a VESA driver for your card, UNIVBE has been included (Universal VESA BIOS Extensions). If your video card does not support the VESA standard, the game will run in VGA. -- How is the Video Card tested? An object is loaded from the CD-ROM into your computer's RAM. The object is then timed to determine how quickly it copies from this main RAM to the VRAM on your video card. This test combines both the bus speed of your video card (as determined by your system architecture: ISA, EISA, VESA or PCI) and the speed of the video card itself to receive this information into its own memory. NOTE : The Benchmark assumes that you are loading a SVGA object. -- What do the numbers mean? Listed below is the estimated breakdown based upon results received during testing of Wing Commander IV: +-------------------+-------+------------------------------+ | PCI Video card | 0-1 | Local Bus Video Speed | +-------------------+-------+------------------------------+ | VLB Video card | 1-4 | Local Bus Video Speed | +-------------------+-------+------------------------------+ | ISA Video card | 5+ | Low-End Video Speed | +-------------------+-------+------------------------------+ NOTE : Owners of video cards with a rating of 5 or higher will probably experience trouble viewing the movies. For these users, we highly recommend that you upgrade your video card for improved performance. -- What kind of performance should I expect? Space flight AND Movies depend heavily upon the speed of your video. As mentioned in the CPU Benchmark section, the processor speed can only take you so far. After that, the video speed will carry the rest of the load. Slower video card owners should adjust movies and space flight to VGA to avoid choppy frame rate or pausing during movies. -- How do I improve this rating? The system architecture of your computer greatly affects the overall performance of any video card. For most ISA customers, the best increase in video performance will be to upgrade to a new motherboard with VLB or PCI architecture. For increases within a particular type of architecture, research each video card for its DOS performance and rating by nationally recognized benchmarks or publications. NOTE : Windows accelerator cards which feature enhanced Windows video speeds MAY NOT provide the same type of performance in DOS. Check your local retailer or video card manufacturer for more information about these performance ratings. [4.4] CD-ROM Benchmark -- How is the CD-ROM Drive tested? A file approximately 2 MB in size is located on the WC4-CD. It is then transferred from the CD into the main RAM on your computer. The amount of time it takes to transfer this information is read in bytes per second (bps). The amount of BPS determines the speed of the CD-ROM drive itself. -- What do the numbers mean? Listed below is the breakdown based upon common convention used by CD-ROM manufacturers': +-----------------------------+------------------------------------+ | Less than 300,000 bytes | Single Speed CD-ROM Drive | +-----------------------------+------------------------------------+ | Greater than 300,000 but | Double Speed CD-ROM Drive | | less than 450,000 bytes | | +-----------------------------+------------------------------------+ | Greater than 450,000 but | Triple Speed CD-ROM Drive | | less than 600,000 bytes | | +-----------------------------+------------------------------------+ | Greater than 600,000 bytes| Quad Speed or greater CD-ROM Drive | +-----------------------------+------------------------------------+ -- What kind of performance should I expect? The speed of your CD-ROM determines the amount of load times for all three modules: gameflow, space flight and movies. As you would expect, the faster the drive means the lesser amount of waiting. -- How do I improve this rating? Short of buying a new CD-ROM drive, there is not much that can be done to improve the transfer rate of a CD-ROM drive to help Wing Commander IV perform faster. However, if you notice that the transfer rate of the CD-ROM drive is not what you expect, then it could be attributed to a couple of problems. A) If you are using any type of CD-ROM caching software, try disabling it. Due to the game's dependency upon Burst Mode Transfer Rate, the use of CD-ROM caching software will not help but may, in fact, harm the performance of WC4. During its operation, some software will tell a program asking for a particular file, that the information is buffered into memory when it is, in reality, not finished. In some cases, it may not even have begun to transfer. Since WC4 uses the interrupt to send the information, it won't find any information and WC4 will wait for it causing pauses during the movies. B) *** Most probable *** Your CD-ROM software drivers may not be communicating with the CD-ROM drive properly. It is very important that you have the latest driver for your CD-ROM drive. Pausing during movies, slow CD access/load times and CDR-101 error messages (not being able to access the CD) may all be the result of the use of an outdated driver. Contact your CD-ROM drive or Multimedia Kit manufacturer to see if you have the latest CD-ROM driver. Users of SCSI controller cards should call their controller card manufacturers to ensure that their software fully supports the specific CD-ROM drive by model number. The Demo and the final game will create a small directory off of drive C on your system called c:\wc4demo. This directory contains the install and configuration information for your machine. Since the game plays entirely off the CD-ROM, we needed a default directory in which to save this information. You can run the game strictly in VGA with : WC4DEMO -V This will force the game to ignore the VESA driver and use VGA. The Install program can be rerun at any time by typing: WC4DEMO -I or INSTALL or SETUP [4.5] Sound Card Compatibility For Digital FX, the game supports the Sound Blaster (and 100% Sound Blaster compatibles), Sound Blaster Pro, Sound Blaster 16, Sound Blaster AWE 32, Pro Audio Spectrum, Roland RAP-10, Ensoniq Soundscape, Gravis Ultrasound. NOTE : All sound cards are to be used in their NATIVE MODE only. For example, the Ensoniq Soundscape emulates the Sound Blaster. Yet for Digital FX, choose Ensoniq Soundscape rather than Sound Blaster/Compatibles. The install program chooses the default settings of the sound card defined by the manufacturer. Some sound cards which emulate other sound cards may not work with Wing Commander IV. If you are using a sound card which is not listed as a choice in the installation program, please consult your sound card manufacturer to see about getting your sound card to properly emulate one of the sound cards listed. Roland RAP-10 The Roland RAP-10 uses DMA Channel 6. This is defined by the game, and cannot be changed. Gravis Ultrasound and Ultrasound MAX Some Gravis Ultrasound/MAX owners may experience pausing during the playing of movies in SVGA mode. If this happens, try switching the Movie Video Mode in the install Program to VGA to see if this helps. GUS Max owners should select Gravis Ultrasound when selecting the sound card. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [5.0] Game Controls CAMERA CONTROLS ------------------------------------------ F1 Switch to Cockpit View F1 Toggle HUD View F2 Left View F3 Right View F4 Rear View Ctrl-F4 Rear View in MFD F5 Chase Camera F6 Object View Camera N Navigation Map [ Zoom in (F6 and Navmap) ] Zoom out (F6 and Navmap) Left Arrow Pan Left (F6 and Navmap) Right Arrow Pan Left (F6 and Navmap) Up Arrow Tilt Up (F6 and Navmap) Down Arrow Tilt Down (F6 and Navmap) ------------------------------------------- NAVIGATION MAP CONTROLS ------------------------------------------------ S Toggle Stars G Toggle Grid C Center on Player N Select Next Waypoint P Select Previous Waypoint [ Zoom In ] Zoom Out ------------------------------------------------ SPEED CONTROLS ------------------------------------------------ - Decrement Throttle 5% + Increment Throttle 5% Backspace Set Throttle to 0 \ Set Throttle to Max Tab Afterburners (while held down) ~ Toggle Afterburners ------------------------------------------------ WEAPON CONTROLS -------------------------------------------------------- G Select Next Gun Mode F Full Guns E Drop Decoy M Select Next Missile Mode B Full Salvo of Missiles; Launch all missile hardpoints Ctrl-S Engage Smart Targeting T Select Next Target R Select Next Turret on Current Target Y Select Closest Target and Match Speed L Lock Target Enter Fire Missile Space Fire Gun -------------------------------------------------------- COCKPIT CONTROLS ----------------------------------------------------------------- A Autopilot S Bring up Shield Display C Bring up Communication Display D Bring up Damage Display P Bring up Power VDU/Change System [ Decrease Current System by 5% ] Increase Current System by 5% SHIFT-[ Set all systems equally SHIFT-] Max power to selected system CTRL-] Lock current system (toggle) 0 Cycle through VDUs (Video Display Units) ----------------------------------------------------------------- MISCELLANEOUS CONTROLS ---------------------------------------------------------- Alt-X Exit the Demo Alt-C Calibrate Joystick Ctrl-F Display Frame Rate Alt-2 VGA Mode Alt-4 SVGA Mode Alt-P Pause Spaceflight Ctrl-J Activate Joystick Controls Ctrl-K Activate Keyboard Controls Ctrl-M Activate Mouse Controls Ctrl-Left Arrow Make Demo Darker Ctrl-Right Arrow Make Demo Brighter Alt-O Options Screen ---------------------------------------------------------- JOYSTICK CONTROLS ----------------------------------------------------- Back Pitch Up Forward Pitch Down Left Yaw Left Right Yaw Right Button 0 Fire Gun Button 1 & Forward Increase Throttle Button 1 & Back Decrease Throttle Button 1 & Left Roll Left Button 1 & Right Roll Right Double Click Button 1 and Hold Afterburner Button 1 & Button 0 Fire Missile ----------------------------------------------------- KEYBOARD CONTROLS ----------------------------------------------------- Up Arrow Pitch Up Down Arrow Pitch Down Left Arrow Yaw Left Right Arrow Yaw Right > Roll Left < Roll Right Shift & Above Keys Doubles rate ----------------------------------------------------- MOUSE CONTROLS ----------------------------------------------------- Up Pitch Up Down Pitch Down Left Yaw Left Right Yaw Right Button 1 Fire Gun Button 2 & Forward Increase Throttle Button 2 & Back Decrease Throttle Button 2 & Left Roll Left Button 2 & Right Roll Right Double Click Button 2 and Hold Afterburner Button 1 & Button 2 Fire Missile ----------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [6.0] Troubleshooting If the game crashes inexplicably or there are sound and video glitches, it is probably the result of an invalid configuration. Try making a boot disk and start again. The problem may not reoccur. If it does, consult the troubleshooting section. You may have outdated CD- ROM device drivers or your hardware may have loose cables, bad SCSI termination or some other problem. If the CD-ROM appears undamaged, check your hardware and/or contact the manufacturer of your CD-ROM drive to obtain the latest software device drivers and/or hardware fixes. [6.1] General Info Here are some things to check : 1) Set up a BOOT DISK! :) 2) Make sure your VESA driver is current and up to date. Try "UNIVBE", or playing in VGA with "WC4DEMO -V". 3) Make sure you have a 100% compatible mouse driver. Attempt to REM out your mouse line and see if the problems persist. 4) You have a clean hard disk with at least 25MB of free space (50MB if you are using disk compression). 5) Check sound card settings and compatibility. Try disabling your sound card to see if that allows you to get into the game. 6) Make sure your CPU is 100% Intel compatible. 7) The MSCDEX driver can have unpredictable behavior. If it is loaded high OR if the /E parameter is used, its behavior generally becomes much worse. 8) SCANDISK and DEFRAG your hard drives regularly. Consult your DOS manual for instructions on using these utilities. [6.2] Questions and Answers Q : How do I run the install program to change my configuration? A : The Install Program can be re-run at any time by typing : WC4DEMO -I Q : Will I get any benefit from using a disk cache, such as SMARTDRIVE? A : If you have lower than 16 MB of RAM, it is recommended that you remove any disk caching software. The game doesn't need it and will, in fact, run slower with it. The disk cache also uses memory that may keep you from running the game. However, if you have more than 16 MB of RAM, you may want to allocate an amount over the first 16 MB to SMARTDRIVE, the disk caching software that comes with MS-DOS 5.0 and up. For SMARTDRV.EXE that comes with MS-DOS 6.20 and up, by default, SMARTDRIVE caches CD-ROM drives. You will want to disable this feature when playing Wing Commander IV. For example, if you have 24 MB of RAM and the letter of your CD-ROM drive is "D:", you may want to include the following line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file on the boot disk : C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE 4096 D- +--------------------------------------------------------+ | NOTE : Do NOT install the game with SMARTDRIVE loaded! | +--------------------------------------------------------+ Q : If I changed the savegame directory from "C:\WC4DEMO" to something else in the install program, why is there still a "C:\WC4DEMO" directory on my hard disk? A : Aside from the directory created by the install program for the Wing Commander IV save games and files copied to the hard drive from the CD, the directory "C:\WC4DEMO" is created to hold configuration information. The information contained in this directory (if not used for save games and game files) is less than 1 K (1,000 bytes). This directory must not be deleted or renamed. Wing Commander IV looks in this directory for information about the game. If it is not found, it assumes the game has not been installed and will re-run the installation program. Q : I keep getting the message "Critical error on file : ..\..\DATA\xx" (where xx is a "path\filename.ext"). What does this mean? A : This could mean that you have a bad CD, or an invalid configuration. If this error message occurs, Wing Commander IV CAN NOT read the disc. This may be due to outdated drivers, an incompatible setup, or a bad CD. Be sure to check the bottom surface of the CD to ensure that it is dust/dirt free. Q: Why do my movies start and stop? A: The movies pause because data cannot be transferred from the CD-ROM drive to our game at a sustained rate. The following may be attempted to help alleviate movie pausing : 1) Try a different movie playback setting. Small Window, Black and White, and Fast Decompression are options to allow you to view the movies if your machine is not fast enough to play them normally. For example, if you are using SVGA 16-bit full screen, and the movies are pausing, try SVGA 16-bit with Fast Decompression, 16-bit SVGA Small Window, 8-bit SVGA full screen, VGA, etc. until you find a combination that you are satisfied that has no pausing during playback. 1) Play the movies in VGA. There is roughly 4 times as much data in SVGA to display to the screen than in VGA. Run the installation with WC4DEMO -I and make sure Movie Video Mode is VGA. If none of this helps, you may with to copy the demo to your hard disk and run it from there. 2) Make sure your CD-ROM driver is up to date. You will need to contact your CD-ROM drive manufacturer to see if you have the latest version. You can check the list of problem CD-ROM drivers at the end of this file to see if your driver needs to be updated. 3) We test the speed of your machine and rate it according to the time it takes for certain actions to be completed (see README.TXT for more information). The benchmarks for your system are accurate. You must make sure you rate at least : 0-10 for CPU Speed. Lower score = Faster processor 0-4 for Video Card Speed. Lower score = Faster video card 300+ for CD-ROM drive transfer rate. Higher rate = Faster CD-ROM If you do not meet any of the above requirements, you probably will experience movie pausing, even in VGA. [6.3] Known Problems Error message : "VESA mode unavailable" Problem : You selected 16-bit SVGA in the install program, but your video card does not support 16-bit SVGA. Solution : If your card supports SVGA, you should be able to select 8-bit SVGA in its place. Error message : "Out of swapfile space" Problem : Wing IV's virtual memory swap file has become severely fragmented. Solution : Please delete the swapfile that was left behind (SWAPFILE.$$$), and run DEFRAG or a similar disk defragmentation utility to help remedy the problem. Error message : "malloc () failed; Requested xxx, Available xxx" Problem : The game has run out of memory. Solution : Make a floppy boot disk and the problem should go away. Error message : "Exception 13 happened :)" Problem : Wing Commander IV has detected a problem with its DOS extender and/or memory manager. Solution : Since the game is still in development, these occasionally occur. Usually, a boot disk will solve the problem. If it does not, there could be a hardware configuration issue that needs to be addressed. Check the Question and Answer section for ideas on how to correctly configure your system for Wing Commander IV. Error message : "Open failed on file : ..." Problem : Make sure the CD is dust/dirt free. Make a boot disk, and if you are running Windows 95, you may wish to reboot to DOS before running Wing Commander IV. [6.4] Problem CD-ROM drivers and their updates If you are experiencing problems with Wing Commander IV (crashes, movie pausing, etc.) make sure your CD-ROM driver is up to date. The following is a list of CD-ROM drivers we tested the game with and we know that work with the game and their locations. * NOTE : These may not be the latest CD-ROM drivers. You will need a driver of this version or later. + This is a location where you can find the driver. It is not the original source for the driver. Driver Name Driver Driver Filename Driver Location Version Date to DL - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ASPICD.SYS 3.13 6-10-94 N/A Adaptec BBS 408-945-7727 TECH 408-945-2550 + Creative Labs BBS 405-742-6660 TECH 405-742-6622 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - CDMKE.SYS 4.04 12-3-93 N/A + Reveal BBS 818-704-6321 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - DD260.SYS 1.42 MediaVision BBS 510-770-0968 TECH 510-252-4315 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - MTMCDAE.SYS 1.17 7-14-93 CDAE.EXE Mitsumi MTMCDAS.SYS 1.16 FX116.EXE BBS 415-691-4469 MTMCDAI.SYS 1.33 IDE133.EXE TECH 415-691-4465 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - SBCD.SYS 4.19 4-30-94 CD-DOS.EXE Creative BBS 405-742-6660 TECH 405-742-6622 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - SLCD.SYS 1.73a 173A.EXE Sony BBS 408-955-5107 SLCD173.EXE MediaVision BBS 510-770-0968 TECH 510-252-4315 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - TSLCDR.SYS 3.16 4-26-94 316.EXE MediaVision BBS 510-770-0968 TECH 510-252-4315 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [7.0] Windows 95 and OS/2 Compatibility Wing Commander IV is being developed to run in a DOS box in both Windows 95 and OS/2. The minimum memory requirement for Windows 95 is 8MB (recommended is 16MB) and the minimum memory requirement for OS/2 is 16MB. The Demo SHOULD work under both Windows and OS/2. Windows must be in Enhanced 386 Mode and OS/2 must have DPMI_ENABLED set in the DOS settings. It should have at least 8MB of DPMI_MEMORY set. If the Demo has problems under Windows or OS/2, worry not. The final release will have PIFs and Icons and complete information on how to make it work with both systems. With Windows 95, you should be able to run Wing Commander IV simply by placing the CD in the CD-ROM drive. Wing Commander IV supports Autoplay, and should run when you double-click the Wing Commander IV icon. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [8.0] Miscellaneous [8.1] Can I play the game from my hard drive? Sure! Simply copy the files in the Wing Commander IV demo directory to a directory on your hard drive, and run the game from that directory. Or you can use INST2HD.BAT to install the game to the C:\WC4DEMO directory for you. Ensure that you have 20 MB of hard disk space free. If you copy the game to drive C:, you must make the save game directory point to the directory you copied the files to. For example, you copied the game to "C:\GAMES\WC4DEMO\". In Wing Commander IV's install program, you must change the save game directory to "C:\GAMES\WC4DEMO\". If you copy the game to a hard drive that is not drive C:, this does not apply. [8.2] Can I change the time limit? WC4DEMO -Ln can be used to change the time limit. "n" can vary from 1 to 15 minutes. [8.3] What files accompany the Wing IV Demo? autorun.inf Win 95 Autoplay file bootdisk.exe Boot disk maker gameflow.tre Wing IV Data File globals.iff Wing IV Data File hmidrv.386 Wing IV Data File install.bat Batch file runs install install.tre Wing IV Data File inst2hd.bat Batch file copies game to the hard drive (C:) intsupx.iff Wing IV Data File jemm.ovl Wing IV Data File language.tre Wing IV Data File mcga.dll Wing IV Data File missions.tre Wing IV Data File movies.tre Wing IV Data File palfade.iff Wing IV Data File readme.txt This file setup.bat Batch file runs install test.iff Wing IV Data File test1.iff Wing IV Data File test2.iff Wing IV Data File test3.iff Wing IV Data File test4.iff Wing IV Data File test5.iff Wing IV Data File univbe.exe Universal VESA Driver vesa480.dll Wing IV Data File wc4.bat Batch file runs game wc4.cds Wing IV Data File wc4.dsk Wing IV Data File wc4.ico Wing IV Icon for Windows 95 wc4demo.exe Wing IV Demo wc4lang.iff Wing IV Data File ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [9.0] Origin Catalog CATALOG.EXE is a Windows program which allows you to preview some of the upcoming Origin Releases. To access it, run Windows, Choose Run from the Program Manager File Menu and type: [CD-ROM drive]:\CATALOG\CATALOG where [CD-ROM drive] is the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive. For example, if your CD-ROM Drive is Drive D you would type: D:\CATALOG\CATALOG ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [10.0] Origin Customer Service/Technical Support If you would like to contact Origin Technical Support, please call 512-434-HELP (4357) M-TH 9:00am to 1:00 pm, 2:00pm to 5:00 pm, F 9:00am to 1:00pm, 2:00pm to 4:30pm. Internet at support@origin.ea.com. Internet Web site http://www.ea.com/origin.html. Our BBS number is 512-346-2BBS (2227). AOL : Mail to ORIGINCS. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [11.0] Disclaimer Please remember that Wing Commander IV is still in development. We have not completed our optimizations or our debugging of the final product. Much of the game has not been completely polished. If the game crashes unexpectedly, please bear this in mind. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank You for checking out our Demo! We hope you enjoy it! We just want you to have fun... -ALS The Wing Commander IV Development Team. -END OF FILE-