Unprotect 6/Unprotect-6.0.iso/update/rave95/readme.txt

Text File | 1995-09-14 | 26.4 KB | 553 lines

Dear Customer,

    This archive contains the latest release of Jump Raven,
designed to run on Windows 3.1, Windows 95, and Window NT 3.51.
Thank you for your patience; we apologize for any frustration
our Window 95 compatibility problems may have caused you.

    To install this patch, copy the file RAVEN.EXE in this
archive over the file RAVEN.EXE in the directory in which you
installed Raven.  You can use either the Windows File Manager or
Explorer to do this, or you can copy the file from the DOS command
line.

    If you are installing this patch on Windows 3.1, you need to
upgrade your system with the latest version of Microsoft's 32-bit
Windows extensions, Win32s.  This patch requires version 1.25a or
later.  You will also need to install WinG, Microsoft's video
accelerator for Windows 3.1.  These are available from the
Cyberflix FTP site.

    If you are using Windows 95 or Windows NT 3.51, you don't need
to install any additional system components.

    This is a major revision, incorporating approximately thirteen
thousand line of new source code and a complete reorganization of
the project architecture.  While the code is extremely stable,
there are several known problems and troubleshooting hints you
should be aware of.  See the sections "Known Problems" and
"Troubleshooting" below for more information.

    If you have any problems with this upgrade, or any comments
you'd like us to hear, we'd like you to contact us.  Please see
the section "Technical Support" below for more information on
contacting Cyberflix.


                        Thank you, and have fun!

                                Ian McLean
                                Portability Lead
                                Cyberflix, Inc.


========== TECHNICAL SUPPORT ========================================

Cyberflix provides technical support via telephone, fax, America
Online, and the Internet.

Telephone:
    The Cyberflix Help Line is [phone].  Customer support
    technicians are available from noon to 5 PM Eastern time to
    assist you with any problems you may have.  We also have an
    automated help service available day and night at the same
    number.

Fax:
    You may fax your questions to us at [phone].  We will
    respond to faxes promptly via voice telephone or return fax.

America Online:
    Technical support questions can be sent via email to
    CYBERFLIX.

Snail-mail:
    If youÆd like to send us a letter, our mailing address is:
        Cyberflix, Inc.
        4 Market Square
        Knoxville, TN 37902

We also provide three forms of technical support on the Internet:

World Wide Web:
    The Cyberflix Web server is www.cyberflix.com, and is available
    via the following URL:  http://www.cyberflix.com

Email:
    You can email your technical support questions to
    [e-mail].

FTP:
    Patches and updates for Cyberflix products are available from
    our FTP site, ftp.cyberflix.com.


========== ADDITIONAL KEYBOARD COMMANDS =============================

While playing Raven, you can use the following keys in addition
to those described in the online help:

Esc                 Skips the current animation, or stops talking
                    to the current character
Ctrl+F1 / Ctrl+F2   Increase/decrease the brightness of the screen
Ctrl+F3 / Ctrl+F4   Increase/decrease the redness of the screen
Ctrl+F5 / Ctrl+F6   Increase/decrease the greenness of the screen
Ctrl+F7 / Ctrl+F8   Increase/decrease the blueness of the screen
Ctrl+F9             Restores the screen to its default settings


========== KNOWN PROBLEMS ===========================================

-  Text sometimes doesn't appear at the correct vertical location,
   in can be one or two pixels too low.
-  If a screen saver or other program takes input focus, it can be
   difficult to regain.  Use Alt+Tab to switch back to Raven.
-  In 16 or 24 bit color mode, fragments of previous screens are
   sometimes visible during transitions.
-  When many sounds are playing at once, the game can slow down.


========== UPGRADING WINDOWS 3.1 ====================================

If you're running Windows 3.1, you need to install Microsoft's 32-
bit extensions, Win32s, and Microsoft's graphics accelerator, WinG.
These extensions are used by many other recent applications, and are
a shared system resource.

Since Windows 3.1 was not originally designed to run 32-bit
applications, some existing video and sound card drivers are
incompatible with Win32s or WinG.  To ensure that Raven runs
smoothly on your machine, you should make sure that you are using
the most recent drivers available.

If you are using Windows 3.1, you should also be sure that you are
loading SHARE.EXE in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.  SHARE is a resident
program that allows shared access to files on your hard drive and
CDs.  Make sure that the following line is in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file:

    C:\DOS\SHARE.EXE

Also verify that you aren't loading the CD-ROM driver MSCDEX.EXE
into high DOS memory.  MSCDEX is designed to be loaded in low memory
only.  If either of the lines:

    LH MSCDEX.EXE [...]
or
    LOADHIGH MSCDEX.EXE [...]

appear in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, edit to remove the "LH" or
"LOADHIGH" keyword.

It's important that you have virtual memory set up correctly to run
Win32s.  Please do the following:

1.  Double-click on the Control Panel icon in the Main Program
    Manager group to open the Control Panel , then double-click
    on the "Enhanced" icon.
2.  Select "Virtual Memory..." and verify than you have a
    permanent swap file that is at least 8192 KB.  If necessary,
    select "Change" to change your swap file settings.
3.  If possible, enable 32-bit disk and file access.  This will
    improve the performance of  your hard drive and CD-ROM under
    Windows.

If you have any problems with Win32s, please see the first question
in the "Troubleshooting - Windows 3.1" section.


========== TROUBLESHOOTING - GENERAL ================================

The following general question and problems apply no matter what
version of Windows you're running.  For specific problems, see the
sections "Troubleshooting - Windows 95", "Troubleshooting - Windows
3.1", and "Troubleshooting - Windows NT" below.

My screen is too dark
---------------------
You can adjust the brightness of your screen when playing Raven by
pressing Ctrl+F1 to brighten and Ctrl+F2 to darken.  If the colors
in Raven seem slightly wrong, you can change the color balance by
using Ctrl+F3/Ctrl+F4 to adjust the red, Ctrl+F5/Ctrl+F6 to adjust
the green, and Ctrl+F7/Ctrl+F8 to adjust the blue.  If you want to
reset the color balance to the default setting, press Ctrl+F9.

Raven is too quiet / too loud
-----------------------------
When playing, you can press Ctrl+0 through Ctrl+7 to adjust the
sound volume.  Ctrl+0 turns the sound off, and Ctrl+7 turns the
volume up all the way.

Certain older sound cards, notably the original Sound Blaster,
don't support changing the sound volume from software.  If you own
one of these cards, you'll have to manually adjust the volume on
your speakers or at the back of your computer.

Raven runs slowly
-----------------
There are several thing you can do to speed up Raven.  First, make
sure your display is running in 256 color mode.  If it is running in
16 or 24 bit color mode, Raven may run slowly.  Also, make sure
that you don't have any other applications running when you're
playing Raven.  Closing them can free up memory and allow Raven
to run faster.  Finally, see the question "My CD-ROM drive runs
slowly" in the "Troubleshooting - Windows 95" or "Troubleshooting -
Windows 3.1" sections below.

Raven says I need to change my display settings
-----------------------------------------------
We recommend you do.  Raven is designed to run at 640x480
resolution with 256 colors.  If your screen size is larger than
800x600, Raven will appear small on your monitor.  If you are
using 16-bit color (also known as 64k color or high color mode),
the colors in Raven will not look as nice as in 256 color mode.
Strange as it may sound, 256 color mode actually allows cleaner and
more lifelike colors than 16-bit color.  Also, if you are using 16
or 24 bit color modes, Raven will run slightly slower on your
machine.  If you have an accelerated video card, the slowdown might
not be very bad, but on some machines it can make Raven almost
unplayable.

If you are using Windows 95, Raven can change your screen
resolution automatically, and restore it when you're finished
playing.  Under Windows 95 and Windows NT, Raven can also change
the number of colors that Windows uses, but it will have to restart
your computer for changes to take effect, and you'll have to change
the settings back by yourself.  If you're using Windows 3.1, you'll
have to change your display settings manually.  See the question "I
need to change my display settings" in the section "Troubleshooting
Windows 3.1" below for more information.

I hear clicks or pops whenever a new sound starts playing
---------------------------------------------------------
This is due to a badly-designed sound card or sound card driver.
Certain sound cards, notably the NEC-98 and early models of the
Sound Blaster 2.0, produce a noticeable click or pause when
resetting the sound DAC.  If you have one of these cards, the
problem is unavoidable. This problem can also be caused by outdated
sound drivers.  Make sure that you are using the latest version of
sound drivers for your card.

The sound occasionally pauses for a second when I'm playing, then
starts again
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This can be caused by several things.  First, you might have an
outdated sound driver.  Make sure you are using the latest version of
the sound drivers available for your card.  Second, you might have a
CD-ROM drive with a slow seek rate.  Certain older drives,
especially single-speed drives, pause the entire system for up to a
second while looking for data on the CD.  This can cause the sound
to drop out.  Third, you might have a slow video card.  If you are
running Raven in 16 or 24 bit color mode, try changing to 256
color mode.  Also, make sure you are using the latest video drivers
for your computer.

I keep getting read errors; it says to check my disc for scratches
------------------------------------------------------------------
If you are using Windows 3.1, this could be caused by not having
SHARE.EXE loaded, or having MSCDEX.EXE loaded into high DOS memory.
See the section "Upgrading Windows 3.1" above for more information.
If that's not the problem, check your CD for dirt or scratches.
You can clean your CD with warm, soapy water and a clean, lint-free
cloth.  When wiping a CD, always wipe from the center to the
outside edge, like spokes on a wheel - small scratches in this
direction will not damage your CD.  If cleaning your CD doesn't
help, you most likely have a defective disc.  Try running Raven
on another machine if possible to verify this.  If you do have a
bad disc, you can return Raven to the store you purchased it
from for a replacement, or you can return the disc to Cyberflix
and we'll be happy to send you a replacement.  See the section
"Technical Support" above for more information on contacting
Cyberflix.

I can't get Raven to work under OS/2
------------------------------------
Raven requires Win32s version 1.25a and WinG version 1.0 to
operate.  At the time we released Raven, OS/2 only had support for
Win32s 1.15.  If IBM chooses to upgrade their Win32s support, Raven
may run under OS/2, but it hasn't been tested on that operating
system.


========== TROUBLESHOOTING - WINDOWS 95 =============================

Raven accesses the hard drive a lot and runs slowly
---------------------------------------------------
First, make sure that you close any other applications before playing
Raven.  This will make more of your computer's memory available to
the game.  Also, make sure that you have at least 16 megs of free
space on the drive that is being accessed.  This will increase the
amount of virtual memory that is available, which will help decrease
swapping.

Raven crashes in different places and at different times
--------------------------------------------------------
First, make sure that Windows 95 has at least 16 megs of free hard
drive space on the drive it uses for virtual memory.  If this doesn't
help, the problem is most likely your audio, video, or CD-ROM
drivers.  Make sure that you are using drivers that were designed for
Windows 95.  If your drivers are current and you're still having
problems, please contact Cyberflix technical support for assistance.
See the section "Technical Support" above for more information.

My CD-ROM drive runs slowly
---------------------------
There are two things you can check to make sure that Windows 95 is
configured for optimal CD performance.

First, check to make sure that Windows isn't using real-mode CD-ROM
drivers.  This can drastically reduce the speed of your CD-ROM drive.
To check this, look in Start / Settings / Control Panel / System /
Performance.  It should say "Your system is configured for optimal
performance".  If you are warned that you're using real-mode CD-ROM
drivers, you should remove the appropriate DEVICE= lines from your
CONFIG.SYS file and the MSCDEX line from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.  Be
careful, though, as this can cause your CD-ROM drive to be
inaccessible from MS-DOS!  See your Windows 95 manual for more
information.

Second, check to see that CD-ROM caching is enabled and correctly set
up.  Look in Start / Settings / Control Panel / System / Performance /
File System / CD-ROM.  Your cache size should be "large" and the
access pattern should be set to the correct speed for your CD-ROM
drive.

Raven moves the icons on my desktop when I exit
-----------------------------------------------
This is a flaw in Windows 95.  When Raven changes your display
resolution, Windows decides to move any icons that would be hidden
so you can still access them.  When you switch away from or quit
Raven, and your display resolution is restored, Windows doesn't
always put these icons back in their correct location.

Raven leaves an icon on my taskbar when I exit
----------------------------------------------
This is a known problem when Raven is running under Windows 95.
It's harmless - just click on the icon and it will disappear.

Does Raven support DirectDraw and DirectSound?
----------------------------------------------
Microsoft did not deliver a final specification for the DirectSound
API in time for our shipping deadline, and DirectSound support was
removed from this upgrade of Raven.  We will support DirectDraw and
DirectSound, since we believe they are the future of Windows graphics
and sound.  Look for an updated runtime engine for Raven that uses
DirectDraw and DirectSound to be available in early 1996.


========== TROUBLESHOOTING - WINDOWS 3.1 ============================

I get error messages from W32SXXXX / WIN32S16.DLL / WINMM16.DLL
---------------------------------------------------------------
These errors are caused by a problem or conflict in Microsoft's 32-
bit Windows extensions, Win32s, or Microsoft's graphics accelerator,
WinG.  See the section above "Upgrading Windows 3.1" for information
on these components and some common problems and solutions.  If that
doesn't help, perhaps one of these specific problems from Microsoft's
Knowledge Base applies to your machine:

- 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. Be aware.
- Early ATI Mach 32 PCI cards have a hardware timing problem and will
hang while blting.  ATI will replace these cards for no cost.
- WinG is incompatible with the #9GXE "TurboCopy" mode.  Use the #9
control panel to disable TurboCopy (it is off by default).
- 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.
- If you are having video problems, check to see if you have an S3
video card. Certain S3 drivers which exhibit these problems can be
made to work with Win32s by making the following edit to your
SYSTEM.INI file before running any Win32-based applications.  In the
SYSTEM.INI file, you will find an entry in the [display] section
"aperture-base=100".  Change this entry to "aperture-base=0".
Restart Windows and the display problems will no longer occur.  If
this does not help, obtain the latest S3 drivers. It is reported
that S3 driver version 1.3 does not have this problem.
- Make sure that the following line is in your SYSTEM.INI file:
"device=*vmcpd".
- If you have a printer driver by LaserMaster, delete it or comment
it out because it interferes with installing Win32s. Then reboot the
computer so that the changes you made will take effect. After you
successfully reinstall Win32s, reinstall the driver or remove the
comment characters.  The driver interferes with installing Win32s
because the LaserMaster drivers create a WINSPOOL device.  The
extension is ignored when the filename portion of a path matches a
device name. As a result, when Setup tries to write to WINSPOOL.DRV,
it fails, because it attempts to write to WINSPOOL. In fact, any
Win32-based application that tries to link to WINSPOOL.DRV also
fails; however, most Win32-based applications that print under
Win32s do not use the WINSPOOL application programming interfaces
(APIs) because they are not supported in Win32s. As a result, you
can usually just disable this driver while installing Win32s and
then reenable it afterwards.

If you're still having problems, please contact Cyberflix technical
support for the latest troubleshooting hints and advice from our
technical support staff.  See the section "Technical Support" above
for more information.

Raven says that Win32s isn't installed correctly / Raven tells
me it can't find a file
--------------------------------------------------------------
If you're using Windows 3.1, this is probably caused by not having
SHARE.EXE loaded in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.  Check your AUTOEXEC.BAT
file for the following line and add it if necessary:

C:\DOS\SHARE.EXE

If you had SHARE loaded or the problem persists, see the section
"Upgrading Windows 3.1" above and make sure your Windows is upgraded
correctly, or see the troubleshooting guidelines for Win32s in the
question directly above this.

The "file not found" problem can also be caused by CD-ROM read
errors.  If you're experiencing those also, see the question "I keep
getting read errors; it says to check my disc for scratches" in the
"Troubleshooting - General" section above.

Raven has graphics problems or has problems profiling my display
----------------------------------------------------------------
This is most likely caused by a conflict between your video driver
and Microsoft's graphics accelerator, WinG.  First, make sure you are
using the latest version of video drivers for your card.  If that
doesn't help, check the following specific cases:

- 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.
- The ATI VGA Wonder drivers (W31-*.drv) will crash during a call
to StretchDIBits in the profiler.  Users can run the SVGA256.DRV
driver that shipped with Windows.
- Many miro 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 for no cost.
- WinG is incompatible with the #9GXE "TurboCopy" mode.  Use the #9
control panel to disable TurboCopy (it is off by default).
- 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.

If none of these cases apply, you might be able to work around the
problem by using the generic Super VGA drivers that come with
Windows.  See the question "I need to change my display settings"
below for more information on installing new drivers.

If you're still having problems, please contact Cyberflix technical
support for the latest troubleshooting hints and advice from our
technical support staff.  See the section "Technical Support" above
for more information.

My CD-ROM drive runs slowly
---------------------------
If Raven is running slowly there are a few things you can do that
might increase performance.

Check in your AUTOEXEC.BAT to make sure that MSCDEX.EXE isn't being
loaded into high DOS memory.  If you see either the "LH" or
"LOADHIGH" keywords at the beginning of your MSCDEX.EXE line, remove
them.  Also check in your CONFIG.SYS file and find where your CD-ROM
device driver is being loaded.  If the line starts with "DEVICEHIGH=",
change that to "DEVICE=".

Check in your AUTOEXEC.BAT to make sure that you are loading
SMARTDRV.EXE, and be sure that it is being loaded after MSCDEX.EXE.
This will allow caching of your CD-ROM drive.  Refer to your DOS
manual for information on adding SMARTDRV if you don't have it
installed.

In Windows, open the Control Panel by double-clicking on the Control
Panel icon in the Main Program Manager Group.  Then open the
"Enhanced" icon and check to be sure that you are using 32-bit disk
and file access.  If you aren't, click "Change" and enable them if
possible.

I need to change my display settings
------------------------------------
Before you change your display settings, make sure that you have your
original Windows disks on hand.  The Windows setup program may ask
you for them.  If Windows doesn't have built-in support for your
video card, and you are changing to a video mode you haven't used
before, you must make sure that you have a floppy disk with the
appropriate Windows display drivers for your video card, or have
display drivers in a directory on your hard drive.  If you don't have
display drivers for your video card, try using the "SVGA 640x480 256
color" driver that's built into Windows, or contact your video card
manufacturer for drivers.  If you have drivers, be sure that there's
a file called OEMSETUP.INF on the floppy or in the directory, or this
procedure won't work.  If you don't have an OEMSETUP file, you
probably have to run a custom setup program for your video card to
change settings; see your video card manual for more information.
Otherwise, follow these instructions:

1. Exit Windows to get a DOS prompt.  This procedure won't work from
a DOS shell inside Windows.
2. Change to your Windows directory and run the Windows setup program
by typing:
        CD \WINDOWS
        SETUP
3. Press the up arrow key until the line "Display" is highlighted,
then press enter.
4. Use the up and down arrow keys to scroll though the list of
display modes.  If the one you want is listed, press enter and
proceed to step 7.  Otherwise, highlight "Other" at the end of the
list and press enter.
5. If you have drivers on a floppy disk, insert that disk in your
floppy drive and press enter.  If the drivers are on your hard drive,
enter the directory path to them in the dialog box then press enter.
6. Use the up and down arrow keys to scroll though the list of
display modes until the one you want is highlighted.  Press enter to
select it.
7. Windows will begin copying files to your Windows directory and
installing the drivers.  You may be prompted to insert your original
Windows disks; do so as necessary.
8. When copying is complete, press enter to exit back to DOS.

When you restart Windows, your new display settings will take effect.
If you have problems, see your video card manual for troubleshooting
advice.  If that doesn't help, contact your video card manufacturer
for assistance.  Cyberflix will be happy to do what we can to help
also; see the section "Technical Support" for information on
contacting us.


========== TROUBLESHOOTING - WINDOWS NT =============================

Raven says I need to install WinG
---------------------------------
If you get this message, you're trying to run Raven under Windows
NT version 3.5.  Raven is designed to run under Windows NT version
3.51 and later.  Version 3.51 fixes many problems with Windows NT,
it's recommended that you upgrade if you're still using 3.5.

Raven changed my display settings, but didn't restart my computer
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Because Windows NT is a secure operating system, it doesn't allow
programs to restart the machine without gaining security access to do
so.  Raven isn't always able to do this, and thus can't restart
your machine.  You'll have to restart manually, at which time the new
display settings will take effect.


========== END OF RELEASE NOTES =====================================