Ascaron Software presents
                                  
                            Extreme 500 

                     (c) Ascaron Software 1999


This file contains important information in addition to the manual.

System requirements
-------------------
Minimum:
P166, 16 MB, 4X CD-ROM, Windows 95
3DFX or other fast 3D-accelerator-card (Direct3D, 4 MB RAM)

Recommended:
P2-233, 32MB, 4X CD-ROM, Windows 98, DirectX6, Joystick
3DFX or other fast 3D-accelerator-card (D3D Ver.6, 4 MB RAM)

Extreme 500 was optimized for usage with newest Voodoo-Drivers
and Direct3D Ver. 6.

Voodoo and Voodoo2
------------------
If problems occur while using your installed drivers, please look out
for the newest drivers of your card manufacturer.
If you can't get them or if they don't help, you may also use the 3DFX
reference drivers which can be downloaded from the 3DFX-webpage
(http://www.3dfx.com/download/download.html).
These drivers (but maybe older than the ones on the webpage) can also
be found on this CD in the 3DFX-directory (for Voodoo and Voodoo2;
Voodoo Rush users should refer to the webpage).

Direct3D
--------
DirectX6 (includes D3D) can be installed during installation of Extreme 500 (recommended!). Please note, that your graphic driver should
then be compatible with Direct3D Ver.6. If you use older (not optimized
for D3D6) drivers, you may encounter performance losses.

Graphic card set-up
-------------------
Please launch Extreme500Setup.exe before starting the game.
User of 3DFX-cards should always use the "3DFX-Glide"-setting.
The recommended resolution is 640x480 (4MB needed) or higher.
Please note: if you use a higher resolution than supported by your
graphics device, the game (after starting a race) might crash or show
texture mistakes. 

Performance optimization
------------------------
If the graphics are not fluid enough during a race, you have several
possibilities to increase the frame-rate:
- Resolution: reduce the resolution in the "Extreme500Setup.exe".
- Sound: set the sampling rate to 11025Hz and deactivate "Interolated" 
- Visibility: reduce the visibility in the options menu (important when
  using the D3D-mode)
- Don't play in windowed mode
- reduce the number of opponents and start from the pols position

Important notes for network-mode
--------------------------------
In network-mode, up to 3 players can compete per CD. Those who want to
play without CD, must install the normal version of Extreme 500
and start the network-client version "Extreme500Client.exe" (when using this
version, the CD must not be inserted in the CD-ROM drive, but you can
only join a session with this version). The server must have the CD !

Extreme 500 uses the TCP/IP-protocol for network-games. Please
note that an IP-adress is required. If you don't have one, you can use
an adress like "192.168.XXX.YYY" (where XXX and YYY stand for a number
between 000-255) and the subnet mask "255.255.255.0".

Features not mentioned in the manual
------------------------------------
- Rear-view: during a race you can switch to the rear view using button4
  or "Space" (standard)
- Show names: during a network game, the names of other the other players
  can be showed by pressing F8