Power Game Busters 3/PGB3.ISO/towers/towers.txt

Text File | 1994-07-18 | 28KB | 516 lines

           ░░▒▒▓▓██ MYSTIC TOWERS ON-DISK TECHNICAL SUPPORT ██▓▓▒▒░░

                             A Game by Animation FX
                      Distributed by Apogee Software Ltd.
        P.O. Box 496389 ■ Garland, TX 75049 ■ Hints line: [phone]


                              ===================
                              SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
                              ===================

■ Mystic Towers requires a 286 computer with 500k of free conventional memory
  (however 550k of conventional memory is recommended).  Mystic Towers will
  also use EMS if you have it, but it is not a requirement.   The Sound Blaster
  and Sound Blaster Pro sound cards are optionally supported.


                            ========================
                            BEFORE RUNNING THIS GAME
                            ========================

■ This game is not designed to be run under MicroSoft Windows.  Windows takes
  up far too many system resources that our programs require for efficient and
  proper operation.  When running this program, DO NOT LAUNCH FROM WINDOWS.
  Run it directly from DOS.  If you are in the Windows environment, quit
  Windows and then run the program.  (NOTE: Using the MS/DOS Icon does not exit
  you from Windows.  That is a shell from Windows. You need to completely close
  down the Program Manager to totally exit from Windows.  To test this, type
  the word exit.  If nothing happens, then you're at the DOS prompt.  If you
  return to Windows, then you were only shelled.)

■ Any kind of menu program such as Dos Shell will most likely cause problems.
  We recommend running our programs completely from the DOS prompt.  To test
  this, enter the word "exit".  If nothing at all happens, then you are
  completely at the dos prompt, and not "shelled" from anything else.  If you
  type exit, and return to another program (such as Windows or the MS/DOS
  Shell), then you need to completely exit the program that you returned to
  before attempting to run Mystic Towers.


                          ===========================
                          MYSTIC TOWERS DETAILED HELP
                          ===========================

■ Mystic Towers requires a Sound Blaster or Sound Blaster Pro sound card.  It
  also requires that your IRQ not be higher than 7.  If your Sound Blaster or
  compatible has an IRQ higher than 7, you will need to change it to 7, 5, or
  2 in order to run. This game also supports IRQ3, but that is not recommended,
  since IRQ3 is usually the IRQ associated with a Com Port 2.  Mystic Towers
  also supports DMA channels of 1, 2, 3, & 5.

■ If you are playing with a Sound Blaster 16 ASP sound card, you may have
  sound dropouts after playing for an extended period.  This is due to the
  fact that a great many interrupt calls are being made to the card.  The only
  possible solution to the situation would be to select a different sound
  setting in Mystic Towers (see the section on command line parameters for more
  detail).  By default, Mystic Towers uses the HISOUND setting.  You may try
  setting it to the LOSOUND setting; this may help the situation somewhat.

  Note: This problem also surfaced in an older game of Apogee's called
        Halloween Harry, however, Mystic Towers has a more recent version of
        the sound code used in Harry.

■ If you hear static when you are playing with a Sound Blaster or compatible
  card, make sure to turn the MIC and LINE volumes to zero.  Your card may be
  seeing input from these, and it would cause static.  (For a Sound Blaster
  Pro, this program is SBP-SET; see your card's manual for precise instructions
  on how to do this.)  If you still continue to hear static after doing this,
  try disconnecting any parallel port devices.  IRQ5 and IRQ7, which are used
  by sound cards, are often frequently used by printers as well.  If you have
  both plugged in, it may cause static, and poor sound performance.

■ If you are using a Sound Blaster clone card, or a card that emulates the
  Sound Blaster (the GUS, or the PAS16 for example), you will most likely have
  to use the LOSOUND setting.  You can try the HISOUND first (default), but if
  you experience strangeness with your sound, or get a "lawnmower" effect when
  the theme song hits one particular note, use the LOSOUND setting.  The music
  and sounds are the same in the HISOUND and the LOSOUND settings; the
  difference between the two are the way in which the sound is played.

■ If you play the game an experience lockups, try running the game with the
  HONKER command line parameter.  (See section on command line parameters for
  assistance)  Both the sound and music in this game are digital.  If the game
  plays fine with the HONKER command line parameter, it most likely means you
  have some sort of DMA conflict within your computer.  If this is the case,
  try changing the DMA channel and/or the IRQ channel on your sound card, and
  then reflect said change in the SET BLASTER line in your autoexec.bat file.
  Run the game again normally, and you should not have the problem anymore.  If
  it persists, you will have to try different IRQ/DMA combinations until it
  works properly.  Please see the section on "SET BLASTER" for more help on
  properly setting the SET BLASTER line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.

■ If you notice the game running slowly on your system, try disabling your disk
  cache.  Mystic Towers does its own internal caching, and sometimes external
  caches such as SmartDrive can get in the way, and slow things down.

■ If you are playing with a joystick, and your performance seems erratic, make
  sure to calibrate the joystick when you start the game.  If you're playing
  with a joystick, go the "Game Options" screen, and press enter on the
  "Joystick On" screen.  You will be asked to center your joystick and press
  fire.  Do so, and you should be OK.

  If you continue to have problems, try calibrating your joystick with the
  turbo button on your computer OFF.  Some faster speed machines have
  difficulty with joystick calibration routines, and they are more reliable if
  you slow your machine down for the calibration.  Once calibrated, you can
  then speed your machine up again.

■ If you have a Gravis GamePad, and your controller is acting as if some of the
  buttons aren't being pressed, it's may be because you have your GamePad
  incorrectly set.

  If you're playing with the buttons on the right side, the switch on the top
  needs to be pushed to the left, and the switch on the bottom needs to be
  pushed to the right.  If you're playing with the buttons on the left side,
  then the switch on the top needs to be pushed to the right, and the button on
  the bottom needs to be pushed towards the left.  Please see figure 3 in your
  Gravis GamePad manual for more information, and some visual instructions on
  how to do this.  Also, you should make sure that the controller card you have
  is capable of supporting a joystick with more than 2 buttons.  The Gravis
  GamePad is technically a joystick, and not all joystick controllers can
  handle the input that the GamePad is giving the controller.  Check the manual
  for whatever card you're plugging the GamePad into to make sure that it can
  handle more than 2 buttons of input.


                     =====================================
                     MYSTIC TOWERS COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS
                     =====================================

■ There are a few command line parameters you can try to use to help other
  things that might turn up when playing the game.  A command line parameter
  is something that you type on the command line after the name of the program
  you're running.  The LOSOUND switch will be used as an example.  To use
  that one, you would need to start the game like this...

  TOWERS LOSOUND

  The command line parameters for Mystic Towers are stackable, which means
  that you can use more than one at a time, if you need to.  An example of
  a stacked set of command line parameters would look like this...

  TOWERS LOSOUND NOCFG

  Here is a list of the common command line parameters you can use with
  Mystic Towers, and what they are used for.

  MUTE       » This forces the game into "silent" mode.  PC Speaker will be
               turned off, and there will be no checks for a Sound Blaster
               sound card.

  HONKER     » This forces the game into "PC Speaker" mode.  This will disable
               checking for a Sound Blaster card.

  SB         » This forces the game to use it's Sound Blaster sound routines.

  HISOUND    » This forces the game to use it's "high quality" sound routines.

  LOSOUND    » This forces the game to use it's "low quality" sound routines.
               While this may sound like you're getting bad sound, you are not.
               The sounds produced by the HISOUND and LOSOUND parameters are
               the same.  The only difference is internal to the program; it's
               how the sounds are delivered from the game to the sound card
               that are different.

  NOCFG      » This forces the game to ignore your configuration file, and will
               reexamine your system as if you were playing for the first time.
               You can also delete your configuration file (TOWERS.CFG), and it
               will be the same as if you used this parameter.

  ?          » This brings up a listing of all the command line parameters
               available to you on the screen.


                  ===========================================
                  HOW TO GET MYSTIC TOWERS RUNNING UNDER OS/2
                  ===========================================

Apogee recommends running this game under DOS only.  However, we have managed
to get the game running under our OS/2 v2.1 test machine, and these settings
should work for you.  Create a program reference object and make the following
changes to the default settings:

DOS_BACKGROUND_EXECUTION=OFF
DOS_HIGH=ON
DOS_UMB=ON
DPMI_DOS_API=Disabled
DPMI_MEMORY_LIMIT=0
EMS_MEMORY_LIMIT=0
HW_TIMER=ON
IDLE_SECONDS=60
IDLE_SENSITIVITY=100
INT_DURING_IO=ON
KBD_BUFFER_EXTEND=OFF
MOUSE_EXCLUSIVE_ACCESS=ON
VIDEO_8514A_XGA_IOTRAP=OFF
VIDEO_ONDEMAND_MEMORY=OFF
VIDEO_RETRACE_EMULATION=OFF
VIDEO_ROM_EMULATION=OFF
XMS_MEMORY_LIMIT=64

Within the game, you may need to select the DIGITAL-LO Sound Option from
the System Config menu in order to obtain the best sound and music quality.
Try it both ways (DIGITAL-LO or DIGITAL-HI) and see which you like best.

These settings are not officially supported by Apogee. Your mileage may vary.


                      ====================================
                      HOW DO I MAKE MORE MEMORY AVAILABLE?
                      ====================================

If Mystic Towers returns a message that says you do not have enough memory to
run the game, or the program behaves erratically when it is executed, you
will need to make more conventional memory available.

We get a lot of questions like "I have 8 meg of memory, what do you mean I need
more memory?" If this sounds like a question you might ask, then read the
section called "The 640k barrier".

There are virtually millions of ways a config.sys file can be arranged to
provide memory, and you'd be reading this document forever if we tried to
explain them all, so we'll just give you one simple example that will work.
It is a simple setup, and will provide you with enough memory in order to
run the game.  Furthermore, there are also several versions of DOS out there.
We will provide examples that use MS/DOS commands.  If your version of DOS is
not MS/DOS, you would need to use the appropriate substitute commands for the
MS/DOS counterparts.  If you are unfamiliar with editing your configuration
files, or are uneasy about it, get a friend of yours that is familiar with the
procedure to help, or check your DOS manual on how to use the Text (ASCII)
editor that comes with your version of DOS.

SAMPLE CONFIG.SYS
-----------------
DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM
DOS=HIGH,UMB
FILES=30
BUFFERS=30
STACKS=9,256
FCBS=16,0
DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\DRVSPACE.SYS /MOVE

The last line should only be used if you're using MS/DOS's DriveSpace utility.
(That would also most likely be the place you have a Stacker, SuperStor, or
other some disk compression driver).  Other things that would go in here would
be sound drivers (SoundBlaster 16, Pro Audio Spectrum 16, etc..).

SAMPLE AUTOEXEC.BAT
-------------------
@echo off
SET BLASTER=A220 Ix Dy Tz
C:\MOUSE\MOUSE
cls

You would only put the mouse line in there if you use the mouse to play the
game, and you would only use the SET BLASTER line if you are playing with a
sound card.  Mystic Towers uses the BLASTER variable to determine where to send
it's sound output.

If you do find that you need some sort of modified config.sys and autoexec.bat
files in order to run this game, you might wish to explore what is about to be
said.  Later revisions of DOS (MS/DOS 6.x+, and DR-DOS 6+) have built into them
the capabilities of "Multiple Boot Configurations".  If you are familiar with
these procedures, it will be a snap to do.  If you are unfamiliar, you need to
consult your DOS manual.  The process varies greatly from computer to computer
depending on how you have your system set up, so this will not be explained
here.  However, the time spent learning this procedure from your DOS manual
will benefit you greatly elsewhere, in addition to this game.  When you do set
up a separate configuration, use what is listed above for the config.sys and
autoexec.bat commands in this new boot configuration.  This will work for this
game, and for most other Apogee titles as well.

This document does not pretend to be your DOS manual, but it does give you a
basic explanation as to why you may not have enough memory in order to run a
program of ours.  If you are still having trouble getting this program to run
after attempting the steps outlined above, you need to consult your DOS manual
on "How to make more conventional memory" available.  Your DOS manual has far
more exhaustive examples on how to do this than we could possibly document
here.  Apogee Technical Support is unable to assist beyond what is documented
here.  If you are still having trouble getting the program to run, it is not a
fault of our game, it is a limitation of DOS.  Please check your DOS manual, or
call MicroSoft's Technical Support Department.


                                ================
                                THE 640K BARRIER
                                ================

This section isn't actually needed in order to get our programs running.  What
is contained in here is for the most part background information to better
assist our customers in understanding why they need to make more conventional
memory available.

When MicroSoft first made DOS 1.0, 640 kilobytes (KB) was set aside as the
highest amount of memory that a computer could have.  The 640KB of memory is
what is called "conventional memory".  To maintain compatibility with older
versions, this was never changed.  Advances in memory management have made
access to memory beyond 640KB, but this memory can only hold data; the program
actually has to run in the first 640KB.  This first 640k is called
"Conventional Memory".

Here is a brief discussion of the different types of memory available on your
computer.  The most important one is Conventional memory.

  ■ CONVENTIONAL MEMORY starts at 0k and normally ends at 640k.  (The cases
    where this is not the case are EXTREMELY rare)  If you are not using some
    sort of memory manager (such as DOS's EMM386, Quarterdeck's QEMM, or
    Qualitas' 386MAX), this is the only type of memory you have.  Conventional
    memory is used by DOS as well as device drivers and TSR's (Terminate and
    Stay Resident Programs).  A TSR is a program that is loaded into your
    computer's memory (usually from the CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT files) and
    stays there.  Most programs remove themselves from memory after execution,
    a TSR does not. Device drivers and TSR's are programs that enable the
    computer to use additional hardware such as a mouse, scanner, CD-ROM,
    expanded or extended memory, etc.  A program such as an Apogee game is NOT
    a program that can be loaded as a TSR.  If all you have is conventional
    memory, anything that you would load as a TSR would come out of this
    section of memory.  Take too much away, and you're not left over with
    enough memory to run our product.

    If you are getting an out of memory error from our program, it is this
    memory that you are running out of.  Whether you have 1 meg, 8 meg of
    memory, or 32 meg of memory, it's irrelevant.  Only the first 640k of
    memory is available for program execution.  Please do not confuse this with
    hard drive space.  Your hard drive space is not memory, and is not relevant
    nor should be considered in this example.

  ■ UPPER MEMORY starts at 640k and ends at 1024k.  Normally, this area is used
    for things such as system ROM, video and hardware cards, and the like.  On
    most PC's hardware does not use the entire upper memory area, and with the
    use of the aforementioned memory managers, (EMM386, QEMM, 386MAX, etc.) you
    can move some TSR's into this memory area.  These unused areas are called
    Upper Memory Blocks (UMB'S), and this where some TSR's can be loaded.

  ■ EXTENDED MEMORY (XMS) is the memory addressed above 1024k.  Extended memory
    requires the use of a memory manager, such as MS/DOS's HIMEM.SYS.  This
    region of memory is not usable for standard program execution; it can only
    be used for data storage.  Apogee programs that use this type of memory
    (such as Wolfenstein & Blake Stone), only use this to store level or
    graphic data.  The actual program itself is running in conventional memory.

  ■ HIGH MEMORY AREA (HMA) is the first 64k of extended memory.  This is a
    special region of memory that is most commonly used to load DOS high.  When
    you issue the DOS=HIGH command in your config.sys file, the amount of
    conventional memory that was previously being occupied by DOS itself is
    moved into this region.

  ■ EXPANDED MEMORY (EMS) is another type of memory that some MS/DOS programs
    can make use of.  Like XMS, this memory is not available for program
    execution, it's only used for data storage due to it's nature.  An
    explanation of this type of memory is rather technical, so it will not be
    delved into here.  If you're curious, check your DOS manual, or your memory
    manager manual.

When you first start up your computer, there are two files that your computer
looks at: CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT.  These two files contain lists of device
drivers and TSR's that are automatically run when starting your computer.  Each
of these takes up space, and it is taken away from the 640k of conventional
memory.  As more and more programs are loaded from the autoexec.bat and
config.sys files, you have less and less available from the original 640k.
Since it is this memory that programs run in, you can see that the amount taken
away from the programs executed in config.sys and autoexec.bat would want to be
kept to a minimum.  This can be accomplished by either reducing the amount of
programs loaded in from config.sys and autoexec.bat, or moving them to high
memory via the use of EMM386, QEMM, 386MAX, or some other memory management
program.


            ========================================================
            WHAT IS THE "SET BLASTER" COMMAND, AND WHY DO I NEED IT?
            ========================================================

Mystic Towers (and any other Apogee game that uses the Sound Blaster) uses the
SET BLASTER command to figure out where to send it's sound output.  A Sound
Blaster card can have many different sound outputs, and since there are
zillions of computers out there, a way needs to be used in order to tell the
game where your sound card is located.  The SET BLASTER line is how we do it.
Check to make sure that you have the SET BLASTER line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT
file.  The line looks like this.  This code is an example, and isn't exactly
what you need to put in your system, make sure to read this whole section.

SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T3
 |    |      |    | |  |
 |    |      |    | |  |______ Type of Card
 |    |      |    | |_________ DMA Channel
 |    |      |    |___________ Interrupt
 |    |      |________________ Port Address
 |    |_______________________ Environment Variable
 |____________________________ DOS Command

NOTE: There can be no spaces between the word BLASTER and the equal sign (=).
If you have a space in there, your system will read it incorrectly, and it will
not be recognized by our games.

Now, these may not (most likely not) be the same for your board, because the
Port Address, Interrupt and DMA Channel can be set by adjusting "jumpers" on
your sound board.  Some newer cards have this information controlled by
software, please consult your card's manual for more information on how to set
these things.  You should also check your manual if you are unclear as to how
to tell what settings your card is set at.  The information *IS* important, so
it's recommended that you know precisely what the settings are.  If you are
using a card that "emulates" the Sound Blaster (such as the Gravis UltraSound
through software, or the PAS16), you should check your card's manual on how to
set the card for Sound Blaster emulation.

For PORT ADDRESS, it's almost always 220.  That seems to be the default for
most sound cards out there, and unless you know you've switched it away from
220, it's a safe bet it's still there.

The INTERRUPT is something that varies from system to system.  Mystic Towers
requires that your IRQ be set at 7 or less.  If your computer is at IRQ10, you
will have to change it to something lower than 8 in order to play the game.
Apogee does not recommend using IRQ2.  Most of the people we run into who use
IRQ2 have difficulty getting their programs to run properly, unless they switch
to a different IRQ channel.

The DMA CHANNEL is one that causes some people problems.  By default, this is
almost always set at 1.  Unless you have a specific need to change this, it's
probably still at 1.  If you're running into lockups using digitized sounds
with Apogee games, this is probably where your problem lies. If you get lockups
with an Apogee game that has digitized sounds, and this variable is correct,
try turning off the digitized sounds, and if the game plays right, you probably
have a DMA conflict.  Adjust the DMA channel on your sound card, then reflect
said change in this variable in the SET BLASTER line.

The TYPE OF CARD is something that is fairly easy to check out.  If you're
running a non-Creative Labs sound card, then you want this to either be 1 or 3,
depending on which card it is.  It's usually 1.  For a genuine Sound Blaster
card, it's one of these...

1 or 3 for a plain Sound Blaster.  2 or 4 for a Sound Blaster Pro, or a 6 for
a Sound Blaster 16 or an AWE32).  The factor in choosing between the two
numbers here is the age of the card.  If it's an older card, than choose the
smaller number (1 or 2).  Clone cards, or cards that emulate the Sound Blaster
usually have a T variable of 1.  Experiment to see what works best for you.

I get a lot of questions from people wanting to know why they have to use this
if they don't have a Sound Blaster.  Well, it's simple.  This command has
NOTHING to do with what type of command you use.  Apogee games that use
digitized sounds expect these cards to be at specific settings.  If they are
not, then the game needs to be told this.  The way to do this is with the
environment variable BLASTER.  That's why this is needed.  Some of our newer
programs (Raptor, Hocus Pocus) have specific setup programs which let you set
up this information manually, but they still require the SET BLASTER line to
operate at 100% efficiency.

Please remember to add this to AUTOEXEC.BAT, save the file back to disk,
reboot your computer, and make sure to delete the game config file (TOWERS.CFG)
before running again.  If you have any further questions, please drop Apogee a
line.


                           ==========================
                           THANKS TO THE BETA TESTERS
                           ==========================

Apogee wishes to extend a heartfelt thanks to the Apogee Beta Team.  Without
them, it would be far more difficult to produce the quality games we do within
a reasonable amount of time.  Thanks guys (and Gals).


                          ============================
                          CONTACTING TECHNICAL SUPPORT
                          ============================

Apogee thanks you very much for playing our games.  Customer satisfaction is a
high priority of Apogee's, and we strive to please everyone.  Our Technical
Support staff is available to assist all of our customers in solving any
technical problems that may be experienced.  Our Technical Support Department
is available to answer your questions Monday through Friday during the hours of
8:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. Central Standard Time.  The phone number for the Tech
Support Department is [phone].

However, the voice line isn't your only channel of contact.  We are also
reachable via a fax machine at [phone], (24 Hours a Day) or you can
write to us.  Our mailing address is:

Apogee Software
POB 496389
Garland, TX 75049-6389
United States of America

Apogee Technical Support can also be contacted via a variety of electronic
medium.  Several major online services are monitored, and Apogee's E-Mail
addresses are listed below.   Also, a variety of Bulletin Board networks are
monitored as well, and those are also listed.

If you do contact our Technical Support department, please be at your computer,
and have it ready for assistance.  If you can't be at your computer, please
have printouts of the following things available, so that we may assist you
better.  It may be possible do provide technical support without these things,
but it will be much more difficult.

The needed files are CONFIG.SYS & AUTOEXEC.BAT, plus what happens when you
execute the "MEM /C" command (or just MEM if you get an error using MEM /C).

■ Major Online Services

America Online -> APOGEE              CompuServe     -> 74200,553
Delphi         -> APOGEE              GEnie          -> APOGEE
Prodigy        -> CXVP94A             NVN            -> JSIEGLER
FidoNet        -> 1:124/9006          Internet       -> [e-mail]

■ Bulletin Board Networks

There are several BBS networks that are monitored for Apogee messages.  Our
Online Support Representative monitors all of the following BBS networks.

Fidonet, Relaynet (Rime), Intelec, Ilink, U'NI-Net, Smartnet, & City2City.
All of these BBS networks have Games, Shareware, and Apogee conferences.

And of course, we can be reached on Software Creations, the Apogee BBS!

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