The Soundblaster Multimedia Experience 4

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Text File | 1994-08-15 | 14.6 KB | 325 lines

============================================================================= Jazz Jackrabbit * Instructions & Troubleshooting Info * Version 1.1 ============================================================================= To play Jazz, you'll need at least: * A 33-Mhz or faster 80386 processor * 4 Megabytes of memory Jazz also supports: * Joystick, Gravis Gamepad * Sound Blaster, SB Pro, SB-16, PAS-16, Gravis Ultrasound sound cards To start Jazz Jackrabbit: 1. Switch to the drive where the game is installed (C:) 2. Switch to the subdirectory where the game is installed (CD \JAZZ) 3. Type JAZZ. ============================================================================= Windows & OS/2 Notes ============================================================================= Running with WINDOWS -------------------- Jazz Jackrabbit works best when run directly from DOS. But, if you must run it through Windows, please run the file "JAZZ.PIF" (not "JAZZ.EXE"). This will make Jazz work more reliably. If you encounter any problems running through Windows, please exit and run Jazz Jackrabbit through plain DOS instead. Here are some of the problems you may encounter when running Jazz through Windows: 1. The game may not scroll as smoothly, sometimes "jumping" and "skipping". 2. The game may lock up while starting or while loading levels. 3. The game may slow down to half-speed. 4. The music may skip. Running with OS/2 ----------------- With apologies to OS/2 fans around the world, Jazz Jackrabbit will not work reliably under OS/2. Please run it from DOS instead. ============================================================================= HOW TO BOOT YOUR COMPUTER CLEAN ============================================================================= If you're running into problems running Jazz, you might be able to get it up and running by "Booting your computer clean". By this, we mean starting up your computer without loading all of the little memory managers and device drivers that might interfere with the game. It's a relatively simple process, so please bear with us. If you have DOS 6.0 or later ---------------------------- Reboot your computer by pressing RESET or Ctrl-Alt-Del. Wait for the message "Starting MS-DOS..." to come up. Now press the [F5] key. This will cause DOS 6.0 to bypass all of your TSR's, memory managers, and other programs which normally occupy main memory. Now change into the Jazz directory and begin the game. If you have DOS 5.0 ------------------- Please skip this section if you have DOS 6.0 or later! You need to create a "boot disk" to allow you to start your computer without loading all the TSR's and memory managers that take away memory. Here's how. A. Put a blank disk in your A: drive and format it as a DOS disk. (Don't do this in your B: drive - it won't work!) To do this, type the following command: FORMAT A: /S B. Wait while your computer formats the disk. C. Label the disk "Boot Disk" and keep it handy. You'll need this disk whenever you want to start Jazz. Now, you can reboot your computer and play Jazz: A. Put the boot disk in your A: drive. B. Restart your computer, either by pressing CTRL-ALT-DELETE, by hitting your reset button, or by turning it on. C. Wait while your computer boots from the boot disk. D. After a little while, your computer will stop and give you the A> prompt. E. Now change to your hard disk by typing "C:". F. Go into the Jazz directory by typing "CD \JAZZ". G. Begin by typing "JAZZ". Note to owners of "Stacker", "Superstor", and other hard disk compression programs: If your C: drive is compressed and you need a boot disk to start Jazz, you must install Jazz on a different, non-compressed drive. See your Stacker or Superstor manual for instructions on doing this. (This only applies to users of DOS version 5.0 or earlier). ============================================================================= COMMON PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS ============================================================================= PROBLEM: When I run Jazz, it tells me I don't have enough free memory. SOLUTION: Jazz requires that you have at least 2.5 megabytes of free memory. It doesn't matter whether your memory is conventional, EMS, or XMS. All that matters is that that the total free memory is at least 2.5 megs. If you run Jazz and get a message saying that you don't have enough free memory, here's what to do: 1. Make sure you have at least 4 megabytes of memory installed in your computer! You'll need this much in order to have 2.5 megs free. 2. If you are trying to run Jazz Jackrabbit from Windows, completely exit Windows and try running it from DOS. 3. If you are trying to run Jazz Jackrabbit from "DOSSHELL" or any other menu program, please exit from the menu program. Then, run Jazz from the DOS prompt. Menu programs often occupy enough memory that there won't be enough left for the game. 4. If none of the above help, you can solve this problem quickly by "Booting your computer clean". See above for details! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Problem: While playing (or after finishing a level), I get dumped back to DOS with an error message or a "Runtime Error". Solution: This means that either (1) Jazz is conflicting with your memory managers and TSR's, or (2) you need more free memory to run Jazz. Try booting clean and running Jazz. Several customers have reported "Runtime Errors" when running Jazz with QEMM or EMM386. We haven't been able to duplicate this problem or figure out its cause, but booting clean has always solved it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROBLEM: When I run JAZZ, the computer locks up or reboots. SOLUTION: Run SETUP and verify that your settings are correct. If you are not using a sound card, make sure that SETUP is set for "No Sound Card". If you are using a sound card, verify that: 1. The correct options are specified in SETUP. Check your address, IRQ, and DMA settings (most sound cards operate on DMA 1). If you don't know your card's address, IRQ, and DMA settings, consult your sound card manual for details on figuring them out. Wrong settings will cause Jazz to lock up or crash. If your sound quality is set to "Ultra High Quality" or "Very High Quality", try setting it to "Medium Quality". 2. Make sure that your sound card has no address, IRQ, or DMA conflicts with other cards in your system. If your sound card works properly with other games, you can assume that there are no conflicts. However, if your sound card does not work with other games, you have a conflict. See your sound card manual for details on resolving these conflicts. Run SETUP again and try the "PC Speaker" setting and see if that solves the problem. 3. Jazz may be encountering a problem with some of the TSR's and device drivers that you have loaded. Try booting your computer clean and then running Jazz (see above for details). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROBLEM: The game runs unevenly on my computer, sometimes speeding up and slowing down. SOLUTION: Jazz is a very high-performance game, and it's sensitive about your computer's configuration. So, please check the following: 1. Are you running Jazz through Windows? This may slow the game down unless you have a super-fast Pentium computer. If you're running through Windows, exit and run through DOS instead. 2. Do you have HIMEM.SYS and EMM386 loaded? These will slow Jazz down by 10-25% on some computers. To get better performance, please try booting your computer clean before running Jazz. (See above for details). 3. Run JAZZ, go into the setup options menu, and select "Low Graphics Detail". This will speed Jazz up quite noticeably on slow computers, and you'll only lose a small amount of the graphics detail. 4. If Jazz slows down in the bonus stage, press the "F1" key to adjust the detail level. The bonus stage runs much faster on low detail! 5. If Jazz still runs slowly after you've tried all of the above, your computer and video card just aren't fast enough to run Jazz at full-speed. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROBLEM: The music sometimes skips like a broken record. SOLUTION: The "Sound Quality" setting is too high for your computer and sound card to handle. Please run SETUP again and select a lower "Sound Quality" setting. The Medium setting will give you okay sound quality, while avoiding most music problems. If this doesn't cure the problem, try booting clean -- that will give Jazz extra CPU power to handle the music and sound. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROBLEM: When running Jazz, sometimes the game's colors go wild or lots of "snow" appears on the screen. Solution 1: This problem happens with some combinations of video cards and fast computers. We've put a setting in Jazz that you can use to solve this. Run Jazz and go into the "Setup Options" menu, and change the "Fast Color Animation" setting to either "Slow Color Animation" or "No Color Animation". Solution 2: If the "Color Animation" settings don't help, you might have a video card that's not Jazz-Compatible. Here are the VGA cards we've had problems with: S3: If you see junk on the screen with your S3 VGA card, contact S3 Inc to get an updated driver. This will fix the problem! Trident: Some Trident VGA cards aren't working properly with Jazz. Playing the game on the "Turbo" difficulty setting seems to fix this. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Problem: The music and sound effects sound OK when I start Jazz, but they get cut off several seconds after a song begins. Solution: Whoops! This is what happens when you select the wrong IRQ for your sound card! Run SETUP again and pick the correct IRQ. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Problem: Help! I've jumped up and become stuck in a wall or enclosed area! Solution: This is what can happen when Cliff makes a mistake designing the levels in Jazz Jackrabbit. Fortunately, we've included a special cheat code that will get you un-stuck (but will cost a life!) Just press "P" to pause the game, press the "Backspace" key, then type the word "DDMARK". (Hint: There are other secret cheat codes that can be activated with the P-Backspace combination!) ============================================================================= OTHER SOUND CARD NOTES ============================================================================= Pro Audio Spectrum: JAZZ supports the PAS, PAS+, and PAS-16 sound cards directly. You must have the PAS drivers loaded properly to run JAZZ! See your PAS manual for instructions on loading the right PAS drivers in your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files. If you encounter any music or sound problems on your PAS sound card, try running SETUP again. This time, specify "Sound Blaster" as your sound card. Gravis Ultrasound: By popular request, Jazz Jackrabbit supports the GUS! Just specify Gravis Ultrasound from within SETUP. If you have any problems, check your address, IRQ, and DMA settings. If you still have problems, boot clean and try running Jazz without any GUS drivers loaded - these drivers (such as SBOS) might perhaps interfere with the game's direct, native GUS support. Other sound cards: If you have a sound card that is "Sound Blaster Compatible", but isn't a genuine Sound Blaster, try selecting the "Sound Blaster" setting from the SETUP program. This will usually get best results. If the music doesn't work properly, or if the music is distorted, run SETUP again. This time, select "Sound Blaster Clone". The "Clone" driver should be compatible with all cards that claim to be Sound Blaster compatible. Since new models of sound cards are always being manufactured and revised, here's how to contact the top sound card makers for information about sound card problems and obtaining the latest driver files. Company Sound Card Phone BBS CompuServe GO ------------- ------------------ ------------ ------------ ------------- Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum 800-638-2807 510-770-0527 MultiVen (12) Creative Labs Sound Blaster 405-742-6622 405-742-6660 Blaster Gravis Ultrasound 604-431-1708 604-431-5927 PcVenB (14) Note: Jazz requires either a Gravis UltraSound, PAS, or a true Sound Blaster compatible card. If your sound card isn't 100% compatible with the Sound Blaster, unfortunately it's not going to work with Jazz. ============================================================================= VERSION HISTORY ============================================================================= Version 1.0 (8/1/94): First public release. Version 1.1 (8/15/94): Update and bug fixes. * Fixed a problem that made some computers freeze in the "Loading" screen. * Renamed many secret cheat codes. They're still in there, with new names. ============================================================================= CONTACTING EPIC'S TECH SUPPORT ============================================================================= If you need further assistance, please call our tech support department at 301-983-9771 between 9AM and 5PM Eastern Standard Time, or fax us at 301-299-3841. If you have a complex question about how to run this game, please call while you're at your computer and we'll be able to help you more effectively. You can also contact us online: CompuServe: GO EPIC Internet Mail: 70007.1631@compuserve.com Internet FTP: ftp.uml.edu America Online: We answer questions posted in the "Games" area. GEnie: We answer questions in the Games Roundtable. ============================================================================= That's all. Enjoy playing Jazz Jackrabbit! =============================================================================