北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北 WELCOME TO SNEAK PEEKS 2 SAMPLER CD 北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北 TABLE OF CONTENTS Section Description 1. System Requirements 2. How To Install 3. Installation Notes--SMARTDRV, Video for Windows, Can't Find a Required File 4. Video Display Problems--Colors Look Wrong, Videos Run Slowly or Display Improperly 5. Game Demo Problems--Demos Play Slowly or Won't Load Due to Insufficient Memory, Can't ALT-TAB out of Certain Demos, Freddy Pharkas' Dilemma 6. Sound Card/Audio Problems--Can't Hear Audio, Can Hear Voices but No Music, Sound Skips, Music Distorted, Music or Voice Volume Too Loud 北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北 1. REQUIREMENTS FOR RUNNING SNEAK PEEKS 2 北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北 * Windows 3.1 or better * A 486/33MHZ computer or better * 4 MB of RAM * SVGA Display, 640x480 or higher, 256 or 16 Million Colors * 512K Video RAM * Double Speed CD-ROM Drive * 16 bit Sound Card 北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北 2. HOW TO INSTALL SNEAK PEEKS 2 北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北 1) From the Windows Program Manager: select RUN from the File menu. 2) On the command line type: D:\SETUP.EXE (If your CD-ROM drive is not mapped to drive D:, use the appropriate drive letter.) Select OK. 3) Follow the on-screen instructions. Once you have set up Sneak Peeks 2, double click on the Sneak Peeks 2 icon to run it. 北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北 3. INSTALLATION NOTES 北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北 ------------ A. SMARTDRV: ------------ * To assure optimal performance of Sneak Peeks 2 on systems limit- ed to 4 MB of RAM, we recommend not loading SMARTDRV. TO REMOVE SMARTDRV: 1) SMARTDRV is loaded by using the SMARTDRV command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. 2) Edit AUTOEXEC.BAT using a text editor such as Windows NOTEPAD, or DOS EDIT. We recommend against using a Word Processor such as Microsoft Word for this purpose as they save formating codes with the text. 3) Place a REM at the beginning of the line that has SMARTDRV in it. This line will then be ignored and SMARTDRV will not be loaded. 4) Save this file and reboot your system. --------------------- B. VIDEO FOR WINDOWS: --------------------- * Sneak Peeks 2 will install the latest Video For Windows onto your hard drive because it requires the latest Indeo Palette File. It will NOT install Video For Windows if you have a newer version already installed. ----------------------------------------- C. SNEAK PEEKS CAN'T FIND A REQUIRED FILE ----------------------------------------- * Sneak Peeks requires these support files to run properly: aaplay.dll - Autodesk Animation Player d2htools.dll - Help file support tools vbrun300.dll - Visual Basic support library zwipes.dll - MediaKnife support tools zwnd.dll - MediaKnife support tools inicon3.vbx - Ini file control mkdisplay.vbx - MediaKnife custom control mktools.vbx - MediaKnife custom control threed.vbx - Visual Basic custom control vbplay.vbx - Autodesk Animation Player custom control Setup installs these files in your Windows system directory. If Sneak Peeks reports a missing file, try running SETUP again. If you still encounter problems loading Sneak Peeks, look for another file with the same name as the missing file elsewhere on your system. Try renaming the file and running Sneak Peeks again. Another cause of a missing file message is that a different application is using one of these shared files. It is best to shut down all other applications before running SETUP. 北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北 4. VIDEO DISPLAY PROBLEMS YOU MIGHT ENCOUNTER 北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北 -------------------- A. COLORS LOOK WRONG -------------------- LATEST VERSION OF VIDEO FOR WINDOWS: * Sneak Peeks 2 videos will have incorrect colors if played with an older version of Video for Windows. Sneak Peeks 2 videos were created with the Indeo color palettes onboard the latest version of Video for Windows. If you do not already have the new Video for Windows on your system, Setup will install it. After running Setup, be sure to restart Windows before running Sneak Peeks 2. 16 COLOR, 32K or 65K COLOR DISPLAYS: * Sneak Peeks 2 has been designed to run in 256 or 16 Million color modes. If you are trying to view Sneak Peeks 2 in 16, 32K, or 65K color mode, please change to 256 or 16 Million colors. We also recommend viewing Sneak Peeks 2 in 800x600 or 640x480 resolution. TO CHANGE COLOR MODES or DISPLAY RESOLUTION: 1) In Windows, click on the Windows Setup icon. 2) From OPTIONS on the menu bar, select CHANGE SYSTEM SETTINGS. 3) Change DISPLAY to a 256 or 16-million color mode. For best results choose 800x600x256 or 640x480x256. 4) Restart Windows. VIRTUAL SCREEN DISPLAYS: * Some of our Indeo Compressed Videos may not display properly in some Virtual Screen Modes. If you are using a Virtual Screen display and you experience color accuracy problems, we recommend changing to a standard display mode such as 800x600 in 256 colors. ------------------------------------------ B. VIDEOS RUN SLOWLY OR DISPLAY IMPROPERLY ------------------------------------------ DOUBLE SPEED CD-ROM REQUIREMENT: * Sneak Peeks 2 was designed for systems with Double Speed CD-ROM drives. If you have a single, triple, or quadruple speed CD-ROM drive, you may experience video display problems. These problems may not be correctable. RAM, VIRTUAL MEMORY: * Sneak Peeks 2 was designed to perform on systems with at least 4MB of RAM. If videos run slowly, please try adding RAM or Virtual Memory. See Section 5 (A) in this readme file for notes on how to expand Virtual Memory. CD ROM DRIVE CACHE FOR SYSTEMS WITH 8MB RAM OR MORE: * If you have 8 MB of RAM or more, and videos still display too slowly, try adding a cache to your CD-ROM drive. For systems with 8MB of RAM and up, SMARTDRV in MS DOS 6.2 can significantly improve performance. See DOS HELP for more information on setting up SMARTDRV. DISPLAY MODE: * For optimal performance of Sneak Peeks 2 videos, we recommend viewing in a standard display mode such as 800x600 in 256 colors. Please see notes in Section 4 A) above, for instructions on how to change your display mode. 北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北 5. GAME DEMO PROBLEMS YOU MIGHT ENCOUNTER 北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北 ------------------------------------------------- A. DEMOS RUN SLOWLY OR REPORT INSUFFICIENT MEMORY ------------------------------------------------- DISPLAY MODE: * Some of the Demos may not run properly if you are running in more than 256 colors. Change your Windows setup to use a 256-color Windows mode. Please see note in Section 4 A) on how to change your Display mode. SMARTDRV: * Some of the Demos may not run properly with SMARTDRV loaded. Try removing SMARTDRV and rebooting. Please see notes in Section 3 A) above for instructions on how to delete SMARTDRV. VIRTUAL MEMORY, SWAP FILE: * The Demos require a lot of memory to run. Make sure you have Virtual Memory turned on and set for maximum size. Windows uses a Swap File for swapping things in and out of memory. If the Swap File is temporary it may not always be available. We suggest changing the Swap file from temporary to permanent. TO CHANGE VIRTUAL MEMORY and SWAP FILE SETTINGS: 1) Click on the Control Panel icon. 2) Click on the 386 Enhanced icon. 3) Click on the Virtual Memory . . . button. 4) Click on the Change>> button. 5) Check that the size is equal to the maximum recommended size. Change this value if needed. 6) Make sure your current Swap File is permanent. Change if necessary. 7) Click on the OK button. 8) Restart Windows. See your Windows Manual for further instructions on setting up Virtual Memory. ------------------------------------- B. CAN'T ALT-TAB OUT OF CERTAIN DEMOS ------------------------------------- * The following demos in the Family section do not allow you to use standard Windows keystrokes such as ALT-TAB and ALT-ESC to go to another task or ALT-F4 to exit the demo: - Beginning Reading - Spelling Blizzard - Early Math - Spelling Jungle - Kid's Typing Instead, if you want to exit, wait until you are in the demo and then click on an appropriate "Exit" or "Stop" button. -------------------------- C. FREDDY PHARKAS' DILEMMA -------------------------- * The Freddy Pharkas demo plays in a 640x480 window that cannot be enlarged. If you are viewing Sneak Peeks 2 in a higher screen resolution (i.e., 1024x768), you might find it difficult to make Freddy walk off the side of one game screen and into the next. It is all too easy to click on the Sneak Peeks 2 game screen in the background! If you find yourself in this situation, try running Sneak Peeks 2 in 640x480 screen resolution. 北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北 6. SOUND CARD/AUDIO PROBLEMS 北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北北 ------------------------------ A. CAN'T HEAR ANY AUDIO AT ALL ------------------------------ CHECK SPEAKER VOLUME: * Please make sure your speaker volume is turned up. CHECK SOUND CARD INSTALLATION: * If the volume is turned up and you still hear no sound, something could be wrong with your sound card installation. Please check to see that your sound card software is installed properly and reinstall if necessary. In addition, please make sure your audio card is securely fastened in its slot. WINDOWS SOUND CARD COMPATIBILITY: * Sneak Peeks 2 is a Windows product, designed for audio playback on sound cards that are compatible with Windows 3.1 and above. Please check to be sure that your sound card is Windows compatible. PC SPEAKER * If your system is limited to PC Speaker playback, you will not hear any sounds from Sneak Peeks 2. In fact, you will receive error messages from the sound controller. Our sampler was designed for audio playback on Windows-compatible sound cards and does not support PC Speaker. -------------------------------- B. CAN HEAR VOICES, BUT NO MUSIC -------------------------------- 8-BIT SOUND CARDS, EXTENDED MIDI SUPPORT: * Sneak Peeks 2 music was designed for 16-bit sound cards with extended MIDI support. Although our sampler plays efficiently on most newer 8-bit sound cards, it will not play properly on older 8-bit sound cards that do not support extended MIDI. If your 8-bit card supports only base MIDI, you will probably not hear any music. ------------------------------------------- C. SOUND PLAYS, BUT HAS SKIPS OR IS CUT OFF ------------------------------------------- 8-BIT SOUND CARDS * Sneak Peeks 2 audio was designed for 16-bit sound cards. Although our sampler plays efficiently on most newer 8-bit sound cards, it will not play properly on older 8-bit sound cards. ------------------------- D. MUSIC SOUNDS DISTORTED ------------------------- 8-BIT SOUND CARDS * Sneak Peeks 2 music was designed for 16-bit sound cards. 8-bit sound cards may produce some distorted notes. This distortion will be more evident on some pieces than others. ------------------------------------------------ E. VOICE OVERPOWERS MUSIC/MUSIC OVERPOWERS VOICE ------------------------------------------------ SOUND CARD MIXER * Sneak Peeks 2 voice and music were designed to complement each other. If an actor is talking, you should hear the voice clearly and the music should be in the background. If music is too loud to hear voices, or if voices are much too loud, please check the Mixer for your audio card and adjust the appropriate volume levels.