KNIGHT'S CHASE - THE "LIMITED EDITION" PLAYABLE DEMO THE FULL VERSION OF KNIGHT'S CHASE WILL BE AVAILABLE EARLY MAY 1996 FROM ALL SOFTWARE RETAILERS - CONTACT A STORE NEAR YOU FOR MORE INFORMATION. The Knights Templar: History and Legend Did the Knights Templar really exist? How much of their story is history and how much is legend? The Order of the Poor Knights of Christ really did exist. They were also called the Knights Templar because when the Order was created, it occupied the former stables of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. About twenty years after the conquest of Jerusalem by the crusaders in 1099, the Order was created by a handful of Christian knights of various origins and fortunes. Its primary mission was to fight the Ottoman troops to insure safe transit on the roads taken by the groups of pilgrims travelling from Europe to Christ's tomb in Palestine. A few years after its creation, the Order of the Knights Templar established a strict rule drawn up by Saint Bernard and the highest authorities of the Western church: live poorly, offer one's life and goods to the Order for the glory of God and the defence of the Holy Sepulchre. Even though this very strict rule was limiting, it immediately attracted a continuously growing number of young noblemen from all over Europe. They all wanted the honour to serve their God and to wear the white mantle emblazoned with the blood red cross until death. In a few years, thanks to the donations provided by its members when joining the organisation, the Order of the Knights Templar became the owner of lands, fortresses and even entire cities from one end to the other of the Western and Eastern kingdoms... Thanks to a papal privilege, the Order raised taxes, collected them and became wealthy by trading the products of their lands. Slowly and very naturally, the Knights Templar became a major financial power. Almost all important transactions between the kingdom of Palestine and Europe were made through the intermediary of the Order. When the Kingdom of Palestine fell, the Knights Templar, just like all other Christians in the Orient, had to retreat and leave the Holy Land forever. The fate of the Order was sealed the day when the majority of its troops came back to live in France, in the heart of the country that saw their birth. Philip the Fair, King of France, had borrowed colossal sums from the Knights Templar and sensed imminent danger. If a financial, military and political power of the size of the Knights Templar became established in France, it would put his crown and the Kingdom in danger. An excellent strategist, he took advantage of the so-called revelations of a deserter from the Order who accused the Knights Templar: those soldier monks were heretics and adored idols! On the 3rd of October 1307, in one day, the King of France had the highest members of the Order arrested all over the Kingdom. During the next seven years several hundred Knights Templar were burned alive at the stake or died in wretched dungeons. Philip the Fair's triumph was complete: he was rid of the Knights Templar, and in the coffers of the Commandery in Paris there was both the money he borrowed and the treasure of the Knights Templar! The stake at which James (Jacques) de Molay, the last grand master of the Order, was burned, was still smoking when legends about the Knights Templar started to form. Weren't these monk knights, who had the reputation of making gold appear out of nowhere, powerful alchemists? Were all the immense riches distributed throughout all the headquarters of France confiscated by Philip the Fair? Didn't the Knights Templar leave secret esoteric messages engraved in the stones of some buildings? Does the Templar gold really exist? And, if so,where is it?... EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENTS Before you play, you must make sure you have at least the minimum configuration specified below. Required configuration: * IBM PC computer or 100% compatible 486 DX 33 MHz * 8 MB RAM minimum * VGA 256-color graphic mode * 15 Meg free on C: drive * Double speed CD-ROM drive * Sound card: Sound Blaster TM 2.0 or 100% compatible * MSCDEX 2.21 or higher version * MS-DOS 5.0. or higher version Recommended configuration options: * IBM PC computer or 100% compatible 486 DX-2 66 MHz or Pentium * 16 MB RAM * Quadruple speed CD-ROM drive * Sound card: Sound Blaster AWE32 or 100% compatible optional: * Microsoft Mouse or 100% compatible INSTALLATION AND START-UP This demo runs in DOS and Windows 95. If you have Windows 95 you must exit to a Dos prompt. Some systems may require that you only run in MS-DOS Mode. There will be a Windows 95 version for the full release in March. 1) Change to your CD-Rom drive (normally D:\) and type INSTALL. 2) The Demo will now automatically install to C:\TIMEGATE. 3) To run the game go to the C:\TIMEGATE directory, type: DEMO and press [Enter]. CONTROLS: 1)NORMAL MODE KEY ACTION UP ARROW WALK FORWARD DOWN ARROW WALK BACKWARDS LEFT ARROW TURN LEFT RIGHT ARROW TURN LEFT SHIFT+UP ARROW RUN THE GAME - ACTIONS AND USING ITEMS All the actions and handling of objects can be done from a selection screen which you can call up by pressing [Enter] during the game. This screen allows you to control the actions of the character and the possible actions with the selected object. By default, you will be in the "fighting" mode, in which case the activated item in your inventory is the "hero". The right-hand column on the screen displays possible actions (fight, open/search,push). To select the action required, use the UP or DOWN arrow to highlight a box and press [Enter]. To select possible actions with objects, use the left-hand column. Use the left arrow key to scroll through the different objects. When you have selected the required object, choose the action you want by using the up and down arrows (use, eat/drink, read, reload the catapult, throw,drop/place) and press [Enter]. If you are using a mouse, you can click on to the arrows inside the two columns to scroll the objects in your possession. UNARMED FIGHTING: In the selection menu highlight the combat/fight icon and press [Enter]. Press the space bar to get your guard. Keep the space bar pressed down and use one of the following arrow keys: LEFT ARROW Punch with the left hand. RIGHT ARROW Punch with the right hand. DOWN ARROW Kick. UP ARROW Head butt. (Keep both the space bar and the arrow key pressed long enough for the blow to be delivered correctly). To ward off blows, press CTRL. You will then be in automatic "parry" mode. FIGHTING WITH SWORDS AND KNIVES: When you have chosen your weapon using the left-hand column in the selections menu highlight the "Use" icon and press [Enter]. Keep the space bar pressed down and use one of the following arrow keys: LEFT ARROW Thrust from left to right RIGHT ARROW Thrust from right to left UP ARROW Thrust from top to bottom or thrust DOWN ARROW Thrust from bottom to top (Keep both the space bar and the arrow key pressed long enough for the blow to be delivered correctly). To ward off blows, press CTRL. You will then be in automatic "parry" mode. OPEN/SEARCH: Place yourself as near as possible to the item or the piece of furniture you wish to open or search. Highlight the "open/search" icon on the selection screen using the UP or DOWN arrow and press [Enter]. Then hold down the space bar and keep it pressed long enough to search thoroughly! PUSH: to move a cumbersome object or a piece of furniture or to trigger some switches, highlight the "push" icon and press [Enter]. Then hold down the spacebar and the LEFT or RIGHT arrow key depending on what direction you want to push in. TAKING AN ITEM: When you get near an item, a window will be displayed, asking whether or not you wish to take the item. Highlight either the "take" or "leave" option and press [Enter]. TROUBLE SHOOTING GUIDE INFOGRAMES - BOOT DISK CREATION If your computer freezes when launching or during the game and a message appears (such as "NOT ENOUGH DOS MEMORY", "NOT ENOUGH EMS MEMORY", File not found MASK..PAK..) Or If the screen remains blank when launching the game follow these instructions: Whatever the problem is, we advise you to create a minimal boot disk. This disk will allow you to solve any memory problem without modifying your initial configuration. - Go to the DOS prompt (C:\) - Insert a blank disk into your floppy drive A: - Type in FORMAT A:/S and press [Enter] - Answer YES to the question - Once the format is finished, the computer asks you if you want to format another one, Answer NO. - At the DOS prompt (C:\), type in COPY C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT A: and press [Enter] and then type in COPY C:\CONFIG.SYS A: and press [Enter] - Change to the floppy drive prompt (A:\) - Type in EDIT A:\AUTOEXEC.BAT and press [Enter] - A text on a blue screen appears, this is one of the files which will be used to boot up your computer for the game to run. In order to do so you will have to "disable" a few lines which are not necessary to run the game. To do so you will just have to type in REM at the beginning of each line so that the computer does not take them into account. (Example : REM C:\DOS\MOUSE) Here are the lines that you must keep, put REM in front of the others ECHO OFF PROMPT $P$G PATH C:\;C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS; SET TEMP=C:\DOS LH C:\DOS\MSCDEX /D:MSCD001 :M:15 /V (Note : This line configures your CD ROM. It is set here as an example but WILL vary according to the configuration. It will always have MSCDEX on it and will have a /D:xxxxxx and the xxxxxx will match a line in CONFIG.SYS as shown below.) SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 (This line can vary according to the configurations, but will always have SET BLASTER) Generally you must also keep all the lines relating to your sound card. - Go to "File" in the menu bar - Select the option "Save " - Go back to "File" - Select the option "Exit" - You are back to the floppy prompt A:\ - Type in EDIT A:\CONFIG.SYS and press ENTER - Here are the lines to be kept in this file. Type in REM in front of the other lines. DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS BUFFERS=15,0 FILES=20 DOS=HIGH,UMB LASTDRIVE=E (This line varies according to the configurations) DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\CDROMDOS.SYS /SBP:220 /D:MSCD001 (This line is for your CD ROM drive. It can vary according to the CD ROM drive you have. It will always have a /D:xxxxxx and the xxxxxx will match the /D: setting for MSCDEX in AUTOEXEC.BAT.) - Go to "File" in the menu bar - Select the option "Save" - Go back to "File" - Select the "Exit" option to go back to DOS - Switch off your computer, then switch it on again leaving the minimal boot disk into the floppy drive. The computer will boot from the disk and will free as much memory as possible. Caution, do not remove the disk during the game. YOU MUST ALSO LEAVE IN THE LINES REFERRING TO THE "SMARTDRIVE" AS A CACHE OF 256KB IS REQUIRED. It is possible that one of the following error messages appears during installation or game play. These errors may be due to the fact that the hardware or software configuration of your computer doesn't suit the configuration requirements. (Please refer to the user manual of your computer for further details). MEMORY-01: 7000 XMS KB are required. To check the amount of available XMS, use the MEM or CHKDSK tool supplied with your DOS (Note: 1 KB = 1024 bytes). In the CONFIG.SYS file, you must rem out the line containing the EMM386.EXE driver to obtain "REM DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE". CDROM-01: Wrong CD-ROM There is no CD-ROM in your drive, or it is not the right one. Make sure that your CD-ROM drive is closed and that you've inserted the right CD-ROM with the label facing upwards. FILE-00: Read error An error has occurred while reading data. Retry the operation. CONTACTING I*MOTION If further problems occur please contact our customer service staff at: 310-576-1885 Telephone 310-576-1889 Fax 310-576-1820 BBS and also try http://www.imotion.com Web page