*About this Chasm Demo* ------------------------ This three-mission demo contains a selection from two episodes. These missions are just a sneak peak at what awaits you in the full release coming this fall from GT Interactive! Chasm: The Rift, full version, will contain four episodes comprised of sixteen missions and six Deathmatch multiplayer levels. *The Story* ------------ Mankind, in the process of development is facing an inexplicable phenomenon - the destruction of normal sequence of time from the past to the future. Time channels are forming in the earth's atmosphere, and these channels are leading to different periods of social development. Through these channels a series of twisted and powerful creatures penetrate from both the past and present, and into the future. You are a soldier of the Special Commando Unit with the mission to track, pin-point and finally destroy the time channels and eliminate all alien life forms. While migrating along time channels, all living creatures are undergoing irreversible mutations that are making them barbarous and hostile. The full version of CHASM features 16 intriguing and interconnected missions. Each mission episode begins with the unit commander briefing, at which the team leader is setting the target, mission and the goal of this military assignment. *The Chasm Engine* ------------------ Unlike any other game in this genre, CHASM: The Rift allows gamers to strategically blow off monsters' limbs even as they continue the attack with their remaining appendages. Other incredible features in the full version of CHASM will include: -=>3D polygon texture-mapped vector models for structures, monsters and weapons -=>Realistic special effects including rain, snow, wind, smoke, dust, sparks, and explosions -=>Dramatic structures featuring lights, shadows, sprites and game objects -=>Rendition and 3Dfx graphics support -=>Lightning quick 3D gameplay -=>Object-linked 3D surround sound -=>45 degree maneuverability -=>Multiplayer battles through TCP/IP (Internet), IPX, modem and serial port RELEASE NOTES for THE CHASM-THE RIFT Demo. -------------------------------------------- TABLE of contents: 1. Controls. A. System requirements. B. Install & quick start CHASM. C. Menus. D. Control panel. E. Console commands. F. Command line. G. Sound. H. Keyboard commands. I. Default keys. 2. The game. A. Briefing. B. Gameplay. C. Your additional environment. D. Multiplayer game. E. Network monitor. 3. Troubleshooting & common problems. +-------------+ | 1. Controls | +-------------+ A. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS. ---------------------------------------------------- The minimum platform to start CHASM is: 486 DX2-66 MHz CPU (Pentium processor recommended). Standard VGA card (PCI video recommended). 8 MB of RAM (16M recommended under Win95). 8 MB of free hard drive space. MS-DOS 4.0 or higher (Win95 DOS box, OS/2 DOS box). * VESA compatible card required for Network Monitor mode. Sound Blaster 16 or AWE32 recommended for good sound. B. Install & quick start CHASM. ---------------------------------------------------- You must have at least 25MB of hard drive space to run the Chasm demo. From the CD-ROM drive and directory from which the CHASM demo resides type INSTALL and press ENTER. CHASM will install into the CHASM-SW directory on your hardrive. To start CHASM type CHASM from the CHASM-SW directory. The game starts in demo mode. To play the game use the menu commands by presing the ESC key. C. Menus. ---------------------------------------------------- Press ESC key to pop up the main menu. In single game mode menu pauses the game. Use Up/Down arrow keys to move highlighted selection. To select menu item press the Enter key. Press the ESC key to return to Main Menu from the submenu or to the game when you are in the Main Menu. Description of menu items: == NEW == Break the current game or demo and start a new game. Submenu for NEW contains selection of game difficulty: Easy/Normal/Hard. == NETWORK == Operate multiplayer game. The Chasm Demo supports only Novell's ODI IPX stack under DOS and the Microsoft IPX stack in a Win95/ Windows 3.1 DOS box. Up to 8 players can play in one network game. Submenu for MULTIPLAYER includes: JOIN - Lets you join to active multiplayer game, already started by another user. There are no submenus for this. When you select this command, CHASM will search for a game automatically. START - Start a new multiplayer game. Selection of this command brings up a submenu window: START GAME - start a network game with current settings. Game mode: - select game mode DeathMatch (no monsters) or Co-operative (with monsters) Difficulty: - select difficulty level for co-operative mode. Level: - select game level to play on. MONITOR - on the SERVER (SERVER - machine when network game is started using START command, other machines are CLIENTs using the JOIN command) which starts the Network Monitor. For more details about the Network Monitor see section "2.E. Network Monitor" of this document. == SAVE ==, == LOAD == Pop up a list of saved games. Select the target slot and press the Enter key. Currently each saved game description contains level number and state of health. == OPTIONS == Allow to setup game settings. Chasm automaticaly saves all settings before quitting, so you don't need to save it manually. Submenu for OPTIONS consist of: SetUp Controls... Permits you to change the default keys settings. Move highlighted to name of action you wish to reconfigure and press Enter. The name of key assigned to this action will change on the "?" symbol. Then press a new key or Mouse button that you like to use for this action. Video Modes... Allows several resolution modes, depending on the video card and VESA 2.0 availability. Please read the hi_res.txt file attached with this demo for more information. Display... Lets you to change screen parameters: (Use Left and Right keys to change sliders.) View size - change size of view. Contrast - change palette contrast. Color - change color saturation. Brightness - change palette brightness. Always Run When Always Run is ON, you are always at max speed. Cockpit Shows/Hide cockpit crossing. Reverse Mouse Invert vertical mouse movement for mouse view. Reverse Stereo Swaps Left and Right sound channels. FX Volume, CD Volume, Mouse sensitivity Self-explanatory == QUIT == Exit Chasm and return to operating system. D. Control panel. ---------------------------------------------------- Control Panel provides control of game modes and parameters and is designed for experienced users. Use key to toggle Control Panel. Control Panel is divided into two parts: Local Menu and Console. Use the key for switching between Local Menu and Console. * Local Menu contains the following options: NEW - the same as NEW in Main Menu. MONITOR - starts network monitor. OPTIONS - currently disabled. DISPLAY - change display settings: contrast, color and brightness. QUIT - quit to DOS. Console consists of the Command line and Message display. Command line is required for the entering Console commands. Message display shows the results of executed commands and special internal system messages. Console has a command history. Pressing the up and down arrows in the Console will change to the last command entered. E. Console commands. ---------------------------------------------------- Here are the list of the main Console commands: NEW - start new game. RESTART - restart current level. QUIT - quit to DOS. CHOJIN - immortal mode. AMMO - restore ammo for all weapons. WEAPON - gives all weapons to player. INVISIBLE - gives 2 minutes of invisibility. ARMOR - gives 200% of armor. FULLMAP - allows you to see the full map of the current level. KILL - kill all monsters on the level. REANIMATE - (debug) reanimate all monsters. RESPAWN <#time> - set the monsters respawn time. (#time=0 means no respawn) REVERSE - swap right and left sound channels. DEPTH - enable/disable distant fade. SHADOWS - set the upper limit of shadows casting by 3D object. GO <#level> - warp to specified level. ==== Multiplayer commands ===== KILLP - kill player with specified number. KICK - disconnect player from multiplayer game. NICK NEWNAME - set your name for multiplayer gaming. NICK without newname shows current name. RESETFRAGS - available only on SERVER machine and set all frags in 0 state. * Command without a parameter returns to its current state. F. Command line. ---------------------------------------------------- You can use these options launching CHASM from the DOS command line: "-nosound" : disable sound code. "-warp <#level>" : warp to map level #level. "-start" : start SERVER in Network CHASM. "-join" : join network game. G. Sound. ---------------------------------------------------- Chasm automaticaly detects the type of sound card, installed on your computer, checking the BLASTER variable in AUTOEXEC.BAT. Chasm gets the PORT address, IRQ number, DMA number and CARD TYPE from this variable. A typical blaster setting for SB16 looks like this: SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6 You have to set this variable in your autoexec.bat manually or run your Sound Blaster diagnose.exe utility to automatically set this variable. If you can't get Chasm to work, try to start it with -nosound command in command line. It will disable all the sound code and do a "safe" loading. H. Keyboard commands. ---------------------------------------------------- Here are the keyboard commands that doesn't control gameplay and can't be changed in OPTIONS\SetUp Controls. Main Menu ESC Control Panel BackSpace Save Game F2 Load Game F3 Options Menu F4 Multiplayer Menu F5 Quicksave F6 Quickload F9 Quit menu F10 Save screenshot F12 Change Sceen size +,- Show Map Tab Change map size [,] Select weapon 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 I. Default keys. ---------------------------------------------------- List of keys assigned to common actions by default: Move Forward Up Move Backward Down Turn Left Left Turn Right Right Strafe Left , Strafe Right . Fire Ctrl or mouse1 Use Alt Strafe On Alt or mouse2 Speed Up LShift Permanent MLook U Temporary MLook / Look Up A Center View S Look Down Z +---------------+ | 2. The game. | +---------------+ A. Briefing. ---------------------------------------------------- B. Gameplay. ---------------------------------------------------- C. Your additional environment. ---------------------------------------------------- A,B,C not documented yet. D. Multiplayer game. ---------------------------------------------------- CHASM support network multiplayer game by using IPX protocol with up to 8 players in one network game. To enable network CHASM under DOS, you must load the IPX.COM driver provided by Novell. If you play Chasm in a Win95 DOS box, be sure that the IPX protocol is installed. To run Network CHASM you must select one machine (preferably the fastest one) to work in SERVER mode. SERVER - machine in network game that controls all game processes and pass calculated data to other computers (CLIENTs) in net. CLIENT - all other computers in the network game. You must follow these steps to launch Network CHASM: 1. Check that the IPX driver is installed on all computers you want to play. 2. Start CHASM by typing CHASM.EXE. 3. To start a Network Game, select one machine as a SERVER and activate command "NETWORK\START" in the Main Menu. The network game will then be started. 4. Other players can connect to the SERVER at any time using command "NETWORK\JOIN". To leave the Network game use the "NEW" command. 5. A Network Game can be stopped by using the "NEW" command on SERVER. It automatically disconnects all CLIENTs. Some cheat codes available only on the SERVER machine to add some features to other players: AMMO #playernumber Add all ammo to specified player. WEAPON #playernumber Add all weapons and ammo to specified player. INVISIBLE #playernumber Makes specified player invisible for 2 minutes. ARMOR #playernumber Set armor level to 200% for specified player. For example: WEAPON 0 adds all ammo to server. E. Network monitor. ---------------------------------------------------- Network monitor is the mode for a multiplayer game, that can be activated on the SERVER machine and allows two main features: 1. View the action of up to 4 players in different windows. 2. Make the SERVER work in dedicated mode. To start the monitor, go to the main menu and select Network option, then highlight Monitor item and press Enter. If you have a VESA compatible video card and SERVER was started, then you will see a monitor screen. The SERVER cannot play the game, while the Network Monitor is active. Monitor screen consists of four windows, where you can see what other players are doing, and Control Panel in left hand corner screen. In the right hand corner of the screen you will see a list of numbered players with their frags numbers. Press ESC to switch between Control Panel and windows. If you are in windows mode, current window has light border as selection. To move selection, use arrow keys. 1st window assigned to 1st player, 2nd to 2nd and etc. You can reassign any window to any player, pressign number of players ("1".."7") when desired window is selected. To disable active window press "0". If all windows are disabled SERVER switches to DEDICATED mode. This mode is the best mode for multiplayer game. SERVER does not show any pictures on the screen and controls game only. This provides smoother action for all other players in the network. To return to normal game mode, select BACK TO GAME in Control Panel's local menu and press ENTER. You will return to the same position where you were before starting the Network Monitor. +----------------------------------------+ | 3. Troubleshooting & common problems. | +----------------------------------------+ Using the default configuration and recommended platform you should have no problems running the CHASM demo. Known problems : ------------------ Q: I receive " Runtime error [#ERROR CODE] at [SEGMENT:OFFSET] ". A: If you receive this message, please save indicated address in form [#ERROR CODE] at [SEGMENT:OFFSET] and E-mail it to chasm@megamedia.com Q: I have a sound card, but can't hear any sounds in the game. A: Currently CHASM works only with the Sound Blaster family compatible cards. So if your card is not SB compatible you will get any sound. Other reasons could be not setting the BLASTER variable in your AUTOEXEC.BAT. In this case you will need to set this variable in your autoexec.bat manually or run your Sound Blaster diagnose.exe utility to automatically set it up. And don't forget to check the FX volume in the Options menu. Q: I get : 1. " Unhandled exception [#N] at [XXXX:YYYY] Error code [#E]". 2. " Loader error (0000): unrecognized error ". What's wrong ? A: These are not CHASM errors, but DPMI server internal problem, try to start chasm again or change your Operating System settings. ------------------- Scheduled release - October 1997 For More info log on to WWW.MEGAMEDIA.COM or WWW.CHASMACTION.COM (Official Chasm Site). If you have questions or comments email to chasm@megamedia.com (c) 1997 Megamedia Corporation, Action Forms Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Megamedia is a Registered Trademark and Chasm - The Rift is a Trademark of Megamedia Corporation.