Last Dynasty Patch README November 3, 1995 I. AN IMPORTANT NOTE II. WHAT THE PATCH CORRECTS III. INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS IV. TROUBLESHOOTING THE LAST DYNASTY V. WINDOWS 95 BOOT DISK INSTRUCTIONS VI. CONTACTING TECHNICAL SUPPORT _________________________________________________________ I. AN IMPORTANT NOTE This patch is for the European version of Last Dynasty ONLY. It only corrects problems that occur when running the game in Windows 95. If you have the US version or are running the game in any other version of Windows do not install this patch. (The European version of Last Dynasty is a silver CD; the US CDs are blue.) II. WHAT THE PATCH CORRECTS Some customers have not been able to get their joystick to work in Windows 95. This patch corrects this problem. In addition, the patch corrects the “illegal Dynalink call” error message when starting the game in Windows 95. III. INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS After you have unzipped the patch, copy the files onto a floppy disk in your A: drive. (You can only use the A: drive, the patch will not install from B:.) Then, at the A: prompt, type: GO . This will install the patch to your hard drive. IV. TROUBLESHOOTING THE LAST DYNASTY The following are some common problems encountered with The Last Dynasty. Problem: Your computer fails the Sound Card test; you cannot hear the voice and fanfare in the Wave and MIDI tests. Solution: Your sound card may be incorrectly configured for DAC (Audio) or your sound card drivers may not be properly installed or configured for Windows 95. Make sure your speakers are turned on and run the Windows mixer program for your sound card so you can increase its volume levels for MIDI (music) and DAC (Audio). You should consult your sound card documentation or the manufacturer for information regarding the correct configuration of your sound card in Windows 95. Problem: Your computer fails the Display test because you are not running in 256 colors, or your video card does not meet the Pixels-per- second second Speed requirement for the game. Solution: First make sure you are running Windows in 256 colors. Even though your monitor and video card may be capable of displaying 256 colors, Windows may not be set up to use this resolution. Click on the Start button, select Settings, then Control Panel. Double-click the Display icon. You will see four tabs: Background, Screen Saver, Appearance, and Settings. Click on Settings. In the box under Color Palette, it should say 256 Color. If it does not, click on the down arrow next to the window to view a list of choices, and select the one that says 256 Color. You will also notice a slider bar under Desktop Area for adjusting resolution from 640 by 480 pixels (the lowest setting) upwards. If your video card failed the initial speed test, try adjusting the resolution to 640 by 480 pixels. This will decrease the screen resolution but may improve the speed of your video card. Problem: Your computer fails the Memory test; you get a message stating you do not have enough memory to run The Last Dynasty. Solution: The Last Dynasty requires a computer with a minimum of 8 MB (8192k) of RAM to run. To free up memory in Windows 95, close any and all Windows programs (including screen savers, wallpaper, virus detection programs, shell programs like Norton Desktop or Packard Bell Navigator, etc.) that may be running. On your Taskbar, right-click on the program tab for the program you wish to shut down, and select Close. Then run the Setup program again and try the memory test. If your system still fails the test, consult the boot disk instructions at the end of this document and create a Windows 95 boot disk for your system. Then boot up with the boot disk, disable any and all other Windows programs, and start the Setup/Install program again. These steps should give you enough memory to run the program. Problem: When starting up the game, you get the error message “You need XXXXXX bytes more memory to run this application.” Solution: This problem can be solved by freeing up more memory resources for the game. Make sure that no other Windows programs are running, then create a boot disk and run the game under the boot disk environment. Boot disk instructions are included in this file. Problem: Choppy video or sound playback. Solution: This occurs when the game does not have enough memory resources available for its use. Make sure that no other Windows programs are running, then create a boot disk and run the game under the boot disk environment. Boot disk instructions are included in this file. Problem: When instructed to switch CD’s and press , you get a white “DOS Error - Read Error” message. You may or may not have the opportunity to retry. Solution: When switching CD’s, make sure to allow the drive to initialize the new CD before hitting . Wait for the busy light on the drive to light up and then go dark. At this point, you should be able to press without errors. If problems persist, remove the CD from the drive and check the shiny surface for damage or smudging. If the CD needs cleaning, you can do so with a soft, lint-free cloth. Do not use any cleaners! If you do not see your specific problem listed above, these standard troubleshooting procedures correct most problems running The Last Dynasty. Run the program from a minimal boot disk: Boot disks will free up more system resources and memory for your games. The boot disk also creates an environment that is “cleaner” or free of extra TSR and utilities that can sometimes cause conflicts. Boot disk instructions are included in this README file. Check for corrupted files: Run SCANDISK to detect and correct any hard drive errors and corrupted files. If you find any errors such as cross- linked or truncated files or lost allocation units, correct them, then delete and reinstall The Last Dynasty. Reinstall the game in a clean boot environment: Lockups and other technical problems can be caused by corrupted game files. No program will run correctly if the data or executable files are corrupted. These corruptions can occur during the installation of the game due to conflicts with TSRs or other utilities running during the installation. Reinstalling the game in the same environment will usually result in the same corrupted data. You should install the game in a “clean” boot environment. Create a clean Windows environment: Make sure that all screen savers, virus scans, and sound-related Windows programs (IconHear It, Wired for Sound, etc.) are disabled before starting the game. In addition, if you are using an alternate Windows desktop like Norton Desktop or PCTools, use the regular Windows 95 desktop. You should also check to make sure you have virtual memory enabled. Update drivers: Outdated or incompatible video or sound drivers can also cause lockups and errors in Windows. Some drivers were not included with Windows 95 and must be obtained from the hardware manufacturer. In addition, some hardware manufacturers have already updated the drivers that come with Windows 95. Check with your sound and video card manufacturers to make sure you have the latest versions of their drivers. VI. WINDOWS 95 BOOT DISK INSTRUCTIONS IMPORTANT NOTE: Please read all instructions before beginning this procedure. STEP 1 FORMATTING THE DISK To make a boot disk, you must system format a high density diskette in the A: drive. This procedure will transfer the “system files” to the disk and allow the computer to boot up correctly. The disk must be in the A: drive; the computer will not boot from the B: drive. To format a disk in Windows 95, put the disk in the drive, open My Computer, then right click on the A: icon. From the pop-up menu, select Format. Under “Format type” select Full; under “Other options”, choose Copy system files. Click on Start. After the disk is formatted, you must copy the MSDOS.SYS file from the hard drive to the floppy disk. To do this, leave the floppy disk in the drive, open Windows Explorer and find the MSDOS.SYS file in the root of the C: drive. Right click on the file, then select Send to from the pop- up menu. Send the file to the A: drive. NOTE: If you don’t see the MSDOS.SYS file in Explorer, the file is hidden. To make the file visible, select View, Options, then Show all files. If you do not wish the hidden files to remain visible, you can hide them again after you’ve made the boot disk by choosing View, Options, Hide files of this type. STEP 2 LOCATING THE CD ROM DEVICE DRIVER The CD ROM drive requires a device driver loaded in the CONFIG.SYS file. This driver must be loaded correctly or you will be unable to access your CD ROM drive. To make sure that the device driver loads correctly on the boot disk, look at the CONFIG.SYS on the hard drive and copy the driver line from there. To display the CONFIG.SYS, click on the Start button, then choose Run. In the command line, type SYSEDIT. The SYSEDIT window will appear. Click on the CONFIG.SYS title bar to display the CONFIG.SYS file. Look for the line that loads the CD ROM device driver. The line should look something like this: DEVICE=C:\DRV\CDROMDRV.SYS /D:MSCD001 /P:220 DEVICEHIGH=C:\DRV\CDROMDRV.SYS /D:MSCD001 /P:220 DEVICEHIGH /L:14652 =C:\DRV\CDROMDRV.SYS /D:MSCD001 /P:220 The device driver in your CONFIG.SYS may differ slightly from those listed above. Carefully write down the line for use in your boot disk. If you have a SCSI CD ROM drive, there may be an additional driver in your CONFIG.SYS that must be loaded for the CD ROM device drivers to load correctly. Check your CD drive documentation for more information. NOTE: If you cannot find your CD ROM driver in the CONFIG.SYS file, you may need to look in the CONFIG.DOS file. To access this file, choose Start, Run, then type NOTEPAD C:\CONFIG.DOS. If you still cannot locate the driver, check your CD ROM drive documentation or contact the drive’s manufacturer. STEP 3 LOCATING THE MSCDEX CD ROM EXTENSION (May be optional - See Note below) NOTE: If your CD ROM drive has native 32-bit Windows 95 drivers, you will NOT need to load MSCDEX.EXE on your boot disk. If you are unable to access your CD ROM drive if MSCDEX is not loaded, contact your system manufacturer or CD ROM drive manufacturer for Windows 95 CD ROM drivers. In the meantime, you can use these instructions to load MSCDEX in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file on your boot disk. In addition to the CD ROM device driver in the CONFIG.SYS, your CD ROM drive requires MSCDEX, the Microsoft extension for CD ROM drives. If this extension is not loaded correctly in the AUTOEXEC.BAT, you will be unable to access your CD ROM drive. To make sure that MSCDEX loads correctly on the boot disk, use SYSEDIT to look at the AUTOEXEC.BAT on your C: drive and copy the MSCDEX line from there. It should look something like this: C:\DOS\MSCDEX /D:MSCD001 LH C:\DOS\MSCDEX /D:MSCD001 LOADHIGH /L:14429 C:\DOS\MSCDEX /D:MSCD001 The MSCDEX line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT may differ slightly from the ones above. Carefully write down the line for use in your boot disk. If you cannot find the MSCDEX line in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, then most likely you do not need to load it to access your CD ROM drive in Windows 95. Skip this step and continue to Step 4. STEP 4 CREATING THE CONFIG.SYS FILE To create the CONFIG.SYS file on the boot disk, choose Start, Run, then type NOTEPAD A:\CONFIG.SYS in the command line field. This will start the Windows Notepad program. In the new Notepad screen, enter the following lines: DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS DOS=HIGH,UMB FILES=30 BUFFERS=20 Add the CD ROM device driver as you wrote it down in the “Locating the CD ROM Device Driver” section. The device driver should look something like this: DEVICEHIGH=C:\DRV\CDROMDRV.SYS /D:MSCD001 /P:220 Save the file by clicking on File, Save. Close Notepad by clicking on File, Exit. STEP 5 CREATING THE AUTOEXEC.BAT FILE To create the AUTOEXEC.BAT file on the boot disk, choose Start, Run, then type NOTEPAD A:\AUTOEXEC.BAT in the command line field. This will start the Windows Notepad program. In the new Notepad screen, enter the following lines: @ECHO OFF C:\ SET COMSPEC=C:\COMMAND.COM PROMPT SIERRA BOOT DISK $_$P$G PATH=C:\;C:\DOS;C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND;C: \SIERRA If your CD ROM drive requires the MSCDEX CD-ROM extension, add the line loading MSCDEX that you wrote down in Step 3 Save the file by clicking on File, Save. Close Notepad by clicking on File, Exit. STEP 6 REBOOT THE COMPUTER AND RUN THE GAME Leave the disk in the drive and restart the computer by clicking on Start, Shut Down., then Restart the computer. The computer will now re-boot with the boot disk. When Windows 95 restarts, start your game. VI. CONTACTING SIERRA TECHNICAL SUPPORT If you are playing the European version of Last Dynasty (silver CDs), you must contact Sierra’s Technical Support in Europe. UNITED KINGDOM Sierra On-Line Technical Support 4 Brewery Court The old Brewery, Theale, Reading, Berkshire RG7 5AJ Phone: (44) 1734 303 171 FAX: (44) 1734 303 201 BBS: (44) 1734 304 227 FRANCE Sierra On-Line / Coktel Technical Support Parc Tertiaire de Meudon Immeuble “Le Newton” 25 rue Jeanne Braconnier 92366 Meudon La Foret Cedex Phone: (33) 1 46 01 4650 FAX: (33) 1 46 31 7172 GERMANY Sierra Coktel Vision Deutschland Robert Bosch Str. 32 D-63303 Dreieich Phone: (49) 6 103 99 4040 FAX: (49) 6 103 99 4035 SPAIN System 4 - Coktel Educative Calle Tomas REDONDO, 11 F Edificio Indo Building Luarca 28033 MADRID Phone: (34) 1 381 53 32 FAX: (34) 1 764 58 85 If you decide to write or fax Technical Support, please fill out the following information. This will give Technical Support the information we need to help you as efficiently as possible. Thanks! Problem:___________________________________________________ _______________ ____________________________________________________ ______________ ____________________________________________________ ______________ ____________________________________________________ ______________ Your Name:___________________ Date: __________ Company: _____________________ Your Daytime Telephone Number:____________ Your Evening/Voice Number: ____________ Your Address:___________________________________________________ __________ Your E-Mail Address:______________________ Please circle or fill in the following: Game Name Game was played in: Windows 3.1 Windows 95 DOS Other:___________ Computer Brand Compaq AST Acer IBM Clone Other:__________ Computer Model Presario-CDS524 Advantage Aptiva Other:________ Processor Maker Intel Cyrix AMD IBM Other:_____ Processor Model 386 486 Pentium Other:_________ Processor Speed Mhz 25 33 50 66 90 Other:______ BIOS Manufacturer AMI Phoenix Award Other:______ BIOS Date, Version ________________ Total Memory Counts up to 4096 7808 8192 Other:_________ Free Conventional _________ Free Expanded EMS _________ Free Extended XMS _________ Memory Manager DOS-HIMEM-EMM386 QEMM6.03 QEMM7.5 Other:_____ Video Card Brand ATI Cirrus Diamond Hercules Other:______ Video Card Model Mach32 Stingray SpeedStarPlus Other:_______ Video Card Memory 512K 1meg 2meg Other:__________ Video Card Bus ISA Built-in VLB PCI Windows Video Res 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1280x1024 Windows Video Color 256 32000 65535 16million Other:_______ Last time Win video driver was updated: Today MonthAgo Never Other:____ Command used to enable VESA in DOS: C:\MACH32\VVESA None Other:______ Number of Hard Drives _____ Hard Drive Controller MFM IDE EIDE SCSI ESDI Other:_____ Hard Drive Size ________ Hard Drive Space Available _____________ CD-ROM Brand Mitsumi NEC Sony Oak Other:_________ CD-ROM came with computer: YES NO UNSURE CD-ROM Speed 1x(Single) 2x(Double) 3x(Triple) Other:____ CD-ROM Controller Soundcard IDE SCSI Other:_______ MSCDEX Version 2.20 2.21 2.22 2.23 Other: Music Sound Card Brand SoundBlaster16 RolandMT-32 Other:____________ Speech Sound Card Brand SoundBlaster16 ProAudioSpectrum16 Other:______ I/O Port Address 220 240 Other:______ IRQ Setting 3 5 7 10 Other:________ DMA Setting 1 3 5 Other:________ SET BLASTER = A220-I5-D1 Other:_____________________ Last time Win sound driver was updated: Today MonthAgo Never Other:_____ Windows' CANYON.MID plays OK Yes No DOS Version MS-DOS-5.0 MS-DOS-6.22 Other:___________ Windows Version 3.1 WFW3.11 95 Other:___________ Windows Swapfile Type Temporary Permanent None Windows Swapfile Size ______________ Other O/S DR-DOS-6 OS/2-2.1 OS/2-Warp Other: Windows Shell Used RegularProgramManager NDW PCTools KidDesk C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM.INI SHELL = _______________________ C:\WINDOWS\WIN.INI LOAD = ________________________ Mouse Brand Microsoft Logitech Dell Other:________ Mouse Type Serial Bus PS/2-Style Other:________ Mouse Software Ver: ________________ Mouse works in "EDIT" Yes No Mouse works with other games Yes No Is a Scanner installed? YES NO Other Special Hardware Installed? Network VidCapCard Other:________ Make sure any special hardware doesn't conflict with your sound card Have you tried a boot disk? YES NO Please print out or copy-and-paste a copy of your C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT and C:\CONFIG.SYS files to this form.