Rise of the Robots Floppy Patch File - Version 1.01 Dec. 19, 1994 ====================================================================== This game patch is for people that have problems with their 100% Sound Blaster Compatible Sound card. If your sound card cuts out after working at the beginning of the game, try this patch. Make sure that the following files are copied to the RISE game subdirectory: RISE.EXE README.TXT README.BAT This should solve the sound problems that you have with Rise of the Robots. Rise of the Robots Help File - Version 1.0 Oct. 27, 1994 ============================================================= This help file is designed to help you get Rise of the Robots running to the maximum ability of your machine as quickly as possible. Section 1. Game Configurations. =============================== Rise of the Robots runs in Super VGA mode. Type RISE to run the game. If you don't have at least 512Kb on your video card or your video card has problems working with the Super VGA mode, we apologize. This game will not work with your system. When running the Super VGA version of the game, be sure that your video card either has built-in VESA compatibility, or a VESA driver has been loaded. If you don't have a VESA driver for your video card, we have supplied you with UniVBE Lite version 5.0 licensed to us by SciTech Software. This is a universal VESA driver that works with most Super VGA cards including the following: Ahead A & B ATI Technologies 18800, 28800, Mach 32 Advanced Logic AL2101 Super VGA Chips & Technologies 82c451/452/453/450 Cirrus Logic CL-GD 5402/20/22/24/26/28/29/30/34 Genoa Systems GVGA Hualon HMC86304 MXIC 86010 Super VGA NCR 77C20/21/22E/32BLT OAK Technologies OTI-037C/067/077/087 Paradise PVGA1A, WD90C00/10/11/20/21/26A/30/31/33 Primus 2000 Super VGA RealTek 3106 Super VGA S3 86c911/924/801/805/928 Trident 8800, 8900, 9000 Tseng Labs ET3000, ET4000, ET4000/W32 UMC 85c408 Video 7 VEGA, HT208/209/216 Weitek 5186/286 (on P9000 based boards) Type UNIVBE in the game directory to load the driver before running either the SETUP program or RISE. The complete UniVBE Lite software package (including UNIVBE.EXE, UNIVBE.DOC, and VBETEST.EXE) is in a subdirectory called UNIVBE50 on either DISK1(Floppy versions) or the CD-ROM. Thanks to SciTech Software and TR Consulting for supplying the UniVBE Lite driver. Section 2. Getting the game to run. =================================== There are several reasons why Rise may not run on your machine. Rise will try to tell you why it did not run, so please read its messages carefully. General problems. ----------------- 1) Not enough memory. Rise needs ALL of a 4 megabyte machines memory to run, so if you are running on a 4Meg machine, you will have to set up your machine carefully. If you have more than 4 megabytes, you should never have memory problems. Rise will try to use as little base memory as possible (Approximately 400Kb). Things to remove are... a) SMARTDRV - this utility is a prime candidate for eating your memory. Remove this before playing on a 4Meg machine. b) TSRs - any TSRs except CD-ROM drivers can be removed while playing Rise. This includes the mouse driver. Rise doesn't need it to run. c) Memory Managers - it is advised that you remove ALL memory managers (EMM386.SYS, QEMM386.SYS, etc.) except for HIMEM.SYS, if your system still doesn't work. Note: If you remove QEMM386 or any other memory managers that do not use HIMEM.SYS, you must add HIMEM.SYS to your CONFIG.SYS file. 2) Sound effects don't work or cut in and out during play. Rise sound effects work on Soundblaster cards and 100% compatibles. Assuming you have one and have sound switched on, there are two further reasons why sound won't work properly. a) The BLASTER environment variable hasn't been set. This is a standard laid down by Creative Labs to tell an application about the way a sound card is configured. This should be set by a command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file similar to SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T4 See you sound card manual for details on how to set this variable up. b) There isn't enough base (REAL) memory. Rise needs 200Kb of base memory for sounds. The only solution for this problem is to have at least 400Kb of base memory. See above (Not enough memory). 3) Keyboard control problems. Any control problems you may experience when using the keyboard can be resolved by redefining the control keys you have chosen. To change the keyboard controls run the SETUP program from the DOS prompt. 4) Joystick problems. As with most joystick games, joysticks should be centered to insure their proper function. This game automatically centers the joystick(s) when you start the game. If they weren't, or the joystick(s) start misbehaving, press 'J' at any point during the game. This should re-calibrate them. Also, some joysticks are not well suited to be used with fighting games. The best controllers are the ones designed like the arcade or console game systems. If you are looking for a joystick that will work well with this game, we recommend the "Gravis PC GamePad" from Advanced GRAVIS. This game supports up to two joysticks. In order to use two joysticks, you will need a joystick splitter to put in the 15 pin connector, to allow both joysticks to be plugged into the one port. There is a standard to which joystick splitters should adhere. Some splitters are not full implementations of this standard, and therefore, you may get incomplete two joystick access. We recommend the "Gravis Y Adapter" also from Advanced GRAVIS, part # 7120-1 (or 7120-6 if you order it directly from Advanced GRAVIS). We have tested it, and it works correctly. Additional problems may occur if your joystick card (sound card) doesn't follow the joystick port standard. Symptoms include everything working except player 2 block button (button 2). If this is true, you might want to disable your current joystick port and add a new joystick card. Note: There is a known problem with running the Soundblaster 16 SCSI board with joysticks due to poor joystick port design. 5) Speed problems. If your machine is 486DX or above and you are still finding Rise runs slowly with a fast video card, you should check that you have Internal Caching on in your CMOS setup. Check your machine manual for this. Section 3. Super VGA Specific problems. ======================================= 1) VESA compatible video card was not found. Basically, you need a Super VGA card with VESA drivers loaded to play Rise. If you don't have a Super VGA card, you have two options: buy one, or return this game to the place you purchased it from. If you HAVE a Super VGA card and you get this message, you will have to load the UniVBE driver (See Section 1 above). 2) VESA found but no suitable mode found. This is serious. It means that although you have a VESA compliant Super VGA card, it does not support a suitable video mode for Rise. Rise requires the 640x400x256 (mode 100h) or 640x480x256 (mode 101h). If your card doesn't have either, you can't play. This is a hardware limitation. For technical people: Rise works on cards with a graphics base address of 0A0000h only, and 64k windows (single or overlapping). 3) VESA mode found but failed mode initialization. This is probably caused by the wrong VESA driver being installed. Use the UniVBE driver that is included with the game. 4) VESA initializes but the game flickers when run. This may mean you only have 256Kb onboard memory (Rise needs 512Kb to run flicker-free), or the video card is too slow in its Super VGA mode for the game. Certain Windows accelerator video boards were not designed to work fast in Super VGA modes, and therefore may have this problem. 5) You own a Diamond Viper or an ATI Graphics Pro Turbo board. We apologize for the fact that the Diamond and ATI people designed their board NOT to be compatible with anything that we are doing. If you have this board, this game will not work. Sorry. Section 4. Tech support. ======================== Aside from the tech support number and America OnLine support area identified by the manual, Time Warner Interactive is pleased to introduce its new bulletin board system, First Class(r) Server by SoftArc Inc. First Class is a unique bulletin board system that offers access to both Macintosh and IBM PC computers. Users can log in using a command-line interface, or download the optional First Class(r) Client software for either the Windows or MacOS, which provides a graphical interface similar to a Macintosh Desktop. Users may also download the optional TWIBBS settings file for the Macintosh, and experience customized pictures, sounds and icons, specifically designed for our BBS. Users can read technical information on TWI games, hints, FAQs (frequently asked questions), download files, chat, and much more. The Time Warner Interactive Bulletin Board System's phone number is (818) 295-6730 (8N1, up to 14.4K baud). It is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The System Administrator, Michael Rusak, can be contacted at (818) 295-6669 9:00AM-6:00PM PST Mon.-Fri. Thank You for buying this game. I hope you enjoy it. Time Warner Interactive & Mirage Technologies (Multimedia) Ltd.