This file contains important information. Reading it carefully will increase your enjoyment of your new CD-ROM. If you are experiencing a problem with Exploring Ancient Cities, first check this document. A solution or a tip to your problem may already be here. If not, please contact Sumeria's technical support department at:
Sumeria, Inc.
329 Bryant Street, #3D
San Francisco, CA 94107
415/904-0800 Telephone
415/904-0888 FAX
MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Macintosh:
System 7.0; 6MB of RAM; 13-inch monitor (256 or better colors); CD-ROM drive (double-speed recommended).
IBM-Compatible:
CPU with 486/33MHz or higher processor; 8MB of RAM; DOS 5.0; Windows 3.1; VGA+ display (256 or better colors at 640 x 480 resolution); sound card; CD-ROM drive (double-speed recommended).
ABOUT THE CD
Like other Sumeria CD-ROM titles, Exploring Ancient Cities utilizes a HFS/ISO dual format standard, or ╥hybrid╙ for short. Sumeria hybrid CDs can be run on either a Macintosh or IBM-compatible computer without any special software (other than your normal CD driver software). Unlike hybrid discs of the past (which effectively split the CD into two partitions), all 600MB of data are available on either platform.
TECHNICAL ISSUES AND USAGE TIPS
Exploring Ancient Cities pushes the edge of multimedia technology in order to achieve the most functionality and the highest quality. Low end machines (less than 6MB of available RAM, unaccelerated graphics cards, old or substandard CD-ROM drives, etc.) may reduce playback quality.
TO EXIT THE PROGRAM
Roll the cursor to the top of the screen to activate the menu. Choose "quit" from the main menu. (Note: the printed instructions mistakenly state that you can use command-Q to exit, but that will step you to the next story.)
MOVIE PLAYBACK
Avoid moving the cursor to the top of the screen while movies are playing. This activates the pulldown menu, which interferes with movie playback.
If movie playback is garbled or choppy, make sure virtual memory is turned off. Use the Memory control panel to turn it off and then restart your computer.
TEXT SEARCH
To search text, use the Export\Search pulldown menu. When the dialog box appears, type in a term and click the "Find" button. Ancient Cities will display the first page of the section containing the first instance of requested term. To search for the next instance of the same term, choose Search from the pulldown menu and click the Next button. Some searches are very fast, while others may take considerably longer. General requests, such as "House," or "Temple" will likely be returned quickly. More specific requests, such as "integration of scupture and architecture" will take much longer. Keep your search requests concise. To exit Text Search, choose Cancel from the Search Menu.
TEXT AND MOVIE EXPORT
The first time you elect to export "this page only" text, you will be given the chance to name the file and a destination. Thereafter, text will be added automatically to that file. If you exit the program, you'll have to name a new file for new exports. Be sure that you don't try to export a file back to the CD. When you export a movie, you select the destination and a folder named "Ancient Cities Exports" will be created at that destination.
PULLDOWN MENUS
Pulldown menus in Ancient Cities can be activated by rolling the cursor to the top of the screen. They vary from city to city, but usually contain export and search functions, control functions such as turn captions on and off, a list of slideshows, etc. They may not function properly on some Macintoshes (such as the Mac IIci and Mac IIsi) that have limited VRAM, no dedicated VRAM or unaccelerated video displays.
NOTE: if the menu should permanently disappear when using Ancient Cities (i.e. it doesn't activate when you roll the cursor to the top of the screen), try going to on of the articles (e.g. "Crete"). This will usually reinstall the menu.
USE OF MOVIES, PHOTOS, AND TEXT
You may copy the movies to your local hard disk for personal or educational re-use. You may not use them in any commercial endeavor or otherwise redistribute any of the material on the CD. If you wish to do so, please contact Sumeria to make arrangements.
