Sierra's Sneak Peeks 1993/Sierra Sneak Peeks 1993.iso/bootdisk/read.me

Text File | 1993-04-22 | 6KB | 108 lines

                          Sierra Boot Disk Maker
                               BOOTDISK.EXE

WHY USE A BOOT DISK?:
1)   Although your computer has a large amount of memory installed, you may
still be experiencing "insufficient memory" errors due to the configuration
of  your particular computer.  The Technical Support Department will use  a
boot  disk  to  free  up conventional memory or to configure  your  systems
memory according to the needs of a Sierra/Dynamix game.

There  are  many TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) programs  available  for
today's  IBM  compatible  systems.  TSR  programs  are  nothing  more  than
programs  that load into your system's memory and allow you to continue  to
use  your  computer for other applications.  Since these programs  stay  in
memory,  they  use  memory  that our games may require.   Examples  of  TSR
programs  are  mouse drivers, disk compression utilities, memory  managers,
disk  cache programs and many more.  Often these programs are required  for
proper  functionality  of  your system and simply  need  to  be  loaded  in
different areas of your system's memory.

2)   The  Technical  Support  Department may  also  use  a  boot  disk   to
troubleshoot possible conflicts between system software and your game.  The
cause  of  these conflicts may not be apparent.  Creating a boot disk  will
reduce the possibility of software conflicts and allow us to determine what
is causing the problem more quickly.

3)   The  boot  disk  is  also  used  to  make  changes  to  your  system's
configuration  without  changing the CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT  files  you
currently  use.   It is likely that your current configuration  works  fine
with  all your other programs and the changes need to be made only for  the
game  you  are playing.  If we were to change your normal settings,  it  is
possible  that  other programs may not function correctly.   Therefore  the
boot  disk  insures that your system stays configured for  all  your  other
software while allowing you to play your Sierra/Dynamix game.

BOOTDISK.EXE makes it easy to create a Sierra boot disk on almost  any  IBM
compatible  system.  Although we cannot guarantee that the boot disk  maker
will  work  on  all systems, using BOOTDISK.EXE is an easy & quick  way  to
create the boot disk required for playing your game.

HOW BOOTDISK.EXE WORKS:
BOOTDISK.EXE is easy to use!  Simply place a blank disk in drive  A:,  type
BOOTDISK   <ENTER>  and  follow the simple on screen  instructions.   Since
different Sierra/Dynamix games require different configurations, there  are
some  options you may need to use for the boot disk to work correctly  with
your  game.  Below, we have listed some of these options and how  they  are
used.

NOTE:  You  must  use lower case letters for the option to work  correctly.
UPPERCASE LETTERS ARE NOT RECOGNIZED.

BOOTDISK -? <ENTER>
This  command  will  display the BOOTDISK help file  as  well  as  all  the
available options for creating a boot disk for your system and game.

BOOTDISK -c <ENTER>
This   command  adds  CD  ROM  drivers  to  the  boot  disk  for  use  with
Sierra/Dynamix CD games.  PLEASE NOTE:  Do not use this option  unless  the
game  you  are trying to make the boot disk for is a CD ROM game.   CD  ROM
drivers  require large amounts of memory and could inhibit the  performance
of your floppy disk based game.

BOOTDISK -e
This  command  configures  the boot disk for EMS  (Expanded)  memory.   For
example,  Aces of the Pacific and Front Page Sports Football  from  Dynamix
require  EMS  memory.  Do not use this option unless your  game  needs  EMS
memory.   Many of today's systems have XMS (Extended) memory which  can  be
converted  to EMS memory by configuring the system differently.   Use  this
option to ensure proper functionality if your game requires EMS memory.

BOOTDISK -dC:\SIERRA -rSQ4 <ENTER>
This command causes the boot disk to change to the C:\SIERRA> directory and
run  the SQ4.BAT (Space Quest IV) program.  PLEASE NOTE:  You will need  to
replace the SQ4 with the letters that start the game you are playing.   For
example, if you were playing King's Quest 6, you would replace the SQ4 with
KQ6.   If the game does not start when you reboot your system with the boot
disk in drive A:, the most likely cause would be that the path or file name
are incorrect for the game you are playing.

Should the BOOTDISK.EXE not work on your system, instructions are available
from  the Sierra BBS for manually creating a boot disk.  The file  name  is
BDALL.EXE on the Sierra BBS and BDALL.ZIP on Compuserve.  The file contains
all currently available Sierra boot disk instructions.

If  you  continue to experience any problems, or if you have any  questions
concerning any of the above files, our Technical Support Team will be  more
than  happy to assist you.  Please call [phone] between 8:15 am  and
4:45 PM Monday through Friday Pacific time.  We can also be reached by  fax
at [phone] or by mail at the following address:
                              SIERRA ON-LINE
                               P.O. BOX 800
                         COARSEGOLD, CA 93614-0800
                          ATTN: TECHNICAL SUPPORT

You  can  also  reach  the Technical Support Department  on  the  following
services:

Sierra BBS...............[phone] (Settings 8,N,1 & up to 9600bps)
Compuserve...............GAMAPUB (Technical Support ID 76004,2143)
PRODIGY..................(Technical  Support  ID  WBWW55A  for  Sierra   or
WBWW55B for Dynamix)
GEnie
America's On-Line

Please  outline  the  problems along with specific information  about  your
computer  system,  and we will gladly respond to your fax,  letter  or  BBS
message as soon as possible.