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▀███▀▀█▄ ▄█ ███▄▄█▀ ██ Realms of Chaos v1.0 ███▀██▄ ██ Technical Support File ███ ███ ▄█▀▀█▄ ▄█▀▀██ ██ ▄██▄▀██▄▀██ ▄▀ ███ ███ ██ ▄█▀ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ▀▀██▄ Apogee Software, Ltd. ███ ███ ███▀ ▄ ██ ██ ██▀ ██ ██ ██ ██ P.O. Box 496389 ▄███ ███▄ ██▄▄█▀ ██▄▀▀█▄ ▄▀ ▀█ ▀█ ▀█ ▀▄▄█▀ Garland, TX 75049-6389 (214) 278-5655 ▄██▀▀█▄█ ▄█ ▄█▀█▄ ▐██▌ ▀█ ██ ██ █▀ ██ ▀ ██ ▄█▀▀██ ▄██▄ ██ ██▄▀▄ ▄█▀▀██ ▄█▀▀██ ▄▀ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ▀▀██▄ ██ ██ ██ ██▌ ▄█ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██▄▄▀ ██ ▀██▄██▀ ▄▀█ █▌ ██▄▀▀█▄ ██▄▄▀ ▀▀▄▄█▀ ██ ▐█ (tm) ██ █ ██ ▌ Copyright (c) 1995 Apogee Software, Ltd. █ ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── This document gives detailed instructions on how to play Realms of Chaos, as well as being a troubleshooting guide. Instructions on how to play the game are inside the game (Press F1 during game play), or are in your printed manual that accompanied your registered version of the game. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐ │TABLE OF CONTENTS AND HOW TO USE THIS FILE│ └──────────────────────────────────────────┘ This document is set up with a quick search capability. If you press F7 at any time, you will get a listing of all the categories to look at in this file. Press F7 now to look at it. In this menu, you can scroll up and down the listing of items to read, and then select one by pressing ENTER. You will be taken directly to that item. If you wish to search for a specific piece of text, you can hit F3 to enter any text to search for. If you just wish to scroll up and down, you can use the arrow keys to move through the text. You can also use the Home and End keys to quickly get to the top or the bottom of this file. Here is a listing of all the sections in this document. Remember, you can press F7 at any time to see an interactive listing of them all. 1) Table of Contents 2) System Requirements 3) How to play from the CD-ROM 4) How to use the Setup program 5) ROC Detailed Help & Troubleshooting 6) ROC Command Line Parameters 7) What is the "SET BLASTER" Command, and why do I need it? 8) How to get ROC running under Windows 9) How to get ROC running under OS/2 10) The 640k Barrier 11) Contacting Technical Support 12) Apogee Online ┌───────────────────┐ │SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS│ └───────────────────┘ ■ Realms of Chaos' minimum system requirements to play are: A 386SX/16 with 512k of free conventional memory for the shareware episode, and 537k of free conventional memory for the registered version. Realms of Chaos requires 640k of EMS/XMS for sound, but will use up to 2Mb of EMS/XMS if it is available. We recommend a of a 486 with 3 megs of memory (2 megs configured for EMS or XMS) for optimal performance. ■ For game play the following devices are optionally supported: Keyboard, Joystick, Gravis GamePad. ■ The following sound cards/devices are also optionally supported: For Music: Sound Blaster, Pro Audio Spectrum, Adlib, General MIDI, WaveBlaster, Gravis UltraSound For SFX: Sound Blaster, Pro Audio Spectrum, Gravis UltraSound, Disney Sound Source (there is no support for the PC Speaker) ┌───────────┐ │CD-ROM PLAY│ └───────────┘ If you are installing Realms of Chaos to your hard drive, you can skip this section. This section only applies if you will be playing the game directly from the CD-ROM. NOTE: For best performance, we recommend installing to your hard drive. If you decide to play from the CD-ROM, gameplay should be acceptable so long as you have at least a double speed CD-ROM. Loading time might be a bit slow, but once loaded, the game should play quite well from the CD-ROM. If it seems slow, try increasing your computer's CD-ROM cache size. All the examples in this section will assume that your CD-ROM is your E: drive, and that you're installing Realms of Chaos to your C: drive. If this is not what your system is configured as, please substitute your own drive letters. In order to play ROC directly from the CD-ROM, you will need to follow these steps after installing the minimum required files as indicated from the CD-ROM installation program. 1) Go to the C:\ROC directory. 2) Set the APOGEECD environment variable to the directory name that you wish anything (configuration files, save games) written by ROC to go. Example: SET APOGEECD=C:\ROC See the accompanying ROC.BAT file for how this command is used in the provided batch file. 3) Go to the E:\ROC directory. 4) Run SETUP.EXE to configure your system parameters, including sound. 5) Pick the "Save Options" option to quit the setup program and play. The reason the environment variable is necessary is that Realms of Chaos writes several files (configuration files, save games, etc), and these files cannot be written to a CD-ROM. If you do not set this path before attempting to run Realms of Chaos from the CD-ROM, you will have problems since Realms of Chaos will attempt to write files to the CD-ROM, and of course, that will fail. The above five steps are made easier if you use the provided ROC.BAT file. If you accepted the defaults, this file will be in C:\ROC. Please examine this batch file before using it, as it assumes some things about your system. If yours is different (it most likely will be), then you will run into problems if you do not customize the ROC.BAT file for your system. If, when running the batch file, you see an error message that says "Out of environment space", it means that you need to allocate more memory to your system environment in order to facilitate the use of the APOGEECD variable. If you get this error, do not attempt to run the game; you will need to correct the environment space error first. To do this, please examine the /E parameter of the SHELL command in your DOS manual. An example that should work for most people would be: SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS /E:512 /P If you run the batch file, and you get something like Microsoft's Windows Setup or WordPerfect's setup, it means that the batch file has either not been altered to match your system, or it has been incorrectly altered. Please recheck your directories and try again. ┌────────────────────────────┐ │HOW TO USE THE SETUP PROGRAM│ └────────────────────────────┘ NOTE: If you have a mouse driver available, it will work in the setup program. However, there is no mouse support inside the game itself. There is plenty of information available in the ROC setup program. It is broken down into four screens. The four screens are: 1) Settings Menu - This is interactive, and explained in detail below. 2) Resource Checklist - This shows you what ROC has found on your system. The first three options are requirements, and if found, they will be checked off. 3) Current Settings - This will show you what you currently have configured. 4) InfoBox - This is a "Quick Help" type of screen, and will give you real time descriptions of all the options you can pick. Here is an explanation of all the options you can select in the Settings Menu. ■ Change Settings - This will allow you to alter your configuration for Realms of Chaos to match your computer and its configuration. Select Music Card - Select your music sound card here. Select Sound FX Card - Select your Sound FX card here. Select Controller - Select what you wish to play the game with here. Assign Keyboard Controls - Keyboard layout can be reassigned here. Assign Joystick Buttons - Joystick button functions can be reassigned here. Calibrate Joystick - This is where you will calibrate your joystick. Done - Go back to the Main Setup program Menu. ■ Will ROC Run on my System? - This is an option that will examine the resource checklist against what you have configured, and will tell you if ROC will run on your system. ■ I am Using Windows or OS/2 - This gives VERY brief information about running under Windows or OS/2. Please see the appropriate section in this file for detailed information. ■ Can I run ROC from CD? - This gives very brief information about running ROC from a CD-ROM. Please see the "Running ROC from a CD-ROM" section of this document for detailed information. ■ How do I Order? - Gives ordering information on how to get the full version of Realms of Chaos from Apogee Software. ■ Save Settings and Quit - Saves all currently settings to disk and quits the setup program. There is an option to not save your settings if you have made a mistake, or do not wish to save for some reason. This can also be accessed by hitting the escape key from the setup Main Menu. ┌──────────────────────────┐ │ROC HELP & TROUBLESHOOTING│ └──────────────────────────┘ ■ Apogee strongly recommends that you consult your hardware and software manuals for your system before you make any suggested changes to your current system setup. Your manuals will tell you if you are about to make changes that may irreparably alter your computer or its configuration. Modifying your system or software can be dangerous if not done properly. Apogee will not be able to assist you with any problems resulting from such modifications. ■ If you get any of the following errors, it means you are in a low memory situation. In order to resolve it, you will have to make more memory available to the program. Please see the next paragraph for more information on how to make more memory available. "Bad SampleName passed to PlaySample()." "Object allocation failure in InitObj()." "UserPtr allocation failure in InitObj()." "XMS buffer allocation failure in MachMemSetup()." "High Score buffer allocation failure." "LoadLevel could not allocate memory." "LoadSprite() failure." ■ If you get an error message that says, "Not enough memory: you need at least xxxxxx far bytes free", then you are low on conventional memory. You'll need to make more conventional memory available before you will be able to play. Realms of Chaos requires 537k of conventional memory (512k for shareware) to run (although more is better). The best way around this is to "boot clean." This means to boot your system without loading any unnecessary memory resident programs. The easiest way to do this is to create a bootable floppy disk according to the instructions in your DOS manual (see the FORMAT /S command) and create a file called CONFIG.SYS and a file called AUTOEXEC.BAT on that disk. Please refer to your DOS manual for instructions on creating these files. These files should contain the following lines: CONFIG.SYS ========== DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS DOS=HIGH FILES=30 BUFFERS=30 STACKS=9,256 <if your sound card requires a line in config.sys, put it here> <if you use disk compression, make sure to load that driver> <if you require a driver to access your hard drive, make sure to use it> AUTOEXEC.BAT ============ @echo off <your path line> <your prompt line> SET BLASTER=<see section on SET BLASTER for more help on this line> The <your path line> and <your prompt line> items in the sample AUTOEXEC.BAT file refer to the lines that start with the words PATH and PROMPT in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file that is on your C: drive. These lines are optional, but including them will make navigating your hard drive a little easier. If you have DOS 5, you will need to create a boot disk and make CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, using the above examples. If you have DOS 6 or higher, you have two ways of booting clean without the need for a boot disk. For DOS 6 and higher, the fastest way is to reboot your computer and watch for a message that says "Starting MS-DOS" (IBM versions will say either "Starting PC DOS" or "Starting IBM DOS"). When you see this message, press your F8 function key. You will then be prompted to confirm each line of your current CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. This will allow you to temporarily turn off the programs that you do not need or that may be causing problems. ONLY ANSWER "YES" TO THE LINES SHOWN ABOVE AND THE "OK to process AUTOEXEC.BAT?" QUESTION. When finished, you will be left at a plain C:\> prompt. NOTE: Pressing the Left Shift or F5 function key at the "Starting MS-DOS" prompt will not work properly. Realms of Chaos requires EMS or XMS memory to play Sound Effects, and doing this will not allow this to happen. You will need the HIMEM.SYS line (or its equivalent if you are using a third party program) to be executed, and this does not happen if you use the F5 key. NOTE: Windows95 Users - if you wish to boot to just MS-DOS and bypass the GUI portion of Windows95, you can easily do it. What you'll need to do is to hit the F8 key when you reboot and see "Starting Windows95". You are then presented with another menu. Pick "Command Prompt Only". This will take you to DOS, and will not bring up Windows. Alternately, you could set up a separate config.sys & autoexec.bat file for Realms of Chaos in the PIF file, and use that. However, that should not be necessary unless you have a very low amount of memory. If you are more familiar with DOS, we strongly recommend that you set up a multi-boot option. The newer versions of DOS allow you to set up multiple boot configuration sections in your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, mostly eliminating the need for boot disks. Again, please consult your DOS manual for instructions on how to create a boot disk, or a multi-boot configuration using the parameters stated above. If you'd like some background information on "real mode" memory, please see the section entitled "The 640k barrier" later in this document. ■ If your copy of ROC locks up randomly and you have a sound card, you might be experiencing a DMA conflict. These are caused by having more than one hardware device sharing a DMA (Direct Memory Access) channel with your sound card. DMA channels are used by ROC to send sounds to your sound card. When you have more than one piece of hardware on a single DMA channel, the chip on your motherboard that controls DMA transfers may become confused and send the sound to the wrong place. When this happens, your system will lock up. Devices that usually cause DMA conflicts include CD-ROM drives, older dedicated FAX boards, tape backup drives connected to an accelerator card (not including tape drives plugged into your floppy drive controller cable), and in newer systems, the ECP/EPP parallel port on your I/O card or on the motherboard itself. If any of these devices are present on your system, they may be the source of your lockups. DMA conflicts cannot usually be spotted by diagnostic software (e.g., PC Tools SI.EXE, Norton Utilities NDIAGS, etc.). Apogee does not recommend the use of such software to determine if you have a DMA conflict. Instead, if you suspect a DMA conflict, try the following test: 1. Run the SETUP program and select NONE for your Sound FX card. 2. Play ROC and watch for lockups. If the game no longer locks up, then you were definitely experiencing a DMA conflict between your sound card and some other device. The ONLY way to resolve a DMA conflict is to physically move the conflicting device to another DMA channel. In all but the rarest cases involving devices that "download" their configuration at boot-up time, you cannot do this through software. You also cannot solve the problem by simply unloading the driver for the conflicting device. Since this is a true hardware conflict, the problem can persist even if the device driver is not loaded when you boot your machine. In laymen's terms, booting clean won't solve the problem. You will most likely have to move a "jumper" (see your manuals for a description) to physically reconfigure the conflicting device. If you need assistance with reconfiguring your device(s), please consult your system's manuals or contact the manufacturer of the device(s) in question. Apogee Software cannot provide assistance for reconfiguring your hardware. For best performance, do not move your sound card to a different channel: leave it where it is (usually channel 1 for 8-bit cards, or channels 1 and 5 for 16-bit cards). Instead, move the conflicting device. After you have resolved the DMA conflict, you may re-run the SETUP program and re-select your sound card under the Sound FX setup. If your copy of ROC still locks up, you may wish to check some settings in your CMOS configuration as a last resort. If any of these are on, then switch them off: Hidden Refresh, Hardware Video Shadowing, Turbo Switching. Also, if you have either of these, turn them on: HD1 Block Mode; IDE HDD Block Mode. ■ If you have a Diamond SpeedStar video card, disable Zero Wait State. ■ If you hear static when you are playing with a Sound Blaster or compatible card, make sure to turn the MIC and LINE volumes to zero. Your card may be seeing input from these, resulting in static. For a Sound Blaster Pro, the program that adjusts these is called SBP-SET: see your card's manual for precise instructions on how to do this. If you still continue to hear static after doing this, try disconnecting any parallel port devices. IRQ5 and IRQ7, which are used by sound cards, are often frequently used by printers as well. If you have both plugged in, the result may be static and poor sound performance. ■ If you are running a Compaq computer with a VGA card and the game tells you that you do not have a VGA card, or if you experience lockups on a Compaq computer with a VGA card, you will need to contact Compaq for a special video driver. The reason for this is that Compaq has some video cards that do not conform to all proper detection methods. There is a device driver available from Compaq that will fix this problem. The driver's name is FINDVGA.SYS. This file used to be available on their BBS with the filename of SP0117.ZIP, but as of the writing of this document, it is not available. Please contact Compaq if you cannot locate the file. ■ If you are playing with a joystick, and your performance seems erratic, make sure to calibrate the joystick inside the ROC setup program. Also, check and make sure that the joystick port you are using for ROC is speed adjustable. If it is, then try tinkering with the speed. If it is not, then there may not be anything you can do to alleviate the problem, short of buying a game card that provides speed adjustable game ports. Check your port's manual for more info. Also, make sure you do not have more than one active joystick port on your machine at any time. If you have a game card that provides two game ports, make sure that no other game ports (such as those on a sound card or I/O card) are active. ■ If you are playing with a joystick, everything seems fine, and then the character starts moving on its own slightly (even if you hold the joystick totally still), try reducing the number of voices mixed (see setup program regarding Sound FX). Sometimes, in rare cases, the joystick can be fouled up by LOTS of sounds attempting to be played at once. This happens most often when your joystick is plugged into your sound card. ■ If you see any of the following 9 errors, it's possible a saved game you are attempting to use has become corrupted, or is otherwise unusable. It's also possible that the game data itself has become corrupted for some reason. If it's related to a save game, we recommend you either save over the save game in question, or delete it. If the problem persists, it's possible the game itself is corrupt. In that case, run a disk repair utility such as Scandisk or Norton Disk Doctor, delete the game, and reinstall. "RestoreGame() failure in NewLevelSetup()." "Animator not found in StoreObjectInfo()." "OldAnimator not found in StoreObjectInfo()." "Object allocation failure in MakeObj()." "MakeObject() failure in RestoreGame()." "UserPtr allocation failure in MakeObj()." "LoadLevel could not open file." "UseTable allocation failure." "Aopen() failure in GetItem()." ■ If you see any of the following 4 errors, there has been a problem relating to the sprites in the game. You can try and resolve it either by reducing the number of channels mixed in the setup program for your sound card, or you can try playing again. You may also have corrupt game data, in which case you should try the suggestions listed above for corrupt saved games. "Object allocation failure in SpawnObj()." "UserPtr allocation failure in SpawnObj()." "SoundList element allocation failure." "Element allocation failed in ParentListAdd()." ■ If you see the error "Could not reload BGMAP.TMP." or "Could not reload FGMAP.TMP.", this means there is a problem in loading a temporary file that ROC creates after a game has already been successfully saved. This could indicate a problem with your hard drive. Run a disk utility program such as Scandisk or Norton Disk Doctor if this happens, then delete ROC. Once this check is complete, you can reinstall the game. ■ If you see the error "XMSPAGE MapXMS failure in GetItem().", then there has been some problem with XMS memory. Try using the NOXMS command line parameter to resolve the problem. See the section on command line parameters for more information. ■ If you see the error "EMSPAGE MapXMS failure in GetItem().", then there has been some problem with EMS memory. Try using the NOEMS command line parameter to resolve the problem. This error can also manifest itself as an EMM386 Exception 13 error, or a QEMM Exception error (if you're using QEMM). If you get one of these memory manager errors, try using the NOEMS command line parameter. Please see the section on command line parameters for more information. ■ If you have a GUS and you are not getting sound effects, or if your GUS sound effects are scratchy or distorted, make sure your GF1 IRQ is set to 7 or lower. This is controlled by the SET ULTRASND= command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. A sample of this command line would be: SET ULTRASND=220,1,1,7,5 The next to last digit on this line (the 7, in this example) is your GF1 IRQ. This number must be 7 or less for ROC to operate properly. If it is higher than 7, you will need to edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT and change it to 7 or lower. Save the change, exit your editor, and reboot so that the change will take effect. ■ If you have a Gravis UltraSound (either GUS, ACE, or MAX) card, and have a problem where the computer is completely locked up and the sound card plays garbage and repeats the last sound effect played, then you'll need to do one of two things to resolve the problem. For an UltraSound or Max owner, you'll need to load SBOS and select Sound Blaster for Sound Effects. If you have a GUS ACE, you can just select Sound Blaster, as the emulation is not software based. ■ If you have an AWE32 Sound Card, and get the error "MPU-401 Initialization Error", you will need to turn your computer totally OFF, wait about 5-10 seconds, and then turn it back on again. Delete ROC.CFG, and try reselecting your music/sfx again. This error is caused by picking incorrect settings; if you pick the wrong settings for an AWE32, you need to power down and retry, not just reboot. ■ If you notice the game running slowly on your system, here are a few suggestions on improving game performance. » If you have the memory to spare, and aren't already loading a disk caching program, load a disk cache such as Smartdrive. ROC is a real mode program, and can benefit from a disk cache. However, too large of a disk cache can take away memory needed to run, so be careful how you allocate memory here. » Try reducing the amount of digital channels that you have set for sound effects. Some system configurations have problems with having ROC set for higher than 4 digital channels. ┌───────────────────────────┐ │ROC COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS│ └───────────────────────────┘ ■ There are a few command line parameters (also known as "switches") you can try to use to alter game performance. Some of these will help speed up the game on slow computers, and others will help game play. A command line parameter is something that you type on the command line after the name of the program you're running. The 'NOEMS' switch will be used as an example. To use that one, you would need to start the game like this... ROC NOEMS Here is a list of the command line parameters you can use with ROC. FORCEMEM - This causes ROC to disregard the memory check at startup. The game will actually run at around 520K, but music and sound will suffer very badly. If you use this, bad things can happen. NOEMS - Turn off all use of EMS. EMS is the default for loading sound effects and sprites into expanded memory. If you get an EMS memory error from the game, this should be used. NOXMS - Turn off all use of XMS. If you get an XMS memory error from the game, try using this. NOTE: It is not recommended to use both the NOEMS and NOXMS parameters at the same time. ROC requires use of either EMS or XMS for Sound effects, and if you shut both EMS and XMS off with these switches, you're effectively telling the game to not have sound effects played. If you do this and have a sound card defined for SFX, it will generate an error. QUEST: - This lets you warp right into any level. QUEST: should be followed with _no_ spaces by Ex (where x is 1-3) Ly (where y is 1-9) and Dz (where z is 1-5). These select episode, level, and difficulty respectively. They can be in any order and all three are optional. Example: QUEST:E2L5D1 would start you in Episode 2, Level 5, on Super Easy difficulty. Typing in QUEST: by itself will start you at Episode 1, Level 1, on Normal difficulty. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │WHAT IS THE "SET BLASTER" COMMAND, AND WHY DO I NEED IT?│ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ROC (and any other Apogee game that uses the Sound Blaster) uses the SET BLASTER command to figure out where to send its sound output. A Sound Blaster card can have many different sound outputs, and since there are zillions of computers out there, a way needs to be used in order to tell the game where your sound card is located. The SET BLASTER line is how we do it. Check to make sure that you have the SET BLASTER line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This code is an example, and isn't exactly what you need to put in your system, make sure to read the entire explanation of this command. NOTE: Some of these parameters (P, H, & E) are dependant on certain types of cards. For example, the E is only needed if you have an AWE32. The minimum requirements are to have the A, I, D, & T parameters. The other three may or may not be needed depending on what type of card you have. Please read this entire section to see if you need any of them. If you are using a clone card, or some card that's not a "true" Sound Blaster, then you will most likely only need A, I, D, & T. SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T3 P330 H6 E620 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |_______ AWE32 Only Parameter | | | | | | | |__________ "High" DMA Channel | | | | | | |_______________ MIDI Port | | | | | |__________________ Type of Card | | | | |_____________________ DMA Channel | | | |________________________ Interrupt | | |_____________________________ Port Address | |_____________________________________ Environment Variable |_________________________________________ DOS Command NOTE: There can be no spaces between the word BLASTER and the equal sign (=). If you have a space in there, your system will read the parameter incorrectly, and it will not be recognized by our games. Now, these may not (most likely not) be the same for your board, because the Port Address, Interrupt and DMA Channel can be set by adjusting "jumpers" on your sound board. Some newer cards have this information controlled by software; please consult your card's manual for more information on how to set these things. You should also check your manual if you are unclear as to how to tell what settings your card is set at. The information *IS* important, so it's recommended that you know precisely what the settings are. If you are using a card that "emulates" the Sound Blaster (such as the Gravis UltraSound through software, or the PAS16), you should check your card's manual on how to set the card for Sound Blaster emulation (if your card is not natively supported by this game). For PORT ADDRESS, it's almost always 220. That seems to be the default for most sound cards out there, and unless you know you've switched it away from 220, it's a safe bet it's still there. The INTERRUPT is something that varies from system to system. Apogee does not recommend using IRQ2. Most of the people we run into who use IRQ2 have difficulty getting their programs to run properly, unless they switch to a different IRQ channel. If you are using a Gravis UltraSound, you must have an IRQ of 7 or less. The Apogee Sound System used in this game does not support the GUS default of 11. The DMA CHANNEL is one that causes some people problems. By default, this is almost always set at 1. Unless you have a specific need to change this, it's probably still at 1. If you're running into lockups using digitized sounds with Apogee games, this is probably where your problem lies. If you get lockups with an Apogee game that has digitized sounds, and this variable is correct, try turning off the digitized sounds, and if the game plays right, you probably have a DMA conflict. Adjust the DMA channel on your sound card, then reflect said change in this variable in the SET BLASTER line. Quite often, CD-ROM's are the culprit. Check your CD-ROM to make sure it's not using the same DMA channel as your sound card. The TYPE OF CARD is something that is fairly easy to check out. If you're running a non-Creative Labs sound card, then you want this to either be 1 or 3, depending on which card it is. In the majority of cases, it will be a 1 if you are not using a "true" Sound Blaster. If you do have a "true" Sound Blaster, then the variable is one of these... 1 or 3 for a plain Sound Blaster. 2 or 4 for a Sound Blaster Pro. 6 for a Sound Blaster 16 or an AWE32. The factor in choosing between the two numbers shown for plain Sound Blaster and Sound Blaster Pro is the age of the card. If it's an older card, then choose the smaller number (1 or 2). Clone cards, or cards that emulate the Sound Blaster usually have a T variable of 1. Experiment to see what works best for you. The MIDI PORT parameter will only be needed if you are using a card that has MIDI capabilities. If so, this is where you define what MIDI port you are using. 330 seems to be the default for most cards, so if you have a MIDI card, and you haven't changed anything from factory defaults, this is probably where it still is. The HIGH DMA CHANNEL is something that is used primarily on Sound Blaster 16 cards. This is not the same as the standard DMA channel, this is a different one. This is only used if you're using a 16 bit sound card capable of playing 16 bit Sound Blaster sounds. By default, this is usually 5, so unless you know that it's something else, it's probably still 5. The E620 parameter is something that is needed _only_ if you have a Creative Labs AWE32 sound card. If you have one of these, this parameter will have been set up properly assuming you've installed the software that came with the card. Check your AWE32 documentation for a more thorough explanation of what this paramter is used for. I get a lot of questions from people wanting to know why they have to use this if they don't have a Sound Blaster. Well, it's simple. This command has NOTHING to do with what type of sound card you have. Apogee games that use digitized sounds expect these cards to be at specific settings. If they are not, then the game needs to be told this. The way to do this is with the environment variable BLASTER. That's why this is needed. Some of our newer programs (ROC, ROTT, Hocus Pocus) have specific setup programs which let you set up this information manually, but they still require the SET BLASTER line to operate at 100% efficiency. Please remember to add this to AUTOEXEC.BAT, save the file back to disk, reboot your computer, and make sure to delete the game's sound config file (ROC.CFG) before running again. If you have any further questions, please drop Apogee a line. ┌────────────────────────────────────┐ │HOW TO GET ROC RUNNING UNDER WINDOWS│ └────────────────────────────────────┘ ■ This game was designed to be played from pure DOS, and runs best there. We have tested Realms of Chaos under Windows95, and it does run from there. It does NOT run from Windows v3.11, however. If you have a version of Windows before Windows95, then you MUST boot to DOS before attempting to play. For Windows 3.11 and earlier: ----------------------------- This game is not designed to be run under Microsoft Windows 3.11. Win3.x takes up far too many system resources that our programs require for efficient and proper operation. When running this program, DO NOT LAUNCH FROM Win3.X. Run it directly from DOS. If you are in the Win3.x environment, quit Windows and then run the program. (NOTE: Using the MS/DOS Icon does not exit you from Windows. That is a shell from Windows. You need to completely close down the Program Manager to totally exit from Windows. To test this, type the word exit. If nothing happens, you are completely out of Windows. If you return to Windows, then you were only shelled.) This would also apply to anything like MS-DOS's Dos Shell program, or other menu program, as well as Windows itself. For Windows95: -------------- A pretty good rule of thumb for Windows95 and Realms of Chaos is that if you can run Win95, you can run Realms of Chaos, too. Whether or not you can run it FROM Win95 is dependant on how you have your system configured. Apogee's test machine for Windows95 was a 486/50 with 8 megs of memory, and a very slow video card. ROC appears to run correctly under Windows95. YOUR ACTUAL PERFORMANCE WILL BE BASED ON HOW YOU HAVE YOUR SYSTEM CONFIGURED. You will still need to meet the requirements at the top of the document in the DOS window that you are playing in. If you run Realms of Chaos, and get the out of memory error on startup, check the PIF settings. The defaults should be OK, but here is what we have on our test Win95 machine at Apogee: Conventional Memory: Auto Protected: Unchecked Initial Environment: Auto Expanded (EMS) Memory: Auto Extended (XMS) Memory: Auto Uses HMA: Unchecked MS-DOS DPMI Memory: Auto THESE SETTINGS ARE FROM OUR BENCHMARK MACHINE - YOURS WILL VARY. THESE MAY WORK, BUT THERE IS NO GUARANTEE. IF THEY DO NOT WORK, YOU WILL HAVE TO TWEAK THE SETTINGS UNTIL THEY DO WORK, OR BOOT TO MS-DOS MODE IF THEY DO NOT. APOGEE WILL BE UNABLE TO ASSIST WITH PIF SETTINGS. Two simultaneous DOS windows cannot be accessing the sound card at once. It is STRONGLY recommended that you not attempt to task switch between Realms of Chaos and other applications. If, you run into problems with Windows95, we recommend you play in MS-DOS mode. You can accomplish this two ways (by default). 1) Shut down the system, and choose "Restart in MS-DOS Mode" 2) When you start the computer, and see "Starting Windows95", hit F8. You will be given a menu. Pick "Command Prompt Only", and then you'll be in DOS. If you've installed third party software, the second option may or may not work depending on what the software does. Please check your manuals. ┌─────────────────────────────────┐ │HOW TO GET ROC RUNNING UNDER OS/2│ └─────────────────────────────────┘ IMPORTANT: Sound FX will not work under OS/2 with this release of Realms of Chaos. If you have a sound card and you are using Sound FX under true DOS, you will need to run the SETUP.EXE program in a DOS Full Screen session under OS/2 and select NONE for your sound card before you run the game. If you experience problems with the music not playing, quit the game and try running the MIDI Player program from your Multimedia folder. Play a song for a couple of seconds, then quit and exit the player. This will usually get the sound card to behave so that you can get music in the game. **** Setting up the Settings **** Create a program reference object for the ROC.EXE (or ROCSW.EXE) program. You can also set up a program reference for SETUP.EXE using the same settings shown below. You may use any method you wish to create the object: the most common is to drag a Program template from the Templates folder to the desktop or to another open folder. If your method of creating an object doesn't automatically open the settings notebook, go ahead and manually open the settings for the object. On the first page, type in the full path and name of the program in the "Path and file name" field (example: C:\ROC\ROC.EXE (or C:\ROC\ROCSW.EXE)). Go to the "Working directory" field and type the path name for the program (example: C:\ROC). Next, click on the Session tab. On the Session page, select "DOS Full Screen". On that same page, click on the "DOS Settings" bar. If you are presented with a "DOS Settings - Categories" window, select "All DOS settings" and click on OK. There are two ways you can set the required settings. First, if you are using any flavor of OS/2 Warp v3, you can load the settings using the ROC.OS2 (or ROCSW.OS2) file that is located in the same directory as your copy of the game. To do this, follow these steps: 1. Click on "Load" at the bottom of the DOS Settings window. 2. In the "Encoded File:" field of the "DOS Settings - Load" window, erase the path shown and type in the full path and filename of the settings file you wish to load (ex.: C:\ROC\ROC.OS2) and click on "Load". 3. Once the settings are loaded, double-check the DOS_AUTOEXEC.BAT and DOS_SHELL settings. These point to your C: drive by default. If you are using a different drive as your OS/2 boot drive, point both of these files to that drive. You may see the following message when you try to run the game: SYS3145: Bad or missing command interpreter. Press Enter to close the DOS session. Don't panic. You simply have the DOS_SHELL setting pointed to the wrong place. For Dual Boot systems, the settings provided should work. If you have a Boot Manager system, you will need to point this to the proper directory of your OS/2 boot drive. If you experience any other problems, you can always try the second way of setting up the settings. In short, you can set them up manually. Here are the settings that you will need: AUDIO_ADAPTER_SHARING = REQUIRED COM_DIRECT_ACCESS = OFF COM_HOLD = OFF COM_RECEIVE_BUFFER_FLUSH = NONE COM_SELECT = ALL DOS_BACKGROUND_EXECUTION = OFF DOS_BREAK = OFF DOS_DEVICE = DOS_FCBS = 16 DOS_FCBS_KEEP = 8 DOS_FILES = 20 DOS_HIGH = ON DOS_LASTDRIVE = Z DOS_RMSIZE = 640 DOS_UMB = ON DPMI_DOS_API = DISABLED DPMI_MEMORY_LIMIT = 0 DPMI_NETWORK_BUFF_SIZE = 8 EMS_FRAME_LOCATION = AUTO EMS_HIGH_OS_MAP_REGION = 0 EMS_LOW_OS_MAP_REGION = 384 EMS_MEMORY_LIMIT = 2048 HW_NOSOUND = OFF HW_ROM_TO_RAM = ON HW_TIMER = ON IDLE_SECONDS = 60 IDLE_SENSITIVITY = 100 INT_DURING_IO = ON KBD_ALTHOME_BYPASS = OFF KBD_BUFFER_EXTEND = ON KBD_CTRL_BYPASS = NONE KBD_RATE_LOCK = OFF MOUSE_EXCLUSIVE_ACCESS = OFF PRINT_SEPARATE_OUTPUT = ON PRINT_TIMEOUT = 15 VIDEO_8514A_XGA_IOTRAP = OFF VIDEO_FASTPASTE = OFF VIDEO_MODE_RESTRICTION = NONE VIDEO_ONDEMAND_MEMORY = OFF VIDEO_RETRACE_EMULATION = OFF VIDEO_ROM_EMULATION = OFF VIDEO_SWITCH_NOTIFICATION = OFF VIDEO_WINDOW_REFRESH = 1 XMS_HANDLES = 0 XMS_MEMORY_LIMIT = 0 XMS_MINIMUM_HMA = 0 If you have any settings categories other than those shown here, leave them at their defaults. The only one that you may want to fiddle with would be the SESSION_PRIORITY setting: if the game runs too slow, try setting it at a higher number. NOTES: All of the above settings were tested under OS/2 Warp v3, using the "Fullpack" release (with WIN-OS/2 built in: a.k.a. "Blue" Warp). It should work just as well under OS/2 Warp v3 "Halfpack" (without WIN-OS/2: a.k.a. "Red" Warp) or OS/2 Warp Connect (either "Fullpack" or "Halfpack"). No testing has been done under earlier versions of Warp. These settings are not officially supported by Apogee. Your mileage may vary. ┌────────────────┐ │THE 640k BARRIER│ └────────────────┘ This section isn't actually needed in order to get our programs running. What is contained in here is for the most part background information to better assist our customers in understanding why they need to make more conventional memory available. When Microsoft first made DOS 1.0, 640 kilobytes (KB) was set aside as the highest amount of memory that a computer could have. The 640KB of memory is what is called "conventional memory". To maintain compatibility with older versions, this was never changed. Advances in memory management have made access to memory beyond 640KB, but this memory can only hold data; the program actually has to run in the first 640KB. This first 640k is called "Conventional Memory". Here is a brief discussion of the different types of memory available on your computer. The most important one is Conventional memory. ■ CONVENTIONAL MEMORY starts at 0k and normally ends at 640k. (The cases where this is not true are EXTREMELY rare) If you are not using some sort of memory manager (such as DOS's EMM386, Quarterdeck's QEMM, or Qualitas' 386MAX), this is the only type of memory you have. Conventional memory is used by DOS as well as device drivers and TSRs (Terminate and Stay Resident Programs). A TSR is a program that is loaded into your computer's memory (usually from the CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT files) and stays there. Most programs remove themselves from memory after execution: a TSR does not. Device drivers and TSR's are programs that enable the computer to use additional hardware such as a mouse, scanner, CD-ROM, expanded or extended memory, etc. A program such as an Apogee game is NOT a program that can be loaded as a TSR. If all you have is conventional memory, anything that you would load as a TSR would come out of this section of memory. Take too much away, and you're not left over with enough memory to run our product. If you are getting an out of memory error from our program, it is this memory that you are running out of. Whether you have 1 meg, 8 meg of memory, or 32 meg of memory, it's irrelevant. Only the first 640k of memory is available for program execution. Please do not confuse this with hard drive space. Your hard drive space is not memory, and is not relevant nor should it be considered in this example. ■ UPPER MEMORY starts at 640k and ends at 1024k. Normally, this area is used for things such as system ROM, video and hardware cards, and the like. On most PCs, hardware does not use the entire upper memory area, and with the use of the aforementioned memory managers (EMM386, QEMM, FnordMem, etc.), you can move some TSRs into this memory area. These unused areas are called Upper Memory Blocks (UMBs), and this where some TSRs can be loaded. ■ EXTENDED MEMORY (XMS) is the memory addressed above 1024k. Extended memory requires the use of a memory manager, such as MS-DOS's HIMEM.SYS. This region of memory is not usable for standard program execution: it can only be used for data storage. Apogee programs that use this type of memory (such as XXXXXXXXXXX & Hocus Pocus), only use this to store level or graphic data. The actual program itself is running in conventional memory. ■ HIGH MEMORY AREA (HMA) is the first 64k of extended memory. This is a special region of memory that is most commonly used to load DOS high. When you issue the DOS=HIGH command in your config.sys file, the amount of conventional memory that was previously being occupied by DOS itself is moved into this region. ■ EXPANDED MEMORY (EMS) is another type of memory that some MS-DOS programs can make use of. Like XMS, this memory is not available for program execution: it is only used for data storage due to its nature. An explanation of this type of memory is rather technical, so it will not be delved into here. If you're curious, check your DOS manual, or your memory manager manual. When you first start up your computer, there are two files that your computer looks at: CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. These two files contain lists of device drivers and TSRs that are automatically run when starting your computer. Each of these drivers and TSRs take up space in the 640k of conventional memory area. As more and more programs are loaded from the autoexec.bat and config.sys files, you have less and less available from the original 640k. Since it is this memory that programs run in, you can see that the amount taken away by the programs executed in config.sys and autoexec.bat should be kept to a minimum. This can be accomplished by either reducing the amount of programs loaded from config.sys and autoexec.bat, or by moving them to upper memory via the use of EMM386, QEMM, FnordMEM, or some other memory management program. ┌────────────────────────────┐ │CONTACTING TECHNICAL SUPPORT│ └────────────────────────────┘ Apogee thanks you very much for playing our games. Customer satisfaction is a high priority of Apogee's, and we strive to please everyone. Our Technical Support staff is available to assist all of our customers in solving any technical problems that may be experienced. Our Technical Support Department is available to answer your questions Monday through Friday during the hours of 8:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M., Central Time. The phone number for the Tech Support Department is (214) 278-5655. However, the voice line isn't your only channel of contact. We are also reachable via a fax machine at (214) 278-4670, 24 hours a day. Please allow one full working day for a reply, and please include a number that we can fax the reply to in your message. You can also write to us. Our mailing address is: Apogee Software POB 496389 Garland, TX 75049-6389 United States of America Voice: (214) 278-5655 Fax: (214) 278-4670 (24 hrs) If you do contact our Technical Support department, please be at your computer, and have it ready for assistance. If you can't be at your computer, please have the following information available: 1. Printouts of your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. 2. A printout of the results when you type the command MEM /C (or just MEM, if MEM /C gives you an error). 3. The name and revision level of your operating system (i.e., MS-DOS 6.22, PC DOS 7.0, Windows 95, OS/2 Warp v3, etc.). 4. Information about all hardware in your system (sound cards, CD-ROMs, etc.) and the IRQ/DMA settings on them. It may be possible to provide technical support without these things, but it will be much more difficult. If the problem is rather complex, we may need you to call back when you can be at your computer. ┌─────────────┐ │APOGEE ONLINE│ └─────────────┘ Apogee Technical Support can also be contacted via a variety of electronic medium. Several major online services are monitored, and Apogee's E-Mail addresses are listed below. Also, a variety of Bulletin Board networks are monitored as well, and those are also listed. ■ Major Online Services Apogee has forums on both CompuServe and America Online! Both of these forums have all of our shareware (as well as 3D Realms', too!) available for download. They also have other helpful files, as well as some user submitted files as well. If you are on these services, and haven't checked out our forum, why not try 'em today? CompuServe: Type "GO APOGEE" at any ! prompt America Online: Use the keyword 'APOGEE' to get to our forum. ■ Internet Services Apogee has it's own World Wide Web Site! Point your Web Browser to the URL http://www.apogee1.com, and you'll reach us on the Web! We have all kinds of cool files and information here, so if you like Apogee, and you're on the Web, you need to be here! We also have a "finger" plan set up for the most up to date online info about Apogee Software. Finger "apogee@metronet.com" for the most up to the second info about our releases! If you are unsure if you can do this, or don't know what "finger" access is, please check with your local Internet service provider for more information on this Internet service. (If you get an error or no response at the above address, try fingering "apogee@fohnix.metronet.com"). Join the Apogee mailing list! The Apogee mailing list is a list where we send press releases, general Apogee info, new game release notifications, and other miscellaneous items out on. Drop us a line at apogee.software@apogee1.com, and we'll put you on. It doesn't cost anything, and all we need is your Internet E-Mail address! Your friends are probably on the list, are you? Apogee has two official Anon FTP sites for our shareware downloads. #1: ftp.apogee1.com (Coming December 1995) #2: ftp.uml.edu in the directory /msdos/games/apogee Both are standard Anon FTP sites. If you're getting an error like Anonymous Access Denied, or cannot access file, or something like that, you're probably just running into the limit. All Anon FTP sites have limits to the number of people that can access it at once. Think of it as a busy signal, and try again later. We also recommend talking to your local Internet Service provider (or the author of your FTP software) about how to properly use the Internet program you're trying to use. We also have two E-Mail accounts available. You can E-Mail us at either of the following two addresses. apogee.software@apogee1.com or apogee@metronet.com. Also, as long as you're already on the Internet, check out the Software Creations Web BBS. It's a whole new concept for the Internet! Point your web browser to http://www.swcbbs.com! ■ Software Creations & other Bulletin Board Networks We can be reached on Software Creations, the Apogee BBS. Software Creations can be reached by calling 1-508-368-7036. Software Creations is our #1 file site. Our games are released there before anywhere else in the world, so if you want the latest stuff, take a trip over to Software Creations, the BBS voted #1 two years running by the readers of BoardWatch Magazine! Again, make sure to check out the Software Creations Web BBS. If you're on the World Wide Web, point your browser at http://www.swcbbs.com. You'll be glad you did! There are several BBS networks that are monitored for Apogee messages. Our Online Support Representative monitors all of the following BBS networks. Fidonet, Relaynet (Rime), Intelec, & Ilink. All of these BBS networks have Games, Shareware, and Apogee conferences. Private mail can also be sent to Apogee on Fidonet and Rime with the following addresses: Fidonet -> 1:124/9006 Rime -> APOGEE (or 1674) Apogee also has a FDN on the Fidonet Filebone. Check with your local Fido Filebone administration for more info on how to get Apogee's shareware delivered right to your BBS! Check FILEBONE.NA (available from your local Fido administration) for more info. This document written by Joe Siegler with help from Lee Jackson. Fnord.