Pentium P75 or 100% compatible, 16MB RAM, 500K free conventional memory, minimum 16MB hard drive space, MS DOS 5.0 or above, VGA (VESA 1.2 or greater), all major sound cards supported, double speed CD ROM drive (*4 recommended), Microsoft mouse (or 100% compatible).
Supports play via IPX network, modem link and serial link.
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2. Sound cards.
2.1. Autodetection of sound cards.
2.1.1. General.
LAST RITES does not allow autodetection of sound cards under WIN95, as this was found to be very unreliable, you will have to select your configuration manually.
Also if you do not configure your card correctly, LAST RITES may still run, but crash elsewhere in the game.
If you do have problems, please make sure your sound card settings are correct.
2.1.2. Creative Labs AWE32/SB16.
These cards can be configured with different DMA channels for 8 & 16 bit audio, if you are using 16 bit audio, make sure that you set your DMA channel to the 'HIGH' selection.
eg.
An AWE32 with its default settings would NOT be A220 D1 I5 but would instead be A220 D5 I5.
2.1.3. Problems with Plug'n'Play sound cards
As the game is not a true Windows 95 product, it does not offer total support of plug'n'play sound cards. If you experience problems setting up a plug'n'play sound card through DOS it is advised that you attempt to run the game through Windows 95, as many plug'n'play cards are only configured to run under this environment.
It should be noted that the game will run through a DOS prompt when started through Windows 95, so any soundcard manufacturers instructions for doing so should be followed.
As this product is not made for a Windows 95 environment we are unable to guarantee the compatibility of the game with all Windows 95 plug'n'play peripherals.
2.1.4. Problems with OPTi chipset sound cards
Users of sound cards containing the above chipset (eg. Diamond Sound Sonic, Quickshot Sound Machine Pro16 plus) are advised to configure the sound to Stereo rather than Mono, as we have experienced difficulty with these cards with the sound quality set to Mono.
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3. Video Problems.
3.1. General.
VESA 1.2 is required for the frontend / presentation sections of LAST RITES. Some video cards do not support VESA 1.2 as standard. If you have problems, you may need to install seperate drivers that usually come with your card.
3.2. Diamond Viper 9000 (VLB).
The above card requires that you run the VPRMODE program with the VESA parameter.
3.3. Running game through Windows 95 with a Number 9 Imagine 128 (PCI) video card
When running the game through Windows 95 with the above video card, you may experience problems with the Windows 95 Mouse pointer still being present over the play area. This doesn't affect the operation of the game and playing through a clean MS DOS environment was found to solve the problem completely (see section 4.1).
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4. Windows 95.
4.1. Running LAST RITES in a windows 95 DOS box.
Although many machines are capable of running the game through Windows 95, it must be remembered that this product is made for a DOS environment. If you experience difficulties when running the game through Windows 95 we recommend that the machine be shut down to a clean DOS environment and the game run from there. Alternatively follow the instructions below detailing how to create a boot disk.
MAKING A WINDOWS 95 BOOT DISK
NOTE:
This method should not be used for machines that have SCSI peripherals or that have compressed drives. If you are unsure about either of these points please contact your hardware vendor.
(1)
When in Windows 95, move down to the START button in the bottom left corner of the screen. Select from the PROGRAMS group the MS-DOS PROMPT. The following message should be displayed
"Microsoft(r) Windows 95
(c)Copyright Microsoft Corp 1981-1995
C:\WINDOWS>"
(2)
Insert a blank diskette into your machines 'A:' drive ensuring it is not write protected. Enter the following text.
CD\ <ENTER>
FORMAT A:/S <ENTER>
You should then see the message
"Insert new diskette for drive A:
and press ENTER when ready..."
Pressing ENTER will start the formatting of the disk. Upon completion of the format the message
"Volume label (11 characters, ENTER for none)?"
will be shown. Press ENTER to get past this and then enter 'N' in answer to the question
"Format another (Y/N)?"
(3)
The machine should now be displaying the 'C:\>' prompt. Now type the following lines
COPY CONFIG.SYS A: <ENTER>
COPY AUTOEXEC.BAT A: <ENTER>
A: <ENTER>
EDIT AUTOEXEC.BAT <ENTER>
(4)
Find in the text a line similar to the following
"C:\MOUSE\MOUSE.EXE" (The mention of MOUSE being the important point)
and add the letters "LH " at the start of the line (if these letters are already present proceed to step 5). Using the above example the line would now read
"LH C:\MOUSE\MOUSE.EXE"
N.B. If this line, or one similar, is not present contact your hardware vendor requesting a DOS based mouse driver for your system.
(5)
Next find the line that contains the word "MSCDEX.EXE", an example being
"C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000"
and again add the letters "LH " at the start of the line (if these letters are already present proceed to step 6). The example would now read
"LH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000"
The user is advised to note down the letters after the "/D:" section of the above line
(in this case it would be "MSCD000") for uses described later.
N.B. If this line, or one similar, is not present contact your hardware vendor requesting a DOS based CD ROM driver.
(6)
Now if the user has a SOUNDBLASTER sound card or compatible they should find a line similar to the following:
"SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1"
(7)
Next find a line similar to the one below
"PATH=C:\WINDOWS; C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND"
If this line is different or not present then edit or add it.
(8)
The user should now remove all the other lines in the file apart from the four outlined. Therefore in our example the file would be as follows:
"PATH=C:\WINDOWS; C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND
LH C:\MOUSE\MOUSE.EXE
LH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1"
(9)
Next hold down the 'ALT' key and press 'F' to bring up the FILE menu. From this select the SAVE option. The file will now be saved to your diskette.
(10)
Hold down 'ALT' and press 'F' once again, but this time select the OPEN option. A window will open asking for a file name, enter the following
A:\CONFIG.SYS
and press ENTER. A new file will now be opened.
(11)
Within the file the user should see the following line
"DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS"
If this line is not present it should be entered by the user at the very top of the screen.
(12)
The user should next look for a line similar to the following
"DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE RAM"
If this line is not present it should be entered below the previously found/entered HIMEM.SYS line. If the line is differently worded to that above it should be altered to match it.
(13)
Next find lines similar to the following
"DOS=HIGH, UMB
BUFFERS=15,0
FILES=30
LASTDRIVE=Z"
If these lines are not present or are differently worded alter them to match the examples given.
(14)
The next thing the user needs to find is the line used to configure the CD ROM drive. In step 5 the user was asked to note down the text after the "/D:" letters of a line in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file (in our example it was MSCD000), and this is where it is needed. Find the line that carries the same text, for example
"DEVICE=C:\CDROM\SGIDECD.SYS /D:MSCD000"
This is the line used to control the CD ROM drive, after the word DEVICE the user should add the word HIGH (with no spaces before or after the word) if it is not already present. Our example would therefore read
"DEVICEHIGH=C:\CDROM\SGIDECD.SYS /D:MSCD000"
(15)
The user should now remove all the lines that have not been covered in steps 11-14. Our example file would now look as follows.
"DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS
DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE RAM
DOS=HIGH, UMB
BUFFERS=15,0
FILES=30
LASTDRIVE=Z
DEVICEHIGH=C:\CDROM\SGIDECD.SYS /D:MSCD000"
(16)
Next hold down the 'ALT' key and press 'F' to bring up the file menu, from here select the SAVE option. The file will now be written to the diskette. Once again hold down the 'ALT' key and press 'F', but this time select the EXIT option.
(17)
The machine should now have returned to the "A:\>" prompt. From here type
EXIT <ENTER>
to return to Windows.
(18)
Save your work and close down all open applications, then shut down Windows. The message "IT IS NOW SAFE TO TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER." should now appear. Now press the RESET button on the front of your machine (making sure that the diskette is still in your A: drive).
(19)
The machine will now restart, and should boot from your freshly created disk. Once loading has finished the machine should display the "A:\>" prompt rather than the usual Windows 95 startup screen.
If your machine does display the Windows 95 screen as normal and not the DOS prompt then contact your hardware vendor.
(20)
Follow the games loading instructions.
This boot disk can be used with all DOS based games. If you wish to return to Windows simply remove the diskette from drive A: and restart the machine.
If your machine still has problems please contact your hardware vendor for further information.
4.2. Screen savers
If the game is being run through Windows 95, it is advised that you do not have a screen saver active as slight graphical corruption may result if it activates whilst the game is being played.
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5. Technical Support.
If you have any further problems you can contact us on:
By Phone on - 0161-288-7102
By Fax on - 0161-288-7098
E-Mail - helpline@gateweb.co.uk
Please include as much information about your problem and machine as possible.
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This Document was created by Rob Arnold & Simon Crawford.
