(tm) & (c) 1999 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved.
Thank you for purchasing Fox Arcade: Sci-Fi Pinball. This file contains the most up-to-date information on installation and performance. If you have any problems, please visit our web site at www.foxinteractive.com
Contact Information:
Please do not contact Fox Interactive regarding any hardware or software driver-related issues - these should be directed to the respective manufacturer or vendor.
If you have a problem or query that cannot be answered by reading the manual or this ReadMe document, you may contact Fox Interactive at:
World Wide Web site: http://www.foxinteractive.com
(Any code patches or technical bulletins will be made available here)
Internet e-mail (Tech Support): pinball@fox.com
Internet e-mail (General queries): gameinfo@fox.com
Telephone (in North America): (970) 522-5FOX (970-522-5369) between 11am and 8pm PST.
Minimum System Requirements:
PC:
Microsoft Windows(R) 95/98 with DirectX6 or higher (included)
Pentium(R) (or 100% compatible) 166 MHz
16 Mb RAM (32 Mb recommended)
100 Mb free hard drive space (250 Mb for full install)
4x CD-ROM
DirectX compatible graphics card supporting High Color (16-bit) at 800 x 600 resolution
DirectX DirectSound compatible sound card
iMac(tm)/Macintosh:
Power Macintosh (603e processor or higher)
System 7.5 or higher (System 8 recommended, System 8 or higher required for iMac(tm))
16 Mb RAM (32 Mb recommended)
100 Mb free hard drive space (250 Mb for full install)
Graphics card supporting Thousands of Colors at 800 x 600 resolution
Installation Tips:
FOR THE BEST GAME PERFORMANCE, CHOOSE THE FULL INSTALLATION IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH FREE HARD DRIVE SPACE. Fox Arcade: Sci-Fi Pinball installs a significant portion of the game directly to your hard drive for maximum performance. The more files it can place on the hard drive, the better the performance.
Restart the system before installing Fox Arcade: Sci-Fi Pinball. It is always a good idea to restart your system before installing any software. This can refresh the system memory and eliminate unnecessary problems that may appear during the installation.
You can generally increase hard disk performance by optimizing your disk with a defragmentation utility.
On iMac(tm)/Macintosh computers, you can also increase the hard disk cache size. In the Memory Control Panel, turn the Disk Cache On and set it to the recommended level.
Installing DirectX6 (PC):
Fox Arcade: Sci-Fi Pinball requires DirectX6 or higher to be installed on your PC. During the installation process, you will be asked if you want to install DirectX6. If you already have DirectX6 or higher installed you can skip this step. If you do not have DirectX6 or higher installed or if you are unsure, you should select "Yes" and the DirectX Installer will update your system as necessary.
Compatibility (PC):
Fox Arcade: Sci-Fi Pinball is designed to run under Windows(R) 95/98 with DirectX compatible devices, including sound cards and graphics cards. The drivers for these various devices are provided by the respective manufacturers, and may occasionally contain bugs or otherwise cause incompatibilities beyond our control.
If you experience any problems it is always recommended that you obtain up-to-date drivers, which will often remedy the problem. Nearly every manufacturer makes their latest drivers available on their web site, and we suggest that you start by checking there.
System Performance and Conflicts (PC):
Although Fox Arcade: Sci-Fi Pinball will work with other applications running in the background, for the best results try restarting your computer and running it as a stand-alone application (with no other applications running).
Additionally, you may experience conflicts with other programs running minimized to the System Tray, or in the StartUp folder, such as on-access Anti-Virus software, System Agents supplied with the Microsoft Plus pack or Windows(R)98, Norton Utilities and others, or some of the Windows(R)95 PowerToys such as FlexiCD. You should try exiting or disabling these programs before running Fox Arcade: Sci-Fi Pinball if you are experiencing problems.
Fox Arcade: Sci-Fi Pinball will not run properly under Microsoft Windows NT.
System Performance and Conflicts (iMac(tm)/Macintosh):
Please note that some Macintosh keyboards do not support the reassignment of the Shift keys in the Keyboard Configuration mode.
Running System 8.0 or higher should increase performance significantly.
If you change your Virtual Memory settings in the Memory Control Panel, the MacOS will automatically adjust the memory requirements for Fox Arcade: Sci-Fi Pinball. The Virtual Memory setting control can be found in the Memory Control Panel, located in the Control Panels folder in your System Folder. The Memory Control Panel may also be found in the Control Panels heading under the Apple Menu on your desktop.
Make sure you have Virtual Memory turned on with it set to at least the same amount of RAM that your machine has, i.e. if your machine has 32 Mb of RAM then set your Virtual Memory to 32 Mb, for a total of 64 Mb RAM. You will have to restart your Macintosh for the increase in memory to take effect.
Indications that the application memory settings are too low include choppy ball movement or sound and video dropout. The application may crash under severe low memory conditions.
A memory setting that is too high for your computer will cause a MacOS error message when you start Fox Arcade: Sci-Fi Pinball. You will not be able to continue until you lower the memory settings for the application.
You may hear a System beep early in the game if you have set the Fox Arcade: Sci-Fi Pinball memory too high and have not left enough memory for the System. This beep is coming from the MacOS. When this happens, you will probably see a MacOS error message stating that System Memory is low upon exiting Fox Arcade: Sci-Fi Pinball.
Peripheral Support:
Fox Arcade: Sci-Fi Pinball supports the Microsoft Sidewinder game pad for the PC and the CH Gamepad for the Macintosh.
If you are experiencing any problems with the Microsoft Sidewinder Game pad it is recommended that you install the latest drivers, which can be downloaded from Microsoft at www.Microsoft.com/Sidewinder/
If you are experiencing any problems with the CH Gamepad, it is recommended that you install the latest software which can be downloaded from CH Products at www.chproducts.com/supp-mac.html
Troubleshooting:
PROBLEM: Fox Arcade: Sci-Fi Pinball runs slow on your computer.
SOLUTION: Fox Arcade: Sci-Fi Pinball uses a great number of musical cues, sound effects and voiceovers which are very memory-intensive. Turning off the voiceovers and sound effects (Ctrl + S) and/or turning off the background music (Ctrl + M) will improve game speed and performance.
Changing the Sound Output Quality to 11.025 kHz in your Monitors & Sound control panel may also improve game performance.
PROBLEM: Fox Arcade: Sci-Fi Pinball crashes on Macintosh, and the computer needs to be restarted.
SOLUTION: Certain extensions are known to potentially cause some software,
including Fox Arcade: Sci-Fi Pinball, to crash. These extensions include:
PowerBook Guide Additions
Speech Guide Additions
Speed Access
A suggested way to resolve this problem is as follows:
Open the System Folder (you should find it in your startup drive).
Open the Extensions folder.
On your desktop (or somewhere on your startup drive), create a new folder (command-N) and name this folder something appropriate, such as "SFP Extensions Backup".
Drag the Extension files that you wish to remove from the Extensions folder into the "SFP Extensions Backup" folder. Restart the Macintosh, then start Fox Arcade: Sci-Fi Pinball.
Note that if these extension files are needed again, it is a simple matter
to reverse the process by dragging the contents of the "SFP Extensions Backup" folder back into the Extensi
