README (last modified 3/99)

To start LAUNCH:
Windows 95/98/NT: Click on the big LAUNCH logo in the Autostart menu or
run
D:\Setup.exe (where D: is your CD-ROM drive)


SECTIONS

1. Tips
2. Startup Problems/Requirements
3. Audio/Video problems
4. Technical/Customer Support Options


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* DIRECTX 6.0 Installer

-- IMPORTANT NOTE: DirectX is required (Windows 95/98) for the game demo to run. The LAUNCH setup program will run the DirectX installer if DirectX is not detected on your system. For best results, make sure you have the latest videocard and soundcard drivers from the appropriate manufacturers.

For technical support regarding DirectX, please refer to: http://www.microsoft.com/directx/Resources/support.htm
********************************************************************


1. Tips

  • Switch to High Color (16-bit) or True Color display mode for best-looking graphics and video. (go to Control Panels / Display / Settings tab / Color palette)
  • Connect to your internet provider before running LAUNCH for content off the web. Be sure to have Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 (or higher) installed [http://www.microsoft.com/ie].
  • Multitasking is not recommended. (Quit other applications before running LAUNCH for best performance)

2. Startup Problems

* Nothing appears when CD is put into drive

Autoplay may be turned off on your computer. In this case, please go to "My Computer" and double-click on the LAUNCH CD-ROM icon and run "Setup.exe". In rare cases, the Autoplay screen may be glitched or fail to load. Make sure you have the latest Windows video drivers for your specific video card if this is the case. These can usually be downloaded from the manufacturer's website.

* "IOS failed to initilize" error message after installation

This is a rare problem which may occur on early versions of Windows 95. Solution from Microsoft support:

1. Boot Windows 95 in Safe mode or to a command prompt.
2. Perform one of the following two steps:

    - Edit the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files and disable any
      references to Smartdrv.exe. To disable a line, type "rem"
      (without quotation marks) at the beginning of the line.

    - Rename Smartdrv.exe to another name.

3. Restart your computer normally.

* Slow Load Time

Minimum system requirements have increased slightly starting with issue 15. Slow load times can be caused by a number of factors or combinations of system components. Surpassing the following suggested system requirements (particularly RAM) will improve performance of LAUNCH. If your computer is near the minimum requirements, LAUNCH should play but load times may be slow.

If you receive a "Cannot open START.DXR" or something similar when starting up LAUNCH, most likely a component on your system falls below the minimum requirement.

* Suggested System Requirements *

Windows 95/98
Pentium 166
24 MB RAM
4X+ CD-ROM drive
16-bit soundcard

For the smoothest LAUNCH experience, a Pentium II-class computer, 32 MB RAM, and a 24X CD-ROM drive are highly suggested.

* Installation / Quicktime 3.0

* If you get a system error or general protection fault while running the installer,
1) turn off any antivirus software you may have running.
2) delete all files in your C:\Windows\Temp directory and try again.

Unfortunately, Quicktime 3.0 is not backwards compatible, but it is ok to also have both 16-bit and 32-bit versions of Quicktime on your system. They have been designed to coexist on the same system with no conflicts.

Older versions of LAUNCH require older versions of Quicktime:

LAUNCH 1 - 14: Quicktime 2.1.2 (16-bit)
LAUNCH 15 - 19: Quicktime 2.1.2 (32-bit)
LAUNCH 20+ : Quicktime 3.0

Note: A Quicktime for Windows program group will be created.You don't need any of these files to access LAUNCH. These icons are just there as part of the Quicktime installation program and may be used to run Quicktime movies externally, such as ones that are downloaded from the internet.

Due to a problem with detecting Quicktime, LAUNCH #20 will only work with Quicktime 3.0 and 3.01. All other issues should work with any version of Quicktime 3. If you have 3.02 on your system and would like to run #20, you'll have to delete the file c:\windows\system\quicktime.qts and run the Quicktime installer from issue #20. After viewing issue #20, you can reinstall Quicktime 3.02 if you wish by running the installer (included starting with issue #22). We apologize for this inconvenience.

* General Errors

LAUNCH does not install anything on your system (Windows 95 or later) besides Quicktime and ActiveX Controls, all content is run off the CD.

* Get the latest video drivers from your video cards manufacturer, especially if you have an ATI video card (Windows 95/98, Mac).

* Downloaded files and some temporary files are stored in the C:\Windows\Lnchprfs directory, please delete these if you are getting errors running LAUNCH or would like to recover the hard disk space.

* Re-installing Quicktime may also fix other errors.


3. Audio/video problems

* Color mode/palette

LAUNCH is optimized for Windows 95/98, videocard at 16-bit color setting.

* Windows 95/98 -- To run in 16-bit color, your video card setting must be set to that color bit-depth. The ways to switch color bit-depths vary from computer to computer, usually it is a control panel installed along with the video card. In Windows 95/98, go to:

Control Panel -> Display -> Settings
and change the color palette setting to High Color (16 bit).

* Video glitches during playback

* Go to Control Panel -> Quicktime -> Video Settings and switch from Options mode to Safe Mode. Updated video drivers from the video card manufacturer may be required.

* No sound in LAUNCH / general audio problems

1. Make sure WAV volume is turned up in your mixer (Windows 95/98 - double-click on the speaker in the bottom right hand corner of the screen) and that you can play .WAV audio (you should be able to hear previews in the Sounds control panel).

2. Make sure you have the latest sound drivers from the manufacturer of your soundcard installed. Usually they can be downloaded from the manufacturer's website.

3. You may get better results with sound in LAUNCH by going to Control Panel -> Quicktime -> Sound Out and switching from DirectSound to waveOut.

4. There may be a conflict between the Quicktime music synthesizer and the soundcard's software wavetable emulation. To remove the Quicktime music synthesizer, go to Control Panel -> Quicktime -> Music -> Edit List -> Synthesizer. Choose "No synthesizer" in the synthesizer list.

5. Soundcards with software wavetable emulation [most cards do NOT have this feature] may cause Quicktime audio sync problems. Please turn off this feature to see if it is causing the problem. This can be done usually in a soundcard specific control panel or go to Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager -> Sound, Video and Game Controllers and disable this option from there.


4. Technical/Customer Support Options

* Technical Support

e-mail: techsupport@launch.com
website: http://www.launchcdrom.com

Or, you can call the Technical Support helpline at: 310-453-1256 (between 10:00 AM and 8:00 PM (PST) Monday through Friday).

Describe the problem in as much detail as you can, such as the error message and exact steps taken. Include all the details about your computer too (e.g. make/model of computer, model of videocard, RAM installed, etc.). Your bug report will help make future issues better.

* Customer Support

Subscriptions/billing: 1-800-2LAUNCH (1-800-252-8624)

For billing/general customer support issues:
e-mail: service@launch.com

Thank you for using LAUNCH, we welcome any suggestions or comments to mail@launch.com