Millennium Auction Readme file. Introduction: -------------- This text file contains important information which is not included in any other documentation. Sections * System Requirements * Performance * Uninstall * Demo/World History * TroubleShooting SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: --------------------- Game requires Windows 3.1 MPC compliant 8 bit sound card or better MPC level 1 CDROM MSCDEX 2.1 or above Mouse 4M RAM 10M Free Hard Disk Space Super VGA Card (640 x 480 x 256 colors) Recommended 8M RAM Double Speed CDROM drive Sound Card with Wave Table synthesis for MIDI Accelerated Video Card Run in 640 x 480 x 256 colors This game uses Video for Windows v1.1a (TM). This is installed during the Auction setup process. Millennium Auction will play in any resolution above 640 x 480 x 256 colors. To change your machines video driver see the section VIDEO RESOLUTION below. The game will simply center itself on the screen and cover the desktop behind it during gameplay. PERFORMANCE: ------------- For best performance it is best to close down all other applications, including any screen savers. Ensure that you have the latest version of your video, audio and CDROM drivers. If there are problems with audio breakup on the various video files (e.g. Video news, Nuria Intro), check to see that the following is set in the win.ini file (located in your Windows directory). NOTE: This is automatically set during setup but other applications may change this setting. [MCIAVI] SkipFrames=1 This ensures that if your CD is not able to play the video at the correct speed (e.g. due to a slow CDROM drive), Video for Windows will drop frames to maintain audio/video synchronization. Use DOS version 6.2 if possible. The smartdrive in DOS 6.2 can cache CDROMs as well as hard drives. Try to use as much RAM as possible for caching the CDROM while allowing enough extended memory for Millennium Auction to run (see low memory conditions). NOTE: Ensure that SMARTDRV.EXE is loaded after the MSCDEX.EXE line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Otherwise the CDROM will not be cached correctly. Performance may be improved by increasing the buffers for MSCDEX. MSCDEX is a program usually installed by a line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT. Such as: c:\dos\mscdex.exe /d:mycd /m:10 It allows DOS to communicate with your CD device. Performance can be improved by increasing the number of buffers to 15 with the "/M:15" option. If you have EMS (Expanded) memory, add the "/E" option so that these buffers don't eat into your conventional memory. This should only be done on machine with 8M or more RAM since the expanded memory takes away from the extended memory available to windows and the game. UNINSTALL: ----------- Prior to installation of Millennium Auction the following system files (which need to be modified in order to use Video for Windows 1.1a) are copied to backup files with the same name but an extension of .auc as follows: system.ini ---> system.auc win.ini ---> win.auc control.ini ---> control.auc reg.dat ---> reg.auc These are located in your Windows directory (ex: c:\windows). Please refer to uninstal.txt file in the root directory of the Game CD for complete information on uninstalling Auction. DEMO/WORLD HISTORY: -------------------- To stop the Demo or the One World History movies hit the ESCAPE key and click on the EXIT icon (the icon all the way on the right). NOTE: If for some reason one of the movies should 'stop' before completion then this is possibly due to lack of memory. This may be attributable to Conventional or Extended memory. (see below). To quit the demo in this situation follow the steps outlined above. TROUBLESHOOTING: ----------------- It is always a good idea to get the latest drivers for the various hardware on your machine. There are many ways for you to get the most recent sound and video device drivers. The dealer who sold you your hardware should have access to the most recent device drivers. Additionally, most hardware manufacturers have BBS numbers which enable you to download their drivers and other information via modem. Most hardware manufacturers have forums on the on-line services where you can access their technical support or driver libraries via modem. If there are problems upon automatically entering the infolink (registration screen) during game startup (the game may freeze), check that the following is set in your win.ini file (located in your Windows directory): [MCIAVI] DefaultVideo=Window NOTE: Setup correctly sets this value. However other applications may overwrite these settings. Setup: ------- If there is a problem with installing the game during the copy process, then the most likely reason is that there is a conflict between the Millennium Auction setup and some of the TSRs installed on your machine. In order to solve this problem please reboot the machine with the following configuration. NOTE: Only the CDROM driver and himem.sys are required to run install. Config.sys: device =c:\dos\himem.sys device =c:\XXX.sys /D:MSCD001 (Your CDROM driver) Files =40 Buffers =20 Autoexec.bat device =c:\dos\mscdex.exe /D:MSCD001 Now after the install process you may use your original config.sys and autoexec.bat in order to play the game. Fonts: ------- Millennium Auction uses TrueType fonts. For the proper fonts to display throughout the game you should have installed two of the TrueType fonts that ship with Windows version 3.1. These fonts are Arial and Times New Roman. Also, you must use the Fonts icon in the Control Panel to enable TrueType fonts (this is usually done already). If you have any problems with font overflow on any text please choose the 'small' font for your driver (if this exists) the next time you play the game. Music (MIDI): -------------- Check that the mixer volume levels for the audio card are set at a reasonable volume for midi output. If you're having trouble hearing music in Millennium Auction, remember that most MIDI music problems are caused by incorrect MIDI mapper settings. The Windows MIDI mapper sends MIDI notes either to an on-board synthesizer or to an external synthesizer. If the MIDI map is wrong, the notes will be sent to wrong place and no music will be heard. Please consult with your card manufacturer for the correct midi mapper settings for your sound card. NOTE: Ensure that ALL 16 channels are correctly set in the MIDI Mapper. If all 16 channels are not correctly set then you will probably get a message stating that the file may not play properly on the current machine. Setting up the correct MIDI Mapper settings: Click on the Control Panel in the Main Group Click on the MIDI Mapper icon Click on Setups (this should already be selected) Click on Edit Button Ensure that all 16 channels for the Port Name (third column) are set to the same name. Click OK and save the changes. NOTE: For MediaVision ProAudioSpectrum family of cards, use Voyetra OPL3/FM Synthesis for the Port Name. If you can play and hear the file th_intrb.mid from the \DIALOG\CREDITS subdirectory of the Millennium Auction CD 1, with the Windows Media Player (which is found in the Accessories program group) then your MIDI map is OK. Video Resolution/Video Cards: ------------------------------ Ideally, Millennium Auction should be run at 640 x 480 x 256 colors. Changing Display drivers: Usually, this can be done by accessing "Windows Setup" which is normally located in your Main program group. Some video drivers require that you exit windows and run "setup" from the DOS prompt. Consult the owner's manual of your video card for additional information. NOTE: Changing the resolution at which Windows is run will cause Video for Windows to invoke its Profiler the first time an AVI file is played. This may leave a minor visual artifact on the screen when the Eidolon logo animation is played at the start of the game. S3 based cards: Older versions of S3 card drivers are known to have problems with the GetPixel call. (This may cause a crash in picking up the action holograms in the infolink). The problem may be avoided by ensuring that you click on the action hologram (not the area around it). It has been found that newer versions of drivers solve this problem. ATI Mach32 cards: ATI Mach32 drivers may be configured to prevent applications from modifying the system's palette. If you have this card and are having palette problems (bad/strange colors) playing Millennium Auction: start up the ATI Flexdesk application, select Advanced, and turn on the 256-color option. If there is a General Protection Fault in ATIRLE.DRV then you should disable the ATI Interceptors. Please refer to ATI for instructions on disabling these. Sound Cards: ------------- Millennium Auction will work with any MPC compliant sound card. If you do not hear any sound, check that normal sound is available by testing a sound file using Sound Recorder (SoundRec.exe) in your Windows Accessories Group. If you still do not hear any sound check the following: 1) All cables are properly connected (see your sound card's documentation) 2) Check that all speakers are switched on. 3) Check that the mixer volume levels for the audio card are set at a reasonable volume. 4) Check that the SoundMapper is installed in the Control Panel so that ADPCM audio is able to play on the machine. There should be at least the following three settings available: Microsoft ADPCM Codec Microsoft IMA ADPCM Codec Microsoft PCM Converter The game uses both PCM and Microsoft ADPCM files. (Try playing any .wav in HELP\OTHER\help101.wav on the Auction CD 1 with the Windows Sound Recorder). SoundBlaster 16 cards: Ensure that drivers are upgraded to a drivers dated February 1994 or later. MediaVision Sound Cards: If using a MediaVision sound card and the game hangs in the bidding room, this can usually be fixed by disabling the auction room crowd noise. In the auction.ini file, in the directory in which the game was installed, is an entry disable-murmur=0, set this to 1 to disable auction room crowd noise. NOTE: The install process checks to see if the MediaVision driver is older than version 2.0. If this is the case then the murmur is disabled automatically. There are new drivers from MediaVision which fix this problem, but as of this release they are not yet available. The drivers are version 2.0. These drivers may be purchased as part of the Microsoft Sound System Software v2.0. MS Sound System: Millennium Auction may not run reliably with the older version of Microsoft Windows Sound System drivers. Please upgrade to version 2.0 of the Sound System drivers. CDROM Drives: -------------- Make sure your CD-ROM meets the MPC Level 1 specifications: 150 KB/sec. sustained transfer rate 1 second maximum average seek time CPU utilization is < 40% in achieving the above results. Any Windows-compatible CD-ROM that meets the above specifications should work. If you are having problems, first make sure that your CD-ROM is working properly with other Windows applications. If the drive is not working properly with other Windows applications, check to make sure that the proper Windows drivers are installed. If the problems persist, contact the manufacturer for assistance. If the CDROM drive letter has changed since the installation, you will get a dialog box asking for the new CD drive letter. After inserting the CD please wait a couple of seconds in order to give the drive enough time to initialize itself. Alternately if you have the correct CDROM in the drive keep pressing the Retry button for about 5 seconds. If this still does not work then check the troubleshooting section. Low memory conditions: ----------------------- The game may have difficulty running, or may not run at all in low memory conditions. This may depend on either conventional memory, which is DOS memory below 1MB, or extended (XMS) memory. You might see the following message when playing Auction if you are in one of these low memory conditions: "Millennium Auction was unable to open a data file. This may be caused by not enough available RAM or not enough available memory below 1MB. Some video or audio may not run but gameplay will be unaffected." NOTE: This message will be displayed the first time Auction is unable to open a data file. This message will be displayed only once. If later in the same game Auction cannot open data files, this message will not be displayed then. When Auction is unable to open a multimedia data file such as a video/animation, waveform audio, midi music, or bitmap image the requested action will be skipped but otherwise the game will continue. For example, if from the Gallery you click on the TV to see the news or on a bidder to hear a conversation, and there is insufficient memory to play the video files or show the bitmaps, the screen may flash as Auction tries to load these files but will return to the Gallery after failing to load and play the data. Checking Memory ---------------- The easiest way to check the amount of memory available is to quit windows and to type "mem /c" (without the quotes) at the DOS prompt to view the amount of conventional memory, and the amount of extended memory. IDEALLY you should have at least 570k of conventional (DOS) memory 2.75MB of extended memory 5MB permanent swap file Conventional Memory (DOS Memory below 1MB) ------------------------------------------- Even on machines with 8 or more megabytes of RAM Millenium Auction may be unable to open and play certain data files if there is insufficient "conventional" memory available. This is because the multimedia capabilities of Windows itself, which Auction relies upon, requires this type of memory to function. In order to rememdy this problem, it may be best to try one or more of the following: * Try removing as many TSRs as possible. (increases conventional memory). * Try removing your RAM drive (RAMDRIVE.SYS). This will increase both conventional and extended memory. Try to load as many of the TSRs as possible into High Memory. Extended Memory (XMS Memory) ----------------------------- The extended memory problems should only occur on machines with 4M or less of RAM. If you encounter these problems it may be best to try as many of the following as possible. * Often on a 4M machine smartdrive uses 1M of XMS memory. Set your Smartdrive line to the following smartdrv.exe 256 in your autoexec.bat file (see your DOS manual for instructions). This will ensure that smartdrive does not use more than 256k for its cache. Note that only SmartDrive that is supplied with DOS 6.2 allows caching of the CDROM. However the game does read files off the Hard Disk and this could be useful. * Try removing your RAM drive (RAMDRIVE.SYS). This will increase both conventional and extended memory. * Try removing any expanded memory managers (such as EMM386.EXE). This will increase extended memory but may reduce conventional memory if TSRs cannot be loaded in the upper memory area. * Make sure that you have a permanent swap file, and have defragmented your hard disk NOTE: The amount of DOS memory required will vary from machine to machine. The reason is that Windows itself and the various video/audio drivers needed to run Windows require a large amount of DOS memory (on the order of 400k). However, it has been found that some video and audio drivers require more DOS memory than others and will therefore only allow a few kilobytes of DOS memory to remain for other applications (such as Auction). For Technical Support, contact Eidolon at: (718) 884 1981 9am - 5pm EST Monday - Friday Also feel free to contact Eidolon using fax or E-mail Fax: (718) 884 1563 Compuserve: 70743,2726 INTERNET: 70743.2726@compuserve.com It is also possible to write to Eidolon at Technical Support Eidolon Inc. 5716 Mosholu Ave. Riverdale, NY 10471