This file contains general information about Billy. OS/2 users should also look in OS2HELP on the CD. This text is available in the international language Esperanto in LEGUMIN.TXT. ^Ci tiu teksto legeblas en la internacia lingvo Esperanto en LEGUMIN.TXT. WHEN INSTALLING THE GAME, REMEMBER TO CHOOSE BETWEEN THE 8MB OR 16MB VERSION! DEFAULT IS SET TO 8MB VERSION. Installation problems. ---------------------- If your screen turns black or INSTALL.EXE reports problems with VESA graphics try to run "INSTALL.EXE -g640x480 -nocol" and look in section "Running Billy in 640x480". Maybe the problem is that you need to install a VESA graphics driver, e.g. UNIVBE.EXE. You can download a shareware driver from http://www.scitechsoft.com/ or ask for a driver where you bought your graphics card. How to set options manually. ---------------------------- The game's settings are saved in the file SETTINGS\OPTIONS.TXT. Using an editor you can manipulate the settings manually. Here is an example of what the file could look like. sound: fx=100, cd=26; misc: language=dansk, memory=16, playintro=1, cddrive=d; screen: brightness=50, contrast=50; - fx is the volume of the sound effects and can have a value from 0 to 100. - cd is the volume of the cd music. - language is the language used in the game. This can be changed to any of the other supported languages. - memory is the amount of memory available on the system, this can either be set to 8 or 16, all other values are invalid. If you have more than 16 megabyte RAM set memory=16, if you have between 8 and 16 megabyte RAM, set memory=8. Instead of changing the memory setting, you should really reinstall because the 8 and 16 megabyte versions use different files. - playintro=1 means that the intro is played each time Billy is started. It can be set to playintro=0 for NO intro. - cddrive is the drive letter of the cd player with the Billy cd. If the drive letters on your system changes you should change this letter accordingly. cddrive=d means that the cddrive letter is "d". Remember NOT to put ":" after the drive letter. If the game won't start after you have changed the OPTIONS.TXT don't panic, because you can always delete or rename the file and then the game will create a new default file. Command line parameters. ------------------------ Some options can be changed with command line parameters. Run "BILLY.EXE -help" to view available command line parameters. I upgraded my system and now Billy won't run. --------------------------------------------- Either reinstall or change OPTIONS.TXT (see section "How to set options manually") and run SETSOUND.EXE. Problems with sound. -------------------- The DOS4GW dosextender doesent support IRQ's above 7 so if your soundcard uses a higher IRQ, you'll have to change this manually. Billy uses the DSIK sound system for sound effects. In the DSIK directory on the CD-ROM there are help files which may solve your problem. Running Billy in 640x480. ------------------------- If you want to run Billy on a laptop or a system which doesen't support 800x600 graphics mode you can actually play Billy in 640x480 resolution with the -g640x480 parameter. This also speeds the game up on some systems. This has been tried on a 486 25 MHz with excellent results. In this resolution the keys End, Home, PgUp and PgDn will control which part will be visible on the screen. Savegames. ---------- Each time you complete a world your game is saved. There is only one savegame per world per difficulty level so if the same world is completed again later, the old savegame is overwritten. To prevent this you can backup the file SETTINGS\SAVEGAME. Languages. ---------- If you change text language it will not take effect until you have restarted the game. If you by mistake change into a language you don't understand you can change OPTIONS.TXT directly (see section "How to set options manually") or use the -lang parameter. Speech language can be altered in the options menu and take effect immediately. As for now only Esperanto and English are available. The files in the TEXT directory define the different languages. If your favorite language is not included you should be able to translate yourself. As for now you can only translate to languages using the Latin alphabet, though. Feel free to contact us if you are interested in translating the game to other languages. Joystick. --------- If you are using a analoge joystick, then center the joystick and press j for calibration. Only joystick in port A is supported. The buttons are defined as follows. Button 1: Dig/fill hole Button 2: Fill hole Button 1 and 2 simultaneously: Throw ball Button 3: Throw ball (only on three-button game pads and joysticks) More help. ---------- Look at the self-displaying demos (they will be played when the game is idle in the main menu).