SQUIRT v1.0 Shareware Version Copyright 1996 Innovative Applications Troubleshooting: 1.) Memory problems If you are trying to run SQUIRT and you have Windows 95 installed, please read the next section that deals with Windows 95. Because of the limitation of the DOS operating system, there is a limit of 640k of RAM available. So it does not matter whether you have 4 megabytes or 32 megabytes of RAM in your computer. The only thing that matters is how the first 640k is configured. This configuration occurs right when your computer boots up when you turn it on. When the computer is starting up, it reads two text files from your C: drive. One is called CONFIG.SYS, and the other is called AUTOEXEC.BAT. Because making changes to your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT file on your C: drive is risky, we recomend that you make a bootable floppy disk. Then you can boot DOS from your floppy disk. Then the computer would be reading the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files from the floppy disk instead of your C: drive. Once the computer tells you that the boot disk is done, you may reboot your computer. Leave the floppy disk in the A: drive, and reboot. Make sure that you are actually rebooting from your floppy drive. Most computers are setup to try booting from the floppy disk if there is one in the A: drive. However, some are set to always boot from the C: drive, even if there is a floppy disk in the A: drive. In that case, you must go into your computer's BIOS setup, and change the boot order. After booting from your floppy disk, you should have your computer configured in the correct way to use SQUIRT. If you want to check on how much DOS memory is available, type the word 'MEM' at the DOS prompt. You should have at least 2.5 Megabytes of EMS RAM, and your 'Largest Executable Program Size' should be around 600,000 bytes. The other very important line in your config.sys is the FILES=30 line. If this number is too small, the game may act erratically. 2.) Running SQUIRT on a system with Windows 95 installed By modifying your settings, you can get SQUIRT to run well under Windows 95. The following is a step by step process that will accomplish this. It is assumed that you have already opened a MSDOS prompt window and installed SQUIRT on your hard drive. step 1: Open the 'My Computer' window on the Windows 95 desktop. step 2: Double click on the C: drive icon. step 3: Find the WINDOWS folder and double click on it. step 4: Find the program COMMAND.COM. It might be easier to find if you change the view from icon view to 'list' using the VIEW pulldown menu. Click on COMMAND.COM only once to select it. DO NOT RUN it by double-clicking. step 5: Goto to the FILE pulldown menu, and select the menu item called 'Create Shortcut'. step 6: Drag the new shortcut that you just created out of the Windows folder onto the Windows desktop for easy access. step 7: Close the Windows folder for a better view of the desktop, and then RIGHT click on the newly created shortcut. By clicking with the right mouse button, you will get a little pop up menu. Select the item 'Properties'. step 8: Along the top of the Properties window for the new short cut, select the tab called 'Program'. step 9: Click on the big button in the lower right side of the Properties box that is labeled 'Advanced..'. step 10: Click on the checkbox that is labeled 'MSDOS mode'. step 11: Click on the button in the lower right called 'Configuration'. step 12: If a warning box comes up, just click on the 'Yes' button. step 13: On the configuration window, turn on the Expanded Memory checkbox. step 14: On the configuration window, turn on the mouse checkbox. step 15: Make sure the other check boxes on the configuration window are turned off. step 16: Click on the OK button of the configuration window. step 17: Now the advanced properties window should be active again. There are two white text editing areas on this window. The top is for the local CONFIG.SYS that this shortcut will use. Find the line in this top edit box that has the word Emm386.exe on it. Add the word NOEMS to this line. Make sure you put at lease one space before the NOEMS word. After completetion, the line should look like the following: DeviceHigh=c:\Windows\Emm386.Exe NOEMS step 18: Click on the OK button to close the Advanced Properties window. step 19: Click on the OK button to close the main Properties window. Now the main Windows 95 desktop should have the focus. step 20: You may rename the shortcut to the name 'SQUIRT' if you like. step 21: Double Click on the shortcut. This will restart your computer in MSDOS mode. step 22: When your computer reboots into DOS, type the command MEM to check on available DOS memory. Look at the number given for 'Largest Executable Program Size'. It is recommended that 580,000 or bigger to run SQUIRT. If have at least 550,000 bytes, you can run SQUIRT, but you will have less memory for your textures. step 23: Type the following at the DOS prompt: cd squirt squirt SQUIRT will now start up and run. CONFIGURING Sound for Windows 95 Most Sound Blaster compatible cards require a DOS driver to be loaded at boot time. If this DOS driver is not loaded, the card will not behave as a Sound Blaster card, and therefore SQUIRT will not be able to recognize the sound card. This will result in an error occuring whenever sound is requested. The bad news is that these drivers will be ignored when any DOS box running under Windows 95 itself. However, in the above steps that allow a simulation of the true DOS environment by rebooting, you CAN have your DOS sound card drivers be loaded, and therefore have your sound work. What you will need to do is find out the lines in your basic CONFIG.SYS file in your c:\ directory that deal with the sound card. For example, for the Sound Blaster 16, there might be a line in your CONFIG.SYS file: DEVICEHIGH=C:\SB16\DRV\CTSB16.SYS /UNIT=0 /BLASTER=A:220 I:5 D:1 H:5 In the above steps, the word NOEMS was added to the shortcut's CONFIG.SYS edit box. This is the box where the sound card driver line must be added. The tough part about doing this is finding out what to put on this line. Typically, the correct sound card DOS drivers were present in your CONFIG.SYS file before you installed Windows 95 on your system. In this case, these lines are probably still present in your C:\CONFIG.SYS file on your computer. In this case, you can just print out that file on your printer, and look for lines in your CONFIG.SYS file that have to do with the your sound card. Since many CDROM devices are connected to sound cards, you might not have to copy any device drivers that pertain to the CDROM aspect. For example, the following lines DO NOT need to be included in order for your sound card to function: REM do not need these CDROM lines DEVICE=C:\SB16\DRV\CTMMSYS.SYS DEVICE=C:\VMEDIA\SANYOCD.SYS /D:MSCD000 /F:M /B:310 The purpose of not including these lines is to leave more memory available for SQUIRT. The basic problem here is that many sound cards will have different drivers, and we can't tell you which is the correct line. We really wish that sound cards weren't like this. If there were any way to automate the process for you we would have done it. If you need help, you may want to consult your sound card manual. The part of interest will the DOS drivers. If the manual does not help, please call your sound card technical support number. They should be able to help you get the DOS drivers to work by adding the proper lines to your Properties box for the shortcut created above. There is some discussion of the same issues here for MS-DOS non-Win95 users in the section that follows. Since the No Sound section deals with MS-DOS users, they are discussing the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files in the C: drive. In the Windows 95 case, the above assumes the changes will be make to the config.sys section of the Properties Advanced box. 3.) No Sound This product depends on having a sound card installed in your computer that is 100% compatible with the original Sound Blaster card. Most sound cards today meet this criteria, but not all. Most sound cards require a driver program to be loaded in your CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT files. Many sound cards require a few lines in BOTH CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. What these lines do is load the Sound Blaster compatibility driver when your computer starts up. If you are running Windows 95, you will need to load these drivers in your Properties Advanced config.sys text box. For help with this, see the Windows 95 topic in this document. There are so many sound cards out there, that our boot disk program can't be smart enough to identify the lines in your C: drive CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. If your sound card requires drivers, then it will be up to you to copy these lines from your C: drive's config files to the config files on your boot floppy. You can do this with the DOS 'EDIT' command, or if you have IBM DOS, it would be the 'E' at the DOS prompt. Or, if you are more confortable in Windows, you can fire up Windows, and use the notepad editor to copy the lines from your C: drive config files to your floppy disk. NOTE: Be very careful not to mess up the CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT files on your C: drive. If you change the contents of these files on your C: drive, your computer may become unable to start up properly. Usually, many modern sound cards put a line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file like the following: set blaster=A220 D1 I5 T3 Many times, a driver will be loaded before or after this line. But it is also likely that there is a line in your CONFIG.SYS that needs to be copied too. NOTE: There are some drivers which may appear to be sound releated, but they are only for the CD option, or for Windows, and you should NOT waste your precious RAM with these (Of course we are only talking about your BOOT disk. You will still want these for normal booting. For example, never load 'mscdex' in your floppy version: c:\proaudio\mscdex.exe /d:mvcd001 /m:10 /v If the game product works, but it refuses to allow you to select sound, or perhaps you get a Critical Error message whenever you try to select sound, then either your sound card is not Sound Blaster compatible, or else the drivers still aren't there at boot time. Print out both your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT from both floppy and C: drive, and look harder for the sound drivers. Also, study your sound card manual, or call your sound card company. If you don't get any error messages, and it never complains, but you do not hear any sounds, then perhaps the volume is set too low. Most sound cards today come with utilities to change the volume settings on the card. We provide the program 'VOLUME.EXE' which allows you to change the volume settings on cards that are 100% compatible with the Sound Blaster Pro. Other sound cards will require volume utilities that come with the card. 4.) Sound and music don't sound right Try running VOLUME.EXE which is provided with the game. 5.) Mouse Problems The most common problem with the mouse when booting from the floppy is that the mouse driver needs a full pathname. 6.) Error Messages or Erratic Behavior If you get Critical Error messages, here are some common causes: 1.) If you ignore the low-memory blue warning screen, and select option 2 to try to run the product anyway, you are asking for trouble. All sorts of critical errors or crashes can result from running out of RAM. 2.) Critical Error 174 results when there is no subdirectory. SQUIRT requires a DATA subdirectory. Sometimes SQUIRT is set up incorrectly and there is no data subdirectory. Try re-installing SQUIRT. 3.) Critical Errors and crashes can occur if the line in your CONFIG.SYS file in your C: drive has the FILES=30 set to a lower number than 30. If the FILES= line is non-existent in your CONFIG.SYS file, or set to a value lower than 30, the product will not function. 4.) If you can't get the product to work, try playing with the sound off. 5.) There is only one Video Card known to incompatible with SQUIRT, and that is the Matrox Impressions card.