Contents: 1) System Requirements 2) Installation 3) Main Menu Screen 4) Controls 5) Troubleshooting 6) Game Play Tips System Requirements -------------------- Pentium 60 or better 16 Megs RAM required SVGA Video Card 100% Sound Blaster compatible Sound Card 14 Megs of Free Hard Disk Space Installation ------------ Win95 Once you have extracted the files, if you allowed it, a program group will be made on the Window95 Start Menu. Select MDK Demo 95 to start the Win95 version,or select the MDK Demo DOS to start the DOS version. If you select the DOS version, you will need to setup your sound card. You can do this in the 'Options' menu. **IF YOU DO NOT HAVE DIRECTX 3.0 OR LATER FROM MICROSOFT, MDK WILL NOT RUN UNDER WINDOWS95. YOU CAN DOWLOAD DIRECTX 3 DIRECTLY FROM MICROSOFT FOR NO CHARGE. Windows 3.1 & DOS Exit windows to get to the DOS prompt. Change to the directory that you decompressed MDK into. Now type 'MDKdemo' to start the game. **YOU WILL NEED TO SET UP YOUR SOUND CARD IN THE OPTIONS MENU IN ORDER FOR THE DEMO TO PLAY MUSIC AND SOUND EFFECTS. TO LET THE SETUP PROGRAM FIND YOUR SOUND CARD FOR YOU, CHOOSE 'AUTO DETECT ALL'. YOU CAN MANUALLY CHANGE THE CONFIGURATION IF THE PROGRAM INACCURATELY DETECTS YOUR SOUND CARD. **DIRECT X IS NOT REQUIRED TO RUN MDK IN DOS MODE. Main Menu Screen ---------------- All menus can be accessed by using the mouse or arrow keys. New Game By selecting this you will immediately enter the MDK universe Options Help All the default keyboard controls are listed here. During gameplay, if you need help at any time pressing the F1 key will bring up this help menu. Sound Setup - DOS Select the ‘Detect All' to find your particular sound card. You can manually set the sound card’s configuration. If the game locks up or crashes when you test the sound, please refer to the troubleshooting section at the end of this guide for some helpful hints. You can change your soundcard settings (IRQ and DMA channels) manually if the autodetection process did not find your soundcard. You should hear sound when you select the ‘Test’ option, if not, your sound card has been improperly set up. Joystick MDK can be played using a joystick or joypad (that has 4 buttons - delete this). You must select the ‘Enable Joystick’ option to use a joystick. You can then arrange the button configuration to your prefernce. To return to the standard setup, select ‘Default Buttons’. Buttons can be assigned multiple actions. For instance, your secondary joystick button may be assigned 'Zoom In' and 'Jump' without conflicting. The zoom feature is only used in sniper mode, and the jump action is only active outside of sniper mode. Just highlight the joystick button box (1-4 in DOS, up to 8 in Windows95) that you want a particular action assigned to. Keyboard You can change the function of most keys and customize the controls to your preferences by highlighting the action and then pressing the key you would like to assign to this function. To save your preferences, select ‘Quit’ when you are satisfied with your control options. To return to the default keyboard configuration, select that option. Mouse The mouse can be configured any way you prefer. MDK can utilize all 4 buttons on some mice, and each button can be assigned multiple actions. (See Joystick above for how to assign actions to the mouse) Performance Selecting this option, MDK will perform a hardware test of your system and compare it to some standard systems. Your system may vary from the benchmark systems due to several factors, including type of RAM used (SRAM or standard), video card and video RAM available, CD-ROM speed, 32-bit Disk access enabled or disabled, etc. Do not be concerned if your system performs below the benchmark level. This program is helpful to reveal hardware that may limit your experience with MDK. Skill There are 3 settings available, ‘Easy’, ‘Normal’, and ‘Difficult’. Select whichever skill level is appropriate for your ability. Display Seclects the screen brightness. This option can also be changed during the game by pressing the F11 key at any time. To increase the frame rate if you are experiencing any slowdown in the performance of MDK, you can turn the detail level to 'Low’, which should help. Controls -------- Arrow keys - will move Kurt in that direction. Also controls aiming in sniper mode. Space Bar - Toggle in/out of Sniper mode A/Z - Zoom in/Zoom out in Sniper mode. In normal mode, it shifts the camera to look up or down. Control key - Fires selected weapon Alt key - Jump. While in mid-air pressing the alt key a second time will activate the ribbon chute. Enter key - will use/activate the selected pickup 0-9 - select specific pickup item [ and ] - Toggle left and right through different ammunition and pickup items Shift key - selects turbo mode which speeds up Kurt’s running and turning speed Caps Lock - keeps turbo mode on X - when used with the left and right arrow keys will make Kurt sidestep , and . - will cause Kurt to sidestep left and right. (Same function as X + the arrow keys) Esc - Quit game Function Keys F1 - brings up the help menu which gives all the keyboard controls F10 - Quit game. F11 - Adjust brightness F12 - Brings up the Options screen. Additional Information BONES AIRSTRIKE - While in sniper mode, the center of the targeting display will change to white when aimed at an area that Bones can hit. Simply press the fire button to call Bones in to bomb the area. Trouble Shooting ---------------- Q: Help! I can’t get MDK to run! A: MDK requires 16 Megs of RAM to run and a Pentium processor. If you do not have this, MDK will either not run, or may crash during gameplay. Q: I can’t select any of the options in the main menu. A: If you are in DOS mode, make sure that you have loaded your mouse driver before starting MDK. Although the mouse is not necessary to play MDK, it is needed to select some options. Q: My joystick won’t work. What’s the problem? A: Check to make sure your joystick is set up correctly. Then check in the MDK ‘Joystick’ options to make sure the joystick is enabled. In DOS mode you may need to load your joystick’s drivers that came with it prior to running MDK. Please check their documentation for further help. Q: Can I run the game using a keyboard and mouse at the same time? A: Yes. You can play MDK using almost limitless control options. Try several different combinations to see which works best for you. Some people prefer only using the keyboard, others use keyboard+mouse or keyboard+joystick. There are even a few who use the mouse with the joystick to play! We've given you total control over how you can control MDK. Q: The game is running slowly on my machine, what can I do? A: MDK will run faster in Win95 or DOS due to your hardware configuration. Some video cards, for example, work best in DOS or only Win95. Try playing the game in the other mode to see if there is an increase in performance. You will not need to reinstall the game, but simply run the other MDK executable (MDKdem95 for Windows95 or MDKdemo.exe for the DOS executable) to see which gives you the best performance on your machine. Q: The sound doesn’t work! A: That’s not a question. Q: The sound doesn’t work on my machine. Can you help? A: Sure! First off, we’ll assume that you’ve checked to make sure that the speakers are turned on and plugged in correctly to your PC and you’re running a 100% SoundBlaster compatible card. As a note, not all sound cards are truly 100% compatible, in which case you may not be able to get sound from MDK. Now, if you’re running in Win95, check to make sure that your soundcard is operating correctly. Remember that in Win95 you can have a correctly operating soundcard but have the sound muted. Double click on the speaker icon on the task bar to see if the sound is set to ‘mute all’. If you are trying to run the game in DOS, make sure that your sound card and mouse drivers are being loaded for your DOS session. Consult your sound card instruction manual on loading the DOS drivers. Q: In Windows95, if I play the DOS version, the game occasionally quits back out to Windows. Why? A: You're probably hitting one of the shortcut key combinations (like Alt+Enter). To disable this, edit the DOS shortcut. Go to either My Computer or Windows Explorer and get to the ":\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\MDK Demo" directory. Right click on the MDK DOS Shortcut. Select the 'Misc' tab, and clear all the boxes in the 'Windows Shortcut Keys' box. While you're at it, you may want to clear the 'Allow Screen Saver' box as well, because this could cause problems if your screensaver kicks in when the program is running, but you're not doing anything. Q: In Windows95, I keep hitting the Windows key between the Alt and Control keys and I get sent back to Windows. Is there a way to disable the Windows key? A: There are two known ways to disable the Windows key on your computer. The first method involves a pair of pliers and a screwdriver. We do not reccomend this method. The second, which we suggest, is from Microsoft. They have a program called DosWinky that temporarily disables the Windows key. It can be downloaded from http:://www.microsoft.com/windows/download/doswinky.exe along with instructions on how to use it. Game Play Tips & Techniques --------------------------- Q: Why doesn’t the Bones Airstrike work in some areas? A: When you have picked up the Bones airstrike power-up, you must go into sniper mode to use it. Make sure the airstrike power up is the ammunition selected. The center of your targeting system will turn white when it is focused in on an area that Bones can bomb. Bones can’t 'Deliver Kindness' in enclosed environments or under overhangs since he’s got to fly in to bomb the area. When you have selected the target, press the weapon fire button. This tells Bones that you have set your target and it is OK for him to start his bombing run. Q: I don’t know what all the weapons do! Help! A: Whenever you pick up an item, the name of the weapon appears. This should give you some clue as to the item’s abilities. You are receiving the new weapons as soon as the good doctor invents them, so there’s not a lot of advanced documentation on these items. If you don’t know what a weapon does, then find a quiet area and fire one off to test it. Q: I'm stuck in the test room! Help me! A: That's not a question, but here's the help you're looking for. You have to use the sniper mode to continue through the level. If you haven't remapped any keyboard functions, then hit the 'space' bar to put on your sniper helmet. You'll see the targets you're supposed to hit off in the distance. Use the 'A' key to zoom in, and the 'Z' key to zoom out. To exit sniper mode, hit the space bar. Q: Some items don't appear in the lower corner of the screen when I pick them up. Why not? A: The weapon upgrades that you have picked up that appear on the screen are activated by using the 'Enter' key (unless you have remapped it to another key). The ones that do not appear are special ammunition for sniper mode. The chart in the lower left corner of the sniper mode view shows how many different types of ammunition you have, and also the number of rounds. You can toggle through the ammunition using either the number keys or the bracket keys (again, unless you have remapped those commands to other keys). Q: I’m having trouble aiming quickly enough in sniper mode. Any suggestions? A: Keep the zoom level very low when finding targets. Put the crosshairs on the target and then zoom in. This method is much more effective than zooming in and then trying to acquire the target. You can also use the mouse to aim, with the A + Z keys to zoom in and out. Q: I'm in the ship, now what? A: Bombs Away! Use the control key (or whatever you set up as your fire button) to drop bombs, and the arrow keys to aim. To make it really easy, you can even use the mouse to aim and drob the bombs. You've got unlimited ammunition so have fun! Q: Where can I get further technical assistance or ask game play questions? A: In North America, contact Playmates Interactive Entertainment, Inc. In the rest of the world, contact Interplay Productions. http://www.interplay.com http://www.playmatestoys.com http://www.shiny.com Q: When is the full version of the game due for release? A: It should be out this spring (1997). Contact you local software store for exact dates. MDK IS CURRENTLY STILL IN TESTING AND WILL BE FURTHER REFINED, TUNED, AND TWEAKED BEFORE WE RELEASE THE FULL VERSION. IF YOU ARE HAVING PROBLEMS, PLEASE CONTACT THE CUSTOMER SERVICE PEOPLE AT INTERPLAY OR PLAYMATES INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT. BY DOING THIS YOU WILL HELP US INSURE THAT THE FINAL PRODUCT IS AS BUG FREE AS POSSIBLE. IF YOU HAVE COMMENTS ON HOW WE MIGHT IMPROVE THE GAME IN THE TIME REMAINING, WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. THANK YOU, AND WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED PLAYING MDK AS MUCH AS WE HAVE CREATING IT. SOFTWARE USE LIMITATIONS AND LIMITED LICENSE The Software, including, without limitation, all code, data structures, characters, images, sounds, text, screens, game play, derivative works and all other elements of the Software may not be copied (except as provided below), resold, rented, leased, distributed (electronically or otherwise), used on pay-per-play, coin-op or other for-charge basis, or for any commercial purpose. You may make copies of the Software for your personal noncommercial home entertainment use and to give to friends and acquaintances on a no cost noncommercial basis. This limited right to copy the Software expressly excludes any copying or distribution of the Software on a commercial basis, including, without limitation, bundling the product with any other product or service and any give away of the Software in connection with another product or service. Any permissions granted herein are provided on a temporary basis and can be withdrawn at any time. All rights not expressly granted are reserved. Acceptance of License Terms. By downloading or acquiring and then retaining this Software, you assent to the terms and restrictions of this limited license. If you acquired the Software and do not accept the terms of this limited license, you must return the Software together with all packaging, manuals and other material contained therein to the store where you acquired the Software for a full refund and if you downloaded the Software, you must delete it. MDK and all related characters/artwork (c) 1997 Shiny Entertainment, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. For information: http://www.shiny.com