Contents
Thanks for purchasing and playing Anachronox. This readme file contains troubleshooting and last minute gameplay information.
Part 1 - System Requirements
MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
PII 266 MHz (or equivalent)
Windows 95B/98/ME
64 MB RAM
12 MB 3D accelerator card with full OpenGL support
DirectX 7 (included)
4X CD-ROM drive
RECOMMENDED
AMD Athlon or Intel Pentium III processor
Windows 98/ME
128 MB RAM
16 MB 3D accelerator card with full OpenGL support
8X CD-ROM drive
Sense of humor
NOTE: 3D accelerated video card with OpenGL drivers required.
It may be necessary to update your hardware drivers before playing.
Each character has a unique WorldSkill. Try them all to get cool items in various places.
Part 2 - Installation
Insert Anachronox CD1 into your CD-ROM drive. After a few seconds, the Autorun Menu will appear. Click on the Install Anachronox button to run the installer. This program will guide you through the remaining process via onscreen prompts.
In the event the Launch Panel does not appear when you insert the CD:
Double-click on the MY COMPUTER icon, then double-click on the CD-ROM icon, and lastly double-click on the AUTORUN.EXE file to bring up the Autorun Menu, OR:
Click on the START button. Choose Run from the ensuing pop-up menu. Type d:\autorun in the box provided (where d: designates your CD-ROM drive letter).
You will initially be prompted to select the install path and directory, then the install size. The game will run most efficiently if you do a Full Install. The default install path is C:\Anachronox
If the Anachronox installer detects that DirectX 7 or a later version of DirectX is not installed on your system, DirectX 7 will be installed during the installation process.
You should now be ready to run the game! Remember, CD2 must be in your CD-ROM drive at all times while you are playing Anachronox.
If you have any problems installing the game, please check the "Troubleshooting" section of this document.
Part 3 - Autorun Menu
The Autorun Menu will appear any time CD1 is placed in the CD-ROM drive. The menu has several options:
There is a special language called "Brebulan" in Anachronox.
Part 4 - Start Anachronox
To begin playing Anachronox, insert CD2 into the CD-ROM drive. Next, click on the Anachronox shortcut on your desktop, or go to your Start Menu, and select Programs, Eidos Interactive, Anachronox, and click on Anachronox to launch the game.
NOTE: You will need CD2 in your CD-ROM drive at all times while playing Anachronox.
Part 5 - Uninstall Anachronox
If you need to uninstall Anachronox, you may do any of the following three things:
Your saved games will not be deleted when you uninstall.
Mistress Mavina in the Red Light District gives clues to secrets for money!
Part 6 - Prepare Your Hard Drive
To ensure that your installation is trouble free, you should check to see that your hard drive and file system are both tuned for optimum performance. Windows 95/98 comes with two utility programs that find and fix any errors and optimize your hard drive's performance.
The first of these programs is called ScanDisk. ScanDisk will check your hard drive for problems and can fix any that it finds. You can run ScanDisk by clicking on the START button from the Windows 95/98 Taskbar, followed by Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, and finally ScanDisk.
Once ScanDisk has finished running, you should optimize your hard drive's performance by running a program called Disk Defragmenter. You can run Disk Defragmenter by clicking on the START button from the Windows 95/98 desktop, followed by Programs, then Accessories, then System Tools, and finally Disk Defragmenter.
Brebulan: There are lots of signs around that say stuff in a phoneme-based language.
Part 7 - Memory and Performance
Anachronox requires at least 64 megs of RAM; the performance of the game will improve if you have more RAM. Regardless of how much memory you have, you can maximize your available memory and increase the overall performance of the game engine by doing the following:
The original name of Paco "El Pu±o" Estrella was "Buster".
Part 8 - Additional Gameplay Information
The following gameplay features are not documented in the manual:
CONTROLS
In addition to the keys listed in the manual, there are some additional keys you can use in the game (some of them will also be described in-game when they become active):
Shift + Tab Switch Parties
At a certain point in the game, you will have multiple parties. To switch between each set of characters, press Shift + Tab.
(Tab will still allow you to switch between characters in a single party)
L Last Message
Press "L" to see the last system or game message that was displayed onscreen.
AUTOSAVE
There is an autosave feature built into Anachronox so that you don't have to go back too far in the game if you find yourself at the GAME OVER screen and you haven't saved your game in a while. Anachronox will save the game automatically any time you move from one map to the next. Each time a map finishes loading, you'll see the text "Autosavingà" appear on the screen. If you want to load the game that was autosaved, go to the Main Menu, Restore Universe, and click on the last saved game slot at the bottom of the list. This slot is specifically reserved for the autosave, you will not be able to save a normal game in this slot.
PLAYER LOGINS
Anachronox gives you the ability to create multiple player logins in case
several people are playing Anachronox on one machine. Each login has its own
set of saved game slots, photos and control settings (Video and Audio
options are set globally for all users). The default login name will be the
name you used to log into Windows, or anoxuser by default. If you wish to
create a new login name, just type a new name in the User box and click on
New User. To login as an existing user, select your user name from the list below,
then click Log In.
Each login has a set of 9 saved game slots, plus 1 autosave slot on the
bottom. You can always overwrite an existing saved game with a new save.
You will only be able to switch logins or create new logins when you first
enter the game, at the Main Menu. Once you start a new game or load a saved
game, you will need to quit out in order to change your login.
ADVANCED USERS ONLY: You can copy and paste the entire login directory into your save folder if you wish to continue your saved game under a new login. Just copy the folder named after your login, inside the anoxdata\save directory, and paste the copy into the save directory. Rename the folder to a new login name, and then login under that name.
Brebulan: But there are a couple signs in the Bricks that have BOTH English and Brebulan....
Part 9 - Graphic cards
Anachronox requires a graphic card with at least 12 MB of VRAM and the drivers must support OpenGL 1.1. The game will not run properly on cards that only support DirectX, even if an OpenGL emulator or D3D wrapper exists for that card. Anachronox has been tested on a wide variety of graphic cards; these are the known issues:
Intel 810 - small graphic glitches and occasionally there are corrupted textures.
Matrox G400 - the player characters' eyes may not look correct, rare corrupted textures.
ATI Rage LT - slow performance and visual errors.
Environment mapping is not supported on older 3dfx & ati cards (this may be fixed in a patch).
The Samoth and Nevets magician characters are based on Tom and Tom's childhood friend Steve. They are roughly "Thomas" and "Steven" backwards -- after a local magician "Divad" who spells his name backwards.
Part 10 - 3Dfx cards
You should be able to run the game on most of the recent 3Dfx cards: Voodoo 5, Voodoo 3 and Banshee. Anachronox will not run on a Voodoo 2 card without special drivers. However, there is a driver available for download on the internet which may help Anachronox run much faster on all of the 3Dfx cards listed above, including the Voodoo 2 card. For more information on where you can obtain this driver and instructions on how to install it, please go to the following web page:
http://www.anachronox.com/metagl.html
Casinox is inaccessible. We ran out of time. Sorry! Maybe later.
Part 11 - Video Options
There are a number of Video Options that enable you to run Anachronox at different levels of detail. Anachronox looks best in Hi-Res mode (1280x960 resolution). However, not all graphic cards will support this resolution. If you attempt to run the game at Hi-Res and your card does not support this resolution, the game will automatically drop back to Low-Res (640x480 resolution).
If you find that the game is running slowly on your system, we recommend that you set the Resolution to LOW-RES and you should set Fancy Menu Graphics to OFF.
Traderbots will let you make deliveries if you are poor, and trade if you are better off.
Part 12 - Troubleshooting
During installation, the hourglass stays on screen after I switch from CD1 to CD2, and the cursor doesn't come back. What should I do?
On certain systems, the cursor will not come back after switching CD's, when the "Insert CD2" dialog box is on screen. Please press the TAB key repeatedly until the highlight moves to the OK button. Once the OK button is highlighted, press ENTER to continue the installation.
I had problems installing Anachronox, and now it won't let me reinstall the game. What should I do?
If you have any problems installing the game, and you are unable to reinstall, do the following:
Insert CD1 and wait until the Autorun Menu comes up. If you have autorun turned off, double click on the autorun.exe file on CD1.
Next, click the Recover option on the Autorun menu. You will now be able to reinstall the game. NOTE: do not use this unless you want to reinstall Anachronox!
After you Recover and install the game again, a window may pop up:
"Read only file detected"
Click on the check box marked "Don't display this message again."
Then click YES to continue the installation.
Windows 2000
Anachronox does not officially support Windows 2000. However, the game will most likely run fine on this OS. However, due to a known issue in InstallShield, you may have some difficulty installing the game.
On Windows 2000 at the end of the installation, you may be asked to put CD 1 back in the drive. The message will look something like this:
"The wrong volume is in the drive. Please insert Volume Anox_CD1 into drive."
These buttons will appear: CANCEL, TRY AGAIN, CONTINUE.
You will need to put CD1 back in your CD-ROM drive, and click on TRY AGAIN, otherwise the installation will fail.
Part 13 - Eidos Game Demos
We have included 4 great demos of the latest PC games from Eidos Interactive. These demos can be found on CD1 in the "Demos" folder. To install each demo, just double click the file and follow the instructions. The demo files will automatically extract and install to your hard drive.
The demos included with Anachronox are:
HitmanDemo2.exe Hitman: Codename 47
igidemo.exe Project IGI
startopiademo1.exe Startopia
TRchronicles.exe Tomb Raider Chronicles
NOTE: Because the self-extracting files for the demos are quite large, it can take a few minutes for the files to open. Please be patient and watch your CD-ROM drive light, which should be on while the file is being accessed. You may also copy the file from the CD to your hard drive and run the installation from there; this will speed up the process a bit.
Some of the demo titles have higher minimum specifications than Anachronox, please see the accompanying system specs which are listed in the readme file for each demo (extracted with the demo).
The full versions of these games are now available in stores. You may also order them online at www.eidosstore.com (US only).
Part 14 - Anachronox Web Sites
Official Anachronox web site
http://www.anachronox.com
Anachronox Patches
http://www.anachronox.com/patches.html
Ion Storm
http://www.ionstorm.com
Eidos Interactive
http://www.eidos.com
PlanetAnachronox Fan Site
http://www.planetanachronox.com
MetaByte WickedGL driver for 3Dfx cards
http://www.anachronox.com/metagl.html
Part 15 - Technical Support
The latest Anachronox patch (if there is one available) can be downloaded at:
http://www.anachronox.com/patches.html
If you need further technical assistance after reading the Readme file please do not hesitate to contact us.
When contacting us, please be sure to provide us with as much information as possible. Make sure to note the exact type of hardware that you are using in your system, including: your sound card, graphics card, CD-ROM drive, amount of RAM present, speed and manufacturer of your processor. Also, make sure to include the title and version number of the game (listed on the Main Menu), and a detailed description of the problem.
It will also help if you prepare by creating a "DXDiag" diagnostic file in Windows before you call us. Simply follow these instructions:
- Click on Start
- Click on Run
- Type dxdiag
- Click on OK
- Click on the Save Information button and save the file to your computer.
When you call our Technical Support line either have this file open or have a printed copy. If you send an e-mail query you may attach the file to the e-mail.
Technical Support Contact Details (United States of America)
Address Eidos Customer Services
651 Brannan Street
San Francisco
CA 94107
E-Mail http://www.eidosinteractive.com/support/techsupport.html
Phone 415 615-6220
Fax 415 547-1201
Web http://www.eidosinteractive.com/support/index.html
Technical Support Contact Details (United Kingdom)
Address Unit 2
Holford Way
Birmingham
B6 7AX.
E-Mail techsupport@eidosinteractive.co.uk
Phone 0121 356 0831
Web http://www.eidosinteractive.co.uk/support/index.html
Technical Support Contact Details (Australia)
Web http://www.ozisoft.com/extra/help.asp
NOTE: Hints and tips will not be given out by Technical Support.
Alternatively, you may find help with hardware problems on one of the websites maintained by the supplier, some of which are listed below:
3DFX: www.3dfx.com
3D labs: www.3dlabs.com
ATI Technologies: www.atitech.com
Creative Labs: www.creaf.com
Diamond Multimedia: www.diamondmm.com
ELSA www.elsa.com
Hercules: www.hercules.com
Matrox: www.matrox.com
nVIDIA: www.nvidia.com
PowerVR: www.powervr.com
S3: www.diamondmm.com
Terratec: www.terratec.net
Trident: www.tridentmicro.com
Eidos Interactive maintains a web page with links to all major video and audio card manufacturers, which is a good first stop if you are looking to upgrade your drivers. You can reach this page at:
UK: http://www.eidosinteractive.co.uk/support/index.html
US: http://www.eidosinteractive.com/support/index.html
AUS: http://www.ozisoft.com/extra/help.asp
"You're gonna make me do something, aren't ya?" -- Sly Boots
