Welcome to Star Control II, we hope you enjoy the trip! What follows is a detailed description of how the game is different from what is described in the manual, plus a few playing tips. Why is there a difference, you ask? Well, frankly, it's the designers' fault. Here's what happened... About six months before we ACTUALLY shipped the game, Fred and Paul (the designers of the game) gave us some disks and told us, "Here's the final version... well, ALMOST final. We have a few MINOR finishing touches, but they'll be done real soon." Then Fred and Paul disappeared, and were not seen or heard from for half a year. We looked and looked, but even their families didn't know where they'd gone. At great expense, we hired a detective from Pinkerton's to locate the errant designers. They were in ALASKA! Why? That's what we asked them... FER CRYIN' OUT LOUD, WHAT WERE YOU DOIN' IN ALASKA?! "Adding a few nice touches", they said, "like thirty different types of worlds, planet surface exploration, and enough player-alien dialog to fill a novel." Well, what could we do? Kill them?... yeah, we thought so too, but they ran off again, and now even the detective can't find them. Anyway, as a result, we have been forced to send along this significant update document which details all the "nice touches" Fred and Paul added. By the way, if you see Paul and Fred, DON'T call Pinkerton's, call us instead... we will take care of them ourselves. REVISED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Memory: You will need at least 580,000 bytes of Low DOS memory available when you start the game. Disk Space: Star Control II has expanded like a blowfish with water retention, and now requires 9,200,000 bytes of free space on your hard drive. This is due to the addition of almost an hour of digital music, plus over fifty digital sound effects. KNOWN CONFLICTS Conflict: EXTENDED MEMORY MANAGER (only in rare instances) Symptom: Extremely slow performance, and in rare cases, system halts. Solution: Modify config.sys or autoexec.bat files to remove memory manager. Conflict: GRAVIS ULTRASOUND board in combination with SOUNDBLASTER or ROLAND sound boards. Symptom: System halts immediately when game is run. Solution: Remove all sound boards but GRAVIS ULTRASOUND, or remove GRAVIS ULTRASOUND. LAUNCHING STAR CONTROL II FROM WINDOWS To run STARCON2 from Windows, you must take the following steps: Add an Optional Parameter switch to the PIF with the PIF Editor as follows: /s:silent (if it's not already present). Sorry about not allowing sound, but Windows 3.1 doesn't get along well with high-speed digital interrupts. NEW SOUND BOARD SUPPORT Star Control II now auto-detects and utilizes the following sound baords: Microsoft Windows sound board (command line override: /s:MICRO) Gravis Ultrasound sound board (command line override: /s:GRAVIS) WEIRD GRAPHICS ADAPTER FIX Certain computers, like the Tandy 4850 EP, have unusual video hardware, and as a result, the colors in the game might not look quite right. If you experience this probelm, try running the game as follows: STARCON2 /g:BIOS This will force the program to update the the color palette using the BIOS functions. Since most BIOS calls are far slower than custom routines, a minor performance penalty may be noticed when using this option. CHANGES AND CLARIFICATIONS STARMAP: The paper starmap included in the game box was defined in the year AD 2133. This means that in 2155, at the beginning of Star Control II, the details about alien spheres of influence are over twenty years out of date. Also, the lighter region in the upper right corner of the starmap represents the glow emanating from the distant galactic core and indicates the direction known in the game as 'Coreward'. MANUAL SOFTWARE-THEFT PROTECTION: Professor Zorg has been called off on urgent matters of inter-galactic significance. Consequently, he is unable to preside over the Starmap Trivia Quiz, but assures us that you will be able to handle this task on your own. INITIAL MENU: Each time you pass the Starmap Trivia Quiz, you will be presented with a menu offering the following options: START NEW GAME: The game starts at the very beginning, prompting you to enter your captain's name. LOAD SAVED GAME: You are presented with the list of saved games to choose from. PLANET NAMES Some of the names of planets in the game are changed. The changes are: Greenhouse World is now Primordial World Light World is now Selenic World MENU CHANGES The options in certain game menus have changed. These changes are: MANIFEST: The order of menu items now reads: CARGO DEVICES ROSTER EXIT COMBAT SEGUE: The order of menu items now reads: CONVERSE ATTACK! GAME Also, in regards to the Combat Segue Screen: normally, this display shows the exact number of ships you have encountered; however, if alien ships fill the entire screen, you are facing an enemy task force of UNLIMITED size, which you CANNOT defeat in combat. If the task force is between you and something you want, you will have to figure out what is necessary to appease the aliens, or devise a clever plan to trick them all into leaving. STARMAP Range Circle: Whenever you enter the starmap, you will see a dim gray circle surrounding your position. This circle represents your range with your present fuel supply. REMEMBER: You use fuel landing on planets and escaping from battle, so this range circle can change even if you are not in HyperSpace. Spheres of Influence: The circles on the starmap represent the area of space occupied by an alien civilization's star fleet. Although these 'Spheres of Influence' are usually centered around their native homeworld, they CAN move. As a consequence, you might want to make regular examinations of your starmap. OUTFIT STARSHIP Flagship Characteristics: Beneath the display of your flagship, the game now displays the characteristics of your flagship, based on the modules it contains. These characteristics are: Turning Rate: The rotation rate of your flagship in combat, HyperSpace and interplanetary travel, based on the number of turn jets on your vessel. Maximum Velocity: Your ship's speed in combat, HyperSpace and interplanetary travel, based on the number of thrusters your ship possesses. Combat Energy: The speed with which the energy for your weapons is replenished during combat. The more Dynamos you have on board your flagship, the faster energy will be regenerated. Module Availability: The 'Auto-Tracking' module is NOT available at the beginning of the game, nor are 'Blaster Packs', but 'Ion-Gun Racks' can be purchased immediately. Weapon Module Changes: There are NO 'Side', 'Spread', 'Nose' or 'Tail' weapon modules. Instead, these configurations, as described in the manual, are achieved by how you place weapon modules on your flagship, as follows: WEAPON POSITION FIRING EFFECT First (right most) slot Fires FORWARD Second slot Fires a SPREAD Third slot Fires to both SIDES Last (left most) slot Fires backwards Weapon modules placed in any other slot positions will have no effect. ESCAPING FROM COMBAT At the beginning of the game, the emergency warp technology for escaping from combat has NOT been included on your ships, though this feature will be available very early on in the game. NEW FEATURES NOT MENTIONED IN MANUAL Repeat Last Alien Phrase: During a conversation with an alien, you may want to repeat the alien's last phrase to you. To do so, press the spacebar or button 2. GAME PAUSE You can pause the game anywhere and at any time by pressing the F1 key. To unpause the game, press F1 once more. MISCELLANEOUS Save often. You may want to review earlier portions of the game later on. You can acquire ships in the game which you cannot build at your starbase. Typically, these ships are a 'gift' from an alien race, but they cannot give them to you unless you have room for the ships in your fleet. For this reason, consider keeping two or three slots open in your fleet. Also, you can 'sell' these ships for Resource Units, but remember, you CANNOT rebuild the vessels. Once they are sold, they are gone.