Welcome to Multimedia Cats: The Complete Interactive Guide to Cats. This README file provides you with the basics needed to get started on Macintosh and Power Macintosh computers.
1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Your Macintosh or Power Macintosh computer should have the following minimum system configuration:
256 (8-bit) color Macintosh (68040 CPU recommended)
All files related to installation are in the ╥Install╙ folder on the CD. The files are:
QuickTime
QuickTime Musical Instruments
QuickTIme PowerPlug (only required for Power Macintosh computers)
Apple Multimedia Tuner
Sound Manager
The steps for installation are:
(1) Drag older versions of these files to the Trash. The older versions will be in your System Folder (System 6) or your Extensions folder inside the System Folder (System 7).
(2) Drag all of the above files onto your System Folder. Under System 7, the Finder will put these into their correct locations in the Extension folder.
For improved performance, copy the Multimedia Cats application to your hard drive and increase its RAM allocation by choosing ╥Get Info╙ from the Finder╒s File menu. You can then run the application from your hard drive. Power Macintosh users should make sure they have enough free memory before changing the application╒s allocation and should also check the note below.
3. GETTING STARTED
To start the application, double-click on the Multimedia Cats icon.
The main means of moving around is the Shelf that appears at the bottom of the screen.
There are 7 objects sitting on the Shelf, each of which takes you to a different "room" on the disc. The Shelf is always present. The "rooms" on the disc include:
Wildcats: explore various wild cat breeds.
Domestics: explore over 40 domestic cat breeds.
Cat-scan: find the cat that's right for you.
World: learn about the geographic origins of domestic cats.
Fun: games, slide show, wacky movies, and other surprises.
Reference: learn about health care, training, grooming, and other cat-related topics.
Help: get online help about the program.
Explore the disc by single-clicking (double-clicking is not necessary) on objects, text, and anything else you'd like to try. You can't hurt anything, so click on everything and anything.
To Quit the application, click on the word "Quit" in the lower right corner of the screen or type command-Q.
4. GETTING HELP
The First Aid Kit (on the far right of the Shelf) takes you to the Help room, where you'll find a complete overview of the interface. Help is "context-sensitive" -- whenever you enter the Help room, you'll be viewing help that pertains to the last room that you were in.
5. SPECIAL NOTE FOR POWER MACINTOSH USERS ONLY
If you are not using a Power Macintosh, you can safely skip this section.
If you are having problems running Multimedia Cats on your Power Macintosh, open the Memory control panel and turn on Virtual Memory. Set Virtual Memory to be one megabyte more than your amount of installed RAM. For example, if you have 16 MB of RAM, set Virtual Memory to 17 MB. If Virtual Memory was on, try turning it off instead. You must restart your Macintosh after changing the Virtual Memory settings. Furthermore, try turning the Modern Memory Manager off as well. If the problem persists, keep reading.
QuickTime 2.0 has difficulty displaying video in low memory situations on Power Macintosh models, although the problem does not exist on non-Power Macs. The problem manifests itself when the Multimedia Cats application uses up all the free memory (as reported by About This Macintosh╔) leaving the system software no room to use QuickTime. Video, therefore, will not play or will play incorrectly (video without sound, sound without video, etc). To fix the problem, you must actually decrease the amount of memory used by the Multimedia Cats application (which uses 4,096K by default); this change will increase the amount of memory available to the system software for QuickTime. Follow the instructions below to help solve the problem.
As described in the requirements for Multimedia Cats, your Mac must have at least 4 MB of free memory (4 MB is equivalent to 4,096 KB) to run Multimedia Cats. Free up as much memory (RAM) as possible by disabling unnecessary Extensions and Control Panels, disabling Appletalk in the Chooser, reducing the Disk Cache in the Memory control panel and quitting all other active applications (you must restart after disabling Extensions/Control Panels or Appletalk). If ╥About This Macintosh╔╙ then reports over 4700K as the ╥Largest Unused Block,╙ the problem should disappear when you run the application because the System has enough RAM for QuickTime. Again, you must have at least 4,096K free as the ╥Largest Unused Block╙ reported by ╥About This Macintosh╔╙ (under the Apple Menu in the Finder) or the application will not work. If you cannot get 4,096K of free memory, you will have to purchase more RAM (which will also help other applications run better). Since all Power Macintoshes have at least 8MB of total memory, you should be able get 4MB free.
If the video problem persists, copy the Multimedia Cats application to your hard drive, select it, and choose ╥Get Info╙ from the Finder╒s ╥File╙ menu. In the area labeled ╥Preferred Size,╙ replace the 4096 by typing in 3750. Close the ╥Get Info╙ box and run the application on your hard drive. QuickTime video should now display (although it may be jumpy). If video now works, you should try slowly increasing the ╥Preferred Size╙ for the application. If video still is not working, drag the QuickTime PowerPlug out of your Extensions folder (which is inside your System Folder). Reboot and try again. Video should now display.
Although these tricks should make video display, the application╒s performance will suffer. You should always try to free up as much memory as possible on your Mac (5,000K or more) and actually increase the application╒s memory allocation (to 4,700K or so) when enough RAM is available.
