This document will help you install and play the Trophy Bass 4 Demo, and explains all the options in detail.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
I] MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS FOR DEMO
II] HOW TO INSTALL AND START THE DEMO
III] HOW TO PLAY THE DEMO
IV] QUICK REFERENCE
V] GRAPHICS PERFORMANCE OPTIONS
VI] TROUBLESHOOTING
VII] SETTING UP OpenGL
VIII] DRIVER UPDATES
IX] LEGAL STUFF
I] MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR DEMO
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Required:
System: Pentium « 166 class WITH 3D accelerator card/P-200 WITHOUT 3D card
Memory: 32MB RAM
Platform: Win95/98, NT 4 with Service Pack 4
Hardware: 8x CD-ROM (for CD Demo)
Sound: DirectSound-compatible card
Video: SVGA 640x480 High Color (16-bit)
Peripherals: Mouse, Keyboard
Hard Drive Space: 23 MB for files, 60 MB free swap space
Optional:
3D Card: 3dFX Glide-compatible (preferred) or Direct3D/DirectX6-compatible
Joystick: Windows-compatible joysticks (Force-feedback: Microsoft Force Feedback Pro)
(NOTE: Multiplayer NOT supported in DEMO)
II] HOW TO INSTALL AND START THE DEMO
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If you downloaded this demo off the Internet, simply double-click on the file "Trophy Bass 4 Demo" in your download directory to start the installation. Follow the on-screen directions to choose an install directory, complete the setup, and start the demo.
If you got this demo on a CD-ROM, simply load the CD and Windows should start installation automatically. If that doesn't happen, use Windows Explorer or the Start Menu's Run window to find the "Setup" file on the CD and start it up.
You can start the demo at the end of the installation, or run it later from the Start Menu: Programs menu. The default installation folder is "C:\Sierra\Trophy Bass 4 Demo".
III] HOW TO PLAY THE TB4 DEMO
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When you start the demo, take a quick look at the game's basic DEMO CONTROLS. (See the Quick Reference below for a full list.) Click START FISHING when you're ready to go.
The demo lets you fish a limited area of Lake Marion, South Carolina, one of the new lakes in Trophy Bass 4. You can fish for largemouth bass, catfish, panfish, and get a good look at the basic gameplay and 3D action of the game.
MOVING THE BOAT
In the demo, the game is set to "Easy"--you can see all the fish from the surface by their "shadows." If there are no bass within casting distance when you start the demo, just move the boat until you find some. Drive your boat with the arrow keys, joystick, or click the on-screen boat controls.
To move your boat far and fast, use the Outboard Motor. Move in on fish slowly and quietly with the Trolling Motor. Switch motors with Ctrl-M or click the "propeller" button. To stop, press "Ctrl-S". You can also click the "anchor" button to keep your boat from drifting. If you reach the edge of the demo area, your boat will be turned back automatically.
VIEW CONTROLS
The normal 3rd-person view is Boat View, or Ctrl-B. Turn the view with the bracket keys [ ] or Ctrl-V. For the 1st-person Angler View, press Ctrl-A. Start the new Floating Camera View with Ctrl-F, then Ctrl-arrow or (- +) keys to move the view. Once your lure is in the water, you'll activate the underwater LureCam (switched On or Off with Ctrl-L).
CASTING
To Autocast, first pick up the casting target by clicking on the Target button, or by right-clicking on the water. Move the target to where you want to cast, then left-click to place it. Now, simply left-click again to make a perfect cast.
Once your lure hits the water, the "LureCam" lets you watch its every move as you tease those fish into biting. You can turn "LureCam" On and Off by pressing "Ctrl-L.
To reel in your lure, click or hold down the left mouse button. You can control your rod position--left, right, up or down--by simply moving the mouse. To bring the lure in fast, just right-click.
To cast manually, click and hold down on the "Cast" button. Drag the mouse back to pull back the rod, then push the mouse forward in the direction you want, releasing the mouse button to cast. It's pretty realistic once you get the hang of it.
For an easier manual cast, try "Snap" casting. First set the cast target, and drag the mouse back to pull back the rod, then just click to cast the lure straight at the cast marker. The cast distance dependson how far you pull back.
FIGHTING FISH
When you get a strike, set your hook by pulling back sharply on your mouse or joystick. The line-tension meter shows you how hard you and the fish are pulling. With a big fish, it's a tricky game of "give-and-take" to bring him in without breaking your line.
You have four ways to control line tension. First of all, reeling increases line tension, so you can always stop reeling to decrease it.
Next, you can control your reel speed with your number keys (1 through 9) or by left- or right-clicking the reel-speed indicator on the left side of the reel. The higher the reel speed, the more tension your reeling creates.
The Drag setting controls how hard the fish must work to pull out your line. Use the "plus" key to increase your Drag and line tension, and your "minus" key to decrease it, or click the plus and minus buttons to the right of the reel.
Finally, a high rod position helps keep your line tight. You can drop the rod tip to ease tension in a hurry, but don't let the line go slack, or that fish might shake loose. NOTE: In this demo version, you must release all the fish you catch--the Livewell is unavailable.
Click EXIT when you're ready to stop fishing for the day. Check out the exit screens as you leave--they list many of the features you'll find in the full game.
IV] QUICK REFERENCE
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Here you'll find all of the commands and hot keys that are available in the demo.
Autocast: Right-click to pick up target. Click on water to place, again to cast.
Reel: Left mouse button; right-click to bring in fast.
Reel Speed 1...9, or click reel speed counter.
Increase/Decrease Drag + or - or click reel's drag "star"
The demo selects various "default" graphics performance settings for you based on the configuration of your PC. You may adjust these settings from the OPTIONS menu as follows.
3D HARDWARE ACCELERATION.
(Your options here on what 3D card you have, if you have one.)
OFF. If you have a 3D card, Trophy Bass 3D will use it by default. This setting lets you turn it OFF (checked) if you need to. (OpenGL is a special case...see section VII] Setting up OpenGL for more.)
(DRIVERS.) Here youÆll see selections for any 3D drivers detected for your 3D card, such as GLIDE or Direct3D. Many cards offer more than one.
FULL SCREEN ON. If checked (ON), this setting makes the main game window fill your display. If not checked (OFF), the demo runs in "windowed" mode. Windowed mode lets you resize and move the game window(s), and see the top menu bar at all times. It may not be as fast as Full Screen, however. NOTE: Some 3D cards donÆt support windowed mode, but most 2D/3D cards do. ALSO: If you run the game in 256-colors, you will ALWAYS be running the game in full-screen mode.
PERFORMANCE OPTIONS. These settings let you fine-tune specific aspects of the gameÆs graphic environment to provide more game speed or more visual detail. If the demo runs too slowly for your liking, turn more options OFF or use the MIN settings. Click OK when done. NOTE: Only those graphic detail selections supported by your PC or 3D card will be selectable.
TRANSLUCENT WATER. If ON (marked with an X), this setting lets you see underwater objects from the Angler and Boat views. When OFF, you see only the water surface and tell-tale fish "shadows."
WEATHER EFFECTS. If ON (marked with an X), this setting enables animations for falling rain and snow. If OFF, you donÆt see rain or snow falling.
WATER DETAIL: LOW, MED, HIGH. There are three levels of water surface animations. HIGH shows the most "dynamic" water surface movement in reaction to wind and rain.
OBJECTS. This slider control lets you adjust the range at which graphic objects such as individual trees, rocks, and weeds appear. MIN is fastest, making objects visible only when theyÆre very close. MAX is the most detailed, drawing objects at the maximum visible distance.
DISTANCE. This slider control lets you adjust the range at which the terrain and objects "drop out" of view. MIN is fastest, making the terrain fade out very soon. MAX is the most detailed, showing all terrain out as far as possible.
USE DEFAULT SETTINGS
Check this box to return to the graphics settings best suited for your PC.
VI] TROUBLESHOOTING
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3D Hardware acceleration under Direct3D (Direct X).
Your 3D card will need to support palletized textures and have at least 2 MB of available texture memory to run the demo adequately. Cards that do not support palletized textures will need at least 4 MB of texture memory. Otherwise, the demo may run slowly or exhibit graphics errors. If it appears you don't have enough texture memory to run under Direct3D, try Glide drivers (if your card is Glide-compatible) or run the demo in software. (You can turn 3D Hardware off from the demo's Options pull-down menu.)
Spinning Boat
If you have a joystick, and the joystick is not properly calibrated and centered, you may see your boat or mouse misbehaving. Go to the Options menu, disable the Joystick ("uncheck" JOYSTICK ON), and then calibrate or center it as needed.
Game is too dark or washed out.
If you're using a 3D card, you'll be able to select the BRIGHTNESS setting on the Options menu and choose a setting you like better.
VII] SETTING UP OpenGL
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OpenGL is an instruction set (API) for 3D cards that provides an alternative to the Direct3D or Glide/Voodoo APIs. NOTE: not all 3D cards support OpenGL at this time, and those that support it may not run any better. But it's worth a try. Setting the demo up to run under OpenGL takes two steps.
First, start the Trophy Bass 4 demo. Go to the Options menu, and select (checkmark) Allow OpenGL. Now exit and restart the demo.
Go to the Options menu. Select 3D Hardware Acceleration, and on the submenu that opens, you will see your 3D hardware options. If your 3D card supports OpenGL (has a specific driver for it), you will see it as an option for that card. As an example, you might see OpenGL-RIVA TNT/PCI@24 bits. It may work better for you on your 3D card than Glide or DirectX, or it may not. It's just another option for you to try.
NOTE: If your 3D card does NOT support OpenGL, you will either see no OpenGL option, or see only a generic one. An example of this is OpenGL GENERIC@32 bits. Don't bother trying a GENERIC OpenGL driver. It's going to be slllooow.
NOTE: You may also get only the GENERIC OpenGL driver if you're one of THOSE people with more than one video card and/or monitor going. You'll need to shut one monitor down in the Windows Control Panel before OpenGL will know which 3D card is primary.
VIII] DRIVER UPDATES
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Most computer manufacturers periodically update the "driver" software that comes with their products to support new and changing features of Windows and newer PCs, and provide them free-of charge on the Internet. Even if your PC is fresh out of the box, there already may be new drivers available for its video display adapter, sound card, 3D card, CD-ROM drive, or joystick. Its a good idea to check with the manufacturer for the latest drivers every few months or so, and it's an important first step when troubleshooting a program.
Here are the Internet addresses (URL's) of many major manufacturers of PC and components for driver updates:
Window95/98, NT, DirectX:
Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/
Computer Manufacturers:
Acer - http://www.acer.com/
AST - http://www.ast.com/
Compaq - http://www.compaq.com/
Dell Computers - http://www.dell.com/
Gateway 2000 - http://www.gw2k.com/
Hewlett Packard - http://www.hp.com/
Hitachi - http://www.hitachi.com/
IBM - http://www.pc.ibm.com/
Micron - http://www.micron.com/
NEC - http://www.nec.com/
Packard Bell - http://www.packardbell.com/
Quantex - http://www.quantex.com/
Sony - http://www.ita.sel.sony.com/
Toshiba - http://www.toshiba.com/
Video Cards:
3Dfx - http://www.3dfx.com/
ATI - http://www.atitech.com/
Aztech Labs - http://www.aztechca.com/
Cirrus Logic - http://www.cirrus.com/drivers/
Creative Labs - http://www.soundblaster.com/
Diamond MM - http://www.diamondmm.com/
Gallant - http://www.gallantcom.com/
Genoa Systems - http://www.genoasys.com/
Guillemot - http://www.guillemot.com/
Hercules - http://www.hercules.com/
Intel - http://www.intel.com/
Intergraphics - http://www.integraphics.com/
Matrox - http://www.matrox.com/
Number 9 - http://www.nine.com/
Nvidia - http://www.nvidia.com/
PowerVR - http://www.powervr.com/
Oak Tech. - http://www.oaktech.com/
Opti - http://www.opti.com/
Orchid - http://www.orchid.com/
Real3D - http://www.real3d.com/
Rendition - http://www.rendition.com/
Reveal - http://www.reveal.com/
S3 - http://www.s3.com/
STB - http://www.stb.com/
Sound Cards:
Aztech Labs - http://www.aztechca.com/
Creative Labs - http://www.soundblaster.com/
Diamond MM - http://www.diamondmm.com/
Ensoniq - http://www.ensoniq.com/
ESS - http://www.esstech.com/
Gallant - http://www.gallantcom.com/
Guillemot - http://www.guillemot.com/
Multi-Wave - http://www.multiwave.com/
Oak Tech. - http://www.oaktech.com/
Panasonic - http://www.panasonic.com/
Pioneer - http://www.pioneer.co.uk/
Roland - http://www.rolandus.com/
Sony - http://www.ita.sel.sony.com/
TEAC - http://www.teac.com/
Turtle Beach - http://www.tbeach.com/
Modems:
Hayes - http://www.hayes.com/
3Com - http://www.3com.com/
US Robotics - http://www.usr.com/
Cardinal - http://www.cardtech.com/
Joysticks and other controllers:
Logitech - http://www.logitech.com/
Gravis - http://www.gravis.com/
CH Products - http://www.chproducts.com/
Thrustmaster - http://www.thrustmaster.com/
CD-ROM Drives:
Gallant - http://www.gallantcom.com/
Philips - http://www.semiconductors.philips.com/
Pioneer - http://www.pioneer.co.uk/
Mitsumi - http://www.mitsumi.com/
IX] LEGAL STUFF
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Sierra's end user license agreement, limited warranty and return policy is set forth in the EULA.txt, found on the CD or install folder. The EULA is also available during the install of the product.
