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- README Links LS - 1997 Edition - V 1.30
-
- DOWNLOAD VERSION
-
- 1/10/97
-
- ------------------------------------------------------------
- Refer to the sections below for information on the following subjects:
-
- 1. Installation.
- 2. Running under Win 95.
- 3. Running in 'MS-DOS Mode' under Win 95.
- 4. Running under DOS.
- 5. (Not Applicable to this download version)
- 6. Technical support for Links LS.
- 7. Automatic Crash Recovery.
- 8. Application startup sound (Crash).
- 9. DOS Error: "DOS 16m....Involuntary Switch To Real Mode"
- 10. Network or Modem game out of sync.
- 11. Video distorted - images shifted to upper right.
- 11a. Video distorted - partial image seen through wavy lines.
- 12. STB video card problems (VESA Local Bus Version).
- 13. How to force a Reconfiguration of Links LS.
- 14. Diamond 2000 3D Video card problems.
- 15. Number Nine video card problems.
- 16. Use UNIVESA if possible.
- 17. Changes and fixes in Links LS version 1.10.
- 18. Using KALI to play a Links LS IPX game.
- 19. Changes and fixes in Links LS version 1.20.
- 20. Changes and fixes in Links LS version 1.30.
-
-
- 1. INSTALLATION: To install this product under Win 95, run SETUP.EXE from
- the START menu - RUN option. (This download version does NOT have a DOS
- installer, although the full version will install from DOS.)
-
- The installation requires approx 30 MB of hard drive space.
-
-
- 2. RUNNING UNDER WIN 95
- Install the Links LS Preview by running SETUP.EXE from the CD. After the
- program files have been installed, you will enter the configuration phase of
- the setup. Here you can choose to try running under Win 95 or in 'MS-DOS
- mode' under Win 95. We suggest you try Win 95 first. This mode uses the
- Windows device drivers and operates very similar to a native Windows
- application. If this mode works, it will provide the fastest launch of Links LS
- and the quickest return to the Windows desktop, however it does use about 2
- MB of your RAM for Windows overhead. If the system locks up or fails to
- function correctly for some reason, you should try different video and sound
- configurations in an attempt to make it work. The configuration phase of the
- setup will try to inform you as to which part of the system is not working
- correctly. Be sure to read the warning and message dialogs carefully. If you
- are unable to get the game working under Win 95, you will have to try
- entering MS-DOS mode. See below for instructions on how to do this.
-
-
- 3. RUNNING IN MS-DOS MODE UNDER WIN 95 (All CD-ROM references exclude
- 'Downloadable' version).
- Install Links LS as described above but choose 'MS-DOS mode' during the
- configuration phase of the setup. This mode partially exits Windows and sets
- up DOS 7. For Links LS to function properly in MS-DOS mode, the CD-
- ROM drive and mouse will have to be operational. Some computers set up
- these devices automatically for MS-DOS mode, while others leave this task to
- the user. Links LS will check to see if the CD-ROM and mouse are available
- before it attempts to configure itself for play in MS-DOS mode. If they are
- not available, you will have to set them up if you want Links LS to have full
- functionality. There is a way to run Links LS in MS-DOS mode without a
- CD-ROM drive, although you will not have access to flybys, tours, or
- anything which requires the CD. See RUNNING IN MS-DOS MODE
- WITHOUT A CD-ROM DRIVE below for instructions on how to do this.
-
-
- 4. RUNNING UNDER DOS (All 'Install' references exclude 'Downloadable
- version).
- Install Links LS by running INSTALL.EXE (on the CD) from the
- DOS prompt. YOU CANNOT RUN LINKS LS FROM WINDOWS 3.X.
-
-
- 5. (Not Applicable to this download version)
-
-
- 6. TECHNICAL SUPPORT FOR LINKS LS (Not included in 'Downloadable' version).
- If you are having PROBLEMS WITH LINKS LS, please use the Manual, the
- On-Line Help, or refer to the Access 'TECHBOOK' (See instructions below)
- before calling our technical support department. We have tried to cover
- a broad range of potential questions and problems. Try the HINTS and TIPS
- section, the FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS section, and the
- TROUBLE SHOOTING and TECHNICAL SUPPORT section.
-
- Technical Support:
- (800) 793-8324 (Mon-Fri, 7:30am to 8:30pm Mountain Time)
- Updates: WWW.AccessSoftware.com
- Fax: (801) 596-9128
- TECHBOOK: The Access TECHBOOK requires Win95. To setup and use the
- TECHBOOK, do the following:
-
- 1. Place Disk#1 in the CD-ROM drive.
- 2. Click on the START button and then select RUN.
- 3. Enter D:\ATS\DISK1\SETUP.EXE and click OK. (where D: is
- the drive letter of your CD-ROM)
-
- This will install the TECHBOOK and create an icon in your LINKS LS
- folder. To use the TECHBOOK, double click on the TECHBOOK icon.
-
-
- 7. AUTOMATIC CRASH RECOVERY
- Links LS is designed to run with DOS and, if possible, with Windows 95. To
- make sure that any crash is fully recoverable, Links LS has a built-in
- Automatic (Emergency) Save feature. The last two games you were playing,
- whether terminated normally or not, are saved as LASTGAME and
- OLDLAST. You can resume either of these games by simply clicking on
- the RESUME button at the bottom of the Links LS main menu screen. If a
- crash occurs, simply restart Links LS as usual. When the game starts, it will
- recognize that an abnormal termination occurred and will ask you if you want
- to resume the previous game. If you say YES, it will automatically resume
- LASTGAME. If you say NO, you can still re-enter the game later by
- clicking the RESUME button and then selecting LASTGAME from the list of
- saved games. Of course, if you start a new game, it will take the place of
- LASTGAME and LASTGAME will take the place of OLDLAST. The
- previous version of OLDLAST will be erased.
-
- If you're running under Win 95 and resuming your LASTGAME continues to
- crash, try restarting Windows.
-
- 8. APPLICATION STARTUP SOUND CRASH with an AZTEC sound card.
- Under WIN95, you can set up a .wav file to play whenever you start an
- application. If you have assigned a long .wav file as this startup sound and
- the sound is still playing when the game starts, it can crash the program.
-
- 9. DOS ERROR: "DOS 16M....Involuntary Switch To Real Mode"
- Some cloaked mouse drivers can cause this error. To solve the problem you
- will have to remove the CLOAK.EXE entry in your AUTOEXEC.BAT.
-
- 10. NETWORK OR MODEM GAME OUT OF SYNC
- It is possible for a network or modem game to get out of sync, especially
- when using a recorded player. If this happens, you can 're-sync' by ending
- the game, clicking on RESUME, and then selecting LASTGAME from the list of
- saved games.
-
- 11. VIDEO DISTORTED - IMAGES SHIFTED TO UPPER RIGHT
- Some Video cards with S3 chips will configure correctly during setup, but
- will later malfunction and produce distorted or shifted video. To correct the
- problem, first delete the LINKSLS.INI file in the Links LS directory (folder).
- This will force a reconfigure of the video system. Then run Links LS as
- usual. You will immediately enter the Video Configuration module. When
- you come to the screen which says TRIAL #1, press 'S' to skip to the next
- trial. Keep skipping until you get to TRIAL #7, then press the space bar to
- perform this test. This will use a special 'Jump mode' which should correct
- the problem. If TRIAL #7 does not appear, it means that the mode associated
- with that trial is not available on your card. You will have to perform the
- above procedure for each available trial number until you find one that works
- consistently. There are 9 possible trials for both the UniVESA BIOS and the
- On-Board/TSR BIOS for a total of 18.
-
- 11a. VIDEO DISTORTED - PARTIAL IMAGE SEEN THRU WAVY LINES
- If your video card frequencies and your monitor frequencies are not in sync,
- your video may be slightly to very distorted. If your card has 2 MB or more
- of video RAM, you can try selecting different resolutions (i.e. 1024x768).
- To check which resolutions are compatible with your monitor, go into the
- Windows display setup and set the resolution to match the one you are having
- problems with in Links LS. If it works well in windows, then something else
- is causing the problem. If the video is also distorted in Windows at the same
- resolution, then you may have to get a new video card or a new monitor.
-
- 12. STB VIDEO CARD PROBLEMS (VESA LOCAL BUS VERSION)
- Some STB (VESA local bus) video cards in 486 or Pentium machines may
- crash during video setup in either Win 95 or MS-DOS mode. If this happens,
- try the following video configuration sequence:
- 1) Double click the RECONFIGURE icon in the Links LS program group.
- 2) Start Links LS as usual by double clicking on the LINKS LS icon.
- 3) At the 'Configuring the UniVESA BIOS' screen, press 'S' to skip.
- 4) When the screen says 'Ready to set high resolution mode', press the 'S'
- key to skip trial #1. Then read the trial number and press 'S' again. (Note:
- Some trial numbers do not exist for this card so watch the trial numbers
- carefully.) When you are ready to perform trial #9, press the space bar to
- execute this trial. You should see the Links LS screen. If you do, click the
- OK button within 10 seconds to confirm the test. You will now be able to
- finish the setup procedure and play the game in this resolution which is
- 1024x768 - 65K colors - windowed mode. If you try to switch to 800x600
- resolution, you will probably crash although you should safely return to
- 1024x768 upon reboot.
-
- 13. HOW TO FORCE A RECONFIGURATION OF LINKS LS
- To force a reconfiguration of the video, sound and auxiliary systems, double
- click on the RECONFIGURE icon in the Links LS program group. You can
- use this option if you are having problems setting up Links LS and would like
- to reset the configuration (start over) without re-installing the game. You
- may also want to use the RECONFIGURE option to switch back and forth between
- Win 95 and MS-DOS modes to see which mode gives the best performance.
-
- 14. DIAMOND 2000-3D VIDEO CARD PROBLEMS.
- If you are experiencing display problems with the Diamond 2000-3D card, try
- using the UniVESA BIOS. Refer to 'DISPLAY SETUP' on pages 38 and 39 in the
- manual for more information.
-
- 15. NUMBER NINE-IMAGINE 128 VIDEO CARD PROBLEMS.
- The On-board VESA BIOS for this card is nearly worthless. It only supports
- 6 graphics modes (regardless of how much video memory it has), and none of
- the modes have color depths greater than 256 colors. An additional problem
- is that the card incorrectly reports the amount of video memory. The card
- we tested reported 512K of memory even though it was a 4MB card. The UniVESA
- BIOS version 5.2 (used in Links LS version 1.0) does not work with this card.
- We have changed to UniVESA v5.3 in Links LS v1.1 specifically to solve this
- problem and also force a bypass of the low video memory test. If you have
- a Number Nine - Imagine 128 card, upgrading to Links LS version 1.1 should
- solve your problems. NOTE: If you are using a memory manager such as EMM386,
- you may have to exclude C800-DFFF. If you are still experiencing problems
- after upgrading to Links LS v1.1, please call our tech support department.
-
- 16. USE UNIVESA IF POSSIBLE.
- During video configuration, the program goes through the following steps:
- A. It first generates the UniVESA driver for use later (if needed).
- B. It sets up the card's on-board (or TSR) BIOS if it exists.
- C. It then tests (one at a time) the nine most compatible video modes for
- the on-board BIOS.
- D. If the card does not have an on-board or TSR BIOS or if all the tests
- (from step C) failed (or were skipped), then the program will load the
- UniVESA BIOS (from step A) and repeat the tests.
-
- Typically, the user should click 'OK' to select the first successful mode.
- This will begin the game with a base mode of either 800x600 or 1024x768 in
- 32k or 65k colors. The user can then change the resolution, color depth, video
- BIOS, and address modes from within the game by simply right clicking on the
- Links LS main screen. Refer to 'DISPLAY SETUP' on pages 38 and 39 in the
- manual for more information.
-
- We recommend using the UniVESA BIOS if possible. In most cases Links LS will
- run better and faster using the UniVESA BIOS rather than the OnBoard/TSR BIOS.
-
-
- 17. CHANGES AND FIXES IN LINKS LS VERSION 1.10
- - Fixed various bugs when removing players.
- - Fixed a bug with some video cards continuously doing initial setup.
- - Fixed various statistical bugs.
- - Fixed a bug which disallowed commas and asterisks during modem dialing.
- - Fixed a bug which caused bogus object collisions.
- - Fixed a bug associated with left and right clicking while aiming.
- - Fixed a bug associated with verifying and converting Links386 courses.
- - Fixed a bug during verify/convert of a Links386 course from drive B.
- - Fixed a bug associated with waggle and full swing animations.
- - Fixed a bug with wave file extraction in sound scripts.
- - Fixed a bug in the championship level mishit penalty.
- - Change to allow OS/2 users to continue after bogus CPU check.
- - Change to automatically close flybys at completion.
- - Change to tracer button's tool tip to show on/off state.
- - Changed to Sci-tech's UniVESA version 5.3.
- - Updated the HELP system.
- - Added IPX Network compatibility. This addition will allow network
- play without requiring a shared directory and will also allow play
- over the internet through an IPX compatible server such as KALI.
- See below or refer to the updated HELP system for more information.
- - Added wind state to recorded games.
- - Added a new "Recorded Players" dialog to allow the review of all
- recorded games. To access this dialog, click the RECORDED PLAYERS
- button on Options, Course Selection, or the Player Selection screen.
- Refer to the updated Help system for more information on this new
- dialog and how to determine if a recorded game is compatible with
- your version of Links LS. (See the Note below.)
- - Adjusted ball dynamics to dis-allow extra long rolls and to produce
- more realistic flight conditions out of the rough and sand.
-
- NOTE: This change in the ball dynamics invalidates all previous
- recorded games. A new dialog has been added to help players
- review data for all recorded games and determine whether the
- games are compatible. To access this dialog, click the
- RECORDED PLAYERS button on Options, Course Selection, or the
- Player Selection screen.
-
-
- 18. USING KALI TO PLAY A LINKS LS IPX GAME.
- Information on KALI and other services are available at www.axxis.com/kali.
- Once you have installed KALI and are On-Line, follow the steps below to
- play a Links LS IPX game.
-
- 1. Make a KALI connection.
- 2. Select a KALI server. (To locate other Links LS players, check
- the 'AXXIS SERVER' or if it exists, the 'LINKSLS SERVER')
- 3. Create a Links LS game as follows:
- a) Click 'GAMES', then click 'CONFIGURE MENU'.
- b) Choose one of the 10 games to be your Links LS game.
- c) At 'Menu Title', type LinksLS (or whatever you want).
- d) At 'Program', use BROWSE to find the directory on your
- hard disk that contains Links LS and then select 'LS.EXE'.
- This is the program that will launch Links LS.
- e) At 'Directory', type the directory path from step (d) above.
- f) At 'Icon', use BROWSE to find the LS.ICO file which will be
- in your Links LS directory if you have upgraded to ver 1.10.
- 4. You can contact other Links LS players by either of the following
- methods:
- a) While in KALI, enter a 'Links LS' chat room.
- b) Double click on the Links LS icon in KALI to start Links LS.
- Select MODEM/NETWORK from the main screen and then select
- NETWORK(IPX). Enter your name and any additional info
- about yourself and click OK. A list of other Links LS
- players on KALI will be displayed.
-
- For additional information regarding networks, sockets, or other ipx topics,
- please refer to the Links LS on-line help.
-
- 19. CHANGES AND FIXES IN LINKS LS VERSION 1.20
-
- - Fixed CD loading bug caused by 1.10 patch
-
- 20. CHANGES AND FIXES IN LINKS LS VERSION 1.30
-
- - Fixed a sound library edit bug.
- - Fixed a bug introduced by ver 1.10 that stopped the Links LS
- icon from working correctly.
- - Fixed a 'view saved shot' bug.
- - Fixed a rare ball flight bug caused by a FIFO buffer overflow.
- - Made a change to allow a 9 hole match play game to finish as soon as
- the winner is determined.
-