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Croc: Legend of the Gobbos release 1.0 ====================================== Thank you for purchasing Croc. This file contains last-minute instructions, troubleshooting tips, and contact information. PC MINIMUM SPECIFICATIONS: ========================== - Pentium 133 (or 100% compatible processor) - Windows 95 - 16mb RAM - 2x CD-ROM - DirectX compatible video card - DirectX compatible sound card - 100mb free hard drive space for compact install - 50mb free Virtual Memory swap file space on hard drive after install INSTALLATION ISSUES: ==================== DirectX Installation: --------------------- If for some reason another product installs an older version of DirectX, or if Croc does not successfully install DirectX, you may wish to install DirectX manually by right-clicking on the CD icon in 'My Computer', selecting Open, opening the 'directx' folder, then double-clicking on the Dxsetup.exe icon and then clicking on the 'ReInstall DirectX' option. Croc does not install or share any DLL's except those used by DirectX. Executables: ------------ Croc will install three executable files on your hard drive: Crocrun.exe: Game launch program, installs (when run from CD), launches and allows you to configure the initial game setup. Croc.exe: Pentium optimized version of the game (also used by Pentium compatible processors such as AMD K6 & Cyrix 6x86). CrocP6.exe: Pentium Pro optimized version of the game (also used by Pentium II and other compatible processors). PERFORMANCE GUIDELINES: ======================= Although Croc will work with other applications running in the background, for the best results it is recommended that you run the game as a stand-alone application (with no other applications running). As well as avoiding possible conflicts from other applications, this will also help prevent Windows from accessing the hard drive Virtual Memory swap file, and affecting the speed and sound effects of the game. Even if you close all running applications, there may be a number of other tasks running in the background. Some of these are displayed as icons in the System Tray on the Windows Taskbar, and others are not immediately obvious. If, after trying the above suggestions, you are still experiencing performance problems, you can experiment with closing these tasks, although it is possible that closing some of them could cause your computer to crash and require restarting. You can usually close most System Tray tasks by right-clicking or left- clicking on their Tray icon, and then selecting Close, Exit, Quit or Suspend (depending upon the task). After this, to see what 'hidden' tasks are still running, from the Windows 95 desktop, carefully press the CTRL, ALT and DEL keys together ONCE - this will display a list of active tasks. You can free up system resources by closing these one at a time by clicking on a task and then selecting the 'End Task' button. On most systems, you will be able to close all tasks except 'Explorer' (which you should leave running). If you are running on a hardware accelerator with only 2mb of video memory and a system with only 16mb of RAM there may be sound and performance problems as Windows 95 swaps memory onto the hard drive. A severe shortage of available hard drive space for the Virtual Memory swap file can cause Windows 95 to crash under some circumstances. The recommended settings for a minimum specification machine using the software-only driver option are: - Perspective OFF - Normal Lighting - 320x200 or 320x240 screen resolution You may need to experiment with adjusting the settings to obtain the best balance of speed and performance for your system. COMPATIBILITY ISSUES: ===================== WINDOWS NT: ----------- Croc has not been tested for Microsoft Windows NT compatibility. DRIVER COMPATIBILITY: --------------------- Croc is designed to run under Windows 95 with DirectX gaming devices, including sound cards, graphics cards, game controllers and 3D graphics accelerator cards. The drivers for these various devices are provided by the respective manufacturers, and may occasionally contain bugs or otherwise cause incompatibilities beyond our control. If you experience any problems, it is always recommended that you obtain up-to-date drivers, which will often remedy the problem. Almost every vendor makes their drivers available on their web site. If you are unsure of a web site URL for a particular hardware vendor, you can try accessing one of the general Windows software update sites such as: http://www.windows95.com/drivers/ http://www.download.com/ CONFLICTS: ---------- It is particularly recommended that any applications which use audio be closed before running Croc, in order to avoid potential sound driver conflicts. Additionally, you may experience conflicts with other programs running minimized on the System Tray, or in the StartUp folder such as on- access Anti-Virus software, System Agents and other memory-resident applications. You should try exiting or disabling these programs before running Croc, if performance or compatibility problems persist (see 'Performance Guidelines' for more details on this). TROUBLESHOOTING: ================ 1. Croc doesn't start when I insert the CD This is most likely to be that the CD has the AutoPlay function disabled. If, after inserting the CD, you do not see a start-up box, ensure that you have "Auto Insert Notification" enabled under the CD-ROM System Properties dialog. Also check with your CD-ROM drive manufacturer to ensure that your hardware is AutoPlay compatible and that you are using the latest Windows 95 drivers. 2. Croc won't start If the launch program displays 'Install' instead of 'Play' then the registry settings have been corrupted and the game has to be run by clicking on the program icons in the installed directory. (The default location is C:\Program Files\Fox\Croc). If the game itself does not start. the cause is likely to be a lack of sufficient Virtual Memory swapfile hard drive space (please check for sufficient free space on your swap file drive), incorrect options for 3D hardware acceleration on the launcher or a corrupt file. Try running the game with the software drivers (unaccelerated mode); if the game runs then the hardware driver selection is incorrect, the hardware drivers are not correct or the hardware has been incorrectly installed. If the game won't run in software mode, it is recommended that you run ScanDisk with the 'thorough' option to check your hard drive. If this does not help you will have to uninstall and reinstall the game. 3. Croc crashes Please check that you have enough free space on you hard drive for Windows Virtual Memory and that you have the correct DirectX drivers for your current hardware installed. Note: there is a copy of DirectX on the Croc CD that can be used for this purpose (see 'DirectX Installation' in this readme file for instructions). 4. Croc seems to run but gives a black display on my laptop PC This happens when your display cannot support the video mode that has been selected. You can either plug in an external monitor or quit the game using ALT-F4 and select a different screen resolution from the launcher. 5. Croc won't use my joypad / joystick Please check that you have correctly installed the controller (from the 'Game Controllers' Control Panel) and that it is supported by DirectX and properly calibrated. If you have an analog joystick it is also important that all axes on the joystick are centered; e.g. if the Z axis control (usually a rotatable dial on the body of the joystick) is fully in either direction it will prevent the customization of controls from working as Croc will detect this control as soon as you try to define a new control. 6. Croc doesn't use all of my joypad / joystick buttons If your controller is correctly installed then the buttons are easily re-assigned in the Customize Controls menu option. This allows you to set any Croc control input to any keyboard key or controller button/movement. Note: The default settings are for a two button digital joypad, so if your controller has more buttons you will still need to customize the controls from the in-game menu option to add the other buttons supported by your controller. 7. Croc won't run in the resolution selected in the launcher This selection is the 'Suggested Screen Resolution', not all cards will be able to support all modes. If the suggested resolution selected is not available, the screen actually selected will always be the lowest available resolution. 8. How do I get Croc running on my 3D accelerator? From the Croc launch program select 'Change driver settings' and select the appropriate driver and game settings for your card. 9. Croc won't run on my hardware accelerator If you have chosen the correct options in the Croc setup program the most likely reason is that your accelerator does not have the 3D acceleration drivers installed or that they are incompatible with the drivers and hardware that were available at the time of Croc's release. Please consult your hardware vendor for advice and upgrades. Note: we cannot guarantee full functionality of the game on new hardware and different versions of drivers. You should contact your hardware vendor for the latest drivers and information. 10. Croc shows minor graphical glitches on my accelerator card Due to the diversity and capabilities of the supported hardware some accelerators will have minor problems. Some of these can be remedied by changing the settings or updating the drivers. Currently Know Problems: ATI Rage II: ------------ Texture filtering causes a spurious line along on edge of each polygon. WORKAROUND: Turn filtering off. S3 Virge: --------- Sometimes when drawing multiple objects on top of each other, the transparency may not work correctly, causing an incorrectly colored polygon to be drawn. WORKAROUND: None, this is a problem with the Virge hardware. Matrox Mystique: ---------------- a. The drivers for this card do not support ALT-TAB or similar events that cause the game to lose focus. WORKAROUND: Disable all pop-up events and do not use ALT-TAB. This is also why if you try to change resolution in the game, it will drop back to the launch program. However, it will have stored the screen resolution change and will start in the new mode when run again. b. On occasion the desktop will return with a corrupted screen. WORKAROUND: The desktop is in fact present and fully functional but the screen needs to be refreshed. Drag an open window around the screen, this makes Windows redraw the desktop that is being uncovered as the window is moved around. c. This card does not support translucency. Instead it uses a screendoor (dithered) drawing technique. This looks particularly poor in low resolution. Some objects use this method as it looks like a reasonable approximation at high resolution (e.g. shadows). Others have been replaced with solid, rather than translucent objects (e.g. smoke). 11. Croc won't run on my Matrox Mystique card Most versions of the Mystique cannot support bus mastering and 3D acceleration. Please ensure that bus mastering is disabled. 12. Croc won't run in 800x600 mode on my 3Dfx card This is due to the amount of memory on your 3Dfx. If your card has enough memory on board (4mb video) then it will support this mode otherwise it will only support up to 640x480. 13. Croc does not play any CD audio Please check the volume setting in the Windows 95 Volume Control dialog box and in the Croc Audio Options. Note: the CD should be inserted before the game is started. 14. Croc occasionally pauses for a fraction of a second This pause is caused by the CD seeking the beginning of the audio track, due to a limitation of the Windows 95 operating system. It is recommended that you select the 'Tracks Play Once' option in the Audio Options menu instead of 'Tracks Repeat'. This disables the CD track repeat function hence preventing the pauses but causing the music in each level to fade out after a few minutes of play. 15. Croc still pauses for a fraction of a second On some systems we have noticed occasional very brief pauses, which have been attributed to the presence of the Microsoft Sidewinder. If you have one connected, but are playing using a device other than the Sidewinder (e.g. the keyboard), you should try disconnecting it from your PC and restarting. 16. I'm having trouble reconfiguring controls, and saving or overwriting game positions This is caused by joystick input being read while in the menu system. To avoid this problem, ensure that your joystick is centered, and that the throttle control (usually a slide control or wheel on the joystick, or a separate throttle control) is also in a central or neutral position. If the problems persist, you may wish to try disconnecting your joystick or throttle unit from your PC. 17. Croc does not play ambient sound effects or plays random MIDI notes Ambient sound effects are only supported on AWE32 and AWE64 SoundBlaster sound cards (when properly configured). If you have one of these cards but are not hearing ambient sounds (such as tweeting birds, wind, etc.), open the 'Multimedia' Control Panel, select the MIDI tab and check that you have either the 'MIDI for Creative Advanced Wave Effects Synthesis for AWE32' or the 'Creative MIDI Instrument Mapper' selected. If these options are not available, you may need to reinstall the drivers which were supplied with your sound card. The latest patches and updates to Creative Labs drivers are available from their web site at http://www.creativelabs.com 18. Croc does not play reverberating sound effects in the caves Ambient sound effects are only supported on AWE32 and AWE64 SoundBlaster sound cards (when properly configured). In order to support this function the 'Creative Mixer' must be installed from the disc that came with your sound card and the 'Full Duplex' operation must be disabled. From the 'System' Control Panel, select the Device Manager tab, and expand the 'Sound, Video and Game Controllers' section. Open the audio device: for example, 'Creative AWE64 Gold 16-Bit Audio (SB16 compatible)' and select the Settings tab, ensuring that the Full Duplex checkbox is cleared. 19. Croc runs slowly/jerkily Please check the specification of your machine against the minimum specification in this file. Otherwise check your display settings; the minimum settings are Normal Lighting and 320x200 screen resolution. Other causes of slow play can be 2mb of video RAM on your graphics accelerator, an incorrectly installed sound card, or lack of available hard drive space for Virtual Memory swapping. Note: Windows 95 uses hard drive space for swapping (virtual memory). Croc requires up to 50mb of available swap space. This requirement will increase if you have other tasks running in the background. 20. Croc exits to Windows when I get a pop-up message or if I press ALT-TAB This may occur if you are running with a graphics accelerator card. Some of the accelerator cards do not handle some Windows functions correctly. To prevent this, disable WinPopup and any other programs that may interrupt the game, such as e-mail notification applications (for details on closing or disabling tasks and applications, please see the 'Performance Guidelines' section of this readme file). Also do not try to ALT-TAB out of, or otherwise minimize the game. This is the reason why certain graphics accelerator cards will return to the Croc install program when the screen resolution is changed. An updated graphics accelerator driver may be available from your graphics accelerator manufacturer. 21. Croc won't uninstall If you can't uninstall from the icon, try the 'Add/Remove Programs' Control Panel. CUSTOMER SUPPORT: ================= Please do not contact Fox Interactive regarding any hardware or software driver related issues - these should be directed to the respective manufacturer or vendor. If you have a problem or query that cannot be answered by reading the manual or this README document, you may contact Fox Interactive at: World Wide Web site: http://www.foxinteractive.com (any Croc game patches or technical bulletins will be made available here) Internet e-mail (Tech Support): crocgame@fox.com Internet e-mail (General queries): gameinfo@fox.com Telephone (in North America): (970) 522-5FOX (970-522-5369) between 11am and 8pm PST. For Croc game hints and tips (in North America only), call 1-900- CALL4FOX $.80/min - touchtone phone required. Presented by Fox Interactive of Los Angeles, California. If you are under 18, please obtain permission from the person who pays the telephone bill before making this call. LEGAL STUFF: ============ Croc and Croc: Legend of the Gobbos (c) 1997 Argonaut Software Limited. (c) 1997 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved. Where applicable any company and product names are registered trademarks and the property of their respective owners.