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____ _ __ _ _ _____ _ _ | _ \(_)___ ___ ___ / _| | |_| |__ ___ |_ _| __(_) __ _ __| | | |_) | / __|/ _ \ / _ \| |_ | __| '_ \ / _ \ | || '__| |/ _` |/ _` | | _ <| \__ \ __/ | (_) | _| | |_| | | | __/ | || | | | (_| | (_| | |_| \_\_|___/\___| \___/|_| \__|_| |_|\___| |_||_| |_|\__,_|\__,_| ██ ██ █▐▌█ ▌█ ▌█ ▐█▄ ▌▀▄▌▀▐█▀ █▐▌█ ██████ ▐█▐▌ ▐▌▐▌▌ ▌▐▌▄ ▌▀▐█▀ ▐ ██████ ████████ ▌▌ ▌ ▐▌▌ ▌ ▌▐▌▐▌▌ ▐█ ▌ ████████ ████▐▌████ ▐█▄▄█ ▌▀ ▌ ▌ ▌▄▌▀▀ ▀▀ █▄ ████▐▌████ ████ ████ ▌▌ ▌▌▌ ▀▀ ▄▄▄▄▄▀▀▀▀▀▀▄▀▀▀ ████ ████ ▄▄████▄▄ ▐█ ▄▄▄▄▀▀▀▀▀█▀▀▀ ▐▌ ▄▄████▄▄ █▄██▀▀ ██ ▀▀██▄█ ▌▌▄▀▀███████▀ ▐ █▄██▀▀ ██ ▀▀██▄█ ██████████████████ ██████████████████ Rise of the Triad v1.2 On-Disk Technical Support Manual Copyright (c) 1994 Apogee Software, Ltd. P.O. Box 496389 ■ Garland, TX 75049-6389 (214) 278-5655 This document gives detailed instructions on how to play Comm-Bat ROTT, as well as being a troubleshooting guide. Instructions on how to play the game are in the README.EXE file that came with your copy of Rise of the Triad shareware episode, or in the printed manual, if you have the registered version. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐ │TABLE OF CONTENTS AND HOW TO USE THIS FILE│ └──────────────────────────────────────────┘ This document is set up with a quick search capability. If you press F7 at any time, you will get a listing of all the categories to look at in this file. Press F7 now to look at it. In this menu, you can scroll up and down the listing of items to read, and then select one by pressing ENTER. You will be taken directly to that item. If you wish to search for a specific piece of text, you can hit F3 to enter any text to search for. If you just wish to scroll up and down, you can use the arrow keys to move through the text. You can also use the Home and End keys to quickly get to the top or the bottom of this file. Here is a listing of all the sections in this document. Remember, you can press F7 at any time to see an interactive listing of them all. 1) Table of Contents 2) What's new in v1.1/1.2 3) System Requirements 4) Before Running this Game 5) How to use the Setup Program 6) How to set up Modem/Serial Play 7) How to set up Network Play 8) Comm-Bat (tm) ROTT - How to play 9) ROTT Detailed Help & TroubleShooting 10) Command Line Parameters 11) What is the "SET BLASTER" Command, and why do I need it? 12) How to get ROTT running under OS/2 13) What is Protected Mode? 14) Contacting Apogee 15) Apogee Online ┌───────────────────────┐ │WHAT'S NEW IN v1.1/v1.2│ └───────────────────────┘ ■ RSAC Rating of 4 (Most violent). ■ Mouse control is much better and improved. ■ Flying (Mercury Mode) has been changed from v1.0. You no longer have to press the space bar to fly. You need to use PgUp/PgDn to change your elevation, and Home/End to aim while you are in the air. ■ Can set mouse buttons and joystick buttons to almost anything. ■ Can select any key for strafing. All keys are now redefinable. ■ Setup program more helpful and intuitive. ■ Bloody chunks are more visible, stay longer, and there are lots more. Plus, we added a "ludicrous gibs" mode! ■ Actors walk more smoothly and slower (they're less jerky). ■ Secret tally at end of level; track how many "secrets" you found on a level. A secret is a pushwall or a pushpillar that can be moved either by pushing it, or activating it by either a switch or a touchplate. ■ All known sound problems fixed (Ultrasound, Sound Canvas DB, AWE32). ■ Drunk missiles now heat seek after a short delay! They are deadly in modem net play (though each of the drunk missiles is relatively weak compared to some of the other missile weapons). ■ You can now enter * and # in Modem Setup, for disabling call waiting. ■ You can start multiple games at once now on a network via the use of the added "Socket Number" command in the setup program. ■ The select a phone number as the default number bug has been fixed. ■ Keyboard no longer sticks after dying, restoring or any other time. ■ Death sequences slowed down so that deaths can be enjoyed. ■ Game instructions now included in README.EXE ■ Auto-aiming for bullet weapons. Easier to hit guys above or below you. Missiles still need to be manually aimed, however. ■ Quicksave is much faster. ■ Network games do not require an extra system to run as a separate server. Any player's system can now double as both server and client. However, games may run slightly faster if a dedicated server is used. ■ 8250 UART now works in modem play, but you cannot have music. (There is just too much demand on the CPU.) You can have music if 16550's are used. ■ Character that "pleaded" for his life was modified. He will now steal your weapon and use it against you. He will also "play dead" if you do not shoot him. He also sometimes has a hidden bazooka of his own. ■ Game is more stable and runs better under 4 meg systems. We did all we could, but you really should have 8 megs for the game. ┌───────────────────┐ │SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS│ └───────────────────┘ ■ Rise of the Triad's minimum requirements are a 386DX/40 with 4 megs of total memory. However, Apogee strongly recommends a 486DX2/66 with 8 megs of total memory, and a local bus video card. A fast hard drive will also help things a lot. A sound card is also strongly recommended. ■ For game play the following devices are optionally supported: Keyboard, Mouse, Cyberman, Space Player, and Gravis GamePad. ■ The following sound cards/devices are also optionally supported: Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, Sound Blaster 16, Sound Blaster AWE32, WaveBlaster, Adlib, Roland Sound Canvas, Gravis UltraSound, Ensoniq SoundScape, Pro Audio Spectrum 16, Logitech SoundMan 16, Disney Sound Source, Tandy Sound Source, and any General MIDI device. ┌────────────────────────┐ │BEFORE RUNNING THIS GAME│ └────────────────────────┘ ■ This game is not designed to be run under MicroSoft Windows. Windows takes up far too many system resources that our programs require for efficient and proper operation. When running this program, DO NOT LAUNCH FROM WINDOWS. Run it directly from DOS. If you are in the Windows environment, quit Windows and then run the program. (NOTE: Using the MS/DOS Icon does not exit you from Windows. That is a shell from Windows. You need to completely close down the Program Manager to totally exit from Windows. To test this, type the word exit. If nothing happens, then you're at the DOS prompt. If you return to Windows, then you were only shelled.) ■ Any kind of menu program such as Dos Shell will most likely cause problems. We recommend running our programs completely from the DOS prompt. To test this, enter the word "exit". If nothing at all happens, then you are completely at the dos prompt, and not "shelled" from anything else. If you type "exit", and return to another program (such as Windows or the MS/DOS Shell), then you need to completely exit the program that you returned to before attempting to run ROTT. ■ ROTT is a protected mode game, which means that it doesn't really care about how much conventional memory you have, it looks at your total memory. ROTT requires a minimum of 4 megs of memory, however, we recommend booting clean. This would entail booting without a memory manager (QEMM, EMM386, FnordMem, etc...) and without any disk caches (Smartdrive, SpeedDisk, etc.). Read further on in this file for a more detailed explanation of what a protected mode program is. ┌────────────────────────────┐ │HOW TO USE THE SETUP PROGRAM│ └────────────────────────────┘ If you are playing either a network, modem, or serial game, you must use the setup program. The setup program will also do things such as let you use alternate level packs, alternate graphics and sound (if you have them), and other miscellaneous game options. This section will explain what they are, and how to use them. Here is a brief summary of the options inside the ROTT setup program: ■ MODEM GAME This option will let you setup and play the various parameters associated with playing ROTT over a modem. Once selected, it then brings up a submenu of modem related options. The submenu commands are: » Quick Dial Default Number - This option will dial your default player phone number without having to do anything else. If you have not set up any phone numbers in the phone book, this will not be highlited. » Number List - This will bring up a screen where you can set up the various phone numbers of your ROTT opponents. You can use the up and down arrows to scroll around the list. Press "E" to edit the parameters. Pressing Space next to an entry will define it as a default. You can only have one default number. Pressing Enter on a selected phone number will dial that number immediately. » Manual Dial - This will let you enter a phone number manually to dial that is not set up in your Number List. » Wait for Call - This will put your modem into answer mode, so your friend can call you to play. » Change Modem Setup - This option will bring up another screen where you can select your modem type from the supplied list of modem strings. After you select one of the modems, you can then alter the init and hangup strings if you so desire. The file that these strings is kept in is called MODEM.PCK, and is editable/listable with any standard ASCII file editor/viewer. » Change Dial Out Prefix - This option will be useful for people who might need to enter a 9 to reach an outside line to dial on, disable call waiting, etc. ■ NETWORK GAME This option will let you play ROTT via an IPX/SPX network. Please note you need to have your IPX/SPX software loaded before picking this option, or the network driver will tell you it cannot find an IPX network. There are two ways to play network ROTT. You can either have a computer dedicated to being a ROTT "Server", or you can have one computer acting as the ROTT server, and playing. We recommend, however, unless you have a really fast computer (A 486DX2/66, or a Pentium) with a lot of memory (minimum of 8 megs) that you use the dedicated server method as the person playing and being the server will suffer slowdowns during game play otherwise. Everyone launching the game will launch as "Clients", unless you are playing as the server, in which case you need to launch with the "Client on Top of Server" option. Please see the "Setting up an IPX/SPX Network Game" section for more information on starting network games. ■ SERIAL GAME This option will let you play via a serial (null-modem) cable. Please make sure you have your COM port correctly defined before selecting this option. Please note that if you are playing a serial game, both players MUST select the same port speed, or the game will not work properly. ■ SETUP COM PORT This option will allow you to set up the various options of your COM port for modem or serial play. This must be done before attempting to play either a serial or modem game, or you will have problems. Pressing enter here will bring up a submenu of COM port setup options. They are: » Select COM port - This will tell ROTT which com port you are using. If you are unsure, check your computer's manual for more info. » Select IRQ - This will let you alter the default IRQ settings for your COM port. This can be dangerous, and unless you know you need to alter this, it is a good idea to leave this option alone. » Select UART - This will let you alter the COM I/O port that your computer uses to communicate. A Hexadecimal number is required here. This can be dangerous, and unless you know you need to alter this, it is a good idea to leave this option alone. » Select Port Speed - This option will allow you to select what port speed you wish to open your com port at. This is not to be confused with a connect rate. If you run into trouble with modem/serial games, it's probably a good idea to start with a low number, and work your way up to see where you run into problems. For serial play, both sides must have the same port speed. Also, the 115200 rate is only available if you have a 16550 or higher serial chip/card. While 8250 and 16450 are supported in v1.1+, it is recommended that you use a 16550, due to the 16550's far larger buffer size. 8250 and 16450 buffers are far smaller, and can cause problems with multi-player ROTT games. » Select PULSE/TONE - This option will let you tell ROTT what type of phone you have; pulse or tone. By default, this is set to tone. If you only have pulse dialing, this is where you can alter this option. ■ USE MODIFIED STUFF ( This option is non-functional in the shareware version of ROTT ) This option will allow you to play ROTT with various alternate files, from new levels, to different sounds and graphics. Normally, these things are kept in the same directory as the ROTT game is, but if you wish to keep these files separate from the game itself, you can alter the directory that ROTT will look for them in by choosing the "Change Alternate Directories" Option. Any of the other options here will allow you to select which alternate file you wish to use. In this example, I will use 'Alternate Game Levels'. You would scroll down to "Choose Alternate Game Levels", and then press enter. You will be presented with a list of all the alternate game levels that are present in your defined level directory. You would scroll to the one you wish to play, and press the space bar. A √ would appear next to the selected file, and it would then be loaded when you played ROTT. Please note that if you select alternate files like this, you MUST run ROTT from the "Run ROTT" option. Alternate level selections are not saved. If you wish to play with alternate files, you will need to select them every time you wish to play the game. ■ CHANGE CODENAME When you play in multi-player mode, you are given the choice to enter a name that you are identified as. This option in the setup program will let you choose a default name so you don't have to keep typing it in every time you play a game. Whatever you enter here can be overridden when you start the game, this is only here as a convienence. ■ MODIFY MACROS When you are in Comm-Bat mode, you can send preset pieces of text to your opponents instead of having to type the same message over and over again. This is where you set them up. Use the arrow keys to scroll to the macro you wish to edit, and press ENTER. You can type in your macro here. Please see the section on Comm-Bat play on how to use these in the game. ■ CONFIGURE SOUNDS This option will let you set up your sound card for music and sound effects. You can alter the volume level for both music and sfx here. ■ RUN ROTT This option so incredibly runs Rise of the Triad! ┌───────────────────────────────────────────┐ │HOW TO SET UP AND PLAY MODEM & SERIAL GAMES│ └───────────────────────────────────────────┘ ■ This section of the document will give you assistance with getting modem play running on your computer. If you have difficulty running ROTT in modem play, we urge you to not call Apogee Technical Assistance on the voice support lines. It will be extremely difficult to diagnose your problem over the voice support lines. We recommend in cases of modem trouble that you contact Apogee online. The contact information is at the bottom of this document. ■ This section will make reference to several sections of the setup program. If you haven't already done so, please read the section on how to use the setup program. It will make this section a bit less confusing. ■ There are a few global rules that will apply no matter what you do in playing ROTT over the modem, and they are: » You must have a 9600bps modem or higher. » When connected to another computer, both sides MUST use the same port speed. I » The init string you are using MUST disable data compression. » The init string you are using MUST disable error compression. » Make sure you are running from DOS. Multi-tasking environments such as Windows or DesqView are not supported. » There is NO Rule #6 (Bruce). » This isn't a requirement, but we strongly recommend that you have a 16550 chip as your serial chip. Serial ports that use 8250's and 16450's are old, and do not have very large buffers, and can cause problems with modem play. » This isn't actually a requirement, but we strongly recommend that you do this in your init string. Have your init string monitor the DTR, and if dropped, have the modem enter command state. This will allow ROTT to hang up the phone properly. If you do not do this, ROTT may not be able to properly hang up the telephone when it's done. This command is usually &D1. Please consult your modem manual for more information. ■ Please check your modem manual for the proper init strings. Apogee technical support is unable to assist with specific modem string setups. The reason for this is that in order to provide a tested string, we would have to have that modem, and since we do not have all modems at Apogee HQ, it is not possible for us to provide support on a modem that we do not have. The modems we do have are listed in the MODEM.PCK file under "Tested Modem Strings". If you find you need to make your own string, you will need to prepare your modem init strings from the information you have at your disposal in your modem manual. So, you're sitting there saying "I just want to set up and play!". OK, here's a list of the steps you'll need to follow to get ROTT up and running via modem. Please consult the section on using the setup program for detailed help on how to do these various things. 1) Type in "setup" to begin. 2) Go to "Setup COM Port" and ensure that the COM port you're using is setup properly with the right port speed, and adjust PULSE/TONE, if you need to. NOTE: For modem play, it is recommended that both sides open the port at the same speed. If you are playing via serial mode, you MUST have both sides opening their ports at the same speed. Start at 9600, and see if it works OK; you can then pick higher speeds if you wish to. 3) Go to "Modem Game" and set up your modem with the Change Modem Setup option. If you need to, also change the dial out prefix. 4) Go to the "Number List", and set up all your friends in the dialing directory. 5) If you are going to be called, just go to "Wait for Call". If you are going to be doing the dialing, select someone, and call them! 6) Once connected, you're ready to play Comm-Bat ROTT! Please consult the section on Comm-Bat play for details on how to set up the various Comm-Bat play options of ROTT. If you are playing in serial mode, steps one to three are the same, with the notable difference that you MUST have the same port speed on both computers. After setting up the first two options for serial play, you just go to the "Serial Game" option on the Main Menu of the setup program, and press enter. Here are some miscellaneous modem tips and information: ■ Remember that you need to pick the same port speed as your opponent for serial play. ■ "Live" RemoteRidicule will not work in modem/serial mode. In order to hook a microphone up to the game and be able to talk to your buddies, you will need to be playing in network play. The reason for this is that the bandwidth required to transmit the voice realtime is too great for modem play, hence it is a network only feature. Modem/serial can still use regular RemoteRidicule; you can press F1 through F10 during play to invoke a sound on everyone's computer! ■ If you have trouble connecting at the higher listed rates, try a lower port speed. These are not actual connect rates, these are port opening speeds. We recommend you start at 9600, and then go from there to see what levels of port speed you can successfully connect and play at. ■ When you play Rise of the Triad via modem/serial, you will note a line of text that reads "UART is a ..." This will either be 8250 or 16550. If you have an 8250, it means that you have a slow serial chip, and you may be prone to modem jerkiness, and other game slowdowns. Apogee strongly recommends a 16550 or greater serial chip, since these have larger buffers, and can deal with the influx of data better. If you have a 16450, it will be detected as an 8250, since a 16450 is virtually identical to an 8250. Also, software driven 16550 ports will most likely not be properly detected. You will need a "real" 16550 port in order to have it detected as such. ■ If you have an 8250/16450, and experience slowdowns, try these steps to speed things up. » Make sure you are using 8 Bit Mono sound. 16 Bit Stereo sound sometimes makes things go slower on certain system configurations. » Try setting the number of voices from 8 down to 4. If this doesn't help, keep trying to lower the number of channels down until you get something that is acceptable. » Try with all sound and music off. If it is still slow, then the problem lies elsewhere. » Make sure the init string you are using is correct for your modem. Quite often, incorrect strings will cause VERY slow game play. ■ Slowdowns during game play can be caused by several things. It can be your modem string, or it can be something simple like a bad phone connection, general bad phone lines in your area (or your opponents), or an 8250 chip. ■ If you are the person making the call, you are player one, and you will be the "Master", and will be the one choosing the battle parameters and options. ■ If you experience modem flakiness after connecting once, you might wish to physically turn your modem off and then back on again. Some modems do not reset properly, or react better if you switch them off and then on again. ■ The MODEM.PCK file is a standard ASCII file. You can edit this as you desire, but you must follow the convention that is used in the file. If you alter the file format, you may not be able to pick modems properly. Please see the notes in the MODEM.PCK file for editing information. ■ If you have difficulty in getting your modem working, and you discover a modem string that does work for you, please contact Apogee online and let us know what you found, and the string will be added to the MODEM.PCK file, and used the next time the file is updated or released. ■ Join the Apogee Modem Players Directory! Apogee will be keeping a list of people who are interested in playing Apogee modem games. This will be a listing of people's names and E-Mail addresses. We will not be keeping a list of voice phone numbers, only names, E-Mail addresses, and area codes that they live in. If you're interested in joining or receiving this list, please send E-Mail to Apogee Online. Our contact addresses are at the bottom of this file. This file will always be available on Software Creations, and on our Internet ftp site. You can also get the list via Internet E-Mail too. Please send mail to Apogee Online for more information about obtaining the list. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │HOW TO SET UP AND PLAY IPX/SPX NETWORK GAMES│ └────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ■ This section of the document will give you assistance with getting ROTT running over a network that uses IPX protocols. For assistance with getting network play running, Apogee recommends that you contact Apogee Online. The contact information is located at the bottom of this document. ■ This section will make reference to several sections of the setup program. If you haven't already done so, please read the section on how to use the setup program. It will make this section a bit less confusing. ■ There are a few global rules that will apply no matter what you do in playing ROTT over a network, and they are: » The network has to have IPX/SPX protocols. » Make sure you are running from DOS. Multi-tasking environments such as Windows or DesqView are not supported. Setting up network play is easier than setting up modem or serial mode. Here are the steps necessary for getting Comm-Bat IPX play working in ROTT. 1) Make sure your IPX/SPX protocols are loaded on all computers. The ROTTIPX driver will not run without your protocols loaded. 2) Decide which computer will be acting as the ROTT server, and whether this computer will be playing or not. If the server computer will also be playing, it should be a fairly powerful computer (we recommend at least a 486 (not an SX) with at least 8 megs of memory, preferably more. The reason for this is that the server computer will be at a slight disadvantage if playing, and more memory or a more powerful computer will help alleviate the problem. 3) Figure out how many people are playing. 4) If you are playing multiple games of ROTT on the same network at the same time, you will need to make use of the "Change Socket Number" option. Please see your network administrator for more info regarding what to put here. This is something specific to your network. 4) Go to the ROTT Server and run the setup program, then go to 'Network game', and select "Launch as Server". 5) Enter the number of players and press ENTER. The ROTT server will then wait for the designated number of players to join. 6) If the server computer is to be playing, pick "Client on top of Server", but if there is a standalone server, pick "Standalone Server". 7) Go to the Client computers, and run the setup program, and then select "Launch as Client". Once the server is found, you will see a message telling you which player you are. If the other players are slow getting into the game, they will be ridiculed on your computer! 8) At this point, you're ready to play! Consult the Comm-Bat section on how to set up all the various play options of ROTT Comm-Bat play. Here are some miscellaneous network items to keep in mind: ■ Each player must have a registered copy of Rise of the Triad on their computer, or there must be a site-licensed version of ROTT in use. This does not apply if you are using Shareware only. ■ Live RemoteRidicule will work in network mode, but only if you have a Sound Blaster card, or compatible. GUS cards do not support this function. It is recommended that before you play NetROTT that you check your microphone function before running the game. Check whatever utilities that came with your sound card to verify that your microphone is set up properly. ■ When playing NetROTT, we urge you to not select your network server as the ROTT server. The reason for this is that if someone on your network starts making extensive use of your server, and doing heavy disk access, you will note ROTT slowdowns. The ROTT server can be any computer, not necessarily your network server. ■ Everyone should be at the DOS prompt before launching the ROTT server. Once the server is launched, the first person to launch as a client will be the "Master", if playing with a standalone server. If playing with a Client on top of a Server, then the server will always be the Master. (See the Comm-Bat section for a description of Masters & Clients) If you are playing with a standalone server, this can be overridden with the 'MASTER' command line parameter. If this is used, the first person to enter into the game with the MASTER command line parameter will become master, and any subsequent uses of the MASTER parameter in that game will be ignored. The MASTER parameter will be ignored if you are playing with a Client on Top of Server setup. ■ If you get the error "Unknown Packet During Setup" when launching the server, it means that someone from a previous game played using that server is still in the game. Ensure that everyone is at DOS before starting. ■ If you launch as a client, and the server is not found, this means that something has become unsynced. At this point, ensure that every computer is at the DOS prompt before launching the server. It also helps to reboot all computers playing ROTT before attempting to play. If possible, make ROTT the first thing you run after rebooting. This can help in certain memory/computer configurations. ■ It is possible to play more than one game on a network at one time. However you can not START more than one game at a time. In other words, if your party wants to play NetROTT, and there is another group playing the game, then you will have to wait until all of them are in the game and playing before any of the second group can start. To start another game while one is in play, you need to make use of the "Change Socket Number" option in the setup program. Please see your local network administrator for more information regarding what to use here. ┌──────────────────────────────┐ │HOW TO PLAY COMM-BAT (tm) ROTT│ └──────────────────────────────┘ All players of the game must have the same version number. In other words, If you have 4 players, and three of them have v1.1, and one has v1.2, ROTT will not work. All players must have the same revision of the game. One of the strengths of Rise of the Triad is it's multi-player options. There are a virtual plethora of different options and ways to play multi player ROTT. This section will explain them to you. This section assumes that you already have multi-player up and running. If you are unsure as to how to set this up, please consult the MODEM and NETWORK sections of this file for information on how to set up Multi-Player ROTT. When playing Comm-Bat, one player is the "Master". The Master is the person who determines what level will be played, how long you are going to play, etc. In modem play, the Master is the person who is making the call. In network play, the first person to be found by the server (or the client on top of server player) will be the person who is "Master". In serial play, it's less defined, since the Master is determined by whomever gets the "Player 1" signal out the line faster. This is usually the slower computer, but to be quite honest, the "Master" in serial mode is not an exact science. All other players in network play, or Player 2 in Modem/Serial mode are called clients. To Start a Comm-Bat game as a Client: ───────────────────────────────────── 1) Connect via modem, serial cable, or network via the setup program. 2) Select the code name you wish to use. If you don't wish to type the same name each time, you can enter a default name in the setup program. 3) Select the player you wish to play with, and their uniform colour. If you will be playing a team game, remember that everyone on the same team must have the same colour. 4) You will then need to wait for the Master to select the various options for your game. Once they have selected everything, you will see a screen showing the parameters the Master has chosen as the game loads. 5) If you wish to quit a game in progress, press escape. You will be prompted if you want to quit. Press "Y" to go back to DOS. The rest of the players will continue to play. To Start a Comm-Bat game as the Master: ─────────────────────────────────────── 1) Connect via modem, serial cable, or network via the setup program. 2) From the ROTT Main Menu, select "Comm-Bat Game". 3) Pick the mode you wish to play (Normal, Hunter, Capture the Triad, etc..) 4) If you so desire, you can alter the Comm-Bat Options. This would include such things as the score to play to, how long you wish to play, etc. 5) Select either "Play Game", or "Play Team Game" depending on which you wish to play as. Please note that if you play in Team Mode, all players on the same team must select the same uniform colour. The uniform colour is ROTT's way of determining who is on what team. 6) Select the level you wish to play by scrolling down the list of level names, and pressing enter. 7) Enter the code name you wish to use. If you don't wish to type the same name each time, you can enter a default name in the setup program. 8) Select the character you wish to play with, and their uniform colour. Your selections will be remembered for the next time you play. 9) After everyone has selected their options, you will see a screen listing all the game parameters for the game you are about to play. Once you've had enough of reading that screen, press any key. 10) If you wish to quit a game in progress, press escape. You will be prompted if you want to quit. Press "Y" to end the game. Since you are the master, everyone's game will end when you quit. Special Note: How to play Mixed Versions of Comm-Bat ROTT If you are playing Rise of the Triad's Comm-Bat mode, we strongly recommend that all players either have the same type of game (shareware, registered, CD, or Site License). It is possible to play one version against another one, but the process to start will be different. If you need to play mixed versions like this, it is recommended that the master computer be the version of the game that is the lowest. In other words, if one of the versions is shareware, then that person should be the master. This is the easiest way to do it. If the lowest version is master, then you need to do nothing different. If you are playing mixed versions, and the Master is not the lowest version, then the Master must always select the Comm-Bat level set that is on the lowest computer playing the game. This is done by selecting the "Use Alternate Comm-Bat Levels" option in the setup program. In other words, if you have three people playing, and two of them are ROTTCD versions, and one is just the registered version, then the Master MUST select DARKWAR.RTC or an error will occur. There are four different Comm-Bat Level Files. Here is a list of all of them in order from lowest to highest. 1) HUNTBGIN.RTC -> Comm-Bat Levels for Shareware 2) DARKWAR.RTC -> Comm-Bat Levels for Registered 3) ROTTCD.RTC -> Comm-Bat Levels for CD Version of ROTT 4) ROTTSITE.RTC -> Comm-Bat Levels for CD Site License Version of ROTT Please remember however, that the easiest way to do this is to ensure all players have the same version of ROTT. It will make everyone's life easier. :) Comm-Bat Modes ────────────── There are nine different Modes (or games) you can play in Comm-Bat mode. Only three of them are available in shareware. The other 6 are registered only. They can all be played in Team mode, except "Tag". When you play in team mode, everyone with the same color will be on the same team. Capture the Triad has a limit of two teams. Every other game can have as many teams as you want, with the exception of TAG, which cannot be played in Team Mode at all. » NORMAL - This is just you and your buddies blasting each other into oblivion. There are no special parameters for this game, and everyone is your enemy. Shoot at will! » SCORE MORE - This is very similar to NORMAL, with one notable exception. You get more points for more difficult kills. The different point values you can get are: 1 point - Killing an enemy with a missile weapon on the ground. 2 points - Killing an enemy with a bullet weapon on the ground. 2 points - Killing an enemy with a missile in the air. 3 points - Killing an enemy with a bullet in the air. 4 points - Crushing someone (ie: standing on their head). » COLLECTOR - In this game, the object of the game is to collect more "Triads" than your opponent(s). There are small coloured Triads scattered throughout the levels, and you need to collect more than your friends to win. There are no weapons in this game. This game is very well suited for young children. » SCAVENGER - This is very similar to Collector, except that there are weapons in this game. You can shoot at your opponents as they try to get the Triads. » HUNTER - In this game, one player is the "Prey". This player will be unarmed, and it is everyone's job to find that player, and kill them. A player is prey for a defined amount of time (this time is declared by the Master), and at the end of that time, the prey becomes a hunter, and another player is then chosen to be the prey. During play, the Prey will have no weapon on their screen, and that person's picture and screen name will be in the upper left side of the screen, so everyone knows who the Prey is. The person with the most amount of points wins the game. If you are playing hunter in team mode, then your entire team is "Prey" at the same time. » TAG - In this game, one person at a time is defined as "it". This player is denoted in the upper left hand corner of the screen. If you are "it", it is your job to run up to another player, and tag them. You tag someone by going up to them and pressing the 'use' key (by default, this is the space bar). Once you tag that person, they become "it", one point gets added to their score, and it is their responsibility to seek out other players and tag them. The person with the lowest number of points at the end of the game will win. This game cannot be played in team mode. » ELUDER - In this game, you chase roving "Eluders" (they look like small coloured Triads - similar to the objects in Collector). Your object is to tag them (by running up to them and pressing the 'use' key), and you get a point. The person with the most points at the end of the game wins. » DELUDER - Very similar to ELUDER, except that you need to destroy the roving "Eluders" instead of tagging them. » CAPTURE THE TRIAD - In this game, you play teams (if there are only two playing, it is two teams of one), and each team gets a Triad to protect. It is the object of the other team to steal your Triad from your home base, and take it back to their home base. This is the only mode of ROTT that has to be played in team play. Comm-Bat Options ──────────────── There are many different options you can select to alter ROTT's Comm-Bat play. Here is a description of them. » GRAVITY - You can select Low, Normal, or High. Normal is pretty Normal. Low gravity can make it seem like you're flying, and it will take a long time for anything to fall to the ground. Low gravity makes it easier to get objects in the air (including the other players in the game). High gravity makes things fall like a rock, and it is very difficult to get objects in the air that are in hard to reach places in this mode. » SPEED - You can select either Normal or Fast. In Fast mode, the players run very fast, and it is a bit more difficult to control this way. » AMMO PER WEAPON - You can select One, Normal, or Gunfinity. In Normal, you have the regular number of shots per weapon. In One, you only get one shot per weapon, and then the weapon goes away. In Gunfinity, there are an unlimited number of shots per weapon. Be warned that Gunfinity makes it very easy for a player to sit in a corner and defend their position, creating a very unfair advantage. » HIT POINTS - You can alter the number of "hit points" per character. You can select one of the options listed, anywhere from 1 to 4,000. At one, you take one hit from any weapon, including the pistol, and you die. On the other end of the spectrum, having 4,000 hit points makes it very difficult to kill someone unless you have Gunfinity or God Mode. You can also select "By Character" which means each character has their normal number of hit points as defined by their abilities. » RADICAL OPTIONS - These options radically change the game play of Comm-Bat. You can control whether things respawn, and how powerful they are. Here is a listing of what they are. Spawn Dangers - This controls whether you will get items such as firejets, boulders, spinblades, etc. Spawn Health - If you're daring, you can play the level without health. Spawn Weapons - This controls whether you want weapons in the level. If you choose this, there will not be any rocket weapons. Spawn Mines - If you turn this option on, it will turn all the health in a level to a mine, which is very painful to run over! (Mines are not in the shareware version of Triad.) Respawn Items - This controls whether you want items such as the vests to reappear after they've been picked up/used. Weapon Persistence - Normally, when you pick up a weapon, there is none left behind. If this is switched on, the weapon will still be there after you pick it up. Furthermore, you cannot drop your weapon (this is done by hitting your 'delete' key by default) with this switched on. Random Weapons - Normally, a specific weapon will appear in the same place every time. If you turn this on, there will be different types of weapons appearing each time you play. Friendly Fire - If this is turned on, you will lose points if you kill yourself playing solo, or your team will lose points if anyone on your team kills themselves or another teammate. If this is turned off, then you can kill your own teammates or yourself and you don't lose any points. » LIGHT LEVELS - There are 6 levels of lighting you can choose from. They are Dark (everything is dark), Normal (as defined by the level designer), Bright (everything is really bright), Fog (everything has a foggy look to it), Periodic (this means the light level pulsates during play), and Lightning. » POINT GOAL - You can choose from a variety of point goals. You can choose 1, 5, 11, 21, 50, 100, Random (the computer makes one up), Random Blind (the computer makes one up but doesn't tell you), and Infinite (play till the cows come home). If you reach a defined point goal before the time you chose expires, your game will end. Also, if you are playing with Random Blind, you cannot press TAB to see everyone's Killcounts. » DANGER DAMAGE - You can control how much damage the various hazards in the level cause when you hit them. You can choose Normal, Low (not much damage at all), or Kill (you instantly die when you hit something). » TIME LIMIT - You can choose how long your game will last in minutes. You can select from 1, 2, 5, 10, 21, 30, 99, and NONE (play till the cows come home). If you reach the selected time limit before you reach the point goal you selected, your game will end. During Comm-Bat play, there are some extra features that are not available when you are playing the game by yourself. They are: » RemoteRidicule - You can press F1 through F10, and a sound will play on the computers of your opponents (assuming they have sound cards). Imagine the fun of walking up behind someone who doesn't know you're there, and making his computer say "Behind Ya!", and then whack him in the head with a baseball bat! » Live RemoteRidicule - If you have a Sound Blaster or 100% compatible, you will be able to plug a microphone into your Sound Blaster, and then you can press F12 to speak live to all other players in the game. When speaking, you need to hold down the F12 key. What you say will be transmitted to all the others in the game. Only one player at a time can use this function. Please note that this option is only available in network play. It is also not available on a Gravis UltraSound card. The reason for this is due to the time it takes to transfer data to the card. The GUS uses on-board memory to play sound. This means that a large portion of the sound must already exist in its' memory or the computer's memory before playback can begin. Since a sound that is played in the game is already available in its entirity, the GUS can immediately begin playback without any noticable delay. Remote Ridicule sends sound packets over the network at a rate of 8kb of data per second. The GUS needs about 2kb of sound in memory for noiseless playback, which would mean that 1/4 of a second would go by before the sound could begin. Our initial attempts at this produced choppy sound and unacceptable delays in game play. We still hope to solve these problems in the future, but we feel that it is better to leave out a feature that doesn't work well than to give our users a half working one that causes them frustration. » Messages - You can send text messages to other players, too. If you want to send a message to everyone, depress the "T" key, and then type away. When you're done, press ENTER, and your message will be tramsmitted to everyone. If you want to send a message to a specific person, you need to depress the "Z" key. After you type in your message and press ENTER, you will be shown a list of people playing, and you can select whom you want the message to go to. » Macros - If you want to send messages, but you don't want to type the same messages over and over again, you can make use of the Macro system. Macros are set up in the setup program (see the section on using the setup program for more info). When you're playing, you need to press "T" or "Z" like a normal message, but after that, you can press ALT-x where x is a number key between 1 and 0 on your keyboard for your macros. » Viewing - If you are playing in team mode, you can press the "9" key to look through the eyes of your teammates. Continue pressing "9" to scroll through the views of all of your teammates until you return to your own. When you are playing ROTT by yourself, the F5 key will change the detail level, and the F7 key will turn messages on and off. These can still be accessed when playing Comm-Bat rott, but you need to use the Shift key as well. ┌───────────────────────────┐ │ROTT HELP & TROUBLESHOOTING│ └───────────────────────────┘ ■ Apogee strongly recommends that before you make any suggested changes to either your hardware or software setup, that you consult your manuals to make sure that any changes will not irreparably alter your computer, or its configuration. Modifying your system or software can be dangerous, and we will be unable to assist with any resulting problems from such alterations. ■ If you get the error message when starting the game that says "WARNING: You are running ROTT with very little memory", it means that you do not have enough memory available at run time to play the game. Please see the next paragraph for more information on how to alleviate this. ■ If you get the error screen running that prints a message game that says "Uh Oh. Memory Problems", it means that you do not have enough memory available to run Rise of the Triad. This is almost always caused by having such things as memory managers (QEMM/EMM386), disk caches (Smartdrv), and other memory resident programs in memory. Your best bet is to do what is known as "boot clean", which means to not boot with any memory resident programs you do not need. Here are sample config.sys/autoexec.bat files to use: CONFIG.SYS ========== FILES=30 BUFFERS=30 STACKS=9,256 <if your sound card requires a line in config.sys, put it here> <if you use disk compression, make sure to load that driver> <if you require a driver to access your hard drive, make sure to use it> AUTOEXEC.BAT ============ @echo off <your path line> MOUSE <if you play with a mouse> SET BLASTER=<see section on SET BLASTER for more help on this line> If you have DOS 5, you will need to create a boot disk, and make config.sys and autoexec.bat files with the above examples. If you have DOS 6, we strongly recommend the use of a multi-boot option. DOS 6 has the capability of having mutliple boot configurations. Please consult your DOS manual for instructions on how to create a boot disk, or a multi-boot configuration using the parameters stated above. ROTT is a protected mode program, and it does not require the services of such memory managers as QEMM, EMM386, etc. Please read the section on protected mode programs for more information. ■ If your copy of ROTT locks up, you may wish to check some settings in your CMOS configuration. If any of these are on, then switch them off: Hidden Refresh, Hardware Video Shadowing, Turbo Switching. Also, if you have either of these, turn them on: HD1 Block Mode; IDE HDD Block Mode. ■ If you have a Diamond SpeedStar video card, disable Zero Wait State. ■ If you hear static when you are playing with a Sound Blaster or compatible card, make sure to turn the MIC and LINE volumes to zero. Your card may be seeing input from these, and it would cause static. (For a Sound Blaster Pro, this program is SBP-SET; see your card's manual for precise instructions on how to do this.) If you still continue to hear static after doing this, try disconnecting any parallel port devices. IRQ5 and IRQ7, which are used by sound cards, are often frequently used by printers as well. If you have both plugged in, it may cause static, and poor sound performance. ■ If you are running a Compaq computer, and the game tells you that you do not have a VGA card, and you know for a fact that you do, or you experience lockups, this is what you'll need to do. You'll need to contact Compaq for an update. The reason for this is that Compaq has some video cards that do not conform to all proper detection methods. There is a device driver available from Compaq that will fix this problem. The driver's name is FINDVGA.SYS. Compaq does have this file available for download on their BBS with the filename SP0117.ZIP. ■ If you are playing with a joystick, and your performance seems erratic, make sure to calibrate the joystick inside the ROTT program. Also, check and make sure that the joystick port you are using for ROTT is speed adjustable. If it is, then try tinkering with the speed. If it is not, then there may not be anything you can do to alleviate the problem. Check your port's manual for more info. Also, make sure you do not have more than one active joystick port on your machine at any time. ■ If you are having problems with serial or modem play, please see the section on modem play in addition to this section. ■ If you are having problems with network play, please see the section on network play in addition to this section. ■ Help! My Space Player is not recognized by ROTT! The reason for this is that you must tell ROTT that you have this controller, and you're using it. This is done with the SPACEBALL command line parameter. Please see the section on Command Line Parameters for more info. ■ Help! My Cyberman is not recognized by ROTT! The reason for this is that you must tell ROTT that you have this controller, and you're using it. This is done with the CYBERMAN parameter. Please see the section on Command Line Parameters for more info. ■ If you are playing a network game, and you get the message "Invalid packet during setup" when launching the server, it means that not everyone has quit the game from the previous session. Make sure everyone is at DOS before running the server. ■ If you are playing a network game, and you get the error message "IPX not detected", it means that you haven't loaded your IPX protocol. This will need to be loaded before any ROTT programs are run. Please ensure that the IPX protocols are loaded before running the setup program. ■ If you get an error that starts with either "FX SETUP ERROR", "MUSIC ERROR", or some other error that has "sound" in the error, it means that something is awry with your sound setup. Delete the file SOUND.ROT, and run the SNDSETUP.EXE program that comes with ROTT, and make sure that you have selected the proper sound card. If this doesn't work, try reinstalling the game. Please remember that for GUS owners, your IRQ must be 7 or less. ■ If you get an error that starts with "Z_Malloc", or get "Max Precache Reached", it means that you are having memory problems, usually due to a lack of memory available for ROTT. Make sure you are booting without a memory manager, or things like disk caches that take up valuable memory that ROTT needs to run properly. ■ If you get an error that says "Different number of Pushwalls/Doors/etc when trying to load a savegame", it means that either your map data or your save game has become corrupt. Go to the load save game menu, and delete the save game in question. If this doesn't solve the problem, reinstall ROTT. ■ If you are playing a net/serial/modem game, and you get an error that has "Player x is unsynced at ...." it means that you had bad packets or otherwise had a bad connection. Quit the game in progress and try again. ■ If you get an error that says "Illegal Load Game Value", it means your save game is corrupted. Either save over it, or delete it. ■ If you have an AWE32 Sound Card, and get the error "MPU-401 Initilization Error", you will need to turn your computer totally OFF, wait about 5-10 seconds, and then turn it back on again. Delete SOUND.ROT, and try reselecting your music/sfx again. This error is caused by picking incorrect settings; if you pick the wrong settings for an AWE32, you need to power down and retry, not just reboot. ■ If you have an AWE32 Sound Card, and get the error that the AWE32 card is not being detected when you try and select music, do the following steps to set up AWE32 music: 1) Do a full reset of your computer; this means totally powering down, and then restarting your computer (just in case the AWE32 is in a bad state). 2) Set up sound fx by running SNDSETUP.EXE. Do not setup music at this time. 3) From the DOS prompt, type "EDIT SOUND.ROT". (Or use your favorite text editor; SOUND.ROT is an ASCII file) 4) On line 19, you should see the following: "MusicMode 0". Change this to read "MusicMode 5". 5) On line 76 you will see settings for the Sound Blaster. They will look something like this: ; ; Sound Blaster Settings SBType 6 SBPort $220 SBIrq 5 SBDma8 1 SBDma16 5 SBMidi $330 SBEmu $0 On the line that say "SBEmu", change the number that follows from "$0" to be the same as the number following the "SBPort" parameter (in this case, "$220"). For this example, you would have: ; ; Sound Blaster Settings SBType 6 SBPort $220 SBIrq 5 SBDma8 1 SBDma16 5 SBMidi $330 SBEmu $220 6) Save the file and exit to DOS. ROTT should now be able to detect your AWE32 properly. If you still have trouble, then you may have incorrect values for the ports on your sound card. ■ If you notice the game running slowly on your system, here are a few suggestions on improving game performance. » Disable your disk cache. ROTT does its own internal caching, and external caches get in the way, from causing the game not to run at all, to making it run slowly. Disk caches also take away memory that the game could be used to more efficiently operate. » Disable your upper memory manager (QEMM, 386Max, EMM386, etc). Since ROTT is a protected mode game, the services of these programs are not needed. » Turn the option for "Auto Detail Adjust" on. This will adjust the graphics level of the game on the fly, and will attempt to keep the game moving at a fast speed all the time. When you hit a snag, or a possible slowdown, ROTT will bump the graphics level down a bit until things speed up again, and then will adjust the graphics back up. » Try reducing the screen size. When playing the game, you can press either '-' to reduce your screen size, or '+' to increase it. » Turn off the ceilings and floors. If you do this, all the ceilings and floors will be "off", and since the game wouldn't have to draw them, the game would run faster. » Try reducing the amount of digital channels that you have set for sound effects. Some system configurations have problems with having ROTT set for higher than 4 digital channels. » Try reducing the mixing selection on your sound card from 16 bit to 8 bit. 8 Bit Mono is the fastest music/sound combination there is in ROTT, and if you have slowdown problems, try selecting 8 Bit Mono. ┌────────────────────────────┐ │ROTT COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS│ └────────────────────────────┘ ■ There are a few command line parameters you can try to use to alter game performance. Some of these will help speed up the game on slow computers, and others help to aid game play. A command line parameter is something that you type on the command line after the name of the program you're running. The 'NOSOUND' switch will be used as an example. To use that one, you would need to start the game like this... ROTT NOSOUND The command line parameters for ROTT are stackable, which means that you can use more than one at a time, if you need to. An example of a stacked set of command line parameters would look like this... ROTT NOSOUND CYBERMAN Please note that while these are intended for use with the ROTT game, you can use them on the setup program. The setup program will pass any command line parameters to the ROTT game that were given to it. Here is a list of the command line parameters you can use with ROTT. ? » Gives you a list of all the command line parameters. NOSOUND » This option turns off all sounds (both music and sound effects) for the game, and makes it silent. NOJOYS » This turns off joystick detection. Useful if you are getting false joystick detection. Use this if the menus just start scrolling on their own, with no input from you. NOMOUSE » This turns off mouse detection. SPACEBALL » This turns on detection for the Space Player controller. CYBERMAN » This turns on detection for the Cyberman controller. SILLY » When you play ROTT, during the loading screen, the level name is displayed. If you use this parameter, the level name will be replaced with a silly saying. FILE » This is the name of a user added wad file for ROTT. You wouldn't actually type FILE, you'd type in the name of the file to be used by ROTT. You can add three such files at once using this method. SOUNDSETUP » Makes ROTT go through setting up your sound card. VER » Shows the version of ROTT you are playing. SLOWDEATH » When you die in ROTT, this will let you see your death in slow motion, as opposed to the normal speed it's shown at. NOWAIT » This will bypass all opening cinematics and screens, and will place you at the Main Menu. NOW » This will bypass all menus and screens, and will automatically place you into the game in Level 1, as the default character, and the default difficulty. PAUSE » This will bring up a "Press any key to continue" prompt when you first run the game. This is useful if you need to contact Apogee for help, and they need to ask you a few questions about ROTT and your system. MASTER » This will force a specific client in Comm-Bat ROTT to be Player 1 (or the Master). Only the first use of this in a game will be honored. Any uses beyond the first will be ignored. If this is not used, the first person to launch into a NetROTT game will be the Master. (This parameter can cause instability in Comm-Bat ROTT. We recommend against it's use.) MONO » This turns on support for the Monochrome region of video. If you have your system set up with a video card that can access this at the same time you play the game, you will see debug information about the game (such as memory writes, etc). The information here is useless, but if you can see it, here it is! MAPSTATS » This will output the map statistics (ie: Number of different walls, doors, etc.) of the current level to the file MAPINFO.TXT. TILESTATS » This will output the tile statistics (ie: Number of different actors, plants, objects, etc) of the current level to the file MAPINFO.TXT. The final two command line parameters were only used during development, so we could make sure that the levels we were designing didn't blow up the game! ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │WHAT IS THE "SET BLASTER" COMMAND, AND WHY DO I NEED IT?│ └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ROTT (and any other Apogee game that uses the Sound Blaster) uses the SET BLASTER command to figure out where to send it's sound output. A Sound Blaster card can have many different sound outputs, and since there are zillions of computers out there, a way needs to be used in order to tell the game where your sound card is located. The SET BLASTER line is how we do it. Check to make sure that you have the SET BLASTER line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This code is an example, and isn't exactly what you need to put in your system, make sure to read the entire explanation of this command. NOTE: Some of these parameters (P, H, & E) are dependant on certain types of cards. For example, the E is only needed if you have an AWE32. The minimum requirements are to have the A, I, D, & T parameters. The other three may or may not be needed depending on what type of card you have. Please read this entire section to see if you need any of them. If you are using a clone card, or some card that's not a "true" Sound Blaster, then you will most likely only need A, I, D, & T. SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T3 P330 H6 E620 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |_______ AWE32 Only Parameter | | | | | | | |__________ "High" DMA Channel | | | | | | |_______________ MIDI Port | | | | | |__________________ Type of Card | | | | |_____________________ DMA Channel | | | |________________________ Interrupt | | |_____________________________ Port Address | |_____________________________________ Environment Variable |_________________________________________ DOS Command NOTE: There can be no spaces between the word BLASTER and the equal sign (=). If you have a space in there, your system will read the parameter incorrectly, and it will not be recognized by our games. Now, these may not (most likely not) be the same for your board, because the Port Address, Interrupt and DMA Channel can be set by adjusting "jumpers" on your sound board. Some newer cards have this information controlled by software; please consult your card's manual for more information on how to set these things. You should also check your manual if you are unclear as to how to tell what settings your card is set at. The information *IS* important, so it's recommended that you know precisely what the settings are. If you are using a card that "emulates" the Sound Blaster (such as the Gravis UltraSound through software, or the PAS16), you should check your card's manual on how to set the card for Sound Blaster emulation (if your card is not natively supported by this game). For PORT ADDRESS, it's almost always 220. That seems to be the default for most sound cards out there, and unless you know you've switched it away from 220, it's a safe bet it's still there. The INTERRUPT is something that varies from system to system. Apogee does not recommend using IRQ2. Most of the people we run into who use IRQ2 have difficulty getting their programs to run properly, unless they switch to a different IRQ channel. If you are using a Gravis UltraSound, you must have an IRQ of 7 or less. The Apogee Sound System used in this game does not support the GUS default of 11. The DMA CHANNEL is one that causes some people problems. By default, this is almost always set at 1. Unless you have a specific need to change this, it's probably still at 1. If you're running into lockups using digitized sounds with Apogee games, this is probably where your problem lies. If you get lockups with an Apogee game that has digitized sounds, and this variable is correct, try turning off the digitized sounds, and if the game plays right, you probably have a DMA conflict. Adjust the DMA channel on your sound card, then reflect said change in this variable in the SET BLASTER line. Quite often, CD-ROM's are the culprit. Check your CD-ROM to make sure it's not using the same DMA channel as your sound card. The TYPE OF CARD is something that is fairly easy to check out. If you're running a non-Creative Labs sound card, then you want this to either be 1 or 3, depending on which card it is. In the majority of cases, it will be a 1 if you are not using a "true" Sound Blaster. If you do have a "true" Sound Blaster, then the variable is one of these... 1 or 3 for a plain Sound Blaster. 2 or 4 for a Sound Blaster Pro, or a 6 for a Sound Blaster 16 or an AWE32). The factor in choosing between the two numbers here is the age of the card. If it's an older card, than choose the smaller number (1 or 2). Clone cards, or cards that emulate the Sound Blaster usually have a T variable of 1. Experiment to see what works best for you. The MIDI PORT parameter will only be needed if you are using a card that has MIDI capabilities. If so, this is where you define what MIDI port you are using. 330 seems to be the default for most cards, so if you have a MIDI card, and you haven't changed anything from factory defaults, this is probably where it still is. The HIGH DMA CHANNEL is something that is used primarily on Sound Blaster 16 cards. This is not the same as the standard DMA channel, this is a different one. This is only used if you're using a 16 bit sound card capable of playing 16 bit Sound Blaster sounds. By default, this is usually 5, so unless you know that it's something else, it's probably still 5. The E620 parameter is something that is needed _only_ if you have a Creative Labs AWE32 sound card. If you have one of these, this parameter will have been set up properly assuming you've installed the software that came with the card. Check your AWE32 documentation for a more thorough explanation of what this paramter is used for. I get a lot of questions from people wanting to know why they have to use this if they don't have a Sound Blaster. Well, it's simple. This command has NOTHING to do with what type of sound card you have. Apogee games that use digitized sounds expect these cards to be at specific settings. If they are not, then the game needs to be told this. The way to do this is with the environment variable BLASTER. That's why this is needed. Some of our newer programs (ROTT, Hocus Pocus) have specific setup programs which let you set up this information manually, but they still require the SET BLASTER line to operate at 100% efficiency. Please remember to add this to AUTOEXEC.BAT, save the file back to disk, reboot your computer, and make sure to delete the game's sound config file (SOUND.ROT) before running again. If you have any further questions, please drop Apogee a line. ┌──────────────────────────────────┐ │HOW TO GET ROTT RUNNING UNDER OS/2│ └──────────────────────────────────┘ IMPORTANT: Music and Sound FX do not work under OS/2 with this release of Rise of the Triad. If you have a sound card, do not run the SNDSETUP.EXE program that comes with the game under an OS/2 DOS session. Also, do not select "Configure Sounds" from the SETUP.EXE menu under an OS/2 DOS session. Music and Sound FX are turned off by default: attempting to enable them (or disable them: see below) under OS/2 will most likely cause the DOS session to crash. If you play the game under true DOS through a Dual Boot or Boot Manager environment and you enable the Music and Sound FX while under DOS, you will need to disable both through the SNDSETUP.EXE program while still in native DOS if you intend to reboot under OS/2 and run the game from a program reference object. Once the Music and Sound FX have been enabled, any attempt to disable them from an OS/2 DOS session will result in the same type of crash mentioned above. **** Setting up the Settings **** Create a program reference object for the ROTT.EXE program. If you plan on playing the modem, network, or serial games, set up an object for the SETUP.EXE program as well. The single player game can be run from an object for either program, but the modem, network, and serial games can only be started from an object for SETUP.EXE. For each object you create, open the settings notebook to the Session page and click on the "DOS Full Screen" button. On that same page, click on the "DOS Settings" bar and make sure that the following settings are present: AUDIO_ADAPTER_SHARING = OPTIONAL COM_DIRECT_ACCESS = OFF COM_HOLD = OFF COM_RECEIVE_BUFFER_FLUSH = NONE COM_SELECT = ALL DOS_BACKGROUND_EXECUTION = OFF DOS_BREAK = OFF DOS_DEVICE = DOS_FCBS = 16 DOS_FCBS_KEEP = 8 DOS_FILES = 20 DOS_HIGH = OFF DOS_LASTDRIVE = Z DOS_RMSIZE = 640 DOS_UMB = OFF DPMI_DOS_API = ENABLED DPMI_MEMORY_LIMIT = 7 (Can be higher if you have more than 8mb RAM) DPMI_NETWORK_BUFF_SIZE = 8 EMS_FRAME_LOCATION = NONE EMS_HIGH_OS_MAP_REGION = 32 EMS_LOW_OS_MAP_REGION = 0 EMS_MEMORY_LIMIT = 0 HW_NOSOUND = OFF HW_ROM_TO_RAM = ON HW_TIMER = ON IDLE_SECONDS = 60 IDLE_SENSITIVITY = 100 INT_DURING_IO = ON KBD_ALTHOME_BYPASS = ON KBD_BUFFER_EXTEND = OFF KBD_CTRL_BYPASS = NONE KBD_RATE_LOCK = OFF MOUSE_EXCLUSIVE_ACCESS = ON PRINT_SEPARATE_OUTPUT = ON PRINT_TIMEOUT = 15 TOUCH_EXCLUSIVE_ACCESS = OFF VIDEO_8514A_XGA_IOTRAP = OFF VIDEO_FASTPASTE = OFF VIDEO_MODE_RESTRICTION = NONE VIDEO_ONDEMAND_MEMORY = OFF VIDEO_RETRACE_EMULATION = OFF VIDEO_ROM_EMULATION = OFF VIDEO_SWITCH_NOTIFICATION = OFF VIDEO_WINDOW_REFRESH = 1 XMS_HANDLES = 32 XMS_MEMORY_LIMIT = 0 XMS_MINIMUM_HMA = 0 NOTES: All of the above settings were tested under OS/2 2.1 GA with the OS/2 2.11 Service Pack. The game has not been tested under OS/2 for Windows or OS/2 Warp v3, but it should function just as well under either. We were not able to test modem or network play under OS/2. However, we did test serial play via a direct link under the settings shown above. If you have problems with either serial or modem play, you may wish to obtain a copy of Ray Gwinn's SIO/VSIO communication drivers. These are available from most BBS systems and in the OS2SHARE forum on CompuServe. As of this writing, the most current release is usually found as SIO145.ZIP. If you have any suggestions for network play settings, please send them to us by mail, fax, or e-mail. We would appreciate any input you could offer. These settings are not officially supported by Apogee. Your mileage may vary. ┌────────────┐ │HOW TO CHEAT│ └────────────┘ Apogee has included a cheat mode in Rise of the Triad. In order to activate it, you need to be playing the game. Type in the word "DIPSTICK". After that, you can type other words to activate various cheats. A few are: CHOJIN - 'Woundless with Weapons' (You can't be killed, and when you fire a missile weapon, your number of shots left stays the same.) RIDE - 'Missilecam' (When you fire a missile, or any other projectile, your point of view will be at the front of the projectile until it hits a target, and then your point of view is back to normal.) There are tons of other ones hidden inside the game. See if you can find them! ┌───────────────────────┐ │WHAT IS PROTECTED MODE?│ └───────────────────────┘ As promised earlier in this document, here is an explanation of Protected mode. This information is not necessary to get the game running, but it's included as background information for the curious. Historically, DOS programs have always required that you run them in the first 640k of ram. This was a limitation imposed on DOS back when v1.0 was the only thing around. For compatibility's sake, this is the way things have remained. Any memory above 640k could only be used for data storage, not for program execution. That's why you always saw those dreaded "Out of Memory" messages. As time went on, certain programs, (and later DOS itself) gained the ability to load part of themselves "high", leaving more conventional (the first 640k) of memory available. You still had the limitation of the 640k barrier, but some more breathing room was made by these memory advances. More recently, advances were made in memory management so that programs could run in protected mode. Protected mode is a special way of programming so that your program doesn't have the 640k barrier. Depending on how the program is written, the entire thing is in protected mode, or it requires the use of a DOS "Extender" to run that way. ROTT is such a program. ROTT uses a DOS extender to access much more memory than it would have been able to if it were written the old way. A game of this complexity would have never been able to have been written if the old 640k barrier method of programming was used. Well, you might be asking, what about my older programs? Can't I just use a DOS extender, and have that run something like "Wolfenstein 3D", and never get those out of memory errors? Well, it's not as simple as that. If a program is using a DOS extender, it has to be written a special way. A DOS extender isn't just a magic wand that you can use to wipe away your memory problems for non-protected mode programs. The program has to be written a special way to make use of the DOS extender. To summarize, Protected mode (sometimes referred to as "flat memory") is a way for a DOS program (either by itself, or through the use of a DOS extender) to access more than just the first 640k of memory for program execution. Because of this, more complex programs (such as ROTT) are able to be written. If using the old 640k barrier method (sometimes referred to as "segmented memory"), this type of program would not have been possible. If you're still confused, don't worry about it. As I said above, this information is not necessary for the proper play of ROTT. It's in here for background information only. If you're still inclined, check out some DOS programming books available at your library or a book store. They have far more verbose explanations of this than would be possible in this document. ┌────────────────────────────┐ │CONTACTING TECHNICAL SUPPORT│ └────────────────────────────┘ Apogee thanks you very much for playing our games. Customer satisfaction is a high priority of Apogee's, and we strive to please everyone. Our Technical Support staff is available to assist all of our customers in solving any technical problems that may be experienced. Our Technical Support Department is available to answer your questions Monday through Friday during the hours of 8:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. Central Standard Time. The phone number for the Tech Support Department is (214) 278-5655. However, the voice line isn't your only channel of contact. We are also reachable via a fax machine at (214) 278-4670, (24 Hours a Day) or you can write to us. Our mailing address is: Apogee Software POB 496389 Garland, TX 75049-6389 United States of America Voice: (214) 278-5655 Fax: (214) 278-4670 (24 hrs) If you do contact our Technical Support department, please be at your computer, and have it ready for assistance. If you can't be at your computer, please have printouts of the following things available, so that we may assist you better. It may be possible to provide technical support without these things, but it will be much more difficult. The needed files are CONFIG.SYS & AUTOEXEC.BAT, plus what happens when you execute the "MEM /C" command (or just MEM if you get an error using MEM /C). ┌─────────────┐ │APOGEE ONLINE│ └─────────────┘ Apogee Technical Support can also be contacted via a variety of electronic medium. Several major online services are monitored, and Apogee's E-Mail addresses are listed below. Also, a variety of Bulletin Board networks are monitored as well, and those are also listed. ■ Major Online Services Internet -> joe.siegler@swcbbs.com Internet -> apogee@metronet.com CompuServe -> 74200,553 America Online -> APOGEE GEnie -> APOGEE Prodigy -> CXVP94A See the appropriate instructions for these various services on how to send private mail to these addresses. All of these services have Internet E-Mail gateways, but please, if you're sending Internet E-Mail, use the swcbbs.com address. ■ Internet Services Join the Apogee mailing list! The Apogee mailing list is a list where we send press releases, general Apogee info, new game release notifications, and other miscellaneous items out on. Drop us a line at one of the above Internet addresses, and we'll put you on. Just say the word! The Apogee Mailing list is not a robot program, so please don't send automated commands. Apogee also has a "finger" plan set up for the most up to date online information about Apogee Software. Finger "apogee@fohnix.metronet.com" for the most up to the second info about our releases! If you are unsure if you can do this, or don't know what "finger" access is, please check with your local Internet service provider for more information on this Internet service. Apogee has an official FTP site for our shareware episodes. The latest stuff is always available for anonymous FTP by ftp'ing to "ftp.uml.edu" in the directory "msdos/Games/Apogee". ■ Software Creations & other Bulletin Board Networks We can be reached on Software Creations, the Apogee BBS. Software Creations can be reached by calling 1-508-368-7036. Software Creations is our #1 file site. Our games are released there before anywhere else in the world, so if you want the latest stuff, take a trip over to Software Creations, the BBS voted #1 two years running by the readers of BoardWatch Magazine! There are several BBS networks that are monitored for Apogee messages. Our Online Support Representative monitors all of the following BBS networks. Fidonet, Relaynet (Rime), Intelec, Ilink, U'NI-Net, & Smartnet. All of these BBS networks have Games, Shareware, and Apogee conferences. Fidonet -> 1:124/9006 Rime -> APOGEE (or 1674) Apogee also has a FDN on the Fidonet Filebone. Check with your local Fido Filebone administration for more info on how to get Apogee's shareware delivered right to your BBS! Check FILEBONE.NA (available from your local Fido administration) for more info. Special thanks to Irrational Man, Pansternice, and Tom's Stinky Feet! NOTE: This document was edited on an Apple IIgs using AppleWorks v4.3.