That's right - you can't! Some Dos programs will run quite happily when you shell out to Dos from Windows, but many games and demos are often awkward and don't like this. As a precaution, we only allow you to run Dos programs from the Dos prompt.
There is a Dos-based menu on this disk which you can run by changing to the CD-Rom drive and typing PCHOME at the Dos prompt.
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What hardware do you need?
What do you need to run the programs on this CD? That all depends on the program, and there is also a tremendous difference between the minimum specification PC that can run the software, and one the can run it well.
You could just about manage with a 16MHz 386SX, single speed CD-Rom drive, 2Mb of ram, standard VGA video card, 40Mb hard disk and 8-bit mono sound card, but you would find it very frustrating to use, and even then, some programs wouldn't run.
A much better specification is a 33MHz 486DX with 8Mb of ram, 100Mb hard disk, Super VGA local bus video card, double speed CD-Rom drive and 16-bit stereo SoundBlaster compatible sound card.
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Poor quality video clips?
Several factors affect the quality of the video playback. The best results are obtained with a very fast processor 486DX-66 or Pentium, local bus video card with 256 or more colours onscreen, double speed or better CD-Rom drive.
Video will, however, run on a simple 386SX with plain vanilla VGA running in 16 colours and a single speed CD-Rom drive, but the quality will be quite poor.
Make sure you have installed the latest versions of the video playback software - Microsoft Video for Windows v1.1 contained on this disc. Without it, you won't be able to play some clips and error messages may be displayed on the screen.
We can digitise the videos to produce better playback, but that would mean people with low specification hardware wouldn't be able to enjoy them. Few people have the capability to play back full screen full motion video, so we lower the quality of the video slightly so that everyone can watch.
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No video clips?
In order to play back video clips in Windows you need to install the right drivers. On this disk is Microsoft Video for Windows Runtime v1.1. Go to the \VFW11 directory and run SETUP in Windows. (This is available on the menu, too, so all you need to do is point and click on the Video for Windows item.)
The Intel Smart Video Recorder was used to digitise the clips and you'll find the latest Indeo drivers contained in Video for Windows. Change to this directory and run SETUP in Windows to install them.
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Graphics look wrong?
Some applications are designed for screen modes with a minimum of 256 colours and they either won't work in standard 16 colour VGA mode, or the graphics will look very poor.
You need to install the Super VGA graphics drivers that were supplied with your video card in order to see the graphics in this program at their best.
To do this, quit to Dos, change to your Windows directory and type SETUP. Cursor up to the Display setting and press Return. Scroll down to the bottom of the list and select Other display... You'll be prompted to insert your video driver disk and then some Windows disks. Finally you can reboot and Window will load with the new settings.
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Can't hear audio CDs?
There are two ways to listen to the audio tracks on a CD - through the CD-Rom drive direct or through your sound card. Most CD-Rom drives have a headphone socket through which the audio output is piped.
To listen to the music on this CD, simply plug in your headphones, run the CD Player from the Main Menu and select any track but 1. All the computer programs and data are stored on track 1 and the music is on tracks 2, 3, 4 and so on. Don't play track 1 - go to track 2 and start from there.
Many CD-Rom drives have audio output facilities and you can plug the Line Out from the drive into the Line In of your sound card. You can then listen to the audio through the sound card - use headphones or speakers as normal.
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Can't play audio CDs?
For this facility to work you need to add the [MCI] CD Audio driver to Windows. When you install a sound card there is a good chance that the installation program will do this for you, but sometimes it doesn't and you have to add it manually.
Run the Windows Control Panel and select the Drivers icon. In the list displayed on the screen look for [MCI] CD Audio and if it isn't there, click on the Add button. No go down the list and click on [MCI] CD Audio. Click on OK and you'll be asked to insert one of your original Windows disks. Just follow the instructions.
Try running the menu program again and select the CD Player option on the main menu.
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Quickstart - bypass the intro sequences
The intro animation sequence is interesting and novel the first few times around, but can get tedious after a while when all you want to do is get straight on to the main menu.
In the between the Quit and OK buttons on the first form displayed on the screen is a bit of text which says Quickstart. After setting the drive letter of your CD-Rom drive, click on Quickstart to skip the intro and go straight to the main menu.
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No music with the menu program?
Assuming you do actually have a sound card, during the intro animated logo sequence you should hear music playing, but this will only happen if your system is set up correctly.
The program checks for both WAV and MIDI capabilities and MIDI may be selected for some sound output. Is your MIDI equipment plugged in and switched on? Volume turned up? Speakers connected?
Even if you have no MIDI equipment, you may still be able to hear the music as many sound cards will simulate a MIDI setup. However, with the default settings you may hear nothing. Run the Control Panel from the Windows desktop and then select the MIDI Mapper icon.
A dialog box will appear and next to Name: is a drop down list of MIDI settings. Try a different setting, such as SBP2 Ext FM for Sound Blaster Pro, Adlib General with Sound Blaster 1.5 using Windows' own drivers and Extended FM with the Media Vision Pro Audio 16.
These settings work fine on our PCs, but with a different setup and different sound cards we can't really advise on the settings. Experiment - you can't do any harm. Re-run the menu with the new setting and see what happens.
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How to speed up your CD-Rom drive
You may see the animated sequences and video clips in the menu program and other software stutter and jerk, or even almost stop completely for a second. That's because the data can't be read from the CD fast enough. Even if you have a double speed CD-Rom drive, you may still experience difficulties in getting smooth animation.
There is a solution, however, and this involves optimising your PC and drive for maximum speed. There are two lines in your AUTOEXEC.BAT which need checking: The one with SMARTDRV in and the one with MSCDEX.
C:\DOS\MSCDEX /M:20 /D:MSCD000
C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE 2048 1024
The latest version of SmartDrive is 5.0, which is supplied with MS-DOS 6.2. This will cache CD-Rom drives, but only if it comes after the MSCDEX line. The line above sets the cache size to 2Mb (2048k) when in Dos and 1Mb (1024k) when running Windows.
The important bit in the MSCDEX line is the /M:20 as this is the cache buffer size that MSCDEX uses. Higher numbers set bigger caches which improve the performance of the CD-Rom drive. However, each buffer requires 2k of memory. The /M:20 above sets up 20 buffers, which is 40k of memory.
