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readme.txt
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1994-11-08
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Rebel Assault TM CD-ROM Demo V.1.51
Thank you for playing the CD Demo for LucasArts Entertainment Company's
hit title: Rebel Assault. To follow are some guidelines for using this
CD on your machine.
QUICK START
From your CD-ROM drive prompt, type "REBEL" to get into the launcher.
Before you play the demo, you should use the 'Configuration' option in
the launcher utility to select the sound card you'll be using.
Depending on your configuration, you may need to make a boot disk.
If this is the case, select 'Make Boot Disk' and follow the instructions
for making a boot disk below.
HOW TO MAKE A BOOT DISK USING BOOTDISK.EXE
A Boot Disk is essentially a floppy disk that, when inserted in your "A"
drive before startup, will load only the software necessary to play
the samplers. BOOTDISK requires a clean floppy disk that it may re-format
and erase, so be sure to acquire a clean disk before making your boot disk.
To run BOOTDISK, you can either a) select "Make Bootdisk" from the main
menu after typing "REBEL", or b) switch to your CD drive and, at the
DOS prompt, type "BOOTDISK". Simply follow the instructions and voila!
Your new boot disk is ready for use.
If you are having problems with BOOTDISK, you may create your
boot disk by following these instructions:
HOW TO MAKE A BOOT DISK MANUALLY:
Note: In all of the following sections, read an underscore
( _ ) as a space.
First, you will need to format a floppy disk and make it
bootable.
1) Insert a new, unformatted floppy disk into your A: drive.
2) At your "C:\" prompt, type:
format_A:_/s <enter>
This will format the floppy disk and tell the operating
system that this disk will be used to boot-up your system.
3) At your C:\ prompt, type:
dir_A: <enter>
A list of files on the newly formatted floppy disk will be displayed.
Look for a file called COMMAND.COM. If you do not find one, you will
need to copy it to the floppy from your hard drive by typing at the
C: prompt:
copy_command.com_A: <enter>
If you get an error message that the copy command cannot find
COMMAND.COM, it might be because the file is in your DOS directory.
Copy it from there by typing:
copy_dos\command.com_A: <enter>
Now you need to tell the boot floppy how to talk to your CD
drive.
The system gets this information from two files:
CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. You will need to create these
two files on your boot floppy, using the two versions on
your hard drive as a starting point.
4) At your C:\ prompt, type:
copy_config.sys_a: <enter>
copy_autoexec.bat_a: <enter>
This will copy the two files from your hard drive to the floppy disk.
5) At your C:\ prompt, type:
a: <enter>
This changes your current drive from your C: drive to
your A: drive. Your C:\ prompt should change to A:\.
IMPORTANT! Verify that your prompt has changed to A:\. We
will be modifying your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files on
the floppy disk. If you fail to change drives first, you
will change the files on your hard disk instead and may make
your hard disk unbootable.
6) At your A:\ prompt, type:
edit_config.sys <enter>
You will now use the DOS text editor to modify the CONFIG.SYS file.
Move your cursor around the file with the arrow keys. You can
insert text at the cursor location by simply typing it, or
delete the character currently over the cursor by pressing the
<delete> key.
7) On your floppy disk, delete non-essential lines from
the CONFIG.SYS file by moving the cursor to the beginning of
the line and pressing delete several times. Keep any lines
relating your CD drive and sound card. Unfortunately,
exactly what lines you will need to keep will vary slightly
depending on what brand hardware you have installed in your
machine. When you are done, your file should look something
like this:
LASTDRIVE = E
DEVICE = C:\SCSI\MA13B.SYS
DEVICE = C:\SCSI\NECCDR.SYS /D:NECCD
BUFFERS = 20
FILES = 20
DEVICE = C:\DOS\SETVER.EXE
The above example is for a computer set up for an NEC
CD-ROM drive with a Sound Blaster Pro sound card. For your
setup, some lines may be completely different, and
there may be more or fewer lines. Look for and keep lines
that list your CD-drive's name, sound card's name, or "CD"
in them somewhere.
8) Hold down the <alt> key and press F. Then press the X
key. This will allow you to save your changes and exit the
text editor.
9) At your A:\ prompt, type:
edit_autoexec.bat<enter>
You will be entered into the DOS text editor, where you
can modify the AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
10) On your floppy disk, delete non-essential lines from
the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Keep any lines referring to your
sound card, CD drive or mouse. Again, exactly what lines you will
need to keep will vary slightly depending on what hardware
you have installed in your machine. When you are done, your
file should look something like this:
@ECHO OFF
C:\SCSI\MSCDEX /D:NECCD /M:10 /L:d /V
PROMPT $P$G
SET TEMP=C:\DOS
SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 T4
SET SOUND=C:\SBPRO
PATH=C:\;C:\DOS;C:\SCSI;C:\WINDOWS
C:\WINDOWS\MOUSE.COM /Y
Again, some of the lines may vary greatly from those
shown, depending on your particular hardware and how it is
configured. Other lines may vary slightly.
11) Save your changes and exit the text editor as before.
12) Try out your boot disk.
You can now cold boot your computer with this disk in your
A: drive. To cold boot, take all disks out of the drives.
Manually turn off the computer using the power switch. Wait
for the machine to stop running. Put the boot disk into the
A: drive. Switch on the machine.
If your boot disk does not work you may have deleted lines
necessary for your particular system. Remove the boot
floppy, boot from your hard disk and repeat the process. If
you have questions, refer to your sound card and CD-ROM
manuals or contact their technical support departments.
Note: A boot disk does not affect your hard drive in any permanent way.
To get your hard drive back to its normal state, simply restart your
computer without inserting the boot disk.
WINDOWS:
The demo will not run under Windows. Sorry.
SOUND CARDS:
If the demo starts without sound or music, either you don't
have a sound card we currently support, or you have not configured the
demos properly. If everything seems to be configured properly, check
your volume level and your speaker connections.
A majority of all sound problems encountered in a game have to do
with hardware communications. This means that either 1) your game
thinks your hardware is configured in some way other than it really
is, or 2) your sound card itself is depending on either a PORT, an
IRQ number, or a DMA channel which is being used by something else
in your system. Unfortunately, hardware configuration problems are
not always obvious. Your game may seem to play music and sound
effects just fine, and then, at some unexpected moment, the sound
may stop, or the game may "lock up." This is often not the fault
of the game, but a hardware conflict that didn't occur until the
game used the hardware in a particular way. Finally -- and this is
extremely important -- just because Game A works with your
configuration and Game B doesn't, does not necessarily mean the
problem is in Game B. It may be that Game B uses capabilites of the
hardware that Game A doesn't, and is therefore more likely to run
into problems with the hardware configuration.
If you don't know how to resolve a sound card problem, first consult
the documentation provided with your sound card. Often sound card
manufacturers provide diagnostic programs with their cards.
If you are still encountering difficulties, see the Technical Support
section below.
REBEL ASSAULT DEMO
I) UNEXPECTED INTERRUPT ERRORS/LOCKUPS
If you are experiencing crashes running the Rebel demo, first try playing
with the "NO SOUND" and "JOYSTICK ONLY" options selected. If problems
disappear, you most likely have a DMA and/or IRQ conflict between your
mouse, sound card, or another device in your computer. See your specific
hardware documentation for instructions on how to reconfigure your cards
so they do not conflict.
IF YOU STILL HAVE PROBLEMS, TRY TYPING "REBEL2" WHILE IN YOUR CD-DRIVE
ROOT DIRECTORY. This will launch the sampler with an alternate version
of the DOS extender which may be more compatible with some systems.
II) SOUNDBLASTER 16
Note that if you are using a Sound Blaster 16 in 16-bit mode, you must
configure Rebel Assault to use the 16-DMA channel (default=5) your card is
set to. This is not necessarily the same as your 8-bit DMA channel
(default=1). You can check your card's setting by looking in your
AUTOEXEC.BAT file for the "SET BLASTER" command. The 16-bit DMA channel
is preceeded by an "H", while the 8-bit channel follows a "D".
Some motherboards cannot use DMA channels higher than 3. Thus, the
safest thing to do is to change your AUTOEXEC.BAT file, switching the
number following the "H" to be the same as the one after the "D"
(probably to 1), and reboot. This will force the Sound Blaster 16 to use
the same DMA channel for both 8-bit and 16-bit sound.
III) SMARTDRIVE / DISK-CACHING SOFTWARE
CD disk-caching software may confuse Rebel Assault should the CD drive
encounter a read error. If you are having problems, disable any disk-
caching software or caching options of your CD driver.
IV) MSCDEX BUFFER SIZE
We have been told that you can improve Rebel Assault's speed by
reducing your MSCDEX buffer size to its minimum. Locate the MSCDEX line
in your autoexec.bat and change number following the "/m" to 4.
V) JOYSTICK CONTROLS
If you are having problems controlling the game using a joystick,
first check to see if you have more than one joystick enabled on your PC
(say, on both your sound card and a game card). If so, you
should disable one of the ports so they do not conflict. In general,
the joystick port on your sound card is less likely to have compatibility
problems. If the joystick seems too sensitive, make sure any trim controls
on the joystick are adjusted to give you a full range of motion. Also see
"TWEAKING FRAME RATE" below.
VI) RUNNING WITH MORE THAN 16 MEGABYTES MEMORY
If you have more than 16 Megs of RAM installed in your PC, try
invoking Rebel Assault by booting off a boot disk and by typing 'REBEL2'
instead of 'REBEL.' This will invoke the game with the DOS extender
version 1.95 instead of 1.8, which misbehaved under some circumstances.
If this does not work, contact technical support (see below).
-------------------- MISC NOTES FOR REBEL ASSAULT DEMO ----------------------
I) CONFIGURATION FILE
REBEL.EXE, the Rebel Assault launcher / config-utility saves its settings
in a file REBEL.CFG on your C: drive inside a REBEL\ directory. It will
create this directory if it cannot find one.
II) HIGH SCORES FILE
Rebel Assault saves your high scores in a file REBEL.PTS on your
C: drive in the REBEL directory. If this directory is not present,
the file will be saved in the root directory instead. To clear the high
scores list, you may delete this file.
III) RUNNING ASSAULT DIRECTLY
REBEL.EXE is the launcher utility, while ASSAULT.EXE is the game itself.
Under normal circumstances, you should not need to run ASSAULT directly,
but should instead type REBEL. ASSAULT does not pay attention to your
saved game and sound card preferences, but instead relies on command-line
switches for this information.
In a few cases, it may be desirable to run ASSAULT.EXE directly. For
instance, if you have a clone sound card which is set to an IRQ or base
address not listed in the config program, you will need to pass this
information to ASSAULT.EXE directly through command-line switches.
A list of supported command-line switches follows:
/x1 - use a low detail level
/x2 - use a med detail level (default)
/x3 - use a high detail level
/c0 - no sound
/c1 - use Sound Blaster driver
/c2 - use Sound Blaster Pro driver (default)
/c3 - use Sound Blaster 16 driver
/c4 - use Pro AudioSpectrum driver
/c5 - use Pro AudioSpectrum 16 driver
/c6 - use Aria driver
/c7 - use Ultrasound driver
/d<n> - use DMA channel <n> for sound
/i<n> - use IRQ <n> for sound
/b<n> - use base address <n> for sound
/s<n> - set sound buffer size to <n> bytes
/f<n> - set frame rate cap to <n> frames per second (default=15)
/j - enable joystick control only (default joystick + mouse)
/m - enable mouse control only
/t<n> - set rate of multitasking timer in Hertz (default=300)
/u<n> - set CD drive cpu-usage (<n>=0-9) 0=detect (default), 1=20 percent
Thus, you can run Rebel Assault for a Sound Blaster 16 sound card at
DMA channel 6, IRQ 5, and Base Address 220 by typing:
ASSAULT /c3 /d6 /i5 /b220
IV) TWEAKING FRAME RATE
If you are experiencing occasional momentary hesitations during game
play, you may be able to make the game run smoother by slowing down the
frame rate from its default of 15 frames per second. You may also want
to slow down the frame rate to make the game easier to play. Make this
adjustment in the launcher/configuration program.
V) DISABLING EMM386
When disabling EMM386, you must disable or ignore two lines in your
CONFIG.SYS file. These are:
C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM
If you are commenting these out in the CONFIG.SYS file, add "REM" before
both lines
REM C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
REM C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM
If ignoring lines by using the F8 key under DOS 6.0, choose to ignore
both lines.
VI) CHANGING SOUND CARD VOLUME
A volume control exists in the options menu, which can be accessed
either at the beginning of the game from the main menu, or at any time
by pressing the 'o' key. To change volume, select the volume item and
move your controller left or right while holding down the fire button.
Note that some cards, such as an original Sound Blaster,
do not have a software volume control, and so this menu will have no
effect.
Also note that for the Pro AudioSpectrum, you should use the
hotkey-activated TSR to change volume instead. Even if you do not wish
to change volume during the game, you should install the TSR on your
hard drive as the sound card may otherwise default to no volume when
first booted up. This TSR is called MVSOUND.SYS. When installed, you
can raise the volume level using CTRL+ALT+U and lower it with CTRL+ALT+D.
VII) CHOOSING A CONTROLLER
Although it is possible to use both the mouse and joystick in the
same playing session, it is best to choose one and enable only that
controller, as enabling both at the same time may slow down Rebel Assault
or cause conflicts when using some mouse drivers. Also, after
plugging or unplugging a joystick, you should recalibrate using the 'j'
key.
VIII) BRIGHTNESS CONTROLS
You can adjust the brightness of the graphics in Rebel Assault.
Press '.' or '>' to brighten, ',' or '<' to darken.
HOW TO REACH US
Technical Support
If you are having any technical difficulties with this CD-ROM Demo,
please phone the technical support department. If you have a
technical problem, we recommend that you are sitting in front of
your computer when you call so that we will be able to assist you
more quickly. It is also helpful to have a list of your machine's
current hardware and software configurations.
Phone - (415) 721-3333 - M-Th:8:30am - 6:00pm, F:8:30am - 5:00pm, Pacific Time
Fax - (415) 721-3482 - 24 hours
BBS - (415) 257-3070 - 24 hours
Mail - LucasArts Entertainment Co.
P.O. Box 10307
San Rafael, CA 94912
Hints
If you require hints for our games, please call our hintline at
1-900-740-JEDI. Callers must be over the age of 18 or have
parents permission when they call. Each call costs $.75 per minute.
If you would like information about our other games or would
like a catalog of our products, please call us at 1-800-STARWARS.
On Line
LucasArts Entertainment BBS
(415) 257-3070 8N1, ANSI 016 lines, 24 hours, 7 days a week
Demos, Patches, On-line technical support
Compuserve
Send mail to 75300, 454
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Send mail to "LucasArts"
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Keyword "Lucas"
Internet E-Mail
send mail to "75300.454@COMPUSERVE.COM"