CD-ROM Today - The Disc! 3/CD-ROM_Today_The_Disc_3_August-September_1994.iso/baseball/readme.txt

Text File | 1994-03-06 | 17KB | 363 lines

Front Page Sports: Baseball Demonstration, March, 1994

Table of Contents

   I  Hardware Requirements
  II  Installation
 III  Demo Overview
  IV  Navigating The Menus
   V  The Graphical Simulation
  VI  Troubleshooting
 VII  Technical Support
VIII  Legalities

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   I  HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
The Front Page Sports: Baseball Demonstration program requires the
following minimum configuration:

    100% Compatible IBM 386 running at 33 MHz
    100% Compatible IBM VGA Display Adapter
    Color Monitor
        Hard Disk Drive with at least 5.25mb available
    A 3.5" 1.44mb Floppy Disk Drive
    2mb RAM configured to provide at least
           571k (585,000 bytes) Conventional Memory and
       700k (717,000 bytes) Expanded (EMS) Memory
    MS-DOS 5.0 or higher

The following items are highly recommended:

    100% Microsoft Compatible Mouse
    An Analog Joystick
    A Dedicated, Speed-Adjustable Joystick Adapter
    A 100% SoundBlaster Compatible Sound Card

Note: The system requirements have not yet been finalized. Some of these
requirements (especially memory) for the final shipping version of
Front Page Sports: Baseball may differ from those listed above.

*----

  II  INSTALLATION
To install the Front Page Sports: Baseball Demo, first boot your machine
with MS-DOS. Exit any shell or menu programs so that you are at a
standard DOS prompt. Insert the Front Page Sports: Baseball Demo disk in
your floppy drive.

Note: The following assumes that the demo disk is in your A: drive and
you are installing the demo to your C: hard drive. Substitute the
appropriate drive letters if you are using drives other than A: and/or C:.

    Type: A: <enter>
    Type: INSTALL C: <enter>

After the hard drive installation has finished, you can run the demo by
typing the following commands:

    Type: C: <enter>
    Type: CD\DYNAMIX\BASEBALL <enter>
    Type: PLAYBALL <enter> (if you do not have a SoundBlaster
                compatible sound card)
        -or-
    Type PLAYBALL -SB <enter> (if you have a 100% SoundBlaster
                   compatible sound card)

Note: Substitute the appropriate path and/or drive letter in the above
instructions if you have installed the demo to a different hard drive
or location.

If you have downloaded the demo from a BBS service, you do not need to
copy it to a floppy disk to install it on your hard drive. Simply follow
the above instructions, replacing the first step (changing to the floppy
drive) with the commands to change to the directory on the hard drive
which contains these files.

*----

 III  DEMO OVERVIEW
Because this is a demonstration of a work in progress, there are many
features and functions which either have not yet been implemented or
have been removed to allow the demo to fit on one diskette.

There are three parts to this demonstration:

1) The interactive portion of the demo allows you to bat for a half-
inning. This is accessed by selecting the Quickstart option on the Main
menu, by pressing the CTRL-Q Quickstart key sequence, or by selecting the
Play option from the Exhibition Game setup screen. Note that changes to
the Exhibition Game setup do not affect the demo.

2) After 3 outs, the "slide-show" portion of the demo is activated. This
shows you several of the high resolution ballpark screens as well as
listing some of the game features and minimum requirements. This portion
can also be activated by selecting the Quit option on the Simulation
Control Options menu. The "slide-show" can be cycled through quickly by
pressing the ESC key on each screen. During testing, it has been found
that holding down a key such as the space bar until the keyboard buffer
is full (signified by a beeping on each keypress) to cycle through the
"slide-show" can cause the computer to "hang" upon exiting the demo. For
best results, do not hold down any keys to cycle through the "slide-
show", simply tap the keys in succession.

3) If the demo is left without any user input for about 30 seconds, the
self-running portion of the demo is activated. The demo will cycle
through the menu screens, a half-inning of batting practice with the
computer controlling the batting followed by the slide-show of the game
screens and features. This will continue until halted by pressing any key
on the keyboard. The self-running portion of the demo takes about 5-7
minutes to complete.

*----

  IV  NAVIGATING THE MENUS
The program shell will allow you to view the Exhibition Play,
Association Data, Team Data, Team Roster, Team Schedule, and help
screens. Some basic functionality has been left on the screens, but they
do not save the input data or process in any way. You can view the
list of Nearest Cities and Ballparks that will be provided with the
basic game.

The functions on the menu bar can be activated in several ways,
depending upon your input device:

Mouse: Simply click the pointer on the menu title and the pulldown menu
will appear. Valid choices are in black while choices which are
unavailable are "greyed" out. Select your desired choice by clicking the
menu with your mouse cursor.

Keyboard: Use the ALT key in conjunction with the underlined letter of
the menu title to access the menu. You can select the menu item by
typing the underlined letter of the menu option or by using the up/down
cursor keys to highlight the item and enter to select. You can move from
menu to menu with the left/right cursor keys.

Joystick: Press button 2 to activate the menu bar. Move the joystick
left/right to select the desired menu and up/down to select the desired
menu item. Press button 1 to select the menu item under the pointer, or
press button 2 to deactivate the menu bar.

*----

   V  THE GRAPHICAL SIMULATION
The Batter-Pitcher Interface (BPI) has a functioning help screen
(accessed by pressing the F1 key or selecting help from the Simulation
Control Options menu) which tells you how to swing the bat. You will be
allowed 3 outs before the "slide-show" portion of the demo is activated.
This can also be activated by selecting the Quit option on the Simulation
Control Options menu.

A special function of the BPI is a practice and "checked" swing ability.
You may take practice swings before the pitcher releases the ball by
pressing the space bar or button 1 on the joystick. After the pitcher
has released the ball, you must hold down the enter key (or button 1)
until it has passed over the plate to take a full swing at the ball.
If you release the space bar (or button 1) before the bat has completely
crossed the plate you will "check" your swing and, if enough time remains,
you may take a full swing at the pitch.

Whenever the ball is put into play, the 3D simulation is activated.
Pressing the ESC key will display a menu of simulation control options,
including a help screen that will explain the camera modes and VCR replay
controls. You can access the help screen directly by pressing the F1
key. Note that the Blimp camera view is not implemented in this
demonstration.

At the end of the play, you will be asked if you wish to view an Instant
Replay. If you elect to view the replay, the VCR Interface will be
activated. You can change the camera modes and viewing angles, edit the
replay, and save finished replays to disk. Up to 9,999 replays can be
saved, hard drive space permitting! When you are finished with the VCR
interface, you may exit by selecting the "Eject" option on the control
panel, and continue with the batting practice. For further information,
refer to the Simulation/VCR help screen, activated by pressing F1 when
in the simulation.

Note: Sometimes the cursor keys on the "T" pad, as opposed to the ones
on the numeric pad, can cause unexpected control problems. If you
experience any control problems using these keys, try tapping the NUM
LOCK key to change the status of the cursor keys (note that the NUM LOCK
light will not change, but the internal keyboard status will change). If
control difficulties persist, try using the cursor keys on the numeric
pad which more accurately simulate joystick control.

*----

  VI  TROUBLESHOOTING
Due to the lack of disk space, we are unable to include the complete
INSTALL program with it's full sound card detection and drivers, and
boot disk creation utility which will be part of the final shipping
version of the game. Most problems you may encounter with this demo will
be related to sound card configuration, available memory, or mouse/
joystick problems. The following will offer some tips for resolving
these common problems.

1) Sound Cards:
The Front Page Sports: Baseball demonstration program only contains the
drivers for the original SoundBlaster card. Starting the demo with the
"-SB" parameter (PLAYBALL -SB) will activate the SoundBlaster driver.
Starting the demo without the "-SB" parameter will play the demo without
any sound generation.

If you have a "SoundBlaster compatible" sound card and are not getting
sounds with the demo, get distorted sound, or have a program lockup you
may want to try the following steps:

   * Make sure that you have started the demo with the "-SB" parameter.

   * If your sound card requires a driver to be loaded into memory, make
     sure that your system startup files (config.sys and autoexec.bat)
     contain the necessary commands. Refer to your sound card manual or
     manufacturer for assistance in determining if the card is installed
     properly.

   * Make sure that your sound card is set to the use one of the
     configurations supported by the original SoundBlaster. You must
     have the DMA channel set to 1, the IRQ must be set to 5 or 7, and
     the I/O port address must be at 220h. Refer to the manual that came
     with your sound card or contact your sound card manufacturer for
     help in determining and setting your sound card's configuration.

   * If you get distorted sounds such as scratching, ticking, popping,
     or echoing, you may have a sound card that uses software to emulate
     the functions of the original SoundBlaster hardware. Your sound
     card manufacturer might be able to provide you with updated
     drivers or a BIOS revision to fix the emulation problems.

2) Memory:
The Front Page Sports: Baseball demonstration program requires that you
have at least 560k (574,000 bytes) of available Conventional Memory and
700k (717,000 bytes) of available Expanded (EMS) Memory. If you do not
have enough available memory, you will be informed of the memory
requirement and told how much of each type of memory you currently
have available.

If you do not have enough available Conventional memory you may want to
try some of the following to help free up enough memory:

   * Make sure that you are not "Shelled to DOS" through Windows,
     DOSShell or a menuing program. At the DOS prompt type:
        exit <enter>
     If you are simply given another DOS prompt, you are not "shelled"
     under another program. If the screen returns to your program, you
     must exit that program before running the Front Page Sports:
     Baseball demo. Refer to your program documentation for information
     on how to "Exit to DOS".

   * You may have drivers or TSR (Terminate and Stay Ready) programs
     loaded into conventional memory. You should either remove the
     drivers from memory, load them into Upper Memory or create a boot
     disk to bypass your normal system startup sequence, configuring
     your system with only the necessary driver files to run the
     program.

     If you have MS-DOS 6.0 or higher, you can try using the MemMaker
     utility to help free the necessary conventional memory. If you are
     using a 3rd party memory manager or DOS version, you should refer
     to the software manual for help in configuring your system.

     If you have a modem you can download Sierra's BootDisk creation
     program free of charge from the Sierra BBS at [phone].
     Download the file called BDALL.EXE from the General library on the
     board.  After you extract the file, type out the readme file for
     complete information about using the BDMAKER utility.

If you do not have enough available EMS memory, you may want to try the
following:

   * Make sure that you have at least 2mb of RAM physically installed in
     your computer system. If your computer system does not count to at
     least 2048k of memory on startup, you may not have enough memory
     physically installed in your system or there are hardware functions
     (such as Shadow RAM) which are using part of your available memory.

   * Make sure that are loading the EMM386.EXE memory driver and that it
     is configured to provide at least 700k of EMS. Refer to your MS-DOS
     manual for assistance in configuring your system to provide EMS
     memory.

   * Make sure that you do not have any programs that are using your
     available EMS memory such as disk caches. You may want to try using
     the Microsoft Diagnostics (MSD) program that comes with Windows 3.1
     and MS-DOS 6.x for help in determining what is using your available
     memory.

3) Mouse/Joystick:
Often times it is difficult to determine if the source of control
problems is the mouse or the joystick. If you are having problems using
either of these input devices, you may want to try the following:

   * If your mouse does not function at all, you should make sure that
     the driver is loaded into memory, that you have the latest driver
     version, and that it is 100% Microsoft compatible. If your mouse
     is a "compatible" mouse, you may want to try using the Microsoft
     version 8.20 driver that comes with Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS 6.x.
     Refer to the manual that came with your mouse for assistance in
     loading the mouse driver into memory.

   * If the mouse action seems erratic, you may be having joystick
     calibration problems or the mouse driver is not 100% Microsoft
     compatible. Try recalibrating the joystick by pressing the "J" key
     and following the on screen prompts. You may also want to try
     disabling the joystick in the game by pressing the "D" key within
     the joystick calibration sequence.

   * If your joystick is not functioning properly, you may have a
     joystick port conflict or a port that is not designed to operate at
     higher speeds. Most joystick ports that are provided on sound cards
     and on the stock serial/parallel/game cards that come with
     computers use the same hardware and timings that were used on XT
     computers! Speed-adjustable game cards will solve most control
     problems.

*----

 VII  TECHNICAL SUPPORT
If you continue to experience any problems, or if you have any
questions concerning any of the above steps, our Technical Support Team
will be more than happy to assist you.  Please call [phone]
between 8:15 am and 4:45 PM Monday through Friday Pacific time.  We
can also be reached by fax at [phone] or by mail at the
following address:

             SIERRA ON-LINE
              P.O. BOX 800
           COARSEGOLD, CA  93614-0800
            ATTN:  TECHNICAL SUPPORT

You can also reach the Technical Support Department on the following
services:

Sierra BBS..........[phone] (Settings 8,N,1 & up to 9600 bps)
            CompuServe Access: GO SIERRA
Compuserve..........GAMCPUB (Technical Support ID 72662,1174)
PRODIGY.............(Technical Support ID WBWW55B)
GEnie...............Private E-Mail: SIERRA.SUP
America Online......Keyword: Sierra

Please outline the problems along with specific information about
your computer system, and we will gladly respond to your fax,
letter or BBS message as soon as possible.

Try our new toll-free automated line for Technical Assistance.  This
new free service offers a complete listing of the most common technical
issues experienced with Sierra family products and has optional fax-back
technology so you can obtain a printout of these issues.  The number for
this service is [phone].

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VIII  LEGALITIES
Front Page Sports: Baseball will be available through your local
retailer in Summer 1994.

This demonstration program is copyright (C) 1994 Dynamix, Inc.

IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines, Inc.

Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows, and MSD are registered trademarks of
Microsoft Corporation.

SoundBlaster is a registered trademark of Creative Labs, Inc.