Disciples II: Dark Prophecy – Windows Readme – English

   Disciples II Gold
     Dark Prophecy
          &
    Gallean's Return
(Guardians of the Light)
 (Servants of the Dark)

************************
       CONTENTS
************************

I) Minimum System Requirements

II) Troubleshooting

   a) General tips
   b) Game won't launch
   c) Display problems/issues
   d) Performance issues
   e) Contact us

III) Miscellaneous

   f) Manual addendum
   g) Multiplayer over LAN
   h) Exported leaders for the expansion campaigns
 

************************************

I) Minimum System Requirements:
   ----------------------------

Windows(R) 9x/2000/Me/XP
Pentium II 233 Mhz / AMD Athlon
32MB RAM (Recommended: 64 MB)
1.1GB Free Hard Drive Space
8MB Video Card
DirectX Compatible Sound Card
DirectX 7.0 or higher 
56k Modem for Internet Play


************************************

II) Troubleshooting:
   -----------------

a) General Tips:
   *************
With so many different combinations of PCs, operating systems and video/sound 
cards, you may encounter difficulties running the game on your system. By 
following the tips mentioned in this section, you will address many common 
problems encountered when running games.

 1) Before installing the game, make sure you have the proper amount of 
    available hard drive space.

 2) Before installing the game, make sure that any programs that may be running 
    in the background are removed.


  If using Win9x/ME:
  ==================
  a) Go to Start
  b) Go to Run
  c) Type "msconfig", click on the "startup" tab.
  d) Uncheck everything except for SYSTEMTRAY and SCAN REGISTRY
  e) Click on Apply then Ok and reboot the system.


 3) Run Disk Defragmenter on a regular basis.

 4) Read the minimum requirements and make sure your system meets them.

 5) If using Win2k or Win XP, log in as the Administrator.



b) Game won't start:
   *****************

 *) We have found that Disciples II hangs at launch on some systems when the 
    sound acceleration is disabled. To verify if you have sound acceleration ON, 
    choose 'RUN' from, the 'START' menu, type 'dxdiag' in the edit box and press 
    'OK'. Choose the 'SOUND' tab and verify that the hardware sound acceleration 
    level is not set to 'no acceleration'.


c) Display problems/issues:
   ************************
If you are experiencing display problems with Disciples II, such as flickering 
images, black screen, strange colours, please do the following:

  A) Update your video card drivers. Here are some manufacturer's web sites.

     http://www.nvidia.com
     http://www.atitech.com
     http://www/3dfx.com
     http://www.guru3d.com
     http://www.matrox.com

  B) Make sure your monitor can support the refresh rate selected. You can run 
     the Configuration Editor utility program and change the refresh rate.

  C) Adjust the settings for hardware acceleration for your video card. (Reduce 
     it by one notch or two). (display properties/settings/advanced/performance).

  D) Reinstall DirectX after any driver update (cause for DDRAW error.)

  E) Make sure your screen can support the required resolution (cause for DDRAW 
     error.)



d) Performance issues:
   *******************
If Disciples II runs too slowly on your computer, there are a few things that 
you might want to try to improve the game's performance:

  *) Close any unnecessary programs (as mentioned above) that may be running 
     in the background. Antivirus programs and security programs are notorious 
     for slowing down your computer and can even cause various problems with 
     some games.


  *) Open the Options screen (ESC from isometric map) and turn off some options
     or click on the "Low end" button.  Changing the following options should
     increase the performance of the game.


         OPTION NAME                                    NEW SETTING
        -----------------------------------------------------------

        Scrolling between actions                       Off
        Isometric animations                            Off
        Battle speed                                    Instant
        Extra Battle amimations                         Off
        Isometric Audio Environment                     Off
        Low memory video card                           On
        Sound FX volume                                 Off
        Music Volume                                    Off



e) Contact us:
   ***********
For further assitance, you can reach us at the following:

  Phone: (514) 844-2433 Monday to Friday from 8:00AM to 6:00PM eastern time
  Fax:   (514) 844-4337 Attn: support
  E-mail: [email protected]

You can also visit our website at http://www.strategyfirst.com.

When you call, please have the following information handy for faster service:

  Computer type and processor speed
  Amount of RAM (memory)
  Operating System Used
  Type of video and sound card
  Amount of memory on the video card
  Version of DirectX installed on your machine.

All this information can be obtained through the dxdiag utility.
(start/run/dxdiag).


************************************
III) Miscellaneous:
    --------------

f) Manual addendum:
   ****************
The following option is not mentioned in the manual:

 - Inverse mini map mouse behavior (on/off): inverses the way the mini map 
scrolls when clicked upon

g) Multiplayer over LAN
   ********************
You may play a 2-4 player multiplayer game of Disciples II over a LAN using 
only one CD, but each person must "hotswap" the CD when they launch 
Disciples II. To Hotswap:

	1) Place the Disciples II CD in the CD-ROM drive and launch the game.
	2) When the main menu appears, remove the CD-ROM from the drive and
	   pass it to the next player on the LAN. 
	3) Each player repeats steps 1 and 2.
	4) When starting a multiplayer game session, the Host MUST have the
	   Disciples II CD-ROM in their CD-ROM drive.

N.B. - YOU MUST HAVE THE FULL VERSION OF THE GAME INSTALLED FOR THE 
HOTSWAPPING TO WORK.


h) Exported leaders for the expansion campaigns
   ********************************************

In order to play the new expansion campaigns, you will need high-level
leaders (level 10 or higher) that have been exported from the original
campaigns or skirmishes.  To that effect, appropriate leaders have been
placed in the "Bonus\Exported Leaders" folder on disc 1.  Simply copy
these files into the "Exports" folder located in the folder where
Disciples II - Guardians of the Light is installed.

Note that these leaders are the minimum required to play these new
campaigns.  You are encouraged to play through the original campaigns
first, and export your leader at the end.

Also note that using any cheats will disable exporting of leaders.

Archived by OldGamesDownload.com on 31st March, 2020

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