Philip Marlowe Private Eye
Read Me File
To read this file on-screen, use the Page Down and Page Up keys.
You can also print the file by choosing the Print command from
the File menu in any Windows word processing program.
This READ ME file contains important information on the following
topics:
1. Private Eye Quick Start:
- Installing Private Eye.
- Playing Private Eye.
- Skipping the introduction.
- Quitting the game.
- Tips and Shortcuts.
- Switching to other Windows.
- Playing the Private Eye Demo.
2. Problems installing Private Eye:
- Examining your hard drive.
- Temporarily disabling other applications.
- Checking your system hardware.
3. Problems Running Private Eye:
- General Protection Faults.
- Out-Of-Memory error.
- Having a new CD-ROM or hard disk drive letter
since last installation.
- Special software that is not supported.
- Windows 95 taskbar overlapping the program
screen.
- Conflicts with Screen Savers.
- Turning off Microsoft Office Manager.
4. Performance Issues:
- The program runs slowly.
- Improving performance with SmartDrive.
- Tips for Notebook computers.
- Choppy animation frames and sound.
5. CD-ROM Issues:
- Increasing the CD-ROM drive reading performance.
- Errors reading from the CD-ROM drive.
- Problems finding the CD-ROM drive.
6. Video Display Issues:
- Basic display requirement.
- Problems when running in 16 bit, 24 bit or
32 bit color mode.
- Private Eye looks best in 640x480 resolution.
7. Audio Issues:
- Conflicts with other applications.
- Audio driver problems.
- IBM Aptiva Mwave sound card.
- Sounds play, but not very well.
- Sound does not play at all.
8. Credits:
- Private Eye credits.
- Byron Preiss Multimedia Company masthead.
- Infogrames Multimedia Credits
****************************************************************
1. Private Eye Quick Start:
****************************************************************
- Installing Private Eye.
Make sure your monitor is set to display 256 colors at 640 x
480 resolution.
With Windows 3.1:
(i) Choose the Run command from the File menu.
(ii) Type the following in the Run dialog box:
D:\setup.exe
(Where 'D' is your CD-ROM drive letter. If your CD-ROM
drive letter is not 'D' then replace 'D' with the
correct letter.)
With Windows 95:
(i) Choose Run from the Start menu.
(ii) Type the following in the Run dialog box and click OK:
D:\setup.exe
(Where 'D' is your CD-ROM drive letter. If your CD-ROM
drive letter is not 'D' then replace 'D' with the
correct letter.)
Restart Windows if a dialog asks you to do so.
- Playing Private Eye.
With Windows 3.1:
(i) Open the Private Eye Program Group.
(ii) Double-click the Private Eye Program Item icon.
With Windows 95:
(i) choose Programs from the Start menu.
(ii) Select the Private Eye item in the Private Eye group.
- Skipping the Introduction.
To skip the introduction, press the ESC key any time
while it is playing. To view the introduction again, quit and
restart Private Eye from Windows.
- Quitting the game.
There are two ways to quit from Private Eye.
Method One:
Hold down the ALT key and press the F4 key.
Method Two:
Go to the main menu (click the white notebook on the desktop
to display the Main Menu) and click Quit.
- Tips and Shortcuts.
You can reach the desktop resources by clicking the gray border
while viewing an animated scene or searching a location.
- Switching to other Windows.
There is only one way to switch to other Windows:
Hold down the ALT key and press TAB.
- Playing the Private Eye Demo
Also included on the disc is the demo version of Private Eye.
This demo can be installed and started the same way as the
game.
After selecting "Run," type the letter of your CD-ROM drive
followed by the path, for example:
D:\PVT_DEMO\setup.exe
A Private Eye Demo item will be created in the Private Eye
program group.
****************************************************************
2. Problems installing Private Eye:
****************************************************************
If you encounter any error during installation, please try the
following:
- Examining your hard drive.
Windows 3.x users:
i) First exit Windows.
ii) Run CHKDSK.EXE or SCANDISK.EXE in DOS to examine your hard
drive.
Windows 95 users:
i) From System Tools group, Click the Scandisk icon to start.
ii) Follow instructions to examine your hard drive.
- If there is a problem in your hard drive, please consult the
DOS manual or other hard disk management manual before you
attempt to fix the problem. You may need to backup your data
and other system files.
- Temporarily disabling other applications.
If you have any DOS TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident)
application (e.g. virus shield) or Windows screen saver running
in the background, please temporarily disable it. You can
enable it again after the installation.
If you have other Windows applications running in the
background, please close the ones you are not using.
- Checking your system hardware.
Please check your system hardware and make sure your machine
is functioning properly. Any IRQ or DMA device conflict may
create system instability, which will prevent software from
functioning normally.
****************************************************************
3. Problems Running Private Eye:
****************************************************************
- General Protection Faults.
General Protection Faults may occur when there is not enough
memory available to the application, or if the system is
experiencing a conflict with particular software or hardware.
A frequent cause of General Protection Faults is the use of
outdated video drivers or audio drivers. Check to make sure
you are using the latest video drivers and audio drivers
available from your computer, video card or audio card
manufacturer.
When running the program, if a General Protection Fault occurs,
quit and restart Windows. In many cases, the problem will not
occur again.
- Out-Of-Memory Errors.
If you encounter out-of-memory errors, there is probably not
enough memory available to the program. Consider doing the
following to improve the memory usage.
i) Close all unnecessary applications.
ii) If you are using Windows for Workgroups, try to run windows
without loading the network drivers by typing "win /n" at
the DOS prompt.
iii) Determine how much memory your computer has available by
typing "mem" and pressing ENTER at the DOS prompt. You
need a minimum of 8MB of total memory to use the program.
If you do not have at least 8MB of physical memory, you
may not be able to run the program until you add more
physical memory.
iv) Check the virtual memory setting. Try to use the Windows
recommended virtual memory size; it may help to solve the
out-of-memory problem. Please consult the Windows User's
Guide for more information.
v) If you are using Windows 3.1 or Windows for Workgroups 3.11, you
can try optimizing the memory usage by using Memmaker in DOS.
- Changing the CD-ROM or hard disk drive letter since last
installation.
If you have changed the CD-ROM or hard disk drive letter
since the last installation of Private Eye, you may experience
unusual problems running the game. What you need to do is to
delete the Pvteye directory on the root level of your hard drive,
next delete the Pvteye.ini file in the Windows directory, then
reinstall Private Eye.
- Special software that is not supported.
Private Eye does not support special software that assigns
custom functions to simulate the left, right or center mouse
button. These functions should not be used while running the
program.
- Windows 95 taskbar overlapping the program screen.
If you find that the Windows 95 taskbar is overlapping the
program screen, you can hide the taskbar by doing the
following:
i) Click the Start button.
ii) Choose Settings.
iii) Click Taskbar icon.
iv) Check the Auto Hide box.
v) Click the OK button.
To see the taskbar again, move the mouse cursor to the edge
of your screen where your taskbar is located.
- Conflicts with Screen Savers.
It is recommended that you temporarily disable screen savers
of any kind while running Private Eye. Some screen savers may
have conflicts with the program and cause General Protection
Faults.
- Turning off Microsoft Office Manager.
If you have Microsoft Office installed (either the standard or
the professional version), you should disable the Microsoft
Office Manager (MOM) toolbar while running Private Eye. The
presence of the toolbar in Private Eye can cause colors to be
distorted. Check your Microsoft Office documentation for
information on how to temporarily disable the Microsoft Office
Manager toolbar.
****************************************************************
4. Performance Issues:
****************************************************************
- The program runs slowly.
If you find Private Eye runs slowly, your system may not be
optimized for the best performance. Consider doing the following
to improve the system performance.
i) Run Windows 3.1 in Enhanced mode. To see if you are running
Windows in Enhanced mode, from the Program Manager Help menu
choose the About Program Manager (or from the File Manager
Help menu choose About File Manager). In the bottom section
of the dialog box, you should see the phrase "386 Enhanced
Mode." If you do not see this phrase, you can force Windows
to run in Enhanced mode by typing WIN/3 or WIN/E at the DOS
prompt when launching Windows.
Windows for Workgroups always runs in Enhanced mode and no
message is displayed in the About dialog box.
ii) If you are running Windows in Enhanced mode, set up a
permanent Windows swap file for virtual memory on your hard
disk. See your Windows User's Guide for more information.
iii) Defragment ("clean up") your hard disk by running a
defragmentation program (MS-DOS 6.2 and above includes the
program "defrag").
- Improving performance with SmartDrive.
Make sure you have SmartDrive 5.0 or above and MSCDEX 2.23.
This new version of SmartDrive can cache data being read from
the CD-ROM drive, greatly improving performance. Make sure
SMARTDRV is after MSCDEX in your Autoexec.bat. For information
on the current SmartDrive settings type "smartdrv" at the DOS
prompt. For help with SmartDrive type "smartdrv /?" at the DOS
prompt or consult your DOS User's Guide.
- Tips for Notebook computers.
Some notebook computers may be still using a display driver,
audio driver and CD-ROM driver that came with the system.
Those drivers are probably the earliest releases, and may
not be optimized for the best data transfer and hardware
utilization. Please check with the manufacturer for up-to-date
device drivers.
If you have Windows 95 running on your notebook computer, try
to use the native Windows 95 32-bit device drivers for your
sound card and CD-ROM drive. This may increase performance
on your machine and make Private Eye run smoother.
- Choppy animation frames and sound.
The Private Eye program reads most of its animation and
sound data from the CD-ROM. If choppy animation or sound
still occurs after you have optimized your system, including
updating the CD-ROM driver and sound card driver (read the
following sections for details), this is due to the nature of
your CD-ROM hardware and CD-ROM interface card (including sound
card that comes with a CD-ROM interface). Some earlier CD-ROM
drives and CD-ROM interface cards may be a bottleneck preventing
optimal data transfer, which is something not able to be fixed
by software.
****************************************************************
5. CD-ROM Issues:
****************************************************************
- Increasing the CD-ROM drive reading performance.
Set up enough buffer for MSCDEX by putting /M:25 at the end of
MSCDEX.EXE line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
Some CD-ROM drives came with earlier releases of their DOS
drivers. Old drivers may not be optimized for the best data
transfer rate between the CD-ROM drive and the CD-ROM host.
Contact your CD-ROM manufacturer for the latest drivers.
If you are using Windows 95, make sure the CD-ROM Optimized
Access Pattern in File System Properties is set up properly for
the type of CD-ROM drive you have.
e.g. if you have a Quad-speed CD-ROM drive, you should have the
CD-ROM Optimized Access Pattern set up for Quad-speed or
higher.
If you are using Windows 95, try to use the native Windows 95
CD-ROM driver for your CD-ROM drive. Using the CD-ROM DOS driver
in Windows 95 may result in slower performance. The CD-ROM
DOS driver may also impede full 32-bit file system access.
The file system performance may vary if it is not in full 32-bit
pattern.
Make sure that your CD-ROM drive is MPC2-compatible. An MPC2-
compatible drive has an average seek time of less than one
second and can transfer data from the compact disc at 300k per
second while using less than 40% of the CPU bandwidth. Check
the documentation that came with your CD-ROM drive to make sure
it meets these requirements. An incompatible CD-ROM drive will
slow down the performance of the program.
- Errors reading from the CD-ROM drive.
If your system has errors reading from the CD-ROM drive, please
do the following checks:
i) make sure the disc surface is clean.
ii) Look to find out if there are any visible scratches on the
surface of the disc.
iii) check the documentation that came with your CD-ROM drive
or contact the company that supplied the drive in order
to find out if your CD-ROM drive is functioning properly.
- Problems finding the CD-ROM drive.
Check to see if the drive letter for your CD-ROM drive has
changed. You can use the Windows File Manager to determine
which drive letter is assigned to the CD-ROM drive. The Select
Drive command in the Disk menu will say "CD-ROM" next to the
CD-ROM drive letter. If the CD-ROM drive is moved or the drive
letter is changed after installation of Private Eye, you will
need to delete the Pvteye directory on the root level of your
hard drive, next delete the Pvteye.ini file in the Windows
directory, then reinstall Private Eye in order for the program to
re-log the CD-ROM drive letter.
Do not remove the CD-ROM while the program is running.
If the program cannot find the data files that it needs from
the CD disc, you will see a message that tells you that your
computer cannot read from the drive letter of your CD-ROM.
If you have an external CD-ROM drive, make sure the drive is
connected to your computer, plugged in, and turned on. If you
still see the error message after checking the points above,
check the documentation that came with your CD-ROM drive or
contact the company that supplied the drive.
****************************************************************
6. Video Display Issues:
****************************************************************
- Basic display requirement.
Private Eye requires a video card that supports at least
640 x 480 resolution with 256 colors
- Problems when running in 16 bit, 24 bit or 32 bit color mode.
Private Eye will only work with 8 bit color mode - 256 colors.
It will not work with 16 bit, 24 bit or 32 bit color mode.
If there is a problem with animation playback and graphics--such
as skipping frames and palette flashes--and the program is
running in other screen resolutions, consider the following
solutions:
i) Set the screen resolution back to 640 x 480. Please
consult your video card user's manual on how to change your
display resolutions.
ii) Update the video card drivers. Make sure you are
using the most recent video drivers available for Windows
from your video card manufacturer; earlier releases of
video drivers may not be optimized for best display
performance. Please consult your video card user's manual
on how to obtain the latest driver. Most of the video card
manufacturers provide BBS, WWW and FTP sites for
downloading updated drivers.
- Private Eye looks best in 640x480 resolution.
If Private Eye is too small on your screen, you are probably
running in a resolution higher than 640x480. To make Private
Eye as large as possible on your screen, change the screen
resolution to 640 x 480.
****************************************************************
7. Audio Issues:
****************************************************************
- Conflicts with other applications.
Audio problems can have many causes. Other applications that
play sounds may interrupt sounds in Private Eye.
Most sound cards cannot play two sounds simultaneously. In some
cases, playing two sounds simultaneously can result in a system
crash or freeze; in such cases, what you need to do is to
restart your system. However, a few applications that play
sounds, such as some screen savers, may remove audio capability
from all other Windows applications; if this is the case, you
may see Private Eye start up without any sound. If you suspect
you have such situation, quit the game and turn off these
applications before launching Private Eye.
- Audio driver problems.
If you experience problems with audio, you may need to update
your sound card driver. It is always a good idea to use the
most recent driver. Contact the manufacturer of your sound
card to find out how to obtain a new driver.
- IBM Aptiva Mwave sound card.
If you own an IBM Aptiva Mwave sound card and are experiencing
'looping' or 'repeating' audio playback, please contact IBM to
update the sound card driver.
- Sounds play, but not very well.
Sounds that are distorted or "fuzzy" have several possible
causes. The most likely one is simply that your speakers are
not of high quality.
If you are playing sound through a high-quality stereo system,
try adjusting the tone controls. The 11k digital audio files in
Private Eye will sound best with the treble control turned down
slightly.
It is also possible that the software settings on your sound
card are causing distortion. For example, if the sound card
volume or "WAVE file output" is set to near its maximum, it will
produce amplification distortion, just as it would on a stereo
system. To find out how to change your sound card settings,
check the documentation that came with your sound card.
- Sound does not play at all.
If you do not hear any sounds, make sure that the volume for your
speakers is set to an audible level.
If the volume is set to an audible level, you can perform a
simple test by using the Windows Media Player to play a .WAV
file. If you still hear no sounds at all, something may be wrong
with your sound card setup. Check your sound card IRQ and DMA
settings, make sure those settings are not in conflict with
other hardware devices. Also, check to see that the driver is
installed correctly and, if necessary, reinstall it. Refer to
the documentation that came with your sound card for more
information on installing audio drivers.
Please note that Private Eye requires an MPC-compatible sound
card to be installed and is not intended to run with drivers
which use the PC internal speaker, such as the unsupported
"PC Speaker" driver. Such a drivers will in most cases not play
any sounds. If you have both a sound card and the PC Speaker
driver installed, it is preferable to un-install the PC Speaker
driver.
****************************************************************
8. Credits:
****************************************************************
- Private Eye credits.
Raymond Chandler Original Novel, The Little Sister
Barbara Lanza Game Designer and Writer
Jeremy Ross Producer
Brian Flumen Associate Producer
Callisto Corporation Programming
Alan Wong Quality Assurance
Please see the Credits section in the game for a full listing of
the Private Eye team.
- Byron Preiss Multimedia Company masthead.
Byron Preiss Multimedia Company, Inc.
Byron Preiss President
James R. Dellomo Chief Financial Officer
John Mayo-Smith Technical Director
Bill Wentworth Creative Director
Jackie Snyder Marketing Director
Jeremy Ross Director, Brooklyn Multimedia
Founded in 1992, Byron Preiss Multimedia Company, Inc. develops
and publishes a wide range of interactive multimedia software
under several imprints. Private Eye appears under the Brooklyn
Multimedia imprint.
Other Byron Preiss Multimedia titles appearing under the
Brooklyn Multimedia imprint are Gahan Wilson's The Ultimate
Haunted House, Robot City and Ray Bradbury's The Martian
Chronicles.
- Infogrames Multimedia Credits.
Bruno Bonnell President
With the participation of :
Hubert Chardot
Emmanuelle Perigault-Vigier
Chrystèle Briat
Mathieu-Claude Chaboud
Sylvie Combet
Olivier Goulay
Philippe Louvet
Vincent Laloy
Eric Mottet
Sylviane Pivot
Olivier Robin
Fabien Roset
Christiane Sgorlon
Emmanuelle Tahmazian
Edouard Viollet
For more information, please contact:
Technical Hotline: (0) 161 2888 7102
Ocean, Infogrames Group
Technical Service Department, 3rd Floor
Brunel House
54 Princess Street
Manchester MA6HS
(c) Copyright 1996 Infogrames Multimedia. All rights reserved.
Published under license from Simon & Schluster Interactive.
(c) Copyright 1996 Byron Preiss Multimedia Company, Inc. All
Rights Reserved. Brooklyn Multimedia is a trademark of Byron
Preiss Multimedia Company, Inc. Based on the book The Little
Sister (c)1949 Raymond Chandler, renewed 1976 by Mrs. Helga Green.
Windows and Windows 95 are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
Apple and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. used
under license.