== Tides of War - readme.txt ==
Last modified on 1-Oct-98 at 4:04 PM by TLW
Welcome! This file contains last-minute information and instructions
for installing and playing Tides of War. You should read it thoroughly
before installing Tides of War.
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[1] Supported operating systems
The Windows 95 or Windows 98 operating systems are required with
Direct-X version 5 (or higher) installed. The Direct-X and the Direct-X
Media runtime must be installed in order for Tides of War to function
correctly. The installation program will install these components for
you.
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[2] Windows NT
Windows NT is NOT supported. Tides of War will not run on Windows NT 4
(because it only supports Direct-X version 3). Tides of War may operate
correctly on Windows NT 5 when it is released (with Direct-X 5 support
included as standard).
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[3] System requirements
TOW requires a super-VGA graphics card that supports 640x480 16 bit
graphics. The Windows desktop should be set to 64 thousand (16-bit)
colors to prevent graphical errors and screen corruption. Right-click
on your desktop, click "Properties", and then select the "Settings" tab
to view your desktop's color depth. Change the "Colors" setting to use
High-Color (this may also be marked as '65 thousand', '65536 colors' or
'16-bit'), then click "OK".
We recommend at least an Intel Pentium 133 to play Tides of War.
Faster processors (such as an Intel Pentium-2) will give smoother
gameplay when many ships are on screen.
We recommend an eight-speed CD-ROM drive (or faster) for smooth movie
playback, and 32 megabytes of RAM for faster load times and smoother
play. There should also be approximately 100 megabytes of free disk
space for Microsoft Windows to use as temporary storage.
We also recommend turning off and unloading as many programs as
possible while running Tides of War. This includes shutting down
electronic mail programs, Microsoft Fast-Find (part of Microsoft
Office) and disabling the Windows system agent if it is enabled.
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[4] Troubleshooting Direct-X problems
If the Direct-X installation fails and Tides of War refuses to run, you
may have to manually force installation of the Direct-X components. If
you have a more obscure video card, or an unstable Windows
installation, Microsoft's Direct-X 5 installation routines may have
problems.
The Direct-X components are a series of extensions to the operating
system that allow applications a fast interface to hardware such as
video cards and sound boards. Because it is part of the operating
system, we are unable to provide any assistance with the installation
or troubleshooting of Direct-X.
This problem has been encountered with the NeoMagic-128 display adapter
(and a few other video boards). In the case of the NeoMagic, the
problem was solved after following the instructions below. The
automatic Direct-X 5 installation did not recognize the existing video
driver, and had to be told to force the video driver installation.
<!> Warning <!> This procedure may damage your Windows installation.
If it fails, and you may have to reinstall your old video drivers. Make
sure you have them on hand, and proceed with caution.
To manually install Direct-X 5 drivers, click on the "Start" menu
button and select "Run". Click "Browse", and find the "setup\directx"
directory on the Tides of War CD. Select "dxsetup.exe" from the list,
click "Open", and then "Okay". When the setup program starts up, click
on the "Reinstall DirectX" button. If the program finds any existing
drivers, or is unsure of what to do, select the option to overwrite
them. When the process is finished, restart your computer.
This should fix the problem. If you are still having problems, there
are a few Internet web pages from Microsoft that might be able to provide
assistance:
Direct-X Home Page: http://www.microsoft.com/directx
Direct-X User Guide: http://www.microsoft.com/directx/enduserguide.htm
Compatibility List: http://www.microsoft.com/hwtest/hcl/
If you are still having problems, you may need to contact your hardware
vendor and obtain the latest drivers from them.
Note: Direct-X version 6 had already been released at the time of this
writing, but not soon enough to be included in the standard
installation (for testing reasons). Our recommendation is that if you
are not experiencing problems with Tides of War, you do not need
Direct-X 6. However, you might want to install Direct-X 6 if you
experience any problems. You can find Direct-X 6 on Microsoft's Direct-
X Home page (listed above), and it is also included on the second Tides
of War CD for your convenience.
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[5] Movies do not play
If the movies run without video (black screen), please manually install
the Direct-X 5 Media runtime components. Click on the "Start" menu
button and select "Run". Click "Browse", and find the "setup\dxmedia"
directory on the Tides of War CD. Select "dxmweb.exe" from the list,
and click "Open", then "Okay".
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[6] Known Installation problem
If you get an error during the installation of Direct-X Media Runtime, it
is a known problem with Microsoft. (ERROR MESSAGE: RUNDLL32 caused an invalid
page fault in module KERNEL32.DLL)
"This is a bug that exists in a few of the Virge drivers out there. Download
and run dx6eng.exe, and choose "YES" when it asks about updating your
display driver. We're updating the driver update database for DirectX 6.1
to fix this problem."
To try and rectify the problem, you can try the steps listed in
[5] Movies do no not play, or look up Microsoft for any latest changes that
might help at:
Direct-X Home Page: http://www.microsoft.com/directx
Direct-X User Guide: http://www.microsoft.com/directx/enduserguide.htm
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Good luck, Captain!
© 1998 Devil's Thumb Entertainment
http://www.devilsthumb.com
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