Tony La Russa Baseball II – DOS Readme – English

Hi! We know you're anxious to begin Tony La Russa Baseball II, but before you
do, please be sure that your system meets the following minimum system
requirements:

	4 Megabytes of RAM
	MS-DOS 5.0, 6.0, 6.2x or DR-DOS 6.0
	  Win '95 users should restart in MS-Dos mode.
	An Uncompressed hard drive with at least 7 MB free
	A VGA graphics card with a color VGA monitor
	A 100% Microsoft (or Logitech) Compatible Mouse
	Microsoft mouse driver version 8.20+ (Microsoft Bus Mouse
		users should use the most current version of the
		mouse driver 9.01) or Logitech mouse driver version
		6.24+
	A CD-ROM drive.

The minimum amount of free base RAM required is:

	580,000 BYTES OF FREE BASE RAM
	1,000,000 BYTES OF FREE XMS

	Note:  A fully featured game needs 3,400,000 bytes of XMS.

Remember, 1K is equal to 1024 bytes. For example, 540K equals 552,960
bytes.

Note: hard drive size and total system memory available have no
bearing on free RAM. Follow the directions below to determine if
you have enough available memory to run the game.

To Check Your Free Base RAM

Type MEM from within the DOS directory. The free base RAM is listed
as "LARGEST EXECUTABLE PROGRAM SIZE." Compare the listed amount to
the amount of free memory required by the game. Also listed is "FREE
EXTENDED MEMORY" (or free XMS). If your amount is lower than the game
requires, follow the instructions for making a "boot disk" given
under the "Memory" section of this data card, or free up additional
memory (see the Memory Management section of your DOS manual) before
continuing.


INSTALLING THE GAME

The game cannot be played solely from the CD; some files must be
installed to your hard drive before you can begin play.

1. To install the game, place the CD in your CD-ROM drive. Be sure
	this drive is the active drive. For example, to make drive D
	the active drive, type D: and press Enter.

2. Type INSTALL and press Enter. A screen listing basic system
	information is displayed. If the install program detects any
	unmet system requirements, the problem areas will be
	highlighted in red. Clicking on any item (or typing the
	corresponding item number) displays additional information
	and/or help for that item.

3. Follow all on-screen prompts.

If you experience problems during installation, please refer to the
"Trouble-shooting" section of this data card. Additional information
regarding memory, sound, and mouse setup can be found there.

STARTING THE GAME

1. Boot your system normally with MS-DOS 5.0, 6.0. or 6.2x or DR-DOS
	6.0.  Windows '95 users should restart their computers in MS-Dos
        mode.

2. Be sure that the hard disk containing the game is the active drive.

3. Change the current directory to the game's directory. For example,
	to change to the default directory type CD\Tony2 and press
	Enter.

4. Type Tony2 and press Enter to start the game.

MOUSE SETUP

If your mouse is not functioning, you should make sure the driver has
been loaded for use with DOS-based programs. Windows and other
programs of its type have built-in mouse drivers that do not function
outside of their environment. Loading a mouse driver may be as simple
as typing MOUSE (and pressing Enter) before starting the game. Since
the command differs from mouse to mouse, consult your mouse user's
guide.

If your mouse is acting erratically, it may be due to an old mouse
driver for your mouse, or it may not be fully Microsoft or Logitech
compatible. Check with the mouse manufacturer to see if there is an
updated mouse driver available.

If you are using a Microsoft Bus Mouse, you may need to use the /z
switch in your autoexec.bat or config.sys files to get the mouse to
function properly.

             NOTES ON TONY LA RUSSA BASEBALL II FANTASY DRAFT

Negro League All Star Team Added to Fantasy Draft Disk

In addition to the Fantasy Manager software, this disk also contains a
new league with one new team in it, named NEGRO'LG.  This is just one step on
a very long road of research work, and we hope to some day simulate the
performance of a far greater number of black stars, and to do so
more accurately.

From 1887 until 1947, black players were excluded from major league baseball.
Only after Jackie Robinson became the first to cross the color line did we
have the chance to see all the best players in baseball playing together
on a single field.  As a result, over half of the history of "modern"
baseball has huge chapters omitted, chapters which were played out in the
Negro Leagues, in Latin America and on the barnstorming circuits.

Until just the last few years, little research had been done on Negro League
stats.  Players such as Cool Papa Bell and Satchel Paige were elected to the
Hall of Fame based on the narrative history of their accomplishments
(including their dominating play against barnstorming teams of major leaguers
during the off-season), rather than on the basis of a complete statistical
record.  The national media and major city papers had ignored their games.
With a few notable exceptions, black newspaper accounts covered only a
portion of the games played by most teams, and box scores were printed in
a variety of formats..

Even if the coverage of Negro League games were perfect, however, they are
far from being a complete record of the accomplishments of these players.

Financial pressures forced black players to play in a variety of venues during
this era.  In addition to sanctioned Negro League games, there were integrated
winter leagues in Latin America and barnstorming trips where black teams
played major leaguers.  (As you can imagine from the accomplishments of
players like Willie Mays and Bob Gibson, the major leaguers often came out
on the short end of these confrontations.)  Sometimes the season and
barnstorming games overlapped, and players often appeared in over 200
games a year.


How These Teams Were Created

The published stats we currently have to work with reflect only the sanctioned
Negro League games from this era, and are incomplete at that.  The most
useful data of all, that for the head-to-head games against contemporary
major leaguers, is not yet available.

The team you see on this disk is therefore built from a series of statistical
compromises and assumptions, and it is important to understand what those
assumptions are.

We wanted to build this team in such a way that it would compete on a
reasonably equal footing with the "Classic" League teams included with the
Tony La Russa II game.  That meant a 40-man roster, with most players having
close to a full season of stats.  (Regular teams have starters who play the
full season, along with reserves with far fewer at bats or innings pitched.)

Having only the partial stats mentioned above, we have pro-rated the career
stats to a 154-game season, the major league standard during that era.
Adding this team to the Classic League should yield the best results possible from
the available data.

We would like to thank Howard Bryant of the Oakland (Calif.) Tribune for his
feedback on the creation of these teams.


Bibliography

If you'd like to learn more about the great black ballplayers of this era,
and about the conditions under which they played, the following books and
articles are useful.  Note that this list of sources is far from complete,
and excludes many excellent biographies of individual players.

1.  "The Negro Baseball Leagues: A Photographic History", by Phil Dixon
    with Patrick J. Hannigan.  (Amereon House)

2.  "Only the Ball Was White", by Robert Peterson.  (Oxford)

3.  "Blackball Stars: The Negro League Pioneers", by John B. Holway.
    (Meckler)

4.  "Invisible Men: Life in Baseball's Negro Leagues", by Donn Rogosin.
    (Macmillan)

5.  "The Baseball Encyclopedia, 9th Edition."  Contains partial stats.
    (Macmillan)

6.  "Total Baseball, 3rd Edition", Ed. by John Thorn and Pete Palmer.
    Includes an historical article on black baseball.

7.  "My Life in the Negro Leagues", by Wilmer Fields.  (Meckler)

8.  "The Pittsburgh Crawfords: The Life and Times of Black Baseball's Most
     Exciting Team", by James Bankes.  (Note: Kansas City, Chicago, New York
     and Philadelphia fans, among others, may argue with the subtitle.)
     (W.C. Brown)


                       NOTES AND ERRATA ON TONY 2

The following is a list of rules errata and clarifications based on what SSI
has heard from its customers since the release of Tony 2.

Instant Replay:

The close-up replay animation sequences do not necessarily show the actual
play as it occurred on the field.  Instead, it shows a simulated replay
based on the type of play that occurred.  For example, the home run replay,
though accurately displaying team colors and player skin tone, always
depicts a batter swinging from the right side of home plate (left-handed
batter).

Standardized Stats:

Due to the limited amount of material and the lack of credible sources,
many of the players' ratings have been standardized.  The editing of these
stats has been left up to you, so feel free to make any adjustments that you
wish.  Standardizing stats keeps the the stats from effecting the game.  The
1992 teams' disk will have a broad range of numbers for these stats.

The stats that have been standardized are:  Balks, wild pitches,
passed balls, day/night, streaks, moral, and leadership.

Play-by-Play:

Some sound boards have Ron Barr announcing the play-by-play.  Occasionally,
the accuracy of the announcer can be affected by an extraordinary play in the
field.  For example, Barr may call a "line drive to centerfield," yet an
alert and capable infielder can rob the ball before it leaves the infield.
Remember, Ron Barr is calling approximately where the ball will go if
unobstructed from its flight path, and not necessarily the player the ball is
hit toward.

Hard Drive Compressors:

THe data files for Tony 2 are kept in compressed format to take up less space
on your hard drive.  Because of this, we do not recommend this program to be
used with Stacker or SuperStor.  Similar problems may occur with DOS 6's
DoubleSpace(though none have been found so far).  The game can probably
be installed to machine utilizing a compressor,
but the game will run slowly and crash periodically.

Sounds:

To get full sound support in Tony 2, 4 megs of RAM are required.
The following is a break down of sounds according to memory available:

Less than 400K EMS/Extended (Usually 1 meg machines fall into this catagory)

Choppy field (no scrolling)
A few umpires making calls
No sounds (but you will get the introductory music.
No special animations (i.e., diving, jumping, or stretching players)

400K EMS/Extend - 1 meg EMS/extend (Usually 2 meg machines fall into this
catagory.  2 meg machines should use the sample boot disk)

Full field (scrolling)

Special animations
Some sounds, but very few.  Ron Barr's voice is patchy with missing phrases.

1 meg EMS/Extended - 1.8 meg of EMS/Extended (This is the best catagory a 2
meg machine can fall into)

Almost all sounds.  Ron Barr misses occasional words.

Greater than 1.8 megs of EMS/extended results in full sound support and all
animations.  At least 4 megs of ram are required for this.

Under no circumstances will you get sounds from a PC Speaker.  The data card
incorrectly states that PC Speaker is a sound option.

The Boot Disk

To limit compatibility and memory problems, it is highly recommended that the
following boot disk be used.  These instructions are based on DOS 5.  Use of
any other DOS, including DOS 6 should consult their DOS manuals to make a
boot disk.  Be aware that Tony 2 came out before the release of DOS 6
and was not tested on it.

1.  From the c: prompt, type, "format a:/s" <enter>
1a. Follow the on screen prompts.
2.  Place a blank disk in your "a" drive (it MUST be your a drive) and
    label it, "Tony 2 Boot Disk."
3.  Go to the a: prompt by typing,"a:" <enter>
4.  Type, "edit" <enter>
5.  This brings up a blue screen where you can type.  Type in the following
    text just as it appears below:

    Files=30
    Buffers=25
    Device=c:\DOS\himem.sys
    Device=c:\DOS\emm386.exe noems
    DOS=high,umb


5a. Now go up to File and Save this document as,"CONFIG.SYS"
6.  Go into File again and Open a New document.  Type in the following text
    exactly as it apears below:

    Path=c:\;c:\DOS;c:mouse
    prompt $p$g
    loadhigh mouse
    c:
    cd\tony2
    tony2

6a. The "cd\tony2" assumes that Tony 2 is installed to its default directory
    which is tony2.  If you install Tony 2 to another name, use the new name
    instead.  For example, if you install Tony 2 into a directory called T2,
    the line would read, "cd\t2"

6b. Now go up to File and Save this document as, "autoexec.bat"

To use your Tony 2 Boot Disk, place the disk in your a: drive (It MUST be
your a drive) and reboot your machine.  Tony 2 will automatically come up and
you'll be ready to play.

ERRATA:

Tony 2 has a huge data base which is referenced with every pitch.  Given this,
Tony 2 still completes the season with a historical accuracy of about 90%.
Starting a second season using simulated stats compiled from the first season
will result in only an 81% accuracy (90% of 90).  A third season would have a
72% (90% of 81) accuracy and so on.  The tendency is for players to hit like
their simulated stats so there is a build up of doubles, triples, homers, etc
..., for hitters, and strikouts and walks for pitchers.

Importing Teams:

A common problem when importing teams from Tony 1 is caused by not selecting
a league from Tony 1.  Tony 1 only allowed one league to be used at a time.
When importing a league from Tony 1 only one league will be present to
choose from.  However, you must left click with the mouse on this
league for it to be imported.

Download original