Welcome to "Boss Rally" We hope you enjoy playing the game as much as we've enjoyed making it for you. SouthPeak Interactive *********************************************************** Copyright c 1999 Boss Game Studios, Inc. Published and distributed by SouthPeak Interactive LLC under license from Boss Game Studios, Inc. Music copyright c 1998 by Krakatoa Records, LLC and distributed under license from Krakatoa Records, LLC. Interactive Around-Soundr copyright c 1998 by Extreme Audio Reality, Inc. and distributed under license. Interactive Around-Sound is protected by US Patent #5,850,455. All Rights Reserved. SouthPeak Interactive and the SouthPeak Interactive logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of SouthPeak Interactive LLC. c indicates U.S.A. registration. U.S. GOVERNMENT RESTRICTED RIGHTS NOTICE Use duplication or disclosure of this software and related documentation by the U.S. government is subject to the Agreement with SouthPeak Interactive LLC and the Restrictions set forth in FAR 52.227-19, Commercial Computer Software - Restricted Rights (June 1987) *********************************************************** CONTENTS -------------------------- -------------------------- I. System Requirements II. Installation III. General Game Issues IV. Troubleshooting V. DirectX Information VI. Contact Information I. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS -------------------------- -------------------------- Windows 95/98 233MHz Processor 32 MB RAM 8x CD-ROM Drive DirectX 6 (included) 16-Bit Windows Compatible Sound Card 60 MB of Hard Disk Space Microsoft Compatible mouse or other pointing device. Multiplayer capability via LAN, modem or serial cable. Video: 3D 4 Meg Video Memory Hardware-Accelerated video card (Glide or Direct 3D) required. 3dfx Voodoo, NVIDIA RIVA, ATI Rage Pro, S3 Savage, Matrox G200 and other Direct 3D compatible hardware supported. II. INSTALLATION -------------------------- -------------------------- 1. Insert the Boss Rally CD into your CD-ROM Drive. 2. The Boss Rally Installer will prompt you to install Boss Rally. 3. Follow the prompts to complete the Boss Rally installation. Note: If your autorun feature is disabled you will need to follow these steps... 1. Select 'Start' then 'Run' on the taskbar. 2. In the 'Run' box type x:\setup.exe This will start the Boss Rally install program. III. GENERAL GAME ISSUES -------------------------- -------------------------- Painting Cars ------------- You may paint your cars using any program that will write 24-bit .BMP files. This includes the Microsoft Paint program that comes with Windows. All paint files are stored in the Paint subdirectory. For the default installation that means all files are stored in C:\Program Files\SouthPeak Interactive\Boss Rally\Paint Each car contains several "panels", such as the hood, roof, etc. The files are named using the two letter name of the car, followed by the panel name, followed by the .BMP suffix. Thus, for the car CE, you will want to paint all files of the form CE*.BMP. This includes CE-HOOD.BMP, CE-ROOF.BMP, etc. Please do not change the size of any .BMP files, or the program will fail to run. Boss Rally treats all shades of cyan in a special manner: Boss Rally assigns the opponent's color to each opponent's car where ever it sees the cyan color. Cyan is defined as a color where the red value is zero and the green value is equal to the blue value. BossRally.ini ------------- You can change the behavior of Boss Rally by using a text editor to add lines to the BossRally.ini file. Don't interpolate display (reduce input lag): Interpolate=0 Smooth out display using interpolation (default): Interpolate=1 Don't play music: PlayMusic=0 Play music using Windows MCI: PlayMusic=1 Play music using EAR (default): PlayMusic=2 Don't play sound effects: PlaySFX=0 Play sound effects (default): PlaySFX=1 IV. TROUBLESHOOTING -------------------------- -------------------------- * Boss Rally fails to load. Boss Rally requires a properly installed and configured Audio card to run. If you are receiving an error message when Boss Rally attempts to load verify that your Audio card is installed and configured properly. Follow the steps below to determine if your card is operating properly. 1. Go to start-settings-Control Panel. 2. Open the System Icon. 3. Select the 'Device Manager' tab. 4. Scroll down to the section named'Sound and Video Game Controllers' 5. Expand the category by clicking on the '+' to the left of this section. 6. A properly installed and configured sound device should not have any yellow exclamation points. Should you find any problems please contact your hardware manufacturer's technical support. A. Music volume control has no effect. The game uses Extreme Audio Reality, Inc.'s Interactive Around-Sound to control the CD volume. There are several volume controls (mixers) in your computer, and IAS needs to be configured to use the correct mixer. From the Start menu, select Settings | Control Panel. Open the control panel called "IAS Config". Select the CD Setup tab, and the click on the Do Test button. Follow the directions on-screen. Make sure that the Boss Rally CD is in your CD drive during the test. B. Steering wheel is harder to control than keyboard. It may seem counter-intuitive, but you may want to increase the steering speed setting on the car setup screen. E.g., if you have the Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback Steering Wheel, you should try it on one setting less than the fastest setting. Give the car small steering inputs. Try to be as smooth as possible. Practice for a while, and you will soon be able to catch the car when it starts to slide. Hint: if the car starts to skid, turn the steering wheel in the direction of the skid! Also, you may wish to use a text editor to add the line Interpolate=0 to the BossRally.ini file. C. The game starts, but then crashes after I select a few menu items. The computer has run low on disk space. Windows uses the system drive to provide virtual memory to applications. Try the following: 1. Close all unused applications. 2. Free up space on the system volume (usually drive C:) so there is at least 100Mb free. D. I can play the game, but it crashes after a while. The most likely cause is the screen saver becoming active. Disable all screen savers before starting Boss Rally. Error Messages -------------- * Out of memory. The computer has run low on disk space. Windows uses the system drive to provide virtual memory to applications. Try the following: 1. Close all unused applications. 2. Free up space on the system volume (usually drive C:) so there is at least 100Mb free. * This game requires DirectX 6. Make sure DirectX 6 or later is correctly installed on your machine. DirectX 6 is available on the Boss Rally CD. You may also obtain the latest DirectX drivers from http://www.microsoft.com/DirectX * Unable to initialize Direct3D accelerated video card. Boss Rally was unable to initialize the Direct3D accelerated video card. Make sure you have a compatible Direct3D accelerated video card, and that the latest drivers for that video card have been installed. * Unable to initialize DirectInput. Make sure DirectX 6 or later is correctly installed on your machine. DirectX 6 is available on the Boss Rally CD, or obtain the latest DirectX drivers from http://www.microsoft.com/DirectX Problems while in the Options Menu. ----------------------------------- If you are experiencing choppy audio and video while in the options screen please verify that there are not multiple instances of Boss Rally running in the background. Some CD-ROM drives will continue to scan and load the Autorun.exe file located on the Boss Rally CD. A quick fix to this would be to disable the autorun feature for your CD-ROM drive while playing Boss Rally. * To Disable the Autorun feature... 1. Go to Start-Settings-Control Panel. 2. Open the System icon. 3. Select Device Manager. 4. Expand the CD-ROM listing located under 'Computer' by clicking on the '+' located to the left of CD-ROM. 5. Select your CD-ROM Drive and click on 'Properties' 6. Select the Settings Tab 7. To disable Autorun uncheck 'Auto insert notification' 8. Select 'OK' and 'OK' again. 9. Reboot. If you are experiencing problems running Boss Rally verify that you have the latest drivers for your Sound and Video Cards. You can obtain the drivers by visiting your hardware manufacturer's web site. VI. DirectX INFORMATION -------------------------- -------------------------- * What is DirectX? Microsoft's DirectX is a set of software components and drivers designed to create faster hardware performance in Windows based applications. DirectX is comprised of five components: DirectDraw, DirectInput, DirectPlay, DirectSound, and Direct3D. Along with these components, DirectX includes a set of compatible drivers for the computer's video and sound cards along with input devices such as mice, joysticks and game pads. When installing PRODUCTION NAME, the program checks to see whether DirectX is installed on your system. If the installer does not detect a standard, current set of DirectX drivers, it installs new ones. However, a handful of video and sound cards use DirectX drivers which do not conform to Microsoft standards. These non-standard drivers cannot be detected during the Dark Side of the Moon installation, and new drivers may be installed in their place. The drivers Dark Side of the Moon installs may not work with such hardware and the end result may be that Dark Side of the Moon fails to load. This may be true even if you have used other DirectX-based products in the past. -If Boss Rally will not run on you computer due to DirectX problems, you may be able to correct the problem by following these steps: 1. Update your hardware drivers IMPORTANT: If you have never updated your drivers before, you may want to consult your system/hardware vendor and get their recommendation. If you choose to update the drivers yourself, follow the installation instructions provided with the driver very carefully. -Notes on obtaining drivers Hardware manufacturers post new drivers on their web sites regularly that have enhanced performance and stability. Please check with your hardware manufacturer for an update as some difficulties may be related to drivers. 2 Reinstall DirectX -Manually Installing DirectX 1. Close all applications and save your data. 2. Click on 'Start' and select 'Run' 3. In the 'Run' box type in d:\directx\dxsetup (Note: Substitute d:\ for the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive.) 4. Select 'OK', this will begin the DirectX install. -If you need to restore your display or audio drivers after installing DirectX: 1. Close all applications and save your data. 2. Bring up the control panel and click the Start button. Then click Settings. Then click Control Panel. 3. Bring up the DirectX Setup applet. Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon. Click DirectX Drivers. Click the Add/Remove button. 4. Click the "Restore Audio drivers" button if you want to restore your audio drivers, or click the "Restore Display drivers" button if you want to restore your display drivers. You can only restore one driver at a time, not both. 5. Press "OK" to restart your computer. Note: If DirectX did not install new display or audio drivers (or if you have already restored them), then pressing the "Restore Audio drivers" or "Restore Display drivers" button will just result in a dialogue that says "DirectX setup has completed successfully." You can then press the other button, or exit. V. CONTACT INFORMATION -------------------------- -------------------------- Please visit SouthPeak Interactive's web site at http://www.southpeak.com to obtain additional information or contact our Technical Support team. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Technical Support - United States and Canada Email: support@southpeak.com Phone: (919) 677-9775 8 a.m. to 12 a.m. Eastern time Monday thru Friday and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time Saturday & Sunday Technical Support - Australia Email: Southpeak@startekeurope.com Telephone: 001144 1429 855061 09:00 - 19:00 Eastern Standard Time Technische Hilfe - Deutschland (Germany) Email: Southpeak@startekeurope.com Telephone: 44 1429 855061 09:00 - 19:00 GMT L'information Technique - France Email: Southpeak@startekeurope.com Telephone: 44 1429 855061 09:00 - 19:00 GMT Technical Support - United Kingdom Email: Southpeak@startekeurope.com Telephone: 01429 855061 09:00 - 19:00 GMT --------------------------------------------------------------------- We will be able to help you more quickly if you have the following information available when you contact us: - The brand name of your computer - The type of CPU and its operating speed (e.g. Pentium-166mhz) - The operating system and version (e.g.. Windows 95) - The amount of RAM in your computer - The brand name and model of sound card in your computer - The brand name and model of video card in your computer - Speed of CD-ROM Drive - The amount of video memory (VRAM) in your computer