Welcome to Madden NFL(tm) 2000. This README.txt file contains information on issues not covered by the manual and reference card. 8-02-99 - Canceling Hot Routes (using GamePad Pro) Pressing button 4 will bring up the "Audible" box, and the camera will zoom way out. This means that the game is ready to assign Hot Routes. Pressing button 4 again at this time will cancel the last assigned Hot Route. For example, after assigning Hot Routes to receivers 1, 2, and 3 in that order, then pressing button 4, then button 4 again, only receiver 3's Hot Route will be cancelled. To cancel receiver 1's Hot Route, they have to assign a new Hot Route (button 4, button 1, D-Pad), and then press button 4, then button 4 to cancel his Hot Route altogether. - Latency One-way latency is displayed on the chat screen. If your one-way latency is higher then 250ms (quarter of a second) the game response will be poor. As a general note, the "ping" program displays roundtrip times, not one-way latency, which is why numbers displayed in Madden are generally close to half of what "ping" reports. - Rosters in Remote Games It is absolutely critical that both parties have the exact same rosters in network games. Rosters (except for custom teams) are not exchanged between the two machines, and if there are any differences you will not be allowed to go into game. - Chat Mode Chat is available from the Pause Menu during a remote game. This option is in the Remote Play sub menu. - Input Devices in Network Mode Network mode only allows 4 input devices to be active per machine (for a total of 8 spanning both computers). It does this by disabling access to all but four input devices. What this usually means is that if you have a keyboard, a mouse, and 4 gamepads attached to your computer; you will not be allowed to use two of the gamepads in network mode. - Frame Rate Frame rate will vary depending on your system. To increase the frame rate, turn the detail settings lower from the Detail Settings window. The lower the settings, the faster the frame rate will be. The high settings should only be used if your system is a Pentium II 300 MHz or faster, however, even some 300 MHz machines will experience slower frame rate. If this occurs, lower your detail settings and try again. Switching to Direct3D or Glide (if available) may help increase the frame rate. - High Resolution Support The option of 1024x768 and 1600x1200 resolutions should only be used on high-end systems. These settings require a great deal of resources. SLI Voodoo II 12MB is required for 1024x768 in Glide, and a Voodoo 3 (3000) or a TNT 2 is required for the 1600x1200 resolution. Only high-end systems are recommended with Direct3D and software acceleration for higher resolutions, anything less will result in poor performance. The first time the game runs, it will detect if your hardware is capable of these high resolutions, if not, the option will not be available to you. - Downloadable Rosters The NFL rosters will be updated weekly and available on the EA Sports web site duringthe course of the season. Hitting Update at the launch menu will launch your browser and connect you to the update page. Please make sure you have an active Internet connection before hitting the Update button. Follow instructions on the Web page to update your rosters. It is possible to update the rosters only during the course of a Season Mode game. Franchise, Fantasy Draft, nor any of the other modes support this option. In order to use a new roster with those modes, you need to create a new Franchise, Fantasy Draft, etc game. If you have an existing Franchise, Season, Tournament, saved game, etc., the game will retain the roster that it was originally created with. Updated rosters will only go into effect if you create a new Franchise, Season, Exhibition game, etc. - Modified Rosters and Seasons If you are modifiying a roster for your own use, or for others' use with Season mode, please read this carefully. If you are modifying a roster from week to week, you must always modify last weeks roster to create this weeks roster. This is to avoid situations such as the following. Let's call our original roster ORIG, the first week roster WEEK1, and the second week roster WEEK2. Starting with ORIG, we create a player on the roster named "Joe", and save it as WEEK1. We release this roster to our friends, and they update their seasons with it. Then, the following week, again starting with ORIG, we create a player named "Bob" and save it as WEEK2. We then send it to our friends, and our friends complain that when they updated their season, all of "Joe"'s stats were copied onto "Bob". To avoid this situation for the WEEK2 roster, start with the WEEK1 roster, REMOVE "Joe" and ADD "Bob". - Modified Rosters in Franchise mode Every effort has been made to insure that the non-standard team rosters are valid and correct for use in franchise mode. However, due to the nature of this data use of the players in these rosters might lead to inconsistencies in the way franchise mode operates. - Shared Files The files below can be shared between users, simply put the file in the appropriate directory to see the file in the game (in the \MADDEN 2000\SAVE directory). If you are sharing files from others, make sure that you don't overwrite your saved files. Copying your files to another folder is a good way to assure this does not happen (Do not share Settings files, this could cause erratic results). !!!!DO NOT RENAME FILES, THEY WILL BECOME INVALID!!!!!!! File extensions Arcade or Exhibitions: .SAV# Replay: .IRS# Season: .SEA# Franchise: .FRA# Single Elimination: .TRN# Fantasy Draft: .DFT# Situation: .SIT# Great Game: .SIT# Player Profile: .PRO# Rosters .DAT - Supported 3D Accelerator Hardware Madden NFL 2000 supports most 2nd generation 3D chipsets including: Voodoo 2 - Diamond Monster 8 and 12 - STB Black Magic - Creative Labs Voodoo 3 (2000 and 3000) Nvidia TNT and TNT2 - Diamond Viper 550 and 770 Voodoo Banshee - Creative Labs - Hardware issues Gravis Gamepad Pro If you are using a Gravis Gamepad Pro, make sure you are using the most recent drivers. Available at http://www.gravis.com. Matrox Millennium II Users who experience graphical problems should try the latest drivers available at Matrox's web site, http://www.matrox.com ATI Rage 128 Fury Cards using this chipset should get the latest drivers from the ATI website. At the time of release the Quake 3 compatability driver seemed to clear up any drivers. http://www.ati.com Riva 128 Cards with this chipset should use the latest nVidia drivers, and use the following settings: - "Use square textures only" should be turned Off - "Auto mipmap generation" should be turned Off If this is still not working, try turning off more options in the RIVA 128 control panel. Updated drivers are available at http://www.nvidia.com Voodoo graphics If you are experiencing music stutters within the menus of Madden NFL 2000, you will need to download the newest drivers available at http://www.3dfx.com/download/download.html +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SOUND NOTES * Madden NFL 2000 defaults to "Dolby" mode. If you don't have surround speakers, you may get better sound if you switch the Sound Type in the Sound Options screen to "Stereo". If you only have 1 speaker, you may get better sound if you switch the Sound Type to "Mono". If you have a DirectSound 3D or a Creative Labs Environmental Audio-capable sound card such as a Sound Blaster Live! or a Diamond Monster Sound, a fourth mode called "DSound 3D" will become available. Select this mode and your card's special features will be used to accelerate Madden NFL 2000's sound effects. * If audio malfunctions occur in "DSound 3D" mode, contact your sound card manufacturer for updated drivers. If the drivers do not fix the problem, you can always fall back to "Stereo" or "Dolby" mode. In these modes, the game will not attempt to use your sound card's special features and should be compatible with any 16-bit sound card. * If the commentary speech echoes and you are using a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! card in "DSound 3D" mode, check the Creative Labs web site at http://www.sblive.com/ for updated drivers. If newer drivers that fix this problem are not yet available, you will need to fall back to "Stereo" or "Dolby" mode until Creative releases the fixed drivers. Thank you for your purchase of Madden NFL 2000!