NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition Version 1.0.0.0 Readme File 03/13/01 *********************************************************************** About This Document: Thank you for purchasing NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition. This document contains last-minute information about NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition as well as information that pertains to general problems and questions you may have concerning the game or your computer. Should you experience any problems with NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition, please refer to this file for additional help on answering questions about the game and solving technical difficulties. *********************************************************************** TABLE OF CONTENTS I. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS II. GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES Minimum Install Issues Performance Issues Environmental Variables 3Dfx Issues Using the Rendition Version of the Game Controller Issues Configuring Network Play for DOS versions Winows Modems Mouse Driver Required for DOS versions Sound Setup for DOS versions Free Memory Requirements for DOS versions UniVBE for DOS versions Matrox Millenium Video Card and DOS versions Printing With a Network Printer from Windows DOS Box III. GENERAL GAME ISSUES Changing Driver Name Loading Your Picture in to Driver Info Paintshop Filename Issues Max Number of Car/Truck Files Craftsman Truck Halftime Feature Chassis Selection Towing Rules Turning Off Spotter Speech Viewing a Replay Quick Qualifying Fuel Limit Green Flag Issues IV. CONTACTING SIERRA I. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS ----------------------- Minimum: Windows 95/98 Pentium 24MB RAM DOS compatible soundcard (DOS Versions) DirectSound compatible soundcard (Windows Versions) 2X CD-ROM Drive VGA 320x200 (DOS Versions) 640x480 256 colors (Windows Versions) Recommended: Pentium-100+ 32MB RAM 4X CD-ROM DRIVE 3Dfx or Rendition 3D accelerator Additional Notes: You MUST have a DOS mouse driver installed for the DOS versions of NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition to run. Additionally the DOS versions of NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition require a DOS compatible sound card. The Windows versions of NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition should work fine under the Windows Me OS although the OS is not officially supported by the game or Technical Support. II. GENERAL TECHNICAL ISSUES ---------------------------- MIMINUM INSTALL ISSUES The Minimum install of NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition requires that the CD-ROM be present when the game is launched. If the CD-ROM is not present, the Windows versions will display a dialog box prompting you to insert the CD-ROM. When this occurs it is possible that the mouse cursor may become hidden, but after the CD-ROM has been inserted the dialog box may be cleared by pressing ENTER, at which point the game should continue to run normally. The DOS versions may not give any error, and instead will return back to the Windows desktop. PERFORMANCE ISSUES It is recommended that you reduce the number of additional applications running in the background while playing NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition to a bare minimum. The NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition intro movie may play poorly on systems with 8X or slower CD-ROM drives using the minimal install. If you experience any problems while running the game, you should obtain and install the latest drivers and firmware for all of your hardware devices. ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES Certain features of the game can be controlled by altering variables in a configuration file. The Windows versions look for "NR1999.INI" while the DOS versions look for "NR1999.PRF" file. Both of these files should be in the directory in which NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition is installed. All Versions: SPOTTER_LAPTIMES Use to turn on lap time reporting by default DOUBLEFILE 0 Use to diasable Doublefile restarts MIRRL Sets default Left mirror value for all tracks MIRRL Sets default Center mirror value for all tracks MIRRR Sets default Right mirror value for all tracks Windows Versions: REPLAYLEN Sets memory allocated for replay in Windows versions DOS versions: ERRFILE filename Sets an error file where errors are reported FRAMERATE Use to turn on framerate display (does not work for 3Dfx) PDPI Use to turn on joystick driver for PDPI gamecards Rendition Specific: NODMA Use to DISABLE DMA 4BIT Use to turn on Rendition 4-bit (default is 16-bit) 3Dfx Specific: N2FXAA 2 Use to enable AntiAlias The following line can be added to your system's "AUTOEXEC.BAT" to disable the 3Dfx splash logo that appears when the 3Dfx versions of NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition are launched: SET FX_GLIDE_NO_SPLASH = 1 3DFX ISSUES The Windows 3Dfx version of NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition allows you to return to your Windows desktop by pressing the Windows key on your keyboard or by pressing ALT-TAB to switch to another active application. Some users may experience problems with the mouse cursor being confined to a small portion of the screen upon returning to the game. This usually can be resolved by repeating the process of switching back to the desktop and then back into the game. Additionally the text/numeric stamp tool in NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition's Paint Shop does not work properly in the Windows 3Dfx version. USING THE RENDITION VERSION OF THE GAME To start the Rendition version of the game from DOS, type NR1999R from your NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition directory. To start the Rendition version of the game from Windows 95, click on the NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition icon in your Sierra folder. By default you will use a version that is optimized to use the DMA capabilities of your computer. If you experience any type or crash or lockup, your system is most likely not compatible with the DMA enhanced version of NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition for Rendition, and you should use disable DMA using the NODMA environmental variable described in the above section. CONTROLLER ISSUES NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition uses 2 different joystick drivers, DirectInput and Generic. Users running the DOS EXE's will only have the selection of Generic, users running the Windows EXE's under Win98 will only have the selection of DirectInput, while users running the Windows EXE's under Win95 will have the choice of either driver. When switching between the DOS and Windows versions, it is recommended that you recalibrate and reasign your controls. Note that USB and other digital controllers are not compatible with the DOS versions of NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition. CONFIGURING NETWORK PLAY Most small networks consist of a single subnetwork; if you want to run NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition on such a network, you won't need to do any special configuration for the game to work. However, larger networks are often partitioned into subnetworks. If you would like to play NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition on such a network, you should create a network configuration file that tells the game which partition on your network to find the game server. The network configuration file is a simple text file named "subnet.cfg" which contains a one-line entry for each subnet on your network. You can determine these text entries by going into NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition and selecting "Multiplayer - network - dial - connect." Copy the label listed as "Your Subnet Address: xxxxxxxx". This is an eight digit hexadecimal number which may include the numbers 0-9 as well as the letters a-f. Then, with a text editor, create the file "subnet.cfg" and add a line of text matching this eight digit string. Add a line to the "subnet.cfg" file for each player you would like to be able to race with. If there are duplicate entries, only add one copy of each. NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition will support up to 10 different subnets. If you are running on a network with more than ten subnetworks, please create a separate copy of file "subnet.cfg" for each group of people you would like to be able to race with. WINDOWS MODEMS WinModems and other software based Windows modems may not be compatible with NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition. It is recommended that a true DOS hardware based modem be used for modem play with the NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition DOS executables. MOUSE DRIVER REQUIRED FOR DOS VERSIONS You must have a mouse driver installed to run the DOS versions of NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition. If you are running in a DOS Box from within Windows 95, the driver will be automatically loaded. If you "Restart the Computer in MS-DOS Mode" before playing the game, you may have to load one manually. Usually, you can simply type the word "mouse" at a C:\> prompt; however, specific systems vary. If you are unable to load your mouse, please contact your computer manufacturer. SOUND SETUP AND DOS VERSIONS You must run Sound Setup in order to hear sounds when you play the DOS versions of NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition. Sound Setup will be run automatically at the end of the Windows installation process if you chose one of the DOS EXE's. Sound Setup can be run at a later time by running "soundset.exe" found in the folder in which you installed NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition. FREE MEMORY REQUIREMENTS FOR DOS VERSIONS The DOS versions of NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition require that you have 10 MB free RAM when you start the program. If you get a memory error message, please free more RAM. This can be done by restarting the computer in MS-DOS mode (if you had been running from a DOS Box in Windows 95/98), booting your system with a clean boot disk that does not start memory resident software (TSRs), and not using memory managers such as EMM386. PROBLEMS WITH UniVBE AND DOS VERSIONS Not all video cards are compatible with UniVBE. If the machine locks up or acts strangely after running uvconfig, reboot the machine and delete the univbe.drv and uvconfig.dat files from the directory in which you installed NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition. MATROX MILLENIUM VIDEO CARD AND DOS VERSIONS If you have a Matrox Millenium video card with a BIOS version previous to 2.0, you may experience pausing while playing the DOS versions of game. Contact Matrox to receive the latest version of the BIOS. PRINTING WITH A NETWORK PRINTER FROM WINDOWS DOS BOX If you run the DOS versions of NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition, and you wish to print from within the game, you must be sure to have checked the "Yes" box under "Do you print from MS-DOS-based programs?" in the Add Printer Wizard when you set up your printer. In order to be able to use the "Print" feature in the Standings screen with a network printer, your PC must be connected to a printer via a network, and the printer must be properly installed. III. GENERAL GAME ISSUES ------------------------ CHANGING DRIVER NAME When you select "New Driver" on the entry list screen you create a new car or truck file. Click "Info" to get to the info screen for the new driver. Select the "Name" field in the lower left and enter a name. This will allow you to change the large driver name displayed at the top of the screen. LOADING YOUR PICTURE INTO DRIVER INFO In the driver info screen there is a button labeled "PCX". This button will allow you to load a picture of yourself, or whatever you want, into the driver info screen. To do so, follow the instructions below. There is a file in the CARS directory called "blank.pcx". This file has a particular palette and region of the screen for the picture. You will have to use a commercial paint program with palette remapping capabilities, (Deluxe Paint or Adobe Photoshop will work) to get the picture you want in the game. Load the picture you wish to use into the paint program. Then, load in "blank.pcx" file. Remap your picture to the palette of "blank.pcx" (Consult the paint program documentation for instructions on how to remap pictures). You must make sure that your picture is only as large as "blank.pcx" (241 wide by 402 high). If the picture is larger, the game screen will turn black when you load the .pcx into Driver Info. It would be preferable to cut out the picture you want to use and place it on the blue background in "blank.pcx" to give the image a consistent look in the game. Then, save the file using the name of the car or truck file you want to match the picture with (e.g. t_player.pcx for using the photo with t_player.car). Place that new file in the CARS or TRUCKS directory. Start NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition and go to the entry list screen under Driver Info. Select the driver you wish to change/add the photo to and click on Info. Once at the driver info screen, press the "PCX" button at the bottom of the screen. If you have done the above steps correctly, the picture should appear in the correct area of the screen. If the picture comes in, but with all the colors messed up, it wasn't remapped correctly. If the screen goes black when you press "PCX", then the picture size was too large. PAINTSHOP FILENAME ISSUES NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition's Paintshop allows you to import and export paintjobs as PCX files. This can be useful if you want to edit the image in an external paint program. The filename used will be an 8 character name based on the first 7 characters of the car/truck name with a leading X, so for t_player.car the filename would be Xt_playe.pcx. Note that the name has a limit of 8 characters, so the 9th character (an r in this case) is removed. MAXIMUM NUMBER OF CAR/TRUCK FILES The maximum number of car or truck files that will be available to you in the Driver Info screen is 128. We simply never anticipated the number of car and truck files that would be available to people beyond what we would ship. You can work around this by moving your less used car and truck files into a subdirectory of CARS or TRUCKS and restoring them when you want to use them. CHASSIS SELECTION NASCAR Racing 1999 Edition allows you to choose from three different chassis types for both the cars and Craftsman trucks: Car Chassis 1: Balanced for slightly less rear downforce Car Chassis 2: Neutral Car Chassis 3: Balanced for slightly more rear downforce Truck Chassis 1: Balanced for slightly less rear downforce Truck Chassis 2: Neutral Truck Chassis 3: Balanced for slightly more rear downforce CRAFTSMAN TRUCK HALFTIME FEATURE When using the Craftsman trucks you have the option of turning on halftimes in the race setup screen (this option is not available and will be grayed out when using cars). When running with halftimes enabled there are several differences in pitting behavior. You will not be allowed to change tires, except for flats. Also you will only receive enough fuel to make it until halftime. When you reach the halfway mark of the race you will receive a yellow flag and the message COMPETITION YELLOW will be displayed. After completing the lap and taking the waving yellow flag, you will be returned to the weekend screen where you will be allowed to make setup changes. When you are ready to resume the race click on the Halftime Resume button, and you will be returned to your truck ready to start the second half of the race with a fresh set of tires and a full tank of gas. *NOTE* The halftime feature should only be enabled when using the Craftsman Truck season schedule. At other tracks the trucks will be unable to make the halfway point on a single set of tires. TOWING RULES Once you call for a tow, it will take a little time for the towing to actually start. The spotter will let you know the tow truck is coming. This was done to simulate the time it might take to actually recover a car from an incident. If you move the car at all, then the tow truck is waved off. You'll have to hit ALT-I again if you want a tow. TURNING OFF SPOTTER SPEECH If you turn off the spotter speech, make sure you turn on the spotter text. It will give you much needed info about yellow flag and pace lap procedures. These settings may be made in the Options menu. VIEWING A REPLAY In order to view the replay you must load the same entry list and be at the same track at which the replay was recorded. QUICK QUALIFYING There is a Quick Qualify checkbox on the qualifying screen. Checking this will instantly fill in the qualify times for all the computer opponents. When it reaches your position in the list, Qualify will appear on the menu at the bottom. Click that to begin your qualifying run. Once you come back from qualifying, the remaining qualify times will be automatically filled in. FUEL LIMIT Unless you select "Testing" as the Weekend Type on the Quick Race screen, you will be unable to change the amount of fuel in the car. It will always be at 22 gallons. In real NASCAR racing, the fuel is part of the total car weight calculation and is a mandated 22 gallons. If you select "Testing", you will be able to change the fuel level so you can test the car setup under different fuel loads. GREEN FLAG ISSUES The green flag comes out a little early at some tracks, usually in turns 3 and 4 but even on the backstraight, well before the start/finish line. This was done to solve the problem of the AI cars bunching up in the first turn and creating a dangerous and unfair racing condition. We felt that this trade-off improves the raceability and playability of the tracks. IV.CONTACTING SIERRA ======================= A) Customer Service, Support, and Sales B) Technical Support C) Legal Information A) Customer Service, Support, and Sales ---------------------------------- United States U.S.A. Sales Phone: (800) 757-7707 Hours: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week International Sales: (425) 746-5771 Hours: Monday-Friday 8 AM to 4 PM PST FAX: (916) 939-1010 Sierra Direct P O Box 629001 El Dorado Hills, CA 95762-9972 Email: customer.support@sierra.com http://www.sierra.com United Kingdom Havas Interactive Main: (0118) 920-9111 Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Fax: (0118) 987-5603 Disk/CD replacements in the U.K. are £6.00, or £7.00 outside the UK. Add "ATTN.: Returns." 2 Beacontree Plaza, Gillette Way, Reading, Berkshire RG2 0BS United Kingdom France Havas Interactive France 32, Av de l'Europe Bât Energy 1 (2e étage) 78 140 VELIZY-Villacoubaly France Téléphone: 01-30-67-90-50 Lundi au Jeudi de 10h à 19h Vendredi de 10h à 18h Fax: 01-30-67-90-65 Germany Havas Interactive Tel: (0) 6103-99-40-40 Montag bis Freitag von 10h - 19Uhr Fax: (0) 6103-99-40-35 Robert-Bosch-Str. 32 D-63303 Dreieich Germany On-Line Sales CompuServe United Kingdom:GO UKSIERRA CompuServe France: GO FRSIERRA Internet USA: http://www.sierra.com Internet United Kingdom: http://www.sierra-online.co.uk Internet France: http://www.sierra.fr Internet Germany: http://www.sierra.de Disk and or Manual Replacement: Product Returns*: Havas Interactive Sierra On-Line Returns 4247 S. Minnewawa Ave. Fresno, CA 93725 Havas Interactive Sierra On-Line CD/Doco Replacement 4247 S. Minnewawa Ave. Fresno, CA 93725 NOTE: To replace your cd(s) please send only the damaged cd and copy of your dated Receipt, if less then 90 days. After 90 days please include a $10.00 handling fee along with the cd(s). For Documentation replacement, please include a $5.00 handling fee and a photocopy ONLY of either your disk or cd. Payment should be made at the time of your request. Sorry, no credit cards. * Returns to this address valid in North America only. B) TECHNICAL SUPPORT ------------------------- North America Sierra On-Line offers a 24-hour automated technical support line with recorded answers to the most frequently asked technical questions. To access this service, call (425) 644-4343, and follow the recorded instructions to find your specific topic and resolve the issue. If this fails to solve your problem, you may still write, or fax us with your questions, or contact us via our Web site. Sierra On-Line Technical Support P.O. Box 85006 Bellevue, WA 98015-8506 Main: (425) 644-4343 Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m.- 4:45 p.m. PST Fax: (425) 644-7697 http://www.sierra.com support@sierra.com United Kingdom Havas Interactive offers a 24-hour Automated Technical Support line with recorded answers to the most frequently asked technical questions. To access this service, call (0118) 920-9111, and follow the recorded instructions to find your specific topic and resolve the issue. If this fails to solve your problem, you may still write, or fax us with your questions or contact us via our Internet or CompuServe sites. Havas Interactive 2 Beacontree Plaza, Gillette Way, Reading, Berkshire RG2 0BS United Kingdom Main: (0118) 920-9111 Monday-Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Fax: (0118) 987-5603 http://www.sierra-online.co.uk France Havas Interactive France 32, Av de l'Europe Bât Energy 1 (2e étage) 78 140 VELIZY-Villacoublay France Téléphone: 01-30-67-90-50 Lundi au Jeudi de 10h à 19h Vendredi de 10h à 18h Fax: 01 30 67 90 65 http://www.sierra.fr Germany Havas Interactive Robert-Bosch-Str. 32 D-63303 Dreieich Deutschland Tel: (0) 6103-99-40-40 Montag bis Freitag von 10 - 19Uhr Fax: (0) 6103-99-40-35 Mailbox: (0) 6103-99-40-35 http://www.sierra.de Spain Havas Interactive España NUESTRA SEÑORA DE VALVERDE Nº 23 28034 MADRID Spain Tech Support Teléfono: 91 735 24 37 Soporte técnico de lunes a Viernes de 09:30 a 15:00 y de 16:00 a 18:30 www.havasinteractive.es Soporte Tecnico: soporte@havasinteractive.es Comercial: comercial@havasinteractive.es Italy Contattare il vostro distributore. C) Sierra Warranty & Legal Information ----------------------------------- Sierra's end user license agreement, limited warranty and return policy is set forth in the EULA.txt, found on the CD, and is also available during the install of the product. Copyright (2001 Sierra On-Line, Inc.)