Power Spike Pro Beach Volleyball (c) 2000, 2001 Carapace. All rights reserved. Published by Infogrames Read Me February 23, 2001 ***************************LAUNCHING THE GAME********************************** TO LAUNCH POWER SPIKE, CLICK ON THE X BUTTON AT THE TOP RIGHT CORNER OF THIS WINDOW TO CLOSE THIS FILE, GO TO THE START MENU AND SELECT THE POWER SPIKE SHORTCUT OR DOUBLE-CLICK THE POWER SPIKE ICON ON THE DESKTOP (IF APPLICABLE)! After Power Spike has been installed onto your computer, any time the Power Spike CD is inserted into your CD-ROM drive, an Autorun menu appears. Click on PLAY to launch the game. ******************************************************************************* ************************ CONTENTS 1. Hot Fun In the Sun! 2. Installation 3. System Requirements 4. DirectX 5. Sound Issues 6. Video Issues 7. Controller Issues 8. Gameplay Issues 9. Gameplay Tips 10.Game updates/patches ************************ 1. ***HOT FUN IN THE SUN!*** Welcome to Power Spike Pro Beach Volleyball, the only 2-on-2 beach volleyball game featuring Gabrielle Reece, 2000 Olympic Gold Medalists Kerri Pottharst and Natalie Cook, and over 40 other top professionals from the Federation of International Volleyball (FIVB). 2. ***INSTALLATION*** After you've inserted the Power Spike CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive, the Power Spike Autorun menu will appear. Follow the instructions to install the game. If you do not have DirectX 8 installed onto your system, the game will detect it and ask if you would like to install DirectX 8. Follow the on-screen directions. Note: Some users may encounter a problem during the initial setup of the InstallShield program in which the progress bar appears to have "stalled" at 99%. But it hasn't. The game will continue to install normally. 3. ***SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS*** MINIMUM CONFIGURATION -Intel Pentium II/300 or AMD K6-2/266 processor -32 MB RAM -Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows ME (Windows 2000 and NT not supported) -DirectX 8.0 (Included) -3D video card (PCI or AGP) with 4MB memory -DirectSound-compatible sound card -241MB free hard disk space (additional space needed for Windows swap file and DirectX 8) -4x CD-ROM RECOMMENDED CONFIGURATION -Intel Pentium III/450 or AMD K6-3/500 processor -64 MB RAM -Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows ME (Windows 2000 and NT not supported) -3D video card (PCI or AGP) with 16MB memory -16x or Faster CD-ROM Drive 4. ***DIRECTX*** Power Spike requires DirectX 8 or later to run. If you do not have DirectX 8 installed onto your system, a message will appear asking if you would like to install DirectX 8 onto your system. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation process. If you need to install DirectX 8 at a later time, you can install it using the Power Spike CD-ROM. Go to: D:\Setup\InstData\DirectX 8 (where D: is your CD-ROM drive) Or, you may download it from the following website: http://www.microsoft.com/directx/homeuser/downloads/default.asp 5. ***SOUND ISSUES*** The DirectX 8 installation process will attempt to install the correct DirectSound driver for your sound card. If you encounter any stuttering, skipping, missing, or cutting in and out of sounds, you may not have a DirectSound compatible sound card or you may have outdated drivers. Please obtain the updated driver for your particular sound card. NO SOUND Make sure that your speakers or headphones are plugged into the correct jacks and that the volume level is turned up. 6. ***VIDEO ISSUES*** WINDOWS 95a/INTRO VIDEO Some users with Windows 95a on their systems may notice during the playing of the Intro video that the video may not be seen. Windows 95a is an early iteration of Windows 95 and may have some compatibility issues with DirectX and your video card. Updating Windows 95 with a service pack or upgrading Windows will likely remedy the problem. If you encounter the problem of no video playing while the Intro music plays, press to bypass the video and go to the Main Menu. INTRO VIDEO PLAYBACK Occasionally, the intro video that plays will pause momentarily at different times throughout the duration of the video. TRANSITION FROM INTRO VIDEO TO GAME Although it is unlikely, there is a small chance that the game will not launch if pressing two or more times (during the intro video) to bypass it. The game can still be started via the START menu or a shortcut. 320x200 RESOLUTION BUG If you attempt to load game option settings before saving settings a first time, then proceed into Display, you will notice a resolution of 320x200. The game is unplayable at this resolution. If you've selected it, quit out of your current game, go to the Options screen, select Display and change the resolution to 640x480 or higher. You should then return to the Main Menu and save these settings. VIDEO CARD COMPATIBILITY Not all 3D video cards have the same features nor do they have the same amount of memory on board. Thus each user may encounter specific problems related to their specific video card. Also, the higher the resolution the game is set to, the more video memory is required to display it correctly. An example of not enough memory would be the appearance of some of the graphics as solid black squares. If you are running into problems with your video card, try setting the game to a lower resolution (640x480 is the lowest) and/or try obtaining the latest drivers from your video card manufacturer and/or chipset maker (nVidia, Matrox, and ATI are examples). Listed below are several sites where you can get updated drivers. Please visit the appropriate site for your specific driver needs. ATI: http://www.ati.com Matrox: http://www.matrox.com 3DFX: http://www.3dfx.com nVidia: http://www.nvidia.com SiS: http://www.sis.com.tw Creative Labs: http://www.creative.com Hercules: http://us.hercules.com Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/ms.htm Diamond: http://www.diamondmm.com Elsa: http://www.elsa.com 3DLabs: http://www.3dlabs.com SUPPORTED CHIPSETS: Banshee, GeForce 256, GeForce 2, Intel i815, Matrox G400, Matrox G450, Permedia 3, Radeon, Rage 128, Rage 128 Pro, Savage 2000, Savage 3D, Savage 4, SiS300, TNT, TNT2, Voodoo 2, Voodoo 3, Voodoo 5 SPEED DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AGP AND PCI VIDEO CARDS Video cards using the AGP bus will perform (run more smoothly) than cards using the older PCI bus. BLACK LINES/CHECKERBOARD GLITCHES On several video cards, in specific resolutions, thick black lines will appear on the playfield, dividing the court into many individual squares. This occurs when there is not enough video card memory available to draw the screen at that resolution. Below is a list of the following cards that exhibit this problem and the resolutions at which they occur: Matrox G200: 1024x768, 1280x1024 Banshee: 1024x768 Intel I740: 1024x768 Savage 3D: 1024x768 MATROX G200 Some users may encounter player pictures and custom player save slots that turn black when highlighted. Dust particles will appear black and the prompt text near the bottom of the screen may appear white. MATROX G450 The World Tour bracket screens appear with portions of the very top and bottom of the screen cropped. The tournament and round names as well as the button prompts will not be entirely visible. SAVAGE 3D Occasionally lines may flash on-screen during gameplay. VOODOO Users with 4MB Diamond Monster 3D Voodoo cards currently will not be able to run Power Spike. However, users with the 6MB Canopus cards should be able to do so. GRAPHICAL ANOMALIES -At the Acapulco court, part of the background appearing behind the stands appear black. -There is a typo at the Player Editor screen. The caption for Hair Color displays "you" instead of "your". LONG LOADING SCREEN For some users, it may appear that the game will remain on a loading screen for an extended period of time. If this happens, pressing + should allow you to proceed. 7. ***CONTROLLER ISSUES*** IMPORTANT!!! AT THE COMMANDS REDEFINITION SCREEN, IF A CONTROLLER ICON IS BLINKING, THAT CONTROLLER HAS NOT BEEN FULLY CONFIGURED. IN ORDER FOR THE CONTROLLERS TO BE PROPERLY ASSIGNED TO THE CORRECT PLAYER, THAT PLAYER'S CORRESPONDING CONTROLLER ICON SHOULD NOT BE BLINKING AND "ACCEPT" NEEDS TO BE HIGHLIGHTED AND SELECTED TO PROCEED. IF THE CONTROLLER ICON ASSIGNED TO YOU IS BLINKING, SELECT THAT CONTROLLER AND PRESS TO GO TO THE BUTTON CONFIGURATION SCREEN. ONCE YOU'VE ASSIGNED ALL ACTIONS TO A BUTTON, HIGHLIGHT AND SELECT "ACCEPT". AT THE COMMANDS REDEFINITION SCREEN, MAKE SURE THAT YOUR CONTROLLER ICON IS NOT BLINKING AND SELECT "ACCEPT". (REPEAT THE PROCESS IF YOU DECIDE TO SELECT A DIFFERENT CONTROLLER AT A LATER TIME) CONFIGURING A GAMEPAD At the COMMANDS REDEFINITION screen, if you press RIGHT on the keyboard or on the gamepad, the keyboard icon is replaced with a flashing gamepad icon. At this point, you will need to press to go to the button configuration screen and assign each action to a button. After you have completed assigning a button to all of the actions, highlight "ACCEPT" and press . You will return to the COMMANDS REDEFINITION screen. Highlight "ACCEPT" and press again to save your modifications. DEFAULT CONTROLLERS (COMMANDS REDEFINITION screen) By default, players 1 and 2 are assigned to the keyboard. The default keyboard controls are: *Player 1* Up Down Left Right Normal Strong Tactical Block Change Tactics *Player 2* Up Down Left Right Normal Strong Tactical Block Change Tactics WORLD TOUR (SINGLE PLAYER) When playing in a single player World Tour tournament, player 1's controller MUST be configured in order to play through the tournament. Playing with a controller not assigned to player 1 will result in the inability to control your player in World Tour. Once a player begins/saves a World Tour with an assigned controller (keyboard or gamepad), the controller cannot be reassigned until the World Tour is complete or the World Tour Save file is deleted. CONTROLS Help Change Camera Aiming Cursor (On/Off/Quick) Player Cursor Player Positioning Guide Mute SFX (not background sfx) Replay Decrease screen resolution Increase screen resolution SWITCHING PLAYERS AT THE TEAM FORMATION SCREEN Highlight the slot of the player you want to switch and press . The selection will "gray out" to indicate that the selection was made. Now highlight the slot you want to switch with and press to execute the switch. CONTROLLING TWO PLAYERS AT ONCE BUG There is a bug in the game in which it is possible for player 3 or player 4 to be assigned the same keyboard button configuration as that of player 1. When assigning a controller to player 3 or 4, make sure that the buttons assigned are not in use by player 1. SUPPORTED GAMEPADS Microsoft SideWinder Microsoft SideWinder Pro Microsoft SideWinder Plug 'n Play Microsoft SideWinder Gamepad Pro (USB) Gravis Game Pad Pro (USB) JOYSTICK PROBLEMS Unfortunately, by having a joystick connected to your system and properly configured in Windows, the keyboard will become inoperative. Please disconnect the joystick and re-launch Power Spike. LEFT-CONTROL, KEY Pressing the left CONTROL button, will cause the game to pause momentarily. Holding the button down will cause the game to slow down considerably. It is recommended that when configuring keyboard controls that is avoided. 8. ***GAMEPLAY ISSUES*** AUTOMATIC REPLAY After the automatic replay has played all the way through, the players get reset for the next point. If at this point you select REPLAY from the Pause menu or , you will not be able to review the last play since the players have already been reset to begin the next point. LONGER LOADING TIMES If the game sits idly, or is played through for an extended period of time, you may notice that speed of navigating through the sub-menu screens and tournament brackets slows down considerably. After going back to the Main Menu, the speed returns to normal. 9. ***GAMEPLAY TIPS*** -Complement your partner. If your teammate is at the net, play back on defense. Likewise, cover the right side of the court if your teammate likes to play the left side.-When hitting a ball, position yourself and press the hit button slightly BEFORE the ball reaches the player. Doing so will allow you to aim your spikes as well as bumping and setting (in higher difficulty levels). -Observe where the set is going to land and stand a few paces behind that point. -When bumping (passing) the ball, the ideal location to be using the positioning guide is at the front of the guide. -If Attack is selected, your CPU teammate will attempt to block any spikes if you play away from the net. Likewise, if you decide to go for blocks, your teammate will play back. -Throw off your opponent by dinking the ball over a block or spiking the ball with the second hit. 10. ***GAME UPDATES/PATCHES*** Please visit the Infogrames website at http://www.us.infogrames.com for possible game update(s). Special Props to: Arif Sinan, D'Artagnan Greene and Ken Edwards