Robot City Read Me File © Byron Preiss Multimedia Company, Inc. August 31, 1995 To read this file on-screen, use the Page Down and Page Up keys. You can also print the file by choosing the Print command from the File menu in any Windows word processing program. This READ ME file contains important information on the following topics: Section Description 1. Problems Setting Up Robot City Installing on Non-Windows Program Manager Systems 2. Problems Running Robot City General Protection Faults WinG performance test errors Reinstalling Robot City Problems with the Packard-Bell Legend CD300 Right mouse button not supported 3. Running In Low Memory or Running Slowly Running successfully in low memory Improving performance with SmartDrive 4. Skipping the Introduction 5. Quitting Robot City or Switching to Windows Quitting rapidly Problems with pressing ALT-F4 Switching to other programs Problems with pressing ALT-TAB in Windows 95 6. CD-ROM Problems Problems finding the CD-ROM drive Switching discs while playing Robot City Errors reading from the CD-ROM drive CD-ROM drives requiring a swap file 7. Video Display Problems Robot City requires 256-color mode Robot City looks best in 640x480 resolution Video driver problems Screen Savers not recommended Unwanted dual cursors Turning off Microsoft Office Manager Problems with the Jazz Jakarta MPEG video card 8. Audio Problems Conflicts with other applications Audio driver problems Sounds play, but not very well Sound does not play at all Volume control problems Audio cards supported by Robot City Turtle Beach Monte Carlo card problems Ensoniq Soundscape card problems 9. Manufacturer's Contact Information for Audio Cards Phone, mail and eMail for product support 10. Credits Robot City credits Byron Preiss Multimedia Company masthead **************************************************************** 1. Problems Setting Up Robot City **************************************************************** Installing on Non-Windows Program Manager Systems Most Tandy Sensations use WinMate as their default desktop shell. WinMate may cause a conflict with the setup procedure and needs to be disabled by changing the shell= line in the SYSTEM.INI file to read as follows: shell=progman.exe To change the shell= line in the SYSTEM.INI file: 1. From the Windows Accessories group, run Notepad. 2. Open the SYSTEM.INI file and comment out the shell= line in the (boot) section by typing a semicolon (;) at the beginning of the shell= line. This is the line that is loading the Tandy WinMate shell. 3. Create a new line under the commented shell= line that reads: shell=progman.exe 4. After saving the changes to the SYSTEM.INI file, exit and restart Windows. The WinMate shell will now be disabled and your shell will now be Program Manager. 5. Run Robot City Setup Upon completion of Robot City Setup, you can change your shell back to the WinMate desktop, if so desired: 1. Edit the SYSTEM.INI file again by commenting out the "shell=progman.exe" line (adding a semicolon to the beginning of the shell=progman.exe line). 2. Remove the semicolon (;) in front of the previously commented "shell=" line that loads WinMate. **************************************************************** 2. Problems Running Robot City **************************************************************** General Protection Faults When trying to run Robot City , if a General Protection Fault occurs, quit and restart Windows. In many cases, the problem will not occur again. General Protection Faults may occur if you have less than 8MB RAM or experience a conflict with particular software or hardware on your system. A frequent cause of General Protection Faults is the use of outdated video drivers. Check to make sure you are using the latest video drivers available from your computer or video card manufacturer. Or, try installing the SVGA drivers that ship with Windows 3.11 and Windows for Workgroups. See section 5. Video Display problems for more information. WinG performance test errors If WinG is running for the first time on your computer, it will perform a screen test after you launch Robot City, but before the program itself begins to run. This screen test will not run again unless you change video drivers. With some video cards, such as the Mitac MVA, Trident VGA, Hercules Graphite VLB, Oak Windows Accelerator, Jazz Jakarta MPEG and Tseng Labs UN-4010, a General Protection Fault may occur or the computer may freeze at the end of the WinG screen test. If this happens, exit and restart Windows, then relaunch Robot City. The game should now start up normally. If an error message appears on relaunching Robot City asking whether you want to re-try or cancel the WinG test, click Cancel. Another message generally will appear telling you that WinG is not supported and Robot City will run at slightly reduced speed. Some animations may be jerky but the game will function normally in other respects. See 7. Video Display Problems if you experience further problems with video cards. Reinstalling Robot City If you change the drive letter of your CD-ROM or experience unusual problems when running the game, you should reinstall Robot City. If you should need to reinstall Robot City, you should do so without deleting the existing RC directory or Robot City Program Group. Simply run the installer (see User’s Guide for instructions). If a dialog box appears saying that Windows cannot link to robotcty.grp and asking if you would like to try linking again in the future, click "No." The installation will then proceed normally and any saved games you have created in the RC directory will be preserved. If a second Robot City Program Item appears in the Robot City Program Group, it will cause no problems. You can launch Robot City from either icon, or you can delete any extras if you desire. Problems with the Packard-Bell Legend CD300 Robot City is incompatible with this Packard-Bell model, especially if you are using the default Windows system setup provided by Packard-Bell. General Protection Faults will appear during the introduction and at various points in the game. If you experience these problems, try installing the SVGA 256-color 640x480 video driver in place of any other driver (such as the Cirrus driver) currently installed. Installing a newer version of Windows and a different sound card. Check with Packard-Bell for the latest system software CD-ROM that may contain updates to solve the incompatibility. Right mouse button not supported Robot City does not support the use of the right mouse button, or the center mouse button on a three-button mouse. Users should avoid pressing the right mouse button as doing so can cause a General Protection Fault in certain cases, such as clicking OK with the right mouse button in disc-swap dialogs or clicking buttons in the DARLA life pod at the start of a game. Robot City also does not support special software that assigns custom functions to clicking the right or center mouse button. These functions should not be used while playing Robot City. **************************************************************** 3. Running In Low Memory or Running Slowly **************************************************************** Improving performance in low memory Robot City uses your computer's system memory to display pictures and play sounds. If you find that Robot City runs slowly or if you encounter out-of-memory errors, Robot City probably does not have enough memory. Consider doing the following to improve your computer's performance: 1. Close all unnecessary applications. 2. Run Windows without network support by typing "win /n" at the DOS prompt. 3. Determine how much memory your computer has available by typing "mem" and pressing ENTER at the DOS prompt. You need a minimum of 8MB of total memory to use Robot City . If you do not have at least 8MB of memory, you may not be able to run Robot City until you add more memory. 5. If you are using Windows 3.1, we strongly suggest that you run Windows in Enhanced mode while playing Robot City in order to improve performance. To see if you are running Windows in Enhanced mode, from the Program Manager Help menu choose About Program Manager (or from the File Manager Help menu choose About File Manager). In the bottom section of the dialog box, you should see the phrase "386 Enhanced Mode." If you do not see this phrase, you can force Windows to run in Enhanced mode by typing WIN/3 or WIN/E at the DOS prompt when launching Windows. Windows for Workgroups always runs in Enhanced mode and no message is displayed in the About dialog box. 6. If you are running Windows in Enhanced mode, set up a permanent Windows swap file (virtual memory) on your hard disk. Using a swap file can resolve problems caused by low memory. See your Windows User's Guide for more information. 7. Defragment ("clean up") your hard disk by running a defragmentation program (MS-DOS 6.2 and above includes the program "defrag"). Improving performance with SmartDrive Make sure you have SmartDrive 5.0 and MSCDEX 2.23. This new version of SmartDrive can cache data being read from the CD-ROM drive, greatly improving performance. Make sure smartdrv is after MSCDEX in your Autoexec.bat. For information on the current SmartDrive settings type "smartdrv" at the DOS prompt. For help with SmartDrive type "smartdrv /?" at the DOS prompt or consult your DOS User's Guide. **************************************************************** 4. Skipping the Introduction **************************************************************** To skip the introduction, click the mouse button any time while it is playing. The cursor must be within the game window in the center of the screen. If you cannot see the cursor to position it, try moving the mouse forward and back, while clicking slowly. It is not necessary to click rapidly. To view the introduction again, quit and restart Robot City from Windows. **************************************************************** 5. Quitting Robot City or Switching to Windows **************************************************************** Quitting rapidly At the Main Menu, simply click Quit. During a game, click the SET button in the lower-right corner to display the Game Menu. Click End Current Game. A dialog box will appear with three choices: Save, Don’t Save and Cancel. To quit without saving, choose Don’t Save to reach the Main Menu, then click Quit. To save your game and then quit, choose Save to go to the Save Game screen. After the game is saved, you will return to the game. Click the SET button again, click End Current Game to reach the Main Menu, then click Quit and you will go to Windows. NOTE: The SET button will not work (the Game Menu will not appear) during the game while you are talking to a robot. You cannot quit or save your game until the robot goes away. Problems with pressing ALT-F4 Robot City does not support quitting by pressing ALT-F4. You must quit using the method described above. When running Robot City in Windows 3.1, 3.11, Windows for Workgroups 3.11 or Windows 95, pressing ALT-F4 does not produce any effect. Switching to other programs Robot City does not support ALT-TAB switching between programs. You must quit Robot City to access Windows or to use any other programs. When running Robot City in Windows 3.1, 3.11, or Windows for Workgroups 3.11, pressing ALT-TAB does not produce any effect. Problems with pressing ALT-TAB in Windows 95 When running Robot City in Windows 95, pressing ALT-TAB does not work correctly. You should quit the program as described above if you need to use other software. If you press ALT-TAB, you will switch to other programs but colors may be displayed incorrectly. If you press ALT-TAB again to switch to Robot City, the view screen will be temporarily blank. If this happens, restore the view screen by clicking the movement arrows to turn or move forward. **************************************************************** 6. CD-ROM Problems **************************************************************** Problems finding the CD-ROM drive Make sure that Robot City program is looking for the compact disc on the correct drive. Check to see if the drive letter for your CD-ROM drive has changed. You can use the Windows File Manager to determine which drive letter is assigned to the CD- ROM drive. The Select Drive command in the Disk menu will say "CD-ROM" next to the CD-ROM drive letter. If the CD-ROM drive is moved or the drive letter is changed after installation of Robot City, you will need to re-run the setup program in order for the program to re-log the CD-ROM drive letter. If re-running setup does not allow Robot City to recognize the CD-ROM drive, delete the file "rcp.dat" in the RC directory on your boot disk, then re-run setup again. Switching discs while playing Robot City Robot City is a two-disc product. It has been designed to minimize the need to switch discs. However, you will have to switch discs occasionally during the course of a game. Unless you see a dialog box requesting Robot City Disc 1 or a dialog box requesting Disc 2, do not remove the Robot City compact disc from your CD-ROM while the program is running. If the Robot City program cannot find the data files that it needs because there is no compact disc in the drive, you will generally see a message that tells you to insert either Robot City Disc 1 or Disc 2. When you see a dialog box requesting Robot City Disc 1 or a dialog box requesting Disc 2, eject the CD-ROM using the drive controls. Insert the requested disc and close the drive tray or insert the CD-ROM caddy. Wait several seconds until the CD-ROM drive light stops flashing, indicating the disc can now be accessed. Then click OK or press Return. Be sure to click the left mouse button. Clicking the center or right buttons will generally produce no result and may cause errors on some systems. Be patient when switching discs. If you click OK or press Return before the disc is in the drive and the drive light stops flashing, some computer systems will quit Robot City and may even exit Windows. If you repeatedly click OK or press Return with no disc in the drive, a General Protection Fault may occur. If this happens, you must exit and restart Windows. Errors reading from the CD-ROM drive If Robot City is unable to read compact disc data properly, you may see a message that tells you that your computer cannot read from the drive letter of your CD-ROM. If you have an external CD-ROM drive, make sure the drive is connected to your computer, plugged in, and turned on. If you still see the error message after checking the points above, check the documentation that came with your CD-ROM drive or contact the company that supplied the drive. Make sure that your CD-ROM drive is MPC2-compatible. An MPC2- compatible drive "has an average seek time of less than one second and can transfer data from the compact disc at 300K per second while using less than 40% of the CPU bandwidth." Check the documentation that came with your CD-ROM drive to make sure it meets these requirements. An incompatible CD-ROM drive will slow down the performance of Robot City. CD-ROM drives requiring a swap file Some CD-ROM drives require a swap file (virtual memory) to be active in order to function properly, even if your computer has 8MB or more of RAM as is required to run Robot City. Check the user's guide that came with your CD-ROM. If you encounter this problem, set up a permanent Windows swap file on your hard disk. See your Windows User's Guide for more information. **************************************************************** 7. Video Display Problems **************************************************************** Robot City requires 256-color mode Robot City is an 8-bit, 256-color application. In order to view Robot City, you need a video card which supports at least 256 colors in 640x480 resolution. Robot City requires you run in 256 color mode. Other modes will cause colors to appear incorrectly and may cause streaking or trails on the screen. If you are not in 256-color mode, a warning dialog will appear when you launch Robot City telling you to correct the problem, exit and restart Windows. If your computer is running in 16-color mode, or in high-color modes greater than 256 colors, and your video card will support 256 colors in 640x480 resolution, you must run Windows Setup* to change the screen driver to display Robot City at 256 (8-bit) colors. Check your Windows documentation for information on changing video drivers. Robot City looks best in 640x480 resolution If Robot City is too small on your screen, you are probably running in a resolution greater than 640x480. To make Robot City as large as possible on your screen, run Windows Setup* and change your video driver to run in 640x480 resolution with 256 colors. You will then need to exit and restart Windows. The next time you launch Robot City it will be the desired size on your screen. * NOTE: Some video cards have a separate program you may have to run to change the display mode. See your video card user's manual to check how to change your display resolutions. Video driver problems Robot City may encounter display problems when using accelerated video drivers, video drivers with more than 256 colors, or high resolution video drivers. Make sure you are using the most recent video drivers available for Windows from your video card manufacturer. To find out what video driver you are using, go to the Windows Program Manager Main group window and double-click the Windows Setup icon. To the right of "Display" you will see the name of the video driver currently in use. Make sure you are using the most recent Windows video drivers for your video card. Contact the manufacturer of your video card to determine if newer Windows video drivers are available. Screen Savers not recommended If you are using a screen saver of any kind, it should not activate while Robot City is running in the foreground. However, if your screen saver does activate the view screen will be black when you return to Robot City. Note that clicking the navigation arrow to turn or move forward will generally cause the view screen to reappear. If you experience any conflicts with screen saver programs, it is best to turn them off while playing Robot City. Unwanted dual cursors If two cursors appear while you are playing Robot City (the standard system pointer next to one of the custom Robot City cursor shapes) there may be a conflict with other software that was run previously during your current Windows session. To eliminate the dual cursors, exit and restart Windows, then launch Robot City again. Turning off Microsoft Office Manager If you have Microsoft Office installed (either the standard or the professional version), you should disable the Microsoft Office Manager (MOM) toolbar while running Robot City. The presence of the toolbar in Robot City can cause colors to be distorted. Check your Microsoft Office documentation for information on how to temporarily disable the Microsoft Office Manager toolbar. Problems with the Jazz Jakarta MPEG video card The Jazz Jakarta MPEG video card does not support all features of Robot City. It not only causes General Protection Faults after the WinG performance test, but also may cause General Protection Faults when attempting to load a saved game. **************************************************************** 8. Audio Problems **************************************************************** Conflicts with other applications Audio problems can have many causes. Other applications that play sounds may interrupt sounds in Robot City , because your computer cannot play sounds from two sources simultaneously. This is generally a temporary clash that will resolve itself. However, a few applications that play sounds, such as some screen savers, may remove audio capability from all other Windows applications. If you suspect you have such an application, turn it off or do not run it while playing Robot City. Audio driver problems If you experience problems with audio, you may need to upgrade your audio card driver. Contact the manufacturer of your audio card (see section 8 for contact information) to find out how to obtain a new driver. Sounds play, but not very well Sounds that are distorted or "fuzzy" have several possible causes. The most likely one is simply that your speakers are not of high quality It is also possible that the software settings on your sound board are causing distortion. For example, if the sound card volume or "WAVE file input" is set to near its maximum, it will produce amplification distortion, just as it would on a stereo system. To find out how to change your sound board settings, check the documentation that came with your sound board Your double-speed or faster CD-ROM drive should be MPC2- compatible. An MPC2-compatible drive "has an average seek time of less than one second and can transfer data from the compact disc at 300K per second while using less than 40% of the CPU bandwidth." Check the documentation that came with your CD-ROM drive to make sure it meets these requirements. An incompatible CD-ROM drive may work but give lower-quality sound or cause the sound to be interrupted while playing Sound does not play at all If you do not hear any sounds, make sure that the volume for your speakers is set to an audible level, and the sound level is set to the maximum in Robot City (see user's guide for how to do this). If the volume is set to an audible level and you still hear no sounds at all, something may be wrong with your sound board setup. Check to see that the driver is installed correctly and, if necessary, reinstall it. Refer to the documentation that came with your sound card for more information on installing audio drivers Please note that Robot City requires an MPC-compatible sound board to be installed and is not intended to run with drivers which use the PC internal speaker, such as the unsupported "PC Speaker" driver. Such a driver will in most cases not play any sounds, and if the driver setup option "Enable Interrupts" is not checked, your system may crash. If you have both a sound board and the PC Speaker driver installed, it is preferable to un-install the PC Speaker driver Volume control problems The volume control adjustment in the Assistance menu does not adjust the volume level properly on a number of sound cards. In some cards, clicking the first few boxes will diminish volume rapidly, and clicking any of the rest will mute all sound. In other cards, clicking the adjustment will have no effect. In both cases, the audio will play normally. The volume will be set at maximum by default. You can still control volume in the usual way with the volume control on your speakers or sound card or with the sound mixing control applet (Control Panel) supplied with your sound card. Audio cards supported by Robot City Most audio cards play sound correctly in Robot City but support for the volume control feature varies. This is only a partial listing of current popular audio cards. Most cards not on this list will also work correctly. The following cards and drivers have been tested and play sound correctly in Robot City. They fully support the volume control feature: ESS 1688 AudioDrive, with V4.15 drivers ESS 688 AudioDrive, with V3.02 drivers Media Magic ISP-16 with V4.0 drivers Pro Audio Studio 16, with PAS 16 V1.10 drivers Roland RAP-10 with Roland V1.0 drivers Turtle Beach Monterey with V1.0 drivers The following cards and drivers have been tested and play sound correctly in Robot City. They support the volume control feature but only the upper part of the range can be used to adjust volume: Adlib Gold 1000 with V1.00 drivers AudioTrix Pro with Mediatrix V1.0 drivers Gravis Ultrasound, 256K or 1MB RAM, with V3.53 drivers Gravis Ultrasound MAX, 512K with V3.56 drivers IBM Mwave Windsurfer with IBM V4.0 drivers Sound Blaster AWE32 DSP 4.12 with V3.02 or V3.04 drivers Sound Blaster Pro CT1600, with V1.0 drivers Sound Blaster 16, DSP 4.11, with V3.02 drivers The following cards and drivers have been tested and play sound correctly in Robot City. They do not support the volume control feature: Disney Sound Source with V1.0 drivers Ensoniq Soundscape with Ensoniq V1.0 drivers Logitech SoundMan Wave with v1.0 drivers Packard Bell 144 Sound Card Sound Blaster v1.5 DSP 2.00 with Win 3.11 v1.5 drivers Sound Blaster v2.0 DSP 2.01 with Win 3.1 v1.5 drivers Sound Blaster V1.5 DSP 2.00 with Creative 2.0 drivers Windows Sound System, with V1.0 or V2.0 drivers Turtle Beach Monte Carlo card problems Most Turtle Beach cards will work correctly, but the Turtle Beach Monte Carlo card does not work at all with Robot City. The game will not run properly and audio will not play. Ensoniq Soundscape card problems The Ensoniq Soundscape card will not play sounds with the driver in the Windows driver default configuration. Try the following suggestion to improve audio performance with WAV or MPS files (the type used in Robot City) under Windows: If you are having trouble hearing sound with the WAV or MPS files, check the following: Go to your Drivers applet (Control Panel) and double-click on Soundscape DVD MIDI, WAVE, AUX. Ensure that you have WAVE A setup as 0 and that WAVE B is setup to Disable (Note: if there is something else in your system that is using those DMA channels, you will need to use another DMA setting such as 3). **************************************************************** 9. Manufacturer's Contact Information for Audio Cards **************************************************************** Phone numbers, mail and eMail addresses for product support Creative Labs (Sound Blaster) Technical Support 1523 Cimarron Plaza, Stillwater, OK 74075. USA. Voice: (405) 742-6622. FAX: (405) 742-6633. BBS: (405) 742-6660. Turtle Beach Customer Support Voice: (717) 764-5265. FAX: (717) 767-6033. (Attn: Customer Support) BBS: (717) 767-0238. (9600 Baud+, 8N1). BBS: (717) 767-5934. (2400 Baud, 8N1). CompuServe: 71333,2432 ESS No Consumer Support Line ESS does not manufacture cards, only distributes OEM chips. Users with an audio card using an ESS chip should contact the manufacturer of their card. Roland Corporation US 7200 Dominion Circle Los Angeles, CA 90040-3696 USA. (213) 685-5141. Adlib Gold Technical Support (418) 529-6252 10 am to 5 PM EST, or 24 hour automated system. IBM Customer Support: US Customer Support - (800) 772-2227 Canada Customer Support - (800) 465-6666 The Microsoft Corporation (Windows Sound System) Microsoft FastTips, (800) 936-4200 CompuServe, go Microsoft, or go mskb (Microsoft Knowledge Base). Microsoft Download Service: (206) 936-6735 8N1 Canada: (905) 507-3022. Internet FTP to ftp.microsoft.com Technical Voice Support: (206) 635-7040, Canada (905) 568-3503. Disney (Sound Source) Disney Software, Attn: Customer Service 500 South Buena Vista Street Burbank, CA 91521-6385. Voice: (818) 841-3326 BBS: (818) 567-4027 8N1 Media Vision (Pro Audio Studio 16, Win Sound System, Jazz) Customer Support: Voice: (800) 638-2807 (510) 770-9905 BBS: (510) 770-0968 (2400 Baud, 8N1) (510) 770-0527 (9600+ Baud, 8N1) Logitech (SoundMan Wave) Product Support: Voice: (510) 795-8100 BBS: (510) 795-0408 FaxBack: (800) 245-0000. Packard Bell (Sound 144) Customer Service: Voice: Hardware (800) 733-4411 Software (801) 579-0161 Canada (800) 263-0099 Fax: (801) 579-0092 Canada (905) 564-1142 Auto Phone: (800) 733-4411 BBS: (801) 250-1600 8N1 Canada (905) 542-7359 8N1 Mediatrix Peripherals, Inc. (AudioTrix Pro) Voice: (819) 829-TRIX (800) 820-TRIX Fax: (819) 829-5100 BBS: (819) 829-5101 **************************************************************** 10. Credits **************************************************************** Robot City credits Producer: Byron Preiss Creative Director: Andy Davies Art Director: Dale Fowler Programming Manager: Pete Parks Editor-in-Chief: Jeremy Ross Library Programmer: Brandon Bogle Lead Programmer: Shawn Baird Game Editors: Walt Freitag & Barbara Lanza Project Manager: Don Wiest Technical Advisor John Mayo-Smith Please see the Credits section in the game for a full listing of the Robot City team. Byron Preiss Multimedia Company, Inc. Byron Preiss President James R. Dellomo Chief Financial Officer Jeff Hixson Creative Director John Mayo-Smith Technical Director Jackie Snyder Marketing Director Jeremy Ross Director, Brooklyn Multimedia Founded in 1992, Byron Preiss Multimedia Company, Inc. develops and publishes a wide range of interactive multimedia software under several imprints. Robot City appears under the Brooklyn imprint. Other Byron Preiss Multimedia titles appearing under the Brooklyn Multimedia imprint are Gahan Wilson’s The Ultimate Haunted House, Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles and Raymond Chandler’s The Little Sister. For more information, please contact: Byron Preiss Multimedia Company, Inc., 175 Fifth Ave., Suite 2122, NY, NY 10010 © 1995 Byron Preiss Multimedia Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Brooklyn Multimedia is a trademark of Byron Preiss Multimedia Company, Inc. Based on Isaac Asimov’s Robot City books I and II by Michael P. Kube-McDowell and Mike McQuay. Robot City is a trademark of Byron Preiss Visual Publications, Inc. Windows and WinG are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Apple and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. used under license.