SIMISLE: Missions In The Rainforest Last Minute Info 6 September, 1995 Updated January 6, 1997 -- Collections 3 Updated August 26, 1997 -- Classic Ver. 1.034 Please read all of this document - it's important! Really! I. Technical Help II. Gameplay Issues III. Manual Changes IV. How to Reach Maxis Technical Support I. Technical Help The Win95 Help file is in the root directory of the CD. It is an updated version of the Help file copied to the Hard Drive. It is called Islewin9.hlp and can be opened just by double-clicking it. If you're having trouble running SimIsle or are getting error messages (heaven forbid!), here are some tips concerning these issues. These tips were written by the Technical Support experts of Maxis and contain enough information to make you an expert too. You may also be bored and want to make sure that we can actually spell and write documents with correct syntax. Read on, O Seeker of Knowledge... If SimIsle Crashes! Some things you can try: Increase the amount of memory available in DOS. See your DOS manual for information on increasing the amount of memory available. See the section "The SimIsle Boot Disk" on the quick start guide for more information on memory. Sound and Music SimIsle supports all sound cards that are compatible with Sound Blaster. If you are not getting any sound effects or music in the game, first ensure your speakers are connected properly. If your sound card and speakers have worked fine for other DOS based programs, run the SETSOUND program in your simisle directory. Let the program auto detect the sound card and re-run the game to see if you have sound. If not, manually set the sound card up in SETSOUND. Video, palettes and pictures Trident, Kelvin, Orchid and Cirrus Logic Chipsets If while playing SimIsle you experience a black bar appearing in the screen, do not worry, that is caused by old video drivers. We have only noticed this on the title screen, the Scenario Select screen after you have selected an island, and when you call up the Save or Load box. Once these screens are refreshed, the bar goes away. Certain older drivers shipped with the above video cards may be incompatible with SimIsle. Make sure you have the absolutely most recent versions of the video drivers for your video card. See the section "SimIsle and your Graphics Card" in the Quick Start Guide for more information on video compatibility. Memory Issues SimIsle requires 500 K of conventional memory, and at least 6100K of total available memory to run properly. Setting Up Here is an example of a minimum Config.sys file and Autoexec.bat file, for a boot disk. Config.sys Device=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS (CD ROM DRIVER) ** FILES=30 BUFFERS=30 STACKS=9,256 AUTOEXEC.BAT @ECHO OFF PROMPT $P$G C:\MOUSE\MOUSE.EXE (SOUND CARD SETTINGS (I.E. SET BLASTER=A220 DI 15 T4)) (CD ROM DRIVERS)** ** Refer to your CD ROM manual for information on drivers required in the config.sys and autoexec.bat Boot Disk Maker The game comes with a premade utility that will create a general bootdisk for you. To run this program, go to the directory you installed SimIsle to and type BOOTDISK. This will run a utility that will analyze your system, format the disk, rebuild the autoexec.bat and config.sys file and place the file on the disk. If you want to make a bootdisk on your own, type FORMAT A: /S (Assuming the A: drive is your boot drive.) Once the disk is done formatting copy your config.sys file and autoexec.bat file from the C: to the A: drive (copy c:autoexec.bat a:) and (copy c:config.sys a:). Once this is does, edit the files(edit a:config.sys), and modify all the lines to look like the lines above. II. Gameplay Issues Here are some gameplay issues that have been changed since the manual was printed. Many of these changes have been made to increase gameplay and enjoyment of the product. 1) If you negotiate with a fishing village, and fail twice, the third time you negotiate, if you fail, it will raise the price, then buy out the village at that price. Don't be so desperate next time. 2) If you have placed a construction agent, in the jungle, and select an item to build, it is possible to get two pictures, in the agent picture bar. The two pictures are a jeep, and a building. The jeep, just means you are building on the exact location of the agent. A building means you are building in a tile not occupied by the agent. 3) When a construction agent is done building an object, if the object was not built right on them, you will hear the jeep sound effect. This is just the agent going into the building they just built. 4) If you try to send a construction agent to a tile that is inaccessable, you will hear a beep. The beep is sounded because they cannot be placed more than one tile into the jungle. 5) Certain scenario's in the game require you to obtain a certain amount of money, before you will win the scenario. The money in question, is the money you have in your possession (the Bank), not the total money you have made to date. 6) The Title "Caravan Park" has been changed to "Tourist Accomodation" in the game. 7) The number of tourists indicated in the stat's box, is only the tourists that actually stay at a hotel. If the tourists stay at the port because they do not have a room, are not counted as tourists. 8) If you notice that your Oil Money is coming in unevenly, or in blocks every other month, build another tanker at the oil rig. Sometimes the oil tankers spend all their time in transit and they can't keep up with the supply. 9) Pollution feeds off of other pollution sources and the effects magnify greatly. The easiest way to slow this down is to spread your industries out a bit. Just don't make them too far away, because less distance means higher efficiency. 10) Buildings that are placed too close together may clip each other if the map is rotated. 11) A right click on a greyed button will act the same as a left click. In the manual, the left click was described as having a different function. 12) Please note, only one random map may be in existence at any time. Reloading a saved game from a previously generated map may cause strange results. 13) If the message bar references "skill" when you right or left click on a grayed out button. It is refering to agent skill. 14) When building an airport, and you see the words "Need enough room to build" it is just reminding you that large airorts require quite a bit of space to be built. 15) When a hotel is built near the beach, a beach attraction will be built with the hotel sometimes. This beach attraction functions similarly to other attractions, and needs to be clicked on separately from the hotel to access it. 16) Industries need to have a job applied to them (Apply Job button) before they will build (or be able to import) that job. 17) Agents with Explorer skills can be really helpful to you. However, for them to be effective, they need guidance as to where they should be exploring. If you don't find anything your first time out, keep looking! 18) Pollution can be very dangerous to living things. If you let your pollution get out of hand it will kill the surrounding trees, and sometimes the precious animals held there. 19) A very effective way to get an agent to a valuable mineral deposit, is to send the agent to that location while still in the 2D map. 20) Cities have generally have four facilities attached to them, and these all can be clicked on separately. 21) None of the scenarios start on Jan 1, they start just a bit later. 22) If you try to place a sea bound facility on a diagonal tile, there is chance that it will be placed sideways, it will still function as normal however. 23) Be careful if importing items when your industries are set to export. There is a chance that the goods you just bought might be sold in hopes of seeking profit. 24) Cities with adequate power, and superb facilities will make the citizens very happy (very good). Goods and cars will make them happier. Fewer perks will upset them some. 25) Nuclear plants cost an amazingly high amount of EMU's to deconstruct. This can be attributed to the fact that the local ecology could not handle anything less than an amazingly careful disposal of the spent uranium. 26) Finding the secret of two ancient cities will only double the funds received for exporting autos. They both still function quite well as tourist attractions however. 27) Machines with 8MB's run with the animations off. III. Manual Changes Unfortunately, while developing a project, the manual has to go to printing prior to the game shipping to make the release date. It is to this end that usually there are changes made to the game that are not documented or corespond to the released manual. Here are some changes to the manual, that will give you the up to date scoop. 1) On page 15 of the manual it tells you to select a village just to the left of the reserve park. However, the village the photograph is pointing to is obscured by trees in the game and cannot be seen. 2) On page 15 of the manual it tells you to train to get unskilled labor. To create unskilled labor, it now requires a village population of 140. The only way to get this is to click on train a few times and wait. 3) On page 19 of the manual it tells you to click on the College button to build a College, but unforturnately you are out of wood. You will need to import lumber at the saw mill to make this happen. 4) On page 20 of the manual it says to use Mr. Moon. Bob is Mr. Moon. All the agents have lost their last names on the portrait screen. 5) On page 44 of the manual it said that Animation will default "off" when install on a slow machine. There is not much of a difference between low and high. Just the animation speeds. 6) On page 62 of the manual it says Bob has exploration skills. However he does not. 7) The manual is wrong in how it describes a town going to a city. The process is a little more complicated then presented. To find out the exact procedures, click on the "I" in the town window to read the notebook description. 8) All references to the free form island in the manual are wrong, it is now called: Island Generator. Scenario Difficulty Table Scenario Difficulty Mission Tutorial Very Easy Extinct Species Buy out Easy Prevent Sale of Isle Big Ideas Hard Built up and Exploit Megatropolis Hard Large City Money Spinner Medium Get Rich Motor City Hard Produce X Goods Tourist Haven Medium Tourists Industrialization Medium Build Up Island Drug It Up Easy Stop Drug Lord Happy Tourists Happy Locals Easy Happiness of Locals Tourism Medium Tourism The Development State Medium Build up Island Ripe For Tourists Hard Tourism Deforestation Easy Deforestation for goods Underdeveloped Villages Medium Ecology Mystic Lines Easy Exploration / Build up City Blues Hard Population / Ecology Bigger and Brighter Easy Ecology Up For Sale Hard Growth / Ecology Them Good Ol'e Boys Hard Build up Island Baby Boom Medium Population + Goods a GoGo Easy Consumer Goods Land Romp Easy Deforestation Pollution City Hard Ecology Island Generator N/A Create your own Isle Item Build Costs Object Cost (EMU's) Building Materials Other Hotel 250 150 N/A Attraction 200 100 N/A Airport 1000 400 N/A Ferry Port 500 250 N/A Coal Mine 500 150 5 U Labor / 5 H Mach Logging Camp 250 0 5 U Labor Oil Rig 700 350 4 S Labor / 8 H Mach Oil Pump Stat 150 50 N/A Gold Mine 300 150 5 U Labor / 5 H Mach Silver Mine 300 150 5 U Labor / 5 H Mach Iron Ore Mine 300 150 5 U Labor / 5 H Mach Power Station 400 250 8 H Mach Hvy. Industry 300 300 4 U Labor Manuf. Plant 400 250 4 S Labor / 10 H Mach Hi-Tech 650 0 4 S Labor / 10 Q MG Steel Mill 400 250 5 U Labor Chemical Plant 250 150 5 S Labor Town 500 1000 N/A Saw Mill 400 0 N/A Warehouse 500 0 N/A Wind Plant 800 200 10 H Mach Nuclear Plant 2000 300 50 H Mach Church (City) 300 100 N/A Rec. Ctr (City) 350 50 N/A Hospital (City) 450 100 N/A College (City) 400 100 N/A Cost for Upgrades on Buildings Buttons Cost (EMU's) Building Materials Hotel Ext 125 75 Hotel Imp 100 50 Attract Ext 200 100 Attract Excite 250 75 Lg Airport 1050 550 Extra Tanker 700 N/A Windmills + 900 200 Uranium + 100 N/A Church + 100 N/A Rec. Ctr + 50 30 Hospital + 150 60 College + 150 N/A Technical Support Numbers you might find useful. ATi Tech support / BBS: (905)882-2626 / (905)764-9404 ( 9-7 EST M-F ) Technical Fax: (905)882-0546 Diamond Tech support / BBS: (408)325-7100 / (408)325-7175 ( 7-7 CST M-F ) Technical Fax: (408)325-7171 Genoa Systems Tech support / BBS: (408)362-2990 / (408)362-2999 ( 8-5 PST M-F ) Technical Fax: (408)362-2998 Gravis Tech support / BBS: (604)431-1807 / (604)431-5927 ( 9-4 PST M-F ) Technical Fax: (604)451-9358 Orchid Tech support / BBS: (510)661-3000 / (510)651-6837 ( 7-5 PST M-F ) Technical Fax: 510-651-6982 III. How to Reach Maxis Technical Support What You Should Do Before You Call Technical Support Before you call Technical Support, please be sure that you have read this Readme file and any other appropriate material. When you are at your wit's end, scratching your head and grumbling, read on to find out what we would like you to have ready when you call, so that we can get you running as quickly as possible. It will save both you and our hard working technicians lots of time and aggravation! What You Should Have With You When You Call: 1. Have a print-out of your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. You can easily print all of these files by typing MSD {Enter} at the C:\ prompt. This will run the Microsoft Diagnostics program which will allow you to print out a report of your system. If you can't print out your system files (you don't have a printer), it isn't the end of the world, as long as you are at your computer when you call! Make sure that your computer system meets or exceeds the requirements defined on the SimIsle system label. The system label is located in the lower-left portion on the front of the box. 2. If you are getting error messages or DOS 4GW 2001 errors, write down exactly what you were doing at the time, and the unrelocated address located at the bottom of the report. That will help us diagnose the problem. 3. Write down all of the steps you have taken to solve the problem. If we know what you've already done, we may be able to get you running faster. 4. Have your CD ROM, your manual, and your Addendum available and within easy reach. Where You Should Be When You Call: Please, please call us from your computer! We need to have you at your computer to explore your system to identify what is causing your problem. Let's Do the Numbers! There are a number of different options that you can use to contact Technical Support. The first is by telephone, but this may not be the best option for you. If you decide that you would like to call and hear a friendly voice, you'll find the number and hours of operation for Technical Support listed on the Maxis Maxims sheet, included in the box your program came in. There is lots of other useful info there, so keep your Maxis Maxims somewhere handy. The Maxis Maxims card also contains all the new information on how to contact us online / by Mail and by Fax. Make sure you register your software! We've included a handy little postcard for you to send in. This will entitle you to FREE Technical Support for the life of the product. The product life ends when a new version is released or the product is discontinued. Thank you from the whole team for purchasing SimIsle. We truly hope you enjoy this product as much as we had creating it. SimIsle 1995 Maxis