############################################################## Star Wars(R) Pit Droids(TM) ReadMe Version 1.0 8/12/99 ############################################################## Thank you for purchasing Star Wars Pit Droids. We recommend that you read this file to get up-to-date information about installing, running, and maximizing the performance of Pit Droids. For additional information and in-depth technical documentation about specific hardware, we recommend reading the Pit Droids Troubleshooting Guide. To access the Troubleshooting Guide after installing the game, follow these steps: 1. Click on the START button (on the Windows task bar). 2. Select PROGRAMS. 3. Select LUCAS LEARNING. 4. Select STAR WARS PIT DROIDS. 5. Select READ PIT DROIDS TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE. Also, for the very latest updates related to Pit Droids, be sure to check the Pit Droids web site at www.starwars.com/pitdroids Contents of the ReadMe file: 1) GENERAL INFORMATION A) A Message from George Lucas B) Minimum System Requirements C) CD-ROM Safety Tips D) Laptop Systems E) OEM Features on Brand Name Machines F) Task Switching G) Game Crash Issues H) Internet Explorer 4.0 Active Desktop I) Uninstalling Pit Droids 2) PLAYING STAR WARS PIT DROIDS A) Movie Quality Settings B) Skipping Movies C) Pausing the Game D) Keyboard Commands E) Improving Performance F) Printing G) Deleting Saved Games or Levels H) Obtaining R2-D2 Help About Tiles I) Droid Collision J) Viewing Goals Obstructed by Barriers or Not Barriers K) Keyboard Commands Disabled in the Inventory L) Using the Keyboard to Navigate Within Game Menus M) 'Start Puzzles Paused' Option in Tutorials 3) CONTROL ISSUES A) Joystick Issues B) Gamepad Issues 4) SOUND ISSUES A) Adjusting the Volume B) Adjusting Droid and Tile Sound Effects Volumes C) Adjusting Cutscene ("Movie") Volume 5) HOW TO CONTACT LUCAS LEARNING LTD. A) Hint Line B) Technical Support 1) Where to Find Us Online a) Help Me Obi-Wan Kenobi... 2) Technical Support Phone Number 3) Technical Support Fax 4) Technical Support Mailing Address C) Ordering Lucas Learning Products ############################################################## 1) GENERAL INFORMATION A) A message from George Lucas, Creative Director of Lucas Learning Ltd. Many years ago as a filmmaker I developed an interest in interactive technologies. As I began to work with them, I realized that they had great potential for opening up new kinds of learning experiences for young people. They offered an alternative to some of the traditional approaches to education that did not work for me as a youth. As a result, for over 15 years I've been committed to finding ways to capture kids' natural interest in learning and engage them more actively and productively in the learning process. Lucas Learning reflects my own passion for learning as it creates products like Pit Droids. I hope you enjoy the experience and that it will contribute to your own lifetime of learning. George Lucas B) Minimum System Requirements The minimum system requirements for Pit Droids on your Windows 95 or 98 system are as follows: COMPUTER: 100% Windows 95 or 98 DirectX compatible computer required. CPU: Pentium class 166MHz or faster processor required. MEMORY: 32MB RAM minimum required. GRAPHICS CARD: 100% DirectX compatible PCI or AGP graphics card required. SOUND CARD: 100% DirectX compatible 16-bit sound card required. CD-ROM DRIVE: 4X IDE or SCSI CD-ROM drive minimum required. INPUT DEVICES: 100% Windows 95/98 compatible mouse and keyboard required. DIRECTX: Microsoft DirectX 6.1 is included on this CD and must be installed to play Pit Droids. Please refer to "Installation" and "DirectX Setup" in the Troubleshooting Guide for more information about DirectX. NOTE: Your system may require the "latest" Windows 95/98 drivers for your particular hardware. QUICKTIME: QuickTime 4.0.2 is included on this CD and must be installed to play Pit Droids. Please refer to 'Installation' and 'QuickTime 4.0.2' in the Troubleshooting Guide for more information about QuickTime. HARD DISK SPACE: Minimal Install requires 130MB free hard disk space. Typical Install requires 270MB free hard disk space. It is recommended that you have an additional 50MB of free space available after installing the game for the Windows swap file. C) CD-ROM Safety Tips We do not recommend ejecting your Pit Droids CD while the game is running. Exit out of the game before ejecting the CD from the drive. D) Laptop Systems While Pit Droids should work fine on most systems that meet the minimum hardware specifications, it has not been tested with laptop systems and therefore we cannot guarantee compatibility. Due to the wide variety of hardware configurations that ship with today's laptop systems, it would be impossible to configure a game that would work with all of them. Many laptops are limited in their ability to be used as a gaming machine because of memory configurations, their microchannel architecture, port configurations (i.e. no place for a joystick) and sound systems that are primarily designed to be used with productivity software. Laptop systems will also attempt to compress the traditional version of the standard 101-function keyboard (found on almost all desktop systems) into a much smaller key configuration. This is usually done by relying on multi-function keys that allow the user to assign different functions to the same key. Unfortunately, this has been known to cause problems with our games. E) OEM Features on Brand Name Machines Many brand name computers come with a variety of features provided by the manufacturer, including special buttons on the keyboard or special functions assigned to buttons common to all keyboards. In general, we recommend that you do not use the special buttons or special functions assigned to buttons that your machine came with while playing Pit Droids. Contact the manufacturer of your computer for more information. F) Task Switching (or ALT-TAB) We do not recommend using the Windows task switching (ALT-TAB) function with Pit Droids. If you need to access another program on your computer while running the game, we recommend that you first quit out of Pit Droids. G) Game Crash Issues If the game unexpectedly freezes up, returns you to your desktop, or if you experience any other severe problems, you should try to properly exit Windows and reboot your computer. (As a rule, you should never turn off your computer while the hard drive is active.) This will help to prevent possible problems related to the error that you have experienced. If you end up at a black screen or the screen appears frozen, please press ESC, SPACEBAR, or ENTER before trying anything else. If your screen remains black for an extended period of time, restart your computer. H) Internet Explorer 4.0 Active Desktop If you are using Internet Explorer 4.0, we recommend that you disable Active Desktop before playing Star Wars Pit Droids. Active Desktop uses memory and resources that the game may need. I) Uninstalling Pit Droids To uninstall Pit Droids, follow these steps: 1. Click on the START button (on the Windows task bar). 2. Select PROGRAMS. 3. Select LUCAS LEARNING. 4. Select STAR WARS PIT DROIDS. 5. Select UNINSTALL PIT DROIDS. 2) PLAYING STAR WARS PIT DROIDS A) Movie Quality Settings Star Wars Pit Droids utilizes an auto-detect feature to select the movie quality setting ('Good', 'Better' or 'Best) that will best perform on your particular hardware. The first time you run the game, the auto-detect feature will determine the most appropriate movie quality setting and the game's opening movies will then run at the selected quality level. In part, the quality level selected will determine whether the movies run in a window or at full screen size. You may adjust the quality level at which movies play on your system via the game Options screen. To access the Options screen, click on OPTIONS in the game's Main Menu. B) Skipping Movies To skip through any of the Pit Droids movies, click the mouse or press any key on the computer keyboard. C) Pausing the Game While playing a level, you can pause the movement of the pit droids by clicking on the PAUSE button at the bottom center of the game screen, or by pressing the space bar on your keyboard. Click the PAUSE button or press the space bar again to unpause the pit droids. D) Keyboard Commands KEY FUNCTION (All Areas) F1 Turn on R2-D2 Help F2 Bring up the Options screen F12 Place a picture file of the current screen in the Pit Droids folder Enter Accept default Esc Cancel Tab Toggle Interface on/off Left Arrow Scroll Left Right Arrow Scroll Right Up Arrow Scroll Up Down Arrow Scroll Down Shift + Arrow Keys Precision scrolling 1 Zoom Level 1 2 Zoom Level 2 3 Zoom Level 3 Ctrl + Q Quit Ctrl + S Save Ctrl + N New Ctrl + O Open Space bar Pause on/off , Restart droids . Fast Forward on/off 9 Toggle Grid On/Off 0 Toggle Flatten Walls on/off X Exit puzzle R Return selected arrows to Inventory = Next arrow from Inventory - Previous arrow from Inventory [ Rotate arrow counterclockwise ] Rotate arrow clockwise (Puzzle Maker Only) Second mouse button The second mouse button allows you to delete the currently selected item from the cursor, and to cycle through other available attributes of the selected piece once placed. Shift Holding down Shift allows you to extend your selection with the Select and Wand Tools. Holding down the Shift key also allows you to paint multiple copies of a piece. Ctrl + Wand Tool Pressing the Ctrl key and using the Wand tool allows you to select all pieces of the same type in a puzzle, regardless of whether they are touching or not. This is very useful for dragging all of the arrows from your puzzle to the inventory. F8 Toggle Test Mode on/off F9 Smart Wall all tiles F10 Cycle through available soundtracks (in Test mode only) * Toggle Collision on/off ! Clear all pieces Backspace Delete Tiles C Choose Location I Display Puzzle Information Text S Select Tool E Erase Tool D Eyedropper Tool W Wand Tool Ctrl + X Cut selected pieces to clipboard Ctrl + C Copy selected pieces to clipboard Ctrl + V Paste selected pieces from clipboard ? Toggle Mystery Status L Set paint to current Launcher G Set paint to current Goal A Set paint to current Arrow Z Set paint to current Wall M Set paint to current Structure H Set paint to current Barrier B Set paint to current Not Barrier T Set paint to current Transformer F Set paint to current Fan K Set paint to current Key J Set paint to current Lock Ctrl + L Bring up the edit window for Launcher Ctrl + G Bring up the edit window for Goal Ctrl + A Bring up the edit window for Arrow Ctrl + Z Bring up the edit window for Wall Ctrl + M Bring up the edit window for Structure Ctrl + H Bring up the edit window for Barrier Ctrl + B Bring up the edit window for Not Barrier Ctrl + T Bring up the edit window for Transformer E) Improving Performance If you encounter slow or choppy gameplay with Pit Droids, here are a few suggestions on how you may improve the game's performance: USE A LARGER INSTALLATION. Although Pit Droids can read data directly from the CD, it is always faster to access data directly from your hard disk. Installing extra data files of Pit Droids may make the game run more smoothly. NOTE: Please check the amount of free space available on your hard disk before installing the extra data files to make sure you have enough free space for both the game installation and the Windows swap file. It is recommended that you have 50MB of free hard disk space after installing the game for the Windows swap file. QUIT OUT OF ALL OTHER APPLICATIONS BEFORE RUNNING THE GAME. Running other applications in the background may cause Pit Droids to pause during gameplay, due to other applications requiring access to your computer's resources. We recommend quitting out of all other applications prior to running Pit Droids. LOWER THE MOVIE QUALITY SETTING IN THE OPTIONS SCREEN. In the Options screen, you may choose to view the game movies at one of three quality settings: 'Good', 'Better', or 'Best'. Choosing to view the game movies at a lower quality setting than is currently selected may improve the performance of the movies on your system. Please see the Troubleshooting Guide on this CD for more information about improving the performance of Pit Droids. F) Printing Star Wars Pit Droids does not directly support printing. However, if you would like to print a picture of the screen at any time, simply press the F12 key on your keyboard. If you press the F12 key while in a game menu, this will save a file called 'Screenshot.bmp' to the folder where Pit Droids is installed. If you press the F12 key while in a game level, this will save a .bmp file with the name of the puzzle you are currently playing to the folder where Pit Droids is installed. G) Deleting Saved Games or Levels Saved games and levels cannot be deleted from within Pit Droids. Should you wish to delete a saved game or level, you may either overwrite the file from within the game, or delete it directly from the Saved Games or My Puzzles folder on your hard drive. H) Obtaining R2-D2 Help About Tiles To obtain help from R2-D2 about a specific tile that is used in the game, you must hold the R2-D2 Help cursor over the base of the tile. I) Droid Collision When Droid Collision is activated in a specific puzzle, droids can enter the same Goal simultaneously without colliding if they enter the Goal from different sides. J) Viewing Goals Obstructed by Barriers or Not Barriers Goals that accept a limited number of droids can be difficult to read when located diagonally above and left of a Barrier or Not Barrier. When this happens, try putting a tile from the Inventory on your cursor and moving it onto the Barrier or Not Barrier that is obstructing your view. This will temporarily lower the Barrier or Not Barrier, allowing you to more easily view the Goal tile in question. K) Keyboard Commands Disabled in the Inventory All keyboard commands are disabled when the Inventory is open. L) Using the Keyboard to Navigate Within Game Menus When a game menu is open, pressing the ENTER key will select the first item in the menu. However, there are no other keyboard commands available for navigating within a game menu. Any other selections you wish to make must be made using the mouse. M) 'Start Puzzles Paused' Option in Tutorials Selecting 'Start Puzzles Paused' in the game Options screen causes the pit droids to be paused at the start of every regular puzzle. However, choosing this option will not effect puzzles in the Puzzle Maker Tutorial or the Puzzle Training Tour. 3) CONTROL ISSUES A) Joystick Issues Pit Droids does not support joysticks. B) Gamepad Issues Pit Droids does not support gamepads. 4) SOUND ISSUES A) Adjusting the Volume If you find that the music in the game is too loud or too quiet and you are unable to change the volume through the Pit Droids Options screen, you may adjust these levels using the Windows Volume Control icon. To do this, first quit out of the game, then double-click on the speaker icon in the right corner of the Windows task bar. You may then adjust the volume as desired. B) Adjusting Droid and Tile Sound Effects Volumes Pit Droids features a unique sound effect structure in which the droid and tile sounds are synched with the ambient music of the game. Thus, the volume levels of the droid and tile sounds are not controlled by the Effects volume slider in the Options screen like all other sound effects are. If you wish to adjust the volume level of any of the droid or tile sound effects within a level, you must use the Music volume slider in the Options screen. To access the Options screen, click on OPTIONS in the Pit Droids Main Menu. C) Adjusting Cutscene ("Movie") Volume If you wish to adjust the volume of the Pit Droids cutscenes ("movies"), use the Music volume slider in the game Options screen. To access the Options screen, click on OPTIONS in the Pit Droids Main Menu. 5) HOW TO CONTACT LUCAS LEARNING LTD. Please see the Troubleshooting Guide on the CD for late-breaking news and help. Lucas Learning has set up a variety of services to provide you with information about our latest games, hints and gameplay assistance, and technical support. A) Hint Line If you need a hint*, you may call our automated Hint Line. The average call length is three minutes. This service requires a touch tone phone. NOTE: You must be at least 18 years old or have your parents' permission to call. U.S. 1-900-740-JEDI (1-900-740-5334) 95 cents per minute (The option to speak with a live Hint Operator is also available through this number) Canada 1-900-677-JEDI (1-900-677-5334) $1.25 (U.S.) per minute * NOTE: Some of the levels in The Game mode are randomly generated. The Hint Line will be unable to provide hints about or solutions to these levels. To determine whether the puzzle you are playing is randomly generated or not, press Ctrl-I on your keyboard. This will bring up the name of the puzzle you are currently playing. If the puzzle name appears as 'RANDOMIZER#' where '#' equals a number (e.g. RANDOMIZER4), then you are playing a randomly generated puzzle, and the Hint Line will be unable to provide hints about or a solution to this puzzle. B) Technical Support 1) Where to Find Us Online Visit the Lucas Learning Web site at www.lucaslearning.com. You can reach us through the Technical Support section of the Lucas Learning web site. From there, you will have the option to receive online technical support through the Help Me Obi-Wan Kenobi... page, browse technical documents, or leave a message for an online representative. a) Help Me, Obi-Wan Kenobi... We are proud to feature the Help Me, Obi-Wan Kenobi... page, which is available in the Technical Support section of the Lucas Learning web site at www.lucaslearning.com. Here, Obi-Wan offers interactive solutions to technical issues based on information you provide. Obi-Wan offers technical support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If Help Me, Obi-Wan Kenobi... is unable to provide you with a solution to your problem, you will be given the option to submit an e-mail message to an online representative. 2) Technical Support Phone Number This number is for technical assistance only. Hints will not be given out over the Technical Support line. Also, when contacting us, please be sure to specify which type of computer (IBM-PC or Macintosh) you are using. If you need technical assistance, please don't hesitate to contact us after reading the Troubleshooting Guide and the ReadMe.txt file. For your convenience, if you cannot get through to a representative by phone and you have access to a fax machine or any of our online areas, please consider contacting us through one of these alternate means. When contacting us, please be sure to provide us with as much information as possible. Make sure to note the exact type of hardware that you are using in your system, including: your version of Windows, your sound card, CD-ROM drive, amount of RAM present, speed and manufacturer of your processor, and the specific type of modem that you are using (for questions involving the Internet). If your computer is a Macintosh, please be sure to note the specific model number of your system, and the version of the Mac OS you are using. Also, make sure to include the title and version of the game, and a detailed description of the problem. You can reach our Technical Support department by calling (415) 448-8000. We are available to help you Monday-Thursday from 8:45 a.m.-11:45 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.-5:30 p.m. On Friday we are available from 8:45 a.m.-11:45 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m. (Pacific Time). 3) Technical Support Fax For your convenience, we also offer the option of faxing your technical questions to (415) 448-8999. Please be sure to include all the information about your computer and problem, as requested above. When sending us a fax, please include your name, return fax number with the area code, and a voice phone number so we can contact you if we experience any problems when trying to fax you back. 4) Technical Support Mailing Address Lucas Learning Ltd. P.O. Box 10667 San Rafael, CA 94912 Attn: Product Support C) Ordering Lucas Learning Products The complete line of Lucas Learning products may be ordered by visiting www.lucaslearning.com. Come see what's new! ############################################################### (C) Lucas Learning Ltd. and its licensors. (C) Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All rights reserved. Used under authorization.