Amazon Trail(R) Copyright(c) 1996, MECC(R) and its licensors All Rights Reserved Version 1.1 This README file is provided as a reference document to help you setup your Windows environment or fix problems that you are having with Amazon Trail. Included in this document: - WINDOWS 95 SETUP - WINDOWS 3.1x, WFW 3.11 & WINDOWS NT SETUP - SOUND AND MUSIC - TROUBLE SHOOTING - SOUNDTRACK - MECC DEMOS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WINDOWS 95 1. To setup Amazon Trail, insert the CD in the drive. An AutoRun screen should appear. Click on the "Setup" button. If the AutoRun screen does not appear, Click on the "START" button, select Run and type "D:\setup" (substitute the correct drive letter if your CD drive is not "D:"). 2. Follow the on-screen instructions. 3. Amazon Trail installation places an icon in the Start menu under the MECC program group: Amazon Trail Icon 4. Installation is now complete; select the "Amazon Trail" icon to start the program. WINDOWS 95 Notes: - If you choose to reinstall Amazon Trail, use the Windows 95 Control Panel to uninstall Amazon Trail before reinstalling. - When the Amazon Trail CD is inserted, an Amazon Trail logo screen will appear with "Setup," "Run," "Demos," and "Exit" buttons at the bottom. If the logo appears without buttons, try resizing the Window until the buttons appear. If the buttons are still not visable, change your screen font to "small fonts" (in Control Panel/Display settings). If problems still exist, start Windows 95 Explorer, open the Amazon CD folder, open the WIN32 folder and double-click on the SETUP32.EXE file. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WINDOWS 3.1x, WFW 3.11 & WINDOWS NT 1. To set up Amazon Trail, run the SETUP.EXE program from the CD. For example, Select "Run" from the FILE menu and type "D:\setup". 2. Amazon Trail installation places an icon in the MECC program group: Amazon Trail Icon 3. Installation is now complete; double-click on the "Amazon Trail" icon to start the program. There are product demos for other MECC products on this CD. Please see the section of this document that describes them. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Requirements - 486 or higher - 4 MB RAM, 8MB RAM highly recommended - DOS 5.0 or later - Windows 3.1 or later - Double-speed CD-ROM - 256 colors, 640 x 480 - Windows-compatible sound card - Video for Windows 1.1e (supplied on the CD) Warning: If you are using Windows 95 or Windows for Workgroups, 8MB of RAM is highly recommended. ========= MEMORY - RAM =============================== Amazon Trail requires a minimum of 4 megabytes of random access memory (RAM) to operate. Check that available memory is adequate. Although Windows allows you to run more than one application simultaneously, it is highly recommended that you close everything else to release all available memory when you run Amazon Trail. If you do not have a permanent swap file setup it is recommended that you create one. ========== VIDEO DISPLAY ================================ Amazon Trail prefers 256 colors in a screen resolution of at least 640 x 480. Amazon Trail can be run in 65k color mode, but performance will be diminished. (In 256 colors, graphics can be written directly to the screen. With 65K colors or more, the graphics must be built off-screen and then displayed. If the display is painted in large sections, then a 256 color driver is not in use.) To install the preferred 256-color video driver, use the "Windows Setup" icon (setup.exe) and take the following steps (note: setup.exe can also be accessed from DOS when in the windows directory) : 1. Locate your video card manufacturer's display drivers disk. 2. Find your Windows disks. 3. Find the Windows Setup Icon (setup.exe) in the Main Group. 4. Select Change System Settings from the Options menu. 5. In the pop-up menu, locate the Other Drivers selection. 6. Specify the drive and/or directory of the video display drivers disk. 7. Select the driver which supports 640 x 480 in 256 colors and click OK. 8. You may need to insert some of the Windows disks for fonts, etc. 9. To change to any other video mode, simply follow steps 1 through 8 for whatever mode required. 10. Once the above steps are completed, restart Windows. Note that current drivers may be obtained directly from the video card manufacturer or from bulletin boards that are often setup by the video board manufacturers. Bulletin boards are databases that are accessible via a modem. Problems with specific video cards are described in the Trouble Shooting section at the end of this file. ====== SOUND and MUSIC ================================= There are a great number of manufacturers of MPC sound cards of varying qualities. 1. Amazon Trail will have a small amount of "white noise" or background hiss when playing digitized sound effects and speech. It should not "crackle," "pop" or "motorboat." 2. If sound or music fails to play at all or the quality is still not as expected, then try reinstalling your sound card drivers as follows: Locate your manufacturer's driver disk for the sound card. Also check your manual for any information regarding installation. Usually there is a set procedure for installation and most of the steps are done for you. Follow the manufacturer's procedures for installation which usually works. However if the manufacturer's installation doesn't work or is incomplete, the following describes a more "manual" installation process: 1. Keep your Windows 3.1 disks handy. They're often needed for hardware installations. 2. Find the Windows "Control Panel." 3. Find the Drivers Icon. 4. Find the Add button and click on it. 5. Find and select "Other." 6. Insert your sound card manufacturer's driver disk. 7. Click on OK and follow the prompts. 8. If necessary, delete older drivers. Once the above steps are completed, restart Windows. 9. Try installing Amazon Trail again or try the Sound Test to see if there is any improvement. ===== TROUBLE SHOOTING =============================== Description: Amazon Trail won't complete its installation. Solution #1: Check the surface of the CD-ROM (the shiny side) for any smudges, scratches, fingerprints, peanut butter or other foreign substances. Anything that can bend or obstruct light can cause incorrect data to be read. Description: The Amazon Trail title screen comes up but I can't continue. Solution #2: Three buttons should appear at the bottom of the title screen. Those buttons allow you to start the game. If those buttons don't appear you probably have a video card with an S3 chip. If that is the case try the most recent video driver for that card. You may also you the generic S3 864 video driver. Description: The Amazon Trail locks up at the title screen. Solution #3: Three buttons should appear at the bottom of the title screen. Those buttons allow you to start the game. If those buttons don't appear you probably have a video card with an S3 chip. If that is the case try the most recent video driver for that card. You may also you the generic S3 864 video driver. Description: Cannot hear any sound or music. Solution #4: Try using the MEDIA PLAYER that comes with Windows 3.1 This will allow you to try MIDI or WAVE sounds (there are some .mid and .wav files in the Windows directory for you to try). From Program Manager select RUN and type MPLAYER CANYON.MID Hit the play button and you should hear music. If you still don't hear anything, this means that the problem is not just Amazon Trail but may be the connection between your sound card and your speakers. Check all your connections with speakers, headphones and volume controls. Solution #5: "No. I'm still not hearing any sounds." - Take a look at the software mixer in Windows that came with your sound card Are the sliders for MIDI and WAVE turned up? Is the master volume control turned up? If you still are not hearing sound/music, contact your computer and/or hardware manufacturer. Description: Amazon Trail was working before, but now it isn't! Solution #6: Check the surface of the Amazon Trail CD-ROM (the shiny side) for any smudges, scratches, fingerprints, peanut butter or other foreign substances. Anything that can bend or obstruct light can cause incorrect data to be read and can cause some very bizarre errors to occur. Description : A "System Error Cannot read from drive D" error message appears. Solution #7: This error will occur if the Amazon Trail CD is NOT in the drive or if the CD is dirty or damaged. Clean the CD and check for any damage. Please check with your computer vendor for other suggestions for getting the drive to read the CD. Description: "Inadequate video mode" error at program startup Solution #8: This error occurs on systems using ATI Mach 64 video drivers. User's current video mode indicates 256 colors, however Amazon Trail/Windows does not detect the video mode as a 256-color video mode. Unfortunately, at the time of this release a solution is not available. MECC is continuing to investigate what appears to be a video driver problem. As soon as a solution is available, MECC will add it to the 24-hour Automated Technical Support System and also post the solution on America-On-Line BBS (keyword MECC). Description: Amazon Trail freezes at startup Solution #9: Delete the file "amazon.cfg" in the Windows directory. Relaunch the program. GENERAL TROUBLESHOOTING TIPS! Rule #1 is to eliminate as may variables as possible! - In Amazon Trail, try turning off Sound and Music - does the error still occur? - Are any other programs running in the background? Hold down the Ctrl & Esc keys to bring up Windows task list. Close all applications except Program Manager. Then start Amazon Trail. - DOS 6.0 and above allow users to step through the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files, answering Yes or No for each line. When your computer is starting up, a "Loading MS-DOS" message appears. Hold down the F8 key to step through these system files. Do not attempt this if you do not know what each line is doing. - If you are experiencing display problems, disable background programs and make sure you have the latest video drivers for your system. NOTE: Check to make sure you have the latest Windows video & sound drivers for the video and sound cards installed in your computer. Check the documentation that came with your video card or sound card for information on obtaining updated drivers. MECC Technical Support is available through the following: 1. 24-Hour Automated Technical Support System. 1-612-569-1678 2. E-Mail. When sending a technical support request via E-Mail, please be sure to include detailed information about the problem you are having and include the following: (examples for MAC & Windows systems) Platform: Windows Macintosh Computer Type/Model: Gateway 2000 Performa 6115CD Operating System: Windows 3.1 System 7.5 RAM: 8 Meg 8 Meg Video Driver: CL GD5426/28 Sound Card: Ensoniq Contact MECC Technical Support online at: America Online. keyword MECC Internet. http://www.mecc.com/ E-Mail. mecctech@mecc.com ===== Amazon Trail Soundtrack ====================== This Amazon Trail CD contains a number of audio tracks that can be played with your CD-ROM drive or a standard audio CD player. On an audio-only CD player, start playing at Track 2. Enjoy. (Warning: Track 1 is where the computer data resides; your CD player will either make no sound_or_ play continuous noise!) Track Title 2 Xingu River 3 Santarem 4 Trombetas 5 Manaus 6 Ica 7 Iquitos 8 Apurimac 9 Vilcabamba 10 Celebration ===== Mecc Demos on CD ====================== To run the MECC Demos from File Manager: 1. Open File Manager 2. Open the Amazon Trail CD 3. Open the WINDEMO folder To run the AFRICA TRAIL demo, do the following: -Open the AFRICAD folder -Double-click the file AT.EXE to launch the demo. To run the MAYA QUEST demo, do the following: -Open the MAYAD folder -Double-click the file MQ_ENG.EXE to launch the demo. To run the MATH MUNCHERS demo, do the following: -Open the MMUNCHD folder -Double-click the file MM_DEMO.EXE to launch the demo. To run the OPENING NIGHT demo, do the following: -Open the OPENINGD folder -Double-click the file OPENING.EXE to launch the demo. To run the TESSELMANIA demo, do the following: -Open the TSMANIAD folder -Double-click the file TSSMANIA.EXE to launch the demo. To run the STORYBOOK WEAVER DELUXE demo, do the following: -Open the SBWDWIND folder -Double-click the file SBW.EXE to launch the demo. To run the OREGON TRAIL II demo, do the following: -Open the OTIID folder -Double-click the file GEN_WIN.EXE to launch the demo. ===== End ========================================================