Thank you for looking at Santa's Rescue 3D! Santa's Rescue 3D is three dimensional high quality family game for the IBM-PC. Santa has been kidnapped by the evil ice wizard. Explore the North Pole forests, and Santa's castle, undoing the wrongs done by the ice wizard. Finally, rescue Santa, and save Christmas! Requires 386-33 or faster, DOS or Windows 95, Sound Blaster optional. Pie in the Sky Software 1596 Ayrault Rd Fairport, NY 14450 This game was created with the Pie 3D Game Creation System! You can create games like this with NO Programming! Type GCSINFO At the DOS prompt for more information. We can be reached via email at pie@transit.nyser.net If all the files listed below are in a directory on a hard drive or CDROM, and the install.exe program is run, then installation will proceed without any need to put the files on floppy disk first. When the files are arranged on floppy disks as follows, users can install the game by typing A:INSTALL at a DOS prompt. They will then be prompted for the second disk. Contents of Disk 1: ------------------- 10521971.exe ( self extracting .exe to be called by INSTALL.EXE ) file_id.diz install.exe license.doc readme.txt ( This file ) vendor.doc Contents of Disk 2: -------------------- 10521972.exe ( another self-extractor ) Windows 95? ----------- No problem, just follow the instructions that come up when you try to run the game. To get sound to work, you will probably have to run in MS_DOS mode, or possibly use the BOOTDISK program to ask Windows 95 to make a DOS boot disk for you. SOUND TOO LOUD? --------------- Santa's Rescue 3D leaves your volume settings exactly as you last set them. If you need to change volume of sound effects, music or both, please consult your sound card manual. Most sound cards come with DOS utilities to adjust volume levels. Windows utilities won't work, however, because when you exit Windows, it will reset your volume settings to the settings when you entered Windows. We have included the program VOLUME.EXE which you can use to set the volumes of your sound card. This program can be used by typing the values in, or also using command line options, in case you want to make a batch file that sets your sound volume levels. The VOLUME program sets the standard SB Pro volume levels. Many sound cards have other volume controls that override the SB pro levels. See your sound card manual for more info on changing your sound levels. To use VOLUME, just type VOLUME. Problems running the game? -------------------------- GAME REPORTS BAD INSTALLATION/MISSING DATA DIRECTORY ---------------------------------------------------- DID YOU USE THE INSTALL.EXE PROGRAM TO INSTALL THE SOFTWARE? If not, then probably your directory structure was not preserved. When the files are installed correct, there should be a subdirectory called 'DATA' on your hard drive. If that is not present, then the Santa's Rescue game will not work. If you unzipped the game from an SANTA3D.ZIP file, make sure that you use the '-d' flag with pkunzip, or else this subdirectory will not be created. It is possible that somebody besides us rezipped these files and didn't realize that the DATA subdirectory had to stay intact. If you suspect this, then get our original game from our BBS (716)425-2962, or our FTP site: ftp.psky.com BLUE MEMORY WARNING SCREEN COMES UP? ------------------------------------ If the blue memory warning screen comes up immediately after typing SANTA'S RESCUE 3D, then you probably need to change your computer's memory configuration or make a boot disk on floppy with the BOOTDISK.EXE program. However, due to the huge variety of sound cards, you will have to copy the sound card driver lines from your C: drive CONFIG.SYS file to the CONFIG.SYS file on your boot floppy, however. The boot disk program will attempt to take care of the mouse driver too, but this might not work, in this case you will have to find where your mouse driver is loaded in your CONFIG.SYS file or AUTOEXEC.BAT file, and put this in the CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT file on your boot floppy. GAME FAILS WITH CRITICAL ERROR (blue screen with blinking numbers ) -------------------------------------------------------------------- If you get Critical Error #165, then you either don't have any EMS or XMS memory, or else your sound card is either not Sound Blaster compatible, or your card IS compatible but the sound card driver is not loaded. Some sound cards need to have some driver loaded in your config.sys in order to properly act like a Sound Blaster card. If you are getting CE #165, it is worth trying to run with sound off. Also, try the 'pnocomp' commands below... Also check to make sure you have FILES=25 or greater in your config.sys. If you have enough memory to get into the game without the memory message, but the game fails, then try turning the sound off. If it fails after selecting 'Start Game', then try the following command line: pnocomp f pdata c ( for keyboard control ) pnocomp f pdata c m ( for mouse control ) MEMORY ------ NOTE: You can check your current memory status by typing 'MEM' at the DOS prompt. This will report the 'largest executable program size', which is what you need to know. It also reports EMS and XMS RAM available too. This section applies mostly to DOS users. Windows 95 users can fiddle with their CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT if desired, but the BOOTDISK solution is preferable. Memory is the biggest cause of problems. After you get the memory message and exit, type the command 'TYPE MEMFAIL' at the DOS prompt. You will then get a report explaining the short coming. If you don't have any EMS or XMS memory, then you will need HIMEM.SYS or/and EMM386.SYS in your config.sys file. If you don't have enough DOS ram, please read on. If the game refuses to run because of memory limitations, you will have to free up some more memory to run the 3D game portion of the game. But I have 8 Megabytes!!!!!???? If you have 4Meg RAM in your computer, you have more than enough to run the GAME, but the way it is configured is the problem. The amount of memory in your computer is irrelevant because DOS can only use the first 640k of RAM. What matters for DOS programs is how the first 640k is configured. Don't be angry with us for this problem, it isn't our fault. It is Microsoft who never upgraded DOS beyond the initial IBM PC's 640k capabilities! BUT DON'T WORRY --------------- You can bypass the memory test to see the game. If you truly don't have enough conventional RAM free, you can still see the slide show and the info. If you try to run Santa's Rescue 3D, however, you might run into a error message, or it may lock up. If you bypassed the memory test, you may want to try the game with sound off, which uses 8k less memory. HOW TO FREE UP MEMORY --------------------- The game presents you with the option of running our BOOTDISK program to make a bootable floppy that will have enough memory free to run the game. Or, you can read the information below... If you aren't comfortable with editing your config.sys file, then perhaps you have made boot disks for other games. Try 'em out. You'll need one that boots with more than 580k free and an EMS memory driver. Many DOS games have required this in the past. If you do want to try editing your config.sys file, make sure you make a back up copy of your original, and MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A BOOT DISK because if you louse it up, your computer might not boot up. Please use these suggestions as general only. To be sure of what you are doing, consult your DOS manuals. What you'll want in general is to have the following in your config.sys file, which is the root directory of your drive c: ( you of course need to change the following to use the correct name of the DOS directory that you have on your system. ) device=c:\dos\himem.sys rem If the following line has 'NOEMS' on it, TAKE THIS 'NOEMS' out! device=c:\dos\emm386.sys dos=high If you don't have any EMM386.SYS in your DOS directory then, just leave out the 'emm386' line above. The game will run using XMS memory only, but performance will be slightly lower. You may also need to have a sound card driver in there too, in order to get sound to work. You may want to use 'LOADHI' to load this sound driver high. Please refer to your DOS manual on how to load things high. Also, you may want temporarily REM out some of your TSR's in your autoexec.bat file. In particular, the CDROM drivers can take up alot of conventional DOS ram. It may be possible to 'LOADHI' those, so they are still loaded, but in 'high' memory that doesn't use up any of the precious lower 640k. Of course buying a commercial memory manager like QEMM or others will also free up lots of memory, and have extensive manuals packed with info. NOTE: If doing things like the above suggest don't even come close to freeing up enough RAM. If this is the case, then perhaps your hard drive is 'STACKED'. In this case, your RAM is being used up by this compression software. Please consult your manual. Our example CONFIG.SYS for the bootable floppy: This system has a Pro Audio Spectrum 16 sound card by Media Vision DOS=HIGH,UMB FILES=30 STACKS=9,256 SHELL=C:\DOS\COMMAND.COM C:\DOS /P DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE DEVICE=c:\proaudio\mvsound.sys d:3 q:7 s:1,220,1,5 m:0 j:0 Our example AUTOEXEC.BAT for the bootable floppy: PROMPT GCSBOOT $p$g PATH C:\IBMDOS; REM Remove the REM on the next line to speed disk access REM C:\IBMDOS\SMARTDRV.EXE d:\pas16\sympfix C:\DOS\UTIL\IMOUSE