

                     *** Starfight - README.TXT ***


  Includes :     I. introduction
                II. system requirements
               III. optional extras
                IV. game keyboard commands
                 V. troubleshooting
               VI. credits
              VII. other "a game isn't a game without" crapp


                Important : 1st relase information 
                
        This demostration is first commerial relase. It still has a huge 
  pile of bugs in it. Please remember this and be patient if you encounter 
  problems. Bugs fixed if found and considered serious.  


                Section I - introduction
        
        Starfight is a simple small game, including an adventure section 
   and a few shoot 'em up sections. Feaures :     

        * 320x200 256-coloured VGA/MCGA graphics, all rendered or hand-drawn
        * Stillshots also in 640x400 and 800x600 SVGA modes
        * programmed fully with Turbo Pascal 7.0 : no Assembler at all !
          This provides extremely slow performance and a lot of crashes,
          bugs and compability problems.
        * CD-quality digital wave-table MIDI-music with Gravis Ultrasound
          and Gravis Ultrasound MAX sound boards.
        * lot of rendered "Full Motion Video" by JP-Cinematic video 
          compression system.
        * compelling storyline with a lot of stolen aspects
        * poor game testing
        * Windows 95-incompability
        * no joystick support !
        * no support for crappy Sound blaster cards
          (no support on any other sound cards either, by the way)
        * about 20 Megabytes of other crappy code
        * ... and many other interesting aspects
        

                Section II - system requirements

        Due to the slow Pascal-generated code, the system requirements of the  
 game are extremely high. The minimum system for acceptable performance is as 
 followed :

        * 486 DX2 66MHZ processor
        * A SVGA video card, cabaple showing all following video modes :
          320x200 256c, 640x400 256c, 800x600 256c.
        * 500K free conventional memory (600K if music wanted)
        * about 2.5 Mb of free hard disk space
        * 2 Mb of SMARTDRIVE loaded for FMV-scenes to work well


                Section III - optional extras

 Recommended configuration would be :

        * 486 DX2 80MHZ or 486 DX4 100MHZ processor
        * a fast VLB or PCI SVGA-video card (a card, that is not a
          Cirrus Logic - accelerated)
        * 600K of free conventional memory and 100K of free EMS
        * Gravis Ultrasound of Gravis Ultrasound MAX sound card with
          1 Mb of memory
        * 2 Mb of SMARTDRIVE with 30 or more buffers loaded for maximum
          HDD-performance


                Section IV - game keyboard commands

        The game can only be controlled with the keyboard. You'd best use
 the numeric keypad (no NUM-LOCK !). Keyboard commands  are all listed here :

     1. The adventure section

        Keys :

        Left and right arrows : move left and right
                     Spacebar : look an object
                        Enter : interact with an object
                            I : inventory
                   Left shift : overview of a place
                  Numbers 1-9 : game speed (9:fastest, 1 slowest)

        General info :

        - When you are able to interact or look at an object, the
          lining around the text window starts blinking.
        - Please prefer NUMERIC KEYPAD over the common arrows, since
          the game doesn't work otherwise on some systems.
        - Do not hold down any keys, while the music or next place is
          loaded from the HD. The music might stop or the game might
          hang.
        - If you are bored walking around, make the game faster by
          using the numbers (1-9)

     2. The Shooting sections

        Keys :

                   Arrow keys : move (and accelerate) the ship
               Control (CTRL) : Shoot laser
   Middle 5 on numeric keypad : anti matter brake
                            C : communications
                  Numbers 1-9 : game speed (9:fastest, 1 slowest)

        General info :

        - Please prefer NUMERIC KEYPAD over the common arrows.
          This makes the gameplay much easier.
        - Always read the mission briefings and use C-key to
          communicate.
        - Adjust the game speed by pressing numbers from 1 to 9



                Section V - troubleshooting

        General problems :

         Problem  :
        Game crashes
         Solution :
        Press RESET-button or turn the power off, and DO NOT TINKER
        WITH THE BATCH FILES ! Ah, well... Let's get serious. If the
        game really crashes, then do the next trick : delete all .INI
        files from the game directory and run the game. The setup
        will re-run. In there, fail the 640x400 video test. It should
        work then. It is also possible, that if you don't have a GUS,
        the game may crash, when trying to play music. So disable GUS
        from the setup program. Still problems ? Try a boot described
        as followed :
        (C:\DOS is supposed to be your DOS directory)

            CONFIG.SYS:

           DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS
           DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE RAM
           FILES=40
           BUFFERS=25

            AUTOEXEC.BAT:

           @ECHO OFF
           <Your path-setting goes here>
           <Your GUS driver lines go here, if you have a GUS>
           <Your mouse driver goes here>
           C:\DOS\SMARTDRV 2048 /X


         Problem  :
        Game reports "Mode not supported on this video card"
         Solution :
        Get a better video card (a non Cirrus Logic card) or
        fail 640x400 test from the SETUP.

         Problem  :
        GUS doesn't work
         Solution :
        Make sure, that you have at least 600K of free conventional
        memory and a bit of EMS. Also make sure, that your GUS is properly
        set up (ULTRASND and ULTRADIR - variables). Also, run setup program
        to enable the GUS music and disable all GUS emulations, like MEGA-EM,
        ULTRAMID or SBOS.

         Problem  :
        The game is too slow
         Solution :
        Adjust the game speed by pressing numbers trough 1 to 0 (1 = slowest
        0 = fastest). Or buy a new computer.

        Still problems ? Write to JP-Productions and make a full report of
        your problem. Problem will be considered when making an update to
        the game. And don't worry if you cannot play Starfight. You're
        missing nothing too wonderful.

         Problem  :
        I have WINDOWS 95 and the game reports "not enough memory"
         Solution :
        Make sure that you have enough RAM and ignore this message by 
        pressing ESC. Or format your HDD and re-install MS-DOS 6 or       
        later.
        
         Problem :
        I experience palette flickering on my S3-accelerator based video card
         Solution :       
        Ignore this. I had this same problem while testing. It has something to  
        do with conflicts between motherboard BIOS and video card VGA bios and
        DAC. I'll try to fix this when/IF the update will appear.


                Section VI - Credits

        Programmer : Jukka Paajanen

             Music : Mainly borrowed from Internet and
                     MIDI-collections

          Graphics : Jukka Paajanen
                     Mikko Paajanen

       Produced by : JP-Production

           Testing : Antti Hmlinen
                     Aleksi "FALCON" Jokinen
                     Mikko Paajanen

     Distribution  : Olli Martikainen

      No thanks to : Puumala high-school
                     Intel
                     Microsoft
                     IBM
                     Creative labs


                Section VII - other crapp

        This software may be copied freely. All rights of modificating
 this product are reserved by JP-Productions.

        Starfight is a registered trademark of JP-Productions. Windows 95,
 MS-DOS and Smartdrive are a registered trademarks of Microsoft. Turbo
 Pascal is a registered trademark of Borland Inc. Gravis Ultrasound and
 Gravis Ultrasound MAX are trademarks of Advanced Gravis Inc. Cirrus Logic
 is a registered trademark of Cirrus. Sound Blaster is a trade mark of
 Creative Labs. All rights are reserved by their respective owners.

        Public Domain makers are kept alive on YOUR support !
        All mail conserning this product can be send to :

                  JP-Productions Inc.
                  Sarkatie 23
                  52200 Puumala
                  Finland

        Note : All letter bombs will be returned to sender !

                      *** End of the README.TXT ***



