                     F15 Strike Eagle III

                   *** Version 4108.03 ***


** NOTES **

o Modem play users that are having problems connecting may find it 
  useful to change the modem initialization string.  This is 
  accomplished by editing the file MODEM.INI


** CHANGES **:

o Special mission support has been added to allow players to recreate
  the recent coalition strike activity in Iraq.  To access these 
  missions, pick the Desert Storm area from the Theaters screen.
  From there, select the "IRAQ '93" button and you will be given
  one of the new missions.  See also the file "IRAQ93.TXT" for some
  in-depth historical background.

o Rudder Pedals are now supported in the Authentic Flight model.

o The Gold Sound Standard is now supported for sound & digital speech.

o Conventional memory usage has been reduced significantly at the
  expense of slightly higher EMS usage.  Minimum conventional memory
  required is now 581488 bytes (for "no sound").  Minimum EMS required
  is now 786432.  These optimizations have also resulted in a slightly
  higher frame rate.

o Much work has been done to improve the calibration of the joystick
  for the in-flight portions of the game.  This has been done by 
  replacing the convenient automatic calibration routines with a more
  accurate manual calibration procedure.  To do this, the player will 
  now be directed to go through a process of moving the joystick
  (and throttles or rudders) to the extremes.  This will happen when
  the in-flight portion of the game is first accessed after installing.
  It will also happen when new joystick options are chosen from the 
  in-game menu bar.  Finally, the recalibration routine may also be 
  called up from within the game with the hot key "ALT-J".  The 
  calibration values will be saved between successive game sessions,
  thus minimizing the requirement for recalibration.

  The new calibration routines include a "dead zone" for handling 
  joysticks that do not return to center well.  Users that find it
  difficult to maintain level flight should increase the size of the
  dead zone.  Note that this does come at the expense of decreased
  joystick sensitivity and range.  The default setting is for no 
  dead zone and maximum sensitivity.

  Due to these improvements, the joystick will no longer be available 
  for moving the cursor around in the wrapper screens.  Use the mouse
  or keyboard for this purpose.

** FIXES **:

o Previously, the program would hang or generate unusual hard disk 
  error messages when run on certain Gateway local bus computers
  that made use of non-standard memory areas.  F15 III has been 
  changed to work around this non-standard hardware. 

o The Congressional Medal of Honor animation will no longer crash.

o When flying near to the carrier group or the battleship group, the
  game will no longer hang.  

o Code has been fixed that produced a program hang in the "hangar"
  screen.

o Early versions of AHead video cards had a bug in their video bios
  that caused a hang when running F15 III.  This version of the 
  program includes a work-around for their bug.

o After the running the program with EMM386 EMS support, the MEM
  command would no longer show drivers and TSR's loaded into upper 
  memory areas.  This is fixed.

o With IBM Speaker sound, using Alt-P to pause the game would cause
  the engine sound to stop.  Also, the gear up/down sound would not
  stop correctly.  These have been fixed.

o Enemy planes that have been hit and are in the process of crashing 
  to the ground will no longer be considered for AWACS pictures.

o The Padlock view (F8) will now only "lock" onto planes within 
  visual range (about 20-22 nm).

o When playing at overall difficulty levels higher than "EASY", the
  standard flight model autopilot will now actually land the plane 
  when the next sequence point is the home base.  This is as 
  described in the manual.

o When using the Authentic Flight Model, higher altitude will now 
  have a positive effect on fuel consumption.  This is reflected in
  the Fuel Flow section of the Engine Management Display.

o Page 4 of the Technical Supplement makes reference to "EMM386.SYS".
  This should be "EMM386.EXE".

o Co-op modem play scoring has been corrected as has the Medal of 
  Honor.

o Previously, the HUD FLIR display would continue working when the
  Nav Pod was destroyed in the Pilot View and the Padlock View.  
  This has been fixed to correspond to the regular HUD.

o In the Briefing screen, the coordinates of the friendly bases are
  now correct.

o The Purple Heart will no longer be awarded when in Training.

o The boot disk maker will now work properly when selecting "no
  mouse".

o The boot disk maker will now work properly when run from the 
  installation disks.
 


                   *** Version 4108.02 ***

o Previously, if the Install program was run without an EMS manager
  running, it would hang after the modem configuration screen.  The
  new Install program corrects this.

                   *** Version 4108.01 ***

Last Minute Additions & Corrections:

o The DECLINE MISSION option is not available in modem play.

o Joysticks with analog throttle wheels are not supported when in
  Front Seat-Back Seat modem play.

o Users of Back Seat-Front Seat modem mode should make sure that they
  have selected the same level of ROLL RATE (standard or authentic),
  if using the authentic flight model.  They should also be certain
  to have the same level of detail set for MTN DETAIL.



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