ͻ
                                              
  Quick manual and troubleshooting guide for  
                                              
       FUTURE DIMENSION   by   CREW242        
                                              
 (c) 1995 by Crew242    (c) 1995 by Lifetimes 
                                              
ͼ

 ===> Distributors/Publishers for this and other great games (Business
      Simulations, Strategic Games, Role Playing Games, Adventures) all
      over the world wanted. See below.

ͻ
 First INSTALL Future dimension, then start with                          
 Start: FDD [/C] (for Setup)                                              
                                                                          
 System Requirements: pentium/486/386 or AT+ compatibles at 33+ Mhz       
                                                                          
                      1600 KBytes EMS (recommended) or 768 KBytes XMS     
                                                                          
                      250'000 Bytes DOS memory with EMS & NoSound/GUS     
                      540'000 Bytes DOS memory with EMS & SB/SBPro        
                      570'000 Bytes DOS memory with EMS & other cards     
                      590'000 Bytes DOS memory with XMS & GUS only        
                                                                          
                      VGA/MCGA Adapter                                    
                                                                          
                      Mouse/Joystick/Keyboard                             
                                                                          
                      CD-ROM drive with Multimedia Extension              
                                                                          
                      SB/SBPro/SB16/PAS+/16/Gravis UltraSound (1 MB) rec. 
                                                                          
                      EMS manager (EMM386/QEMM386/Windows) recommended    
                                                                          
                      DOS 5.0+ and MSCDEX 2.22+ recommended               
                                                                          
                      Smartdrive 5.0+ (CD-ROM caching) recommended        
                                                                          
 For all soundcards except GUS: 1600 KBytes EMS must be available         
 & EMM386: It must be set EMM386.EXE D=48 option in your CONFIG.SYS       
 & MS Windows: It must be set DMABufferSize=048 in Windows' SYSTEM.INI    
 Gravis UltraSound & Windows: DMA does not work. Use channel 0 for no DMA 
                                                                          
                                                                          
 Keyboard controls:                                                       
                                                                          
    Esc      = Quit                                                       
    Pause    = Pause                                                      
    Cursor   = Direction Control                                          
    Space    = Smart Bomb                                                 
    Ctrl     = Fire                                                       
    CapsLock = Permanent Fire                                             
    Alt      = Change Input Device                                        
    F1 or F  = Switch FX Mode                                             
    F2 or M  = Switch Music Mode                                          
                                                                          
ͼ



Thanx to beta testers, friends & cheerleaders:

    Yves Braun, Thomas Meyhack, Philippe Deecke, Maurizio Palumbo
    Timo Ludwig, Arjan Brussee, Oliver Kferstein, Christian Kndig
    Tim Sweeney, Kewl John Ricochet Smith <grin> ;)



Troubleshooting guide & game support:

If you want to know what's new for the game then check out the
CompuServe Forum of Lifetimes with "GO LIFETIMES".
For problems check troubleshooting guide below first.

 1. Problem:    If I want to play with joystick, my ship steers always in
                one direction although I dont do anything?
    Solution:   At startup with fdd.bat or fd.exe the joystick should be
                in central position because it autocalibrates at startup.

 2. Problem:    My Screen remains black?
    Solution:   Check the horizontal centering in the setup or try the
                option 'short playfield' for laptop screens.

 3. Problem:    My soundcard does not work?
    Solution:   Check all values for your soundcard in the setup first.

 4. Problem:    Why isn't there any autodetection for soundcards, base port,
                dma number, irq number and that stuff I don't know?
    Solution:   An autodetection routine cannot be save enough that means
                that programs often crash while autodetecting because they
                run amuck at I/O ports and if there are some sensitive
                cards for networks, SCSI, cache controllers they simply
                lock up. You can be sure that the numbers required for your
                soundcard are easy to find in the soundcard's manual.

 5. Problem:    The sound on my Soundblaster seems to be slower if some
                animations run on the screen?
    Solution:   This is a problem that shows up in average on 1 of 100
                Computers. It seems that the problem is located in the BIOS
                or the CD-ROM device driver. During harddisk or CD-ROM
                access they clear all IRQ's, that the soundroutine needs
                to play at proper speed. You may try to update your BIOS
                or your CD-ROM device driver.

 6. Problem:    I have problems to make the sound work?
    Solution:   Try different DMA and IRQ numbers. Check the right
                Baseport. Especially the DMA number can cause problems.
                Gravis UltraSound allows the numbers 0,1,3,5,6,7.
                0 means NO DMA, 1,3 are 8-bit channels and 5,6,7 are
                16-bit channels. The main difference is that 16-bit is
                4 times faster than NO DMA and twice as fast as 8-bit.
                Unfortunately some ISA mainboards with special Chipsets
                do not work with 16-bit DMA. This problem is known for
                some Opti Chipsets.

 7. Problem:    When I want to hear CD sound while playing it always abrupts
                immediately without fading out?
    Solution:   The CD sound is mixed by the soundcard. Check if
                1. you are listening directly to the CD-ROM drive with
                   earphones or with chinch connection. You should connect
                   you CD-ROM line output with your soundcard's CD input
                   or if not available with your soundcard's line input.
                   Then you must take the output of the soundcard to listen
                   to it.
                2. your soundcard does have a mixer compatible to
                   Soundblaster Pro. If not then you can only look out for
                   new soundcard driver releases for Future Dimension.
                   It is intended to release a driver for PAS and for
                   Soundblaster AWE32 some time.
                3. you have a Gravis UltraSound Board Version before 3.7
                   You can figure that out by looking at the soundcard.
                   There are some remarks like ASSEMBLED IN CANADA
                   BY ADVANCED GRAVIS AND FORTE and the version number
                   REVISION 3.4 or something between 1.0 and 3.7 or higher.
                   Unfortunately only boards with a number 3.7 or above
                   does have a mixer built in. For older boards there is
                   only the possibility to upgrade with a 16-bit
                   daughtercard or to get a new card, eg. UltraSound MAX.
                4. you have got any soundcard at all. If not we recommend
                   following cards dependent on quality and compatibility:
                   Best quality: Gravis UltraSound MAX, Gravis UltraSound
                   Good quality: Pro Audio Spectrum +/16, Soundblaster 16
                   Medium quality: Soundblaster Pro
                   Low quality: Soundblaster (mono)

 8. Problem:    When I want to change the FX volume in the Options Menu
                it does not take effect immediately?
    Solution:   When using a Soundblaster the FX volume change does take
                effect after the next change of a song. This is a problem
                of performance because the FX samples must be recalculated.

 9. Problem:    Some FX sound really bad actually they sound like
                random noise?
    Solution:   You are using a Gravis UltraSound that has less than
                1 MB onboard memory. For proper output you need 1 MB.
                You can easily upgrade by adding some DRAMs to your board.

10. Problem:    After I have changed a song in the Music Menu, I cannot
                hear FX anymore in the main menu?
    Solution:   This is not an error. In the Music Menu FX are not loaded
                to speed up song changes.

11. Problem:    Sometimes the gameplay slows extremely down especially
                in higher levels?
    Solution:   You are obviously using XMS. This is not to recommend
                especially if your computer is slow anyway (< 486 50Mhz).
                Make at least 1488 kbytes EMS available by installing
                a memory manager, eg. EMM386, QEMM386, 386MAX.

12. Problem:    The animations are not smooth at all on my system?
    Solution:   With full installation you need a harddisk that performs
                at least 600 Kbytes per second. This is quite slow for a
                harddisk that you can assume that your harddisk is fast
                enough. Try to defragment your harddisk or avoid disk space
                doubler, eg. double space, etc.
                With minimum installation you need a CD-ROM drive that
                performs at least 300 Kbytes per second (double speed).
                Try to use a CD-ROM cache program, eg. buffered device
                driver, Smartdrv 5.0.

13. Problem:    The CD-ROM sound does not work?
    Solution:   There could be several reasons. Check if
                1. you have properly chosen the CD-ROM sound in the setup.
                   Switch to CD SOUND MIXED in the Game Options of the setup.
                2. your CD-ROM is audio connected to your soundcard.
                   Refer to your CD-ROM's and soundcard's manual to
                   establish an internal audio connection.
                   Note: The audio connection is not provided by the use
                         of the CD-ROM interface on your soundcard.
                         It is necessary to make a seperate connection.
                3. there has been an error message.
                   - If not, chances are that your CD-ROM driver does not
                     meet the specifications although it passes all checks.
                     In this case you cannot use CD-ROM sound output.
                   - An error message can be one out of 3 categories:
                     - CD-ROM drive not ready
                       Put in an audio CD or close the tray. Make sure that
                       you use unit 0 if your CD-ROM drive can handle
                       multiple CDs.
                     - No CD-ROM or MSCDEX.EXE not present
                       Make sure that you have properly installed MSCDEX.EXE
                       (Microsoft CD-ROM Extension for DOS).
                     - No multimedia abilities
                       In this case you cannot use CD-ROM sound output.



Last hints and tips:

1. If you use a PAS+/16 or SB16 you should set your individual
   Gain (x2,x3,x4) with the tools shipped with your soundcard.
   Future Dimension doesn't change this value not to replace the default.
   It is also not recommended to use the built in bass boost because
   the heavy bass of the game even the CD sound may easily crash.

2. If you use a PAS+/16 or SB16 and the sound stops or slows extremely down
   then your system is overloaded because the calculations for the sounds
   are very heavy. The sound routine performs 16 voices with 16 bit,
   stereo panning, interpolation and 44100 Hz and if you do not have a
   high end system it is recommended to use a samplingrate < 44100 Hz.
   In case of the SB16 a 16 bit sound is only possible by using a DMA
   number between 5-7.

3. If you have several CD-ROM drives in your system you can select
   the correct drive by setting the DOS drive letter manually.
   For example you have 2 CD-ROM drives D: and E:, then Future Dimension
   would automatically use drive D: but you can force drive E: by the
   option '/E:', eg. 'FDD /E:'
   
4. With a 4x speed CD-ROM drive you have enough performance potential
   (600 Kb/s) to use animations of higher quality even with minimum
   installation. Use option '/4', eg. 'FDD /4'. If you do not use it
   the first time after installation then you have to use option '-'
   once too.

5. Combining Himem/EMM386, Mitsumi double speed CD-ROM, animations from
   CD-ROM (Minimum Installation), SB/SBPro/SB16/PAS+/16 sound and
   option /X (XMS) with the Mitsumi device driver will cause a system crash,
   because the XMS manager (HIMEM.SYS) cannot handle CD- and sound requests
   properly. You can eliminate this error avoiding the option /X or replacing
   the XMS manager  (Qemm, etc.).



We're looking for distributors/publishers all over the world. If you're
interested, please contact Mr. Joerg Walkowiak at LIFETIMES for details.

And the other way round: you have written a great game? Or your company has
no distribution in Germany, Austria and Switzerland? Fine, we're interested!



LIFETIMES/Expert Software               Tel. 49-2361-36267
Pestalozzistrasse 6                     Fax: 49-2361-652744
D-45661 Recklinghausen                  BBS: 49-2361-373214
Germany                               EMail: 74431.712@CompuServe.COM
                                 CompuServe: "GO LIFETIMES"




