Front Page Sports: Baseball Demonstration, March, 1994 Table of Contents I Hardware Requirements II Installation III Demo Overview IV Navigating The Menus V The Graphical Simulation VI Troubleshooting VII Technical Support VIII Legalities I HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS The Front Page Sports: Baseball Demonstration program requires the following minimum configuration: 100% Compatible IBM 386 running at 33 MHz 100% Compatible IBM VGA Display Adapter Color Monitor Hard Disk Drive with at least 4mb available A 3.5" 1.44mb Floppy Disk Drive 2mb RAM configured to provide at least 571k (585,000 bytes) Conventional Memory and 700k (717,000 bytes) Expanded (EMS) Memory MS-DOS 5.0 or higher The following items are highly recommended: 100% Microsoft Compatible Mouse An Analog Joystick A Dedicated, Speed-Adjustable Joystick Adapter A 100% SoundBlaster Compatible Sound Card Note: The system requirements have not yet been finalized. Some of these requirements (especially memory) for the final shipping version of Front Page Sports: Baseball may differ from those listed above. II INSTALLATION After the installation has finished, you can run the demo by typing the following commands: Type: C: Type: CD\IE\FPS_BASE Type: PLAYBALL (if you do not have a SoundBlaster compatible sound card) -or- Type PLAYBALL -SB (if you have a 100% SoundBlaster compatible sound card) Note: Substitute the appropriate path and/or drive letter in the above instructions if you have installed the demo to a different hard drive or location. III DEMO OVERVIEW Because this is a demonstration of a work in progress, there are many features and functions which either have not yet been implemented or have been removed. There are three parts to this demonstration: 1) The interactive portion of the demo allows you to bat for a half-inning. This is accessed by selecting the Quickstart option on the Main menu, by pressing the CTRL-Q Quickstart key sequence, or by selecting the Play option from the Exhibition Game setup screen. Note that changes to the Exhibition Game setup do not affect the demo. 2) After 3 outs, the "slide-show" portion of the demo is activated. This shows you several of the high resolution ballpark screens as well as listing some of the game features and minimum requirements. This portion can also be activated by selecting the Quit option on the Simulation Control Options menu. The "slide-show" can be cycled through quickly by pressing the ESC key on each screen. During testing, it has been found that holding down a key such as the space bar until the keyboard buffer is full (signified by a beeping on each keypress) to cycle through the "slide-show" can cause the computer to "hang" upon exiting the demo. For best results, do not hold down any keys to cycle through the "slide-show", simply tap the keys in succession. 3) If the demo is left without any user input for about 30 seconds, the self-running portion of the demo is activated. The demo will cycle through the menu screens, a half-inning of batting practice with the computer controlling the batting followed by the slide-show of the game screens and features. This will continue until halted by pressing any key on the keyboard. The self-running portion of the demo takes about 5-7 minutes to complete. IV NAVIGATING THE MENUS The program shell will allow you to view the Exhibition Play, Association Data, Team Data, Team Roster, Team Schedule, and help screens. Some basic functionality has been left on the screens, but they do not save the input data or process in any way. You can view the list of Nearest Cities and Ballparks that will be provided with the basic game. The functions on the menu bar can be activated in several ways, depending upon your input device: Mouse: Simply click the pointer on the menu title and the pulldown menu will appear. Valid choices are in black while choices which are unavailable are "greyed" out. Select your desired choice by clicking the menu with your mouse cursor. Keyboard: Use the ALT key in conjunction with the underlined letter of the menu title to access the menu. You can select the menu item by typing the underlined letter of the menu option or by using the up/down cursor keys to highlight the item and enter to select. You can move from menu to menu with the left/right cursor keys. Joystick: Press button 2 to activate the menu bar. Move the joystick left/right to select the desired menu and up/down to select the desired menu item. Press button 1 to select the menu item under the pointer, or press button 2 to deactivate the menu bar. V THE GRAPHICAL SIMULATION The Batter-Pitcher Interface (BPI) has a functioning help screen (accessed by pressing the F1 key or selecting help from the Simulation Control Options menu) which tells you how to swing the bat. You will be allowed 3 outs before the "slide-show" portion of the demo is activated. This can also be activated by selecting the Quit option on the Simulation Control Options menu. A special function of the BPI is a practice and "checked" swing ability. You may take practice swings before the pitcher releases the ball by pressing the space bar or button 1 on the joystick. After the pitcher has released the ball, you must hold down the enter key (or button 1) until it has passed over the plate to take a full swing at the ball. If you release the space bar (or button 1) before the bat has completely crossed the plate you will "check" your swing and, if enough time remains, you may take a full swing at the pitch. Whenever the ball is put into play, the 3D simulation is activated. Pressing the ESC key will display a menu of simulation control options, including a help screen that will explain the camera modes and VCR replay controls. You can access the help screen directly by pressing the F1 key. Note that the Blimp camera view is not implemented in this demonstration. At the end of the play, you will be asked if you wish to view an Instant Replay. If you elect to view the replay, the VCR Interface will be activated. You can change the camera modes and viewing angles, edit the replay, and save finished replays to disk. Up to 9,999 replays can be saved, hard drive space permitting! When you are finished with the VCR interface, you may exit by selecting the "Eject" option on the control panel, and continue with the batting practice. For further information, refer to the Simulation/VCR help screen, activated by pressing F1 when in the simulation. Note: Sometimes the cursor keys on the "T" pad, as opposed to the ones on the numeric pad, can cause unexpected control problems. If you experience any control problems using these keys, try tapping the NUM LOCK key to change the status of the cursor keys (note that the NUM LOCK light will not change, but the internal keyboard status will change). If control difficulties persist, try using the cursor keys on the numeric pad which more accurately simulate joystick control. VI TROUBLESHOOTING We are unable to include the complete INSTALL program with it's full sound card detection and drivers, and boot disk creation utility which will be part of the final shipping version of the game. Most problems you may encounter with this demo will be related to sound card configuration, available memory, or mouse/joystick problems. The following will offer some tips for resolving these common problems. 1) Sound Cards: The Front Page Sports: Baseball demonstration program only contains the drivers for the original SoundBlaster card. Starting the demo with the "-SB" parameter (PLAYBALL -SB) will activate the SoundBlaster driver. Starting the demo without the "-SB" parameter will play the demo without any sound generation. If you have a "SoundBlaster compatible" sound card and are not getting sounds with the demo, get distorted sound, or have a program lockup you may want to try the following steps: * Make sure that you have started the demo with the "-SB" parameter. * If your sound card requires a driver to be loaded into memory, make sure that your system startup files (config.sys and autoexec.bat) contain the necessary commands. Refer to your sound card manual or manufacturer for assistance in determining if the card is installed properly. * Make sure that your sound card is set to the use one of the configurations supported by the original SoundBlaster. You must have the DMA channel set to 1, the IRQ must be set to 5 or 7, and the I/O port address must be at 220h. Refer to the manual that came with your sound card or contact your sound card manufacturer for help in determining and setting your sound card's configuration. * If you get distorted sounds such as scratching, ticking, popping, or echoing, you may have a sound card that uses software to emulate the functions of the original SoundBlaster hardware. Your sound card manufacturer might be able to provide you with updated drivers or a BIOS revision to fix the emulation problems. 2) Memory: The Front Page Sports: Baseball demonstration program requires that you have at least 560k (574,000 bytes) of available Conventional Memory and 700k (717,000 bytes) of available Expanded (EMS) Memory. If you do not have enough available memory, you will be informed of the memory requirement and told how much of each type of memory you currently have available. If you do not have enough available Conventional memory you may want to try some of the following to help free up enough memory: * Make sure that you are not "Shelled to DOS" through Windows, DOSShell or a menuing program. At the DOS prompt type: exit If you are simply given another DOS prompt, you are not "shelled" under another program. If the screen returns to your program, you must exit that program before running the Front Page Sports: Baseball demo. Refer to your program documentation for information on how to "Exit to DOS". * You may have drivers or TSR (Terminate and Stay Ready) programs loaded into conventional memory. You should either remove the drivers from memory, load them into Upper Memory or create a boot disk to bypass your normal system startup sequence, configuring your system with only the necessary driver files to run the program. If you have MS-DOS 6.0 or higher, you can try using the MemMaker utility to help free the necessary conventional memory. If you are using a 3rd party memory manager or DOS version, you should refer to the software manual for help in configuring your system. If you have a modem you can download Sierra's BootDisk creation program free of charge from the Sierra BBS at (209) 683-4463. Download the file called BDALL.EXE from the General library on the board. After you extract the file, type out the readme file for complete information about using the BDMAKER utility. If you do not have enough available EMS memory, you may want to try the following: * Make sure that you have at least 2mb of RAM physically installed in your computer system. If your computer system does not count to at least 2048k of memory on startup, you may not have enough memory physically installed in your system or there are hardware functions (such as Shadow RAM) which are using part of your available memory. * Make sure that are loading the EMM386.EXE memory driver and that it is configured to provide at least 700k of EMS. Refer to your MS-DOS manual for assistance in configuring your system to provide EMS memory. * Make sure that you do not have any programs that are using your available EMS memory such as disk caches. You may want to try using the Microsoft Diagnostics (MSD) program that comes with Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS 6.x for help in determining what is using your available memory. 3) Mouse/Joystick: Often times it is difficult to determine if the source of control problems is the mouse or the joystick. If you are having problems using either of these input devices, you may want to try the following: * If your mouse does not function at all, you should make sure that the driver is loaded into memory, that you have the latest driver version, and that it is 100% Microsoft compatible. If your mouse is a "compatible" mouse, you may want to try using the Microsoft version 8.20 driver that comes with Windows 3.1 and MS-DOS 6.x. Refer to the manual that came with your mouse for assistance in loading the mouse driver into memory. * If the mouse action seems erratic, you may be having joystick calibration problems or the mouse driver is not 100% Microsoft compatible. Try recalibrating the joystick by pressing the "J" key and following the on screen prompts. You may also want to try disabling the joystick in the game by pressing the "D" key within the joystick calibration sequence. * If your joystick is not functioning properly, you may have a joystick port conflict or a port that is not designed to operate at higher speeds. Most joystick ports that are provided on sound cards and on the stock serial/parallel/game cards that come with computers use the same hardware and timings that were used on XT computers! Speed-adjustable game cards will solve most control problems. VII TECHNICAL SUPPORT If you continue to experience any problems, or if you have any questions concerning any of the above steps, our Technical Support Team will be more than happy to assist you. Please call (209) 683-8989 between 8:15 am and 4:45 PM Monday through Friday Pacific time. We can also be reached by fax at (209) 683-3633 or by mail at the following address: SIERRA ON-LINE P.O. BOX 800 COARSEGOLD, CA 93614-0800 ATTN: TECHNICAL SUPPORT You can also reach the Technical Support Department on the following services: Sierra BBS..........(209) 683-4463 (Settings 8,N,1 & up to 9600 bps) CompuServe Access: GO SIERRA Compuserve..........GAMCPUB (Technical Support ID 72662,1174) PRODIGY.............(Technical Support ID WBWW55B) GEnie...............Private E-Mail: SIERRA.SUP America Online......Keyword: Sierra Please outline the problems along with specific information about your computer system, and we will gladly respond to your fax, letter or BBS message as soon as possible. Try our new toll-free automated line for Technical Assistance. This new free service offers a complete listing of the most common technical issues experienced with Sierra family products and has optional fax-back technology so you can obtain a printout of these issues. The number for this service is (800) 376-2683. VIII LEGALITIES Front Page Sports: Baseball will be available through your local retailer in Summer 1994. This demonstration program is copyright (C) 1994 Dynamix, Inc. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines, Inc. Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows, and MSD are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. SoundBlaster is a registered trademark of Creative Labs, Inc.