PINBALL PRELUDE INFORMATION --------------------------- **** IMPORTANT FOR QEMM USERS **** QEMM corrupts certain parts of Pinball Prelude. To Find out more, refer to the QEMM section. ********************************** This document gives details on how to setup Pinball Prelude for your system. It contains important information for QEMM users especially. System Requirements ------------------- To play Pinball Prelude, you will need at least: A 40-Mhz or faster 80386 processor. 4 Megabytes of memory. VGA graphics card. MPC-1 Compatible CD drive. Also supported: Sound Blaster, SB Pro, SB-16 and true compatible sound cards. VESA compatible video cards or software driver. Direct playing of Audio from CD. Running Pinball Prelude ----------------------- 1.Change to the drive where the game is installed. (eg C: ) 2.Switch to the subdirectory where the game is installed. (eg CD \PRELUDE ) 3.Type PP . Running in WINDOWS 3.1 ---------------------- Pinball Prelude can be run from Windows, but for best results run the file "PP.PIF" not "PP.EXE". To run the PP.PIF file select the file menu from Program Manger and then select RUN. Click on the Browse button and select PP.PIF from the PRELUDE directory, then click on the OK button. For a better solution, create a windows icon in a group to use the PIF. There is an icon file supplied in the directory where you installed Pinball Prelude which can be used in Windows. To create an icon for the game first open your 'GAMES' group. From the Program Manager's FILE menu select NEW. Select 'Program Item' and then click on OK. From here click on the BROWSE button and locate the PRELUDE directory. Choose the PP.PIF file and then click on OK. In the 'Description' box type in 'Pinball Prelude' and then click on CHANGE ICON. Click OK and then select browse. From the PRELUDE directory choose PP.ICO and press OK. Click on OK and OK again and you should have a Pinball Prelude icon in your 'GAMES' group. You can create an icon for Pinball Prelude Setup by repeating the process but select 'SETUP.PIF' instead of 'PP.PIF'. For more information please refer to your Windows 3.1 manual. Running in Windows 95 --------------------- Pinball Prelude will run under Windows 95 but it is recommended that it be run full screen and not in a window for best performance. To add Pinball Prelude to the Windows 95 desktop first click the right mouse button anywhere on screen. A small menu should appear. From this menu select 'New'->'Shortcut' and press the left mouse button. From the Create shortcut menu you can either type in the path followed by PP.EXE of you can use the browse button to find the Prelude directory and select PP.EXE. Now click 'Next >' and enter 'Pinball Prelude' then click on 'Finish'. Now all that remains to do is to change the icon. To do this click the right mouse button on the new icon and select 'Properties' from the menu. From the page tabs at the top of the menu select 'Program' and then click on the 'Change Icon' button. A selection of icons will now appear. To use the Pinball prelude icon, click on the 'Browse' button, a file requester will appear. Find the Prelude directory and select 'PP.ICO' then click on 'Open'. Finally click on 'OK' and then 'OK' again and the Pinball Prelude icon will be resident on your desktop. You can create an icon for Pinball Prelude Setup by repeating the process and selecting 'SETUP.EXE' instead of 'PP.EXE'. For more information please refer to your Windows 95 manual. Setting up Pinball Prelude -------------------------- Before you run Pinball Prelude for the first time you must run the SETUP.EXE program found in the PRELUDE directory. This will enable you to configure the video, sound and keyboard. To run the program just type SETUP at the DOS prompt. Firstly, you will be presented with a main menu. From here you can choose which part of the setup to customize. CONFIGURE SOUND - This option will allow you to setup and test your soundcard. There is also an option for playing the game music directly from the CD. CONFIGURE VIDEO - This option allows you to setup and test each of the video modes which are available for the game. The test buttons will display a test screen from which you can gauge the best to use for your system. CONFIGURE KEYS - This option allows you to customise almost every key in the game. Special note to QEMM users -------------------------- Where QEMM is used in any part of the system or setup, running problems may occur when sound is enabled. To overcome this you can run the game through Windows or create a Boot Disk as described in the following section. Creating a boot disk -------------------- If you are not able to play the game due to a lack of memory or because you are using QEMM then you will need to create a floppy boot disk. Format a floppy disk using the dos command FORMAT A: /S . Using a text editor (such as EDIT.EXE in your DOS directory) create a CONFIG.SYS file containing the following lines: DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS Then save this to the previously formatted floppy disk. Used the same technique to create an AUTOEXEC.BAT file containing the following: @ECHO OFF PROMPT $P$G Then save this to the floppy disk. Reset the computer with the new disk in the floppy drive. Now run Pinball Prelude as normal. The SET BLASTER line -------------------- On true Sound Blaster compatible sound cards there is a line in the AUTOEXEC.BAT which reads something like: SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T4 This line lets software know what settings to use for you soundcard. If you do not have this line then SETUP will not be able to automatically set the sound up. If you do have this line but SETUP will not autodetect then make sure there is not a space between 'BLASTER' and '='. Please note that your SET BLASTER= line may not look exactly the same as the one above. The exact configuration of your BLASTER line can be determined as follows (for more information please refer to your soundcard manual). The Axxx part defines which Base Port your card is set to. So in the example line the Base Port is at 220. The Ix part defines which interrupt the card is to use. Above it is set to interrupt 5. Dx sets up which DMA channel the card will use. The above line tells the card to use DMA 1. The final part defines the type of Sound Blaster card. The example tells us that the card is a Sound Blaster Pro 2.0. The other possible values are as follows. 1 - Original Sound Blaster 2 - Original Sound Blaster Pro 3 - Sound Blaster 2.0 (Sound Blaster Deluxe) 4 - Sound Blaster Pro 2.0 5 - MicroChannel Sound Blaster 6 - Sound Blaster 16, Vibra 16 and AWE 32 Problems and Solutions ---------------------- Q: The game won't run fast enough or keeps pausing? A: Try turning the sound quality down and/or use the CD music. Reducing the number of balls in multiball may also help. Lower screen resolutions also update faster. Q: The screen is all corrupted, why? A: You are probably running some sort of memory manager such as QEMM. Please refer to the section above or, try turning off the sound or try running through windows. Q: Why can't I get any sound output? A: Check that all cables are securely connected and ensure that the speakers have power if necessary. Check that the correct soundcard settings are used for your soundcard. Also check the software for your soundcard that the volume settings are setup correctly as Pinball Prelude using the normal settings. Q: CD music doesn't output anything? A: Check that the audio cables are secure. If you CD drive has an internal cable connecting to your soundcard then check the volume settings on your soundcard for CD Audio. If you are using a cable which goes into Line In on your soundcard then check the volume setting for Line Input. If you are using the headphones socket on the CD drive then adjust the manual volume control. Some CD drives may not be capable of playing CD audio. For more details please refer to the CD user manual. Q: I can't seem to change the volume of CD music? A: The MUSIC VOLUME option in the game tries to set the volume level of the CD drive directly. This option does not work on all CD drives. You can try changing your soundcards volume setting to get the required level. Q: I keep getting an Illegal Copy message when I try to load a table? A: This may happen if you are using a Network. You cannot play Pinball Prelude across a Network as it accesses the CD drive directly which Networks do not allow. Q: I get a No Tables message when I try running the game? A: Check that you have got the correct CD in the drive. There is also a File called PP.CD which lets the game know where to look for the files. If you have added/changed/removed a drive then this file may be looking at the incorrect drive. Use a text editor to change it to let the game know where it can find the CD. Contacting Effigy Software -------------------------- If you need further assistance, please call us on 01526-833362 weekdays, between 10AM and 5PM. If you have a complex question about running this game, please call while at your computer and we'll be able to help you more effectively. You can also contact us by post: Effigy Software Effigy Emporium Station Yard Station Road Ruskington Sleaford Lincs. NG34 9DG Please enclose details of your PC specifications, video card, sound card, CONFIG.SYS file, AUTOEXEC.BAT file and how you are running Pinball Prelude (eg through DOS, Windows, Windows 95...).