BATTLECRUISER 3000AD v2.0x TROUBLESHOOTING FAQ

UPDATED: 08-24-99
                  
BC3K V2.0x INSTALLATION PROBLEMS


Q. WHY WHEN I PUT THE CD-ROM IN THE DRIVE, THE GAME WON'T INSTALL?
A. You may have AUTORUN disabled. Run the SETUP.EXE program from the BC3K CD-ROM by going to the 
   START button, selecting RUN and then typing D:\SETUP and hitting ENTER. Substitute the letter 
   D for your actual CD-ROM drive letter. To find this out, open up MY COMPUTER on your 
   desktop. You can also install by double-clicking on your CD-ROM icon in MY COMPUTER and then 
   double-clicking on the SETUP icon.

Q. WHY WON'T THE GAME RUN ON MY CELERON PROCESSOR!
A. If you are over-clocking your CPU or your Voodoo graphics card, there is a very good chance 
   that the game will not run or behave erratically. Do NOT overclock your CPU or Voodoo graphics 
   card.

Q. AFTER I INSTALL AND TRY TO PLAY, I GET "FATAL ERROR, PTE MFSfopen" ERROR, WHY?
A. You will only get this error if you did not adhere to the warning in the README.TXT file that
   is displayed prior to installation. You should NOT install the game to a folder that has more
   than 8 characters in the name. C:\BATTLECRUISER in incorrect, C:\GAMES\BC3000AD OR SIMILAR, IS 
   OK. When in doubt, use the default, C:\BC3000AD

Q. AFTER I INSTALL AND TRY TO PLAY, WHY DOES THE GAME KICK ME BACK TO THE DESKTOP?
A. See the answer above. Also, make sure that you have downloaded and properly installed the
   latest patch for the game.

Q. I THINK I SCREWED UP THE INSTALLATION, WHAT DO I DO?
A. Follow these steps to uninstall and reinstall the game.

Q. HOW CAN I TELL WHICH VERSION OF THE BOXED v2.0x I HAVE?
A. The original mastered version back in 12/98, was v2.0. The new units mastered in 5/99 are
   v2.06. You can tell by looking at the version number displayed on the top left corner of the
   blue install screen.      
   
   If you have already installed the game, check your BC3K install folder for this file. Use this 
   to determine which patch you need to download.

                 BC3LIB1A.RES   3374121 03/29/99 02:06 (US v2.06 CD-ROM version)
                 BC3LIB1A.RES   3858010 08/03/98 02:00 (US v2.00 CD-ROM version)

Q. HOW CAN I TELL WHICH VERSION OF THE BOXED v1.0x I HAVE?
A. If you have the 1996 TAKE TWO (US) CD-ROM, then you have the US version. If you have the 
   1997 GAMETEK (UK) CD-ROM, then you have the UK version.  The size, date and time stamp 
   determines whether you have the US or UK version. If neither matches, then you do not have an 
   authentic v1.0x boxed version and therefore, cannot patch it. Check your v1.0x CD-ROM for
   this file. Use this to determine which patch you need to download.

                 BC3LIB1A.RES  9067120   2-04-97   2:01  (UK v1.0x CD-ROM version)
                 BC3LIB1A.RES  9059114   9-30-96  12:17  (US v1.0x CD-ROM version)
  
Q. I DOWNLOADED THE v2.0x to v2.0x PATCH, HOW DO I INSTALL IT?
A. Follow these steps to download and install the latest patch.

If the patch aborts with a message about an old file not found or similar, this means that (a) 
you downloaded the wrong patch or (b) you are applying a patch to an incorrect version of the 
game installed on your hard drive (c) you are trying to patch the c:\windows\desktop location 
where you downloaded the patch to.
  
When the patch has completed updating your version, you can delete the patch executable you 
downloaded and applied, in order to save disk space.

Repeat this step for any and all subsequent patches.

Q. I DOWNLOADED THE v1.0x to v2.0x PATCH, HOW DO I INSTALL IT?
A. Follow these steps to download and install the latest patch.

Q. CAN I PATCH THE FREE v1.0x OR THE v2.0 DEMO?
A. Uhm, no.
                               
VIDEO CARD PROBLEMS


   *** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING*** WARNING *** WARNING

   *** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING *** WARNING*** WARNING *** WARNING

First things first. If you have a 3DFX card, make sure that you have the latest drivers for 
that card already installed and working!

Also, if you are running the 3DFX version, make sure your desktop color depth is set to 16-Bit hi 
color mode.
                              
Q. WHY IS THE VIDEO CORRUPT WHEN I START THE GAME?
A. If after you install the game you get a General Protection Fault when you try to run it or you 
   are booted back to the desktop, you may have to configure BC3K to use your video card. But 
   first, download and install the latest patch which fixes some problems with the newer graphics 
   cards. If that does not fix it, continue with the next question.

Q. HOW DO I FIND OUT IF BC3K SUPPORTS MY 2D CARD IN NATIVE MODE?
A. If your 2D card is in the list of supported BC3K cards, then you can change the BC3K.BAT and BC3K3DFX.BAT files to use your card in native 
mode, rather than the default VESA mode. You can do this by editing the BC3K.BAT and BC3K3DFX.BAT
files and changing the /v1 (VESA) default parameter to match the number listed for your card.

If you don't know what your card's chipset is, then proceed to the next step.

   NOTES:

Q. WHY DOES THE GAME NOT WORK WITH MY i740 CARD?
A. Depending on the BIOS version, you definitely need to install the Sci-Tech Display Doctor. 
   There are reports of screen corruption with v2.01 and higher due to the new 16-Bit Main Menu 
   graphic introduced in v2.01. It seems as if there is something wrong with VESA support on this 
   chipset.

Q. WHY DO I GET A BLANK SCREEN WHEN I LAUNCH FROM THE STATION USING MY 3DFX CARD?
A. Several things could be happening. First, check these:

Q. I HAVE A VOODOO3 (or BANSHEE) BOARD, WHY WON'T THE GAME RUN?
A. The Voodoo3 uses the same drivers as the Banshee. However, the GLIDE2X.OVL which shipped with 
   this card, as well as the lastest driver set released by 3Dfx do not work with most 
   games that require GLIDE2X.OVL. You can download the VOODOO3/BANSHEE FIX file from the 3000AD 
   website and unzip it into the folder where you installed BC3K. The game will then use that
   version instead of the faulty one in C:\WINDOWS (which may be needed by other games).

Q. WHY IS THE SCREEN SO DARK UNDER 3DFX.
A. Use the ALT+, and ALT+. keys when you are in the cockpit of the craft to adjust the Gamma 
   settings. These are then saved in the SETUP.CFG file for later use by BC3K. The default 
   startup Gamma setting is 1.4 and the highest setting is 2.0.

Q. I HAVE AN OBSIDIAN X24 CARD AND THE GAME IS PURPLE! WHATS WRONG?
A. Make sure you download and install the latest drivers. Then, put the following commands in 
   your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and reboot the machine.


                        SET SSTV2_FT_CLK_DEL=5
                        SET SSTV2_TF0_CLK_DEL=7
                        SET SSTV2_TF1_CLK_DEL=7
                        SET SSTV2_SLIM_VIN_CLKDEL=3
                        SET SSTV2_SLIM_VOUT_CLKDEL=2
                        SET SSTV2_SLIS_VIN_CLKDEL=3
                        SET SSTV2_SLIS_VOUT_CLKDEL=2

                  
SOUND CARD PROBLEMS


Q  WHY DON'T I GET ANY SOUND WHEN I RUN THE GAME?
A  Did you remember to run the SOUND SETUP program from the BC3K group folder of icons created
   after the setup program completed? The v2.0 install program does NOT run this program 
   automatically when installation is completed. You should do this after installing by  running 
   the Sound Setup shortcut created by the install program. This is documented in the README.TXT 
   file that is displayed by the setup program prior to installation. If you don't know how to do 
   it, here's how:

        FINDING THE SOUND CARD SETTINGS IF YOU DON'T KNOW THEM

        SETTING THE GAME TO RUN WITH YOUR SOUND CARD

Your sound card is now configured. As long as the digital and MIDI sound tests played OK in this 
Sound Setup program, sound will also work in BC3K.
   
Due to some incompatibilities, you may have to disable MIDI if you experience loss of sound 
or unexplained crashes when running the game. You can do this from within the game using the 
CONFIG program.

Q. I HAVE A PCI PLUG 'n PLAY SOUND CARD, HOW CAN I CONFIGURE IT?
A. Though the HMI system supports a lot of cards, there are some obscure ones that are not 
   supported. For instance, this example shows you how to hack it so that you can make it work.     
   No matter what card you have, if it does not have Sound Blaster DOS legacy support or at least 
   emulation support, it will NOT work.

                   
ESS AUDIODRIVE ON COMPAQ PRESARIO 2240 EXAMPLE


    You can now start BC3K and be able to hear digitized sound and music. If you had previously 
    disabled soundfx in CONFIG, you need to go back there and enable it.

    Using the above method, you can configure any sound card, even if it's not listed in the 
    SETUP program. You can also take a look at the SETUP.INI file for a list of supported cards, 
    their default values as well as their DeviceID. For most cards, you should be able to get 
    away with selecting a Soundblaster 16 or Pro emulation in the SETUP progam. If you cannot
    enter your PORT, IRQ and DMA values because SETUP won't let you, then simply select the card 
    anyway and then put the values in the HMISET.CFG file as described above.

Q  WHY CAN'T I GET MY PCI SOUND CARD TO WORK?
A  BC3K is a primarily a DOS game and the sound setup will support ISA sound cards as well as PCI 
   sound cards with Legacy support in the motherboard bios. If your bios does not support it, 
   then you will not be able to configure the sound to use your PCI card in DOS legacy mode. This 
   happens with some VIA and ALI chipsets on motherboards such as Asus. These do not
   have Non Maskable Interrupt (NMI) support in their BIOS. Some boards, including some earlier 
   ASUS boards, require a BIOS upgrade for any sort of PCI sound card to work. When in doubt, 
   make sure that your machine has the latest BIOS revision.

   For instance, the Soundblaster PCI-64, PCI-128 and the Live! cards emulate the SB Pro and SB 
   16 cards in Legacy mode only if Non Maskable Interrupt (NMI) is available in the BIOS.

                       
MONSTER SOUND II MX-300 EXAMPLE


Setting up this card for SBPRO support, automatically added this line to my AUTOEXEC.BAT file.
   
                             SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D3 T4

I then had to manually change the default DMA for the SBPRO from 1 to 3 from inside the BC3K 
Sound Setup program because DMA 3 is what the WIN98 system set the emulation mode to when I 
installed my MX300 card.

                       
SOUNDBLASTER LIVE! EXAMPLE


This card comes with excellent support for Soundblaster 16 emulation. You must install it after 
you have installed the WIN9x component. For further info, refer to the SBLive! DOS setup file which 
contains excellent info on setting up SB16 support.

It contains extensive instructions on how to get DOS legacy support working for your card. You 
will find the tips in Appendix B. You will need the Acrobat reader to view this file.

Once you have setup the legacy support, you can run the BC3K Sound Setup program and either 
select the Sound Blaster 16 card with the default settings, or change the settings to match your 
card's Sound Blaster 16 emulation settings. For MIDI music, you can choose the MPU-401 for better
MIDI sound quality.

When I installed SB16 legacy support, SBLIVE! included these lines in my  AUTOEXEC.BAT file

             SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 P330 T6
             SET CTSYN=C:\WINDOWS
             C:\PROGRA~1\CREATIVE\SBLIVE\DOSDRV\SBEINIT.COM

   NOTES: 

Q. HOW COME MY PCI SOUND CARD SETTINGS ARE NOT SUPPORTED IN THE BC3K SOUND SETUP PROGRAM?
A. You have to ensure that your PCI sound card's settings can be supported in the BC3K sound 
   setup. For instance, the SB 16 is only supported with IRQ 2,5,7,10. If your system has it 
   setup for say, 9, it will not work. You will have to go into Control Panel and free up one of 
   those IRQs or go into your BIOS and reserve the desired IRQ for use by the card.

   For instance, someone had a problem getting the SB Live! Value card to work. The install 
   program had set the SB 16 emulation to use IRQ 9 which is not supported. This is what he had 
   to do to get it to work.



DOS LEGACY RESOURCE CONFLICTS


   Sometimes, no matter what you do, there will probably be a conflict with the card's Sound 
   Blaster legacy support resources. In which case, you will have to change the order in which 
   your cards are inserted in your motherboard slots, especially if your motherboard has an AGP 
   slot.

   I ran into this problem with the Monster MX300. No matter what I did, I could not get the 
   Sound Blaster Pro emulation resources to be freed up. It kept conflicting with my SCSI and 
   network cards. So, after doing some research, I had to physically move my cards around and 
   then everything worked fine. This was because slot 4 where the MX300 was, shared the IRQ 
   resources with my USB and SCSI controller. Since I couldn't change the SCSI resources because 
   it is built into the Asus P2B/LS motherboard, I had to move cards around. USB is
   not a big deal because it behaves ok. However, if you don't have any USB devices in your 
   machine, it is advisable to disable it in your BIOS by preventing it from using an IRQ. This 
   will free up one more IRQ for you to use. This may not seem like a big deal because the PCI 
   specifications allow devices to share resources, however, sometimes even this can cause 
   problems and especially with DOS legacy devices.

   Here is the layout of an Intel PII-400 development system with the ASUS
   P2B/LS motherboard. Uses the Award BIOS and Intel 440BX AGP/PCI chipset.

   AGP  - STB Velocity 4400 16MB 2D/3D video card
   PCI1 - Diamond SupraMax 56i modem             [ IRQ:10 ]
   PCI2 - Diamond MX300 Aureal 2.0 3D sound card [ IRQ:5  ]
   PCI3 - 3Dfx Voodoo2 12MB 3D video card
   PCI4 - 3Dfx Voodoo2 12MB 3D video card
   ISA1 - Surfboard cable modem                  [ IRQ:11 ]

   Here is the layout of an AMD K6-2/350 development system with an
   EPOX EP-51MVP3M-M motherboard. Uses the Award BIOS and VIA Apollo AGP/PCI
   chipset.

   AGP  - 3DFX Voodoo3 16MB 2D/3D video card     [ IRQ:11 ]
   PCI1 - Adaptec AHA-2940 SCSI controller       [ IRQ:11 SCSI:7 ]
   PCI2 - Linksys 10/100 10-BaseT Ethernet NIC   [ IRQ:9         ]
   PCI3 - Soundblaster Live!                     [ IRQ:12/5 ]
   PCI4 - Soundblaster PC-DVD decoder card       [ IRQ:12 ]
   ISA1 - USR Robotics Sportstar 56K modem       [ IRQ:3  ]

   WARNING:In general, the PCI specs has resources shared as follows. In my case, I 
   originally had the MX300 card in PCI slot 4, so I moved it to slot 2 and the problem was 
   solved. Though AGP/PCI cards can share resources, there are cards and devices that just refuse 
   to get along and you have to delve in your system BIOS to reserve resources. To make things 
   worse, these seem to also vary with BIOS and AGP/PCI chipsets. As you can see from the
   above, the Epox and Asus boards, use different BIOS and AGP/PCI chipsets.

                        PCI slot 1 - shares with AGP slot
                        PCI slot 4 - shares with USB & SCSI

                    
JOYSTICK PROBLEMS


Q. WHY CAN'T I USE MY JOYSTICK?
A. BC3K does not support digital joysticks in native mode. You can either select one of the 
   sticks it supports from the chart below, or you can create a profile. For instance, when using 
   the MS Sidewinder PRO, you can select the CH F16 Combat Stick.

   Also, if you select the incorrect joystick in CONFIG, you will be greeted by a black screen 
   and the program will hang on startup. To solve this problem, delete the SETUP.CFG (which 
   the joystick type) and the JOYSTICK.SET (which stores the joystick settings). Restart the 
   game. You will then have to go back into CONFIG and reconfigure your settings.

   If your joystick drifts while in the game, disable the auto-pilot and then type [CTRL+J] to 
   re-calibrate it.

   If your stick is not supported in the CONFIG menu, use this chart to determine which 
   compatible stick to use based on the features of your stick.

                                 BUTTONS     THROTTLE      HAT

        2 button stick              2           no          no
        4 button stick              4           no          no
        Thrustmaster                4           no          yes
        CH Flight Stick             2           yes         no
        CH Fighter Stick            4           yes         no
        CH Flight Stick PRO         4           yes         yes
        CH F16 Combat Stick         4           yes         yes (2)

    
TO CREATE A JOYSTICK PROFILE


   
CREATING A JOYSTICK PROFILE FOR SIDEWINDER JOYSTICKS


    
    NOTES:

   
CREATING A JOYSTICK PROFILE FOR THE LOGITECH WINGMAN EXTREME


    NOTES: 

   
CREATING A JOYSTICK PROFILE FOR SAITEK JOYSTICKS


                  
GENERAL QUESTIONS


Q. HOW CAN I READ AND PRINT THE ONLINE MANUALS?
A. You will have to install the Acrobat reader if it is not already installed. Go into the group
   folder created by the BC3K setup program and run the icon called Install Acrobat v3.01. 
   Once installed, you can simply double-click on any of the manuals in order to read or print 
   them. Also, if you downloaded the latest manuals, unzip them in the DOCS folder of the BC3K
   install folder and then change the shortcut settings (which probably points to the older
   version in the DOCS folder on the CD-ROM) to point to the new version on your hard drive.

Q. THE GAME IS TOO DIFFICULT, WHERE DO I GET HINTS AND TIPS?
A. You can start by reading the manual and also by downloading the hints and tips file from the
   website. To meet other players and trade hints and tips, visit the website COMMLINK forum.
   
   A tutorial is in the works for now, visit the GALCOM ACADEMY.
                 
Q. DOES BC3K v2.0x USE DIRECTX?
A. No

Q. MY COMPUTER SAYS THAT I HAVE A 3DFX CARD INSTALLED BUT BC3K WON'T RUN
A. Many newbie gamers don't know that a 3D card is not the same as a 3DFX card. A 3DFX card is a 
   specific brand manufactured by 3DFX (www.3dfx.com) and it includes the Voodoo, Voodoo2, Voodoo 
   Rush, Voodoo Banshee and Voodoo3. Unless your manufacturer tells you that your 3D card is one 
   of these, it is not a 3DFX card. Several companies include Diamond, STB, Canopus, Creative 
   Labs and others, manufacture cards based on the 3DFX chipset.

Q. MY COMPUTER SAYS THAT I HAVE AN nVIDIA (OR OTHER) 3D CARD, SO DOES THIS MEAN I CAN'T RUN 3DFX?
A. Yes, that is exactly what it means. You should run the software version of the game, using the 
   normal BC3K icon created by the SETUP program, instead of the BC3K (3DFX) one. It will 
   not be as fast or look as pretty as when running under 3DFX, but at least you will get to play 
   the game.

   The sequel, BATTLECRUISER 3020AD due out toward the end of the year (all things being equal), 
   will have support for all 3D cards via DirectX and OpenGL and as such, will support all 
   DirectX compatible 2D/3D cards and not just 3DFX.

Q. WHY DOES THE GAME REFUSE TO RUN OR CRASHES SOMETIMES?
A. There are several reasons for this. First make sure that you have installed it properly and if 
   you downloaded the patches, that they too are installed properly.

Q. WHY WON'T THE GAME RUN IN PURE DOS?
A. Because it does not. You must run it using the win95/98 shortcut created by the setup 
   program. If you have accidentally erased or change the settings, the default settings are 
   below. Refer to your Windows 95 manual for details on how to create a shortcut.

   Create the shortcut on your desktop. Make sure the command line and working directory BOTH 
   point to the BC3K install directory. Use either the BC3K.BAT (software version) or 
   BC3K3DFX.BAT file (3Dfx version) as the commandline option. There is a BC3K.ICO icon file in 
   the BC3K folder that can be used.

   Once you've created the shortcut, open it up and make the following changes to it's settings.

     Note: ON  = tick mark
           OFF = no tick mark

   Program - close on exit              = ON

             If you decide to run in MS-DOS mode if running from WIN9x using
             this shortcut doesn't work, then you can configure MS-DOS mode by
             clicking on the 'advanced' tab.

   Memory  - Total                      = AUTO
             Initial Environment        = 4096
             EMS memory                 = AUTO
             XMS memory                 = AUTO
             Uses HMA                   = ON
             DPMI memory                = AUTO (set to 16384 if you only have
                                                32MB or less RAM in your machine)

   Screen  - Full Screen                = ON
             Dynamic Memory Allocation  = OFF

   Misc    - Allow screen saver         = OFF
             Always suspend             = OFF
             Idle sensitivity           = LOW (all the way to the left)
             Mouse exclusive mode       = ON

                  
MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES


                     
3DFX VOODOO ACCELERATORS


BC3K v2.0 supports most 2D chipsets. It also supports 3D acceleration using any Voodoo graphics
card such as Voodoo, Voodoo Rush, Voodoo 2 and Voodoo Banshee. Please ensure that you have the
latest drivers for your card! Your card driver install library MUST have installed the 
GLIDE2X.OVL file in the C:\WINDOWS folder. If this file is not there, then the 3Dfx mode will NOT 
run and you should then check your driver files or contact your card vendor.

If you are running the 3Dfx version using the shortcut, the BC3K3DFX.BAT file contains 
environment settings for the Voodoo line of cards. Some machines may run out of environment space
as a result of these settings. If you encounter an 'out of environment space' message due to the
number of commands in the BC3K3DFX.BAT file, then go into the MEMORY settings for the BC3K3DFX
shortcut and change the 'Initial Environment' from AUTO to 4096 or higher. If you have a machine 
with only 16MB of memory and you are crashing with memory allocation errors, try changing the 
DPMI memory limits from AUTO to 16384. Better still, invest in more memory, i.e, 32MB.

Some patches will include a BC3K3DFX.NEW file. You should copy this file over the BC3K3DFX.BAT
file only if you determine that you are having problems with the current version. You will 
need to edit this file so that the refresh rates match your card settings in the WIN9x Control 
Panel. Read the FAQ for more on this. Most importantly, check the file date/time before using it
otherwise you may find yourself using an older version from a prior patch!

                     
MISCELLANEOUS


Always read the Version Control file for update info after you have applied a patch. You can read 
this file on your computer using netscape or internet explorer by starting the browser and 
loading the file from your bc3k install folder. Always check for an updated version at the 
website also

Check out the BC3K STORE section where you can purchase the printed version of the 166 page 
manual that is on the v2.0 cd-rom and installed by the SETUP program. The 40-page manual that 
shipped with the game is just a mini guide to get you started. You can also get a printed map of 
the galaxy.

The manuals may have been updated since the boxed v2.0 was released. If this is the case, you can 
download the updated versions and copy them over the versions in the DOCS sub-folder in your BC3K 
install folder.

You do NOT need to install the Sci-Tech Display Doctor unless you are having problems
with the 2D graphics mode or you have an older graphics card that does not have VESA 2.0
support built-in. The i740 card also has crappy VESA support. So if you are having 2D screen
corruption using this card, you will need to install SDD.