*****************************************************************************

                        H Y P E R  3 D  P I N B A L L

        V I R G I N  I N T E R A C T I V E  E N T E R T A I N M E N T



Contents of README.TXT:
*  Minimum / Recommended Requirements
*  Windows 95 Compatibility
*  Memory Requirements
*  Video Card Compatibility
*  Sound Card Setup and Compatibility
*  CD-ROM Drives and Drivers Notes
*  In-game Music
*  Miscellaneous Notes and Hints
*  How to Make a Boot Disk
*  Technical Support
  

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     Thank you for purchasing Hyper 3D Pinball from Virgin Interactive 
     Entertainment.
     
     While we have tried to maintain complete cross compatibility across 
     all PC systems that fall within the basic requirements of Hyper 3D 
     Pinball there may be some configurations that the game will not run 
     correctly on.
     
     Following you'll find a few things to try and help you get the most 
     from your game.


     MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
     --------------------
     486-DX33, 8MB RAM (16MB required to run from a Windows 95 DOS box),
     2X CD-ROM drive, MSCDEX 2.2 or higher, a sound card with FM and PCM
     sound and DOS drivers, hard drive with 2MB free, SVGA video card with
     1MB RAM, DOS 5.0 or higher.

     RECOMMENDED
     -----------
     486-DX266 or higher, 16MB RAM, VLB SVGA video card


     WINDOWS 95 COMPATIBILITY
     -------------------------
     While we have tried to maintain compatibility with Windows 95 there 
     may be some instances where Hyper 3D Pinball may not run correctly 
     when launched from Windows 95. There are two things to try to get 
     Hyper 3D Pinball running correctly:
     
     1.  Once you've installed Hyper 3D Pinball you can add a PIF to the 
     main 3DPINBAL.BAT file. Look under HELP in the Windows '95 START menu 
     for "Optimizing an MSDOS Program (Editing PIF Files)" if you're not
     familiar with this process.

     2.  From the START/Shut Down menu, select Restart your PC in MS-DOS
     mode. Make sure it is set up for using a CD-ROM drive. To return to 
     Windows either reset your PC or type EXIT from the prompt.

     3.  Please note that most machines will need at least 16MB RAM to run
     Hyper 3D Pinball straight from Windows 95.

     4.  Some newer machines ship with Windows 95 drivers only.  Because
     Hyper 3D Pinball is a DOS game it may not function properly on these
     machines.  Contact the computer manufacturer regarding DOS drivers.

    
     MEMORY REQUIREMENTS
     -------------------
     Hyper 3D Pinball has a basic requirement of a PC with 8mb RAM.  
     However, players with 16mb or more will benefit greatly as the game 
     will see your extended memory and utilize it as best as possible. The 
     game does require quite a large amount of extended memory to operate 
     and we highly recommend you generate a boot disk. General directions 
     of how to do this follow further down the document or see the HELP! 
     booklet included in the box.
     
     - 320 x 200 mode
     
     This screen mode only allows the 3D Scrolling view.  While this is not 
     as graphically appealing as the 640 X 480 or 800 X 600 views it makes 
     for full screen, fast, frenetic and fun pinball- try it out! This mode 
     will work on all 8mb PCs.
     
     - 640 X 480 mode
     
     If your PC is only fitted with 8mb you will not be able to load all 
     three 640x480 views (2D Scrolling, 3D Scrolling and 3D Full Screen) 
     into memory at one time. You will be limited to either 3D Scrolling 
     only or 2D Scrolling with 3D Full Screen. Players with 16mb or more 
     will be able to load all three views into memory and switch 
     dynamically between them during play.
     
     - 800 X 600 mode
     
     Or "Super Detail" mode as we like to call it! Only the 3D Full Screen 
     view is available in this mode, this is an extra mode that became 
     available to us with a combination of the logic and physics engine 
     from 2D and 3D scrolling mode and as we had very high resolution 
     graphics available to us from the Silicon Graphics workstations we 
     thought we'd throw it in. This mode will work on all 8mb PCs.
     
     Actual memory requirements vary from table to table. Below is a list 
     of the tables in each resolution and the actual amount of memory they 
     require. If you are wondering why certain combinations of a view 
     won't work on your configuration it's <omit very> probably because 
     you don't have enough free Extended or Expanded memory. See "Making a 
     boot disk" further on in this document should memory become a 
     problem.  Here are the requirements for each resolution and view:
     
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
3DLORES| MB640 |  2D   | MB+2D | 3DSCR | 3D+MB | 3D+2D|3D,MB+2D| MB800 |  SFX
       |       |       |       |       | (640) | (640) |       |       |
+------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------|------+
R-KING |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |
------ |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |
2860577|1086624|1685254|2069221|4883778|5267745|5866375|6250342|1249264|0460088 
       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |
F-FAIR |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |
------ |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |
2877340|1027488|1767843|2155599|5459179|5846935|6587290|6975046|1200017|0341700 
       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |
HORROR |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |
------ |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |
3308498|1130688|1729873|2130334|5920256|6320717|6919902|7320363|1298636|0742086 
       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |
GANG   |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |
----   |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |
3115517|1096662|1979797|2373122|5610567|6003892|6887027|7280352|1263404|0522889 
       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |
S-QUEST|       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |
-------|       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |
3056218|1126092|1949413|2348107|5559173|5957867|6781188|7179882|1293222|0565886 
       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |
MYST   |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |
----   |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |
2951691|1042436|1635581|2028212|5321327|5713958|6307103|6699734|1209175|0676870 
       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |       |
===============================================================================


     VIDEO CARD COMPATIBILITY
     ------------------------
     While we have endeavoured to provide support for all video cards there 
     is always potential for some incompatibility among the thousands 
     available and soon to be released cards. To ensure blanket 
     compatibility we have included the UNIVESA library in Hyper 3D 
     Pinball. This helps to ensure VESA compatibility on all of the most 
     popular cards available. 
     
     Hyper 3D Pinball uses a video card trick to get ultra smooth, ultra 
     fast action on its scrolling modes but this can cause some conflicts. 
     Should you ever have any kind of screen corruption or problems with 
     the dotmation in any scrolling mode please make sure the large 
     Safe/Fast Mode button in the bottom left of the main options page is 
     set to SAFE MODE.
     
     Cards that are known to occasionally cause problems in Fast Mode are:
     
        ATI Mach 64 PCI
        Diamond Stealth 64 DRAM 
     
     If you have either of these cards and experience problems please make 
     sure to play in SAFE MODE.


     SOUND CARD SETUP AND COMPATIBILITY
     ----------------------------------
     Hyper 3D Pinball has been programmed to play its sound effects 
     through all popular digital sound cards that are fitted with DOS
     drivers.  Some Windows 95 only machines might not have come with
     DOS drivers, but you can play with no sound by running the manual
     sound setup (see below). When installing Hyper 3D Pinball the game
     checks the "SET BLASTER" statement in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. If it
     can't find it you will need to manually set up the card settings by
     typing SETSOUND from the directory that you installed the game to.
     
     If the install program fails to find your SET BLASTER statement you 
     will be asked to select your sound card and its settings. If you 
     select the incorrect card or settings the program may crash. Should 
     this happen please reset your PC and re-run the SETSOUND utility in 
     the directory where you installed the game and choose the correct 
     settings for your sound card.  If you don't know your settings please 
     contact the sound card manufacturer for assistance.
     

     CD-ROM DRIVES AND DRIVERS
     -------------------------
     Hyper 3D Pinball has been programmed to work on most all CD ROM drives
     that are 2X speed or better. Improved performance will be achieved
     if your CD ROM is 3x speed or higher.
     
     If you experience reduced performance during animated sequences there 
     are a couple of things to try.
     
     Ensure you have buffers set up on your MSCDEX line in your 
     AUTOEXEC.BAT. This is <omit a> typically included as a /m:## where the 
     ## is the number of buffers. This should be set to a minimum of /m:16.
     
     Ensure you are using the most up to date version of MSCDEX. There are 
     documented problems in versions of MSCDEX supplied with the original 
     release of Windows 3.1. Please make sure you are using the MSCDEX that 
     either came with DOS or with your CD ROM drive.


     IN-GAME MUSIC
     -------------
     In-game music in Hyper 3D Pinball is played directly from the CD 
     itself as CD Audio tracks. This gives crisp and full sound. If you are 
     getting sound effects but no CD music please check these things:
     
     1.  Make sure the settings on your sound card's mixer program are 
     correctly set. Sometimes the CD audio volume control can either be set 
     to 0 or can have the "mute" button clicked on. Both of these things 
     will stop your CD audio from playing.

     2.  Make sure the internal audio cable is connected between your sound
     card and CD ROM drive. This is quite easy to check by playing an audio 
     CD via either a DOS or Windows based CD player package. Windows comes 
     with MEDIA PLAYER.  You can also check that the music is playing by 
     connecting headphones to the headphone socket on the front of your 
     CD-ROM drive.
     

     MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND HINTS
     -----------------------------
     *  If you don't install the animations to your hard drive they won't
        play as fast on slower machines, but you'll save a lot of hard
        drive space.  Please note that you will still get all animations
        in the game- you won't miss anything (we promise).

     *  For 800x600 mode you may have to adjust your monitor to move the
        display to the center of your screen.

     *  The Star Quest 2049 table has a "no choice" plunger, meaning that
        it only has one launch position.  For a nice bonus, time your
        launch to hit the space ship that is speeding along in the dot
        matrix display!

     *  Some ramps are very steep!  This may be hard to see from some views.
        If you shoot a ball up a ramp and it comes back around, you'll need
        to hit the ball harder to make it around.  Give it more umph!

     *  To view the high scores, select a table from the main menu and
        press the H key.


     MAKING A BOOT DISK
     ------------------
     If you have an 8mb PC it may be wise for you to generate a "boot 
     disk". This is a disk that contains the minimum system startup 
     information to run your computer, thus squeezing out as much free 
     memory as possible. While we cannot be specific to your PC we have 
     included some general instructions on how to generate a boot disk.
     
     (again, some spacing was changed for clarity)
     1, Format a blank floppy disk. To do this insert a blank or erasable 
     disk into your floppy drive (normally A:) and from DOS type:
     
     FORMAT A: /S (followed by the RETURN key) 
     
     From Windows 3.X, open the File Manager and select DISK then FORMAT, 
     making sure to select the "Make System Disk" and ensuring the floppy 
     disk drive is selected in the "Disk In:" box before clicking OK. In 
     Windows '95 double click the "My Computer" icon to show your active 
     devices. Select the floppy drive you inserted the disk into and click 
     on FILE followed by FORMAT. Be sure to click on "Copy system files"  
     before clicking "START". For other operating systems please check in 
     your user manual on how to format floppy disks.
     
     2, Once your disk is formatted you will need to copy over your 
     AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files. These can <omit normally> be found 
     in the root directory of your C:\ drive.
     
     3, Once they are copied over you will need to edit the files to 
     reduce the number of "memory hogging" startup programs you have 
     running. Do this by either typing EDIT A:\AUTOEXEC.BAT and EDIT 
     A:\CONFIG.SYS from DOS or you can load the files into NOTEPAD for 
     Windows 3.x and '95. MAKE ABSOLUTELY SURE YOU ARE EDITING THE FILES 
     ON THE FLOPPY DISK, NOT THE ONES ON YOUR HARD DISK.
     <space>
      4, When you have one of the files on screen you need to either remove 
     or comment out lines (see below how to do this) that are not needed 
     for Hyper 3D Pinball. Lines such as these below can be found in your 
     CONFIG.SYS file:
     1. DEVICE=C:\SB16\DRV\CSP.SYS /UNIT=0 /BLASTER=A:220
     2. DEVICE=C:\SB16\DRV\CTSB16.SYS /UNIT=0 /BLASTER=A:220 I:7 D:1 H:5 
     3. DEVICE=C:\SB16\DRV\CTMMSYS.SYS
     4. FILES=40
     5. DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\HIMEM.SYS /TESTMEM:OFF 
     6. DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE NOEMS
     7. DEVICEHIGH=C:\DOS\MTMCDAI.SYS /D:MSCD000 /P:170,15 
     8. DOS=HIGH,UMB
     9. DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\SETVER.EXE
     10. SHELL=C:\COMMAND.COM C:\ /P /E:1024
     11. device=C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\display.sys con=(ega,,1) 
     12. Country=044,850,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\country.sys
     13. DEVICE=C:\SCSI\ASPI2DOS.SYS /D
     14. DEVICE=C:\SCSI\DRIVER.SYS
     
     While a number of these are essential for day to day work on your PC 
     not all of them are needed to run Hyper 3D Pinball. In this example 
     CONFIG.SYS file, the essential lines are likely to be 1, 2, 3, 7 (the 
     CD Rom Driver) and 13 (should you want to keep your external SCSI 
     devices operational.
     
     Lines like this can be found in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file: 
     1. SET SOUND=C:\SB16
     2. SET BLASTER=A220 I7 D1 H5 P330 T6 
     3. SET MIDI=SYNTH:1 MAP:E MODE:0
     4. C:\SB16\DIAGNOSE /S
     5. C:\SB16\AWEUTIL /S
     6. C:\SB16\SB16SET /P /Q
     7. @ECHO OFF
     8. C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD000 /M:8 /L:E 
     9. C:\DOS\MOUSE
     10. PROMPT $p$g
     11. PATH C:\WINDOWS;C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND;C:\DOS;C:\ 
     12. LH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\DOSKEY
     13. C:\WINDOWS\WINST
     14. mode con codepage prepare=((850) C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\ega.cpi) 
     15. mode con codepage select=850
     16. keyb uk,,C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\keyboard.sys
     
     While a number of these are essential for day to day work on your PC 
     not all of them are needed to run Hyper 3D Pinball. In this example 
     AUTOEXEC.BAT file, the essential lines are likely to be numbers 2 
     (ESSENTIAL if you want sound effects), 4, 5, 6 and 8 (the other half 
     of the CD ROM driver).
     
     To comment out a line, add the word REM (and a space) to the beginning of 
     the line. This turns the line from a command to a REMark. For example, LH 
     C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\DOSKEY becomes REM LH C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\DOSKEY.
     
     If editing out the unnecessary lines from your AUTOEXEC.BAT and 
     CONFIG.SYS files still leaves you without enough memory, make sure none 
     of the lines start with DEVICEHIGH, LH or LOADHIGH. Replace DEVICEHIGH 
     with DEVICE and remove any reference to LH or LOADHIGH.
     
     Once you have edited your files save them off to the floppy disk, 
     replacing the ones you originally copied there. Leave your boot 
     disk in drive A: and reset your PC to allow it to boot from the 
     floppy disk.


     TECHNICAL SUPPORT
     -----------------
     You may contact Virgin Interactive Entertainment's technical support 
     department at:
                      
     -  714-833-1999     24hr automated support
     -  714-833-1999     Live technical support (Mon-Fri 8-5 PST)
     -  714-833-2001     FAX
     -  714-833-3305     BBS
     -  www.vie.com      World Wide Web
     
       
     
     
 *************************************************************************** 
 Copyright (c) 1995 NMS Software, Ltd.  Licensed exclusively to Virgin
 Interactive Entertainment (Europe) Ltd.  Hyper 3D Pinball is a trademark
 of Virgin Interactive Entertainment, Inc.  Virgin is a registered trademark
 of Virgin Enterprises, Ltd.  All rights reserved.
 ***************************************************************************
     

