_____ _ _ __ __ _ _ _ |_ _|__ _ __ _ __ ___ (_)_ __ __ _| | \ \ / /__| | ___ ___(_) |_ _ _ | |/ _ \ '__| '_ ` _ \| | '_ \ / _` | | \ \ / / _ \ |/ _ \ / __| | __| | | | | | __/ | | | | | | | | | | | (_| | | \ V / __/ | (_) | (__| | |_| |_| | |_|\___|_| |_| |_| |_|_|_| |_|\__,_|_| \_/ \___|_|\___/ \___|_|\__|\__, | |___/ Terminal Velocity v1.2 On-Disk Technical Support Manual Copyright (c) 1995 Terminal Reality, Inc. Published by 3D Realms Entertainment A division of Apogee Software, Ltd. P.O. Box 496419 þ Garland, TX 75049-6389 (214) 278-5655 ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³TABLE OF CONTENTS AND HOW TO USE THIS FILE³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ This document is set up with a quick search capability. If you press F7 at any time, you will get a listing of all the categories to look at in this file. Press F7 now to look at it. In this menu, you can scroll up and down the listing of items to read, and then select one by pressing ENTER. You will be taken directly to that item. If you wish to search for a specific piece of text, you can hit F3 to enter any text to search for. If you just wish to scroll up and down, you can use the arrow keys to move through the text. You can also use the Home and End keys to quickly get to the top or the bottom of this file. Here is a listing of all the sections in this document. Remember, you can press F7 at any time to see an interactive listing of them all. 1) Table of Contents 2) System Requirements 3) What's new in v1.2 4) Before Running this Game 5) How to use the Setup Program 6) How to set up and play Multi-Player TV games 7) TV Detailed Help & Troubleshooting 8) How to get TV running under OS/2 9) Contacting Technical Support 10) 3D Realms Online ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ þ Terminal Velocity's minimum requirements are: 486 with 8 megs of memory. There are also special Pentium only graphics options if you have a Pentium processor. The SVGA graphics (in the registered version) require a 486 DX4/100 or a Pentium in order to display at an acceptable frame rate. ATTENTION 4 MEG USERS !!! The game will run under 4 megs, but we do not support it. We left it in this version to keep it compatible with v1.0. Terminal Velocity is an 8 meg game that you can play with 4 megs if you are willing to experience the following: * Loss of music/sound at some points due to low memory * Occasional drops to DOS due to low memory. This is much less frequent since v1.0, but it might still happen. * Major disk caching for graphics etc. * We SERIOUSLY recommend you play with 8 megs or higher. * Again, TV is an 8 meg game. Play it under 4 if you wish to, but please do so at your own risk. There are additional memory considerations to take into account if you intend on using the higher graphic modes of Terminal Velocity: Graphic Mode | Memory required --------------------------------------- Regular VGA | 4 Megs Super VGA | 8 Megs Hi-Res Textures | 12 Megs Super VGA & Hi-Res | 16 Megs Please note that the last two modes are only available in the registered versions of the game, and it helps in all modes to boot clean (without your memory manager), as your memory manager takes up memory that Terminal Velocity needs in order to run properly. Terminal Velocity is a 32-bit protected mode program. It uses XMS memory and Conventional memory. In the following table, it shows how much total memory is free. It uses THAT amount to figure out how much memory to use for texture map caching. This example computer has 10,939KB free for use. However, this is a 16MB computer. (This can be seen on your computer by typing the 'mem' command.) Memory Type Total = Used + Free ---------------- ------- ------- ------- Conventional 640K 64K 576K Upper 63K 52K 10K Reserved 384K 384K 0K Extended (XMS)* 15,297K 4,945K 10,352K ---------------- ------- ------- ------- Total memory 16,384K 5,445K 10,939K Total under 1 MB 703K 116K 587K Total Expanded (EMS) 15,680 (16,056,320 bytes) Free Expanded (EMS)* 10,336 (10,584,064 bytes) * EMM386 is using XMS memory to simulate EMS memory as needed. Free EMS memory may change as free XMS memory changes. Largest executable program size 576K (589,920 bytes) Largest free upper memory block 6K (6,064 bytes) MS-DOS is resident in the high memory area. þ For game play the following devices are optionally supported: Keyboard, Joystick, Joystick with throttle, and Gravis GamePad. þ The following sound cards are also optionally supported: Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro, Sound Blaster 16, Sound Blaster 100% compatible, Gravis UltraSound, Aria, Pro Audio Spectrum 8 & 16. NOTE: The Gravis UltraSound requires the use of the UltraMID driver to be loaded before sound can be played. UltraMID comes with your Gravis UltraSound system software, but if you happen not to have it, it has been included with the game. Just type Ultramid in your Terminal Velocity directory. If you have problems loading UltraMID, please see your Gravis UltraSound manual, or contact Gravis for help. SBOS can also be used (if you pick Sound Blaster CLONE as the sound card), but we recommend the use of UltraMID. NOTE: If you decide to use SBOS, do NOT try and autodetect a Sound Blaster, your computer will lock up. NOTE: AWE32 sound card users should select Sound Blaster 16. þ The music system in Terminal Velocity is an all-digital continuous mix of waveform instruments and sound effects. It is like having a wave-table synthesizer card without paying the price for one. Using Advanced Software Digital Signal Processing techniques (ASDSP), all sound cards with digital waveform capabilities will have superior sound quality. ASDSP also allows for 3D imaging effects, Dolby (R) Surround Sound, and true low-pass filtering of samples for a crisp, clean sound. No more adlib bleep music. No more happy general midi same sounding stuff. Hear the music how Kyle Richards intended it to sound. Exactly. The waveform playback uses the DIGIPAK standard created by Electronic Arts. If you ever buy a new sound card, it WILL come with a driver that will run with Terminal Velocity. The setup program will recognize it. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³WHAT'S NEW³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ Version 1.2 adds little over v1.1. The prime change in v1.2 was the changing of the graphics of Planet #1. 1-1 through 1-3 feature much improved graphics, so the first planet looks better. Here is the what's new for v1.1. We read all the online mail and tried to add as much to 1.1 as we could without totally de-stabilizing the code and delaying the game anymore. We hope you like the new version. þ 4 MEG USERS! TV 1.1 is OFFICIALLY an 8 meg game. Period. It will run with 4 megs (to maintain compatability with v1.0). The game runs better now, but we do not really think TV is playable with 4 megs, so we dropped the "official" support, so nobody would be angry with us. You will occasionally lose sound/music due to low memory and might still get a random drop to DOS. We cannot fix these things without requiring 8 megs, so we made TV 1.1 "officially" require 8 megs. So our stance on 4 megs is: "If it works, great", but we do not recommend it. If you are happy with the game and wish to buy it, please do. The full game runs the same with 4 megs. But, please try the game on an 8 meg system or upgrade your RAM to 8 megs. We are sorry for the inconvenience but it had to be this way. þ Gravis Ultrasound Users! We added UltraMid support to version 1.1. We wanted NATIVE support, but it was too late to drop in a whole new sound system. We are as unhappy about this as you are and we apologize. Also, DO NOT run the music over 11K or STEREO or you will get popping, static and other weirdness. Again, sorry for the GUS support, but it's as good as it can get for TV. þ STEREO CHANNELS. We confirmed a little too late to change it that the left and right channels were swapped. We will fix this in a future version if possible. Since nobody in the office noticed it for 2 months, we hope most of you won't either. :) þ SVGA mode added for shareware. If you wish to use SVGA, you need to have 8 megs of memory (approx 6.5 free), and you need to boot clean. Depending on how fast your video card is, this option may severely slow down the game. þ Better memory handling. Game will not let you know how much more memory you might need to run it. It will also not load unless you have enough which is a huge improvement over 1.0. NOTE: There might not be enough memory for music on some levels, but you will receive a message when this happens. We thought you should still be able to play the game though. The memory support should solve 90% of the lock ups out there. þ Random lockups now much less frequent, due to better memory management. þ Mouse support added. Two different modes and sensitivity adjustments. The buttons only fire and afterburn. There was no reason to allow other keys to be assigned to the mouse buttons. þ Added a debris option to the graphics menu. Can select lower amounts for slow computers or "Overkill" for faster ones. þ CH Flight Pro support and support for the hat to look around while flying. þ Auto leveling is now an option. You might not like having it turned off after all, but you all asked for it. þ Hitting something now results in a red fade, not a solid red screen. This is especially helpful for slower computers. þ Added Instructions to main menu for those who could not find F1 for some reason. þ GUS. Added UltraMID support. Sorry it's not native, but it's as good as we can do with this game. SBOS works better now too, but we recommend UltraMID. þ Missiles are faster, have smoke trails and you get more of them now. þ Enemies changed a little. They spawn less frequent and farther away and are a little smarter. They will do more frequent evasive maneuvers to avoid your shots. þ Added screen shots from registered game on shareware version when quitting. þ Look in DUKE3D.ZIP for some screen shots of our upcoming game Duke Nukem 3D. þ Version 1.2 adds different screen shots than were in v1.1. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³BEFORE RUNNING THIS GAME³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ þ This game is not designed to be run under Microsoft Windows. Windows takes up far too many system resources that our programs require for efficient and proper operation. When running this program, DO NOT LAUNCH FROM WINDOWS. Run it directly from DOS. If you are in the Windows environment, quit Windows and then run the program. (NOTE: Using the MS/DOS Icon does not exit you from Windows. That is a shell from Windows. You need to completely close down the Program Manager to totally exit from Windows. To test this, type the word exit. If nothing happens, then you're at the DOS prompt. If you return to Windows, then you were only shelled.) þ Any kind of menu program such as Dos Shell will most likely cause problems. We recommend running our programs completely from the DOS prompt. To test this, enter the word "exit". If nothing at all happens, then you are completely at the dos prompt, and not "shelled" from anything else. If you type "exit", and return to another program (such as Windows or the MS/DOS Shell), then you need to completely exit the program that you returned to before attempting to run TV. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³HOW TO USE THE SETUP PROGRAM³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ If you are playing either a network, modem, or serial game, you must use the setup program. This section will explain what they are, and how to use them. Here is a brief summary of the options inside the TV setup program: þ NETWORK GAME This option will let you play TV over a network. Terminal Velocity supports IPX/SPX networks as well as NetBIOS/Lantastic network configurations. Once this option has been selected, you have a couple of choices of network related options. You are first shown the current number of players that are selected. The submenu commands are: ¯ Change Number of Players - This option will bring up a slidebar where you can adjust the number of players to be playing in your network session. ¯ Launch TV - This option will actually launch the game. Select this when you are ready to play. NOTE: When playing a network game, all players must have the same version. In other words, all players must have the shareware version, or all players must have the registered version. You cannot mix shareware and registered versions in a multi-player TV game. þ MODEM GAME This option will start a modem game. Before selecting this, you should set up your various modem parameters in the "Comm Setup" option of the setup program. Here is a description of the various options of the "Modem Game" section of the setup program. ¯ Type of Game - Here, you can select how you will connect via modem. You can either Dial your opponent, wait for a call, or tell the game you have already connected via the use of other terminal software such as Qmodem. Move the arrows to the option you wish, and press enter. ¯ Phone Number List - This is where you need to setup all of the phone numbers you will be using to play TV. You slide the cursor up and down the list until you find one you wish to edit (or create, if it's blank), and then press "E" for edit. If you wish the selected phone number to be the one you will dial/use, then press Enter, and the phone number will show up on the Modem Game screen. ¯ Launch TV - This option will start the modem driver, and will start a modem game of TV for you. þ SERIAL GAME This option will let you play via a serial (null-modem) cable. Please make sure you have your COM port correctly defined before selecting this option. Please note that if you are playing a serial game, both players MUST select the same port speed, or the game will not work properly. If you run into problems, make sure both sides select 9600. þ SOUND SETUP This option will let you select the sound driver you wish to use when you are playing TV. þ COMM SETUP This option will let you configure various options relating to multi-player TV play. This covers modem, serial, and network play. This must be set up before you attempt multi-player TV. Pressing enter here will bring up a submenu of COM port setup options. They are: ¯ Select COM port - This option will let you set up what port you are using, what the IRQ and UART are for the port, and what the port opening speed is at. Unless you know for a fact that you need to change these things, it is recommended that you leave them alone. ¯ Setup Modem - This is where you can change things such as the command strings for modem play, and whether you're using pulse or tone dialing. Use the cursors to select the option you wish to alter and press enter to do so. Current options are displayed in green on the screen. ¯ Setup Network - If you run into problems with network play, you may need to change the network socket number. This is where you would enter it. 3D Realms' Tech Support may instruct you to alter this parameter if you are having problems running TV on a network, or over a network router. ¯ Setup Macros - If you are playing a multi-player game of TV, you can setup macros so that you don't have to type the same messages over and over again. This is where you set them up. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³HOW TO SET UP AND PLAY MULTI-PLAYER TV GAMES³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ þ This section of the document will give you assistance with getting multi- player TV running on your computer. þ This section will make reference to several sections of the setup program. If you haven't already done so, please read the section on how to use the setup program. It will make this section a bit less confusing. TO START: ¯ Type in "setup" from your TV directory to begin. ¯ For a network game, go to the "Network Game" option. Select it, and if needed, alter the number of players, and then select "Launch TV". Make sure you have your network drivers loaded before starting a network game. ¯ For a Modem game, select "Modem Game". Tell the setup program whether or not you are calling, being called, or are already connected. Select a phone number to use (if you're calling) from the phone number list, and then select "Launch TV". ¯ For a serial game, just select "Serial Game". The game launches immediately. Make sure that both sides have set up their port opening speeds at the same speed (preferably 9600). ¯ Once inside the game, you can then select which of the two TV Comm-Bat games you wish to play. The two games are: ¯ Game One - Dogfight - Standard "You against your friend(s)" play. ¯ Game Two - Team Dogfight - You determine the team you're on by the type of ship you pick. þ If you experience modem flakiness after connecting once, you might wish to physically turn your modem off and then back on again. Some modems do not reset properly, or react better if you switch them off and then on again. þ It is possible to play more than one game on a network at one time. However you can not START more than one game at a time. In other words, if your party wants to play NetTV, and there is another group playing the game, then you will have to wait until all of them are in the game and playing before any of the second group can start. To start another game while one is in play, you need to make use of the "Change Socket Number" option in the setup program. Please see your local network administrator for more information regarding what to use here. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³TV HELP & TROUBLESHOOTING³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ þ 3D Realms strongly recommends that before you make any suggested changes to either your hardware or software setup, you should consult your manuals to make sure that any changes will not irreparably alter your computer, or its configuration. Modifying your system or software can be dangerous, and we will be unable to assist with any resulting problems from such alterations. þ If you have the registered CD-ROM version of Terminal Velocity, and the animation files do not play, first check and make sure the CD-ROM is actually in the drive. If it is, then please check the file CDROM.INI that is in your game directory. This file tells the game where to find the animation files in order to play them. The 71 or so megs of animation files reside in the \TVINST\TVI directory on your CD-ROM. By default, the CDROM.INI file will contain the information E:\TVINST\TVI (assuming your CD-ROM is on E:). If you move the TVI files onto your hard drive, you must tell the game this by changing the CDROM.INI information. However, there is a limit of 13 characters in the CDROM.INI file. If the path you give it is longer than 13, your animations will not play. þ If you get an error that says "Unable to Shadow Background", you are low on free memory. Select "Texture: Low Detail" from the graphics options menu, and ESC back to DOS, and restart the game. þ If you are playing Comm-Bat, and you get an error about not being able to find the "setup.cfg" file, and it is there, you should check the files and buffers statements on all computers playing the game. The files and buffers statements should be at least at 30 in order to play properly. þ If you get an error that says you either don't have enough memory to run the game or you have low memory, then you do not have enough free total memory to run Terminal Velocity. This is almost always caused by having memory managers (QEMM/EMM386) and other programs loaded when you boot your system. Your best bet is to "boot clean", which means booting your system without any unnecessary memory resident programs. Here are sample config.sys and autoexec.bat files to use with Terminal Velocity: CONFIG.SYS ========== DEVICE=C:\DOS\HIMEM.SYS FILES=30 BUFFERS=30 STACKS=9,256 AUTOEXEC.BAT ============ @echo off C:\DOS\SMARTDRV.EXE 2048 (if needed) prompt $p$g If you have DOS 5, you will need to create a boot disk, and make config.sys and autoexec.bat files with the above examples. If you have DOS 6, we strongly recommend the use of a multi-boot option. DOS 6 has the capability of having multiple boot configurations. Please consult your DOS manual for instructions on how to create a boot disk, or a multi-boot configuration using the parameters stated above. TV is a protected mode program, and it does not require the services of such memory managers as QEMM, EMM386, etc. Please read the section on protected mode programs for more information. þ If you have low memory, or borderline memory, there will be no music. If you are playing the game and cannot get music, please check and make sure that you are providing the game with enough memory to run. þ If your copy of TV locks up, you may wish to check some settings in your CMOS configuration. If any of these are on, then switch them off: Hidden Refresh, Hardware Video Shadowing, Turbo Switching. Also, if you have either of these, turn them on: HD1 Block Mode; IDE HDD Block Mode. þ If you have a Diamond SpeedStar video card, disable Zero Wait State. þ If you hear static when you are playing with a Sound Blaster or compatible card, make sure to turn the MIC and LINE volumes to zero. Your card may be seeing input from these, causing static. (For a Sound Blaster Pro, this program is SBP-SET; see your card's manual for precise instructions on how to do this.) If you still continue to hear static after doing this, try disconnecting any parallel port devices. IRQ5 and IRQ7, which are used by sound cards, are often frequently used by printers as well. If you have both plugged in, you may get static and poor sound performance. þ If you have jittery video, and do not have a sound card in your computer, make sure to select NONE in the sound setup program. This will help your frame rate. þ If you are running a Compaq computer, and the game tells you that you do not have a VGA card, and you know for a fact that you do, or you experience lockups, this is what you'll need to do. You'll need to contact Compaq for an update. The reason for this is that Compaq has some video cards that do not conform to all proper detection methods. There is a device driver available from Compaq that will fix this problem. The driver's name is FINDVGA.SYS. Compaq does have this file available for download on their BBS with the filename SP0117.ZIP. þ If you are playing with a joystick, and your performance seems erratic, make sure to calibrate the joystick inside the TV program. Also, check and make sure that the joystick port you are using for TV is speed adjustable. If it is, then try tinkering with the speed. If it is not, then there may not be anything you can do to alleviate the problem. Check your port's manual for more info. Also, make sure you do not have more than one active joystick port on your machine at any time. þ The keyboard throttle CANNOT WORK when you have a throttle on the joystick. If you want keyboard throttle, select "Joystick" instead of "Joystick/Throttle." þ If you are starting a network game, and you get the error message "IPX not detected", it means that you haven't loaded your IPX protocol. This will need to be loaded before any TV programs are run. Please ensure that the IPX protocols are loaded before running the setup program. þ If you notice the game running slowly on your system, here are a few suggestions on improving game performance. ¯ Increase your disk cache. TV makes use of the Smartdrv disk cache during game play. Here is a chart of recommended cache sizes based on how much memory you have in your computer. We do not recommend raising it above these levels, as it will then start to eat away at the memory needed to run the game in the first place. Memory | Smartdrv size -------+--------------- 4MB | 256KB 8MB | 2048KB 16MB | 4096KB ¯ Try reducing the screen size. When playing the game, you can press either '-' to reduce your screen size, or '+' to increase it. ¯ TV was written to run properly on a 486DX2/66 with Local Bus Video, and 8 megs of RAM. If your system is below this, you may experience some slowdown in gameplay. To combat slowdown, select "Texture: Low Detail" from the Graphics Option menu. Also select "Sky Texture: Off" from the Graphics Option menu. ¯ Turn down (or off) the Debris option in the Main Menu. ¯ Reduce the rate at which the music/sound is played at. 11k is the optimal rate, and you should not attempt faster than that unless you have a really speedy computer. ¯ Try using two special command line parameters to increase the speed of the game. They are -turbo and -hyper. Turbo increases the game speed by a factor of 50%, and -hyper increases it by 100%. An example of this would be to run the game like this: TV -turbo TV -hyper TV -guide (Go look on your coffee table) TV -dinner (To get the special Crazy Sandwich mode) TV -dopefish (This doesn't do anything, Eric Baker) :) TV -ornottv (We're getting tired. It's late) TV -antenna (It's even later now) TV -onlythefirsttwointhislistarereallyreal (Ruh) þ You can customize the RemoteRidicule sounds that are provided with the game. The filenames for these sounds are TRI1-10.WAV. If you wish to replace them, you need to use these same filenames. However, in order for the WAV files to be used by TV, you need to follow these parameters for the files: They must be 8 bit Mono, and recorded at 11Khz. It is also strongly recommended that they be less than 64k in length, or the game might have problems playing them and could possibly crash. þ Remember that you need to pick the same port speed as your opponent for serial and modem play. þ If you have trouble connecting via modem/serial at the higher listed rates, try a lower port speed. These are not actual connect rates, these are port opening speeds. We recommend you start at 9600, and then go from there to see what levels of port speed you can successfully connect and play at. þ If you experience slowdowns during modem play, try these steps to speed things up. ¯ Try calling again. You may have a bad connection. ¯ Turn off stereo sound, and use mono. ¯ Try with all sound and music off. If it is still slow, then the problem lies elsewhere. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³HOW TO GET TV RUNNING UNDER OS/2³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ 3D Realms has not been able to successfully get Terminal Velocity running under OS/2. If you can get it working, please drop 3D Realms some E-Mail at one of the E-Mail addresses below. (Please do not write after September 1, 1995). We have had several people write and say that they have gotten it to run, but we need it to run without the pause/stall between levels. We can get it to run, but not w/o the hitch between levels. If you can solve that automatically without having to hit any keys at all other than what you would normally hit playing it under DOS, then we'd want to hear from you. ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³CONTACTING TECHNICAL SUPPORT³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ 3D Realms thanks you very much for playing our games. Customer satisfaction is a high priority of 3D Realms', and we strive to please everyone. Our Technical Support staff is available to assist all of our customers in solving any technical problems that may occur. Our Technical Support Department is available to answer your questions Monday through Friday during the hours of 8:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. Central Standard Time. The phone number for the Tech Support Department is (214) 278-5655. However, the voice line isn't your only channel of contact. We are also reachable via a fax machine at (214) 278-4670, (24 Hours a Day) or you can write to us. Our mailing address is: 3D Realms Entertainment POB 496419 Garland, TX 75049-6389 United States of America Voice: (214) 278-5655 Fax: (214) 278-4670 (24 hrs) If you do contact our Technical Support department, please be at your computer, and have it ready for assistance. If you can't be at your computer, please have printouts of the following things available, so that we may assist you better. It may be possible to provide technical support without these things, but it will be much more difficult. The needed files are CONFIG.SYS & AUTOEXEC.BAT, plus what happens when you execute the "MEM /C" command (or just MEM if you get an error using MEM /C). ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³3D REALMS ONLINE³ ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ 3D Realms Technical Support can also be contacted via a variety of electronic medium. Several major online services are monitored, and 3D Realms' E-Mail addresses are listed below. Also, a variety of Bulletin Board networks are monitored as well, and those are also listed. þ Major Online Services Internet -> 3d.realms@3drealms.com CompuServe -> 102052,513 America Online -> Realms999 See the appropriate instructions for these various services on how to send private mail to these addresses. All of these services have Internet E-Mail gateways, but please, if you're sending Internet E-Mail, use the 3drealms.com address. þ Internet Services Join the 3D Realms mailing list! The 3D Realms mailing list is a list where we send press releases, general Apogee/3D Realms info, new game release notifications, and other miscellaneous items out on. Drop us a line at one of the above Internet addresses, and we'll put you on. Just say the word! The 3D Realms Mailing list is not a robot program, so please don't send automated commands. This mailing list is for both Apogee and 3D Realms, so if you're on one, you're on the other! There's no need to sign up a second time to get 3D Realms release info as well as Apogee release info. 3D Realms also has a "finger" plan set up for the most up to date online information about Apogee Software. Finger "apogee@fohnix.metronet.com" for the most up to the second info about our releases! If you are unsure if you can do this, or don't know what "finger" access is, please check with your local Internet service provider for more information on this Internet service. 3D Realms has an official FTP site for our shareware episodes. The latest stuff is always available for anonymous FTP by ftp'ing to "ftp.uml.edu" in the directory "msdos/Games/3drealms". þ Software Creations & other Bulletin Board Networks We can be reached on Software Creations, the 3D Realms BBS. Software Creations can be reached by calling 1-508-368-7036. Software Creations is our #1 file site. Our games are released there before anywhere else in the world, so if you want the latest stuff, take a trip over to Software Creations, the BBS voted #1 two years running by the readers of BoardWatch Magazine! There are several BBS networks that are monitored for Apogee messages. Our Online Support Representative monitors all of the following BBS networks. Fidonet, Relaynet (Rime), Intelec, Ilink, & U'NI-Net. All of these BBS networks have Games, Shareware, and Apogee conferences. (3D Realms support is done in the Apogee Support Conferences on these networks) Fidonet -> 1:124/9006 Rime -> APOGEE (or 1674) 3D Realms also has a FDN on the Fidonet Filebone. Check with your local Fido Filebone administration for more info on how to get Apogee's shareware delivered right to your BBS! Check FILEBONE.NA (available from your local Fido administration) for more info.