Microsoft KB Archive/147834

= Macintosh Ancient Lands: Ancient Lands ReadMe Contents =

Article ID: 147834

Article Last Modified on 11/8/2001

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Ancient Lands for the Macintosh

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This article was previously published under Q147834



SUMMARY
The following article contains a copy of the Ancient Lands ReadMe file located on the Ancient Lands for the Macintosh compact disc.



MORE INFORMATION
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Microsoft Ancient Lands Read Me
-- This file contains information on the following topics:

1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR RUNNING MICROSOFT ANCIENT LANDS - What you need to run Microsoft Ancient Lands.

2. MEMORY USE - Microsoft Ancient Lands memory usage. - How to make it run on low-memory machines.

3. PERFORMANCE - Tips on what to do if Microsoft Ancient Lands is running slowly.

4. SCREEN SIZE AND COLOR CONFIGURATION - What makes Microsoft Ancient Lands look best.

5. SOUND PROBLEMS - Common problems playing sounds and how to fix them.

6. PRINTING AND COPYING - How to print and copy images from Microsoft Ancient Lands.

7. OVERVIEW MOVIE - Running the Overview Movie.

8. DEMONSTRATION MODE - How to make Ancient Lands run a slide show.

9. TROUBLESHOOTING - How to solve problems with certain system configurations.

-- 1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR RUNNING MICROSOFT ANCIENT LANDS --

To run Microsoft Ancient Lands you need:

- Any Macintosh computer that supports a 256-color, 640x480 (13-inch) or higher resolution monitor - System 7.0 or later - 4 MB of random-access memory (RAM) - At least 1 MB of available hard disk space - A single-speed (150 KB/sec) CD-ROM drive or better

The Installer on the CD will add any necessary files to your System Folder. It will also copy the Ancient Lands program to a folder titled "Ancient Lands" on your hard disk; this makes the program load a little faster when you start it. The sounds and images remain on the CD, so you will still need to insert the CD to run Ancient Lands.

You can run Microsoft Ancient Lands directly from the CD. However, to play the movies and hear the sounds, QuickTime 2.0 or later must be installed in your System Folder. If Ancient Lands can't find these critical files, it will prompt you to run the Installer. You can also install QuickTime manually by dragging the files from the System Files folder on the CD onto your System Folder icon.

- 2. MEMORY USE -

Microsoft Ancient Lands should run on any Macintosh with 4 MB of RAM. However, if 2 MB of memory is not free when you launch Microsoft Ancient Lands, a warning message may be displayed indicating there is insufficient memory available.

Most users with 4 MB of RAM will not experience problems, but if your system software takes up more than about 2 MB you may need to adjust memory usage to make Microsoft Ancient Lands run properly. Some general suggestions follow:

- Run only one application at a time. If other applications are running, close them before re-launching Microsoft Ancient Lands.

- Reduce the amount of memory being used by your system software. To  do this, return to the Finder and select About This Macintosh...   from the Apple menu at the top left corner of your screen. The Largest Unused Block needs to be greater than 2,048K to run Microsoft Ancient Lands. If the only item listed in the About This Macintosh dialog is System Software, and the Largest Unused Block is less than 2,048K, you need to reduce the amount of memory consumed by your system software. Refer to your Macintosh documentation to do this, but some general suggestions follow:

a. Open the Memory Control Panel and check the Disk Cache setting. For best performance with Microsoft Ancient Lands, set the cache to 32K.

b. Large numbers of fonts and sounds consume system memory. Removing those that you aren't using will make more memory available.

c. Third party system extensions such as screen savers, fax software, desktop pictures, menu-modifying utilities and other system enhancements increase the amount of memory consumed by     your system. Removing some or all of these extensions will increase the amount of memory available to applications. Be     sure that you save anything you remove from your System folder and place it in a separate folder on your disk so that you can replace it later.

- Ancient Lands is pre-set to a suggested memory size of 2,048K. You can change the amount of memory the program uses by clicking on the Microsoft Ancient Lands icon, choosing Get Info from the File menu, and then changing the memory allocation. If you don't have enough memory to launch Ancient Lands, you can set Ancient Lands to use less memory.

Note: Be warned that a low memory setting may cause the program to perform poorly. For example, Ancient Lands may not play sounds or display pop-up windows if it runs out of memory. If you allocate less than 1,800K, these problems are likely to result.

-- 3. PERFORMANCE --

If Microsoft Ancient Lands seems to be running slowly or its sounds seem to be interrupted, there are a number of things which may help:

- If you are running on a Macintosh with low memory you may have problems. Check the previous section, MEMORY USE.

- If you are using Virtual Memory, you may find that movies and other sounds are choppy or interrupted. For best performance, turn off Virtual Memory by opening the Memory Control Panel, turning off Virtual Memory, and restarting your computer.

- For best performance, turn off File Sharing in the Sharing Setup Control Panel. Although File Sharing itself should not cause a  problem, any network activity may cause Microsoft Ancient Lands (as   well as other applications) to run more slowly.

- Microsoft Ancient Lands is designed to work properly on a CD-ROM drive with a 150K/sec or faster transfer rate. A double-speed CD- ROM drive or one with a faster transfer rate will provide even better performance in some sections of the product. If your CD-ROM drive has a sustained transfer rate of less than 150K/sec it may be  not be able to supply audio and video information to the Macintosh at the speed required. Contact your CD-ROM vendor for information on improving the performance of slower CD-ROM drives.

-- 4. SCREEN SIZE AND COLOR CONFIGURATION --

On startup, Ancient Lands checks your monitor and displays the images as best it can on your Macintosh. If your monitor settings can be adjusted to make Ancient Lands run better, the program will prompt you to do so.

Ancient Lands will run on any 256-color, 640x480 (13-inch) or higher resolution Macintosh compatible monitor, although the movies look and perform best in "Thousands of colors."

Ancient Lands is not designed to run in black and white, in 16 colors, or on monitors displaying less than 640x480 pixels (e.g., Color Classics or 12" monitors).

- 5. SOUND PROBLEMS -

Sounds may be inaudible if the sound level is turned down. To set the sound level, open the Sound control panel, and experiment with the speaker volume setting until you find a comfortable sound level. If you set the sound level to maximum, you may get some sound distortion just as you might on a stereo system. With external speakers, be sure they are connected properly and turned on; you will generally be able to adjust sound level with the external speaker volume knob as well as with the Sound control panel.

If your Macintosh is running with Virtual Memory turned on, you may find that sounds will break up: when Virtual Memory is turned on, these are sometimes placed on the hard disk rather than into real RAM. For best performance, turn off Virtual Memory. To do this in System 7, open the Memory Control Panel, choose the Virtual Memory Off option, and then restart the computer.

--- 6. PRINTING AND COPYING ---

The screens in Ancient Lands are stored and displayed as large color images, which are optimized for best screen reproduction rather than for print reproduction. You can, however, print screen images, which will be of the same quality as a screen shot made with a screen- capture function.

When you print a window from Ancient Lands, it is printed as a bitmap. If you have only a black-and-white printer, Ancient Lands will not print very well. Ancient Lands can print better grayscale images--if you have a laser printer, choose the Color/Grayscale option for better quality. You can also print in color if you have a color printer. Depending on the type of printer you have, printing a picture may take several minutes. Because the pictures can be quite large, you may have difficulty copying or printing in low-memory conditions. In this case, quit all other applications and then try again.

The Print and Copy commands affect only the topmost window.

- 7. OVERVIEW MOVIE -

If you have difficulty running the Overview Movie try running it in thousands or millions of colors. If your monitor is capable of displaying this many colors, use the Monitors Control Panel to change the color settings.

- 8. DEMONSTRATION MODE -

Ancient Lands has a demonstration mode that begins an automatic random "slide show" when the computer has been idle for a certain period of time.

To activate demonstration mode, hold down the Shift key while you click the Slide Show button in the Options dialog. This displays a dialog box. Check the "Start random automatically" box and specify the number of idle minutes that must elapse before starting the slide show, then click OK.

The slide show will end automatically as soon as you use Ancient Lands again. Demonstration mode will remain active until you turn it off. To do this, hold down Shift again and click the Slideshow button in the Options dialog, uncheck the "Start random automatically" box in the dialog box, and then click OK.

-- 9. TROUBLESHOOTING --

If you find that sounds do not play at all and you are running Ancient Lands on a Power PC, check to see if you are running RAM Doubler version 1.5.1. If you are, then disable RAM Doubler, remove it from your Extensions Folder (which is in your System Folder), and restart your computer. Contact the manufacturer of RAM Doubler for information on updated versions.

If you find that storybook sounds do not play, check to see if you have File Sharing enabled in the Sharing Setup control panel. If it is, disable File Sharing and relaunch Microsoft Ancient Lands.

Additional query words: multi media multimedia multi-media mmtitles kbmm

Keywords: KB147834

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