Microsoft KB Archive/122479

Asimov’s The Ultimate Robot: README.TXT Contents

PSS ID Number: Q122479 Article last modified on 12-14-1995

1.00

WINDOWS

= SUMMARY =

This article contains the complete text of Microsoft Asimov’s Ultimate Robot for Windows README.TXT file.

= MORE INFORMATION =

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================================ Isaac Asimov’s The Ultimate Robot README file Microsoft Corporation September 29, 1994 =============================================

This file contains additional information about Asimov’s Ultimate Robot not included in the User’s Guide.

To read this file on-screen, use the Page Down and Page Up keys. You can also print the file by choosing the Print command from the File menu in any Windows word processing program. If you open this file in Windows Write, Microsoft Word, or another word processor, it will be easier to read if you select the entire document and format the text in 10-point Courier.

This README file contains important information on the following topics:

Section Description ——- ——————————————————-

1 RUNNING IN LOW MEMORY OR RUNNING SLOWLY 2 CD-ROM PROBLEMS 3 VIDEO DISPLAY PROBLEMS 3.1 ATI DRIVERS 3.2 DELL S3 DRIVERS 3.3 ORCHID FAHRENHEIT DRIVERS 3.4 DIAMOND STEALTH DRIVERS 3.5 HERCULES DYNAMITE DRIVERS 3.6 TRUEVISION DRIVERS 4 AUDIO PROBLEMS 5 TANDY SENSATION SETUP PROBLEMS 6 KEYBOARD EQUIVALENTS 7 SCREEN SAVERS 8 ROBOTOID ASSEMBLY TOOLKIT

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==================================================== 1. RUNNING IN LOW MEMORY OR RUNNING SLOWLY =================================================================

Asimov uses your computer’s system memory to display pictures. If you find that Asimov runs slowly or if you encounter out-of-memory errors, Asimov probably doesn’t have enough memory. Consider doing the following to improve your computer’s performance:


 * Close all unnecessary applications.
 * Determine how much memory your computer has available by typing “mem” and pressing ENTER at the DOS prompt. You need a minimum of 4MB (4,194,304 bytes) of total memory to use Asimov. If you do not have at least 4MB of memory, you may not be able to run Asimov until you add more memory.
 * If you are running Windows in Enhanced mode, set up a permanent Windows swap file on your hard disk. See your Windows User’s Guide for more information.
 * Defragment (“clean up”) your hard disk by running a defragmentation program.

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==================================================== 2. CD-ROM PROBLEMS =================================================================

NOTE - Do not remove the Asimov compact disc from your CD-ROM drive while Asimov is in the process of playing a sound or displaying a new picture.

If the Asimov program cannot find the data files that it needs from the Asimov compact disc, you’ll see a message that tells you that the correct CD must be in the drive to continue. To find the source of the problem, do the following:

  Make sure the Asimov compact disc is correctly inserted into the CD-ROM drive.   Make sure that the Asimov program is looking for the compact disc on the correct drive. Check to see if the drive letter for your CD-ROM drive has changed. You can use the Windows File Manager to determine which drive letter is assigned to the CD-ROM drive. The Select Drive command in the Disk menu will say “CD-ROM” next to the CD-ROM drive letter.   If you have an external CD-ROM drive, make sure the drive is connected to your computer, plugged in, and turned on. If you still see the error message after checking the points above, check the documentation that came with your CD-ROM drive or contact the company that supplied the drive.   Make sure that your CD-ROM drive is MPC-compatible. An MPC-compatible drive “has an average seek time of less than one second and can transfer data from the compact disc at 150K per second while using less than 40% of the CPU bandwidth.” Check the documentation that came with your CD-ROM drive to make sure it meets these requirements. An incompatible CD-ROM drive will slow down the performance of Asimov. NOTE - Asimov’s performance will be better with a double-speed CD-ROM drive with a 300 K/sec data-transfer rate. 

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==================================================== 3. VIDEO DISPLAY PROBLEMS =================================================================

Asimov is a 256-color application. In order to view Asimov properly, you need a video card which supports 256 colors in 640x480 resolution. If your computer is capable of displaying only 16 colors, you will still be able to use Asimov, but some things may look very strange. We highly recommend that you run Asimov in 256-color mode. If your computer is running in 16-color mode, and the video card will support 256 colors in 640x480 resolution, you should run Windows Setup to change the screen driver to see Asimov at its highest image quality. If you are running in more than 256 colors, Asimov’s performance may be poor. To avoid possible problems, you should run Windows Setup to change to a 256-color Windows display driver.

You may also have problems if you are running Asimov in a high resolution mode. If you experience problems with Asimov, try switching your resolution to a 1024x768 or lower resolution.

Check your Windows documentation for information on changing video drivers.

Asimov is incompatible with some advanced features used by some video cards such as the Mach32 chip set running the ATI drivers. Asimov’s colors, particularly in the Robotoid Assembly Toolkit, may look very strange if you are running these drivers.

If you are using an ATI video card and one of the “mach” video drivers (mach8 or mach32) as your Windows display driver*, the Device Bitmaps setting for the video card must be set to “Off”, and the 256 Color Palette setting must be set to “On”. To check/change this setting, do the following:


 * 1) Launch the Mach FlexDesk Control Panel by double-clicking on the “mach FlexDesk Control Panel” icon usually found in the “mach Utilities” program group in Program Manager. The “mach Utilities” group is created when you run the ATI mach video driver setup program.
 * 2) Click the “Advanced…” button.
 * 3) Make sure “Device Bitmaps” is set to “Off”, or set it to “Off” if it is not.
 * 4) Make sure “256 Color Palette” is set to “On”, or set it to “On” if it is not.
 * 5) Click OK to close the FlexDesk Advanced Settings.
 * 6) Click OK to close the FlexDesk Control Panel.

You will need to restart Windows for the changes to take effect.


 * You can verify the Windows Display driver selection by launching the “Windows Setup” icon found in the “Main” program group of the Windows Program Manager.

For information about ATI video cards or the ATI installation utility referred to above, contact ATI Technical Support at (416) 756-0711

3.3 ORCHID FAHRENHEIT DRIVERS
You may experience Out of Memory errors in the Robotoid Assembly Toolkit if you are running Orchid Fahrenheit 1280 drivers in 1280x1024 or 800x600 resolution in 16 colors. You can fix this problem by running in 256 colors, or by switching to a different screen resolution, such as 640x480.

You may also have problems running the Robotoid Assembly Toolkit if you are running Orchid Fahrenheit Enhanced VGA drivers. Contact your hardware manufacturer for information on acquiring the latest version of the driver.

The Robotoid Assembly Toolkit is incompatible with the current versions of the Diamond Stealth and Diamond Stealth Pro video drivers. Contact your hardware manufacturer for information on acquiring updated versions of these drivers.

If you are running Hercules Dynamite video drivers, you will find that the Robotoid Assembly Toolkit runs best in 800x600 resolution. Consult your Windows documentation for information on switching your video display mode.

The Robotoid Assembly Toolkit is incompatible with the current version of the Truevision Driver. Contact you hardware manufacture for information on acquiring an updated version of this driver.

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==================================================== 4. AUDIO PROBLEMS =================================================================

Audio problems can have many causes. Other applications that play sounds may interrupt sounds in Asimov, because your computer cannot play two sounds simultaneously. This is generally a temporary clash that will resolve itself. However, a few applications that play sounds, such as some screen savers, may remove audio capability from all other Windows applications. If you suspect you have such an application, turn it off or do not run it while running Asimov.

Sounds that are distorted or “fuzzy” have several possible causes. The most likely one is simply that your speakers are not of high quality.

It is also possible that the software settings on your sound board are causing distortion. For example, if the sound card volume or “WAVE file input” is set to near its maximum, it will produce amplification distortion, just as it would on a stereo system. To find out how to change your sound board settings, check the documentation that came with your sound board.

If you notice that the audio is breaking up or skipping while it plays, you can try increasing the amount of memory that is used for buffering audio data while sounds are playing. To do this, open up the Control Panel window from your Main program group, and double click on the Drivers icon. Select MCI Sound, and click the Setup button to increase the number of seconds which are allocated for buffering audio.

Your CD-ROM drive should be MPC-compatible. An MPC-compatible drive “has an average seek time of less than one second and can transfer data from the compact disc at 150K per second while using less than 40% of the CPU bandwidth.” Check the documentation that came with your CD-ROM drive to make sure it meets these requirements. An incompatible CD-ROM drive may work but give lower-quality sound or cause the sound to be interrupted while playing.

If you don’t hear any sounds, make sure that the volume for your speakers is set to an audible level.

If the volume is set to an audible level and you still hear no sounds at all, something may be wrong with your sound board setup. Check to see that the driver is installed correctly and, if necessary, reinstall it. Refer to the documentation that came with your sound card for more information on installing audio drivers.

Please note that Asimov requires an MPC-compatible sound board to be installed and is not intended to run with drivers which use the PC internal speaker, such as the unsupported “PC Speaker” driver. Such a driver will in most cases not play any sounds, and if the driver setup option “Enable Interrupts” is not checked, your system may crash. If you have both a sound board and the PC Speaker driver installed, it is preferable to un-install the PC Speaker driver.

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==================================================== 5. TANDY SENSATION SETUP PROBLEMS =================================================================

Most Tandy Sensations use WinMate as their default desktop shell. WinMate may cause a conflict with the setup procedure and needs to be disabled by changing the shell= line in the SYSTEM.INI file to read as follows:

shell=progman.exe To change the shell= line in the SYSTEM.INI file:

  From the Windows Accessories group, run Notepad.   Open the SYSTEM.INI file and comment out the shell= line in the [boot] section by typing a semicolon at the beginning of the shell= line. This is the line that is loading the Tandy WinMate shell.   Create a new line under the commented shell= line that reads: shell=progman.exe </li>  After saving the changes to the SYSTEM.INI file, exit and restart Windows. The WinMate shell will now be disabled and your shell will now be Program Manager. </li>  Run Asimov’s Setup. </li></ol>

Upon completion of Asimov’s Setup, you can change your shellback to the WinMate desktop, if so desired:


 * 1) Edit the SYSTEM.INI file again by commenting out the “shell=progman.exe” line (adding a semicolon to the beginning of the shell=progman.exe line).
 * 2) Remove the semicolon  in front of the previously commented “shell=” line that loads WinMate.

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==================================================== 6. KEYBOARD EQUIVALENTS =================================================================

Below is a list of a number of keyboard equivalents supported in Asimov which will help you navigate through the product and perform the tasks you wish to perform more quickly.

Ctrl + F = Find Ctrl + G = Find again Ctrl + P = Print Ctrl + C = Copy full screen to clipboard Ctrl + T = Copy text to clipboard Alt + 1 = Jump to first page of story in Writings Alt + N = Next page Alt + B = Previous page Alt + O = Options menu

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==================================================== 7. SCREEN SAVERS =================================================================

The Asimov’s Ultimate Robot CD-ROM contains a collection of Robotoid Screen Savers. The Setup program optionally loads the screen saver data and code files onto your local hard disc.

If the screen savers have been loaded, then follow this procedure to have robots save your screen:-


 * 1) Run the Control Panel program (usually found within the Main group in the Program Manager).
 * 2) Run the Desktop control panel.
 * 3) In the Screen Saver section, click the down arrow next to the box which is labeled “Name”, and select the “Asimov Robotoids” entry. (If this entry is not visible, then re-run the Setup program on the CD-ROM to re-load the screen savers.)
 * 4) Click on the button marked “Setup…” to correctly set up the screen saver. In the dialog box that is displayed, click on one of the seven radio buttons to select which Robotoid animation will run.
 * 5) As with most Windows screen savers, Asimov Robotoids can be password protected. If enabled, then whoever is using the computer must correctly type in the password to stop the active screen saver, and return to Windows. To enable this feature, click on the “Password Protected” check box in the Setup dialog box, and click on the “Set Password…” button. Uncheck the “Password Protected” check box to disable this feature.
 * 6) Once you have exited the Setup dialog box (and returned to the Desktop control panel), you can have a sneak preview of the screen saver by clicking on the Test button. As soon as you move the mouse, or hit a key, then the screen saver will terminate.
 * 7) Having set up the Asimov Robotoids screen saver, exit the Desktop control panel by clicking on its OK button. Clicking on the Cancel button will cause Windows to revert to the previous screen saver.

Note that the screen saver code looks for its data files on you hard drive in a directory called AURSCRN. AURSCRN will be a sub-directory of the directory in which Asimov is installed, usually C:. If AURSCRN or its files have been deleted, then the Asimov Robotoids screen saver will display a black screen with a message saying it couldn’t find the file. To re-load the data files (in the correct location), re-run the Setup program on the CD-ROM.

You can also install the Asimov screen savers yourself, without running the Setup program. You might wish to do this if you want to save space on your hard drive by only installing the screen savers you wish to use. To install the Asimov screen savers manually, do the following:

<ol style="list-style-type: decimal;">  In File Manager, open the directory found on the Asimov CD. </li>  Copy the file AURSCRN.SCR into your directory, which can usually be found in C:. To copy, use File Manager to open a window for both the Asimov CD and you hard drive at the same time, click on AURSCRN.SCR, and drag the file to your directory. </li>  Create a directory called in the same place where the Asimov program is installed, usually C:. To do this, highlight the ASIMOV folder in the File Manager by clicking on it once. Click on File, and select “Create Directory…”. When you are asked for a name, type AURSCRN and click OK. </li>  Select the screen savers you wish to install from the directory on the CD, and copy them into the directory you just created on your hard drive. </li>  If you did NOT install Asimov in a directory called, then you will need to edit the ASIMOV.INI file which can be found in your Windows directory on you hard drive (for example, C:). Open ASIMOV.INI in any text editor, such as Notepad or Microsoft Word. Add the following line to the end of the file: ScreenSavers= : , where the is the letter of your hard drive, and is the name of the directory in which you installed Asimov, followed by. For example, this line might read ScreenSavers=C:if you installed Asimov in a directory called. If you did install Asimov in the default directory, then you will not need to make any changes to ASIMOV.INI. </li>  You can now run the screen savers by following the instructions above. Remember, however, that you will only be able to run the screen savers which you copied onto your hard drive. You can add or delete files from the AURSCRN directory at any time. </li></ol>

NOTE: Because the Asimov screen savers are 16-bit files, they will not run on Windows NT.

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==================================================== 7. ROBOTOID ASSEMBLY TOOLKIT =================================================================

Because the Toolkit is actually a separate program from the rest of Asimov, you may notice some changes in your computer when you run the Robotoid Assembly Toolkit. Below is a list of the of the things you will notice when you use the Robotoid Assembly Toolkit, and explanations of what is happening.


 * 1) Do not remove your CD from the drive while using Asimov’s Ultimate Robot. This is especially important when you are running the Robotoid Assembly Toolkit. The program needs to access the CD regularly in order to get the datanecessary to run the Toolkit. If you remove the CD from the drive the Toolkit will be unable to find the information it needs, and it will be unable to run properly.
 * 2) You will notice that the colors on your screen change while the Robotoid Assembly Toolkit is loading. This happens because by clicking on Robotoid Assembly you are starting up a separate application. You may also notice that your Windows colors are somewhat distorted while you are using the Robotoid Assembly Toolkit, but when you click the up arrow to return to the rest of the application, your screen colors will all return to normal.

NOTE: If you are using ATI drivers, you may find that the colors for the Robotoid Assembly Toolkit are always wrong. The Robotoid Assembly Toolkit should appear in the same gray as the rest of the product. If you are experiencing this problem, you should try updating to different display drivers. Contact your hardware manufacturer for information on updating your display drivers.

<ol start="3" style="list-style-type: decimal;">  When the Robotoid Assembly Toolkit is running, you are actually running two separate programs: The Toolkit, and Asimov. A minimized icon for Asimov will appear at the bottom of the screen while you are using the Toolkit. Although this makes it appear that you can switch back and forth between the Toolkit and the rest of the application, this is not the case. Asimov will perform exactly as you would expect one application to perform. </li>  Asimov’s Ultimate Robot requires 4MB of memory to run properly. Even though Asimov may run successfully in less than 4 MB of memory, you will need 4MB free in order to run the Robotoid Assembly Toolkit. If you have problems running the Toolkit, try freeing more memory by closing down other applications. </li>  The Robotoid Assembly Toolkit is a 256 color application. You may run into problems if you try to run in fewer or more colors. If you are not running in 256-color display mode, use the Windows Setup program in you Main program group to Change System Settings. Consult your Windows documentation for more information on changing your display driver. </li>  You may experience problems running the Robotoid Assembly Toolkit with some video display drivers. If you experience Out Of Memory errors or you are unable to run the Toolkit at all, try updating your video display driver. Consult section 3 of this document, Video Display Problems, for help with your current display mode. Contact your hardware manufacturer for the latest version of your driver. You can also try running Asimov using a VGA driver. Although VGA is only a 16-color display driver, this will allow you to run the Toolkit when your current driver may not. Consult your Windows documentation for more information on changing your display driver. </li></ol>

KBCategory: kbmm kbreadme kbmm KBSubcategory: Additional reference words: kbhowto 1.0multi media multimedia multi-media ============================================================================= Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1995.