Microsoft KB Archive/149652

= Macintosh Dangerous Creatures: ReadMe Contents =

Article ID: 149652

Article Last Modified on 11/8/2001

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Dangerous Creatures 1.0 for Macintosh

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This article was previously published under Q149652



SUMMARY
The following article contains a copy of the Microsoft Dangerous Creatures ReadMe file located on the Dangerous Creatures for the Macintosh compact disc.



Microsoft Dangerous Creatures Version 1.0 README File

 * 1) SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR RUNNING DANGEROUS CREATURES
 * 2) * What you need to run Dangerous Creatures.
 * 3) SCREEN SIZES AND COLOR CONFIGURATION
 * 4) * What makes Dangerous Creatures look best.
 * 5) SOUND PROBLEMS
 * 6) * Common problems playing sounds, and how to fix them.
 * 7) RUNNING IN LOW MEMORY OR RUNNING SLOWLY
 * 8) * Make Dangerous Creatures run on low-memory machines.
 * 9) PRINTING AND COPYING
 * 10) * How to print and copy Dangerous Creatures screens.
 * 11) OVERVIEW MOVIE
 * 12) * Running the Overview Movie.
 * 13) DEMONSTRATION MODE
 * 14) * How to make Dangerous Creatures run a slide show.

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1. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS FOR RUNNING DANGEROUS CREATURES
To install and run Dangerous Creatures you need:
 * A Macintosh computer that supports a 256-color 13-inch (640x480) or higher-resolution monitor
 * System 7 or later
 * 4 MB of memory
 * 1 MB of available hard disk space
 * A CD-ROM drive

You can run Dangerous Creatures directly from the compact disc. To play the movies and hear the sounds, certain files must be in your System Folder (QuickTime version 2.0 is the most important). You can drag these from the System Files folder on the CD onto your closed System Folder. If Dangerous Creatures can't find these files, it will prompt you to run the Installer which is on the CD. You will need to reboot your machine after these files have been added.

The Installer will add any necessary files to your System Folder. It will also copy the Dangerous Creatures program files to a folder titled "Dangerous Creatures" 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 still need to insert the CD to run Dangerous Creatures.

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2. SCREEN SIZES AND COLOR CONFIGURATION
On startup, Dangerous Creatures checks your monitor and displays the images as best it can on your Macintosh. If your monitor settings can be adjusted to make Dangerous Creatures run better, the program will prompt you to do so.

Dangerous Creatures will run on any 256-color 13-inch (640x480) or higher Macintosh compatible monitor, although the Dangerous Creature movies look best in "Thousands of colors."

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

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3. SOUND PROBLEMS
Sound may be inaudible if the sound level is turned down. To set the sound level, use the Sound Control Panel, and experiment with the speaker volume setting until you get a comfortable volume level. If you set the sound level to maximum, you may get sound distortion just as you would on a stereo.

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.

If you find that sounds do not play at all and you are running Dangerous Creatures 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.

Macintosh computers have built-in speakers. The speakers vary in quality and loudness depending on which Macintosh you have. You may also have external speakers which can help to improve the sound quality for your computer.

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4. RUNNING IN LOW MEMORY OR RUNNING SLOWLY
Dangerous Creatures should run on any Macintosh with 4 MB of memory. If Dangerous Creatures runs slowly or displays out-of-memory messages, it probably does not have enough free memory. Here are some things you can do to help:
 * Run only one application at a time. If other applications are running, quit them, and then start Dangerous Creatures again.
 * Reduce the amount of memory being used by your system software. In the Finder, choose About this Macintosh from the Apple menu to see how much memory your computer has and how much is being used by the System. If, for example, the dialog box displays "Total Memory 4,096K" and the line underneath displays "System Software 3,500K," this indicates that you have 4 megabytes of RAM, but the Macintosh is using 3.5 of those for its operating system. In this case, there is little unused memory for running applications. Any applications that are running will also be listed in this box. You may be able to reduce the amount of memory used by the system. You may have many fonts installed, and could remove those you are not using. Utilities such as screen savers and desk pictures also occupy RAM. You may have system extensions you do not need, which are occupying RAM. If you remove items like these to free memory, make sure to keep copies somewhere on your hard disk or on a backup disk so that you can re-install them if you need them later.
 * Dangerous Creatures is pre-set to its preferred memory size. You can change the amount of memory the program uses by clicking on the Microsoft Dangerous Creatures icon, choosing Get Info from the File menu in the Finder, and then changing the memory allocation. If you don't have enough memory to launch Dangerous Creatures, you can set Dangerous Creatures to use less memory. Be warned that a low memory setting may cause the program to perform poorly. For example, it may not play sounds or display pop-up windows if it runs out of memory. If you allocate Dangerous Creatures less than 1.880 MB, these problems are likely to result.

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5. PRINTING AND COPYING
The screens in Dangerous Creatures 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.

If you have only a black-and-white printer, Dangerous Creatures will not print very well. Dangerous Creatures 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.

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6. 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.

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7. DEMONSTRATION MODE
Dangerous Creatures 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 Dangerous Creatures 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.

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

Keywords: KB149652

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