== Tides of War - readme.txt ==
Last modified on 1-Oct-98 at 4:04 PM by TLW

Welcome! This file contains last-minute information and instructions 
for installing and playing Tides of War. You should read it thoroughly 
before installing Tides of War.

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[1] Supported operating systems

The Windows 95 or Windows 98 operating systems are required with 
Direct-X version 5 (or higher) installed. The Direct-X and the Direct-X 
Media runtime must be installed in order for Tides of War to function 
correctly.  The installation program will install these components for 
you.

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[2] Windows NT

Windows NT is NOT supported. Tides of War will not run on Windows NT 4 
(because it only supports Direct-X version 3). Tides of War may operate 
correctly on Windows NT 5 when it is released (with Direct-X 5 support 
included as standard).

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[3] System requirements

TOW requires a super-VGA graphics card that supports 640x480 16 bit 
graphics. The Windows desktop should be set to 64 thousand (16-bit) 
colors to prevent graphical errors and screen corruption. Right-click 
on your desktop, click "Properties", and then select the "Settings" tab 
to view your desktop's color depth. Change the "Colors" setting to use 
High-Color (this may also be marked as '65 thousand', '65536 colors' or 
'16-bit'), then click "OK".

We recommend at least an Intel Pentium 133 to play Tides of War. 
Faster processors (such as an Intel Pentium-2) will give smoother 
gameplay when many ships are on screen.

We recommend an eight-speed CD-ROM drive (or faster) for smooth movie 
playback, and 32 megabytes of RAM for faster load times and smoother 
play. There should also be approximately 100 megabytes of free disk 
space for Microsoft Windows to use as temporary storage.

We also recommend turning off and unloading as many programs as 
possible while running Tides of War. This includes shutting down 
electronic mail programs, Microsoft Fast-Find (part of Microsoft 
Office) and disabling the Windows system agent if it is enabled.

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[4] Troubleshooting Direct-X problems

If the Direct-X installation fails and Tides of War refuses to run, you 
may have to manually force installation of the Direct-X components. If 
you have a more obscure video card, or an unstable Windows 
installation, Microsoft's Direct-X 5 installation routines may have 
problems.
 
The Direct-X components are a series of extensions to the operating 
system that allow applications a fast interface to hardware such as 
video cards and sound boards. Because it is part of the operating 
system, we are unable to provide any assistance with the installation
or troubleshooting of Direct-X.

This problem has been encountered with the NeoMagic-128 display adapter 
(and a few other video boards). In the case of the NeoMagic, the 
problem was solved after following the instructions below. The 
automatic Direct-X 5 installation did not recognize the existing video 
driver, and had to be told to force the video driver installation.

<!> Warning <!> This procedure may damage your Windows installation.  
If it fails, and you may have to reinstall your old video drivers. Make 
sure you have them on hand, and proceed with caution.

To manually install Direct-X 5 drivers, click on the "Start" menu 
button and select "Run". Click "Browse", and find the "setup\directx" 
directory on the Tides of War CD. Select "dxsetup.exe" from the list, 
click "Open", and then "Okay". When the setup program starts up, click 
on the "Reinstall DirectX" button. If the program finds any existing 
drivers, or is unsure of what to do, select the option to overwrite 
them. When the process is finished, restart your computer.

This should fix the problem. If you are still having problems, there 
are a few Internet web pages from Microsoft that might be able to provide 
assistance:

Direct-X Home Page:  http://www.microsoft.com/directx
Direct-X User Guide: http://www.microsoft.com/directx/enduserguide.htm
Compatibility List:  http://www.microsoft.com/hwtest/hcl/

If you are still having problems, you may need to contact your hardware 
vendor and obtain the latest drivers from them.

Note: Direct-X version 6 had already been released at the time of this 
writing, but not soon enough to be included in the standard 
installation (for testing reasons). Our recommendation is that if you 
are not experiencing problems with Tides of War, you do not need 
Direct-X 6. However, you might want to install Direct-X 6 if you 
experience any problems. You can find Direct-X 6 on Microsoft's Direct-
X Home page (listed above), and it is also included on the second Tides 
of War CD for your convenience.

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[5] Movies do not play

If the movies run without video (black screen), please manually install 
the Direct-X 5 Media runtime components. Click on the "Start" menu 
button and select "Run". Click "Browse", and find the "setup\dxmedia" 
directory on the Tides of War CD. Select "dxmweb.exe" from the list, 
and click "Open", then "Okay".

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[6] Known Installation problem

If you get an error during the installation of Direct-X Media Runtime, it
is a known problem with Microsoft. (ERROR MESSAGE: RUNDLL32 caused an invalid 
page fault in module KERNEL32.DLL)

"This is a bug that exists in a few of the Virge drivers out there.  Download
and run dx6eng.exe, and choose "YES" when it asks about updating your
display driver.  We're updating the driver update database for DirectX 6.1
to fix this problem."

To try and rectify the problem, you can try the steps listed in 
[5] Movies do no not play, or look up Microsoft for any latest changes that 
might help at:

Direct-X Home Page:  http://www.microsoft.com/directx
Direct-X User Guide: http://www.microsoft.com/directx/enduserguide.htm

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Good luck, Captain!

© 1998 Devil's Thumb Entertainment
http://www.devilsthumb.com
TOW README v1.9.23 for Master v.3.0
