----------------------------------------------------------------------------- XATAX Version 1.00s - Information ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- OVERVIEW This file contains information on trouble-shooting and system requirements. If you experience any problems with the software, please refer to this file first. I. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Xatax requires the following minimum configuration to function properly: Required: * MS-DOS version 4.0 or higher * 80486, or higher * 4 Meg RAM, or more * Color VGA Optional: * Adlib, Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro or Compatible * Joystick or GamePad II. COMMAND LINE SWITCHES Xatax has the following command line switches for your convenience: /NOSOUND - Totally disables all sound /ADLIB - Forces XATAX to AdLib compatibility /SB - Forces XATAX to Sound Blaster compatibility /SBPRO - Forces XATAX to Sound Blaster Pro compatibility WARNING - Forcing XATAX into one of the sound card compatible modes can lock up your system if your card is not compatible. Xatax will autodetect the sound card, and these should not be used unless absolutely neccessary. You may note that the /ADLIB mode is the safest of all to use and will work with almost all sound cards. If Xatax does not autodetect your sound card, this may be an indication that your sound card is not compatible, or is improperly configured. III. ERRORS AND PROBLEMS Should you experience any problems with Xatax, please contact us immediately. You may refer to the ORDER.DOC file on information on contacting Pixel Painters directly. IV. COMMON PROBLEMS Problem: I have enough RAM to run XATAX (at least 4 megs), but I get an out of memory error. Question: How much _available_ RAM do you have? Solution: Often a user has many programs loaded onto their system which eats up RAM. For instance, if you have 4 megabytes of RAM and load smart drive, smart drive will take an entire megabyte for disk caching! If you are using DOS 6.0 or higher, try booting the system "clean." You do this by rebooting your system and pressing the F5 key when you see the "Starting MS-DOS..." prompt. Then try running XATAX. If you are using an earlier version of MS-DOS, try commenting out any unneccessary programs (i.e. smart drive) in your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files in your root directory. You should refer to your MS-DOS manuals for more information. Problem: My joystick doesn't work right. Question: Was it calibrated? Solution: The joystick needs to be configured (actually, calibrated) in order for the game to use it. To do this, use the keyboard to select SETUP from the main menu. Then, select JOYSTICK from the SETUP menu. Then follow the on screen instructions. Question: Was it plugged or unplugged while XATAX was running? Solution: Unplugging the joystick after the game has begun can cause the game to respond irratically. If this happens accidentily, you should use the keyboard to exit the game and then restart the game. In some cases it may be neccessary to reboot the system in order to get the joystick to respond correctly. V. WINDOWS In short, do not run this program from Windows or any other multi-tasking environment. If you use Windows, you must exit completely out of Windows before running Xatax (note: You can not run this program from the DOS shell, this does not count as exiting from Windows).