MICROPROSE WORLD CIRCUIT Version 1.04 - Modem Update Additional Technical Supplement For IBM PC and compatible computers Memory Management: You will need about 600,000 bytes of Base Memory available to run the program. If the game fails to run properly your machine's memory is probably not configured correctly. The easiest way to temporarily configure your machine correctly is to make a boot disk. Make the GPRIX directory current and type 'BOOTMAKE' from the DOS prompt. To use your boot disk, insert it and reset the computer. The game will use either EXTENDED memory (made available via himem.sys), EXPANDED memory (via add on boards or EMM386.SYS on 386 or above machines) or create a spill file of 320k ('temp000.tmp') on your hard disc if no extra memory is available. Of the three, extended memory is preferred (it's generally faster than expanded memory) and is tested for first by the program. EMM386.EXE Emm386.exe is the standard DOS 5.0 expanded memory manager. If you are running World Circuit on a 286 machine you will have to use the Expanded Memory Driver supplied with your machine. There are many other 3rd party memory management programs available. World Circuit has been tested with a selection of these. Copy Protection: World Circuit has no disk copy protection. This means that you can install the simulation files from the original disks to a hard disk. However, the program asks you a manual-related question. Use the manual to answer the question. MicroProse regrets that continuing casual and organized software piracy requires that we retain this minimal form of copy protection. Sound: The sound for AdLib and Soundblaster cards has been updated. The original files in your GPRIX directory will be replaced automatically. Enhancements for the IBM PC Version Important: The IBM PC modem version of World Circuit contains some enhancements over the original. Many of these program changes have been achieved without affecting the instructions you’ll find in the manual. However, you will discover that some things are not documented in the main manual, but are explained below. The Game Options Menu: The most obvious changes to game options can be seen on the Game Options Menu! You will see the following; "About World Circuit" "Quick Race" "Race" "Game" "Control Methods" "Startup Files" "Printer" "Linkup Menu" "Save Options" "Main Menu" "Quick Race" allows you to make selections about the track, car, grid position, length and weather for a Quick Race. The "Race" and "Game" selections are the equivalent of "Race Options" and "Game Options" selections described in the manual. "Control Methods" allows you to select between keyboard, mouse, joystick or customised control, to edit the controls and to calibrate an analog joystick. "Start Up Files" allows you to specify which saved files you want to be loaded as defaults for Driver Names, Car Set Ups and Circuit Records. "Printer" allows you to specify printer type, port and feeding instructions. You can print out any result screen after a race by selecting "Printer Menu" and then selecting the information set that you want to print out. It is possible to print results to any IBM compatible printer or to redirect them to an ASCII file. The printer sub-menu on the Game Options allows you to choose between an IBM printer (with IBM box graphics characters) or any other IBM compatible printer (text only). If in doubt about your printer, try the test print option. Unless you have more than one printer attached to your machine you should select LPT1 as the printer port. It’s also possible to send a copy of the grid and/or results tables to a file on hard or floppy disk. To do this select ‘File’ instead of LPT1-3 on the menu. The files created will be plain ASCII files if you have selected ‘other’ as a printer type but contain IBM graphics characters if you have selected an IBM printer. These files should be editable in all word processors. Detail Levels: There are four detail levels which can be adjusted to ensure the faster running of the 3-D landscapes. You can also remove the ‘texture’ which has been added to the track, by pressing the "T" key. This will allow the simulation to run faster on slower machines. Gaps between Cars: An additional feature has been incorporated which gives you an accurate gauge of the distance between your car and those in front and behind. It also tells you the drivers' names. By pressing the "G" key during a race, the names will be displayed, along with the last recorded time differences, if available. The time differences are recorded when the cars cross the start/finish line. Frame Rates and Processor Power/Speed: Because of the wide range of hardware available on the market today this simulation has several custom options to help you get the best performance from your equipment. World Circuit will produce similar race times regardless of what type of processor you have, however more powerful machines will have the advantage of being able to use a higher "Frame Rate". This will make the simulation appear smoother and faster, if you wish the default settings may be changed as follows: A) TEXTURED FILLS. The keyboard letter "T" will toggle texturing on and off. We recommend this function be turned off for 286 and slow speed 386 machines. B) FRAME RATE. Within the "Game options / Game" menu you can alter the frame rate of the simulation; provided your machine is powerful enough this will provide smoother 3D graphics. C) PROCESSOR OCCUPANCY PERCENTAGE. While the keyboard letter "O" is depressed during a race the screen will display the "Processor Occupancy percentage", this figure will fluctuate depending on how much work the processor is doing. If the % remains well below 100 you may wish to increase the frame rate. If the % rarely exceeds 100 you are getting maximum performance. If the % is mostly over 100 you may wish to reduce the frame rate. The File Selector: When entering a filename you should be aware that the normal MS DOS / PC DOS restrictions apply; i.e. Names must not exceed 8 characters in length, punctuation characters are prohibited, only 1 dot is allowed, this separates the filename from the file name extension. Steering Sensitivity: A Steering Sensitivity button has been added to the steering control method menu. This is only active if steering help is Off and allows you to set the maximum lock of the front wheels in degrees. This value then corresponds to a full joystick movement. The default is 12 degrees. The original release used a value of 22 degrees. It was envisaged that an ordinary joystick would not be used without steering help. A large lock ideally requires a steering wheel device capable of spreading the analogue values over a physical movement of about 400 degrees like a real racing car instead of the 50 degree movement of a typical joystick, otherwise the steering feels too sensitive. Even so, a real racing car is still very sensitive in steering compared to a normal road car. It is because typical joysticks make the very sensitive steering of the real racing car yet 8 times more sensitive that steering help is provided to compensate. However it is apparent from correspondence that some people prefer to learn to control the sensitivity in return for more direct ', the adjustable lock should make it possible to get the best from whatever equipment you have. If you set too small a lock, the steering will feel more controllable but you could have trouble getting round sharp bends or find it harder to 'catch a skid'. Rudder Pedals: A new sub-menu has been added under Edit Control Method. Switch Joystick Axis is designed for users with rudder pedals, which may only have horizontal (x) potentiometers. It allows the steering to be re-assigned to the vertical(y) axis and the accelerator/brake to be re-assigned to the horizontal(x) axis. In addition, since some pedals could have one pot for each pedal, a further button will assign brake to one axis and accelerate to the other. Control Method and Game Saves: In version 1.04 you can load a game which was saved whilst using a different control method to the one currently selected and the game now automatically allows you to continue to play using the current controls (version 1.03 required you to remember the previous control method and set it before loading the game.) Link Modem Play: The major change in version 1.04 is that a new feature, linked play has been added. What is linked play? Linking allows you to play on two machines simultaneously. The two machines are connected either via standard Hayes compatible modems using a phone link (called a modem link) or directly via a special cable called a null-modem cable (a direct link). How to link up the machines: First connect up the necessary cables. In order to use the link you will need to connect the modem or the null modem cable to one of the serial ports on the back of the machine. Most PC's have 2 serial ports, labelled COM1 and COM2. Either port will do, but if you are using a serial mouse then you should leave that port alone and select the other com port. Having connected the cable, load up the game on both machines. Now from the main menu, go to the Options Menu and select link. You should see the full screen Linkup Menu which controls how the link operates. The Link Menu: The Baud Rate: At the top of the linkup menu are 4 buttons labelled 2400, 4800, 9600 and 19200. These control the baud rate, which is a measure of how fast data is sent down the serial cable. A fixed amount of data is sent down the cable for each frame of the simulation, so if you wish to play with faster frame rates (for smoother animation and control) you will need a higher baud rate. The downside is that higher baud rates are more error prone, especially with longer or unshielded cables and that, while most modems will communicate with the computer at higher rates, the modem-to-modem connection down the phone lines may not be fast enough (in this case you will see higher than usual occupancy rates in the game). Link Type: Below the baud rate buttons are two buttons to select the link type. Choose Direct for a null-modem cable between two machines or Modem if you are playing across the phone lines. Direct Link Lead/Follow: While the link is active, one machine takes control of the menus on both computers and is said to 'Lead', the other machine is said to 'Follow'. For a direct link you MUST set one machine to 'Lead' and the other to 'Follow', otherwise they will not make the connection. For a modem link the machine that does the dialling (and pays the phone bill) is automatically the leader. Modem Link Dial/Wait for Call: If you are linked by modem over the phone line then one machine must dial up the other, and the other machine must be ready and waiting for a call. You should pre- arrange this (perhaps with a voice call) before try to start up the link. These buttons control how the machine will behave for a modem link. Modem number to dial: You should type in the phone number to dial on the machine that will initiate the call. The string will be passed direct to the modem so, if your modem supports it, you can use "," to add delays to the dial etc. All the linkup selections are included in your Options file so it's useful to save options before linking. Modem dial type: This tells the modem to use one of the two dialling methods employed by phone companies. Pulse dialling is much slower than tone dialling so tone dialling is recommended if your phone exchange supports it. Modem initialisation string. In order for the game to work smoothly via a modem connection, the mode must be set-up up in a particular way. To keep the simulation running in real time it requires the modem to pass the data through immediately and not buffer or compress it as would be needed for a file transfer. Also the game performs its own error checking based on a packet system, so it is recommended that you turn the modem error checking off, as this can also delay data passage. Unfortunately, there is no standard set of commands to do this across all Hayes Compatible modems; we have included sample initialisation strings for some makes below, but if your modem is not included you may need to look up codes in your modem manual. In summary, we recommend that you: 1. Turn compression off 2. Turn error checking/control off On a more technical note, it's recommended (though not essential) that you start the initialisation with the ATZ command to reset the modem. This ensures that it's in a standard state at the beginning and will make linking more reliable. If you need to insert control characters in the modem initialisation string then the sequence ^ + letter will do it. For example ^M will send a carriage return. There no need to insert a ^M at the end of the string as an ASCII 13 is automatically appended. For example: Modem type Sample initialisation string Courier HST ATZ&M0&K0 Twincom 144/DF ATZ&Q6 Hangup/Connect/Exit: Once both machines are set up, you should click on Connect on both computers. If you are connecting via a modem, then you should see the computer initialise the modem and either show 'Dialling' or ‘Wait for call’. Once a connection is established then the machines should show 'Starting Link' to the dialler and 'Waiting for link' at the other end. After about a second these messages should clear and the button 'Link is active' appear. For a direct link, one machine should show 'Starting Link' immediately and the other 'Waiting for Link'. Again, after about a second these messages should clear and the 'Link is active' button appear. What to do if things go wrong: a. For a direct link. If the machines are showing 'Starting Link' and 'Waiting for Link' but nothing else is happening then you should check - that you have selected the correct comm port on each machine, that they are both operating at the SAME baud rate. If this appears o.k. and still nothing is happening then you may have an incorrectly wired cable. If you are not sure about the cable, you could check it with a normal comms package. b. For a Modem link. If the modem is not responding, check the connections and check that the modem initialisation string is correct. Any error in the string will not get an OK reply from the modem. As a check, try a simple ATZ for the string and see if the modem goes on to dial or wait for a call. If the modems dial but do not connect. This is the trickiest problem. Many modems have subtle differences and modems from differing manufacturers can have problems with varying protocols. If possible, check that you can connect with a similar modem, after that it's down to checking through the modem's manuals. After the link is connected: After a connection is established, you shoiuld see the message Link Started, with either 'This machine has control' or 'Other machine has control'. While in the menus the system is controlled from one machine, with the other echoing it's movements. The machine with control has the normal red highlight on the menus and is said to 'Lead', whereas the other will show a blue highlight and is said to 'Follow'. The machine designated to 'Follow' is excluded from certain actions eg Control Method set-up, Printer Setup and general loading and saving (but not game saves) and will display a 'Please Wait' message if the Leader moves into these areas on the menus. Also certain menus will behave slightly differently; Driver Select, for example, now shows both machines’ drivers and allows either to change their selections. While in these Linked menus there are 3 Special hotkeys: Alt/M On either machine will pop up a message box over the current menu and allow you to send up to forty characters of text to the other machine. Type your message and press Return, the link will then wait for the other machine to clear the message before moving back to the original menu. Alt/R This hotkey is only active on the machine that has control of the menus. When it's pressed, control passes to the other machine. Alt/H This hotkey is active on both machines and brings up a menu box allowing you to hang up the link. You should always end the link either here, or by clicking on Hangup in the linkup menu and not simply switch one machine off (the other machine would then be left trying to regain contact). Alt/I functions as normal These hotkeys are available on almost every menu, but note that they are disabled in the File Selector. Extra options while linked: After linking you may find that some of your option settings have changed, especially if the other machine has control. Many of the option settings are copied across from the 'Lead' machine. If you close the link you will be given the option of re- loading your preferences file. Also, after linking, some menus change. Driver Select now has selection options for either machine and the Quick Race menu shows both players’ chosen car and grid position. There is an extra option available in the Quick Race menu when two machines are linked - a two player Quick Race. This allows a normal Quick Race, but with only the two players and no computer controlled cars. A note on Quick Race driver selection... Note that, the normal driver selection and the Quick Race driver selection are two completely separate areas. Quick Race driver selection is accomplished from the Quick Race menu and only one driver is allowed. Full driver selection, for non-championship and championship races, is accomplished from the driver select menu and allows full multi-player selection and editing of Driver and Team names. Note however, that if you edit the driver or team names in driver select, the new NAMES will be used in any Quick Race. Driving while linked: Some in car options are accessed slightly differently when linked. Car set-up is accessed as before, by pressing brake while on the jacks, but now, rather than going straight in, the other machine will show 'pause requested' and the machine wanting set-up will wait for 'pause' to be pressed on the other machine. This is because both machines must exit to the menus together. The request for pause is, in fact, a courtesy request since the 'requested' player may be in the middle of a hot lap and may not want to be interrupted. In fact, either player can press pause to initiate the car set-up menu so the requested player should not delay unreasonably (much more than a lap time for example) before pressing pause. If the requested player is also jacked up then that player will automatically go into car set-up if a request arrives. Like 'PAUSE', 'ESCAPE' on either machine will cause both to exit from the cockpit into the practise, qualifying or race frozen menus. Note that, when slow machines are linked and are operating out on the track at 100% occupancy (press 'O' to see) there is a tendency for the pitlane graphics and VDU monitor to add an additional overhead to the occupancy. Although not usually a problem, when two machines are linked this can have the affect of slowing the frame rate on the other machine - even when its driver is out on the track. Therefore, if you wish to remain in the pits for a while waiting for results you could agree to ride with another car out on the track to keep the frame rate normal for your linked opponent (you could ride with your opponent!). Loading and saving: While in linked mode, any game saves must be made on BOTH machines, Screen prompts will guide you through the procedure and the filename chosen by the 'Leader' is automatically passed through to the other machine. It's recommended that you use the same filename on each machine to save confusion, but this is not required. Other menus: Some menus, notably the control method menu, the startup files menu and use of the printer/printer menu can only be accessed by the machine in control. To reach the menu on the other machine the 'Leader' should release control (from the main or options menu). After the second machine has finished, it can release control again, back to the original 'Leader'. Also some options are not allowed while linked: load names, load track records and save options are disallowed. If you have any difficulty loading Grand Prix or need help while running the simulation, MicroProse will be happy to help you on the Helpline. Please ring UK 0666 504399, Monday to Friday 0900 to 1700 hours. Have a pen and paper handy when you call. Additional Keys Guide Pressing ALT/I will display the PC’s processor type, DOS version and the current time. Click on ‘Continue’ to return to the normal menu system. When Linked:- ALT/M sends a message down the link ALT/R releases control ALT/H hangs up phone or closes the link. With grateful thanks to Footwork Grand Prix International and Honda UK Game Design & Program Copyright ©1991/1992 Geoff Crammond Documentation, Packaging & Logo Copyright ©1992 MicroProse Ltd., Unit 1, Hampton Rd Industrial Estate, Tetbury, Gloucestershire GL8 8LD UK This documentation and accompanying disk are copyrighted. The owner of this product is entitled to use this product for his or her personal use. Except for back-up copies of the disks for personal use and the quoting of brief passages for the purposes of reviews, no one may transfer, copy, back-up, give or sell any part of the manual or the information on the disks, or transmit in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Any person or persons reproducing any part of this program, in any media, for any reason, shall be guilty of copyright violation and shall be subject to civil liability at the discretion of the copyright holder.