A-10 Tank Killer 2: Silent Thunder

Readme.txt

1996

From the read me.

A-10 II -- Silent Thunder

README 2/22/96

About This Document:

This document contains last-minute information about A-10 II -- Silent Thunder and other information about the program not found in the on-line documentation. In addition to troubleshooting tips found in this document, Sierra has included other documents that will outline technical tips and gameplay questions specific to the following topics: Sound and Music (please see SOUND.DOC), Joystick (see JOYSTICK.DOC) and Video (see VIDEO.DOC). Should you experience any problems with Silent Thunder, please refer to these files for additional help on answering questions about the game and solving technical difficulties.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

II. GENERAL TECHNCIAL ISSUES

III. GENERAL GAME ISSUES

IV. GAMEPLAY TIPS

V. GENERAL TROUBLESHOOTING

I. MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS

PROCESSOR 486 DX 66

OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 95

MEMORY 8 Mb RAM

KEYBOARD AT

SUPPORTS Joystick, throttle, rudder pedals, sound card

II. GENERAL TECHNCIAL ISSUES

Windows colors:

Silent Thunder will play most consistently if you have your video mode set to 256 colors. If you have Windows set to HIGH COLOR (16 bit) or TRUE COLOR (24 bit), the sim itself will play normally, but certain graphic screens may have odd colors, or may appear mostly black.

Joystick Calibration:

Silent Thunder is a true Win 95 product, and uses the joystick support built into the system. For this reason your joystick must be enabled and calibrated from the desktop before running this Simulation. To do this click on the START button on the Win 95 task bar. Move your cursor down to SETTINGS on the popup menu, and then select CONTROL PANEL. In the control panel window, one of the choices should be JOYSTICK. Double-click on the joystick selection and follow the instructions. Note that with some joysticks it may require more than one calibration, or some adjustment of the joystick before the stick centers properly. Refer to JOYSTICK.DOC file for more information.

Full-screen Mode:

For Silent Thunder to function in full-screen mode, you must have DirectDraw installed. Sierra's Setup utility should autodetect for DirectDraw and install it, if necessary when you install Silent Thunder. However, you must reboot before the changes can take effect. To use DirectDraw during the game, go into the preferences menu from the main screen menu. Activate the full screen option. For more information about DirectDraw or for video troubleshooting tips, see the VIDEO.DOC file.

The "Jukebox" for CD audio:

The Silent Thunder CD contains twelve original songs in Redbook format. These songs can be played as you play the game, or may be played separately using your favorite CD player utility. To play the songs within the game, make sure that MUSIC ON is selected in preferences, and click on the JUKEBOX button to select a track. You can also use the Jukebox to play your favorite audio CD while you fly. In order to play CD AUDIO your system must have a CD-AUDIO cable coming from the CD-ROM player to the sound board, or a cable coming from the head phone jack to the back of the sound card, or a speaker hooked up to the headphone jack on the CD-ROM player. If the Windows CD Player is active, you must deactivate it before the Jukebox will work. If you have autoplay enabled for audio disks, holding down the SHIFT key while inserting a new CD will prevent the CD Player from launching. Should the CD Player launch, simply ALT+TAB to the CD Player, close it, and the Jukebox will not function normally. For more information on sound please refer to the SOUND.DOC file.

Game Is Slow

If the game runs too slow on your system, we have incorporated several detail options that when disabled will help increase the speed of the game. These options are located in the game preference menu and additional settings when you press Shift+P during a mission. Lowering detail features and changing the screen resolution to low res will increase speed performance. If you still find the game to slow, disable sound from the preferences screen and run the game from a window. Following the suggestions in the Memory section may also help increase the performance of the game.

Utilities

Be sure to close any other CD player utilities before starting Silent Thunder -- These utilities will interfere with the operation of the Jukebox.

Powertoys and Silent Thunder:

Many Win 95 users have the popular Powertoys accessories installed as part of their default Startup options. We have found Powertoys to be quite safe and stable, however two of the utilities, XMOUSE and FLEXICD have some potential to cause minor difficulties with Silent Thunder. As noted above, if Flexicd is active, you will be unable to use the Jukebox function in the Simulation. Users of Xmouse may find that Silent Thunder will behave erratically if the mouse cursor is placed outside the program window. We suggest you disable these two utilities while playing. To close Flexicd, right click on the CD icon on the taskbar and select EXIT FLEXICD. To close Xmouse, double-click the Xmouse icon (usually in the CONTROL PANEL directory) and click REMOVE. Both can then be restarted normally when you are done playing.

Animated Cursors:

We have found that animated and 3D cursors exhibit some erratic behavior when used with Silent Thunder. To avoid these problems, simply double-click the MOUSE icon under Control Panel, select Pointers, and choose the Windows Standard.

III. GENERAL GAME ISSUES

MEMORY ISSUES

Silent Thunder requires 8 MEGABYTES of physical memory to run. To ensure the best configuration for the game, Sierra On-Line recommends that you disable screen savers, utilities, Shadow ROM, and additional applications that are running in Windows 95. This configuration will free up all system resources and will increase performance in the game. If you are experiencing memory error messages while trying to start the game you should also try making a Windows 95 bootdisk. At the end of this section there are some instructions on how to go about this.

VIRTUAL MEMORY SETTINGS -- Check your Virtual memory settings on your system. Click on the START, SETTINGS, CONTROL PANEL. Click on SYSTEM, PERFORMANCE, VIRTUAL MEMORY, and make sure the system is set up for "Let Windows manage my Virtual Memory Settings". If you still experience memory problems you may need to free up some hard drive space to enable Windows to use it for virtual memory.

BOOTDISK INSTRUCTIONS -- A bootdisk maker has been include on the CD-ROM. In DOS type X: (where X is the letter of your CD-ROM drive). Then type ts\bootdisk and follow the on-screen instructions. If this resolves the problem start the system every time with the bootdisk when you want to play Silent Thunder.

IV. GAMEPLAY TIPS:

Fly The Training Mission -- In training no one shoots at you, and you get the opportunity to attack a variety of targets. It's a good chance to hone your weapons skills. You can also create a custom loadout and test the effectiveness of different weapons in a safe environment.

Learn Your Weapons -- Different weapons have different advantages. If all you ever use are Mavericks and Sidewinders, you'll be missing half of the fun.

Stay Low -- SAM radar can't pick you up through hills or mountains. The lower you fly, the closer they must be to detect you and the shorter time they have to fire.

Get Ready -- When making an attack on a target, select your ordnance in advance; you may not have time when the fur is flying. Use your Avenger for those quick shots in order to avoid having to change selected weapons.

Sometimes, Slow Is Good -- Slowing down over a target may seem like asking for trouble, but sometimes going a bit slower may let you hit all of your targets in one pass and avoid the need to fly back over the target, actually lowering the time you spend in the enemy's sights.

Don't Be Ashamed To Run -- Helicopters are more maneuverable than you, but slower. Dashing away can sometimes allow you to reposition and bring Sidewinders to bear without getting blown out of the sky.

Most of all, have fun -- That's what Silent Thunder is all about.

V. GENERAL TROUBLESHOOTING:

QUESTION: I have selected full-screen mode from preferences in the main menu. When I fly a mission, the game crashes or hangs. What should I do?

ANSWER: The most likely cause is that your video card doesn't support DirectDraw. In preferences, turn off full-screen mode, and try again.

QUESTION: I want the sim to fill up the whole screen, but DirectDraw doesn't work on my machine. What can I do?

ANSWER: Change your Windows screen resolution to 640x480. The sim will then run as a full-screen window.

QUESTION: I get no sound at all. How do I correct this?

ANSWER: Check to make sure that your sound card is properly configured and connected to your speakers, and that Windows sounds operate properly. Check the preferences in Silent Thunder to verify that sounds are selected as ON. If all of these things are correct and you still don't get sounds, it is possible that your card is not correctly supporting DirectSound. You can bypass the DirectSound drivers by opening a DOS window, changing to the A10_II directory, and typing the command:

a10sim -D0 ENTER (note that the D MUST be capitalized)

This should allow your sound card to play using the default drivers. To

reenable DirectSound, launch the game by typing:

a10sim -D1 ENTER

If you continue to have problems, please contact your sound card's manufacturer for possible updates to the Win 95 audio drivers. For your convenience we have included the addresses of the makers of several popular sound cards.

QUESTION: I notice a delay between an action (like firing the Avenger) and the sound that is related to it. What is the problem?

ANSWER: DirectSound is quicker under Windows than using the normal sound card drivers. If your card doesn't support DirectSound, you may not be able to correct this problem. However, if your card does support DirectSound, it is possible that the drivers were accidentally disabled. Tollow the above instructions to re-enable DirectSound.

Copyright 1996 Dynamix, Inc.