[Death Rally Logo]

HTML Technical Support Manual (Revised October 5, 1996)
Copyright (c) 1996 Remedy Entertainment
Published by Apogee Software, Ltd.
Distributed by GT Interactive Software


NOTE: You are looking at this file on your CD-ROM. Apogee will periodically make changes to this document on our World Wide Web site with new/updated information. If you'd like to look at the most up to date version of this file, please click here.

Table of Contents

  1. Table of Contents
  2. System Requirements
  3. Before Running this Game
  4. How to use Setup
  5. How to Play Death Rally
  6. Tips for Winning at Death Rally
  7. Death Rally Detailed Help & TroubleShooting
  8. What is the "SET BLASTER" Command?
  9. What is Protected Mode?
  10. Contacting Apogee Technical Support
  11. Apogee Online

System Requirements

Minimum System Requirements

Preferred/Recommended Requirements

Supported Music/Sound Cards

Supported Game Input Devices


Before Running this Game

ATTENTION WINDOWS 3.X USERS: This game is not designed to be run under Windows 3.x. Win 3.x takes up far too many of the system resources that our programs require for efficient and proper operation. When running this program, do not launch from Windows. Run it directly from DOS. If you are in the Windows environment, quit Windows and then run the program. (NOTE: Using the MS-DOS Icon does not exit you from Windows. That is a shell from Windows. You need to completely close down the Program Manager to totally exit from Windows. To test this, type the word exit. If nothing happens, you are completely out of Windows. If you return to Windows, then you were only shelled.) This would also apply to anything like MS-DOS's DOS Shell program or any other menu program, as well as Windows 3.x.

ATTENTION WINDOWS 95 USERS: This game will run under Windows95 if you have a powerful enough system to do it. If you have just the minimum settings listed in the system requirements, you will probably run into problems. If you wish to play under Windows95, you should have the recommended system before doing so. While Windows95 is better at DOS games than Win 3.x, we still recommend playing from MS-DOS mode (not a window) in Windows95 for maximum compatibility.

We do not offer support for running this game under Windows95, Win 3.x, or any OS/2 version.

Death Rally is a protected mode game, which means that it doesn't really care about how much free conventional memory you have. Instead, it looks at your total memory and will use as much as it can allocate. Death Rally requires a minimum of 6.7 megs of free total memory available at runtime. This is possible on an 8Mb machine if you "boot clean". Running this game is much easier on a machine that has at least 16Mb of memory. Because of this, Apogee recommends, for best results, that you boot your system as clean as possible regardless of the amount of memory your system has. Please see the second item in the "Death Rally Detailed Help and Troubleshooting" section of this help file for details.


[Setup Program]

How to Use the Setup Program

The setup program must be run before you run Death Rally. If you try and run the game before running the setup program, you will be told to run the setup program first. You can do this by typing SETUP in your Death Rally game directory.

There is only one thing to setup in the setup program for Death Rally: your sound card. When you run setup, you are presented with a list to choose from. Pick the appropriate sound card for your computer. If you do not have a genuine Creative Labs Sound Blaster or a Gravis UltraSound, you must pick the last option on the list, "Sound Blaster Compatible" (assuming your sound card can emulate a Sound Blaster).

Once you pick your sound card, you will then be prompted for three other settings related to your sound card:

  1. Address -> This is the port address. By default, it is 220.
  2. IRQ -> This is the IRQ your Sound Blaster is using.
  3. DMA -> This is the 16 BIT DMA Channel your sound card using.
Note for people using the Sound Blaster Compatible setting: If you are using a Compatible or Clone sound card (anything other than a genuine Creative Labs card), you must specify the address, IRQ, and 16 bit DMA channel your card uses for Sound Blaster Emulation. Do NOT specify the settings that your card uses for normal Windows or "native" operation.


How to Play Death Rally

This section will give you general guidelines on how to play Death Rally. If you have the registered version of Death Rally, please consult your manual for more detailed information, as well as for some example pictures.

OBJECTIVE

You start out from the bottom of the ranking list (pos. 20). Your objective is to win championship points (& money) from the races, and rise up to the 1st position. Only then you can challenge The Adversary, who is the self proclaimed Demon-King of The Race.

STARTING A NEW GAME

To start a game of Death Rally, you need to go to your Death Rally game directory and type "RALLY" (without the quotation marks). Once at the Main Menu , select "New Game" to start a game.

Once you've selected "New Game", you will be prompted to enter your name in the Death Rally Driver's License. At this point, you can use the arrow keys to change the color of your car (left/right) and to change the driver's face (up/down). When done with the new driver info, you will be prompted, "Do you want to use weapons? (YES/NO)" Selecting NO will disable all of the weapons in the game, as well as all of the options. Once you make your selection, you will be prompted to choose a difficulty level. You can choose from three different difficulty levels:

  1. Speed Makes Me Dizzy - The easiest mode.
  2. I Live to Ride - The Default Setting. Normal difficulty.
  3. I Got Petrol in My Veins - For Experienced Players.
Once you've made your selection, you will get to the Race Sign up Screen.

RACE SIGN UP

In the sign up screen you have three options. Join the Easy, Medium or Hard race. In the beginning of the game, selecting the easy race is strongly recommended. As you advance in the game, get a better car, and more upgrades, you should enter the Medium or Hard races. Only four drivers are allowed in each race, so don't think about your decision too long. Should you miss on the sign up, you will be left out of the races, and other players will get all the points and reward money. [Race Start]

PREPARE TO RACE

After selecting a race, you will see the approximate outlines of the track in the Prepare To Race screen. The game will pause for a while as it is loading the files of the next track.

PLAYING THE GAME

When all the files have been loaded, you will see a screen displaying 4 cars on the starting grid. A set of lights scrolls out from the top-right corner: when the green light is lit, it's time to GO FOR IT!

[Main Menu]

MAIN MENU OPTIONS

The wide box in the bottom of the screen displays all kinds of information, as well as captions from True Tom, the Legendary Death Rally racer. In multiplay mode, players can press F1 to access a chat box and write stuff to each other.

MAIN MENU OPTION SUB MENU ITEMS/FUNCTIONS SCREEN SHOT
Start a New Game START A NEW GAME - Starts a new game.
END CURRENT GAME - If no game is in progress, this option is grayed out.
SEE CURRENT STATS - Available only if a game is in progress.
LOAD GAME - loads a previously saved game.
SAVE GAME - saves current situation to disk.
PREVIOUS MENU - You can use Esc to return to previous menu.
Start Menu
Multiplayer Race INITIALIZE A NEW GAME - Initializes a new Multiplayer game. The player initializing the game gets to select the tracks for the Multiplayer session, enter the amount of money, etc.
JOIN AN EXISTING GAME - If someone has initialized a network game, other players use this selection to join in. If multiple games have been initialized, the players can select which game to join.
NETWORK CONNECTION - If an IPX network is correctly set up, this option initializes a network connection.
SERIAL CONNECTION - Initializes a serial connection. Make sure that your serial options are correctly set up.
DIAL MODEM - Prompts player for opponent telephone number, then dials it. Make sure other player is waiting and has selected Answer Modem.
ANSWER MODEM - Sets the modem to auto-answer mode and waits for opponent call.
SERIAL OPTIONS - Lets the player select either a standard or custom COM-port. THE MODEM INIT STRING (default ATZ) and TONE OR PULSE DIALING are also set from this menu.
Multiplayer Menu
NOTE: If a connection hasn't been made, Initialize a New Game and Join an Existing Game are both grayed out and can't be selected. Please choose the connection method first.
Configure MUSIC VOLUME - Adjust Music Volume
EFFECT VOLUME - Adjust Sound Effects Volume
DEFINE KEYBOARD - Redefine keyboard controls
DEFINE GAMEPAD/JOYSTICK - Redefine Gamepad/Joystick Controls
ENABLE/DISABLE GAMEPAD - This toggles the keyboard/gamepad controller within the game.
Configuration Menu
See Hall of Fame Displays the High Score List, and Best Lap-times for all the tracks.
Credits Displays the 'whodunit' list.
Order Info Important Info: read carefully (option not available in full version).
Show Preview Runs a non interactive slideshow demo.
Exit to DOS Goes back to the boring world of DOS.


CONTROLLING YOUR CAR

Within the game, you can use either keyboard, joystick, or gamepad to control your car. You can get a complete listing of the current key definition by pressing the F1 key during gameplay.

The default settings in Death Rally
User Configurable Keys Non User Configurable Keys
Key Function Key Function
A Accelerate F1 Help/Info
Z Brake F2 Music On/Off
Shift Turbo F3 SFX On/Off
Ctrl Fire F4 Textures On/Off
Alt Drop Mine (if available) F5 Shadows On/Off
F12 Screen Shot
P Pause Game



THE STATUS BAR

During game play, the status bar at the left of the screen reveals plenty of info. You can hit the [ TAB ] key during game play to hide or reveal the status bar if you'd like to have a slightly larger playfield. The chart below gives a description of all the items in the status bar, from top to bottom:

ITEM FUNCTION
These items are statistics about your car:
NAME The name you entered in the Death Rally Driver's License
SPEED Your current speed
TURBO The green-red bar under speed displays the amount of turbo boost left. Turbo will reload slowly when not used.
AMMUNITION The red-yellow bar displays the amount of ammunition left. Collecting shell-boxes from the track will give you more ammunition.
MINES In Weapons mode, mines are shown as smallish dots over the Ammunition indicator.
DAMAGE A snapshot picture displays the current condition of your car. This is also shown as a percentage number beneath the image. If you reach 100%, the race is over.
POSITION The big number in a gray box shows your current position in the race.
LAP On the left of the position is the lap you're driving and the amount of laps left.
Underneath your own stats, you will see the following data on your opponents:
NAME & CAR COLOR A thick horizontal stripe shows the color of each opponent's car.
DAMAGE As your opponents take in damage, the color stripe beneath name field starts to fill up with gray. If an opponent's entire stripe is gray, that opponent is dead.
POSITION Opponents' current position.
LAP Current lap number.
STATUS If there is a big "X" over an opponent's name, that opponent has blown up and is out of the race. A flag is displayed on the opponent info-field if that driver has reached the goal.

USING WEAPONS

If you selected "Weapons Mode: YES" in the Driver's License, you will be able to use weapons during the race. Each car is equipped with a machine gun. Mines can be bought from the Underground Market When the race starts, all the weapons are disabled for 2 seconds. This should give you enough time to get your car out of harm's way, if you're starting from 1st position ;-) After the 2 second delay, you can start shooting. The first three cars are equipped with a single machine gun: the last three are armed with double guns.

POWER-UPS DURING THE RACE

There are several items that you can pick up from the track.
Here's a list of these items, with a brief description of each.
PICTURE ITEM NAME FUNCTION
[] TURBO A small white lightning bolt on a gray circle. Picking up this one will recharge your turbo
[] AMMO Red/Yellow symbol showing a couple of shotgun shells. Increases your ammunition amount.
[] MONEY A yellow dollar sign indicates money. Picking up this one displays the amount of money it is worth on screen (the dollar sign changes to white numbers).
[] WRENCH Picking up a wrench repairs 2-6% of damage.
[] MUSHROOM These are not healthy. Pick up at your own risk :-)
[] MORE MONEY A Big dollar sign indicates a bigger sum of money.
[] BIG WRENCH A Big wrench repairs 20% damage.

RACE OVER

The race ends when:

AFTER THE RACE - RANKING LIST SCREEN

When the race is over, you will see a ranking list screen. On the left are all the players in the current ranking order. Stats from easy, medium and hard races are shown on the right. The amount of points player has earned from the race is shown next to the players name. Races are color coded as follows: easy - green, medium - blue, hard - red.

Easy RaceMedium RaceHard Race
MoneyPointsMoneyPointsMoneyPoints
1st Place $7503$30005$120008
2nd Place $3752$15003$60007
3rd Place $1881$3751$15004

If you place 4th or get killed during the race, you will not get any points or money. (The same thing applies for your opponents as well.) After the previous race results, you get to see your own statistics, such as income and the best lap times.

[Shop Thumbnail]

THE SHOP

THE STATUS BAR - In The Shop (and The Underground Market), the status bar is located on the right side of the screen. It contains the following information, from top to bottom:

ITEM FUNCTION
NAME The player's name is shown in the top of the status bar.
CAR Your current car and its color are shown beneath your name.
MONEY The current amount of money. You start out with $ 495.
UPGRADES The amount of upgrades available for the current car is shown as grey boxes. A purchased upgrade shows here as a colored box.
DAMAGE The amount of damage is shown as both a slider and a percentage.
SPEED The top speed for your car with the current engine upgrades.
RANK Your overall position in the ranking list.

You can quicksave/quickload the game when in the shop or in the Underground Market. F2 saves and F3 loads. The quicksave function saves your current game to the last slot in the list of saved games.

THINGS THAT YOU CAN BUY FROM THE SHOP

In the shop you have following options: (Use arrow keys to navigate between different selections and enter to buy selection). You can use escape at any time to get back to the main menu.

ITEM FUNCTION
INFO BOX The top middle box shows you info on the current selection.
NEW CAR Top left box shows you the selection of different cars (use left/right arrows keys to browse). The price is shown beneath the car. When buying a new car, you get a 25% refund of the value of your current car + upgrades.
UPGRADE ENGINE Leftmost box shows you the next available engine upgrade. The more upgrades you have, the faster your car goes.
UPGRADE TIRES Next selection shows you the next available tire upgrade. Better tires give you more traction. TIP: New drivers should invest in tires: they will make driving easier.
REPAIR A rotating wrench tightening bolts is displayed in the repair selection. You can fix 10% of your car by pressing enter. As with all other selections, the cost is displayed beneath.
CONTINUE The checkered flag icon lets you continue further on.

Cars You can Buy in Death Rally
While all the example cars here are blue, you can choose your car's colour when you buy it.
IMAGE CAR DESCRIPTION AVAILABLE UPGRADES
[Vagabond] Vagabond This is what you start out with, slow and unreliable. Not much weapon power. Engine:1
Tires:2
Armour:1
[Dervish] Dervish More upgrading possibilities. Functionable weapons. Engine:2
Tires:2
Armour:2
[Sentinel] Sentinel The best car available in the shareware version. Equipped with a single machine gun. Engine:2
Tires:3
Armour:2
[Shrieker] Shrieker Now we're talking business. Equipped with 2 machine guns. Lots of upgrading possibilities. Engine:3
Tires:3
Armour:3
[Wraith] Wraith 2 Machine guns, fast, powerful. Engine:3
Tires:4
Armour:3
[Deliverator] Deliverator Armageddon's Armament. Fastest car of the lot. Everything upgradeable. Engine:4
Tires:4
Armour:4


[Underground Market]

UNDERGROUND MARKET

If you selected Weapons mode: YES in the Driver's License (when entering your name, selecting your color etc.), the next screen will be The Underground Market. If you're playing without the weapons, you will be taken directly to the Race Sign-Up Screen.

In the Underground Market, you have the following options
ITEM FUNCTION
INFO BOX The top middle box shows you info on the current selection.
BORROW MONEY Top left selection shows the face of The Loanshark. He will lend you money for 3 races at a time (after which he will reclaim it with interest). If you take out a loan, you can pay it back at any time by selecting this option again. The Loanshark won't invest on wild cards, so you will have to be an established driver (own at least a Dervish) to get a loan.
MINES Selecting this option will buy 8 mines. These last for only 1 race, so use 'em or lose 'em.
ROCKET FUEL Rocket fuel makes your car go much faster, but it's so powerful that it causes damage to your car whenever you're using Turbo.
SPIKED BUMPERS Buy spiked bumpers to do extra damage to your opponents in collisions. Last for 1 race only.
SABOTAGE Hire a thug to sabotage your opponents' cars. The toughest opponent in the next race will start with a damaged car.
TIP: Pay loans back as soon as you can. The Loanshark adds interest to the loan after each race.


Tips for Winning at Death Rally

If you want to beat this game fast, make sure to:



Death Rally Detailed Help & TroubleShooting

* Apogee strongly recommends that you consult your hardware and software manuals for your system before you make any suggested changes to your current system setup. Your manuals will tell you if you are about to make changes that may irreparably alter your computer or its configuration. Modifying your system or software can be dangerous if not done properly. Apogee will not be able to assist you with any problems resulting from such modifications.

* If you get an error message that says you don't have enough memory to run Death Rally, it means that you do not have enough free total memory to run the game. Just because you have enough memory installed is not a guarantee the game will run. Usually, this situation is caused by having such things as memory managers (QEMM/EMM386), disk caches (SMARTDRV, Norton Cache), and other programs loaded into memory. These programs are usually loaded when your system is first powered up (otherwise known as when you "boot" your system). This comes into play most often on computers that only have 8Mb of memory available.

The best way around this is to "boot clean." This means to boot your system without loading any unnecessary memory resident programs. The easiest way to do this is to create a bootable floppy disk according to the instructions in your DOS manual (see the FORMAT /S command) and create a file called CONFIG.SYS and a file called AUTOEXEC.BAT on that disk. Please refer to your DOS manual for instructions on creating these files.

These files should contain the following lines:

   CONFIG.SYS
   ==========
   FILES=30
   BUFFERS=30
   STACKS=9,256
   - if your sound card requires a line in config.sys, put it here -
   - if you use disk compression, make sure to load that driver - 
   - if you require a driver to access your hard drive, make sure to use it -
   - if you use a CD-ROM drive, make sure to load that driver -

   AUTOEXEC.BAT
   ============
   @echo off
   - your path line -
   - your prompt line -
   SET BLASTER=<see section on SET BLASTER for more help on this line>
   - if you use a CD-ROM drive, make sure to include that line here -
   - make sure to use any sound card drivers/commands needed here -

The and items in the sample AUTOEXEC.BAT file refer to the lines that start with the words PATH and PROMPT in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file that is on your C: drive. These lines are optional, but including them will make navigating your hard drive a little easier.

If you have DOS 5, you will need to create a boot disk and make CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, using the above examples. If you have DOS 6 or higher, you have two ways of booting clean without the need for a boot disk.

For DOS 6 and higher, the fastest way is to reboot your computer and watch for a message that says "Starting MS-DOS" (IBM versions will say either "Starting PC DOS" or "Starting IBM DOS"). When you see this message, press your F8 function key. You will then be prompted to confirm each line of your current CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files. This will allow you to temporarily turn off the programs that you do not need or that may be causing problems. ONLY ANSWER "YES" TO THE LINES SHOWN ABOVE AND THE "OK to process AUTOEXEC.BAT?" QUESTION. When finished, you will be left at a plain C:\> prompt.

NOTE: Pressing the Left Shift or F5 function key at the "Starting MS-DOS" prompt will not work properly. Death Rally requires at least 30 available "file handles" to operate properly. This is defined by the FILES=30 statement in your CONFIG.SYS file. If you bypass your CONFIG.SYS file completely by pressing Left Shift or F5, you are stuck with the DOS default of 8 file handles. You will experience errors if you attempt to run the game this way.

If you are more familiar with DOS, we strongly recommend that you set up a multi-boot option. These newer versions of DOS allow you to set up multiple boot configuration sections in your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, mostly eliminating the need for boot disks. Again, please consult your DOS manual for instructions on how to create a boot disk, or a multi-boot configuration using the parameters stated above.

NOTE to Windows95 Users: While Microsoft tends to hide the fact, you can still create multi-boot configurations under Windows95. There is a way via the use of their PowerToys add-on for Windows95 to make it behave exactly like Windows 3.x (where the GUI part of Win95 does not come up by itself). What we recommend for Windows95 users (especially those with only 8Mb of memory) is to create a multi-boot config that doesn't automatically load the Windows95 GUI. Please see the MicroSoft WWW site for more information on obtaining the PowerToys add-on for Win95 at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/software/powertoy.htm. (The powertoy you will want is called TweakUI, and you want to disable the "Start GUI automatically" option.) Once you do this, you then will have to type "win" to load the GUI portion of Windows95. This will allow you to make multiple boot configurations, and if you set it up correctly, you can load DOS & Windows from a menu before Windows95 starts. If you want more info on multi-boot configurations, please check your DOS manual, or contact Microsoft. Apogee has set up a page on our WWW site with information on how to create a multi-boot config. Click here to go to it. Please do not contact Apogee or Remedy for help with this, as we cannot help you. If you still need help, PLEASE CONTACT MICROSOFT.

* If you are playing with a MicroSoft Natural Keyboard, (or some other Windows 95 compatible keyboard that has the new "Windows Logo" keys) and hit them during game play, you will note that your game will be interrupted and control of your computer will go to Windows. These keys can be disabled via the use of a program that MicroSoft puts out called "DOSWINKY". It is available on MicroSoft's Kernel Toys Home Page. If you are reading this from the registered CD-ROM of Death Rally, this file has been included on the CD-ROM for your convienence. It can be found in the \goodies\kernel directory, and the filename is doswinky.exe. Please do not contact Apogee or Remedy for help with this, please contact MicroSoft.

* Death Rally is a protected mode program, and as such, it does not require the services of such memory managers as QEMM, EMM386, etc. Please read the section on protected mode programs for more information.

* If you get an error message that says "Unable to Free Heap Memory Block", it means you are low in memory. Please see the section on booting clean for info on how to make more memory available.

* If you get an error that says "SoundBlaster or compatible initialization failed!" or "SoundBlaster or compatible I/O Error!", it means that either you selected incorrect settings in the setup program, or your DOS Sound Blaster Software is not correctly installed or set up. Please check your sound card's settings and reconfigure as needed. More info on this can be gleaned from the Set Blaster Section of this document.

* If you're not getting sound, please check your Sound Blaster settings. If your Sound Blaster (or clone) is set to IRQ10, you will not get sound if you are using v1.0 of Death Rally. Download v1.1 Shareware of Death Rally to get around this problem.

* "Help! I have a Plug 'N' Play modem or a Winmodem, and it's not being recognized!"

Plug & Play modems were designed for environments (ex: Win95) where the environment itself initializes the card. If you are playing in MS-DOS mode (either by bypassing the Win95 GUI, or picking "Restart in MS-DOS Mode" from the Shutdown menu), your card is never being initialized, and as such, there's nothing for our game to find.

What you will need to do is to find some way of initializing your PnP modem in DOS. Info on this should be in your modem's manual. Quite often, modems with the brand name of "Winmodem" fall under this category as well. Apogee cannot provide this information: it must come from the manufacturer of your modem.

When you DO get the card configured in MS-DOS, make sure to take note of the port address and IRQ number, as well as the port number that the card is initialized with. These WILL BE IMPORTANT when you go to set up modem or serial play. Once you have all this info from a properly initialized PnP/Winmodem, go into the game and follow these steps:

  1. Select Muliplayer Game from the Main Menu.
  2. Select "Serial/Com Options".
  3. Select "Custom Com Port", and enter the port address info and IRQ as requested by the program.

You should be able to properly access your modem now, assuming the entered info is correct, and assuming that your PnP/Winmodem has been initialized. (This info is also useful if you don't have a PnP modem and are having problems with your modem not being recognized.)

These are the values that Death Rally uses as default for Com1-4
Com Port Port Address (in hex) IRQ (in decimal)
COM1 3F8 4
COM2 2F8 3
COM3 3E8 4
COM4 2E8 3

* If your copy of Death Rally locks up before you see the title screen, it's probable your config file has become corrupt. Delete the DR.CFG file from your game directory and re-run the setup program. If that doesn't work, delete and reinstall the entire game and run the setup program.

* If you get the error message "Error Reading CDROM.INI" file, it means your CDROM.INI file is missing or corrupt. Delete and reinstall your game.

* If your copy of Death Rally locks up randomly, and you have a sound card, you might be experiencing a DMA conflict. These are caused by having more than one hardware device sharing a DMA (Direct Memory Access) channel with your sound card. DMA channels are used by Death Rally to send sounds to your sound card. When you have more than one piece of hardware on a single DMA channel, the chip on your motherboard that controls DMA transfers may become confused and send the sound to the wrong place. When this happens, your system will lock up.

Devices that usually cause DMA conflicts include CD-ROM drives, older dedicated FAX boards, tape backup drives connected to an accelerator card (not including tape drives plugged into your floppy drive controller cable), and in newer systems, the ECP/EPP parallel port on either your I/O card or on the motherboard itself. If any of these devices are present in your system, they may be the source of your lockups.

DMA conflicts cannot usually be spotted by diagnostic software (e.g., PC Tools SI.EXE, Norton Utilities NDIAGS, Microsoft's MSD, etc.). Apogee does not recommend the use of such software to determine if you have a DMA conflict. Instead, if you suspect a DMA conflict, try the following test:

  1. Run the SETUP program and select NONE for your Sound FX card.
  2. Play Death Rally and watch for lockups.

If the game no longer locks up, then you were definitely experiencing a DMA conflict between your sound card and some other device.

The ONLY way to resolve a DMA conflict is to physically move the conflicting device to another DMA channel. In all but the rarest cases involving devices that "download" their configuration at boot-up time, you cannot do this through software. You also cannot solve the problem by simply unloading the driver for the conflicting device. Since this is a true hardware conflict, the problem can persist even if the device driver is not loaded when you boot your machine. In laymen's terms, booting clean won't solve the problem. You will most likely have to move a "jumper" (see your manuals for a description) to physically reconfigure the conflicting device. If you need assistance with reconfiguring your device(s), please consult your system's manuals or contact the manufacturer of the device(s) in question. Apogee Software cannot provide assistance for reconfiguring your hardware.

For best performance, do not move your sound card to a different channel: leave it where it is (usually channel 1 for 8-bit cards, or channels 1 and 5 for 16-bit cards). Instead, move the conflicting device. After you have resolved the DMA conflict, you may re-run the SETUP program and re-select your sound card under the Sound FX setup.

If your copy of Death Rally still locks up, you may wish to check some settings in your CMOS configuration as a last resort. If any of these are on, then switch them off: Hidden Refresh, Hardware Video Shadowing, Turbo Switching. Also, if you have either of these, turn them on: HD1 Block Mode; IDE HDD Block Mode.

NOTE: While "Plug 'n Play" (PnP) devices are supposed to eliminate conflicts of this type, they do not always do so. If you are using a system with PnP devices, you may wish to contact the manufacturer of your system (or the maker(s) of your PnP devices) for assistance. Apogee cannot guarantee support for conflicts between PnP devices, since these conflicts are usually system based and do not involve a problem with the game itself.

* If you hear static when you are playing with a Sound Blaster or compatible card, make sure to turn the MIC and LINE volumes to zero. Your card may be seeing input from these, resulting in static. For a Sound Blaster Pro, the program that adjusts these is called SBP-SET: see your card's manual for precise instructions on how to do this. If you still continue to hear static after doing this, try disconnecting any parallel port devices. IRQ5 and IRQ7, which are used by sound cards, are often frequently used by printers as well. If you have both plugged in, the result may be static and poor sound performance.

* If you are running a Compaq computer with a VGA card and the game tells you that you do not have a VGA card, or if you experience lockups on a Compaq computer with a VGA card, you will need to contact Compaq for a special video driver. The reason for this is that Compaq has some video cards that do not conform to all proper detection methods. There is a device driver available from Compaq that will fix this problem. The driver's name is FINDVGA.SYS. This file used to be available on their BBS with the filename of SP0117.ZIP, but as of the writing of this document, it is not available. Please contact Compaq if you cannot locate the file.

* If you are playing with a joystick, check and make sure that the joystick port you are using for Death Rally is speed adjustable. If it is, then try tinkering with the speed. If it is not, then there may not be anything you can do to alleviate the problem, short of buying a game card that provides speed adjustable game ports. Check your port's manual for more info. Also, make sure you do not have more than one active joystick port on your machine at any time. If you have a game card that provides two game ports, make sure that no other game ports (such as those on a sound card or I/O card) are active.

* If you have a Gravis UltraSound and you are not getting sound effects, or if your GUS sound effects are scratchy or distorted, make sure your GUS card has 1 Mb of memory on it. If your GUS has only 512k, you will have sound problems until you upgrade your sound card.

* If you have a Diamond SpeedStar video card, disable Zero Wait State.

* If the top of your display screen is shown messed up in the menus (for example, only the first 1/4 of the top of the screen gets drawn), this would indicate that your video card (or your driver) is not fully VESA compliant. You should use Display Doctor (see next section for info), or the VESA driver provided by your video card's manufacturer.

* This game works best with a VESA 2.0 compliant video card. Please see your video card's manual for info on how to find out if your card is VESA compliant. If yours is not VESA compliant, you will need to use a software driver to provide this compliance. We suggest a driver such as Scitech's Display Doctor (formerly called UNIVBE). If you have the registered Death Rally CD-ROM, a demo of Display Doctor can be found on the CD-ROM in the \goodies\univbe directory. If you have the shareware version of Death Rally, you must obtain Display Doctor on your own. It can be obtained at any of Apogee's online support forums (please see "Apogee Online" at the bottom of this document for contact information), or from Scitech directly at http://www.scitechsoft.com. To install Display Doctor, copy the files from the \goodies\univbe directory on the CD-ROM to a temporary directory on your hard drive, change to that directory, and type "INSTALL". The rest of the info will be on screen.

Please be aware that Display Doctor is not an Apogee product, and we cannot provide support for using it. This product is published by Scitech Software, and questions about the usage of Display Doctor should be directed to Scitech at their web site: http://www.scitechsoft.com.

* If you notice the game running slowly on your system, here are a few suggestions on improving game performance.




What is the "SET BLASTER" Command?

Death Rally (and any other Apogee game that uses the Sound Blaster) uses the SET BLASTER command to figure out where to send its sound output. A Sound Blaster card can have many different sound outputs, and since there are zillions of computers out there, a way needs to be used in order to tell the game where your sound card is located. The SET BLASTER line is how we do it.

In Death Rally, the setup program reads the SET BLASTER to get its default settings. Please make sure your SET BLASTER line is correct, and correctly matches your Sound Blaster settings, or you WILL HAVE PROBLEMS. If you are using a Sound Blaster Compatible or Clone, the SET BLASTER line must match the Sound Blaster Emulation settings of your sound card, not your sound card's regular settings.

Check to make sure that you have the SET BLASTER line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. This code is an example, and isn't exactly what you need to put in your system, make sure to read the entire explanation of this command.

NOTE: Some of these parameters (P, H, & E) are dependant on certain types of cards. For example, the E is only needed if you have an AWE32. The minimum requirements are to have the A, I, D, & T parameters. The other three may or may not be needed depending on what type of card you have. Please read this entire section to see if you need any of them. If you are using a clone card, or some card that's not a "true" Sound Blaster, then you will most likely only need A, I, D, & T.

SET BLASTER Example
SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 T3 P330 H6 E620
Command Function
SET DOS Command
BLASTER DOS Environment Variable
A220 Port Address
I5 Interrupt (IRQ)
D1 Low (8-bit) DMA Channel
T3 Type of Card
P330 MIDI Port Address
H6 High (16-Bit) DMA Channel
E620 AWE32 Only Parameter
NOTE: There can be no spaces between the word BLASTER and the equal sign (=). If you have a space in there, your system will read the parameter incorrectly, and it will not be recognized by our games.

Now, these may not (most likely not) be the same for your board, because the Port Address, Interrupt and DMA Channel can be set by adjusting "jumpers" on your sound board. Some newer cards have this information controlled by software; please consult your card's manual for more information on how to set these things. You should also check your manual if you are unclear as to how to tell what settings your card is set at. The information *IS* important, so it's recommended that you know precisely what the settings are. If you are using a card that "emulates" the Sound Blaster (such as the Gravis UltraSound through software, or the PAS16), you should check your card's manual on how to set the card for Sound Blaster emulation (if your card is not natively supported by this game).

For PORT ADDRESS, it's almost always 220. That seems to be the default for most sound cards out there, and unless you know you've switched it away from 220, it's a safe bet it's still there.

The INTERRUPT is something that varies from system to system. Apogee does not recommend using IRQ2. Most of the people we run into who use IRQ2 have difficulty getting their programs to run properly, unless they switch to a different IRQ channel. If you are using a Gravis UltraSound, you must have an IRQ of 7 or less. The Apogee Sound System used in this game does not support the GUS default of 11.

The DMA CHANNEL is one that causes some people problems. By default, this is almost always set at 1. Unless you have a specific need to change this, it's probably still at 1. If you're running into lockups using digitized sounds with Apogee games, this is probably where your problem lies. Please see the "Death Rally Detailed Help and Troubleshooting" section of this document for further information if you have problems.

The TYPE OF CARD is something that is fairly easy to check out. If you're running a non-Creative Labs sound card, then you want this to either be 1 or 3, depending on which card it is. In the majority of cases, it will be a 1 if you are not using a "true" Sound Blaster. If you do have a "true" Sound Blaster, then the variable is one of these...

1 or 3 for a plain Sound Blaster.
2 or 4 for a Sound Blaster Pro.
5 for a MicroChannel (MCA, or PS/2-style) card.
6 for a Sound Blaster 16, Vibra 16, AWE32, or PnP 32.

The factor in choosing between the two numbers here is the age of the card. If it's an older card, than choose the smaller number (1 or 2). Clone cards, or cards that emulate the Sound Blaster usually have a T value of 1. Experiment to see what works best for you.

The MIDI PORT parameter will only be needed if you are using a card that has MIDI capabilities. If so, this is where you define what MIDI port you are using. 330 seems to be the default for most cards, so if you have a MIDI card, and you haven't changed anything from factory defaults, this is probably where it still is.

The HIGH DMA CHANNEL is something that is used primarily on Sound Blaster 16 cards. This is not the same as the standard DMA channel, this is a different one. This is only used if you're using a 16 bit sound card capable of playing 16 bit Sound Blaster sounds. By default, this is usually 5, so unless you know that it's something else, it's probably still 5.

The E620 parameter is something that is needed _only_ if you have a Creative Labs AWE32 sound card. If you have one of these, this parameter will have been set up properly assuming you've installed the software that came with the card. Check your AWE32 documentation for a more thorough explanation of what this paramter is used for.

We get a lot of questions from people wanting to know why they have to use this if they don't have a Sound Blaster. Well, it's simple. This command has NOTHING to do with what type of sound card you have. Apogee games that use digitized sounds expect these cards to be at specific settings. If they are not, then the game needs to be told this. The way to do this is with the environment variable BLASTER. That's why this is needed. Some of our newer programs (Death Rally, Realms of Chaos) have specific setup programs which let you set up this information manually, but they still require the SET BLASTER line to operate at 100% efficiency.

Please remember to add this to AUTOEXEC.BAT, save the file back to disk, reboot your computer, and reconfigure your game by deleting the DR.CFG file, and rerunning the Death Rally setup program (SETUP.EXE).


What is Protected Mode?

As promised earlier in this document, here is an explanation of Protected mode. This information is not necessary to get the game running, but it's included as background information for the curious.

Historically, DOS programs have always required that you run them in the first 640k of ram. This was a limitation imposed on DOS back when v1.0 was the only thing around. For compatibility's sake, this is the way things have remained. Any memory above 640k could only be used for data storage, not for program execution. That's why you always saw those dreaded "Out of Memory" messages.

As time went on, certain programs, (and later DOS itself) gained the ability to load part of themselves "high", leaving more conventional (the first 640k) of memory available. You still had the limitation of the 640k barrier, but some more breathing room was made by these memory advances.

More recently, advances were made in memory management so that programs could run in protected mode. Protected mode is a special way of programming so that your program doesn't have the 640k barrier. Depending on how the program is written, the entire thing is in protected mode, or it requires the use of a DOS "Extender" to run that way. Death Rally is such a program. Death Rally uses a DOS extender to access much more memory than it would have been able to if it were written the old way. A game of this complexity would have never been able to have been written if the old 640k barrier method of programming was used.

Well, you might be asking, what about my older programs? Can't I just use a DOS extender, and have that run something like "Wolfenstein 3D", and never get those out of memory errors? Well, it's not as simple as that. If a program is using a DOS extender, it has to be written a special way. A DOS extender isn't just a magic wand that you can use to wipe away your memory problems for non-protected mode programs. The program has to be written a special way to make use of the DOS extender.

To summarize, Protected mode (sometimes referred to as "flat memory") is a way for a DOS program (either by itself, or through the use of a DOS extender) to access more than just the first 640k of memory for program execution. Because of this, more complex programs (such as Death Rally) are able to be written. If using the old 640k barrier method (sometimes referred to as "segmented memory"), this type of program would not have been possible.

If you're still confused, don't worry about it. As I said above, this information is not necessary for the proper play of Death Rally. It's in here for background information only. If you're still inclined, check out some DOS programming books available at your library or a book store. They have far more verbose explanations of this than would be possible in this document.


Contacting Technical Support

Apogee thanks you very much for playing our games. Customer satisfaction is a high priority of ours, and we strive to please everyone. If you experience problems running or playing this product, you can use any of the following avenues to obtain assistance:

Assistance via the World Wide Web:

Get up-to-the-minute technical information at the GT Interactive site, located at http://www.gtinteractive.com, 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week. In the support section, you'll have access to our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) documents which contain our latest troubleshooting documentation. You can also visit our Forums area, where you can swap email with other gamers, our our FTP (File Transfer Protocol) area where you can download patches and new enhancements as soon as they become available, our Hints/Cheat Codes area, and other areas where you can get valuable information on GT Interactive products.

You can also reach the 3D Realms/Apogee Tech Support area on the World Wide Web at http://www.apogee1.com/tech/.

Help via Telephone

For phone assistance, call GT Interactive Software's Tech Support at (716) 871-6646. We have an Interactive Voice Response and Faxback system that is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you should need live support, we are available Monday through Friday, 8AM till Midnight (EST). Please note that live Tech Support may be closed on major holidays. We ask that you do the following when calling: Having all this information available BEFORE calling will expedite your handling significantly.

Help Via Mail

In the event our technicians determine that you will need to forward materials directly to us, please include a brief letter explaining what is enclosed AND WHY. Make sure you include your telephone number in case we need to call you. Your mail should be send to the following address:

GT Interactive Software
Attn: TS/QA
1 Nixon Lane
Edison, NJ 08817

NOTE: Please do not send mail or contact Apogee/3D Realms regarding this game title. Please direct inquiries on this title to GT Interactive Software.


Apogee Online

Apogee Technical Support can also be contacted via a variety of electronic media. Several major online services are monitored, and our online contact points are listed below. Also, a variety of Bulletin Board networks are monitored as well, and those are also listed.

Major Online Services

Apogee has forums on both CompuServe and America Online! Both of these forums have all of our shareware (as well as 3D Realms', too!) available for download. They also have other helpful files, as well as some user submitted files as well. If you are on these services, and haven't checked out our forum, why not try 'em today?

Internet Services

WORLD WIDE WEB

Apogee has its own World Wide Web Site! Point your Web Browser to the URL http://www.apogee1.com, and you'll reach us on the Web! We have all kinds of cool files and information here, so if you like Apogee or 3D Realms and you're on the Web, you need to be here! You can learn about future games, take a "virtual tour" of our headquarters, and participate in the lively message bases!

INTERNET MAILING LIST

Join our Internet mailing list! The Apogee mailing list is a list where you can receive press releases, general info, new game release notifications, and other miscellaneous items. Drop us a line at apogee.software@apogee1.com, and we'll put you on. It doesn't cost anything, and all we need is your Internet E-Mail address! Your friends are probably on the list - are you?

FTP FILE TRANSFER

Apogee has an official Anonymous FTP site for our shareware downloads: ftp://apogee.best.com

This is a standard Anonymous FTP site. If you're getting an error like "Anonymous Access Denied", "Cannot Access File", or something like that, you're probably just running into the limit. All Anonymous FTP sites have limits to the number of people that can access it at once. Think of it as a busy signal, and try again later. We also recommend talking to your local Internet Service provider (or the author of your FTP software) about how to properly use the Internet program you're trying to use. Thanks to Best Internet Communications for the T3 FTP connection. For more info about Best, please visit http://www.best.com!

Software Creations & other Bulletin Board Networks

We can be reached on Software Creations, the Apogee/3D Realms BBS. Software Creations can be reached by calling 1-508-368-7036. or via telnet at telnet://bbs.swcbbs.com. Software Creations is our #1 file site. Our games are released there before anywhere else in the world, so if you want the latest stuff, take a trip over to Software Creations, the BBS voted #1 two years running by the readers of BoardWatch Magazine!

If you're on the Internet, check out the revolutionary Software Creations Web BBS. It's a whole new concept for the Internet! Point your web browser to http://www.swcbbs.com.

There are several BBS networks that are monitored for Apogee/3D Realms messages. Our Online Support Representative monitors all of the following BBS networks:

Fidonet, Rime, Intelec, & Ilink.

All of these BBS networks have Games, Shareware, and Apogee conferences. Any 3D Realms-related topics are also welcome in the Apogee conferences. Private mail can also be sent to Apogee on Fidonet and Rime with the following addresses:

Apogee also has a FDN on the Fidonet Filebone, where both Apogee and 3D Realms files are distributed. Check with your local Fido Filebone administration for more info on how to get Apogee's and 3D Realms' shareware delivered right to your BBS! Check FILEBONE.NA (available from your local Fido administration) for more info.


This document is © 1996 Apogee Software, Ltd. and was written by Joe Siegler with help from Lee Jackson, Bryan Turner, & the guys at Remedy.

All trademarks mentioned in this manual are the property of their respective owners.