Warner Interactive International SWOS Boot Disk Creator.        
        
        General Help:
        -------------


I. Boot disk - what's that?:

     Each time your computer is reset (via turning power on, pressing the  
reset button, or simultaneously holding down the <ctrl>, <alt>, & <del> 
keys) a loader program is activated that loads in the operating system
(DOS) from your disk drive into your RAM memory.  Afterwards control is 
passed from the loader program to DOS and regular operations begin.  The 
process of loading in programs during the initialization process is called
a bootstrap or boot for short.  
     What's of real importance for our needs is that during a reset your 
computer will automatically reconfigure itself from information contained 
in the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files.  This information defines the 
whos, whats, wheres, and whys (OK, maybe not the whys) of things like the 
type of sound card your system has and how to communicate with it.  Our 
boot maker makes a copy of your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files and 
then customizes these copies for optimal operation of your computer with 
our game.  These customized files are placed on a customized boot diskette 
along with an abreviated version of DOS.  
     During reset, the computer will first check the boot drive (this is 
almost always drive A: - but if you're not sure then find out) and if a 
diskette is inserted (and the door is closed!) it will attempt to boot 
from that diskette.  If it successfully finds and boots DOS it will then 
use the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files from that diskette to configure 
your system.  The basic idea here is that once the boot diskette is 
created, via the "boot maker" option in the main menu, it should be used 
whenever you start your computer and want to play this specific game.  
     One last thought, if after booting you decide that you want to use 
your computer for something else (a concept that forever baffles and 
confuses our game developers), simply remove the boot diskette and reset 
your computer.


II. What's required for making a boot diskette:

     You need to provide your own diskette that will be used with your 
boot drive, this will probably be a 5 1/4 inch but some systems use a 
3 1/2 inch drive.  Beware that all information currently on this diskette 
will be lost forever, so be careful!


III. Problems can occur with any automated device and the boot maker
     is no exception.  A few known anomalies with boot maker are:

  1. Disabling a memory manager other than EMM386.  If you are using one 
     of these memory managers, you should modify the boot disk to disable 
     the memory manager so as to free up more extended memory.

  2. Not formatting the boot diskette.  This can occur during the boot 
     maker process just after you give the "Y" response to the warning 
     message "WARNING: this procedure will destroy all...".  An error 
     message will be displayed:

     "Insufficient memory to load system files"
     "Format terminated"

     "Press a key to return to the installer"

     To solve this problem, do a system format of the boot diskette
     (format a:/s) then reenter the install program and make a boot 
     diskette this time ignoring the error message.  Please do not format 
     your hard drive by mistake.

  3. Drive A: is not my boot drive.  Two solutions: (1) make drive A: 
     the boot drive via the Setup program.  Enter Setup by pressing the 
     <delete> key at the appropriate time after a system reset (a message 
     will prompt you).  The appropriate command can usually be found in 
     an area that's frequently refered to as either an advanced or perhaps
     a BIOS feature, then look for a control that configures the boot 
     sequence.  Like most of this stuff, you can really get into trouble 
     if you don't fully understand an operation and start guessing.  A 
     safer method is (2) make a boot diskette on drive A:, then perform 
     a system format on your actual boot diskette, copy the config.sys 
     and autoexec.bat files from drive A: (these were made by the boot
     maker) to the actual boot diskette, then reboot your computer.


IV.  My mouse (or joystick) does not work when I start the game:

     Does the mouse normally work?  Try it with another application such 
as Windows.  If it doesn't work then carefully check the mouse connection 
to the computer.  CAUTION: never move the computer with power on - this 
could cause severe and expensive damage to your system.  If your mouse still
doesn't work then refer to your mouse documents. 
     If your mouse is working and you have a boot disk, make sure that the 
mouse driver is still enabled in the boot disk's autoexec.bat file (you can
examine this file with either a text editor or just use the DOS "type"
command: TYPE A:AUTOEXEC.BAT|MORE<ENTER>).  The mouse command(s) should 
exactly match what's in your normal (hard disk root's) autoexec.bat file 
(often the word "mouse" can be found somewhere within this command line  
eg. LH C:\MOUSE\MOUSE.COM).  If the mouse driver is not there you could 
try inserting it with a text editor (eg. EDIT A:AUTOEXEC.BAT).

Warner Interactive International would like to thank Accolade Inc for the kind 
permission for the use this program.

