Star Control 3 README.TXT                              August 30, 1996



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                       STAR CONTROL 3 (TM) README 

                      -----------------------------



For technical help, or information on installing and running 

Star Control 3, please consult the HELP.ME file.



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                          TABLE OF CONTENTS

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I.    Introduction

II.   Running Star Control 3

III.  Viewing the Manual

IV.   HyperMelee

      A. Starting a Network Game

      B. Starting a Modem Game

      C. Starting a Serial Game

      D. Notes on Remote Play

V.    Gameplay Tips and Help

VI.   Known Bugs

VII.  Technical Support

VIII. Legal Stuff



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                          INTRODUCTION

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Accolade is pleased to present STAR CONTROL 3.





*What is STAR CONTROL?



STAR CONTROL is simply the coolest Space-Action-Adventure-Strategy 

game ever made. Some time after the 20th Century, the vicious, 

caterpillar-like Ur-Quan showed up in our solar system, and things 

haven't been the same since.





*Is there even more STAR CONTROL?



If you haven't already got one, you can get ready to learn the rest of

the STAR CONTROL story by running out to the store and buying your

copy of Accolade's STAR CONTROL Collection available now at almost any

computer store anywhere. STAR CONTROL Collection contains STAR CONTROL

and STAR CONTROL II. STAR CONTROL Collection--it's value-priced and 

wholesome!



While you are at the Mall, buy the STAR CONTROL novel, INTERBELLUM, 

now available at finer book stores everywhere, or you can contact 

Prima Publishing at 800-531-2343 to place an order.



Coming soon: the STAR CONTROL 3 Strategy Guide available from Prima

Publishing. To order call 800-531-2343.



Haven't had enough STAR CONTROL? Check us out at our Web site:

http://www.accolade.com/





* What does this mean: <key>?



In this Readme file, there are numerous references to <key>. This

means that in order to get a response from the computer, press the key

on your keyboard listed in between the carets < >.



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                      RUNNING STAR CONTROL 3

----------------------------------------------------------------------





Running from the GO Menu

-------------------------------



TO LOAD THE GO MENU FROM DOS:



1.  Insert the Star Control 3 CD into the CD-ROM tray and change drive

designations to access the CD-ROM drive.  Example: D: <ENTER>



2.  Type:

    GO <ENTER>



TO LOAD THE GO MENU FROM Windows '95:



1.  Insert the Star Control CD into the CD-ROM tray and then close

    the CD-ROM tray. The Installer should run automatically with

    Autorun.



or



1.  Double left-click on the "My Computer" icon on your Desktop.



2.  When the "My Computer" window is open, double left-click on your

    CD-ROM drive (this will start the Installer).



NOTE: In order for Autorun to automatically load the GO Menu, the

auto-insert notification on your CD-ROM drive must be active. To

enable Autorun, go to your Windows 95 Control Panel, select System,

then open the Properties for your CD-ROM driver. Under Setting for

your CD-ROM driver, make sure that the auto-insert notification is

checked.



3.  Use your mouse to left-click on the "Run" button. 



NOTE: If you have problems getting Star Control 3 to run, please

consult the HELP.ME file.





Running from the DOS prompt

-------------------------------



1.  In DOS, or in a Windows 95 DOS box, ensure that the CD is in the

    drive and change to the path where you installed Star Control 3 to

    your hard drive. Example:

    C: <Enter>

    CD \ <Enter>

    CD \PROGRAMF\ACCOLADE\STARCON3 <Enter>



2.  Next type:

    SC3 <Enter>



NOTE: If you have problems getting Star Control 3 to run, please

consult the HELP.ME file.





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                     VIEWING THE MANUAL

----------------------------------------------------------------------





Instructions to view the manual

-------------------------------



FROM DOS:



1.  To access manual files from ACRODOS, go to the directory where

    ACRODOS was installed on your hard drive (Example: C: <ENTER> 

    CD \ACRODOS <ENTER>) then type: ACROBAT <ENTER>.

    Then, select 'Open' from the file menu at the top of the screen.



2.  Change drive selection from the hard drive to the CD-ROM drive 

    and select the 'MANUAL' directory from the CD-ROM drive.



3.  From the MANUAL directory, click on the STARCON3.PDF manual.



4.  For technical support assistance regarding the ACRODOS reader,

    refer to the README.TXT file included in the directory where

    ACRODOS was installed on your hard drive (Example: C:\ACRODOS).





FROM Windows '95:



1.  In order to read the manual files once the Adobe Acrobat Reader 

    is fully installed on your system, click on the START icon from 

    the Windows '95 desktop.



2.  Click on the PROGRAMS icon in the START menu.



3.  Click on the ADOBE ACROBAT icon in the PROGRAMS menu.



4.  Click on the ADOBE ACROBAT READER 2.1 in the ADOBE ACROBAT menu.



5.  Under "Drive", choose the drive on which the manuals are located 

    (Example: D: for most people's CD-ROM drives).



6.  Under "Folders", choose the directory on which the manuals are

    located (Example: D:\MANUAL if the STAR CONTROL 3 CD 

    is in the CD-ROM and your CD-ROM drive is drive D:).



7.  Left-click and highlight STARCON3.PDF in the "File Name" window,

    then left-click the OK button.



8.  In the STARCON3.PDF file, click on the name of the manual which 

    you wish to view.

   

9.  Double click on 'Help' from Acrobat Reader to access technical

    support information for the Acrobat Reader.





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                             HYPERMELEE

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STARTING A NETWORK GAME

-------------------

Run Star Control 3, then click on the HyperMelee icon inside the game.



From the Fight Setup menu, select REMOTE PLAYER by clicking on the 

Player 2 icon until the REMOTE PLAYER symbol appears. Choose the 

NETWORK PLAY icon (not MODEM or SERIAL) from the icons below the

REMOTE PLAYER icon on the screen.



NETWORK GAME NOTES:

-------------------

1.  Both machines must be on the same IPX-compatible network in order

    for a network game to work properly.

2.  It is not possible to manually choose a network node. The game

    simply finds the first open node, then grabs the next Player who

    tries to play a network game. So, if you set up a network game 

    and are waiting for your friend Ernie to hook up, but Agnus 

    (who also wants to play a network game) hooks up before Ernie, 

    then you have to play with Agnus.

3.  If you are running IPX over an Ethernet network, are running

    Windows(R) 95, and your mail service works, but you cannot setup a 

    network game, try going into Control Panels/Network/IPX/SPX

    Compatible Protocols/Properties/Advanced and see if your frame

    type is set to AUTO. If it is, try setting your Ethernet Frame

    Values to match your opponent's (both with Ethernet 802.2 or both

    with Ethernet 802.3).





STARTING A MODEM GAME

-----------------



Run Star Control 3, then click on the HyperMelee icon inside the game.



From the Fight Setup menu, select REMOTE PLAYER by clicking on the 

Player 2 icon until the REMOTE PLAYER symbol appears. Choose the 

MODEM PLAY icon (not NETWORK or SERIAL) from the icons below the

REMOTE PLAYER icon on the screen. Click on the same icon again to

choose the correct COM port and baud rate. If someone calls you,

using HyperMelee to connect with your modem, leave the ANSWER 

radio button highlighted and click OK. If you are dialing another 

number, highlight the DIAL radio button, type in the correct phone 

number, and press OK.





MODEM GAME NOTES:

-----------------

1.  When done, <Esc> back to DOS and restart if you want to play

    again.

2.  Some modem compatibility problems depend on which modem

    makes the call and which modem receives the call. If you have 

    problems making a modem connection with another person's 

    computer, try having the other person call you, 

    instead of you calling them.



STARTING A SERIAL GAME

-----------------



Run Star Control 3, then click on the HyperMelee icon inside the game.



From the Fight Setup menu, select REMOTE PLAYER by clicking on the 

Player 2 icon until the REMOTE PLAYER symbol appears. Choose the

SERIAL PLAY icon (not NETWORK or MODEM) from the icons below the

REMOTE PLAYER icon on the screen. Click on the same icon again to

choose the correct COM port (usually COM Port 2).



SERIAL GAME NOTES:

-----------------

1.  When done, <Esc> back to DOS and restart if you want to play

    again.

2.  If having cable troubles in Windows 95, click on the START 

    icon in the lower left-hand corner of the screen, click on

    SETTINGS, then go to the Control Panel, then open the SYSTEM icon.

    Click on the DEVICE MANAGER tab. Under ports, make sure that you

    can see that you have a COM 1 port and a COM 2 Port. Make sure

    that neither have a conflict indicator (black exclamation mark in

    a yellow circle). If you do have a conflict, you need to contact

    your hardware vendor in order to correct this problem.



NOTE: certain cards conflict with COM ports (such as a network card

set on IRQ 3 when your COM port 2 is also set on IRQ 3).



NOTES ON REMOTE PLAY

-----------------

The following tips can make your remote play sessions play better.



1.  Player 2 will always be the remote player on both machines.

2.  Do not press <Pause>.

3.  Do not try to start "Lightning Mode".



Make sure that both players in remote melee have the same sound and 

music settings (both on, one on and one off, or both off) or the 

game can become unstable.



Try having both users play the game from the overhead view (Press F5 

to switch views). Not only can this improve your frame rate, but it is 

easier to aim!



If you have problems establishing a modem connection after using other 

communications software, try power cycling your modem to reset it to 

its default settings. If you have an internal modem this may require 

powering down your computer. Some communications programs can leave 

your modem in a non-standard configuration which can interfere with 

the game establishing a modem connection.



Try having both players click on the Fight icon at about the same

time. Having one computer "on hold" for a long time, waiting for a 

connection or a node, can reduce the chance of establishing a remote 

connection.



In remote melee, the two users can occasionally go out of synch. The 

game will try to recover by bringing the ships back into the melee. If 

this fails several times, both ships will be destroyed and both

players pick new ships and go on. This can result from high network

traffic, "dirty" phone lines, or an uncertain serial connection.

If the game gets out of synch repeatedly, try exiting from the game,

restarting and re-establishing communications.



Pressing the <Pause> or <Escape> key in remote melee may cause the 

games to go out of synch.



Hitting the planet in remote melee may cause the games to go out of 

synch. You should try not to hit the planet anyway!



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                      GAMEPLAY TIPS AND HELP   

----------------------------------------------------------------------



LOW FRAME RATE IN MELEE

-----------------

In melee, your frame rate depends upon the speed of your CPU and your 

video card. If you are getting slow melee performance, try switching

to the overhead view (press F5 to switch views in melee). This view 

requires less processing and should have a higher frame rate on slow 

systems.



SOUND FOR CUT SCENES 

-----------------

While it is possible to run Star Control 3 without sound and view 

the alien dialog text instead of listening to it, you will not be 

able to hear the narration during cut scenes. There is no text 

narration during cut scenes. In order to hear the cut scene 

narration you must have sound turned on. Please read the HELP.ME

file for further information.





EXPLORING

-----------------

Remember your mission goals in the Kessarri Quadrant include both 

exploration and colonization. Some of the time you will be dashing 

back and forth between stars trying to solve crises. If there are 

no immediate crises to deal with, explore new stars, dig up buried 

Precursor artifacts, upgrade your ships, and create new colonies to 

maximize your productivity. Stars you have visited are displayed as 

a + on the Quadrant screen, un-visited stars as a dot. New crises 

will come soon enough; fulfilling your mission goals will help you be 

ready for them.



JOYSTICKS

-----------------

If you find that Player 2's joystick is not as responsive as player 

1's, try turning off the music in melee. The music and sound controls 

are in the Control screen of the adventure game. Under some 

circumstances, this can improve the responsiveness of Player 2's 

joystick.



If you are using 2 Gravis Game pads on a "Y" splitter, make sure both 

pads are in 2 button mode. Otherwise, the pads will interfere with 

each other.



FUEL MANAGEMENT

-----------------

It is possible to warp into a system and not have enough fuel to 

return to a friendly colony. This strands the player's ship. Here 

are some things you can watch out for and do to help avoid and/or 

solve the problem.





How To Avoid Running Out Of Fuel



The easiest way to avoid running out of fuel is never to make 

jumps to stars marked in red unless you know there is a friendly 

fuel source. When you put your pointer over a star in 

navigation mode, the color of the line connecting your source and 

destination will be red if you only have enough fuel for a one 

way trip. The destination system displays all known fuel sources 

(if any) in the system; friendly fuel sources have a green marker.



A good way to make sure you have as much fuel as possible is to 

visit your allied colonies regularly. It is not sufficient to visit 

the system; you must orbit the friendly colony planet to pick 

up fuel. Besides, they'll be happy to see you, and may have new 

questions to ask, or new information for you.



Sometimes you get caught because of changing circumstances: an 

ally defects and won't give you fuel, or you accidentally choose 

the wrong destination star and don't end up at a fuel source. 

When you go into navigation mode there are no friendly 

fuel sources within the green or red range. Now you have a problem.





How To Get Fuel



There are two ways out of the problem; make more fuel, or jump 

somewhere that has fuel (even if that fuel isn't showing now). You 

make more fuel by creating a colony in your current system and 

waiting for them to make some. To make a colony you need a colony 

landing pod, a planet with resources, and colonists that can work 

on that planet.



Scan all the planets in your system and find the one with the most 

resources. Go there and check the habitability to find out which 

races can work there effectively. Remember that you can pull crew 

off your ships to work in your colony. If you've got a pod, an 

appropriate planet, and appropriate crew, put down the colony. Set 

the mine, refinery, factory, and fuel refinery to max, and 

everything else to minimum until you build a fuel refinery. Then 

set everything but the mine and the fuel refinery to minimum and 

wait for the refinery to make enough fuel to get you back to 

another friendly colony. To minimize the wait, set the clock to 

maximum. Don't forget to evacuate the colonists, re-crew your 

ships, and reset your clock before you leave.



The other way out of your dilemma is to jump to a star and hope 

there is an undiscovered League colony there. Check with ICOM to 

see if there are any transmissions from League colonies to follow 

up on. If not, save your game, and trust your luck.



If you can't make a colony, and there are no undiscovered League 

colonies within range, you may be stranded. You'll have to reload 

your last save and watch your fuel more closely next time.



Interstellar Communications

-----------------



Most races have special communications systems, built with rare 

Precursor technology, so they may communicate between their 

colonies. Most of the time, when you communicate with a race's 

colony, you are speaking to the leader of that race, even though 

most leaders stay on their home worlds.



Some races can also communicate between their colonies and their 

fleets. When you speak to these races' fleets, you are actually 

speaking to the leader of the race. Other races do not have this 

ability, so you will speak to the fleet commander. Judge 

carefully who you are speaking with when communicating with a 

fleet.



The League has a limited ability to send messages from the 

colonies to the Precursor Colony Ship. Most League-to-Colony 

Ship communications are limited to very short messages. The League 

has not yet discovered how to send messages from the Colony Ship

so, the Colony Ship must physically travel to a destination to 

have a two-way conversation.





Hint Line

-----------------



For Star Control 3 Hints & Tips, call Accolade Direct



     1-900-454-HINT



$.99/minute - If you are under 18 get your parents permission 

before making this call.





----------------------------------------------------------------------

                           KNOWN BUGS

----------------------------------------------------------------------



On some keyboards, some key combinations cancel each other out. If 

Player 1 and Player 2 key combinations are canceling each other 

out, choose different key configurations.





----------------------------------------------------------------------

                          TECHNICAL SUPPORT

----------------------------------------------------------------------



You can contact Accolade for technical support from the following

places:



World Wide Web: http://www.accolade.com/



Internet:       techelp@accolade.com

                

America Online: Keyword: Accolade



CompuServe:     Game Publishers A Forum (GO GAMAPUB)



Phone:          (408) 296-8400 (Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm Pacific)

                  

Fax:            (408) 246-0231



Mail:           Accolade Customer Support

                5300 Stevens Creek Boulevard, Suite 500

                San Jose, California 95129



For Star Control 3 Hints & Tips, call Accolade Direct



     1-900-454-HINT



$.99/minute - If you are under 18 get your parents permission 

before making this call.





If you are having problems with the game, we can best help you if:

1) You are at your computer when you call.

2) You have the following information handy:



Date and size of the game executable file (SC3.EXE)

Your computer's brand and model

Your computer's BIOS brand and version number

Processor Type and Speed

Total RAM installed in your computer

Name and version number of your operating system

 (such as MS-DOS or Windows 95)

Name and version number of your memory manager

 (such as QEMM, EMM386 or 386Max)

CD-ROM brand and model name

Video card brand and model name

Mouse brand and version number of mouse driver

Sound card brand and model name

Contents of AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files

At the DOS prompt (or if you're running Windows 95, select

 "Run" from the Start menu), type "MEM /C [Enter]" and copy down 

 the on-screen listing



When sending Tech support e-mail, cut and paste the following into 

 your e-mail message and fill in the blanks:



Date:  

Name:  

Phone number:  

E-mail address:

Game Title:  

Date and size of the game executable file (SC3.EXE)

Your computer's brand and model:

BIOS date:

BIOS version:

Processor type:  

Processor speed:  

Operating system: 

Name and version number of your memory manager: 

CD-ROM brand and model name: 

Video card brand and model name: 

Mouse brand and version number of mouse driver: 

Sound card brand and model name: 

Contents of AUTOEXEC.BAT: 

Contents CONFIG.SYS: 

Results of MEM /C: 

Please state the problem you encountered:

Please state how to reproduce the problem:



If the program crashed with nasty indecipherable techno-garbage, 

please look for the hex number which comes after "Adjusted Crash 

Address" and write it down here:





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                           LEGAL STUFF

----------------------------------------------------------------------



Accolade and STAR CONTROL 3 are registered trademarks of Accolade, 

Inc. Copyright 1996, Accolade, Inc. All rights reserved. Created by

Legend Entertainment and based upon characters created by and used 

under license from Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford.



Prima Publishing is a trademark of Prima Communications, Inc.



Edit is Copyright (c) Microsoft Corp. 1995.



Notepad is Copyright (c) 1981-1995 Microsoft Corp.



Microsoft, Windows, and MS-DOS are either registered trademarks or 

trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other

countries.



DOS4GW Professional used under license agreement with Rational

Systems Inc.



PKUNZIP Reg. U.S. Pat. and TM. Off.



WATCOM C/C++ used under license agreement with WATCOM, Inc.



MSS 3.5 portions of the game code used under license agreement with

Miles Design, Inc.



Adobe Acrobat Reader is Copyright (c) 1987-1995 Adobe Systems 

Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe, Acrobat, and the Acrobat 

logo are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated which may be 

registered in certain jurisdictions.



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**********************************************************************



