                  Frequently Asked Questions about Starball.

LIST OF QUESTIONS COVERED IN THIS DOCUMENT.

Installation

Q. The install program won't run.


Sound

Q. I can't get any sound.
Q. I don't get any digital sound, and the game reports 'Not enough memory
   for samples block.'
Q. I sometimes get music, and sometimes don't.
Q. Music sounds terrible!
Q. Digital sound is awful!
Q. The game pauses for a while on startup, and a 'patch_load:' failure
   appears...
Q. Starball stops with an Ultrasound initialisation failure.
Q. The game pauses and/or crashes, or Windows 95 stops with a VPIC/VMM error
   while setting itself up with a Gravis on board.
Q. There is no digital sound and lots of strange noises on the Ultrasound.


Game speed

Q. Why is the game slow, or the feels 'dreamy'?
Q. I have a local bus video card but the game is still slow...
Q. The game isn't slow usually, but occasionally it jerks.

Game play / dynamics.

Q. Why does the ball jiggle around when held on a flipper?
Q. Why does the ball leap back out of the bonus screen when I lose it?




Installation

Q. The install program won't run.

A. A very small number of computers may experience problems running the
   install program if inside Windows 95. Shut down Windows to an MS-DOS
   prompt and try again. Starball itself may well still run correctly
   under 95.

Q. I'm having trouble running the game from CD.

A. Run the INSTALL batch file in the root of the CD directory and follow
   the instructions, THEN in future run the game from the directory on
   your hard drive to which it has been installed.



Sound


Q. I can't get any sound.

A. Check that you have correctly configured the system for your sound
   card by running the INSTALL program and selecting 'Configure'. This
   may also be a symptom of some problem with a hardware conflict,
   such as a DMA or IRQ conflict. Check all your devices for conflicts.
   Parallel devices use IRQ 7 (LPT1) and IRQ 5 (LPT2) and these may
   cause difficulties if connected while sound cards on the same channel
   are used, although few PC's have an LPT2. Many network cards use IRQ
   and port values similar to sound cards - often IRQ 5 is used. DMA
   channels 0 and 2 are often in use by other devices on the system.
   These conflicts are more likely to be a problem on a 'non-generic'
   brand-name PC than on a basic PC-compatible. Conflicts may cause
   many problems, including corruption of graphics and crashes. There are
   also sometimes problems if IRQ settings 8-15 are used for your sound
   card: the Soundblaster can use IRQ 10, which will not work correctly on
   many systems. Use the DIAGNOSE program (SB16/AWE32) or change the jumpers
   on the card (older SB cards) to alter the IRQ number.


Q. I don't get any digital sound, and the game reports 'Not enough memory
   for samples block.'

A. You haven't got enough memory. This is memory of all kinds, and so
   includes anything that hasn't been reserved for something else. A large
   free conventional memory area is NOT required for Starball, and so
   loading a memory manager such as EMM386 or QEMM to use upper memory
   blocks will probably REDUCE the amount of memory available to Starball.
   Remove as much as possible from CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT, particularly
   memory managers and disk caches such as SMARTDRV.


Q. I sometimes get music, and sometimes don't.

A. You are probably just a bit short of memory. The music player allocates
   memory separately for every file loaded. Small and short tunes, such
   as the logo fanfare, will probably work, while the longer tunes such
   as the intro and the main table usually won't. Try to free a bit more
   memory as described above.


Q. Music sounds terrible!

A. If you have a Soundblaster 16 or Pro 2, you may have a timing ratio
   inconsistent with that used by the game. Try selecting Soundblaster
   Pro as your sound card, which (although slower and not as high
   quality) should fix the problem. This is unlikely to be a problem
   on genuine Creative Labs cards.


Q. Digital sound is awful!

A. This is probably due to some hardware conflict as described above. It
   may also be a faulty sound card, or a DMA controller problem. This is
   a very common problem if using Gravis Ultrasound digital sound, but
   unfortunately no good solution can be found. Sometimes this may also
   occur on Soundblaster cards: if it happens, try changing the mode to
   a lower card (16 -> Pro 2 -> Pro) or changing IRQ/DMA settings.


Q. The game pauses for a while on startup, and a 'patch_load:' failure
   appears...

A. You are probably using a Gravis Ultrasound and running under Windows 95.
   The Windows drivers for the Gravis prevent Starball using the patch
   memory on the Ultrasound. This can be fixed by setting MS-DOS mode,
   rebooting to a command prompt, or (not recommended) removing the
   Windows drivers for the Ultrasound. Investigate as to whether a new
   32-bit Ultrasound driver has become available - at the time of writing
   it was not, and it may fix the problem.


Q. Starball stops with an Ultrasound initialisation failure.

A. Read the sections in the readme file on the Gravis Ultrasound.


Q. The game pauses and/or crashes, or Windows 95 stops with a VPIC/VMM error
   while setting itself up with a Gravis on board.

A. This is a known problem with the Ultrasound libraries that may
   crop up occasionally. The game will probably restart without problem.
   If you are running under Windows 95, set the program to run in MS-DOS
   mode.


Q. There is no digital sound and lots of strange noises on the Ultrasound.

A. Your ULTRASND IRQ settings are not being correctly detected by Starball's
   Ultrasound libraries. This may be due to an incorrect ULTRASND
   environment variable, failure to initialise the Ultrasound correctly,
   or some unknown problem. Some chipsets may refuse to acknowledge IRQ 11
   properly: moving the GUS to IRQ 5 may solve the problem.



Game speed


Q. Why is the game slow, or the feels 'dreamy'?

A. Your system is not fast enough. This is more than likely caused by a
   slow video card. Try changing SIDEPANEL SETTING in the install program
   to OFF and this will probably fix the problem. If it does not, your
   system is too slow to play Starball. Upgrading your video card should
   solve the problem. This may also happen under certain circumstances
   if using a Soundblaster 16 or AWE32 when the DIAGNOSE program is not
   run to initialise the card correctly (for some unknown reason this can
   cause the system's local bus to shut down - boggle). Rerun DIAGNOSE and
   use it to alter your system files to set up the Soundblaster properly.


Q. I have a local bus video card but the game is still slow...

A. Some local bus cards only use the local bus when using their custom
   device drivers. Their ISA performance is rarely particularly good, and
   the result is a slow game. See the notes above.



Q. The game isn't slow usually, but occasionally it jerks.

A. Some irregular load is causing the game to occasionally drop frames. If
   it happens when the screen is scrolling quickly, it is likely your
   processor or video card is slow. If it appears to happen randomly,
   it is most likely caused by the sound driver. Certain sound cards take
   a large quantity of data to run, or are very slow to accept data. Early
   Soundblaster cards (Soundblaster 1 and 2, and Pro version 1) and the
   Gravis Ultrasound are likely to be the worst offenders, or a
   Soundblaster Pro II on a slow PC. A fast PC may also be required for
   the AWE32. Some configuration options are provided in the installation
   program to make the sound card drain lower. Windows 95 can also provide
   this sort of drain in at least half-a-dozen separate ways - using the
   'Shutdown to MS-DOS Mode' option should greatly improve matters.
   If the drain is only occasional, you will actually stop noticing it after
   a while, but only if it is dropping only a single frame at most once or
   twice a second.





Game play / dynamics.


Q. Why does the ball jiggle around when held on a flipper?

A. This is perfectly normal, and is a consequence of the ball movement
   algorithm having a resolution limited to that of the screen.


Q. Why does the ball leap back out of the bonus screen when I lose it?

A. A freeze feature operates on the bonus screen. If you lose the ball
   within about ten seconds, you get another go. Aren't we nice?




