Welcome to Star Control II, we hope you enjoy the trip!  What follows is a
detailed description of how the game is different from what is described
in the manual, plus a few playing tips.  Why is there a difference, you ask?
Well, frankly, it's the designers' fault.  Here's what happened...

About six months before we ACTUALLY shipped the game, Fred and Paul (the
designers of the game) gave us some disks and told us, "Here's the final
version... well, ALMOST final.  We have a few MINOR finishing touches, but
they'll be done real soon."  Then Fred and Paul disappeared, and were not seen
or heard from for half a year. We looked and looked, but even their families
didn't know where they'd gone.  At great expense, we hired a detective from
Pinkerton's to locate the errant designers.  They were in ALASKA!  Why?  That's
what we asked them... FER CRYIN' OUT LOUD, WHAT WERE YOU DOIN' IN ALASKA?!
"Adding a few nice touches", they said, "like thirty different types of
worlds, planet surface exploration, and enough player-alien dialog to fill a
novel."

Well, what could we do? Kill them?... yeah, we thought so too, but they ran off
again, and now even the detective can't find them.  Anyway, as a result, we
have been forced to send along this significant update document which details
all the "nice touches" Fred and Paul added.  By the way, if you see Paul and
Fred, DON'T call Pinkerton's, call us instead... we will take care of them ourselves.



REVISED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Memory: You will need at least 580,000 bytes of Low DOS memory available when
you start the game.

Disk Space: Star Control II has expanded like a blowfish with water retention,
and now requires 9,200,000 bytes of free space on your hard drive.  This is
due to the addition of almost an hour of digital music, plus over fifty
digital sound effects.

KNOWN CONFLICTS

Conflict:   EXTENDED MEMORY MANAGER (only in rare instances)
Symptom:    Extremely slow performance, and in rare cases,
system halts.
Solution:   Modify config.sys or autoexec.bat files to remove
memory manager.

Conflict:   GRAVIS ULTRASOUND board in combination with SOUNDBLASTER
or ROLAND sound boards.
Symptom:    System halts immediately when game is run.
Solution:   Remove all sound boards but GRAVIS ULTRASOUND, or
remove GRAVIS ULTRASOUND.

LAUNCHING STAR CONTROL II FROM WINDOWS
To run STARCON2 from Windows, you must take the following steps:
Add an Optional Parameter switch to the PIF with the PIF Editor as follows:
/s:silent (if it's not already present). Sorry about not allowing sound, but
Windows 3.1 doesn't get along well with high-speed digital interrupts.
 
NEW SOUND BOARD SUPPORT
Star Control II now auto-detects and utilizes the following sound baords:

Microsoft Windows sound board (command line override: /s:MICRO) 

Gravis Ultrasound sound board (command line override: /s:GRAVIS) 


WEIRD GRAPHICS ADAPTER FIX
Certain computers, like the Tandy 4850 EP, have unusual video hardware, and
as a result, the colors in the game might not look quite right.  If you
experience this probelm, try running the game as follows:

STARCON2 /g:BIOS

This will force the program to update the the color palette using the BIOS
functions.  Since most BIOS calls are far slower than custom routines, a
minor performance penalty may be noticed when using this option.


CHANGES AND CLARIFICATIONS

STARMAP: The paper starmap included in the game box was defined in the
year AD 2133.  This means that in 2155, at the beginning of Star Control II,
the details about alien spheres of influence are over twenty years out of
date.  Also, the lighter region in the upper right corner of the starmap
represents the glow emanating from the distant galactic core and indicates
the direction known in the game as 'Coreward'.


MANUAL

SOFTWARE-THEFT PROTECTION: Professor Zorg has been called off on urgent 
matters of inter-galactic significance. Consequently, he is unable to
preside over the Starmap Trivia Quiz, but assures us that you will be able
to handle this task on your own.

INITIAL MENU: Each time you pass the Starmap Trivia Quiz, you will be presented
with a menu offering the following options:

START NEW GAME: The game starts at the very beginning, prompting you to enter
your captain's name.

LOAD SAVED GAME: You are presented with the list of saved games to
choose from.

PLANET NAMES
Some of the names of planets in the game are changed.  The changes are:

    Greenhouse World is now Primordial World

    Light World is now Selenic World

MENU CHANGES
The options in certain game menus have changed.  These changes are:

MANIFEST: The order of menu items now reads:
    CARGO
    DEVICES
    ROSTER
    EXIT

COMBAT SEGUE: The order of menu items now reads:
    CONVERSE
    ATTACK!
    GAME

Also, in regards to the Combat Segue Screen: normally, this display shows the
exact number of ships you have encountered; however, if alien ships fill the
entire screen, you are facing an enemy task force of UNLIMITED size, which you
CANNOT defeat in combat.  If the task force is between you and something you
want, you will have to figure out what is necessary to appease the aliens, or
devise a clever plan to trick them all into leaving.


STARMAP

Range Circle: Whenever you enter the starmap, you will see a dim gray circle
surrounding your position.  This circle represents your range with your present
fuel supply.  REMEMBER: You use fuel landing on planets and escaping from
battle, so this range circle can change even if you are not in HyperSpace.

Spheres of Influence: The circles on the starmap represent the area of space
occupied by an alien civilization's star fleet.  Although these 'Spheres of
Influence' are usually centered around their native homeworld, they CAN move.
As a consequence, you might want to make regular examinations of your starmap.


OUTFIT STARSHIP

Flagship Characteristics: Beneath the display of your flagship, the game now
displays the characteristics of your flagship, based on the modules it
contains.  These characteristics are:


Turning Rate: The rotation rate of your flagship in combat, HyperSpace and
interplanetary travel, based on the number of turn jets on your vessel.	

Maximum Velocity: Your ship's speed in combat, HyperSpace and interplanetary
travel, based on the number of thrusters your ship possesses.         

Combat Energy: The speed with which the energy for your weapons is replenished
during combat. The more Dynamos you have on board your flagship, the faster
energy will be regenerated.


Module Availability: The 'Auto-Tracking' module is NOT available at the
beginning of the game, nor are 'Blaster Packs', but 'Ion-Gun Racks' can be
purchased immediately.

Weapon Module Changes: There are NO 'Side', 'Spread', 'Nose' or 'Tail' weapon
modules.  Instead, these configurations, as described in the manual, are
achieved by how you place weapon modules on your flagship, as follows:

    WEAPON POSITION		FIRING EFFECT

    First (right most) slot        Fires FORWARD
    Second slot                    Fires a SPREAD
    Third slot                     Fires to both SIDES
    Last (left most) slot          Fires backwards

Weapon modules placed in any other slot positions will have no effect.


ESCAPING FROM COMBAT
At the beginning of the game, the emergency warp technology for escaping from
combat has NOT been included on your ships, though this feature will be available
very early on in the game.

NEW FEATURES NOT MENTIONED IN MANUAL
Repeat Last Alien Phrase: During a conversation with an alien, you may want to
repeat the alien's last phrase to you.  To do so, press the spacebar or
button 2.

GAME PAUSE
You can pause the game anywhere and at any time by pressing the F1 key.  To
unpause the game, press F1 once more.


MISCELLANEOUS

Save often. You may want to review earlier portions of the game later on.

You can acquire ships in the game which you cannot build at your starbase. 
Typically, these ships are a 'gift' from an alien race, but they cannot give
them to you unless you have room for the ships in your fleet.  For this reason,
consider keeping two or three slots open in your fleet.  Also, you can 'sell'
these ships for Resource Units, but remember, you CANNOT rebuild the vessels.
Once they are sold, they are gone.




