
                            Introduction
                            ------------

Hello scene people, yes, yes, you may have recognized this by the size,
this time it is the report we always wanted to release !

Unlike in the other reports, we now have a real engine featuring SVGA
pictures in 65336 colors and three different styles of music, all for
your pleasure.
Everything is put into some nice GUI, so have fun !



                  General Information / How to use
                  --------------------------------

a) General

The report SHOULD run under all kinds of circumstances if your system supports:

- PC compatible with at least a 486 DX2-66 or above
- At least 4 MB of extended memory
- 500kb of conventional memory
- a VESA 1.2 or 2.0 bios (or driver such as UNIVBE)
- Mouse required
- Music on Soundblaster, GUS, Interwave is optional

If your system supports these requirements, but the report will not start
you'll have to look up to the next section.


The directory text contains some text reports I have collected and the
complete results of all compos.

b) Usage

Right from the beginning the report will try to load up all 47 pictures
into your memory.

Because of the size of every picture (640x480), you'd need a system
with at least 32 MB.

So the report will try to load as much pictures as possible and start.
(You may stop this process by pressing ESC)

All other pictures will be loaded during the report. An intelligent memory
management is used : once a picture has been loaded, it will remain as long
in memory as no more memory is needed.

You can either use mouse or keyboard control (with the cursor keys) to
browse through the report. The charts and the credits button to the right
will load two pictures featuring some information.

The exit button (or ESC) will throw you back to DOS :)

In the middle you'll find to arrows giving you the ability to go forward
or backwards through the pictures. The index button in between will open
another window with with selectable windows featuring 25 pictures.
This is the so called "quick-select" which makes it easy to browse through
all 47 pictures.
Clicking on one of this preview-pics, will catapulate you to the specific
position inside the report.

If you move your mouse over the text in the lower box, it's shape will change
to a hand, you are now able to scroll the text up or down like it is possible
in almost all standard GUIs.

Moving the mouse over one of the party pictures, will move it's shape into
a magnifier. Pressing the left mouse button will zoom into the current screen
area, pressing the right button will open a fullscreen window, which you can
leave again by pressing the right button.

Pressing the note button to the lower right, will load the next out of three
possible tunes.



            Technical Information / Problems and Solutions
            ----------------------------------------------

This Report has been tested with the following cards :

- S3 Trio V64+ (Vesa 1.2 and 2.0)
- S3 Virge (Vesa 1.2 and 2.0)
- ET4000 (Vesa 1.2 and 2.0)
- Matrox Mystique (Vesa 1.2 and 2.0)
- ATI MACH 64 (Vesa 1.2 and 2.0)
- Cirrus Logic (Vesa 2.0)


Q: When starting the report I end up with a blank screen or the system
   completely hangs.
A: Are you running any multitasking system (e.g Windows95/NT, OS/2, Linux) ?
   We tested the report under these circumstances, but because of a lot
   of differing configurations, it will not work.
   Please boot a clean DOS configurition. Clean means : Only Himem, keyboard,
   disk cache, nothing more...
   ATTENTION: Opening a DOS BOX will not help to solve the problem !

Q: When starting the report, I end up with a message no 640x480x8 bits found
A: You don't seem to have an internal Vesa Bios, please load a VESA driver
   shipped with you card or use Univbe

Q: Although a VESA driver is enabled, the screen output is garbled
A: Some cards like Cirrus logic don't apply to the official VESA 1.2
   specifications. The best way is to load a VESA 2.0 driver such as
   UNIVBE and everything should be fine.

Q: What is UNIVBE ?
A: UNIVBE is a driver that provides the best compatibility of your card.
   It applys to the latest VESA 2.0 specifications.
   The latest version of UNIVBE is 5.3a, you may get the file either
   from a local BBS or via Internet at http://www.scitechsoft.com

Q: I've tried a normal VESA 1.2 BIOS and the VESA 2.0 BIOS that comes
   with UNIVBE, I still end up with a garbled screen.
A: Although we tried to test the report with all graphics adapter we
   were able to obtain, there may be still the slight chance that
   the report won't work.
   Your only chance now is to enable the 8 bit color mode, which is
   a so called "dithered mode", i.e. that the number of colors
   is reduced from 65335 to 256. (Use /S switch to enter setup)

Q: Man, I am tired, I've tried all the options above and I still end up
   with a garbled screen.
A: We are sorry about that incident, but if this happens, there is no
   option left.
   Please report this immediately either to Bee-Man or Kilroy (adresses
   can be found in the info-file).
   We will try to fix this as soon as possible, any update will only
   consist of the small EXE-FILE, because all DATA is stored in the WAD.
   So please be careful and don't delete the wad file !

Q: Although a sound card is in my system, I cannot hear any music
A: The player inside the report (XTC-PLAY) supports all Soundblaster cards,
   the standard GUS and Interwave based cards.
   Be sure that you have set the environment variables, if you own a
   soundblaster this will be the BLASTER variable, if you own a GUS
   it will be the ULTRASND variable and for Interwave this is INTERWAVE.



                                  Credits
                                  -------

  - Code                           : Kilroy

  - Graphics                       : Metal

  - Music                          : KB^Purge, Nyphton, Matrix

  - Design                         : Bee-Man, Metal, daniel

  - Text                           : Bee-Man
 
  - Reporter at Mekka (Photos)     : Bee-Man

  - Text and Picture modifications : Kilroy

  - Pictures (filming & grabbing)  : Bjoern Reichert aka Firebird


Thanks fly to our beta-testers :


- Christian Cohnen

- daniel

- Hendrik Fischer

- Pinker

- Ralf Kraus

- Robert Emsbach

Greetings  Kilroy^Sanction
           Bee-Man^Sanction

