Readme.txt--------------POSITECH COMPUTING LTD---ASTEROID MINER
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Release Notes V1.0		13/3/99

1)Installation
2)Requirements
3)Troubleshooting
4)Supported Hardware
5)Registration
6)Multiplayer


1)Installation
Asteroid Miner does not require any special installation procedure.
simply unzip the files to a directory of your choice and run the 
game by double clicking the Ast_miner.exe icon.

2)Requirements
Asteroid Miner utilises the DirectX software supplied by Microsoft.
You will need DirectX 5.2 or later to run the game. DirectX is freely
available from www.microsoft.com, and comes preinstalled on Windows98.
You may find that you already have DirectX installed from a previous
games installation program.
Asteroid Miner uses Direct3D only slightly. It is not optimised for a
specific chipset and you do not need a 3D accelerator.

3)Troubleshooting
Most problems with asteroid miner can be traced to DirectX drivers. The
symptoms of DirectX problems include:

Sound works unpredictably or not at all:
solution: Go to control panel | multimedia, and adjust the properties of
the audio device to disable any special audio hardware acceleration.

Game crashes as soon as you use the mouse:
This is a problem with display modes. Asteroid Miner requires a screen
resolution of 800 by 600 in 16bit color. You may have problems with certain
drivers that cannot change automatically to this resolution. If so, try 
setting the resolution to 800 by 600 by 16 and launching the game again.
If you already are set to 800 by 600, try launching the game from a different
resolution. You may need to reboot your computer if the game fails before
starting again.

4)Supported Hardware:
Asteroid miner has been tested with the following cards:
Hercules terminator Beast 128 3D
ATI Xpert@Play 8MB PCI

5)Registration
Asteroid Miner is Shareware. The game is provided as a 1 level demo with
unlimited multiplayer functionality. Registering the game disables the
slow 'nag' screen on shutdown and allows you to access the full multilevel
single player game.When you register you will be given a code to enter that
enables the full game,you dont even need to restart the game to get the new
levels, and you dont need to download any extra files.

6)Multiplayer
Click on Start Multi on the main screen to host a multiplayer game. you need to
enter a playername (just type it in), choose a service provider, and select a 
ship (all ships perform the same).You then need to select a level for your game.
to join a game go to Join Multi.
Asteroid Miner supports multiplayer play by IPX and TCP/IP. You may experience
hanging when connecting to a TCP/IP game. If so, you may find that hitting
the enter key solves the problem. You should not experience any problems with
IPX games. Asteroid miner supports a total of 8 players in a game. Asteroid miner
will allow you to select other service providers such as modem or direct serial 
connection. These methods are NOT tested or supported by Positech computing ltd.

7)Known Bugs
If you start a multiplayer game, and then attempt to start another one, the
game may crash or hang. just quit and restart the game and you should have
no problems.

