Ironseed Techbook and Trials Guide Quick Start Manual Part I. Features Grafix 2.5 Meg of compressed video data conveys a universe that is both rich and vibrant having believability and depth unparalleled by any other science fiction world. From the glint in the Sengzhac's eye to the grotesque squirming of the worm-like D'Pahk each alien race is unique in its movement and alive with animation. Music We present to you a sound track that is as dark and seductive as the world of Ironseed. Using one of the most advanced realtime digital mixers available for the PC we bring you a soundtrack unmatched by any non-CD game title. After nearly eight months of work on the sound alone we present a combination of modern dance, classical, and eastern elements in Dolby Surround that form a powerful musical score. The Dual Module Player mixes digital samples in realtime allowing for smaller sound files. The sound stays under 10 Meg while supporting over an hour of playback at up to 44 kilobytes per sec. That's an effective data compression ratio of over 16 to one! DMP also supports a wide range of audio cards... Sound Blaster compatibles as well as the complete Sound Blaster family, the Aria, and the Gravis Ultra Sound. Story With a backdrop 4 years in the making and a story line equivalent to a 250 page novel, the universe of Ironseed is a dynamic one. There are 10 established empires and the possibility for a thousand others that evolve as the game is played. Your struggle to unite the free worlds will take you from the trade circles of the Guild to the mystic home of the Quai Tetrad. You will be deigned the voice of the Icon and as their liaison will be the only defense against the scavenger armada. Ironseed... the ship... the movement... and now, the last hope for mankind. Part II. System and Environment A. Minimal System Requirements Basic Program: - 80386 processor - 25 MHz clock speed - VGA card and monitor - 530,000 bytes of low memory - MSDOS 4.0 - MS compatible mouse Sound Setup: - Aria, ProAudio Spectrum family, Sound Blaster family, Gravis UltraSound or a compatible of one of these sound cards - 1 Mb of EMS memory - 600,000 bytes of low memory B. System Recommendations - 80486 processor - math co-processor - 33 MHz, 50 MHz for best performance - accelerated video board - disk cache TSR program - ram disk TSR program - 615,000 bytes of low memory Part III. Installation To install the program, follow these steps: A. Boot the computer. B. Insert the first disk into the floppy drive. C. Type A: (or the appropriate floppy drive) followed by a carriage return. D. Type ISDEMO also followed by a carriage return. The installer will run. E. Follow the prompts for the installation. Part IV. Optimizing Your System A. Try running a disk cache program such as Smartdrive. This will allow frequently accessed data to remain in memory longer rather than in the slower access disk drive. Optimal size is about 1 Mb for 4 Mb of RAM or 2 Mb for 8 Mb of RAM. B. Set an environment variable 'TEMP' to a ram disk such as Ramdrive. This is simply a 'SET TEMP=' and the drive letter of the ram disk in the autoexec.bat file. Make sure that the ramdisk has at least 128 kb. C. Disable any TSR's that require large amounts of the processor's time. Even a simple keyboard enhancer can steal valuable time from the CPU. Part V. Trouble Shooting A. Sound Failure: Make sure that the sound card is installed correct, volume turned up sufficiently and there is at least 1 Mb of EMS available. B. Open File or Fatal File Error: Make sure that your current directory contains the Ironseed executable and all the subdirectories such as data, sound, and saved games. Test your hard drive for failures in case a file has been corrupted. C. Out of memory Error: The program itself, Is.exe, requires about 600k of low memory. If sound is used this may increase. It is important to note that the main program will not run with less memory. Part VI. The Story So Far... It is the thirty-eighth century. The fall of Earth is but a legend and humanity has migrated to a terraformed Mars. The Pentateuch, a group of five preists, rules the newly risen technocracy with an iron fist. In a bold attempt to eliminate the last of their political opponents, the five began the purgation trials. With guerilla tactics their followers went about convicting those who would oppose them. To counter them an underground movement was initiated and an elaborate plan was conceived. A virus was spread throughout the circuit matrix. A thousand days from inception, the virus was scheduled to delete all personality files. The Ironseed movement as it was called, hoped that by stealing a ship they could escape... leaving behind Mars... and the Pentateuch. Their intent was to return after the fall of the technocracy. ...but a computer malfunction turned a thousand days into a thousand years... As the captain, you are awakened along with the crew by an alien horde. After a brief dialogue, communication is cut off and they attack. The game begins as the attack ends. Part VII. In The Beginning... After the introduction you should see the Ironseed logo floating above a starfield. At the bottom of this screen four options will be listed: A. Ordering Info How to get the full game. B. Continue Game Choosing this option will bring up a listing of save game slots for previous games you have saved along with the game-date. If no games have been saved or if you have not selected your crew to begin your quest these slots should read "Quick Start 2/3784." If this is the case you may either select one of these and use the default crew and ship or you may choose cancel. Cancelling will bring you back to the Ironseed logo. (Use the Quick Start for Slow is you have less then a 486/33.) C. Introduction Choosing this option will run the introduction again. D. Quit to Dos Choosing this option will exit the program to the dos prompt. Part VIII. Main Screen The Main Screen is the screen to which you are born and it is the screen to which you must always return. It is divided up into three main sections: The Primary Display, the InfoBox and the Command Cube. The Primary Display is the upper half of the Main Screen. This is the area through which the world outside your ship can be seen. You should be able to see the planet or star you are orbiting on the left hand side of this display. The InfoBox occupies the lower left hand side of the Main Screen. When the ship's computer or the crew have an important message for you it will be appear there. The InfoBox will store the last 24 messages. You may scroll up and down through these messages by using the scroll bar and arrows to the right of the InfoBox. Your ship has three different modes of operation: Rest mode, Alert mode, and Combat mode. Depending on which of these modes your ship is in your weapon power and shield level will vary. For quick switch to a different mode select the Panic button from the bottom left of the main screen, doing so will toggle your ship mode (Rest, Alert, and Combat modes turn the Panic Button green, yellow, and red respectively.) If you are in Rest mode the Panic Button will raise your shields and arm your weapons taking you into Combat mode. If you are in Combat mode the Panic Button will lower your shields and power down your weapons. If you have no damage you will return to Rest mode. If you have taken damage you will instead power down to Alert mode. As captain of the Ironseed, you directly control the actions of your six primar...
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