Electronic Arts(R) presents NEED FOR SPEED(TM) II SPECIAL EDITION MANUAL AND REFERENCE CARD ADDENDUM WHAT THIS FILE IS ================= This file contains information which became available after the manual and reference card were printed. If you are experiencing problems not covered in the Reference Card or in this README, please contact EA Customer Support (see contact methods in the Reference Card). ****************************************************************************************** ADDENDUM ****************************************************************************************** UPDATES VIA INTERNET ==================== If your machine is set up for Internet access, you can automatically download updates to Need For Speed II SE, when they are available, by clicking the "Update Need For Speed II SE" item in the game's program group. NETWORK PLAY ADDENDUM ===================== * In the chat screen, you can clear your chat box completely by pressing the HOME key on your keyboard. FORCE FEEDBACK SUPPORT ====================== Ensure your force feedback device is configured properly under Windows 95, all cables are properly attached, and run NFS II SE. From the main menu, select OPTIONS, then CONTROLS, and then FORCE FEEDBACK. A message saying "Auto detecting" will appear and the game will look for your force feedback device. The message "Device not found" appears if the device is not detected; double-check that your device configuration in Windows 95 is correct and try again. If your device configuration appears to be correct, your device drivers may need to be updated; contact the manufacturer of your device to obtain the latest drivers. If the device is detected, the force-feedback sensitivity menu will appear. Use your mouse to select the force level you desire; maximum force is exerted when the bar is all the way to the right, and all forces are disabled when the bar is all the way to the left (select this level if you want to use your force feedback controller as a normal device without any forces). Press button "A" (the main button, usually the trigger) to feel an example vibration at the current sensitivity level. CONTROLLER CONFIGURATION ======================== * If you attempt to configure your controller (i.e., joystick, wheel, pedals) in the CONTROLS setup, it's important that you keep the joystick or wheel centered and not depress the pedals; doing so can cause the controller to perform in a reverse manner. Make sure that you have the pedals in the full up position (off gas) when you select to map a pedal as a control (i.e., ACCELERATE or BRAKE). If you have the pedal depressed when you try to map it as either ACCELERATE or BRAKE (and then release the pedal to map it), then the pedal will have a reverse effect in gameplay. (i.e., releasing the pedal with your foot will act as acceleration, while depressing the pedal will let off the gas). Make sure that you have the steering wheel in the center position when you select STEER LEFT in the CONTROLS setup menu and then move the steering wheel to the left to map it correctly. If you are holding the steering wheel to the left when you click on the STEER LEFT selection, and then release the steering wheel, this will result in your steering wheel being mapped backwards in gameplay (i.e., Steering Left with the steering wheel in gameplay will result in your car steering more to the right). * The STEERING SENSITIVITY option is disabled if steering is mapped to a keyboard, gamepad, or joystick buttons. THRUSTMASTER T1 AND T2 WHEEL CONFIGURATION ========================================== Some joysticks/wheels may have centering problems when calibrated in Windows 95. Included on the Need For Speed II SE CD, in the Utility folder, is the ProPanel applet from Thrustmaster. ProPanel is designed to fix game port calibration problems associated with sound cards or multi-function cards. It will also add new device options to your device list. These new devices include the ThrustMaster Formula T1, Formula T2, Grand Prix 1, NASCAR Pro and Formula Pro driving controls. To install the ProPanel applet, first create a temporary folder on your desktop. Next, drag the file Propanel.exe from the Utility folder on the game CD to your temporary folder (be sure you COPY the file, by holding the SHIFT key down before you drop the file in the temporary folder; otherwise, Windows will only create a shortcut to the file). Windows may report that the file could not be moved, but it should be in the temporary folder nevertheless. Propanel.exe is a self-extracting executable file -- double-click it and it will create several other files in the same folder. Find the Setup.exe file and run it to install the ProPanel aplet to your system's Control Panel. After installing the applet, you can delete the temporary folder and all its contents. To install and calibrate a game controller using the Thrustmaster ProPanel aplet, click on "Device Select" and choose a controller. Calibrate the selected device by clicking on "Calibrate" and following the on screen instructions. After calibration, click on "Test" to test the functionality of your controller. NOTE: The ProPanel utility stores its calibration information in the Windows Registry, which allows the calibration to be used by other games, too. There is a known bug in the aplet that sometimes causes it to crash after calibration of a non-Thrustmaster gaming device. You will need to restart Windows if this occurs, but your device will have the new calibration, as the crash happens after the calibration info has been saved. MODEM SETUP =========== Need For Speed II SE requires that your modem be properly setup under Windows 95. If you are having difficulty establishing a modem connection, please check your modem settings in the Windows 95 Control Panel. If possible your modem should be specifically identified by brand and model number. Your modem may not work if Windows has recognized it only as a "standard modem". You may need to check with your modem manufacturer to determine if they have updated Windows 95 drivers. You may wish to check your modem setup to determine if it can successfully dial a number using the Windows 95 HyperTerminal program (this program should be listed under the Start/Programs/Accessories menu). If you have multiple modems attached to your computer, or if you have had other modems attached to your computer in the past, Need for Speed II SE may have recognized more than one modem driver. Be sure to select the appropriate modem in the game's modem connection menu. EASTER EGGS =========== Easter eggs are hidden, unofficial, and unsupported features commonly included in computer games. Need For Speed II SE's Easter eggs are enabled by typing words such as "rushhour" on the main menu screen (these words are commonly known as "cheat codes" and usually can be found on the Internet by searching for the game name). When you type in a cheat code NFS II SE recognizes, a brief sound will be played. You may need to turn down the menu music to hear this. Easter eggs generally remain in effect only as long as the game is running -- you'll need to type the cheat code each time you run the game. ****************************************************************************************** TROUBLESHOOTING ****************************************************************************************** MODEM PROBLEMS ============== * Need For Speed II SE relies upon the modem settings you set in the Windows 95 Modem control panel. If you need to adjust your modem's settings, you will need to do so in the Modem control panel. Please refer to your Windows 95 manual for further details on how to configure a modem's settings using the Modem control panel. * To disable Call Waiting, enter the appropriate code (usually *70 or 70#) before the telephone number in the modem phone number list (i.e., *70-123-4567). In certain instances, particularly in an office environment, you may need to enter a "9" before the telephone number if you must access an outside line (i.e., 9,123-4567); contact your telephone system administrator for exact details. NETWORK PLAY PERFORMANCE PROBLEMS ================================= The following can help improve performance during network games: * The player creating the network game MUST have the fastest system participating in a network game. * Performance will improve on systems with additional memory above the minimum requirement (i.e., total of 24 MB or 32 MB RAM). * Turn racing music OFF in the AUDIO submenu (from the main game menu, select OPTIONS, then AUDIO). VIDEO & GRAPHICS PROBLEMS ========================= * OpenGL cards and 3Dfx cards may conflict with each other. Please remove the OpenGL card from your computer to play Need for Speed II SE for 3Dfx. * If your 3Dfx accelerator card uses the Voodoo Rush chipset, the Gamma Correction feature (F10 key) will not be available. PROBLEMS WITH THE SIERRA SCREAMIN' 3D PCI VIDEO CARD ==================================================== If you are experiencing problems with the Sierra Screamin' 3D video card using the Windows 95 driver package v1.13 provided by Canopus Corporation, you should use the drivers for the Sierra Screamin' 3D provided by Microsoft (with DirectX 5) or the driver package v2.10.06 provided by Canopus Corporation if you want to run NFS II SE Win95 properly using the Sierra Screamin' 3D video card. PROBLEMS WITH THE DIAMOND VIPER PRO PCI VIDEO CARD ================================================== If you are experiencing problems with the Diamond Viper Pro video card, you can disable PCI burst mode transfers in your PC's BIOS setup. If your PC's BIOS does not have this feature, Diamond supplies a utility that you can use to disable PCI burst mode transfers. If you have access to the Internet, you can download the utility at Diamond's FTP site at ftp://ftp.diamondmm.com/pub/misc/burst.exe. SOUND CARDS WITHOUT DIRECTX SUPPORT =================================== If you are using a sound card, Need For Speed II SE requires that it be supported by DirectX drivers. If your sound card drivers do not have DirectX support, you may experience delayed sound, stuttering, or sound drop out. In addition, you may experience some difficulties maneuvering in the menus with your joystick, if it is attached to the sound card's game port. If this is the case, you can maneuver in the menus with your mouse or keyboard. PROBLEMS WITH THE OAK TECHNOLOGIES MOZART SOUND CARD ==================================================== If you are experiencing problems with the Mozart sound card using the Oak Windows 95 driver package v6.01, you should use the driver package v4.01 if you want to run NFS II SE Win95 properly using the Mozart sound card. STUTTERING OR SLUGGISH PERFORMANCE ================================== In the event that the game stutters or performs sluggishly on your system, try the following suggestions for improving game performance. The benefits of each will vary upon your computer's processor type and speed, total memory, etc. * Make sure you have at least a Quad-speed (4X) CD-ROM drive. This is a minimum requirement for the game. * Let Windows 95 manage virtual memory: Some systems may experience a brief pause during gameplay. This is due to Windows 95 virtual memory management. Ensure you allow Windows 95 to manage virtual memory and that your hard disk has at least 30 MB free space for Windows 95 swap space. Windows 95 manages virtual memory by default. To enable automatic virtual memory management, click on the START button in the Windows 95 menu bar, select SETTINGS, then CONTROL PANEL. When the Control Panel window opens, double click on SYSTEM. A System Properties control panel will open - select PERFORMANCE, then VIRTUAL MEMORY. Ensure that the option "Let Windows manage my virtual memory settings" is selected. Press OK, then press OK again. You will need to restart your system for the change to take effect. * Avoid running other programs in the background: We strongly recommend that you shut down all other Windows 95 applications before running Need For Speed II SE. Applications running in the background use memory and processing power, and can cause gameplay to be sluggish or stutter. * Turn off racing music: From the main menu, select OPTIONS, then AUDIO, and set the racing music level to the minimum setting - this turns off the racing music. All music is played directly off of the game CD, so by turning off the racing music, the CD will no longer be accessed to read music, thus reducing the load on the CPU. * Disable CD-ROM read-ahead caching: Click on the START button in the Windows 95 menu bar, select SETTINGS, and then CONTROL PANEL. Double click on the SYSTEM control panel. Select PERFORMANCE, FILE SYSTEM, and then CD-ROM. Change the "Optimize access pattern for" option to read "No read-ahead". This will disable CD-ROM read-ahead caching. Press OK, then press CLOSE. You will need to restart your system for the change to take effect. SERIAL LINK PROBLEMS ==================== If you are experiencing difficulties establishing a serial game connection, check to ensure you are using a null-modem cable, and not a standard serial cable. Null modem cables are wired in a manner which allows two computers to talk to one another. If you discover that you are using a standard serial cable and not a null-modem cable, you can obtain an inexpensive "null modem adapter" from almost any electronics supply shop which you can connect to one end of the serial cable; this adapter serves the same function as a standard null-modem cable when used with a normal serial cable. KEYBOARD PROBLEMS ================= Some newer keyboards do not allow certain combinations of more than two keys being depressed simultaneously. For example, if you were pressing both the down arrow key to accelerate and the left arrow key to turn, and you pressed the key to honk your horn, your horn would not honk. Unfortunately, this problem is due to a limitation of the hardware. LOW SYSTEM RESOURCES ==================== If a warning appears when you run NFS II SE stating that your system resources may be too low to run the game, it means that you may not have enough free memory available. Under Windows 95, memory is a combination of RAM and hard drive space. The minimum RAM required for NFS II SE is 16MB. If you meet the minimum RAM requirement, and you receive this warning, make sure that no other applications are running before running NFS II SE. If you still get the warning, check to see how much free space is available on you hard drive (double-click My Computer, then right-click on your hard drive icon, then click on Properties). There should be at least 10 MB of free space, preferably much more. Free up space if you need to. LESS THAN 1MB HARD DRIVE SPACE ============================== Need For Speed II SE normally saves certain game setup information to your hard drive. In addition to this, you can save replays of your races. If a warning appears when you run NFS II SE stating that you have less than 1MB of free space on your hard drive, it means that there may not be enough room for the game to save this data. You should try to free up space on your hard drive if you get this warning. VITALSIGNS NET.MEDIC ==================== If you are running VitalSigns Net.Medic at the same time as NFS II SE, you may encounter a shifted color palette in gameplay. It's a good idea to close all open applications before running NFS II SE, including TSRs in the System Tray. WINDOWS NT ========== Need For Speed II SE was written to operate under Windows 95 and does not specifically support Windows NT. If you are attempting to run the game under Windows NT and have questions related specifically to Windows NT, please contact Microsoft directly via the Customer Support contact methods supplied with your Windows NT documentation. LEGAL ===== NEED FOR SPEED is a trademark of Electronic Arts Inc. WINDOWS, WINDOWS 95, WINDOWS NT, and DIRECTX are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. This document is Copyright 1997 by Electronic Arts Inc. English NFS2SE README Revision 3