Thank you for purchasing
Battle Grounds. This collection of maps
and missions for Battlezone was assembled from some of the best map creators
across the globe.
This guide shows you how to install the program and gives you information on using the maps and missions contained on the CD ROM.
Before you install the
software, make sure that your computer meets the following minimum hardware and
software requirements:
Full registered copy of Battlezone (version 1.4 or higher)
Intel Pentium 120 or compatible (166+ recommended)
Windows 95/98 with DirectX 5.0 or higher
16MB of RAM
45M of uncompressed hard disk space (available after installing Battlezone)
Double-speed CD-ROM drive
16 bit video card with minimum 1MB RAM
Windows 95-compatible sound card
Windows 95-compatible mouse or other pointing device
NOTE: Battlezone should be installed before you Install and use this add-on product. Although you can
install Battle Grounds and browse
the descriptions and ratings of the maps/missions without Battlezone installed,
you will be unable to install and use any of the maps or missions until you
install Battlezone.
NOTE: The installation program does not install the maps and missions on
your hard drive. You must use the Level
Cataloger to install these files or install them manually. See the Level Cataloger and Manual
Installation sections later in this manual for more details.
To install Battle Grounds,
follow these steps:
1. Install the Battle
Grounds CD into your CD-ROM drive.
Window 95 users: When you insert
the CD-ROM into your drive, the Windows Autoplay feature will automatically
start the setup program. If you do not
have Autoplay enabled, follow the steps below to run the Setup program.
2. Click on the Windows
START button and choose RUN from the pop-up menu.
3. Type D:\SETUP and press
ENTER. If your CD-ROM drive is not
drive D, substitute the correct drive letter.
For example, if your CD-ROM drive is actually drive F, type F:\SETUP.
4. The set up program for
the disc will start and an opening screen will appear. Click the NEXT button to proceed and follow
the instructions on screen.
5. By default a program
group named Battle Grounds will be created, with two icons: “Level Cataloger”
and “Uninstall Battles of The Outer Rim”.
Note: Battle Grounds comes with the patch to upgrade your copy of Battlezone to 1.4. It is recommended that you install this patch if you are running a copy of Battlezone earlier than version 1.4.
Many of the missions in this pack
require at least Battlezone version 1.3.
Battle Grounds is a
collection of multiplayer maps (both Strategy and Deathmatch) and single player
missions (Instant Action) for Battlezone.
These maps and missions were collected from gamers and game designers
from all over the world. Each level
obtained or submitted was reviewed by experts and only the top maps and
missions made it into this pack.
In addition to being reviewed, all the maps were rated and described by the reviewers. This data was placed into a database that you can browse using the Level Cataloger.
The level cataloger can be run by choosing the “Level Cataloger” shortcut from the Windows Startup Menu (usually) in the Battle Grounds program group).
Initially the Cataloger
displays all the levels in the pack.
When you click on a level in the list on the left, the level’s data is
displayed in the fields on the right.
You can scroll through the list and read about each level, install a level you find interesting, or search for similar levels or levels that meet a specific criteria.
To install a particular
level, click on the level in the list to the left and then click the Install/Uninstall
button. If the level has not already
been installed it will be copied to your Battlezone directory and will be ready
to play.
Note: For the install feature to
work, the Level Cataloger needs to know where Battlezone has been installed. Usually this information can be found inside
of Windows. However upon occasion this
information can be wrong, especially if you have added a new hard drive or have
moved Battlezone to another drive. If
you receive a warning during the installation of this pack, your best bet is to
reinstall Battlezone, or follow the instructions in the Manual Installation
section later in this manual.
To play a multiplayer game
on a multiplayer map, run Battlezone, choose Multiplayer and start a
multiplayer game. When you create a new
game you can select the map by clicking on it in the Maps section of the
window.
Playing an Instant Action mission is a bit more complicated. To start Battlezone with an Instant Action Mission, you need to start it from a DOS prompt and specify the mission. For example, to play the Instant Action mission “The Crucible,” you would type the following at DOS (in the Battlezone directory):
bzone
m2crucbl.bzn /nointro
Note that you need to know the name of the mission’s BZN file in order to specify it on the BZONE command line. You can find this name by looking at the XREF.TXT file on the root of the Battle Grounds CD. This file lists the full name of all the missions/maps and the directories they are stored in. Typically the name of the BZN file is the same as the directory, but you can examine the directory on the CD to verify the name of the BZN file associated with the mission.
For information about each missions – your goals and objectives when playing – refer to the TXT file in the mission directory on the CD.
Note: When installing an Instant
Action mission from the Level Cataloger you are also given the chance to play
the mission after installation. You can
uninstall and reinstall the mission to get this prompt again, at a later time.
Note: A critical Battlezone file, NETMIS.TXT is updated during the installation and uninstallation of Strategy and Deathmatch maps. To help protect this file, your original NETMIS.TXT file is backed up during the installation of Battle Grounds. You can find this backup in a NETMISBK directory under your main Battlezone directory. Also, each time you install/uninstall a map, the current NETMIS.TXT file is copied to this directory under the name NETMIS.BK.
If your NETMIS.TXT file ever
becomes damaged you can restore the original file by copying NETMIS.TXT
(original) or NETMIS.BK (last iteration) to the Battlezone directory as
NETMIS.TXT.
To install all the levels currently displayed, click the “All in List” check box before clicking the Install button. You can use this feature after a search to install all the maps of particular type to install all those maps of that particular type.
You can also use the Level
Cataloger to uninstall levels. To
uninstall a level, select the level from the list and click the
Install/Uninstall button. The
install/uninstall function will determine if the level still exists on your
hard drive and will attempt to uninstall it.
The level will be deleted from your Battlezone directory and will no longer
be available for playing in Battlezone.
(You can always reinstall it using the Level Cataloger).
Note that the Level Cataloger needs to know where Battlezone is installed in order to perform the Uninstall. See the notes in the Install section for more information.
You can search for levels
that interest you by clicking on the SEARCH button and filling out the SEARCH
FORM.
The Level cataloger will search for any level that matches the criteria you specify and then display only those maps. For example, if you want to find all the maps a particular author has in the pack, enter his/her name in the Author’s Name Field (or their email in the Author Email Field).
Note that the top of the level list shows what is currently being displayed, all levels or the Search Results.
Additionally, you can search for maps that meet a select criteria. For example, to find all the Deathmatch maps, pull down the Category list and choose Deathmatch.
Here are some tips for searching:
You can exit the Cataloger
at any time by clicking the Exit button.
You can manually install
or uninstall any of the maps or missions, bypassing the Level Cataloger, if
necessary. This becomes necessary under
the following conditions:
To manually install a map or mission you simply need to copy its directory from the CD to the appropriate directory on your hard drive. All third party maps and missions are stored in the “addon” directory under your main Battlezone directory. On the CD there is a IA directory for missions (Instant Action) and a Multi directory for maps (Strategy/Deathmatch).
For example, let’s say you wanted to install the map “Achilles500”. You would copy the contents of the directory “Achil500” from the Multi directory on the CD to the “addon” directory (under the main Battlezone directory) on your hard drive.
Installing multiplayer maps require an additional step: You need to append the information in the map’s MAD file (also contained in the directory on the CD) to the NETMIS.TXT file in the main Battlezone directory. For example, for Achilles 500, this file contains the following line of text:
Using Windows Notepad, copy this line from the ACHIL500.MAD file and paste it into the end of the NETMIS.TXT file in the Battlezone directory.
To uninstall the “Achilles 500” map you would need to delete all the related files from the “addon” directory (under the Battlezone directory) on your hard drive. You can use the contents of the map’s directory on the CD to tell what files this map includes and therefore, what files to delete from the addon directory.
With multiplayer maps you need to also remove the appropriate line from the NETMIS.TXT file. Open the file in Notepad and look for the mission name at the end of each line. Delete the appropriate line to remove the map from the menu inside Battlezone.
Important: Leaving the map’s data in NETMIS.TXT will cause Battlezone to continue to display the map as available when you start a multiplayer game. However, if you select the map without all of the supporting files being on disk Battlezone may crash. Always perform NETMIS.TXT housekeeping when manually installing/uninstalling maps.
Note: For your convenience there
is a file on the CD that lists all the map’s common names (eg. “Achilles 500”)
along with their directory names on the CD (eg. “achil500”). This file is called XREF.TXT and can be
found on the root directory of the Battle Grounds CD.
Battle Grounds includes the patch to upgrade your copy of Battlezone to version 1.4. This patch is located in a PATCH directory on the CD. During the installation of Battle Grounds you are prompted to run the patch if the Battle Grounds installer determines you do not have version 1.4.
If you wish to run the patch at a later time, simply execute the BZPAT14.EXE file from the Patch directory on the Battle Grounds CD.
You are eligible for 60 days of “getting started” support. This support covers installation and basic use of the included software. It does not cover use of software or files not included with this product, or problems caused by your operating system and/or computer system.
Here’s how to contact the Macmillan Computer Publishing User Services team.
If you contact us, please be prepared to give us the following information:
Email: support@mcp.com
Telephone: (317)581-3833
Fax: (317)817-7488
Mail: Macmillan Computer Publishing
Attention: User Services
201 West 103rd Street
Indianapolis, IN46290
Battle Grounds is published by Macmillan Digital Publishing USA:
Douglas S. Bennett
President
Stacy Hiquet
Publisher
Steve M. Schafer
Producer
Robin Lasek
Design Manager
David Carson
Software Specialist
Tim Amrhein and Jason Grisham
Designers
Angela Nelis
Marketing Manager
Ben Milstead
Realm X Web Product Manager
Deborah Edwards
Project Manager
Brandon Penticuff
Manager, User Services
Toni Chaffin, Jason L’Hirondelle
Lead Reviewers
Martin Bell, Kevin Rank
Reviewers
Special thanks to everyone at Activision for their help with this product, especially Philippe Erwin, James Riordan, Peter Karpas, Matthew Paul and Christopher Hewish.