Birthright Demo Readme 11-7-97 Game Notes and Information _______________________________________________________________ BIRTHRIGHT: The Gorgon's Alliance Produced and Copyrighted (c) 1997 by Sierra On-Line, Inc. Developed by Synergistic Software BIRTHRIGHT is licensed from TSR, Inc. TSR, the makers of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, created BIRTHRIGHT in 1994 so that fans of fantasy role-playing games would have somewhere to go and something to do after they had fought every dragon and beaten every foe, building their characters up to high level champions. Now what? Now, assume the crown of one of the kings in Anuire and take your adventures to a higher plane, ruling your kingdom, and directing armies of loyal followers while you try to unite the other scattered kingdoms of Anuire into the united empire that it once was. With tactical and strategic army combat, negotiations and politics with the other kings of Anuire, and with adventures suited to strong game characters, BIRTHRIGHT brings you the most powerful fantasy role-play gaming experience you have ever seen. BIRTHRIGHT: The Gorgon's Alliance will be available in the summer of 1997. Watch for it and claim your Birthright . . . if you are ready. TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS README FILE INCLUDE: I. Where can I get more information about BIRTHRIGHT? II. I want it to go FASTER!!! III. Enhancing performance on systems with less than 16 Meg of RAM IV. Changes from the original TSR rules for BIRTHRIGHT V. Changes from TSR's standard rules for AD&D VI. The quick start saved games VII. Recovering from a lost game - Auto-save may save your game! ========================================================================= SECTION I. WHERE CAN I GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT BIRTHRIGHT? ========================================================================= Glad you're interested, because there is a lot of it and many places to look. First, you might want to start with Sierra's Birthright web site. Check out www.sierra.com/titles/birthright. It gives some info about the game, and has links to Sierra's adventure chat board. Once we have enough traffic from BIRTHRIGHT owners, there will be a separate chat board dedicated to that topic. Watch that location for hints, tips, suggestions, and answers to the many questions that are sure to come up as players explore the BIRTHRIGHT game universe. You should also watch the web site for news about the BIRTHRIGHT contest. You can win the actual Sword of Roele - the coolest blade you've ever seen - details on the web site. The web site also will have news of the downloadable utilities that we will be releasing to allow you to customize the game. The Birthright Character Editor is available now, permitting you to create your own characters, roll or set their stats, setup their inventories, and choose the spells and blood abilities that you really want. Next stop, Sierra's automated hint line at 1-900-451-3356 can give you clues and advice about solving the puzzles of the game's many adventures. OK, enough with help for the computer game, how about more info about the BIRTHRIGHT world, its inhabitants, locations, magic, myths, and history? The following materials can be purchased from TSR at these addresses: TSR, Inc. TSR, Ltd. 201 Sheridan Springs Road 120 Church End Lake Geneva, WI 53147 USA Cherry Hinton Cambridge, England CB1 3LB 1-800-TSR-5060 44-1223-212517 FAX 1-414-248-7144 FAX 44-1223-248066 ************** NOTE: PRICES MAY VARY AT TSR'S DISCRETION. ************* **************** THESE PRICES WERE IN EFFECT ON 12/96. **************** TSR # TITLE RETAIL PRICE 3100 BIRTHRIGHT Campaign Setting $30.00 3103 Cities of the Sun Campaign Expansion $18.00 3121 The Rjurik Highlands Campaign Expansion $20.00 3129 Havens Of The Great Bay Campaign Expansion $20.00 3101 Blood Enemies: Abominations of Cerilia Expansion $18.00 3104 Roesone Domain Sourcebook Accessory $ 6.95 3105 Endier Domain Sourcebook Accessory $ 6.95 3106 Medoere Domain Sourcebook Accessory $ 6.95 3107 Tuornen Domain Sourcebook Accessory $ 6.95 3108 Ilien Domain Sourcebook Accessory $ 6.95 3109 Talinie Domain Sourcebook Accessory $ 6.95 3111 Ariya Domain Sourcebook Accessory $ 6.95 3119 Binsada Domain Sourcebook Accessory $ 7.95 3120 Baruk-Azhik Domain Sourcebook Accessory $ 7.95 3122 Halskapa Domain Sourcebook Accessory $ 7.95 3123 Khourane Domain Sourcebook Accessory $ 7.95 3124 Tuarhievel Domain Sourcebook Accessory $ 7.95 3127 Stjordvik Domain Sourcebook Accessory $ 7.95 3110 Warlock of the Stonecrowns Adventure $ 9.95 3102 Sword and Crown Adventure $ 9.95 3118 The Sword Of Roele Adventure $12.95 3112 The Iron Throne $ 6.99 3113 Greatheart $ 5.95 3133 War (hard cover) $21.99 3114 The Hag's Contract $ 5.99 3115 The Spider's Test $ 5.99 3116 The Falcon And The Wolf $ 5.99 3117 The Book Of Magecraft $20.00 3134 Naval Battle System: The Seas of Cerilia $10.95 3125 Legend's Of The Hero-Kings $20.00 ========================================================================= SECTION II. I want it to go FASTER!!! ========================================================================= If BIRTHRIGHT runs more slowly on your system than you prefer, there are a variety of game options that you can play with to increase the game speed. Try some or all of these until it plays best on your system: 1. Shrink the game play window down using the '[' key or by setting the window size to smaller windows in the game's option menu. 2. Set the number of sound channels being used to 2 or 3. The game defaults to 8 channels of sound. When multiple sounds are playing simultaneously, they must be mixed by the game at run time. This can slow operation slightly. 3. Try the other version of the program. If you are running Windows, try the DOS version. DOS often runs faster than Windows. But, if you are running the DOS version, you may get better performance from Windows, depending on the video driver you have. Some Windows' video drivers have been optimized so that the game gets a hardware assist from the board, speeding up display speed and hence game play speed. We just cannot predict which version will run best on your particular hardware. So, try them both if you are not satisfied. 4. If you are running a minimum install, you can get more speed from a full install where the game does not load from the CD quite as much. 5. Turn off the environmental sounds (see your options menu). Again, any expendable sound processing can buy you a little more speed. 6. Adventure combat goes at whatever pace you set it in the OPTIONS menu. For faster combat, set the combat speed higher. Hits will occur faster. 7. Army combat goes at whatever pace you set it in the OPTIONS menu. For faster combat, set the combat speed higher. Casualties will occur faster. ========================================================================== SECTION III. Enhancing performance on systems with less than 16 Meg of RAM ========================================================================== BIRTHRIGHT is a large game with an enormous amount of art and audio content. If you have 32 Meg of RAM in your system, you will hear and see all that BIRTHRIGHT has to offer. On any system with less RAM, selected replacements and omissions are made so that you can get the same game play experience. In some cases, lower resolution art may be substituted, sounds or music may be omitted, and minor game changes made to accommodate lesser memory configurations. Our goal was to insure that the game would remain as playable as possible. We believe you would rather see fewer frames of animation or lower resolution art than to have the game constantly going to disk swapping art in and out in an attempt to make it look the same as it would on systems with more RAM. So, as memory gets tight, here are the items that may change to insure the game will still run: 1. Lower resolution map art at the realm map level. 2. Lower resolution animation art in the adventures and battles. 3. Fewer rotations of animation art in adventures and battles. 4. Lower resolution art on the walls of the adventures. 5. Force stacks limited to 7 troops rather than 15. 6. Some animation sequences omitted. Attack 2 and defend sequences replaced with more usage of attack 1...
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