Day of the Tentacle Read Me
1995, LucasArts Entertainment Co.
Version 1.0  October 19, 1995


Topics
Solutions to Common Problems
Compatibility Issues
Performance
Memory
Technical Support


Solutions to Common Problems

When I run Day of the Tentacle, it claims it doesnt have enough space left to play sounds.
Day of the Tentacle is probably using up almost every last scrap of memory, and there is no room left over in your system to initialize the Sound Manager.  To fix this, you should make sure you have quit out of any other applications that may be taking up valuable memory.  You might also need to disable some control panels and/or extensions, or lower Day of the Tentacles Preferred memory partition (if you have it raised up).  These procedures are explained below in the Memory section.

Try as I might, I cant seem to find enough free memory to run Day of the Tentacle.
It is possible that with certain system configurations, there may not be a way to free up enough RAM to run Day of the Tentacle on an 8MB machine.  In this case, we recommend that you play with virtual memory turned ON.  Go into the Memory control panel and click the On button next to the virtual memory section.  Then use the arrow control to adjust the amount of virtual memory you wish to use.  For best performance, we recommend setting your virtual memory to the lowest possible value.  We also recommend that you increase the size of the disk cache setting in the Memory control panel to a value of 192k or larger.  Once you have virtual memory turned on, you will get a warning when you launch Day of the Tentacle; simply press on in spite of the warning and you will be able to play, with some performance degradation.

The sound breaks up and stutters during play.
You probably either have virtual memory turned on in the Memory control panel or you are running with a third-party RAM extender utility installed.  In either case, the solution is to disable the offender.  To disable virtual memory, select the Memory control panel and click the Off button in the virtual memory section.  To disable your RAM extender utility, use the Extensions Manager control panel to turn it off before playing.  In either case, you will need to restart your Mac for the changes to take effect.

I keep getting a message saying the Sound Manager isnt installed.
If you are running system software prior to System 7.5, you will need to install the items located in the Items for your System Folder folder on the Day of the Tentacle CD.  To do this, select the four icons in the folder (hold down the Shift key and click once on each icon) and drag them to the icon for your System Folder.  The system will automatically place them in the correct locations.  Restart your machine when you've completed the installation.  Note that doing this will replace any currently existing version of the Sound Manager you might have installed.

The system wont let me install the Sound Manager.
Your System Folder protection is probably turned on.  You will need to turn it off before proceeding; after you have copied the files, you can turn the protection back on.  To turn off System Folder protection, use the Performa control panel under systems prior to version 7.5, or the General Controls control panel on System 7.5 or later.


Compatibility Issues

Apple CD-ROM driver versions 5.0.x
We have occasionally seen lockups on certain configurationsmostly PowerPCswhen using the Apple CD-ROM driver version 5.0.1, 5.0.2, 5.0.3, or 5.0.4.  Day of the Tentacle will automatically detect if you are using one of these versions and request that you upgrade to the Apple CD-ROM software version 5.1.1, which is included on the Day of the Tentacle CD.  Read the file Apple CD--Read Me, located inside the folder CD ROM Software 5.1.1 on the CD, for instructions on how to upgrade.

Color PowerBooks
Certain color PowerBook configurations may experience problems with the cursor leaving trails during play.  You may or may not experience this same problem.  If you do, the only known way around the problem is to connect your PowerBook to an external monitor and play on that display.

Balloon Help
Day of the Tentacle and the Rebel Assault II trailer do not support Balloon Help, and the trailer in particular may have trouble running properly with Balloon Help enabled.  Please make sure you have turned off Balloon Help before running these products.


Performance

Day of the Tentacle features a fully orchestrated musical score and fast, full-screen graphics that can sometimes push your computers processor and CD-ROM drive to their limits.  In order to achieve the best gameplay, there are several things you can do to trade off video quality and/or memory for better playing speed.

If you see your performance degrading significantly in any of these areas, you should reduce the video quality during that portion of the game by using a less-demanding choice from the Video menu.

Here is a list of things you can do to increase performance on your system:

 (PowerPC) turn off graphic smoothing.  Although it looks nice, the graphic smoothing option at certain points in the game may tax the processing power of lower-end PowerPC machines.  Switching down to Double Size in the Video menu should make everything run smoothly.

 (68040) use interlaced or small displays.  On slower 68040 machines, the speed at which Day of the Tentacle can copy data from its buffers to the screen becomes a performance liability.  By switching to Interlaced in the Video menu, you cut down the amount of data to copy by 50%.  Using the Small display mode buys you another 50% reduction.

 turn off music.  The music in Day of the Tentacle is one of the most processor-intensive parts of the game.  If you are on a particularly slow machine, you may find that turning off the music can be the boost you need to achieve acceptable speed.  You can turn off the background music by toggling Music from the Sound menu, or by sliding the volume of the music slider in the Preferences screen to zero.

 increase the disk cache size.  If your system has more than 8MB of total RAM, you can improve access speed to the CD-ROM by increasing the size of the disk cache.  To do this, go into the Memory control panel and click on the up arrow to increase the cache size above the default value of 96k.

 increase Day of the Tentacles memory partition.  If your are running on a system with more than 8MB of total RAM, increasing Day of the Tentacles memory partition will also help reduce disk accesses.  See the Memory section below for more details.

 turn off virtual memory.  If you havent done so already, go into the Memory control panel and make sure the virtual memory switch is in the off position.  Although virtual memory may give you more memory space to load Day of the Tentacle, it has an adverse effect on performance.  It is always better to reduce Day of the Tentacles memory partition than to turn on virtual memory so that you can increase the memory partition.


Memory

Day of the Tentacle requires a minimum of 4000k free RAM in order to run.  If you have a Macintosh with 8MB of RAM and a lot of extensions or control panels, you may have to work a little to find the 4000k minimum that Day of the Tentacle requires.  On the other hand, if you have more than 8MB of RAM in your system, increasing the amount of memory given to Day of the Tentacle can help performance.

IMPORTANT: Because the normal way of running Day of the Tentacle is by running it directly from the CD, you will need to drag a copy of the Day of the Tentacle application onto your hard disk in order to modify how much memory it will use.  Once you make your changes, you should always run from the copy on your hard disk; otherwise you will still be running with the original unmodified memory settings.

Before increasing the amount of memory given to Day of the Tentacle, you can find out how much memory is available on your system by choosing About This Macintosh from the Apple menu in the Finder.  Look at the value next to the Largest Unused Block.  That value indicates how much memory you have available for running Day of the Tentacle.  Note that if you have other applications running, they will eat up some of your memory, so you should quit them first to determine the maximum available.

To adjust Day of the Tentacles memory partition, click once on the Day of the Tentacle icon in the Finder, choose Get Info from the Finders File menu, and type a new number in the Preferred Size box.  A good value to choose would be the value shown in the About This Macintosh box, minus about 40k.  However, Day of the Tentacle will not use more than about 10,000k of RAM, so there is no point in setting a value higher than this.

Here are some suggestions for reducing the memory requirements of your system in order to give more leeway to Day of the Tentacle.  After trying these, look again at the About This Macintosh box and adjust Day of the Tentacles memory partition accordingly.

 disable unnecessary extensions and control panels.  Although the Day of the Tentacle reference guide mentions this, it is worth repeating here.  Use the Extensions Manager control panel to create a Day of the Tentacle extension set which includes only those extensions and control panels that are absolutely necessary to run Day of the Tentacle.  Check out the Day of the Tentacle reference guide for a detailed explanation of what to do.

 quit all applications before running.  Each application that is running takes up some memory that Day of the Tentacle could be using.  If youre tight on space, make sure you quit other applications before revving up Day of the Tentacle.

 reduce the disk cache size and turn off any RAM disks.  In Apples Memory control panel are options for controlling the disk cache size and for creating RAM disks.  If you have created a RAM disk, turn it off and restart your system before running Day of the Tentacle.  If you really want to push your memory to its max, reducing the disk cache to 96k or less can also help, at the expense of slower disk access.


Technical Support

If you need technical assistance, please don't hesitate to contact us after reading this Read Me file and the Day of the Tentacle Reference Manual.  For your convenience, if you cannot get through to a representative by phone, you can also fax us or modem into our BBS.  When contacting us, please include as much pertinent information about your computer as you can assemble: make, model, peripherals, RAM and disk size, the version of the system software used for the game, the title and version of the game, and a detailed description of the problem. If you send us a fax, include your name, return fax number with the area code, and a voice phone number so we can contact you.

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