PLBM Games Support/Help/Compatibility Page
This page is dedicated to the discussion of compatibility issues with various PLBM Games products and the various MS-DOS-friendly operating systems available, such as MS-DOS, Windows 3.1, Win3.11, Win95, and Win98, WinME, Win2K and WinXP and any other future version of the Windows operating system.

*** Please remember that while PLBM Games products have been tested under as wide a range of operating systems as possible, they are still MS-DOS games and are intended to be run under MS-DOS. They almost always work under Windows 3.1x and Windows 95, and they have been found to work under some other installations of Windows as well.

*** If you have a tip or technique that could be helpful to other gamers, please send email to: support@plbm.com.

General Hints And Tips:

Getting The Software Unzipped (Extracted): (applies only to shareware version; full version includes an installer program)

To unzip (extract) the shareware versions of the software (required before you can run any of the games), you need to get an unzipping utility such as WinZip. AOL users please note that AOL software can be configured to automatically unzip/extract programs that you download through AOL.

Starting The Software:

First try double-clicking on the .EXE file that came out of the .ZIP file. This should work in MOST cases.

If this does not work, then try going into the MS-DOS Prompt (via the Start|Programs button(s) under Windows) and try running the program from there, by typing the name of the .EXE file (such as ROF in the case of ROF.EXE). Note that you must first change into the directory (CHDIR command) where you have extracted the game before you can run it. For more info on using MS-DOS, please refer to your MS-DOS operating system handbook.

If this does not work, then it may be time to reboot your system into MS-DOS mode. Then follow the above steps.

With Regards to Sound:

Make sure the BLASTER= variable has been set appropriately for the sound hardware in your system. Most of the time this variable will be properly set by the installation program you used when you installed the sound card. A very common sound card setting is SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1, but DO NOT try this unless you know that it is correct for your system! If the BLASTER= variable is set incorrectly, you will not get sound and your system may lock up or otherwise behave strangely!

Make sure your system is configured to allow EMS memory access (Expanded Memory). It does not matter if you have hundreds of megabytes of memory: if the memory is not configured for EMS, then PLBM Games products cannot access it. For info on installing EMS, please refer to your MS-DOS or Windows operating system handbook. This usually involves the installation of the HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE drivers. While EMS access is not necessary, its presence will ensure the maximum possible range of digital sound effects are available.

To work around sound card incompatibilities, you can temporarily disable digitized sound in PLBM Games products by typing SET BLASTER= at the MS-DOS prompt before running the game. This can avoid some crash problems with unsupported sound cards (cards that are not 100% SoundBlaster compatible).

With Regards to The Mouse:

In order to use the mouse, you must first have a mouse driver installed. Usually Windows (all versions) will provide this service for any MS-DOS programs running on the system. If not, then you need to install a mouse driver (often MOUSE.COM or MOUSE.SYS) before you can use the mouse.

With Regards to Joysticks:

Joysticks used via PLBM Games products need to first be calibrated from within the PLBM Games product they will be used in. Most of the time this is accomplished automatically when you select Joystick play. If you need to recalibrate (such as when you change or upgrade your joystick), this can be done by pressing Ctrl-J from within the software while the game is playing.

With Regards to SuperVGA and VESA:

Presently the only game requiring SuperVGA/VESA is: Splat!

A VESA-compliant display driver is required in order to access the 640x480x256 screen resolution mode that these game(s) operate under. If the game does not detect the presence of a VESA driver, you will be shown a message and the game will not be able to start.

If you do not have a VESA driver for your display adaptor, there are various "universal" VESA drivers available on the web. Try searching for "universal VESA" and "UNIVBE" and follow the links to those pages.

Under Windows 98, it has been noted that sometimes 32-bit VESA drivers will not work. If this is the case then you need to install 16-bit VESA drivers (real mode) in order to run the game(s).

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If all else fails and the above hints don't get you going, please send email to our support line at support@plbm.com with a VERY DETAILED AND CONCISE DESCRIPTION of the problem you are having as well as what steps you have tried and what effect they have had.