Notes on Doom V1.2 compared to Doom v1.1. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Last Change: 01/Jul/96 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Some things about v1.2 compared to v1.1: 1. v1.2 has some nasty bugs cencerning the control of your character. If you have a PS/2 mouse setup, this is almost certain to occur, but it is far more widespread than this. Symptoms: your character goes crazy, shooting all over the place, moving erratically, the etc.. This problem has been _fixed_ in versions 1.666 and later of Shareware and Registered Doom. You can ftp Shareware Doom v1.9 from many ftp sites (email me for the detailed help file on how to ftp Shareware Doom). Patches to upgrade v1.2 to v1.9 (Shareware or Registered) will be in the idstuff directory on the Doom ftp sites. An ftp site list can be obtained from rec.games.computer.doom.announce, or from the main Doom ftp site at ftp.cdrom.com (look in pub/doom/idstuff) or from the DHS web page at: http://doomgate.gamers.org/dhs/ or from me by email. In the meantime, here is some extra info about the bug and a temporary fix if you can't, for some reason, get hold of these patch files... As someone who emailed me about the bug said: "It's not limited to the PS/2 mouse or even to the mouse in particular. There's some bug with the input device. The bug can happen with *any* mouse, or even if you are playing only with the keyboard." However, PS/2 mice are most prone to the problem. Running Doom from windows is apparently one way to solve the problem. I now have a help file available for anyone who wishes to know how to run Doom under windows. If you would like a copy, it is available from the same sources described above. One definite way to fix the problem (if it's the mouse that's acting crazy) is to use an adaptor to plug the mouse into the serial port, or just use a serial mouse. This method was successful for me, and has been for many others as well. Some people have found that using a different mouse driver solved the problem, or at least greatly lessened it. One mouse driver particularly mentioned a lot is the GMOUSE mouse driver. This driver can be obtained via ftp from: oak.oakland.edu in the directory: /pub/simtel/msdos/mouse and the file is called: gm906.zip Don't forget to enter 'bin' before you enter 'get'!! Someone said to me that this driver works best when configured for two button mode, in that the bug is still present when set for three button mode. Thus, if you're used to using a 3 button mouse, try (a) using just the left and right buttons, (b) setting the driver for a two button mouse, and (c) maybe use ALT for strafing instead of the middle button (or whatever it was that you used the middle button for). As to why the PS/2 mouse setup is particularly problem prone, I spoke to someone who knows a lot about pc's, and was invloved with their design years ago. He said: "Also, PS/2 mice are a marginal idea at best--they suffer from many of the same problems as do PC joysticks--the interface was built with a 6MHz cpu in mind -- not 33/66MHz PCs! There are several areas were improper matching of impedance, etc. can cause various forms of aliasing effects to occur." Keyboard control problems: About the only tip I have here is this: - if your character goes nuts, try pressing the key that would normally be used to cause whatever the character is doing; e.g. if the marine starts to run forward out of control, people say that whacking the 'forward' key should stop the uncontrolled motion. 2. Saved games from v1.1 are NOT compatible with 1.2. This ALSO applies to .lmp demo's made under v1.1. In both cases, this applies to the Shareware version AND the Registered version. ALSO: if you are reading this BEFORE using a 1.2 patch file, be warned that all the old saved game positions will be destroyed, so take backups if you want to keep them! 3. The cheats still work, but not in Nightmare mode (only idclev and iddt still work in Nightmare mode). 4. All version prior to v1.666 have various bugs in the sound code. If you are experiencing sound problems, it is recommended that you upgrade to v1.666 or higher. The latest version is v1.9. 5. I have been informed that Doom v1.2 will NOT run under OS/2 if you are trying to use a soundcard. If this problem occurs for you, turn off the sound using the setup program. 6. v1.2 contains some new secrets! One is on E1L1. Where the others are, I will not say... :) Hope this helps. Ian. The Doom Help Service (DHS). SGI Network Admin, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, England, PR1 2HE. Tel: (+44) 01772 893297, Fax: (+44) 01772 892913 | Doom: mapleson@gamers.org Office machine: SGI Indy R4400-200Mhz/1MB cache | Misc: mapleson@cee.hw.ac.uk 64MB RAM/2GBdisk/24bit 17" 1280x1024/CDROM/DAT/IndyCam | --ACME Space Filler--