README By Ross Ridge Public Domain @(#) vjemm README 1.4 03/06/09 18:50:51 MyJEMM is a public domain utility for running the game Privateer under Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows ME. It does not work with Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP. MyJEMM works by emulating under Windows the JEMM memory manager used by Privateer. It also has only been tested with Windows 98 and Windows ME, though should in principle also work under Windows 95. MyJEMM has preliminary support for Wing Commander: Armada and Strike Commander, which use a similar version of JEMM to the one that Privateer uses, but these games have not been fully tested. MyJEMM is not needed to run Wing Commander 3, as it uses a completely different version of JEMM that is compatible with Windows as is. HOW TO INSTALL MYJEMM To install MyJEMM, just copy the files MYJEMM.EXE and JEMM.VXD to the directory where you installed Privateer. To uninstall MyJEMM just delete these files. HOW TO USE MYJEMM Open an MS-DOS window, change directory to where you installed Privateer and run the "myjemm" command. To play the Righteous Fire expansion use the "myjemm r" command. For one of the other games MyJEMM supports consult the table below. You can also create a shortcut on your desktop or in your start menu to make it possible to start the game with a mouse click. Make sure the current working directory of the shortcut you create points to the directory where you installed Privateer. Game Media Command --------------------------------------------------------- WC: Privateer either myjemm Righteous Fire either myjemm r WC: Armada disk myjemm armada.exe WC: Armada CD myjemm armadacd.exe WC: Armada: Proving Grounds disk myjemm pg.exe WC: Aramda: Proving Grounds CD myjemm pgcd.exe Strike Commander disk myjemm s POSSIBLE PROBLEMS MyJEMM is essentially alpha quaility software. It has only been tested on a couple of systems and may have a number of incompatibilities. The JEMM memory manager used by Privateer uses some very evil tricks to get past the 640k MS-DOS memory limit, as result it's amazing that it worked as reliabily as it did. In order to emulate these tricks under Windows, MyJEMM has to use even more evil tricks, and it's amazing that it works at all. Reliability of the game under Windows unfortunately is not as good as it is under plain MS-DOS. The following is a list of some potential problems: - Only play Privateer in fullscreen mode. It doesn't work in windowed mode, so don't try to switch to it. - Sound card compatibility is likely to be a problem. The game has only been tested with a real SoundBlaster 16 ISA, a SoundBlaster Live and an onboard CMI 8738 chip. If you have problems you may need to disable sound in order to play the game. - Digital sound effects used by the game are more likely to cause problems than the music. Just disabling sound effects may solve sound card compatibility problems. - Digital sound effects may appear to hang Privateer. If during conversions in game, the portrait of the person speaking continues to animate indefinately after the person's speech has finished, pressing a mouse button, joystick button or any key on the keyboard should allow you to continue. This can also happen with the speech used in the games openning sequence. Starting Privateer with the "myjemm -s" command enables a fix for this problem, but it's not recommended unless this problem comes up a lot. - WDM sound card drivers aren't likely to work. If possible, switch to VxD based drivers. - Utilities the use evil tricks like MyJEMM often don't work well with other utilities that use evil tricks. Other kinds of software that use evil tricks include virus scanners, internet firewalls, virtual CD-ROM emulators, and copy-protected Windows games. If you have problems try disabling and/or exiting these kinds of utilities. - Windows uses more conventional memory than plain MS-DOS does. You may need to free up more conventional memory before you can play Privateer under Windows. If your C:\CONFIG.SYS file doesn't already contain an "DEVICE=C:\WINDOWS\EMM386.EXE RAM" line, try adding one. Under Windows ME editting your CONFIG.SYS is not an option and you may not be able to do anything if you don't have enough free conventional memory. - Since relability is a problem, remember to save your game at every opportunity. Use multiple saves in case one save gets corrupted or lost. ADVANTAGES OF USING MYJEMM Despite all potential problems with MyJEMM mentioned above, there a few reasons why you might want to play Privateer under Windows rather than plain MS-DOS. - Allows use of USB joysticks. If the drivers for your USB joystick work with MS-DOS games under Windows, then your USB joystick should work with Privateer under Windows. - Allows use of Windows only sound cards. Many sound cards these days aren't compatible with plain MS-DOS. Unforutnately in practice this may not be as big as advantage as it seems, as these kinds of sound cards are the most likely to cause compatiblity problems. - Allows playing Privateer while doing other things on your computer. You can do things like ALT-TAB away from the game and read Privateer's PDF manual or search the WWW for hints. I only recommend using MyJEMM if these advantages are relevent to you. Otherwise it's probably better just play Privateer under plain MS-DOS. FEEDBACK If you have any questions, comments or bug reports about MyJEMM please e-mail me at rridge@csclub.uwaterloo.ca. Please remember that MyJEMM is alpha quality software, that it's public domain (ie. free) and that I don't get paid to work on or support it. Ross Ridge