Oregon 17018 USER MANUAL

Chapter 1:

Set-up and Installation Procedure .............................................................................1-3

Chapter 2:

Welcome Explorer! ..................................................................................................... 3-5

Chapter 3:

Driving the Car ............................................................................................................6-9

Chapter 4:

The Activity Stops ......................................................................................................9-15

Appendix A:

Troubleshooting .......................................................................................................16-17

Appendix B:

License Agreement and Warranty ......................................................................... 18-20

Table of Contents

Set-up and Installation Procedure

Minimum system requirements

• Pentium II 266 MHz • 250 MB of hard drive space

• 64 MB RAM • Standard Sound card

• 3D display card with 8MB of RAM • Windows 98

• 8x CD-ROM • USB Port

Recommended system requirements

• Pentium II 350+ MHz

• 128 MB RAM

• 3D display card with 16MB of RAM

• 24x CD-ROM

• 400 MB of hard drive space

• Standard sound card

• Windows 98

• USB Port

The Driving Wheel

1) Connect the wheel to one of the USB ports at the back of the PC. Windows will automatically detect the new hardware and launch the new hardware wizard.

2) The Wizard will ask you where to look for the correct driver for the wheel. Choose the C drive (or the hard drive where Windows is installed).

3) It should find the USB Human Interface Driver. Click Next and then Finish to complete the installation. If the hardware installation wizard does not start automatically you can select the Start Menu/ Settings/ Control Panel/ Add Remove Hardware option. You will need to select the USB Human Interface Device. Once the driver has been installed it is advisable to calibrate the controller.

1) Open the Control Panel and double click the Game Controllers icon.

2) Click on Properties. Click the Settings tab and then click Calibrate. Follow the instructions to calibrate the controller. When you are asked to move the handle in a complete circle you should turn the wheel as far as it goes from left to right and fully press the Gas and Brake buttons several times. The controller does not have an axis 3 so please just click Next on that part.

Installing the Software

Insert the CD-ROM into the CD-ROM drive. The installation should start automatically but if it does not, double click the Setup.exe file in the CD-ROM folder. The onscreen instructions will take you through the rest of the set-up. Please choose the “Install Direct X 8.0” option if it is not already installed on your machine. Choose the minimum installation option if you only have 250 MB of hard drive space. Choose the maximum installation option if you have 450 MB of hard drive space. If you choose the minimum installation option you must leave the CD in the CD-R0M while playing as the machine will access the sound files directly from there. Loading times will be longer in this case.

The maximum option will install high-resoluion textures. The minimum option will install low-resolution textures. This refers to the quality of the pictures that are placed on the 3D objects in the 3D cities. You should choose high-resolution textures if you have a high powered machine with a lot of memory. You should choose low-resolution textures if your PC configuration is quite low. A PC with anything above the minimum requirements for Drive Across the AmericasTM should be able to perform adequately with high resolution textures installed, However, if you find that the performance is too slow or that the loading time for the 3D cities is very long then you should reinstall the program with low-resolution textures.

The serial number is printed on a sticker on the inside front cover of the manual.

The Web Page

There is a dedicated web site for Drive Across the AmericasTMat www.driveacross.net. Many of the features offered are only available when you play the game. There are hotlinks embedded in the game in every city. These links will take you to the page for that city. To use these links make sure that you have an account with an Internet Service Provider and that your computer is connected to the Internet.

When you use a link the PC will minimize Drive Across and launch your internet browser. Before it does this, you will be asked if you want to save your game. When you have finished browsing quit the explorer and return to the game by clicking on the Drive Across the Americas

button in the Windows Task Bar.

The city pages contain links to other web pages with more information about the city and other general learning pages. The 3D city pages also have Internet postcards for you to send to friends. The links are updated from our server to ensure that they are always up to date and suitable for young ages. Our web site provides a safe Internet environment that ensures young people will not encounter any unsuitable material.

For best results we recommend using Internet Explorer 4.0 or above or Netscape Navigator 3.0 or above.

Welcome Explorer!

Drive Across the AmericasTMis a unique way to explore the Americas. You can drive around beautiful 3D cities and learn many interesting facts about places all over the Americas. In the 3D cities you can stop and play fun learning activities that will reward you with points to spend on gas (essential!) and new cars.

Before you can start exploring you should learn some basic navigation rules that will help you find your way around the virtual world of Drive Across the Americas

. This chapter will describe the screens that you will see after the introductory animation has finished. You can skip

the animation by pressing the space bar.

Chapter 2

Title Screen

There are four options on the title screen: New, Continue, Options and Exit to Windows.

Clicking on New will start a new game. First you must select a character and enter your name. The character you select will appear on your driver’s license but will not affect the game in any other way. Use the left and right arrows to select a character, then type your name in the box. Press Enter or click OK when you have finished and you will be taken to the Map Screen.

Click on Continue if you want to load a game that you were playing earlier. A dialogue box will open up showing the names of all the previously saved games. Click on the name and then click Load to load it. You will then be taken to the Map Screen.

You get the options screen by clicking on Options.

Options Screens

The options screen allows you to customize some of the game settings. Use the mouse in the options screen to click on the buttons. The graphics options are useful if you find that the 3D driving is not running very smoothly. Slower computers, computers with low memory or a low memory graphics card might have problems processing the graphics in the cities. To speed things up try reducing the number of pedestrians and reducing the number of cars. If that doesn’t work you could try using low res textures (see the chapter on installation to find out about this) N.B.: If your computer configuration is lower than the recommended requirements you will not get the smoothest results. If your computer is below the minimum requirement then we do not guarantee that the game will play at all.

Use the sound options to change the volume of the music and sound effects. You can also choose whether you want to be able to listen to the in-game music tracks using the CD-Player (See chapter 3), or whether you want to have the ambient street sounds while you drive.

You can also access the options screen from the map screens and 3D cities. The in-game options are slightly different, see chapter 3 for more details.

Map Screen

You can plan your route using the map page. The main map shows the whole of the Americas. By clicking on one of the names (Canada, USA, Mexico and Central America or South America), the map will zoom to show that area in more detail. The US is further divided up into four regions that can be zoomed in on by clicking the mouse somewhere on the map, but not on a city. Click on the city you want to Enter with the mouse, or press the Enter button on the wheel.

When you are looking at a small map, click on the Back button to zoom out and see the bigger map.

On the largest map screen there is an Options button and a “Back to Title” button that you can click on. If you go back to the title page, your current game will end. The Options button will take you to the in-game options screen. This is the same as the options available to you on the title page with the addition of a Save game option. See Chapter 3 for more information about saving your game.

The Cities and Landmarks

There are two different types of city in Drive Across the AmericasTM, 3D cities and Picture Cities. The 3D cities are modeled cities for you to drive around and explore. There are five of these marked on the map with a large city icon. They are Chicago, New York City, Toronto, Washington D.C. and San Francisco. You can find out more about these in Chapter 3.

The Picture Cities are marked on the map with a small star. In a Picture City there are two option buttons, Local Trivia and Landmarks. When you are in the Landmarks mode you will see a map of the city with some landmarks marked on it. By clicking on the number buttons you will be able to read about the different landmarks. In the Local Trivia mode the number buttons will give you information about events, people or history from the State.

There are also some Remote Landmarks on the map that function like Picture Cities. You will see a picture of the landmark and you can read some information about it.

The Web Link button will take you to the web page for that city. See Chapter 1 for more information about this. Exit the Picture City or Remote Landmark by clicking on the Exit button.

Chapter 3

Gas Button

Navigator

Reverse Button

Music Player

Drive Button

Horn

Pause

Enter Button

Brake Button

View change

Driving The Car

There are five 3D cities to explore, all with unique buildings. In each city there are many famous landmarks that you can drive around and look at. To see the sights you need to get used to driving the car.

Car Controls

Most standard PC driving wheels are compatible with Drive Across the AmericasTMbut the Oregon Scientific driving wheel has been designed to work with the game. Gas Button: Press and hold this to make the car move. It is analogue so the harder you push it the faster you will go. Brake Button: This button makes the car stop. Drive Button: Pressing this button puts the car into Drive. All the cars are automatic so you do not need to change gears while accelerating.

When you are in Drive pressing the Gas button will make the car move forwards.

Reverse Button: Press this button to put the car into reverse. When you are in Reverse

pressing the Gas button will make the car move backwards. Enter Button: Press this button when you are outside an activity to enter it Horn: While you are driving, this button will sound the car’s horn. Music Player: Press this button while you are driving to start and stop the

music. (See below). Navigator: Zoom in on the navigator view with this button. For more

information about the navigator, see below. View Change: To change between the different views, press this button. Pause: Press this button to pause and resume the game. It will bring up the

pause options screen.

You can also use the keyboard to control the car:

Driving Wheel Keyboard Equivalent

Steering Wheel Left and right Cursor Arrow Gas Button Up Cursor Arrow Brake Button Down Cursor Arrow Drive Button D Reverse Button R Enter Button Space Bar Horn H Navigator N View Change V Pause P or Escape

The Navigator

The navigator sits at the top right hand corner of the driving screen. It shows you the part of the city that you are driving through. Your car is marked by the red arrow that moves around the map. The activity buildings are marked by a red star and the landmarks are marked by a yellow star. Click the + and - buttons with the mouse to zoom in and out. You can also zoom in by pressing the driving wheel navigator button or the N button. You must be stopped to zoom the navigator.

The Music Player

If you have chosen the music option in the Options Screen then you can select one of 6 different pieces of music to listen to while you are driving. The buttons on the Player are the same as CD player buttons. From left to right you can Skip back a tack. Stop, Play or Skip forward a track.

Make sure you are stopped when you change the music, you don’t want to have an accident!

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