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Troubleshooting The 11th Hour: The Sequel to The 7th Guest
(Last revised: 12/13/95)


System Requirements

80486DX2-66 or better, 8 MB RAM, local bus video (VL-bus or PCI), double- speed CD-ROM, sound card with PCM sound, hard drive with 4 MB free,
MSCDEX 2.2 or higher, MS-DOS 5.0 or higher or Windows 95, Microsoft- compatible mouse

Recommended
Pentium processor, General MIDI sound card, PCI video card with 2 MB RAM, quad-speed CD-ROM

Supported sound cards
Roland MT-32, LAPC-1, Sound Canvas, SCC-1; Sound Blaster and compatibles, including Sound Blaster Pro/Deluxe, Sound Blaster 16/ASP, Sound Blaster
AWE 32; Pro Audio Spectrum 16; Gravis Ultrasound; Ensoniq Soundscape.


Installation Instructions

Insert disc one into your CD-ROM drive.  From DOS, type the letter of your CD-ROM drive followed by a colon (e.g. D: ) and press ENTER.  Type
GO and press ENTER.

If the game has not yet been installed to your hard drive, the installation program will run.  You will be asked where you would like to install the game.  The default directory is C:\GAMES\11H.  First type the drive letter to which to install the game.  Type in the path where you would like the game installed and press ENTER.  (Just press ENTER twice to accept the default directory.)

If you install the game to a directory other than the default, a hidden file called Z_11HDIR.11H is created in the root directory of your C:\ drive.  Do not delete this file or you will have to re-install the game.
Once you complete the game, or wish to remove it from your system, you may safely delete this file if you want.

Once the game is installed, the sound setup utility will run.  Here you choose what kind of sound card you have in your system.  You must select a sound card for both digital sound and music.  (You can use the same sound card for both, of course.)  The game will not run if either of these is set to 'None' or set to the wrong sound card.  If you want to change your sound card at some point after the game has been installed, change to the directory on your hard drive where the game is installed (i.e. CD \GAMES\11H) and type SETSOUND.


General Information

Running the game
To run the game, insert a CD into your CD-ROM drive.  From DOS, type the letter of your CD-ROM drive followed by a colon (e.g. D: ) then press
ENTER.  Type GO and press ENTER.

The first screen, 'Welcome,' is the main menu.  Click on 'Change Setup' to configure the game for your system, or click on 'The 11th Hour Disc 1' to begin the game.  After the groovie' logo appears, the monitor adjust screen comes up.  Adjust the brightness control on your monitor until the
'X' inside the skull’s socket is just barely visible.  (It will appear in the skull on the far right.)  Click on the 'X' to begin the introduction and the game.


The 11th Hour Demo
The 11th Hour Demo is a single CD containing one puzzle and one treasure hunt clue.  It also contains a non-interactive looping demo.  All of the troubleshooting in this document applies to the demo, as do the installation instructions.  The default installation directory for the demo is C:\GAMES\11HDEMO.


Checking the version of the game
To find out which version of The 11th Hour you are running, change to the directory where it has been installed (i.e. CD\GAMES\11H) and type V32 /V


Updates to The 11th Hour
As of this writing, a beta update is already available for The 11th Hour.
This new player program can help improve performance on slower machines.
However, it only supports 16-bit video; 8-bit and 24-bit video is not supported in this new player.  It is available on Trilobyte’s web page at http://www.tbyte.com/

You are welcome to try this new player if you are experiencing any difficulties with the game.  However, because it is beta, it is not officially supported by Virgin or Trilobyte until it has been thoroughly tested.  For the latest information on updates to the game, check out the above web page.


Updates to this troubleshooting guide
This document is being updated with new information all the time.  You can get the latest version by calling (714) 833-1999 and requesting the fax.  You can also check it out on the web at http://www.vie.com/support/html/11hfaq.html


UniVBE
In order to work with the wide variety of video cards on the market, The 11th Hour uses the universal VESA driver known as UniVBE, made by SciTech
Software.  This VESA driver supports most existing video cards.  However, it may not work with every single one, especially new ones that they have not yet tested.   Errors such as 'Unable to set requested graphics mode' generally indicate that UniVBE was unable to recognize your video card.
If UniVBE does not support your video card, you should ask your video card manufacturer for a driver that brings your card up to VESA 2.0 compatibility.  You can also check with SciTech Software for updates to their UniVBE program.  Their web page is http://www.scitechsoft.com/

Note that any version you download is shareware and should be registered.


The 11th Hour: The sequel to The 7th Guest Unresolved Problem Report
If a solution in this troubleshooting guide tells you that there is currently no answer or if the listed solution does not work, you are invited to fill out an Unresolved Problem Report (UPR) form to inform us of your problem.

The Unresolved Problem Report (UPR) form is used to provide
Virgin/Trilobyte with information about your system so that we can better diagnose problems that may occur with the game.  The information will help us identify possible hardware incompatibilities and what we need to address in future updates to the game.

Do not use this form as a request for technical support.  For technical support, please call
(714) 833-1999.

There are two ways to access the UPR form.

Fax: To request that this form be faxed to you, call (714) 263-8550.
Press 1 to access the fax server.  Enter 235#, then press # again.
Enter your fax number with the area code first, followed by #.  Press 1 to confirm your fax number.  Once you have completed the form, fax it back to (714) 833-2001.

Internet: This form is also available on the world wide web.  Just go to the following address: http://www.vie.com/support/html/upr11th.html


Troubleshooting

Audio/Video Difficulties
Problem: I’m getting choppy or garbled audio during the movies.
Solution: This can occur if your video card, CD-ROM drive, or CPU is not able to meet the speed demands of the game.  Try the following:

If you are running under Windows 95, try running in DOS mode instead.
Click on the Start button, choose 'Shutdown,' then click on 'Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode.'  This should improve performance.
There are several options you can adjust in the game setup that can improve movie playback performance.  (Please note that you will have to exit and restart the game before any of these changes will take effect.)  First make sure that you are running with interlaced video enabled; non-interlaced video can only be used on the fastest systems.
If interlacing is already enabled, try switching the game down to quarter-screen video as opposed to full screen video.
Try switching the audio from stereo to mono.  This should help clear up the voices.
Finally, you may need to drop from 16-bit color to 8-bit color.  All of the movies and game sequences will appear in grayscale in this mode.
If you are still getting choppy or garbled audio during the movies, then, depending on the type of video card and CD-ROM drive you have, your system may not be able to handle the demands of the game.  (Make sure you meet the minimum requirements for the game!)  You are invited to fill out a UPR form to inform us of this problem.  If we can find commonalties among the systems with this problem, we may be able to address this issue in a future update.
You might also want to try out the new beta update to the game, which was designed for better performance on slower machines.  (See 'Updates to The 11th Hour' above.)

Problem: I’m getting flashing lines/video corruption at the bottom of the screen.
Solution: Go into game setup and turn off 'Hardware page flipping.'  Note that you will have to exit and restart the game after making this change before it will take effect.

Problem: Video palette is corrupt.  (The colors are all psychedelic or corrupt.)
Solution: This can occur if your video card is not fully compatible with the high color modes.  This problem has appeared on the Trident and
Hercules video cards.  From the 'Welcome' screen, click on 'Change setup' and switch to 8-bit color.  Note that you will have to exit and restart the game after making this change before it will take effect.

It is also possible that UniVBE may have selected the incorrect
RAMDAC for your video card.  Run the UVCONFIG program and change the RAMDAC selection for the appropriate one for your video card.
If you don’t know the part number of your RAMDAC, you can determine this by looking at your video card.  The RAMDAC is generally the second or third biggest chip on the board, and you can check it against the list of parts the UniVBE supports to find the one the matches your system.  Try forcing UniVBE to use the correct RAMDAC with UVCONFIG once you have determined what it is meant to be.

Problem: The mouse erases the screen as I move it around.
Solution: This problem has been found to occur on Trident video cards.
Try the following:
Change to the directory where The 11th Hour is installed (i.e.
CD\GAMES\11H).
Type UVCONFIG -D27 and click on OK.
Type GO
Click on 'Change Setup' and turn off 'Hardware page flipping.'
Exit and restart the game so this change can take effect.

Problem: There is a flickering bar on the right side of the video.
Solution: This occurs on some video cards when interlacing is turned off.
Go back to Game Setup and turn on 'Interlaced video.'  Note that you will have to exit and restart the game before this change will take effect.

Problem: During a puzzle, my mouse cursor disappears; my mouse cursor is shifted up, off-screen.
Solution: This problem has shown up on the Matrox MGA video cards, and only appears in the following puzzles: Horseplay (Foyer), Moving House
(Music Room), Blood and Honey (Room at the Top), Railroad Switcher
(Attic) .  To correct this, go into Game Setup and turn off 'Hardware
Page Flipping.'  Note that you will have to exit and restart the game before this change will take effect.

Problem: When I listen to the music in the 'Making of...' portion of the game, a black bar appears across the screen, covering most of the picture.
Solution: Click on the center of the screen to return to the 'Making of...' main menu and click on the music screen to return.  The screen will appear fully intact.

Problem: The game only runs in 8-bit color mode.
Solution: The following should work for S3-based video cards:
Change to the directory where The 11th Hour is installed (i.e.
CD\GAMES\11H).
Type UVCONFIG -D27 and click on OK.
Type GO
Click on 'Change Setup' and turn off 'Hardware page flipping.'
Exit and restart the game so this change can take effect.

This can also occur if you have an ISA video card.  The game requires a local bus video card to run properly.