American McGee's Alice(TM)

Read Me File
November 12, 2000

Here are a few last minute notes that didn't make it into the Alice
manual.

Windows Operating Systems

=========================
The game has been optimized for several Windows operating systems.
Windows 95, 98, and ME are thoroughly supported by our customer support
unit. The game also runs on Windows NT 4.0 and 2000. It has been
extensively tested on both systems and very few problems have come to
light. Nevertheless these operating systems are NOT currently supported
by customer support.

Installation Choices
====================
There are two installation options you can choose when setting up Alice.

Typical:
-------
This installs all the game files to your hard drive, and is intended for
computers with 128MB of RAM. This option requires 650 MB of space on your
drive not including save games.

Low Memory:
----------
This installs all the game files to your hard drive, and is intended for
computers with 64 MB of RAM. This install uses lower resolution textures
and other changes to reduce the memory requirements of the game. This
option requires 525 MB of space on your drive not including save games.

If you have an amount of memory somewhere between 64 and 128 MB, you can
try the typical installation and see how it runs on your machine. If your
machine runs slowly and seems to be accessing the drive a lot, you can
adjust the "Texture Detail" slider down one notch. This slider is found
on the "Graphics Options" settings page.

Installation Problems
=====================
If you're installing the game on Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000, you need
to have administrator privileges on your machine. Otherwise, the installer
will not run.

The DirectX installer is only needed on Windows 95 or 98. Windows 2000

and Windows Me already have this version (or newer) of DirectX installed.

Windows NT is not compatible with DirectX 7; you should, however, install

the most recent Service Pack.

General Problems
================

If you've made a settings change to Alice, that keep you from

playing the game, you can usually fix this by deleting the "config.cfg"
file located in the BASE subdirectory where you installed Alice. The
default directory where you would find this file is:

C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\American McGee�s Alice\Base

If you delete this file, you will need to reset your key bindings next
time you run the Game. Alice will automatically regenerate the
config.cfg file for you.

If you've changed your video resolution to something your computer cannot

support, you can run Alice from the command prompt, manually setting the
resolution. Open a command prompt window and change the directory to where
you installed Alice. Then type:

alice +set r_mode 3

And press the enter key.

This will launch Alice in 640x480 resolution mode You can then try to
change your resolution again. Before you change the display resolution in
Alice, make sure that your computer supports that size.

Some screen savers can cause problems if you leave Alice running idle
long enough for your screen saver to turn on. If you have issues with this,
try disabling your screensaver.

Player cannot assign any command to the wheel mouse (up or down) until the
game has been run and restarted. Wheel mouse commands may be issued the
second time the game is started.

If you have difficulty removing the game from your system using
Add/Remove Programs from the Windows Control Panel, you may successfully
Uninstall the game from the Start Menu (Default placement is
Start/Programs/EA GAMES/American McGee's Alice/Uninstall Alice) or from
the Autorun Menu on Disk 1.

Speed Problems
==============
If you're having framerate problems, there are a few tweaks you can do to
speed up the game on your machine. These settings will free up more memory,
thus placing less of a load on your hardware.

In Video options (Settings Menu):

- Uncheck Detail Textures.
- Set both Color Depth and Texture Bits to 16 bit.
- Run in 640x480 resolution.

In Audio options (Settings Menu):

- Make sure that "8-Bit Sound" is checked.
- Set the Sound Quality to "22khz".

There should not be a big difference in the visual and audio quality when
using 16-bit textures and 8-bit sounds, but it can help to make the game
run faster.

Memory Problems
===============
If your computer is constantly accessing the hard drive as you play Alice,
you may need to make a few changes. It's recommended that your machine
have 128MB of RAM, but the game can run on 64MB machines with a few
small tweaks.

If you chose the "Low Memory" option in the Alice installer, those options
should already be set for you.

If you chose "Typical", as your installation option:

- Move the Texture Detail slider in the Video options (Settings Menu), one
or two notches to the left.
- Make sure that "8-Bit Sound" is checked in Audio options (Settings Menu).

If you still can't get it to speed up, try uninstalling the game and
reinstalling using the "Low Memory" option.

Stability Problems
==================
If your machine locks up frequently or crashes a lot, there are a few
general tips to help stabilize it.

If you have other programs running at the same time as Alice, consider
turning them off.

Make sure you have the latest drivers. Manufacturers are always improving
their drivers to fix bugs and improve performance. Check the web sites
for your Video Card, Sound Card, and Motherboard, and try out the latest
drivers.

Make sure your machine has the latest BIOS installed. Many hardware
components get improved BIOS/Firmware after they're shipped, so make sure
you're up to date. The stability of video cards and motherboards can
vastly improve with updated BIOS. Once again, check your equipment
manufacturer�s website for newer BIOS versions.

Be sure to read and understand any instructions and warnings before you
try to update BIOS on any hardware component. It usually updates without
a problem, but you can render your machine unusable if you don't do it
right, or if something goes wrong and the proper action isn't taken to
fix it.

If you purchased a pre-assembled PC, check with your PC manufacturer for

updates.

If you've had your operating system installed and running for a long time,
it may be time to reinstall. This usually is only a problem for real
power users who change system settings and hardware often and work with
their machines a lot.

Video Problems
==============
Some video cards have problems with the fog effects that we're using
in Alice. We've noticed that some objects don't seem fogged enough.
This seems to occur most often on Voodoo 3 cards.
In some scenes, distant objects may appear to have black lines moving
across them. This seems to happen on a variety of video cards, and
is a direct result of the distance from the player to the object.

The current drivers for the Voodoo5 seem to have some trouble when
changing resolutions, switching from full-screen to windowed mode.
This usually means your computer will lock up or crash. There are
also some visual problems when you run in windowed mode. The problems
seem to be more pronounced in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows 2000.
We expect 3dfx to address these problems in future driver releases.
As always, make sure you have the latest video drivers for your card.

Useful Web Sites

================
http://www.glsetup.com - Updated video/OpenGL drivers in one handy
location.

http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com - Keep your Windows installation up

to date.

http://www.alice.ea.com - The Alice site

To read American�s list of personal special thanks refer to the file

"ThankYou.txt" in the root directory of CD Disc 1.

(C) 2000 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved.