Hello Frontier Player,

This file is for the Frontier Elite II player that is not familiar with
Stunt Island, however - those with SI might wish to read along.

Frontier Films will be produced with retro-gaming technology... that being
an awesome program, produced in 1992 by Disney Software called Stunt Island.
Nothing like it has been made since proving the fact that older DOS software
is in many cases not obsolete as there is no modern replacement to these
fantastic efforts.

You do not have to know anything about this product to view Frontier Films.

However, To see a film you need to do the following:

Have and older system running DOS5.0 or higher with a Soundblaster or
compatible sound card... or - in the unlikely event you have the previous...

(You must drop to the DOS prompt (for WIN95/98 users to do the below.)

(1) Download this player.
(2) Unzip the player into its own directory, call it NEWPLAYR.
(3) After you unzip within NEWPLAYR, make a new sub-directory or folder
    within NEWPLAYR called VAULT.  This is very important.
(4) Move any films you download from the directory you downloaded them
    from into the VAULT directory.  All films will be in zipped format
    and must be unzipped.  All films have two files, one ending in the
    file extension *.FLM, the other ending in the extension *.ALL.
(5) Return to the NEWPLAYR directory and run the program called SETUP.
    DO NOT RUN INSTALL (this program is simply used by SETUP).
(6) If you are running WINDOWS 95 or 98, you might NOT be able to hear
    any sounds or music**.  I have been able to get Soundblaster/Adlib Midi
    Music (see below).  I have not had any luck with getting
    digital sounds to play on WIN95/98 platforms - yet.

    As such, this is not a terrible problem as some Frontier Films 
    will have midi music and can of course be viewed without sound
    as a silent movie.  You could always add your own background music.
    The web page should inform you as to what type of sound the film has:
    
    Digital Sounds: (requires DOS 5.0 or higher system w/100% compatible
    Soundblaster (SB16 or Original).  Stunt Island Films have great digital
    sounds... but if you only have a WIN95/98 system - I have not yet got
    it to work... sorry.

    Midi Music: Of course can be heard with above, can also be heard with 
    many WIN95/98 systems.

    There can also be a combination of Midi with Digital as SI supports two
    sound channels.  This will also be noted.

    As of this date, the BEST way to watch Frontier Films is with a good old
    486-DX66 running DOS6.22 with a Soundblaster 16 ASP card.  This setup
    gives you full digital and midi.

    
    The below is mainly for WIN95/98 users:
    
    
    If you want NO SOUNDS or MUSIC:
    YOU MUST SELECT NO SOUND options for SOUND AND MUSIC when running
    SETUP.  Even if it appears it is already correct... you should reselect
    NO SOUND and NO MUSIC and exit.  To configure for midi music select NO
    SOUND for SOUND and ADLIB/SOUNDBLASTER for Music.  Now the extremely
    important part.  You must edit you AUTOEXEC.BAT file in your root
    directory and add the following line:

    SET BLASTER=A220 I5 D1 H5 T6   (not needed for no sound).

    This line can usually stay in the autoexec.bat, you may indeed already
    have this line if you are running FRONTIER or another older DOS program
    on a WIN95/98 system.

    With the above in place PLAYONE will provide music on -some- WIN95/98
    systems at an adequate audio level.

(7) Type PLAYONE at the DOS prompt to bring up the player.  Click on
    only files with a *.FLM extension to load and view.

(8) Films auto-start after loading.  You can use the view controls to
    rewind on examine a film frame by frame.

This is an Alpha release of Frontier Films.  
August 03, 2000
August 08, 2000 (rev. 1.1)

**
Addendum #1.

I have created a way (after 8 hours of tinkering) to provide Soundblaster/
Adlib sound... at a decent audio level to systems were midi sound seems to be
too soft through the audio channel, even at top volume.

Remember, this applies to sounds classified as MUSIC, not digital sounds,
(which I still have not gotten to play on WIN95/98 Systems at all).

It is a bit tricky and might not work on all systems.  If don't want to
mess with this you can always watch any film with NO SOUND
and NO MUSIC selected in SETUP.  However, if you crave the music track (you
will know as it will always be noted on the download webpage what type of
audio is present) you can perform the following...

(1)  When you attempt to run PLAYONE, access the program in the following
     manner.  DO NOT MAKE A SHORTCUT FROM THE DESKTOP.  Simply select the
     DOS prompt from the START MENU (you can, if you like, make a shortcut
     to the DOS PROMPT however).
(2)  Once you are at the DOS prompt, change to the directory where you should
     have unzipped the FFPLAYR.ZIP file.
(3)  If you have not run SETUP, DO NOT as it is already configured for MUSIC
     sounds with ADLIB or SOUNDBLASTER.  However, if you have already fooled
     with it, rerun setup and select NOSOUND for Sound and ADLIB/SOUNDBLASTER
     for Music. Install and exit.
(4)  Next, run my BAT file called SOUNDCOM.  Type SOUNDCOM.  This will run
     a small BAT file that sets up a Soundblaster Environment and runs a
     small Soundblaster utility called SB16SET.  This is needed as MIDI sound
     under virtual DOS with WIN95/98 seems to be very very soft.  The small
     program will boost audio levels. Make sure your audio levels are near the
     top before you do this, and if you have software controlled volume, do
     not touch it after you run SOUNDCOM, or sound levels will default to your
     lower Windows system settings. (However, once you return to WINDOWS your
     sound volume setting may be all the way up, so you may have to turn
     it down a bit or reboot to bring sound levels back to normal.

(5)  After running SOUNDCOM, PLAYONE will start automatically.  You should
     then be able to hear the film's music (if it has any).

Good Luck.

August 8, 2000

Regards,

Commander Mic
michealey@compuserve.com
