Subj: Dungeon Master
From: Wayne Holder, FTL Games
Date: Feb 8, 1987

Release Versions

   Since its introduction on Dec 15 1987, Dungeon Master has been updated
several times to correct software and graphic bugs.  Different release
versions can be distinguished by selecting the save game option and observing
the upper right corner of the save menu box.  All versions execpt the original
release version show the message VER x.x where x.x is 1.0 or 1.1.  Ver 1.1 is
the latest release version.  Version 1.1 is the most extensive update and
corrects a bug which can result in the game freezing near the end of the
game.  Note: these problems can only occur while confronting Lord Chaos and a
workaround to this problem is described in an earlier update release.

  Users with an earlier version can receive a free update by returning your
original disk and stamped, self-addressed envelope with sufficient return
postage for the disk to:

                            FTL Games
                   6160 Lusk Blvd, Suite C-206
                       San Diego, CA 92121


Known Problems

	Ver 1.1 has only one known bug.  When restarting a saved game where
one or more party members are dead the party arraingment box in the upper
right corner of the screen will sometimes not show all of the remaining
party members.  If this happens, simply click on the empty squares until
the member is found.  The problem is then corrected for the remainder of
the play session.  We hope to have this problem corrected in a future update.


Disk Problems

  Several people have reported intermittent problems with the game freezing
(possibly with the game printing an error message such as "SYSTEM ERROR xx.")
As far as we know, these problems are not caused by software bugs.  We suspect
that these errors are due to drive misalignment problems and are compounded
by a little known bug in the Atari TOS ROMs.

  This bug (corrected in the newer "Blitter" ROMs) prevents TOS from retrying
on certain sector read errors.  The result is that TOS returns a garbage
sector and says that it is good.  The problem is most likely to occur if your
disk drives are misaligned and your drive misreads a sector.  Normally, TOS
will catch these misreads and retry, but sooner or later it will miss one.
The result is that DM will report a mystery error, bomb, or freeze.  Normally,
rebooting "cures" the problem (that is the exact same problem will not
reoccur.)

  Alignment problems are hard to spot because disks formatted on the
misaligned drives usually work fine because the misalignment cancels out.
Realignment is a simple process but requires a special alignment disk and
calibration tools.  Consult your dealer.

  Some users have reported symptoms where game disks suddenly ceased working.
In some cases, these users returned the disks to us and received replacements
which later ceased to work as well.  Normally, there should be no reason for
a DM disk to stop working except the disk becoming damaged.  If the write
protect is set on (as we recommend for DM) it is impossible for the software
to damage the disk.  Problems like this suggest a serious problem with the
disk drive.  Double sided drives can have a problem where the top read head
can become bent or detached.  We are not sure what causes the problem, but
the result is often improper head contact which wears out the disk.  Consult
your dealer at once.

Copy Protection

  Users often assume that disk read problems are caused by or related to
copy protection.  In our opinion this in unlikely, except that copy protection
checks are just as likely to be affected by drive errors as other misreads.


Reporting Problems

  The above notwithstanding, bugs are an ever present problem with software.
If you experience a problem please let us know.  It helps if you can contrive
a way to recreate a problem reliably.  Simply reporting a problem that
happened once but you could not recreate is not of much help to us.  If a
problem happens periodically, but always in a different circumstance, please
note any distinguishing factors.  For example, did you recently save the game.
