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The Simpsons Hit & Run Read Me

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Version 1.0
October 15, 2003

This document provides useful information regarding The Simpsons Hit &
RunTM. Please review it carefully. For further support, please visit
our website at http://support.vugames.com.

CONTENTS

1. Minimum System Requirements

2. Recommended System Requirements
3. Multiplayer Issues
4. Troubleshooting
5. Technical Support

1. Minimum System Requirements

• 100% DirectX compliant 3D video card with 32 MB VRAM

• Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000/XP operating system
• Pentium III 700 MHz processor or equivalent
• 192 MB RAM
• 100% DirectX 8.1 or higher compatible sound card and drivers
• 4X Speed CD-ROM drive
• 100% Microsoft-compatible mouse and keyboard
• 2.2 GB of uncompressed hard disk space

2. Recommended System Requirements

The recommended specification is exactly the same as the minimum

specification with the following changes:
• 100% DirectX compliant 3D video card with 64 MB VRAM
• Pentium III 1 GHz processor or equivalent
• 256 MB RAM
• 100% Windows 98/ME/2000/XP-compatible 6 button, dual stick
analog gamepad

3. Multiplayer Issues

The Bonus Game in The Simpsons Hit & Run allows play for one to four
players. If you have multiple gamepads or joysticks, they are assigned
to each player in order. For example in a two player game, if a
gamepad is plugged into DirectX or USB slot 3, and another gamepad is
plugged into DirectX or USB slot 8 then the gamepad in slot 3 will be
assigned to player 1, while the one in slot 8 is for player 2.

Up to 2 players can use the keyboard in the Bonus Game. When using the
keyboard, the keyboard will always be assigned to the highest player
number(s) not using a gamepad. So in a two player game, if one player
is using a gamepad, then that will be assigned to player 1, while the
keyboard will be assigned to player 2. In a four-player game, with two
gamepads, players 3 & 4 will be assigned to opposite sides of the
keyboard.

As noted in the troubleshooting section, some keyboard hardware may

experience problems with registering too many key presses at once.
This may create issues when more than one player uses the keyboard.

4. Troubleshooting

1. If your game does not start, your video card may not be supported.
Please check your video card against the list of supported video cards.

The Simpsons Hit & Run has been tested on most, but not all of the
major video cards incorporating the following chipsets:
• ATI® Radeon
• ATI® Radeon 7200
• ATI® Radeon 8500
• ATI® Radeon 9000
• ATI® Radeon 9700
• NVidia™ GeForce 2 GTS
• NVidia™ GeForce 3/Ti series
• NVidia™ GeForce 4 MX
• NVidia™ GeForce 4 series

The following graphics card chipsets are not supported by The Simpsons
Hit & Run , or exhibit known problems:
• SiS730
• SiS650
• SiS315
• Intel Extreme Graphics 845/865
• ATI Radeon 7500 – exhibits severe rendering artifacts with
drivers dated prior to April, 2003
• ATI Radeon 8500 – exhibits minor rendering artifacts with drivers
dated prior to April, 2003
• Matrox Parhelia – exhibits rendering artifacts on shadows with
drivers that are not up-to-date
• ATI Radeon & All-In-Wonder 9000 & 9200 – exhibits minor rendering
artifacts

You may also experience difficulties if your graphics chipset is

integrated on the motherboard.

If you are experiencing difficulties with your video card, please try
upgrading to the latest drivers available for your card.

2. Do not connect or disconnect a USB device while the game is running.

3. Disc 1 of The Simpsons Hit & Run needs to be in your CD-ROM drive
at all times while you are playing. Do not remove the disc from the
drive during the game.

4. If your car becomes stuck while playing the game, you can press the
reset button to reposition your car on the nearest road.

5. If you experience problems with extremely slow installation of the

game, or if you get unexpected errors during installation about the
wrong volume being in your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive, you may need to
update the driver for your drive. Obtain and install the latest driver
from your drive manufacturer and try again.

6. If The Simpsons Hit & Run crashes after you increase your video
resolution, your video card may not support that resolution at your
monitor’s current refresh rate. Under Windows 2000/XP, The Simpsons
Hit & Run should be able to detect this situation and will attempt to
warn you. However, under Windows 98/ME, The Simpsons Hit & Run is
unable to determine your monitor’s current refresh rate. Lower your
monitor’s refresh rate and try again.

7. Some video cards do not support adjusting the gamma setting when
running in windowed mode. You may experience an inability to see the
effects of setting this value when running in windowed mode.

8. In your video card configuration settings, ensure that your video

card has 32 bit Z-Buffer enabled. Using a 16 bit or 24 bit Z Buffer
setting can cause flickering artifacts in some areas of the game.

9. If you experience slow graphics performance, try using 16 bit color

mode instead of 32 bit mode. 16 bit mode can run significantly faster
when using older video cards.

10. If you hear bursts of static, you likely have the DirectX
developer SDK installed and you are using the Debug version. You can
remove the bursts of static by selecting the Retail version of
DirectX:
• Click the Start Menu
• Click Programs - Microsoft DirectX SDK - Install DirectX RunTime
- Install Retail DirectX

Alternatively, if you are hearing static under Windows XP and have a

SoundBlaster Live! Value 1024 Digital sound card, the problem is most
likely related to your sound card’s driver. Update your sound card
Driver and try again.

11. The following sound cards are not supported by The Simpson Hit &
Run , or exhibit known problems:
• Best Data Theatrix

12. If you are experiencing sound problems during game play, or the
game becomes unstable (sound disappears, game drawing speed slows down
severely, game crashes suddenly to desktop), the problem may be sound
card related. The Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, certain SoundMax Digital
sound cards and the Audigy and Audigy 2 cards are known to make the
game unstable if hardware acceleration is turned on. If you have a
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card, or are experiencing sound problems
or unexplained crashing of any kind, disable hardware acceleration:
• Click on Start->Run....
• Type "dxdiag" and press Enter.
• Observe the application while it loads, wait until the progress
bar completes.
• Click on the Sound tab.
• Under the "DirectX Features" frame, locate the "Hardware Sound
Acceleration Level" slider
• Slide it all the way to the left until it reads "No acceleration".
• Click Exit, re-run the game.

Alternatively, if the above does not help, and you are still
experiencing sound problems, try the following:
• Double-click on the My Computer icon on your desktop, or right-
click on the icon and choose the Open option.
• Double-click on the Control Panel icon.
• Find the Sounds and Multimedia icon and double-click on it.
• On the Audio tab, click on the Advanced Properties button under
Playback.
• Select Basic or No Hardware acceleration from the Performance tab.
• Click on OK.
• Restart the game.

13. If you perform a minimum install and then experience problems with
skipping audio, it may be due to inadequate performance from your CD-
ROM or DVD-ROM drive. Try performing a full install to alleviate this
problem.

14. Keyboard beeping. Many PC keyboards limit the number of

simultaneous button presses to 3. If your keyboard exhibits this
problem, you may hear a beeping noise from the computer’s speaker or
some keys will appear to have no effect. This limit sometimes only
applies to keys close to each other on the keyboard.

To improve the situation, try changing your keyboard mapping to move

game keys further apart.

15. If you have an InterAct SV-233 PC Gamepad, you must turn off the
“auto” feature. Use of the “auto” feature causes incorrect control
behavior in The Simpsons Hit & Run .

16. If you are using a wireless gamepad, removing the batteries during
game play may cause the camera controls to become stuck. Exit the game
prior to changing the gamepad batteries.

17. If you have 2 CD-ROM drives and are attempting to run the game with
the CD in the second CD-ROM drive, but it will not start from the
Autoplay application, please start the game from the Start Menu
shortcut.

18. If you are running Windows 98 or Windows ME and movie playback is

choppy or slow, try the following:
• Open the Control Panel
• Double click "System" to open the System Properties dialog
 • Open the "Performance" Tab
• Click on the "Virtual Memory..." button
• Make sure "Let me specify my own settings" is checked, and set
"Minimum" and "Maximum" to the same value (512 MB is reasonable)
• Click OK
• Click OK
• Click OK to reboot

19. When playing with the keyboard, if pressing a key results in the
key appearing to be “stuck”, for example, pressing “A” and releasing
results in the character always moving left, try pressing the key in
question again.

20. If you are running Windows ME, and the game stops responding to
button presses on your gamepad, please exit the game, unplug and replug
your gamepad into its port, and restart the game.

21. If you are running Windows 2000 or XP, and if you have only
Limited User privileges, you will have to have your system
administrator install/uninstall the game for you. You also will not be
able to save games.

22. If you are running antivirus software while playing The Simpsons
Hit & Run , you may experience stability problems. It is recommended
that you close all other applications and disable any antivirus
software prior to running the game.

23. If you are running Microsoft Windows with StickyKeys enabled and
you use keys such as Shift, Ctrl or Alt to control the game, you may
inadvertently trigger StickyKeys. Either disable StickyKeys in your
Windows settings, or use another key for game play.

24. If your computer goes into standby mode while playing the game, you
may experience instability when the computer comes out of standby mode.
If you are going to be leaving the computer idle for long periods,
either exit The Simpsons Hit & Run first, or disable standby mode in
your Microsoft Windows settings.

25. While installing the game on Windows XP, the dialog box allowing
you to enter an explicit install path may lose focus, causing you to
not be able to type in the path. To rectify this, simply re-click on
the dialog in question and re-type the path.

26. When playing the game on Windows XP, if you are using the “Windows
XP Style” desktop setting, you may be able to click in the corner of
the game window and return to the desktop, due to the rounded window
corners. Use care when clicking near the extreme corners of the
window, or change your desktop style to not use windows with rounded
corners.

5. Technical Support

Technical Support
Internet: http://support.vugames.com
Phone: (310) 649-8030
Fax: (310) 258-0755
8 a.m. – 4:45 p.m. PST, Monday - Friday

Customer Service
Phone: (310) 649-8031
Fax: (310) 258-0744
8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. PST, Monday – Friday

Mail
Vivendi Universal Games
4247 South Minnewawa Avenue
Fresno, California
93725

If you decide to telephone our Customer Services, please try to be

sitting in front of your computer and have a pen and paper at the
ready. Before contacting us, please try to have the following
information ready so that we may help you more efficiently:
• The name of the product.
• The make and model of your computer.
• The processor and its speed.
• Any peripherals attached to the computer.
• The graphics card, driver date and version.
• The sound card, driver date and version.
• The version of Windows you are using.
• Total memory installed.
• The exact error message (if any).
• The version of DirectX installed.
• The type of CD-ROM drive.
• The total system resources free before running the program.
• The name of any programs running in the background.

If you decide to email our Customer Services, to ensure a prompt reply

please summarize your issues as concisely as you can, giving details,
as above, of the product, the problem or error and any circumstances
that you feel relevant and your particular computer system.