
  FIX8X14 - 8x14 font fixer
  Copyright (C) 1997-2002 BTTR Software
  [Under GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE]
  Published by BTTR Software


                                C O N T E N T S
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  1  INTRODUCTION
  2  LICENSE & DISCLAIMER
  3  SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
  4  INSTALLATION
  5  USAGE
     5.1  DIAG8X14.COM
     5.2  FIX8X14.COM
     5.3  FIX8X14.SYS
  6  TECHNICAL SUPPORT & UPDATES
  7  ADDITIONAL INFORMATION


  1                         I N T R O D U C T I O N
  ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ

  On the recommendation of the VESA committee many producers of graphics cards
  removed the 8x14 font from their graphics cards BIOS' to gain more space to
  implement the latest VBE functions. But there is still some software that
  relies on that font. To restore such a font, these companies developed
  several "Terminate & Stay Resident" utilities.

  FIX8X14 is the first 8x14 font-fixing implementation as a true device
  driver, that can be loaded BEFORE ALL other DOS programs which perhaps use
  an 8x14 font. In addition to the device driver we developed a TSR to achieve
  maximum customer satisfaction.

  To test whether your computer system requires FIX8X14 or not, we developed
  DIAG8X14. It analyzes your computer with its own algorithm and allows visual
  inspection too.

  The following DOS software has been tested to require an 8x14 font fixer and
  is known to work fine with FIX8X14:

     Company                ³ Product                       ³ Works with...
     ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
     Borland                ³ Quattro Pro 4                 ³ COM/SYS
     CMAR Software          ³ PIDSIM 2.x                    ³ COM/SYS
     Maxis Software         ³ SimCity 1.02                  ³ COM/SYS
     Nu-Mega Technologies   ³ Soft-ICE 2.80                 ³ SYS
     Number One Systems     ³ Easy-PC                       ³ COM/SYS
     Soleau Software        ³ Alphaman 1.1                  ³ COM/SYS
     Soleau Software        ³ Blind Wars 1.1                ³ COM/SYS
     Soleau Software        ³ Bolo Adventures I 3.0         ³ COM/SYS
     Soleau Software        ³ Bolo Adventures III 1.0       ³ COM/SYS
     Soleau Software        ³ Crusher 3.2                   ³ COM/SYS
     Soleau Software        ³ Isle Wars 3.1                 ³ COM/SYS
     Soleau Software        ³ Numlo 1.0                     ³ COM/SYS
     Soleau Software        ³ Plix 1.0                      ³ COM/SYS
     Soleau Software        ³ Robix 1.1                     ³ COM/SYS
     Soleau Software        ³ Sea Run 1.0                   ³ COM/SYS
     Soleau Software        ³ Wordle 1.2                    ³ COM/SYS
     Soleau Software        ³ Wordmax 1.1                   ³ COM/SYS
     The Software Toolworks ³ Miracle Piano Teaching System ³ COM/SYS

  The following graphics cards have been tested to require an 8x14 font fixer
  and are known to work fine with FIX8X14:

  (*) ATI XPERT@WORK 98, ATI XPERT 2000, ATI XPERT 2000 PRO, ELSA ERAZOR II,
      ELSA VICTORY Erazor/LT, Matrox MGA Millennium G100, Matrox MGA
      Millennium G200, Matrox MGA Millennium G400, Matrox MGA Millennium G450,
      Trident Cyber 9397 chipset

  Modern graphics cards that support an 8x14 font are the Voodoo (2k/3k/4k/5k)
  series from 3dfx Interactive and probably all cards/chipsets that have an
  48K bytes BIOS, e.g., Creative 3D Blaster GeForce2 MX, SiS 630 chipset,
  Trident/ALi CyberBLADE Aladdin i1 chipset, ...

  For your information here is an excerpt from "VESA BIOS EXTENSION (VBE) Core
  Functions Standard Version: 3.0 Date: September 16, 1998":

  ...

  Removal of Unused VGA Fonts

  VESA strongly recommends that removal of the 8x14 VGA font become a standard
  way of freeing up space for VBE 3.0 implementations. The removal of this
  font leaves 3.5K bytes of ROM space for new functions, and is probably the
  least painful way to free up such a large amount of space while preserving
  as much backwards compatibility as possible. The 8x14 font is normally used
  for VGA Modes 0, 3 and Mode 10h, which are 350-line or EGA compatible modes.
  When those are selected the 8x16 font may be chopped and used instead. When
  chopping a 16 point font to replace the 14 point, there are several
  characters (ones with descenders) that should be special cased.

  Some applications which use the 8x14 font obtain a pointer to the font table
  through the standard VGA functions and then use this table directly. In such
  cases, no workaround using the 8x16 font is possible and a TSR with the 8x14
  font is unavoidable. Some OEMs may find this situation unacceptable because
  of the potential for an inexperienced user to encounter "garbage" on the
  screen if the TSR is not present. However, OEMs may also find eventually
  that demand for VBE 3.0 services is great enough to justify the
  inconvenience associated with an 8x14 font TSR. To date, no compatibility
  problems are known to be caused by the use of such a TSR. VESA will make
  available a TSR that replaces the 8x14 font, please contact VESA for more
  information.

  ...

  Copyright (C) 1993-1998 Video Electronics Standards Association


  2                  L I C E N S E  &  D I S C L A I M E R
  ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ

  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
  under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
  Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option)
  any later version.

  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
  ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
  FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for
  more details.

  You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
  this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple
  Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

  Trademarks of companies mentioned in this software appear for identification
  purposes only and are the property of their respective owners.


  3                  S Y S T E M  R E Q U I R E M E N T S
  ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ

  (*) Intel i80286 microprocessor (or compatibles)

  (*) IBM VGA graphics card (or compatibles)

  (*) Digital Research DR DOS 5.0, IBM PC DOS 3.30, Microsoft MS-DOS 3.30 (any
      other DOS compatible operating system should work too)


  4                         I N S T A L L A T I O N
  ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ

  There is no designated setup program that comes with FIX8X14 because
  installation can be done very easily: Decompress the complete archive (with,
  e.g., PKUNZIP or WinZip) into an empty directory and you are ready to use
  FIX8X14.


  5.1                       D I A G 8 X 1 4 . C O M
  ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ

  The filename says it all: DIAG8X14 is the diagnostic utility to test for the
  8x14 font on your computer system.

  At first it evaluates the memory locations of the 8x14 and the 8x16 font in
  your computer system. If these addresses are equal, there is probably no
  real 8x14 font (or an 8x14 font fixer) present. As this "algorithm" is not
  100% reliable, DIAG8X14 then allows you to do visual inspection of a test
  pattern. So you can decide yourself, if you have to or want to use FIX8X14.

  To summarize: Execute DIAG8X14.COM at the command prompt of your computer's
                OS and follow the on-screen instructions.

  NOTE: If you use any Microsoft Windows environment, please ensure that you
        start DIAG8X14.COM in full-screen mode!


  5.2                        F I X 8 X 1 4 . C O M
  ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ

  FIX8X14.COM is our TSR solution for on-the-fly fixing of the 8x14 font
  problem.

  It does not require any manipulation to your configuration files!

  Simply execute it at the command prompt of your computer's OS and it will
  move itself into an Upper Memory Block (UMB) (if available) and return
  control to the underlying operating system. Then you start your desired
  application and proceed as normal. After quitting your application execute
  FIX8X14.COM again and it will remove itself from memory, leaving your
  computer system in the state it was before.

  NOTE: It is neither required nor recommended to use the LOADHIGH command!

  If you need to or want to apply FIX8X14.COM to a specific DOS program, then
  in it is recommended for Microsoft Windows (9x, ME, NT 4.0, 2000, etc.)
  users to create a desktop shortcut to a batch file.

  (*) Firstly copy the file FIX8X14.COM into the directory of your DOS
      program.

  (*) To create such a simple batch file open NOTEPAD (or any other plain text
      editor), put the following lines in and save the file as, e.g.,
      start.bat into the directory of your DOS program.

      @echo off
      fix8x14.com
      example.exe  <-- place name of your DOS program here
      fix8x14.com

  (*) Double-click the "My Computer" icon on the desktop. Change to the
      directory where you saved the batch file to. Click the batch file. On
      the "File" menu, click "Create Shortcut". Resize the "My Computer"
      window to see the desktop in the background. Drag the shortcut icon onto
      the desktop.

      Use your right mouse button to click the shortcut, and then click
      "Properties". Be sure to check "Close on exit" on the "Program" tab and
      change "Usage" to "Full-screen" on the "Screen" tab.


  5.3                        F I X 8 X 1 4 . S Y S
  ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ

  DOS & Microsoft Windows 9x

    (*) place the line "DEVICEHIGH=C:\TOOLS\FIX8X14\FIX8X14.SYS" (adjust path
        properly) right after the HIMEM.SYS statement in your CONFIG.SYS file

    (*) reboot your computer and start DIAG8X14 to test the proper
        installation

  Microsoft Windows ME

    Microsoft Windows ME does not parse CONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT files by
    default. There are some (difficult to use) solutions to this problem, but
    we recommend to use our TSR program FIX8X14.COM. See section 5.2 for
    details.

  Microsoft Windows NT & Microsoft Windows 2000

    (*) place the line "DEVICEHIGH=C:\TOOLS\FIX8X14\FIX8X14.SYS" (adjust path
        properly) right after the HIMEM.SYS statement in your
        %systemroot%\system32\config.nt file

    (*) start DIAG8X14 to test the proper installation


  6            T E C H N I C A L  S U P P O R T  &  U P D A T E S
  ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ

  First read bugs.txt for already known bugs.

  If you encounter any bugs or just want to tell us your opinion about this
  software, do not hesitate to contact our technical support by e-mail.

                           <support@bttr-software.de>

  Possible future updates to this software will be available from our website.

                     `http://www.bttr-software.de/fix8x14/'


  7                A D D I T I O N A L  I N F O R M A T I O N
  ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ

  FIX8X14 was created using Aurora Editor 3.0c, Borland MAKE 3.0, Netwide
  Assembler (NASM) 0.98, Advanced SPHiNX C-- 0.237 and Ultimate Packer for
  eXecutables (UPX) 1.20d as well as massive information from several books
  and the internet.

  Special thanks to Pete Kvitek <pete@kvitek.com> who offered the source code
  for his ancient EVAFONT package to us, which was a great help in extending
  the reliability of FIX8X14.

  ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ END OF DOCUMENT ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
