Version 9 Support
Last updated: July 26, 2004
This page answers questions that are specific to the user interface and
features of version 9. For answers to general questions about the game,
our player ratings, and company policies, see FAQ
-- General.
The items on this page are grouped into four categories -- known bugs,
trouble-shooting, features, and how-to.
NOTE: We released
a version 9a patch on May 18th.. Bugs fixes in that patch are no longer
listed on this page, but are summarized on the patch
download pages instead.
Known bugs
Unable to view Glossary in Help system
Unable to view Help system on Windows95
Play-by-play font size not remembered
Earned runs incorrect when batter out stretching
to end inning (posted July 26, 2004)
Trouble-shooting
I drafted new rosters, but when
I start playing games, I get a message that says "[Player X] not on [team's]
roster." What's going on?
How can I keep a player from getting
drafted more than once?
Why is DMB is putting my players
into the #9 slot when I try to choose a starting lineup?
Features
Is there a printed user guide?
Are the Help files available in PDF
format?
How To
How can I print the Help file?
What's the easiest way to look at a
list of the free agents in a database?
How do I set up to automatically save
boxscores for autoplayed games?
How can I install a desktop icon
so I can start the game more easily?
How can I use very old season
disks with version 9?
How should I interpret the error
rating? The values on the roster (131) and the game window (e16) are different.
How can I assign free agents without
running a draft?
I wound up with a tie for a division lead. How
do I play that to a conclusion?
Bugs
Unable to view Glossary in Help system
If you are unable to view the Glossary in the Help system, you can fix
this by downloading and registering the latest version of the HHActiveX.dll
file. Here's how:
- Click here to download the
HHActiveX.dll file
- Copy this file to your c:\windows\system32 folder if you have one;
if not, copy it to your c:\windows\system folder (on some Windows operating
systems, you may need to install this in c:\windows\system even if you
do have a system32 folder)
- Click on the Start button
- Click on Run...
- Enter regsvr32 hhactivex.dll
and click OK
Unable to view Help system on Windows95
Version 9 installs a newer version of the hhctrl.ocx file that does not
work on (at least) some Windows95 computers. If you are running DMB9 on
a Windows95 computer, you can download
an older version of the hhctrl.ocx file and copy it to your windows
c:\windows\system folder. After you have done this, the Help system should
work properly.
Play-by-play font size not remembered
In version 9, you can choose the font family and size for the display
of the play-by-play commentary. If you choose a font size that is an odd
number, it is used correctly within the current DMB session, but it may
revert to the next-highest even number the next time you start the game.
Earned runs incorrect when batter out stretching
to end inning
In some cases, the pitcher is not charged with enough earned runs if
one or more runners score on a player that ends the inning when the batter
is thrown out trying to take an extra base on a single, double, or triple.
The problem occurs only in the relatively rare cases where the batter
is thrown out without any input from a manager. Earned runs are
correctly charged when an inning-ending out is made after the offensive
manager (human or computer) elects to send the batter to second on a throw
home.
Status: Fixed, will be included in the 9b patch.
Trouble-shooting
I drafted new rosters, but when I start
playing games, I get a message that says "[Player X] not on [team's] roster."
When we ship our annual season disk, the option to use real-life transactions
and game-by-game lineups is turned on. After you run a draft, the rosters
are no longer in synch with the real-life lineups, so the game complains
when it tries to load those lineups.
The solution is to turn off this feature by choosing View > Organizer
to display the DMB organizer window. If you're using an Organization,
click on the Orgs tab, then double-click on the organization. When
the Modify Organization window pops up, click on the Rules/Options
tab, then change the value of Transactions and lineups to "Do not
use transactions or lineups". Then click OK to save these changes
and try playing games again. (If your league is not part of an Organization,
click on the Leagues tab instead and make the change to your league settings.)
How can I keep a player from getting drafted
more than once?
This is discussed in a Help file topic called "Draft Preparation" that
you can find by accessing the Help table of contents, then double-clicking
on the Organizer chapter and double-clicking on the Drafts chapter.
Most Diamond Mind Season Disks contain more than one record for players
who were traded during the real-life season. So you'll often see the same
player in the free agent pool three or four times -- once for each team
he played on (we call these team-specific records), and once for his overall
performance (we call these combined records).
It's best to remove the team-specific records and leave only the player's
combined record in the database before you begin the draft. The Tools
> Delete team-specific records command is an easy way to do this.
This command deletes only those team-specific records that are in the
free agent pool, so remember to use Tools > Release all players
first.
Why is DMB is putting my players into the #9
slot when I try to choose a starting lineup?
Official rules of baseball require that the two teams name their starting
pitchers before the starting lineups must be submitted. For that reason,
lineup selection in DMB is done in two phases -- starting pitchers first,
then starting lineups.
When the lineup selection window first appears, choose both starting
pitchers and then click the OK button to lock in those selections. During
this phase, all players are inserting into the #9 slot (non-DH league)
or the P slot (DH league) in the lineup.
When you click OK to lock in the starting pitcher selections, DMB displays
the same window a second time, but with a different title, meaning that
it is ready for you to choose the starting lineups.
In lineup selection mode, this window has a different set of popup menus
that contain commands for entering your starting lineups. At this point,
you can move the pitcher from the #9 slot to another batting order position
and/or complete the rest of your lineup.
Features
Is there a printed user guide?
We have no plans to create a printed user guide. Instead we have created
an extensive Help file that you can access from just about anywhere in
the game.
You can print all or part of the Help file
if you like.
The Help system contains almost 300 pages of tutorials, step-by-step
instructions on individual features, explanations of important concepts,
screen images, and reference information. You can access context-specific
help from dozens of places in the product, so you should be able to get
advice on what you're working more quickly than if you had to search for
it in the user guide.
Are the Help files available in PDF format?
We have created PDF versions of the help files that can be viewed using
the free Adobe Acrobat reader. If you wish to print all or part of the
Help file, you may find that it's easier to do that with these PDF files
than with the Help system.
If you click the following links, your browser may ask where you want
to save the file or it may just display it in the browser window. If it
displays the file in your browser window, you can use the Save command
(on your browser's File menu) to save it to your hard disk for future
reference.
DMB9.pdf file (2.2
MB)
DMB_Encyclopedia.pdf
file (424 KB)
Get the
Acrobat reader
How To
How can I print the Help file?
Open the Help file, choose the Contents tab, right-click on a chapter
or topic and choose the Print command from the popup menu. You'll need
to do this once for each of the twelve top-level chapters to get the entire
help system on paper.
Another option is to download the PDF versions
of the Help files and use the Acrobat reader to print the entire
Help file in a single command.
What's the easiest way to look at a list of free
agents?
One way is to open a register report. Start by choosing Report >
Standard. When the report selection window appears, click on Batting
register in the report type list, then click on Real-life batting
register in the list of reports. When the report options dialog pops
up, choose Players on a free agent list and click on OK.
You can use the same technique to display a list of free agent pitchers.
You can also view a list of free agents from the Draft window. To create
a new draft, start by choosing the View > Organizer command.
Then click on the Drafts tab, click on the New button, and
fill in the draft options form. After the draft has been created, double-click
on it in the Organizer window to open the Draft window. Click the Batters
and Pitchers tabs in the Draft window to see a list of free agents of
each type.
How do I set up to automatically save boxscores
for autoplayed games?
We moved the options to save boxscores and scoresheets to the league
settings so league commissioners could set them once and know that they'll
be in force for all league games. You can modify these settings using
View > Organizer to open the Organizer window.
If you're playing an inter-league season, click on the Orgs tab, then
double-click on the organization you wish to modify (there's only one),
click on the Rules/Options tab and change the settings.
If you're playing with a single league that's not part of an organization,
click on the Leagues tab and follow the same sequence of steps for the
selected league.
How can I install a desktop icon so I can
start the game more easily?
- Open Windows Explorer or My Computer as a window (not in full-screen
mode).
- Find the folder you installed DMB into. If you did a standard installation,
the folder will be on the C: drive and will be called DMB9.
- When you have opened that folder, find the file called baseball
(or baseball.exe if you have it set up to show file extensions).
Use the right mouse button to drag that file off the window and
onto an empty portion of your desktop, then release the mouse button.
- Windows pops up a little menu asking what you want to do. Choose Create
shortcut here.
- After Windows adds the icon to the desktop, you can move or rename
it at any time.
How can I use very old season disks with
version 9?
Version 9 is designed to convert and use seasons that are in version
5, 6, 7 or 8 format. When you install a season disk that is one of those
formats, DMB9 converts it to version 9 format during the installation
process.
If you have older season disks (i.e. version 2, 3 or 4), you can convert
them to version 9 in two steps if you own Diamond Mind Baseball version
5, 6, or 7.
For example, if you have version 7 installed on your computer, use DMB7
to install that old season and let DMB convert the season to version 7
format. Then start DMB version 9 and use the Copy database command (on
the File menu) to copy that database to a new location. DMB will convert
it to version 9 format after the database has been copied.
How should I interpret the error rating? The
values on the roster (131) and the game window (e16) are different.
On the roster report, a rating of 131 means that the player is rated
to make errors at a rate of 131% of the league average for his position,
or 31% more errors than the average player. On the game window, this shows
up as e16 to indicate that he's projected to make 16 errors per 100 full
games (900 defensive innings) when he plays games in this era. If you
move him to another era, his rating of 131 would translate into a different
number of projected errors.
How can I assign free agents to rosters without
running a draft?
The easiest way to get free agents onto rosters is to use the Roster
/ manager profile command on the View menu to open the roster
window. Then right-click anywhere on the large rectangle that lists all
of the players on the roster. When DMB displays a popup menu of roster
commands, choose Sign, then select the player to add to this roster.
Continue using the Sign command (changing teams as necessary) until
you have added all of the players you want.
I wound up with a tie for a division lead.
How do I play that to a conclusion?
You can add a tie-breaker playoff game to the schedule using the following
steps:
- Use the View > Organizer command to open the organizer
window.
- Click on the Schedules tab and then double-click on the schedule
you're playing to open the schedule editor.
- Click on the New button and select Add one game from
the popup menu.
- Choose the date and the teams, set the game Type to "Playoff",
then click OK to add the playoff game to the schedule.
Then return to the scheduled game window and either play or autoplay
the game. When your season is over, you can use the Tools > Restart
a season command to reset everything, and the restart process will
remove this playoff game from the schedule.
Just as in real life, the stats from tie-breaker games are included in
the regular season totals.
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