henke on 7/4/2011 at 13:35
Quote Posted by dethtoll
Holy shit, I've wanted to play this game for ages.
Me too. So I just signed up for gog and bought it. :)
I played the demo of this when it was on a PC GAMER UK demo CD back in the mid-90's and a lot of it stuck with me. The creepy record player which played sounds of children crying. The intro movie where the guy laments not getting in touch with his father while he was still alive. That there was a secret backdoor in one of the rooms that triggered the end of the demo. And I think there was a shotgun hidden somewhere?
Yeah, I'm way overdue for playing this one.
Thirith on 7/4/2011 at 14:45
I think I'll get Realms of the Haunting, but then I'll have to stop for a while. I've already got a big backlog of games, and after adding the Battle Isle series (which should keep me busy for a while, even if I only play 2-3 titles), Sanitarium and Gabriel Knight (a game I've been wanting to play ever since watching the stamp-sized making-of video on an ancient magazine CD-ROM) I'll be busy for the next couple of months.
henke on 7/4/2011 at 16:02
Quote Posted by Shadowcat
I assume GOG has the later US release of the game, in which case key-binding is possible for some (but not all) of the controls. If not, then cue the wailing and gnashing of teeth...
It seems to be the UK version yeah. After much mucking around I managed to get the resolution to fullscreen instead of it being just a tiny box in the middle of my screen. There is a Graphics Settings tool that comes with the game but it doesn't seem to do much, I had to go into the dosboxROTH.conf file and change stuff to get it changed. Now I'm just trying to change the goddamn controls, I found this fanmade patch (
http://shadowcat.freehosting.net/roth_patch.html) here, by a certain shadowcat. Is that you, ShadowCat? I managed to get it installed and while it did let me change the controls it also fucked up the sound. Gonna tinker around some more and try to get it working. But I gotta say that I'm having some serious fucking buyer's remorse right now. I though the whole point of this GOG thing was that they fixed this kinda shit so common folk like me don't have to worry about it. :nono:
edit: ok, got it working. In case anyone else has the same problem:
1. download the patch I linked to
2. make backups of the original UK files
3. copy in the US files. start game, configure controls the way you want them. Start the first level and have a look around, make sure to examine the things at the far end of the room. If everything works and sounds fine you're good to go(I guess).
But if the sound is messed up:
4. copy back the 2 UK DBASE files and the 2 files in the DATA folder. That should fix the sound but it also removes the text for the difficulty settings. (Easy/Normal/Hard/SuperHard in the first "General Difficulty" dialogue box, Easy/Hard in the second "Adventure" box)
Ok, I just played up till chapter 2. The game looks pretty terrible but the sound does a great job at creating an atmosphere. I'm playing with headphones on in a dark room and I found parts of it genuinely unnerving.
gunsmoke on 7/4/2011 at 16:36
Damn, thanks henke. I was JUST about to pull out the credit card and go GOG-ing. I'll, instead, let you muck around with it and see if you can get it to play nice. Thanks again, and let us know how you fare.
Volitions Advocate on 7/4/2011 at 17:55
hmmm... maybe i should stick with my cd-roms and disc swapping in doxbox.
june gloom on 7/4/2011 at 18:33
Spent my money on The Arrival DLC for ME2 instead. Thanks henke.
gunsmoke on 8/4/2011 at 01:36
Well, deth, if it ends up worth a fuck I'll grab you a copy when I get mine.
june gloom on 8/4/2011 at 03:18
Excellent. Thank you.
henke on 8/4/2011 at 07:49
I've played the first 2 chapters now, about 1-2 hours playtime total, and I'm not really sure I'd recommend this to anyone. The first level up in the mansion is alright but chapter 2 takes you down into the basement which is basically Doom-style leveldesign. Narrow corridors, lava, levers to pull and keys to find. The controls are clunky to say the least and the combat is not what I'd call satisfying. The plot is presented through a string of cringeworthy FMV sequences. Sure, the FMV is better than what you ususaly saw in games in '96 but it's still a far cry from being any good. The guy who plays the protagonist has only one expression, a mix of bewilderment and nausea, and so far he's pretty much kept the same expression since the beginning of the game.
On the plus side, the sound is good, and the puzzles are ok(though I am playing on "Easy" Adventuring so maybe they're more complex on "Hard"). The game will occasionally give you choices though I don't know if they actually make any difference to the story.
I'm sure this game was impressive as hell 15 years ago but today? Go play Amnesia instead, if you haven't already. I'm still gonna press on, wanna get my 5 bucks worth! And it looks like Chapter 3 will be set on the groundfloor of the mansion, away from the dreary leveldesign of the basement. And who knows, maybe the game gets unexpectedly brilliant halfway through or something. If I manage to make it to the end I'll be sure to do a full write-up.
Shadowcat on 8/4/2011 at 12:03
Quote Posted by henke
It seems to be the UK version yeah.
Yes indeed. A bit of a shame, but in fact it turns out not to be a problem from a key-binding point of view now that we're running it through DOSBox, as that has its own more comprehensive key-binding facilities.
Yep, (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6479) that was me (and almost exactly 10 years ago, in fact).
Quote:
I managed to get it installed and while it did let me change the controls it also fucked up the sound.
Yes, I discuss that :) Once you've finished setting up the keys, you need to restore your backups of the DAT files. It's all covered on that web page. I know it's a bit wordy, but it's a bit of a hands-on process, so you need to read it carefully.
That said, I would recommend just using the DOSBox facilities instead. I'm currently playing it myself with a keyboard layout rather similar to that of System Shock, with all non-mouse activities easily available to my other hand, which I was never able to achieve with my patch due to the 'C' key being unchangeable.
* Before you start, back up the original mapper.txt file in the game directory.
* Now start the game and press CTRL+F1 to open the DOSBox key mapper UI.
* To make it so that pressing W moves you forward, first click the key on the virtual keyboard that would normally perform that action (the 'up' arrow in this instance).
* Now click the 'Add' button, and on your real keyboard type 'W'.
* Now click the virtual 'W' and then the 'Del' button to remove its default binding, to prevent your W key from still generating a W as well as an 'up' arrow code.
* Repeat that sequence for all the keys you wish to bind.
* Save and exit when you're done. The changes take effect immediately, and if you want to tweak it further, simply press CTRL+F1 again.
Quote:
Gonna tinker around some more and try to get it working. But I gotta say that I'm having some serious fucking buyer's remorse right now. I though the whole point of this GOG thing was that they fixed this kinda shit so common folk like me don't have to worry about it. :nono:
Well in fairness to them, the key-binding issue is purely a consequence of them using the UK release, and while I wish they'd used the US release, maybe they didn't have had the rights to that one.
The screen size thing sounds a bit weird. I didn't have any issues like that, FWIW, but I'm glad you got it sorted.
