Discworld Noir?

[Molokov]

I loaded Win98 onto a Virtual Machine (under Virtual Box), and tried installing Discworld Noir. Installation went OK, and the game even ran through to the start screen and the opening cut scene for a new game - but then died at the point where game play was supposed to start.

Any clues on how to get it working either under a VM (Win98, Win XP) or natively under Windows 7 would be appreciated.

 

[FreebirthOne]

How to play Discworld Noir on Windows 7 how it was ment to be played

Preliminaries

• 
  Step 1
  * Install into a folder on root of c:, full installation
  * copy contents of Folder CD3 to CD 1
  * Download the fixed exe from http://m0005.gamecopyworld.com/games/pc ... noir.shtml
  * execute the commands shown there
  try the game
  --> If you can start the game and can see the intro after pressing "New game" , everything is okay. If not, please search the web how to do so
  * Quit playing by pressing "Esc" several times. The game will crash almost certanly

• 
  Step 2
  * Download winexp from http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/winexp.html and extract it somewhere
  --> this is useful to create a sort of a "fullscreen" later

• 
  Step 3
  * download the "tinycursors" cursor from http://www.rdpslides.com/tinycursors.zip and extract the "nothing.cur" somewhere
  * open the "mouse"applet in the ctrol panel and navigate to the pointers tab
  * here click on "Browse" on the lower right, navigate to the folder you extracted the nothing.cur to, and double-click on it
  * now click on "save as" in the upper left and give it a good name, like "hidden" or so
  --> from now on you always can choose this theme if you want a invisible cursor.

Playing

• 
  Step 1
  * open the Control Panel
  * open the "Display" applet, navigate to Screen resolution --> Advanced settings, Tab "Monitor"
  * on the lower left, select the "Color depth" and set it to "High color (16bit)
  --> Now you can play in "Window Mode" with all colors intact

• 
  Step 2
  * start discworld noir again, using the switched exe from above
  * before doing anything enter the "window mode" by hitting "Alt+Enter"
  --> this prevents further crashes. I'm not really sure, why; but in true fullscreen it always was a risk not to save very often...

• 
  Step 3
  * start winexp from the folder you extracted it above
  * select the "Diwscworld Noir" entry from the list
  * In the "Style"-Tab deselect "WS_BORDER" and "WS_DLGFRAME"
  * In the "Size and Position" Tab, set "Left" and "Top" to zero as well as the width and height to your current screen resolution
  --> Now you should have a window with the game running in it, fullscreen and without borders, just like a real "fullscreen"

• 
  Step 4
  * open the "Mouse" applet like above, choose the "Hidden" theme and apply it
  --> Now you got rid of the really anoying Desktop mouse, and can enjoy the ingame one

Enjoy playing


Further Tips and Tricks:

• * If not done before, set your task bar to auto-hide in the Settings for "Task bar and Start menu" tab "Task bar"
  * If you want to load a previous game you don't have to start one first. just press F1 in the menu screen and choose "Load game"
  * When you change something in winexp and nothing hapens to the game windows, please select it again in the windows list...

Well, I hope I could help a bit. I was having several wonderful evenings playing this great game how it was ment to be played and that withound mendling with Virtualisation or such things.

A, yes: if anyone can tell me how to automate some things it would be great...

 

[Mixa]

Wow, super interesting! Thanks FreebirthOne!

Mx

 

[GAN]

Oh I don't remember - I REMEMBER. I think it's the best dark fantasy detective adventure. Well the one with humour - surely.
And about books Pterry can write: why not novellisation of "Noir"? I'd read this Lovecraft humor version of "DW" immediately!

 

[Ghost]

the game is about 15 years old and it took and adapted a lot of plot lines from the other books in series
meaning creating and padding the story out into a full novel or short story is more work than it's worth

mind you as a personal note I was lucky enough to just get into Discworld around about the release date of
Noir and found a brand new copy for the PS1 at about £15

 

[GAN]

Of course. It's just my dream that will never come true (if mr. Prachett doesn't give me rights to write it )) . Joke. I think as just a fantasy this idea is more good.

I don't have PS1 but thank you!
ANd sometimes I use old versions of Windows to play such games. Nostalgia.

 

[m1key]

I found this game here: http://www.old-games.com/download/1289/discworld-noir

You can also get the first two games at the same place and if you download the Easy Setup option they are already setup to run on a modern pc. I've already tried Discworld and Discworld2 and they work perfect with sound, mouse, 1920 x 1080 resolution, and everything on my XP 32 bit machine. Manual included. I'm assuming/hoping Discworld-noir will work just as well.