Hi

I bought the Director's Cut version of the game from GOG and am trying to get the navigation working correctly.
[I had a go last year but failed miserably !!]

When I move the mouse to change direction, the response is slow, wavering and imprecise - so it takes an absolute age to move from one location to the next.

So far, I've tried every setting along the Graphics Accelerator bar, but none has made any difference.

Can anyone please suggest anything else for me to try ??

[My original disk version of the game (not The Director's Cut) works perfectly ]

Thanks.

Mad

Have you tried temporarily disabling your antivirus? That is what Augustin Cordes himself mentions in ***this thread***.

It's also possible you have a bad install of the game. You could try reinstalling with the antivirus disabled, in case the antivirus blocked something.


If the disk version still works perfectly on the same computer, maybe the problem is with the files in the GOG version. Maybe they compressed them or something.

Hi Jenny100 - and thank you for your fast response and your suggestion and the link

To allow me to act on the anti virus thing, I uninstalled the game, cleared out any left over files with CCleaner, re-booted and then started everything all over yet again

This time I disabled my anti virus for the install.

Also, once I'd launched the game, I immediately went into the "set-up" options and chose to enable "slideshow".

PLUS I disabled "alternate control" .... whatever that is !!

Going on then to test play the game I had a peculiar mixture of little blue navigation arrows AND mouse navigation.

BUT THEY WORKED !!

I now seem to be able to move round with ease.
[And later re-enabling my anti virus to play the game didn't have any detrimental effects either ]

So, once again, thank you very much !!

EDIT :

Celebrated too soon ....

Once the phone rang, after I entered the house, the text speed went mad. It raced along too fast to be read. And going into "set-up" and opting for slow text didn't make any difference at all.
How unfortunate - just when I'd got navigation workable

Have to think of something else to try now.

Cheers.

Mad

Are you using XP SP3 or Windows 7?
About how old is the computer? Almost new or ?
What video card?

Have you tried running it in compatibility mode?
Have you tried installing the disc version recently or was it some time ago that it worked for you?

Hi again

Sorry !! I should have listed specs when I started this thread.

My computer is 8 years old and this is what it has :

WinXP Home SP3
AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3000+ MMX 3DNow ~ 2.0GHz
ATI Radeon Sapphire HD 3650 AGP
SB Live! 24-bit
2048MB RAM
DirectX 9.c

I hadn't thought I would need to try a compatibility mode with the GOG version.
Which mode would you recommend I try ??

I played my original disk version (released 2006) last year - and it still ran fine - and I don't think anything major has been changed on this PC since then.
I just wanted to see what the "Director's Cut" version offered

EDIT AGAIN :

Well .... I turned the Sound Accelerator down and that sorted the text/speech problem. Yippee !!
Navigation and text apparently OK now.

So I played on a little (successfully) and moved around investigating a few rooms (successfully) and then BAM !! Everything froze !!

Getting very fed up.

Cheers.

Mad

Oh OK. I misunderstood. I thought you meant you'd played the disc version of Director's Cut. The non-Director's Cut is a different story. It crashed on me too, while the original Scratches did not. I just put up with it, since it didn't crash all that often -- just had to remember to save regularly.

Reducing audio acceleration can sometimes help stop crashes, but you've already done that.

I'm guessing it's a matter of finding the right video drivers, but playing driver roulette can be a pain. There was a patch for the Director's Cut, but the GOG version should already be patched.

Hi

Thanks for trying to help Jenny100 !!

I haven't had time to try anything else yet but I might have - later on today.

Cheers.

Mad

Just a last quick question ...

The GOG download offers two things to play - "The Director's Cut" and "The last Visit".

Do both these titles have different content to the original "Scratches" ??

Thanks.

Mad

You know how some Collector's Editions of Big Fish games have a "bonus game" you can play after you finish the main game? "The Last Visit" is like one of those bonus games.

So "The Last Visit" will definitely have different content. Thanks Jenny100

But does "The Director's Cut" differ from the original game too ??

[I need reasons to justify any more perseverence !! ]

Thanks again.

Cheers.

Mad

Director's Cut has higher resolution graphics.
According to ***Becky's review***, there were auditory enhancements. (I didn't notice them at the time I played, but if I'd played the Director's Cut immediately after playing the original, I might have noticed.)

The panning mode in Director's Cut is central-cursor style while in the original it was soft edge panning. This may or may not help with motion sickness since with the center cursor type you know exactly when and how fast the screen will pan. (This was the biggest improvement for me. I had to play the original without any panning because the soft edge panning gave me a stomach ache.)

The main story is the same, but the Director's Cut has an alternative ending. According to Becky's Review,


I thought it was worth playing the Director's Cut version, but I hadn't played the original for years so I'd forgotten a lot of it. If your game is crashing too often, maybe using older video drivers would help if the current ones make the game too unstable. I'm afraid the drivers I used would be too old to use with your video card though, so I can't recommend them.

Thank you so much for all your help and the info you've provided, Jenny100. Much appreciated

I've decided to compromise.

I'm not bothered about graphic enhancements or whatever in the game - just any new content I can manage to experience.
So I'll replay my original Scratches and then struggle through the crashes or whatever with The Last Visit as best I can.

Sounds like A PLAN to me !!

Thanks again.

Cheers.

Mad