Midnight In Salem
#1204661
12/17/19 10:41 AM
12/17/19 10:41 AM
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Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 1,171 Michigan
Penny Lane
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I purchased the physical copy and the game freezes up in the opening. I have windows 10. I first purchased the digital download which froze up too so I thought it might work with the disk. But neither one plays. Any suggestions?
Vulgarity is no substitute for wit..------ Lady Violet Crawley (Downton Abbey)
Marlene aka Penny Lane (Paul McCartney fan)
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Re: Midnight In Salem
[Re: Penny Lane]
#1204667
12/17/19 11:06 AM
12/17/19 11:06 AM
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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 20,090 Near St. Louis, MO
Draclvr
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Does your computer meet the minimum requirements? If not, maybe some of Marian's suggestions will work.
OS: Windows® 7 64-bit or later Processor: Intel Core i3 3.00 GHz or AMD equivalent Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: Intel HD 4000, 2GB of video RAM DirectX: Version 11 Storage: 8 GB available space
Once again, weeds are my life!
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Re: Midnight In Salem
[Re: Jenny100]
#1204676
12/17/19 12:21 PM
12/17/19 12:21 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 48,371 near Yosemite
Marian
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I don't think the game was "optimized" at all. I think that's more accurate.
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Re: Midnight In Salem
[Re: Jenny100]
#1204677
12/17/19 12:24 PM
12/17/19 12:24 PM
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Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 1,171 Michigan
Penny Lane
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The game took about 20 minutes to load! I finally got to the setting page and went to advanced and did what you suggested I turned just about everything off and changed the screen resolution way down. I have spoken to Elizabeth and I need to find the book of apologies and the desk key. Well, I am right clicking to move around but I'm not moving away from the door! I'll keep trying. I am just so disappointed with this! If this is the best they can do(in 5 years!) I will not purchase another game. Nancy's new voice is ok but I miss Lani! The graphics seem a little amateurish I hope they will improve if I ever start moving around! Thanks for the help everyone. Hopefully I will move along.
Last edited by Penny Lane; 12/17/19 12:25 PM.
Vulgarity is no substitute for wit..------ Lady Violet Crawley (Downton Abbey)
Marlene aka Penny Lane (Paul McCartney fan)
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Re: Midnight In Salem
[Re: Penny Lane]
#1204681
12/17/19 01:03 PM
12/17/19 01:03 PM
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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 20,090 Near St. Louis, MO
Draclvr
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So, I'm just curious, Penny Lane. Is your computer another one that meets the specs, but is sluggish and unplayable until you reduce settings?
Once again, weeds are my life!
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Re: Midnight In Salem
[Re: Penny Lane]
#1204701
12/17/19 03:27 PM
12/17/19 03:27 PM
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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 20,090 Near St. Louis, MO
Draclvr
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I thought the same thing, Jenny. But I checked four different website listings including systemrequirementslab and they all said the same exact thing.
And this is from HerInteractive itself...
Processor: Intel Core i3 3.00 GHz or AMD equivalent Memory: 4 GB RAM Graphics: Intel HD 4000, 2 GB of video RAM DirectX: Version 11 Hard Disk Drive: 8 GB storage space Keyboard, mouse and speakers
Once again, weeds are my life!
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Re: Midnight In Salem
[Re: Draclvr]
#1204706
12/17/19 03:56 PM
12/17/19 03:56 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 40,644 southeast USA
Jenny100
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I thought the same thing, Jenny. But I checked four different website listings including systemrequirementslab and they all said the same exact thing. I'm guessing all those websites are just copying each other and not testing the game themselves.
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Re: Midnight In Salem
[Re: Penny Lane]
#1204708
12/17/19 04:02 PM
12/17/19 04:02 PM
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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 20,090 Near St. Louis, MO
Draclvr
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Oh, I'm sure they all copied it from the Herinteractive website assuming the developer of the game might actually know what the system specs were!
Once again, weeds are my life!
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Re: Midnight In Salem
[Re: Draclvr]
#1204709
12/17/19 04:06 PM
12/17/19 04:06 PM
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Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 1,171 Michigan
Penny Lane
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The game takes a long time 10-20 minutes to load. But after I changed the resolution and advanced setting the game plays fine without freezing up. Actually changing the resolution is what made the difference. But should it take that long to load?
Vulgarity is no substitute for wit..------ Lady Violet Crawley (Downton Abbey)
Marlene aka Penny Lane (Paul McCartney fan)
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Re: Midnight In Salem
[Re: Penny Lane]
#1204710
12/17/19 04:08 PM
12/17/19 04:08 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 48,371 near Yosemite
Marian
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And who knows where or who the developer of the game is - the company itself doesn't have any in-house development team. The ending credits were mind-boggling and included companies in Austria, Vietnam, and elsewhere. Way too many different places and people involved in this. I don't think the game should take that long to load, Penny Lane. I just think the programming isn't all that good. For me the game took so long to load the first time that I thought it had crashed and that I would never see the main menu at all. I found this post in the Nancy Drew subreddit, which I thought was interesting: My gaming PC loads the game to the menu in about 10-15 seconds. After seeing various posts from people with absurdly long load times, I tested the game on a couple laptops, starting with my current Dell XPS 15 which exceeds the requirements and didn’t have any problems (as expected though). I moved onto a much much older Samsung laptop from 2010 which is below the minimum requirements and it took a good 15-20 minutes of waiting on the loading screen until I got to the menu (it actually got there, surprisingly! frame rate wise the playability was next to nothing though)
I wanted to figure out why this was causing such an issue for people with computers that meet the minimum requirements (I didn’t have any other computers to test that really fit this criteria, I either had computers too far below the minimum requirements or ones which exceeded) so I decided to dig around the Unity log files for the game. What I found is more proof that the game is super unoptimized. According to the log, there is some messy code somewhere which causes a few errors on startup along with an inefficient way of loading things when the game starts up. A game of this size should definitely not be taking that long to load, especially with solid state drives and all that now.
Another good way to tell the game uses more resources than it really needs is that it begins making both of the fans on the graphics card in my gaming PC spin almost immediately after I get into the game - normally this doesn’t happen until the card actually needs it and temperatures/load gets high in a demanding game. Even then, it can take a little while for them to kick in.
The main thing that I’m mad about and feel for other people is HeR’s support team. They are barely offering technical support regarding MID and all I’ve seen so far suggested by them in reply to the game not loading or running as expected (on a computer which should be fine) is “Sorry! Your computer doesn’t meet the minimum requirements for this game.” This is annoying, because I know that they made the requirements for this game way too high for what it is, and that’s just another sign of laziness and poor optimization.
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Re: Midnight In Salem
[Re: Penny Lane]
#1204717
12/17/19 05:11 PM
12/17/19 05:11 PM
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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 20,090 Near St. Louis, MO
Draclvr
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Penny Lane, that's why I asked you earlier what your computer specs are. I'm curious to see if you are one of those who meets the specs, but still has problems.
That quote sure explains a lot, Marian.
Once again, weeds are my life!
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Re: Midnight In Salem
[Re: Penny Lane]
#1204746
12/17/19 09:16 PM
12/17/19 09:16 PM
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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 20,090 Near St. Louis, MO
Draclvr
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A quick way to find out everything except for your video card is to check your system. Right click on the white windows icon in the lower left; click on System. That will tell you your processor (CPU) and your RAM. But Speccy or Belarc will also give your your video card and video RAM.
Since you're using an older computer for gaming, this will be good information to have for the future.
Once again, weeds are my life!
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Re: Midnight In Salem
[Re: Draclvr]
#1204792
12/18/19 11:05 AM
12/18/19 11:05 AM
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Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 1,171 Michigan
Penny Lane
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Michigan
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Ok. Here we go! Processor; AMD E-350 1.60 GHz RAM; 4.00 GB(3.61 GB USABLE)
Vulgarity is no substitute for wit..------ Lady Violet Crawley (Downton Abbey)
Marlene aka Penny Lane (Paul McCartney fan)
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Re: Midnight In Salem
[Re: Penny Lane]
#1204797
12/18/19 11:32 AM
12/18/19 11:32 AM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 40,644 southeast USA
Jenny100
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southeast USA
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Ok. Here we go! Processor; AMD E-350 1.60 GHz RAM; 4.00 GB(3.61 GB USABLE) That doesn't meet the listed Minimum requirements for the processor or the system RAM. They ask for Processor: Intel Core i3 3.00 GHz or AMD equivalent You have only 1.60 GHz. This explains why the game takes so long to start. *** archived link of AMD's page for the E-350 from April 2011 ***They ask for Memory: 4 GB RAM You have only 3.61 GB Usable (suggesting you have a 32-bit operating system). Lack of RAM will also cause slowdowns. Since you don't list your video card, we can only guess what it is. But since the E-350 is a mobile (laptop) processor, apparently first released in 2011, I'm guessing the video card may also not meet the requirements. I can't really blame non-technical Nancy Drew fans for having insufficient computers because all the previous Nancy Drew games had very low requirements -- even lower than many casual games -- so it's not something they ever had to worry about before. One of the disadvantages of 3D games is the increased system requirements. And even if you do meet minimum requirements, the game often looks bad -- worse than screenshots -- because you have to turn down all the graphics options if you're playing on a computer with only the minimum requirements. In the future you may want to check one of the "Can I run it" websites before purchasing games. For example -- https://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/
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Re: Midnight In Salem
[Re: Penny Lane]
#1204798
12/18/19 11:51 AM
12/18/19 11:51 AM
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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 20,090 Near St. Louis, MO
Draclvr
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I would still run Speccy to find out what video card or chip you computer is using. I'm assuming with such low end specs, it's going to be integrated video in the motherboard. This computer has very low end hardware specs and it not going to be able to run this game well if at all.
Something to keep in mind when you consider new games. That "can I run it" link Jenny provided will be a great resource. But do go ahead and run Speccy to see what video you have.
Once again, weeds are my life!
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Re: Midnight In Salem
[Re: Penny Lane]
#1204885
12/19/19 11:52 AM
12/19/19 11:52 AM
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Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 1,171 Michigan
Penny Lane
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I ran Speccy but I really don't know what I am looking for. There is so much there. I do know that I am using Winfows 10 64 bit. I don't see anything about a video card. I see the Motherboard. Should I be checking something there? Well obviously I don't have the sufficient specs for running the game. But once it finally loads (in about 1/2 hour) the game plays but the graphics are not good as I understand that turning down everything in the settings will cause that. I will not purchase any more Nancy Drew games unless they go back to the original format. So very disappointing! Well, at least I can still play the older games without a problem . As long as I'm on the subject is there any way to play "Stay Tuned For Danger" ? It will not play on windows 10 but all of the other games play fine. I wish they would upgrade it as they did with "Secrets Can Kill".
Vulgarity is no substitute for wit..------ Lady Violet Crawley (Downton Abbey)
Marlene aka Penny Lane (Paul McCartney fan)
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Re: Midnight In Salem
[Re: Penny Lane]
#1204889
12/19/19 12:27 PM
12/19/19 12:27 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 48,371 near Yosemite
Marian
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Global Moderator
Sonic Boomer
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near Yosemite
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There's a video here showing how to install and run Stay Tuned for Danger on Windows 10. If after doing that, you then get a sound error message when you start the game (which is what happened to me, but not everyone does - it depends on your sound card), I fixed that issue by downloading a free program called Virtual Audio Cable and using that in conjunction with the game. I am now in my second playthrough of the game on Windows 7. There are also instructions on how to get the game to run on Windows 7, 8, and 10 here. This is about how to install the digital download, but you can just ignore the download steps and otherwise the installation routine is the same as for the CD version.
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