Hi all.

It's been a loooooong time since I've posted here

Anyway, before posting just now, I did a search on these forums/ sub-forums and came across many posts for the game Black Dahlia; hard to believe the game's from 1998. On one of the posts I came across, I saw that someone said that they wish G.O.G. would put out a version of this game that would play on modern machines. If only.

Well, I've got the original game from '98, yup, all 8 CD's Back in the day, besides Windows 98, I'm pretty sure I got it to play on other OS's, like XP and Win 7 (probably used Compatibility Mode). But with Windows 10 - or, like I now have, Windows 11 - it's getting tougher.

I came across this at this link: Black Dahlia on Windows 10 In some of the posts here on Gameboomers, some of the info can be found in the link I just gave.

Way back from '98, I still have the official Patch that the company released for this game. And from the link I gave, I downloaded that DxWnd utility and unpacked it. I also downloaded (but have not yet installed) the NoCD Patch v03; evidently, that is not an official patch from the gamemakers, but a program that will allow you to put all the data from all 8 CD's onto your hard drive. That way you can avoid all that CD swapping.

But, I'm having trouble from the get-go with DxWnd. For those of you who are familiar, after I managed to at least install the game from CD 1 onto my hard drive, I then launch DxWnd. After launching, according to the info from that link I gave, you then click on File/ Import, and from the Explorer window that pops up, you then navigate right back to the DxWnd folder itself and click on the folder "exports"; inside of here is already a boat-load of games with pre-made CONFIG files (known as DXW files). I even saw one of my favorite oldies in there: Neverhood. But.........

But, Black Dahlia is not in there And, this is the most recent version of DxWnd, too. According to the directions from the link I gave, I should be able to Import "Black Dahlia.dxw"....but it's not there.

The link I gave has a date of 1/28/2019. Back then, there was probably an older version of DxWnd, but you'd think subsequent versions would have all of the games (DXW files) of the previous version, plus then some!

Can anyone help? Until G.O.G. (fingers crossed) releases a playable version for modern machines, I still have the 8 CD's for this game.

Here's hoping someone has the expertise to help......
Thanks,
Pez

Sorry, Pez, but I have absolutely no idea how to make this work in DxWnd. Hopefully someone else has some idea for you.

Yes, long time no see! Hope all is well.

I haven't tried DxWnd with Black Dahlia. I have it running on my computer using PCem running Windows 95. It's been tested on Windows 7 and Windows 10 but we don't have Windows 11.

You might try asking over in the DxWnd forum here where the guy who created DxWnd hangs out (ghotik). I have posted there and talked to him before, but it was about a different game. He is quite good about answering questions.

Hi all.

I know it's been a while since I've been back to this post/ thread.

Marian: I did as you suggested and went over to the DxWnd forum where ghotik hangs out (SourceForge); over there they just go by the name of "gho"

The last time I posted here on GameBoomers was on 8/28/22, and then I went right over to that DxWnd forum and created an account there & posted. I received quite a few replies to my inquiry regarding Black Dahlia, many of which were from gho. In the DxWnd program, there had not - at first - been a pre-made CONFIG file for Black Dahlia (known as DXW files), and then gho created one for me - twice!!! - and uploaded it into the message thread.

I was able to install Black Dahlia onto my Win 11 OS system, and then using the DxWnd program and the DXW file, I launched the game....and it worked! I watched the opening video sequence(s), and then you (Jim Pearson) end up in your office....

....and that's where my luck ran out

if you want to take a look at the DxWnd forum post, it's here: https://sourceforge.net/p/dxwnd/discussion/general/thread/e1f647a2e8/

In the post, I included some links to some in-game pics. What happens is, the in-game cursor - when I move my mouse - creates a repetitive trail of ghost cursors.

gho said they would keep on trying, but the last post in that thread over in their forum is 9/10/22.

Bummer.

When the game launched and started to run, I had my hopes up. But then that weird cursor thing happened.

Too bad; I had been really looking forward to playing through the game; it had been years since I played. Maybe the company G.O.G. will do their "magic" one day and create a version that will play on modern systems.

I was one of the players of this game that wrote a walkthrough for it back-in-the-day; your web site has a copy of it here: http://www.gameboomers.com/wtcheats/pcBb/BlackDahlia.htm

Here's hoping G.O.G. comes through one day.....
Pez

Here's hoping Pez. I've never played the game but I sure would buy it and try it if GOG ever has it.

Thank you for posting back, Pez! It's good to know there was at least some progress. But it does sound like GOG is going to be your best bet some day.

Thanks for filling us in, Pez. For now, running the game in a virtual machine would be your best bet. As I said before, that is how I play Black Dahlia on Windows 7 and 10. I too hope for a GOG release someday.

Gho is wonderful, by the way. I heard from him about an issue that I had been having, several months after my last post. He really does try to resolve things and will get back to you if a solution is discovered for a particular issue.