And after installing it on another PC that has all of the WinXP specs for the game, I must say that this game is AWFUL. I am SO DISSAPPOINTED

I've NEVER played a game with so many glitches.
Where do I begin
The camera pan is slow, if it pans at all.
I tried the slideshow method. FAILED half the time

When everything worked, for about 2-3 seconds it looked promising but then I had to move forward...

I tried to change the compatibility. Didn't help.

If I turned on the gamma so that the screen would brighten up...the panning was even SLOWER

I just don't understand it. This PC meets all of the requirements. ALL of them

I am SO DONE WITH THIS GAME

From now on I'll stick with Nancy Drew
I've never had a glitch with herinteractive

PS What'ss really sad is that I checked the Read Me file to find their website. When I used the URL given to me on the file, the site had nothing to do with Scratches

I've never heard of anyone having this many problems with Scratches unless they had an antivirus conflicting with it. Make sure your antivirus is turned off when you install and play.

It's also possible you have a bad disc.
Both the original and Director's Cut versions have patches.

I am now looking at a few patches.
One wouldn't go in because I "didn't have the file(?)"

Trying patch #2

*****EDIT*****
FAILED AGAIN
The game wouldn't even run

I'm surprised, it's one of my favorite games and I've had very few issues with it. The original version had an issue with hyperthreading and there is a known issue with Windows 7.

What are the specs of the XP machine you're trying to run it on?

WinXP Service Pack 3 Dell Desktop
3.1 Processor Speed
2 gigs RAM

I just cleaned out the PC with Piricleaner. including the Registry

Re-installed again after cleaning out the leftover files in the Program Files. Made sure that Norton was turned off

Same thing.
Medium - Slow Panning and forget trying to set the Gamma on high to brighten the screen cos then the cursor barely moves

You didn't list the most important thing (as far games are concerned) -- the video card.

Click the Start button, then Run. Type
dxdiag
in the box and OK it.
On the Display tab look on the left side under where it says "Device" and you should see the
Name:
of your card listed.

Slow speed could also be caused by a Hyperthreading problem.

The original and Director's Cut versions of Scratches have different patches. Make sure you get the patch for your version of the game.

82945G Intel express Chipset
total memory 224MB

DirectX 9.0c

How do I know which patch?
I found 2 that said Director's Cut?
It's not very clear I think

Very strange as I played this on both XP and Windows 7 (after doing the Windows 7 fix) and never had any problems at all.

I'm not the only one who's had this issue. Lots of people on BF are complaining about the same thing

Jenny I don't know what hyperthreading is

I honestly think that there is no patch for this

The game version is 0.9.4.358

Did you Download this game? (from BF or elsewhere), if so, you should not apply patches you see on the Net., most of theses patches will not work for your game and will probably do more harm to your game than good.
Downloaded games come with their Own Patche(s) and if you are having problems you should contact the Company where you dowloaded the game.

If it is a store box CD or DVD version of the game, then double check which game you bought: Scratches or S. Director's Cut, patches for these games are specific to the version you bought.

Good luck

Ah, you didn't mention that this is a Big Fish download. I played the disk version and that might be a completely different kettle of fish, so to speak.

It's not a download. It's a disk but people at BF and everywhere else are having similar problems with the game

Anyone have a solution?

Not a solution from me, I'm afraid !!
More of a "joining in"

I can play the original Scratchees on my XP machine with no problem at all but I've tried both the disk version AND the download of Scratches Director's Cut on that same machine and neither will play.

So the download got deleted and the disk got consigned to the bin

Hope you have better luck, blsbet44

blsbet44,I see you don't have a video card very few games will play on a chipset.
Richard

Actually most casual games play just fine with Intel graphics, as long as the Intel graphics isn't too old a series. But most adventure games do not play well, or don't play at all with Intel graphics. Most games are developed with ATI or Nvidia video cards in mind.

If you have the Director's Cut version of the game, it requires a minimum of 16MB of video memory (32 MB is recommended). Your Intel has no discrete video memory and has to "borrow" part of the game's system memory. Since system memory is slower than video memory, that could explain part of why the game runs so slow -- that and the fact that onboard Intel graphics is inherently slower than a real video card.

Ok Thanks
color me red

BUT GUESS WHAT!?
I am able to play the game by disabling the gamma in the game and instead adjusting the gamma via the monitor.

Then I had to make the screen 100% Bright and Contrast (then switch back when I am off the game)

Now I can actually see.
The panning is normal now
BUT... Every time I click to take a step, the picture fades out then fades back in, almost like a movie.

I must say that if it's not suppose to fade then it gives the game an interesting spin,
AND it allows my stomach to catch up with my head

I might have to disable the panning and use the cursor that just "clicks" if the panning gets too slow

Hopefully I'll be able to get an Nvidia card.
Will bribe Husband with promises of food

Let's see how the game goes now

Forgive the ranting and thanks for the tea and sympathy

Bet

PS 1 Simple Rule PLEASE to all game developers:
If it ain't broke, don't fix it

I'm so glad to hear you got it running - it's one of my favorite games. Depending on how old your computer is, you just might need a new one - LOTS of bribery would be involved there!

Have fun...

I've played both versions with a stock HP XP and had no problems at all. I got more memory and really noticed no changes in performance, it's still crisp and smooth as ever. Loved this game.

It's sort of running. At times it gets very slow
Even if nothing else is running
oh well

blsbet44 - before you give up on a really good game !! you might want to try one more thing and that's checking for and getting the latest drivers for that Intel Video card.

I would go to www.dell.com and click on their Software/Drivers link. All DELLs have a a "Service Tag" - usually a bar code tag on the back of the machine and with about 7 characters on the tag.

That Tag will get you to all the latest drivers for all the supported hardware on your particular machine. DELLs are very easy to update this way. Just look for the Intel Integrated Graphics software and download/install it.

It's worth a try, and I'm sure all the folks here will agree - That is a very good game to play.

I don't know of any games that were written with the Intel Graphics Video chipsets in mind, most are either ATI or NVidia or cards with those chipsets, but your PC should be able to handle this game.

ooops !! blsbet44

Sounds like I'm too late - Sorry If I confused you about the drivers etc. I kind of jumped and didn't see your posts about getting the game running.