Mystery Case Files : The Black Veil

I finished playing the second Where Angels Cry game today - which I very much enjoyed - so afterwards, I went to see which "free games" Big Fish had added to their list.
[ Thank you, Marian for telling us about that ]
And decided to get Mystery Case Files : The Black Veil.

I really like it BUT the whole "inventory strip" keeps disappearing !!

I thought maybe it was something I was causing so I quit and restarted the game - with a different profile - but it is happening again.

It tends to reappear when I pick up a new item. But I'm currently at a location where I KNOW I have the necessary item to allow me to progress because said item went into my inventory only minutes ago.
However, the whole inventory strip is missing again and I have no idea how to get it back

Is this me being plain stupid or has anyone else also had this experience ??

Any help would be much appreciated

Mad, I've moved your post over to Glitches to see what the techies have to say about this. It sounds like a technical problem.

There are some people on this old forum thread here that are complaining about their inventory disappearing - not always clear whether they mean individual items or the whole inventory bar. I never had this problem myself. I played the game on Windows 7. I have no idea what the problem might be, but maybe someone here can offer some suggestions.

Have you tried Running as Administrator and if that doesn't do it.. change compatibility to XP.... I googled problems with this game and this is what BF is recommending
EDIT!!!!!

I just read someone tried this and the game didn't work at all... so I would try Running as Admin, only

It seems like odd advice to change compatibility to Windows XP, since this game was released in 2017?

It seems like quite a few people are having this issue

Thanks, Winfrey. Changing compatibility can't hurt, but it does seem odd.

Is it really missing or is it just invisible?
What happens if you click around in where the inventory should be?
Do you see things flicker?

I'm assuming this is not a case of the inventory not locking open, or if you have it set not to lock open, not appearing when you move your mouse to the bottom of the screen.

I have had a game (not this one) where you had to mouse over things to get them to appear, when they were supposed to be visible all the time. I think it was during a puzzle. I think the problem was related to the video card or its drivers -- not drawing the screen properly, but moving the mouse over the area would force it to redraw.

Thanks for responding, Jenny100

However, the inventory is definitely missing.

Nothing happens if I click around as you suggest - nor does anything flicker.

And I've tried the game both with Inventory "locked" AND "unlocked".

I also tried XP compatibility but just get an error code.

And I've tried "running as administrator" but that didn't make any difference either.

So I've requested help from Big Fish now.

That's strange that the inventory is not there at all.
Maybe it's a bad download. Have you tried uninstalling and reinstalling?

All I can tell you is I played the game in XP and it worked OK except for a crash during one of the puzzles. I had to start that particular puzzle from scratch but the game saved my progress up to the start of that puzzle. I think this was an old download though. I don't know if the game has been "updated."

I hope you can get the game working. I thought it was one of the better ones.
At least the story was better, or at least more original.

I am playing it right. Ow with no issues I would delete it run ccleaner and download it again

I'd already tried uninstalling, using Ccleaner, re-booting and reinstalling before I even decided to post here.

But No Go !!

Are you playing in Win7, Winfrey ??

And I assume Winfrey means running Ccleaner on the registry, right?

I played the game on Windows 7 with no problems.

I wish I knew what the trouble was, Mad.

I decided to try the game out since I already had it installed on my Windows 7 computer. I played for a half hour and am in the Galloway Estate. No problems so far.

Yes, I meant the registry. I am playing on my Surface PRO 3 and it's a Windows 10.

Hi Mad,
I played this game when it came out on my old laptop with Win 8.1 64 bit and had No problems playing it. I am now replaying it on my New-ish laptop with Win 10 64 bit and have been playing if for 2 hours and still no problem.

Are you playing this game in Windows 10? If so, I would suggest you use W10
" Run Compatibility Troubleshooter" , you may have to run it a few times, but hopefully it will work.

Good luck

Yes. It was Ccleaner Registry I used.

And I have already been in and out of the Galloway Estate a couple of times, oldbroad.
I lost the inventory when I came out the latest time.
But I also had lost it (and regained it) at least twice before I went in.

Apparently it doesn't want to return THIS time !!

Ah Mad . I'm going to continue playing the game and hopefully I will not have the same problem as you.

I hope you will be able to play it at some point. If you are in Windows 7 why don't you try it in Windows 10?

Mad,
Do you have the same problem if you play the game windowed?
What if you change between windowed and back?

Does the game have any options you can change, like turning off animations or custom cursor?

Does the inventory bar do anything if you go into different game areas?

Do you have an XP computer you can try the game on?


EDIT --

Also, I was checking out the Big Fish forum for posts about the game and apparently it had a control to suppress unwanted achievement announcements -- a control I apparently never found when I played the game because I have a complaint about achievements in my notes about the game. Is this control malfunctioning and suppressing the inventory bar instead of achievements?
Are you using that option to suppress achievement announcements?
What happens if you toggle the control?

Hi again.

Truth be told, Jenny100, I've more or less given up.
[But I'm going to take a note of your questions/suggestions and maybe try what I can of them at a later date - when I am less fed up of trying things ]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

How do I play the game "Windowed" ?? I have tried different screen resolutions but none of those worked.]

I think there IS an option to NOT use a custom cursor. But I haven't ever touched that (yet).
[I don't know about animations.]

And the only thing "different" my inventory bar does is "disappear" !!

My XP machine is still up and running and I do still play games on it but it's no longer connected to the internet so I don't know how I could get the game onto it ??

And I don't know if there's a "suppress" control without installing the game yet again to have a look.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I did get an immediate and welcome reply from Big Fish - but as I have already tried all their suggestions apart from the one about changing drivers (and I'm not prepared to do that)
they have given me a code I can use for a replacement game. So for now, I'll use the code.
But maybe when I am less fed up with repeatedly installing and uninstalling this game to try stuff, I'll have another go - and try implementing some of your suggestions.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

oldbroad ....
The "trial" Win10 I have is just temporary until my Son in Law can build me a proper one and it's not setup for playing games.

Mad, to run the game in windowed mode, go to the options menu. Sometimes there is a specific option to run the game in windowed mode, but if not, unchecking fullscreen will run the game in windowed mode.

Gotcha Mad. I wasn't sure.

I played another hour today with no problems. I didn't change any settings. I'm playing in casual mode.

OK.

I tried playing a "windowed" version .... No difference.

I disabled the custom cursor .... No difference.

I have now fiddled with all things that could be changed but nothing has made any difference.

So, many thanks for all the help and suggestions but I have now officially given up !!!!

You fiddled with a lot more than I would have

I'm sorry, Mad.
Unless Big Fish has a fix for you I can't think what else to do for getting the game to run on your Windows 7 computer.
I hope you don't have the problem with other games from this developer (Eipix).
Big Fish will probably just give you a key for another game though.

You're not the only person to have the problem -- there are a few people in Big Fish forums who also had their inventory disappear, though no one had a fix for it.
http://forums.bigfishgames.com/posts/list/906360.page
http://forums.bigfishgames.com/posts/list/902609.page
etc.

+_+_+_+_+_+_+

The XP computer I use for Big Fish games is disconnected from the Internet.
I have to attach an ethernet cable to it long enough to run the Game Manager if I want to install any Big Fish games on it that I haven't already activated on that computer. I unplug the ethernet cable immediately after installing and activating the game.

I know it's not advisable to use Windows XP on the Internet, but strictly speaking, you're not supposed to be using Windows 7 for Internet anymore either.

Of course it is up to you and I understand if you're tired of messing with it.
I wish Big Fish had an "offline" method of activating games.
They used to have a CD you could order along with the game for an extra $6.99 or $7.99 but I haven't seen that option lately.



[img]GBstaff/Jenny/Madscreenshots/

Hi.

The only advice from BF that I didn't try was to change a driver - and I'm not prepared to do that.
And I've played several Eipix games on this same machine without any problems - along with loads of other games from BF.
And yes, I've been given a code for a replacement game. Which is a lot better than many companies offer !!

I have 3 computers networked to each other and linked by a KVM and the amount of cables involved is horrendous.
So there's no way I am prepared to plug one of them in or out [I leave all that to my Son in Law.]

But I'm not nervous of being on the internet when Microsoft support has stopped.
I kept my XP machine on-line for a very long time after it stopped for that and until my Son in Law has time to build me a Win10 machine (he's a key worker during this epidemic and is doing very long hours) I will just keep my Win7 machine connected.
[My Norton has a good firewall etc and I use a lot of caution and a big dose of common sense - which, I feel, are factors main in staying safe.]

And I AM sick of messing with this game. I have loads of others I can play and I have the the code for a replacement - so I'm not in the depths of despair

But thank you very much for your time and trouble. I appreciate it very much

Unless they told you exactly which driver to use I wouldn't bother changing the driver either.
Playing driver roulette is usually a loser's game and assuming "the latest" will work best for a 3-year-old game is wishful thinking.


That's good that it's the only game affected. It was a pretty good game, but I wouldn't say it was the best -- or the most stable. It crashed on me at least twice and usually MCF games are more stable than that.


Yes, connecting computers to each other, but not to the Internet would be a different system. Plugging in a cable is the easy part. The hard part is configuring the software from what may be a static IP address to DHCP and back. I wouldn't suggest messing with it if you're not confortable with the setup. In the case of my Big Fish XP computer, it's not connected to anything unless I plug in the cable, and it's only configured to connect to the Internet, not other computers in a home network, so I don't have to mess with changing the computer's IP settings back and forth. If I want to transfer files between computers, I do that with a USB drive. And for the oldest computers I burn discs.

If your Son in Law managed to get a Windows 98 computer networked with other more modern home computers, he has my congratulations. I tried networking a Windows 98 computer back when I had a home server and gave up. Never figured out why it didn't work.

Yes. My Son in Law is certainly a GEM !!