Talk:Discworld Noir

Video games Low‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Video games, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of video games on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Video gamesWikipedia:WikiProject Video gamesTemplate:WikiProject Video gamesvideo game articles

Low

This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Summary of Video games WikiProject open tasks:

Summary of Video games WikiProject open tasks

AfDs

Merge discussions

Other discussions

No major discussions

WinXP

For WindowsXP, there are two issues.

Issue 1: the game does not load when launched. To solve, do the following:

1) Do a full install of the game to a directory like C:\Games\Noir. This directory must not contain any spaces!

2) Create the following directory:

c:\games\noir\cd1

3) Copy all the files from the root directory of CD 1 to c:\games\noir

4) Copy the files:

ENGLISH.SMP
ENGLISH.IDX
KILLMOON.BMV

from the third cd in the dir \CD3 to c:\games\noir\cd1

5) Go with regedit to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Perfect Entertainment\Discworld Noir], and change the key:

"Sample Path"="C:\\games\\noir\\cd1"

6) Change the properties of the Discworld Noir shortcut to 'Windows 2000' compatibility

7) Enjoy playing!

Issue 2: the game crashes when anything is clicked. To solve:

1) Get the Safedisc XP path from Microsoft: [1]

2) Get the Safedisc fix from Macrovision: [2]

3) Change the properties of the Discworld Noir shortcut to 'Windows 2000' compatibility

4) Enjoy playing!

I have seen one case where both methods were needed. Jordi·✆ 15:20, 20 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I have seen some cases where neither was needed; indeed it ran better for me without converting to Win2k compatibility mode. However, the saved games would not load from the root menu, and a new game had to be started before loading a saved game.

My problem is quite strange - since buying my first ever graphics card (ATI Radeon 9550), the game crashes if the intro sequences is skipped. This is on Windows 98. :( --Nick R 14:08, 6 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Anachronistic statement

"Some of the characters introduced in the game have subsequently appeared in the Discworld novels. Both the Captain and First Mate of the ship The Pride Of Ankh-Morpork, as well as Mr Scoplett, captain of The Milka have appeared in the novel Jingo."

According to Jingo's Wikipedia article, it was released 2 years before Discworld Noir came out, and so the characters couldn't have possibly been introduced in the game. Unless of course, the sentence is saying that there are people from the books in the game, which was said earlier in the article. – Quoth 08:16, 9 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Good catch. Didn't notice this when I cleaned up the text. Jordi·✆ 10:52, 9 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Along the same lines, while The Last Hero features a blacksmith god, he's not named. Since his introduction in the story makes it clear that every pantheon has to have a metalworker, I think it's a moot point whether he's Neoldian or not, until we get further information. Daibhid C 00:46 20 November 2005 (UTC)

I can resolve this issue for you, since I wrote the script, but I confess to not knowing how I can do so and meet the verifiability criteria. Just because I wrote the game doesn't allow me to answer this question on Wikipedia - despite the obvious fact that I know the answer! :) So this is another of those weird situations where Wikipedia's moral values impede rather than assist in establishing the facts. If anyone knows how this can be resolved in good faith, drop me a line. ChrisBateman (talk) 21:38, 27 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Familiar Characters

Is there a reason that Gaspode isn't listed among the "familiar characters"? He's a "feature character" in several Discworld books, and also has quite a large role in the game. There should also be some mention somewhere that Carlotta, or at least her ex-husband, is most probably related to Angua (they're both werewolves and von Uberwalds). --Cidolfas 22:33, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Adding the voice actors?

There are a number of famous voice actors in this game, does anyone think it would be worth listing them in this entry. I've heard Rob Brydon, Nigel Planer, Robert Llewellyn so far, and IMDB also lists Kate Robbins.

Would it also be worth trying to attribute voice actors to the characters they voiced?

Lewton appears in Going Postal?

I'm reading Going Postal at the moment, and it makes a brief mention of a werewolf being on the City Watch. Assuming I remember the events of the game correctly, Lewton becomes a werewolf, and he's at least a former City Watch member. Coincidence? Probably not.

The werewolf refered to is more than likely Angua, and if memory serves, Discworld Noir takes place after Lewton's stint in the Watch. Quoth 03:06, 21 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I can confirm that the werewolf in Going Postal is not Lewton. The timeline is all wrong for this; Quoth's logic is impeccable. ChrisBateman (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 21:44, 27 February 2011 (UTC).[reply]

Who has "rights" ?

There are "Discworld Noir(TM) Perfect Entertainment Ltd. All rights reserved." on CD labels. Perfect Entertainment was dissolved in 1999, wasn't it? Where did rights go? GT Interactive Software had publish right limited in Europe. But GT Interactive became Atari,Inc or Infogrames,Inc. Where is publish rights?Free publishing is allowed? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 61.115.246.2 (talk) 12:42, 30 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Making Terry Pratchett a Featured Article

This is a call to arms to make the Terry Pratchett article a Featured Article. It will greatly help the cause if all the side articles that link from it are of a reasonable standard. Terry Pratchett has around 40 side articles (ie the ones relating to his work) - I don't think they are all expected to be GA (Good Article) standard for TP to become featured, but certain basic elements will be looked at for sure.

A full list of the sub articles is here on the TP talk page: I'm posting this comment on the talk pages of each article on the list. Editors reading may also like to help with the TP article too?

The main issue, especially with smaller articles, is often a finding reasonable amount of citations, and prose can sometimes be a little POV too. Coverage of the topic is probably less important, but of course it needs to be reasonably good. --Matt Lewis (talk) 15:25, 28 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Why no connection to books?

Any idea why Noir main characters don't ever get a mention in books? Copyright issues? --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk} 06:01, 25 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

This is another case where I can answer the question but if I do so here on Wikipedia it will violate verifiability and make it inadmissible. It's the Catch 22 of Wikipedia epistemology. ChrisBateman (talk) 21:43, 27 February 2011 (UTC)[reply]

ScummVM does not yet support the game, but it is being worked on..?

I'm not sure how correct this is. There is, as far as I can see, an unaffiliated,(is this the case?), less than a year old sourceforge project that has no distributable files at all, and that would support it by basing itself on Residual, experimental engine for grim fandango and escape from monkey island. But, scummvm's wiki states that discworld noir, not being a 2d adventure is outside the scope of that project, and neither residual nor discworld noir support is mentioned on listings of game engines they are working on. Residual itself is kinda functional for grim fandango, but buggy and many things don't work. Escape from monkey island is farther still, and won't run. Unless I'm missing some information, it seems to me this part of the sentence might be setting people's expectations too high, as it seems to me that it's unclear if residual would become part of scummvm, rather than a sideproject, and that discworld noir is (sadly, as I don't personally care much for mokey 4) the farthest of the 3 3d games from actually getting support even via this route. 93.136.61.28 (talk) 20:09, 15 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, so checking on #residual on freenode, and consistent with what is stated on that link's front page, it seems it is a planned engine implementation based on Residual, no longer on ScummVM, the former being a separate thing from Scumm. So the sentence seems to be just out of date, so I'll change it 93.136.43.90 (talk) 00:58, 16 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Large deletion of Film Noir references section - revert and reference, rather than delete

The user‎ Martin IIIa, on 23 June 2014, has deleted a significant portion of the article. He described his edit as "Removed unsourced trivia". While this is true, I think a more positive contribution would have been to add references, rather than to remove content. Doing a quick google search, I find some sources that than be references to support the information deleted: http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/discworld-noir http://pcmania.bg/Discworld-Noir/?go=games&p=detail&articleId=4489 http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/reviews/119/ (etc)

I think that the edit should be reverted and the section labelled as "needs referencing", and start referencing it. --Al83tito 15:12, 24 Jun 2014 (UTC)

Fair use images

Going through the reviews, a fair few mention the conversation and investigation aspects of the game and it's pretty essential to Noir, so I'm not sure if it would be worth getting a screenshot of either the notebook or how the dialogue box works. One or the other, I'm assuming. Still, Noir is a relatively simple game, so maybe that's unnecessary. I have the game up and running, played through it and compulsively saved all over the place (in response, the game failed to crash a single time, oddly disappointing), so getting screenshots should relatively straightforward. Could also take a screenshot of the werewolf parts instead, though they're a relatively minor part of the game (only really being important in Act III). Discworld Noir doesn't do too much different from general adventure games to really justify an screenshot of general pointing-and-clicking, in my opinion.

Was also considering taking a screeny of general gameplay to both A) visualise the game's atmosphere, general darkness, and everpresent rain effect, and B) illustrate the 3-D character models (and the 2-D backdrop they're on). Of course, don't want to go too overkill on the fair use images, but three (including the cover) shouldn't be too overboard, and could be useful in covering the game. – The Millionth One (talk) (contribs) 22:12, 4 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

We can probably describe the notebook well enough not to need a screenshot, but if we can't then it becomes fair-game for fair-use. We certainly need at least one to illustrate the atmosphere and art style. I also think a screenshot would be necessary for visualising how the werewolf sequences appear. While they only show up for a portion of the game, they are pretty unique as far as I'm aware. Mundy's room would probably be a good location for that screenshot.
By the way, tremendous thanks for the effort you've put into this article recently :) It's great to see it finally getting some of the love it deserves. – Quoth (talk) 17:18, 5 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I took two pics, Mundy and at the graveyard. This is Mundy (what it'd look like at 300px-width), and here is the graveyard (300px-width). I can agree that the notebook should be pretty easy to describe. Haven't decided where would be best for atmosphere. Atmosphere runs through a lot of the game, to its credit.

And thanks for the thanks. The game's worth the effort, you ask me -- though, admittedly, I've always been a buff for noir and Discworld. – The Millionth One (talk) (contribs) 18:13, 5 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Those are both good screenshots. I think the scents in Mundy's room are more easily seen at thumbnail size, but I also think the full-size cemetery image better illustrates their use as a trail. Not very helpful, I know... I'll leave the final decision up to you. Regarding atmosphere, having a browse through Google Image search, I think that most of the scenes will be too dark to be discernable at low resolutions, it will probably have to be one of the better lit scenes, such as inside the Cafe Ankh. That was the best I could find after a brief search, do any other relatively well-lit locations spring to mind? – Quoth (talk) 09:12, 26 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I went in and took four screenshots. The first is the shot at the end of the game (220px width). It's probably the darkest I took, and while I think it does have a lot in it and isn't too obscured by darkness, per se, it's pretty crowded and also hard to understand at thumbnail size anyway. Next, one in Sapphire's room (220px). This one is pretty clear and easy to understand while showing off the general lighting, though might be a bit blank. Then, there's this one just in front of the Patrician's place (220px). It's outside and has the everpresent rain effect, but is still pretty well-lit. At full size I'm a pretty big fan, though in thumbnail the rain might look a bit more like film grain or something. Finally, there's the Cafe Ankh (220px). I see this image around a fair amount, so I guess it's sort of iconic for the game and has some nice fun with lighting while remaining pretty clear.

I'm not set on it, or any of them (beyond that the first probably wouldn't be the best), but I'm going to go ahead and use the Café one for now. – The Millionth One (talk) (contribs) 15:40, 3 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The shot outside the palace is certainly one of the clearer ones and could be used to illustrate the rain, as you say, though I find the scene setup a little bland, and from what I remember there are a number of scenes with some pretty funky camera angles it would be a shame to overlook. Regarding the screenshot from the end of the game, even at full resolution I have trouble understanding what I'm seeing, so I'd definitely rule that one out. Does the game have a gamma setting you can tweak? I'm also starting to wonder if we should have a shot with another character in it, since most of the game involves interrogating others.
You should be able to upload the screenshots you need at their native 640×480 resolution, since they're already fairly low resolution (both dimensions being well below 1000), and most of the shots become difficult to comprehend when shrunk. See WP:Image resolution for non-free image resolution guidelines. I believe they'd also be more suitable in JPEG format than PNG. – Quoth (talk) 23:55, 4 May 2016 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Discworld Noir. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.gamespot.co.uk/pc.gamespot/adventure/discn_uk/review.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{Sourcecheck}}).

Y An editor has reviewed this edit and fixed any errors that were found.

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—^{cyberbot II}_{Talk to my owner:Online} 11:36, 28 April 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Why is this not canon?

This article should try to address this question. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 08:56, 27 June 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Source