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THE DISCWORLD GAME FAQ - V2.05
------------------------------
Introduction
------------
*WARNING.. This may contain some spoilers (but hopefully not too many) *
This FAQ is (c) Chris McMullen (1997)... it can be stored on BBS,
FTP sites, Web sites, and so forth, as long as it is unmodified.
Magazines, and Shareware/PD CD manufacturers can put this on their
CD's, as long as I'm asked for permission first. The Discworld
Game Faq is also completely unofficial, not officially linked to
Psygnosis or Perfect Entertainment. You get the picture.
This is v2.05 of the Discworld Faq, and contains info on the current
and upcoming Discworld Games. feel free to mail me with any corrections,
suggestions, greetings, flames at :
C.S.McMullen@cms.salford.ac.uk
New Stuff for this faq:
This and that. The Discworld 2 section has had a big update, and there are
minor modifications to other sections. Discworld 2's out! Hurrah!
(N)=New sections.
(M)=Modified sections
CONTENTS:
1. Background
1.1 What is Discworld?
1.2 How many Discworld games are there?
(M)1.3 Which characters/locations are in the Discworld games?
1.4 What books are they based on?
(M)1.5 What Pterry did / DW Development.
(M)1.6 Perfect Entertainment.
2. Discworld 1.
2.1 Scenario and misc. information.
2.2 What machine do I need to run it?
2.3 What is the difference between the various versions?
2.4 How many different versions are there? Where can I get a demo?
2.5 Reported Bugs/Problems..
2.6 Where can I get a patch/what does it fix?
2.7 Discworld and Windows 95
2.8 Discworld version 2: The Directors Cut
2.9 Technical Support and Troubleshooting;
3.(N)Discworld 2: Missing, presumed... ?
3.1 Scenario and misc. information.
3.2 What machine do I need to run it?
3.3 Where do I get a demo?
(M)3.4 Reported Bugs/Problems
(M)3.5 Where can I get a patch/What does it fix?
(M)3.6 Discworld and Windows 95 / OS/2
3.7 That's Death
3.8 Technical Support and Troubleshooting;
3.9 Bits and Bats
4. (M)I'M STUCK / Where to get the walkthrus and hint files...
5. THE COLOUR OF MAGIC.
6. THE DISCWORLD MUD.
7. General
(M)7.1 Other Discworld Games
(M)7.2 Discworld on other formats;
7.3 How to contact Psygnosis;
(N)7.4 Discworld 3
8. CREDITS and FEEDBACK
8.1 Where can I get the faq?
(M)8.2 The Discworld Game Page.
(M)8.3 Credits.
1. GAME BACKGROUND/SCENARIO.
---------------------------
1.1 What is Discworld?
----------------------
Seeing as there are bound to be some people who don't what Discworld is,
I'm going to give a brief overview of the whole thing. Basically, the
Discworld is the setting for a large number of very funny fantasy books
(I mean, lets face it.. Tolkien was ok at writing fantasy books, but
they were all boringly straight-faced), all written by Terry Pratchett.
The Discworld books manage to be both funny and interesting to read, and
Pterry manages to give a ribbing to just about everything in his path.
The Discworld is the setting for all the Discworld books, and is,
quite simply, a large flat Disc of land, which is supported on four
elephants. These elephants, in turn stand on the back of Great A'Tuin,
a huge star turtle (sex and destination unknown). Because of the Discworld's
shape, there is no North, South, East and West. Instead, there is Hubward:
towards the centre of the Disc, Rimward: Towards the edge of the Disc,
Turnwise, in the direction the Disc turns, and Widdershins, in the opposite
direction. There are a large number of settlements and cities on the Disc,
and it's population contains a wide number of races.. Humans, Trolls, Dwarfs
(beards compulsory), as you might find on any normal fantasy world. Except
that Discworld is by no means normal.
The central character to many a Discworld book (and to both the games)
is Rincewind, a student (relatively speaking) at Unseen University, where
wizards learn to be wizards.. usually. He is also accompanied by The Luggage,
a somewhat unpredictable mobile trunk, with a large number of feet, and
quite a vicious bite. now.. let the (mis)adventure begin.
1.2 How many Discworld games are there?
---------------------------------------
There are actually four games, the first being a text adventure
'The Colour of Magic' available for the Spectrum( forgive me while I get all
nostalgic ).. I have just managed to obtain a copy, and am currently in the
middle of playing it (stand up, get beer, say hi, say hello, talk to
Twoflower, start hitting keyboard). There are more details later on in the
faq.
The second game, is simply called 'Discworld', released recently by
Psygnosis / Sony Interactive, and Perfect Entertainment, which is a point and
click
adventure, available on PC and Mac +
PC CDROM, Playstation, and Saturn.. It was originally to be called Discworld:
The Trouble with Dragons, but eventually became just 'Discworld'.
The third game is 'Discworld 2: Missing, presumed... ? , produced again by
Perfect Entertainment, and published by Psygnosis. It is a little easier
than the original game, but no less astounding. Read on for more details.
There is, however, another option open to Discworld fans.. the Discworld
MUD. This, for anyone who may not know, is a multi user game, set on the
Discworld, will many of the characters you will recognise. However, the
game actually allows you to create your own character, and meet,
greet and maim other DW inhabitants.. and other players.. it has a basic
text interface, like most muds, but the atmosphere is still quite good when you
know that there are typically unpredictable players around. There's a
separate section on this later on.
1.3 Which characters/locations are in the Discworld game?
------------
Discworld 1
-----------
Ankh-Morpork features heavily in the game. So, many of the people/locations
will be familiar to anyone who has read even a single Discworld book. The
locations include the Broken/Mended Drum , the Alchemist's /Alchemist's
Alley, The Patricians' Palace, the City Gate (complete with Nobby, Carrot,
and Vimes) Unseen University, of course, the Palace, the Shades, the Edge
of the Disc, and a number of others. People who have read the books will
be right at home. And if you haven't read any (why not?), you'll soon
catch up.
Here are some of the recognizable characters which make an appearance
in Discworld 1:
Archchancellor,
The Bursar
Carrot
Death
Detritus
Dibbler
Gaspode
The Librarian
The Luggage
Rincewind
Nanny Ogg
Nobby
The Patrician
Lady Ramkin
Mr Silverfish
Vimes
Windle Poons
Discworld 2
-----------
Discworld 2 adds a whole host of other characters and locations, as well as
many old favourites. The characters include;
Angus,
Archchancellor,
Alberto Malich,
Bursar,
Cassanunda,
Coffin' Henry,
Count and Countess Notfaroutoe
Dean,
Dibbler,
Duckman,
Foul Ole Ron,
Granny Weatherwax,
Greebo,
Ixolite the banshee,
Mad Drongo,
Ponder Stibbons,
Reg Shoe,
Rincewind (obviously),
Schleppel the bogeyman,
Skaz,
St Ungulant,
Susan Sto Helit (Death's Grand-daughter),
The Luggage,
The Patrician,
Windle Poons.
1.4 What books are they based on?
---------------------------------
Discworld 1
-----------
The game appears to have a similar storyline, very similar in fact,
to 'Guards! Guards!'. Without giving too much away about the book or the
game (anyone who has read the book will know what I mean), they both have
a number of things in common:
The basic 'dragon summoned up by slightly disturbed hidden order' bit.
The use of L-Space.
The members of the order.. almost identical in character and occupation to
the book, but with different names.
The way in which the dragon is disposed of.. I'm not saying too much on
this one..
Discworld 2
-----------
Discworld 2: features the welcome return of
Rincewind, the wizzard. Welcome to all that is, except
the staff of Unseen University. In fact, most of Ankh-Morpork.
But especially unwelcome to Death, for what is initially a simple
reaping job, goes horribly wrong, thanks to Rincewind's inept
thaumatergical meddling. The end result is that Death goes
missing presumed, er, missing. And without Death, things start
running less than smoothly. People stop dying properly, and something
has to be done. Guess who gets the job?
Discworld 2: Missing, presumed.. (or Mortality Bytes as it's
known as in the U.S), features characters and scenes from most of
the Discworld books, but the plot borrows bits from Reaper Man, and
Moving Pictures, amongst others.
1.5 What Pterry did / DW Development..
--------------------------------------
Terry Pratchett (credited in Discworld 2 as 'Throwing rocks from
afar'), has obviously had quite a lot of input as far as the
Discworld games are concerned, usually making sure they get things
right; at one point, he didn't like the Librarian's voice in Discworld
2, so it was changed, sharpish. Terry said:
"I've done everything I need to do, including a lot of work on the script,
but I've been doing so much lately I haven't had time to rattle the
programmers' cage."
Really? Perfect must have been *so* disappointed. Not that things weren't
a tad hectic during the development of DW2. I visited Perfect HQ
a while back, and all concerned were trying to get the master of Discworld
2 finished to ship out to the US. I'm still not sure why the US should
get Discworld 2 first. Unfair!
1.6 Perfect Entertainment.
--------------------------
Perfect Entertainment were previously two co-operating companies,
Teeny Weeny Games, and Perfect 10, but have now merged to become
one company, Perfect Entertainment. The Discworld 2 credits
list the following people as being involved in the game; I cut
and pasted these out of the english.txt file, so there might be
a few missing..
Written, Directed and Produced by:
Gregg Barnett
Executive Producer:
Angela Sutherland
Programming Director:
David Johnston
Tinsel System Programmer:
John Young
Game Programmers:
David Johnston
Paul Carpenter
Mark Judge
Additional Programming:
Adrian Brown
Jason Brooke
Dialogue:
Paul Kidd
Animation Director and Lead Animator:
Simon Turner
Technical Art Director:
Paul Mitchell
Creative Art Director:
Nick Pratt
Chief Animators:
Steve Packer
Ben Willsher
Additional Animation:
David Swan
'That's Death' Animation:
Rob Newman
Layouts and Storyboard:
Nick Pratt
Lee Taylor
Animation Scripting:
Paul Mitchell
Guillaume Camus
David Hurst
Mark Booth
Simon Turner
External Animation Studio:
FilCartoon
Music Director & Composer:
Rob Lord
Sound Effects
Mark Bandola
Paul Weir
Voice Sample Conversion:
Jeremy Tranter
2 TECHNICAL DETAILS
-------------------
2.1 Scenario + misc information
-------------------------------
The scenario of Discworld 1 is pretty similar to 'Guards, Guards'. A
typically nasty secret order has summoned up a dragon, and is using
it to reek havoc upon the city. But it's not down to Carrot and
co to stop it. It's down to Rincewind, the highly inept wizard. You
take control of him, and try to save the city from destruction, in
a journey that takes you from Ankh-Morpork, through L-Space, all
in true Pratchett style.
2.2 What machine/specs do I need to run it?
-------------------------------------------
To run the PC-CDROM version, you need 4MB of memory, with at least 2700K
of Extended Memory. Base Memory is not seem important, as Discworld uses the
DOS4GW dos extender.. which treats all memory as one block. You also need,
of course, a Single Speed or upwards CD-ROM drive. Plus, a VGA card and
display. A mouse is not essential but recommended if you want to pick out
objects without the cursor sliding around like an elephant on an ice-rink.
Some sort of sound card is recommended.. you won't be able to hear the
sound/speech without it.
Discworld supports:
Gravis Ultrasound,
Soundblaster,
Soundblaster Pro,
Soundblaster 16, plus any clones,
Adlib,
Roland,
Soundblaster AWE32
Discworld PC-CDROM also used just around 1.6 meg of hard disk space. The
requirements for the PC-Floppy version are almost identical, except that
the PC-Floppy does not need a CD-ROM drive(obviously), and takes up more
disk space. Quite a lot of Disk space... nearly 50 meg in total, so
make sure you can get enough space together.
The Apple Mac version requires a Mac with System 7.0 upwards, 4.3 Meg of
memory, and a 68000 processor, although it prefers (prefers?) a 68030
or 68040 processor. It is also recommended you have Sound Manager, version
3.0 upwards. And a CD drive.. it's CD only, folks.
2.3 What's the difference between the various versions?
----------
The CD versions have full speech for all the characters (most of the time
-see bugs), which is generally of a very high standard. The characters talk
exactly how I would imagine them to from the books (but imagination is the
whole point of the books anyway) The voiceovers are done by:
Eric Idle -Ex-Python.. Splitting Heirs, etc.. (Rincewind)
Tony Robinson -Excellent Actor/Comedy Actor.. credits include BlackAdder,
Maid Marian, and the voices for a number of Pratchett
audio tapes. (A number of characters)
Jon Pertwee -Best remembered for Dr Who, and a number of other productions,
(Several Characters) Now dead, sadly.
Kate Robbins -Character/voice actress... Spitting Image
(Many Characters)
Rob Brydon -Character/voice actor.. Spitting Image again.. a man of many
voices.. all of them completely different
(All the other characters)
Apart from the voiceovers, there appears to be only one difference.. although
this is yet to be confirmed. The difference is, that whilst the Discworld CD
version has full sound effects, the Discworld Floppy version seems to only
have music. This seems somewhat puzzling, obviously cuts would have to have
been made to fit it on a reasonable number of disks. In fact, I've confirmed
this.. the HD version has music, but no sound effects, sadly...
The CD-ROM access is suprisingly fast on a double speed..
faster than many HD-based games I have seen. Transferring it to HD is
reported to produce only a minor speed difference (why can't all CD-Rom games
be this fast?)
2.4 How many different PC versions are there? Where can I get a demo?
------------------------
There are, in total 5 versions of the full game, and also 2 demos..
I'm checking if there's a Mac demo, which seems likely.
1: The PC floppy version, currently with no patch available.
This is currently the only floppy version available. And with Discworld 2
on the way, there's no sign at all of a Discworld 1 floppy patch.
2: The PC CD Version 1.
This is the version PC CD owners are most likely to have. It contains
all the bugs mentioned in section 2.4. There is a patch available for this
version, but it still remains buggy. This is the version retailers stock.
3: The PC CD Version 2. Discworld: The Directors Cut.
This is a completely fixed version of the Discworld version 1.. with
virtually every bug removed. It is not, unfortunately, available from
retailers, and can only be obtained in exchange for the PC CD version 1.
4: The Apple Mac version:
This is more or less the Mac version of the Directors cut, with the
extra graphics, and bug fixes of the PC CD version 2.. it's currently
available in the UK, and various european retailers, but at the time
of writing, not in the U.S. This is currently only available on CD.
5: The PC CD Version 2. Discworld: The Director's other cut.
This is a third version of the PC-CDROM Discworld game. It has had
the final few glitches fixed, and is now apparently flawless. I haven't
actually played this, and it's not publicly available on its own.
Perfect Entertainment tell me that this may be bundled with Discworld
2 in the U.S.
By the way, the 'Director's Cut', is just what I call the other versions
of Discworld 1. This isn't an official title, so Psygnosis might not
know what you mean. If they seem puzzled, refer to it as 'Discworld 1
version 2'.
There are also 2 demo versions. Version 1, the older version is a small
demo centred around the problem of getting the fishmongers belt. It
has no sound, and is available from a number of sites.. I'll put a list
in the next faq. it's a kind of work in progress demo.
The second version is a CD demo, containing the part of the first Act
set inside the Unseen University, and has all the speech to match.
it is also almost bugless.. this is available on a number of PC mag CD
coverdisks.. including the June 1995 Issue of PC Format.
2.5 What's this about bugs? Reported Bugs/Problems
-----
Although the first version of game doesn't seem at all unstable ,there are a
large number of annoying bugs. None of these appear to render the game
un-completable in anyway, but they can be really irritating. PC-Zone, a UK
magazine managed to review the game in early December.. when the game was
still being coded.. and spookily failed to point out any probs.
Anyway.. I'm meant to be objective about this. So, I have a list
of reported bugs and problems, all witnessed at first hand, along with any
comment/solutions. These bugs are mostly shared by the PC Floppy version,
but there have been reports of the game crashing just before the identity
of the monks are revealed.
I've also recieved mentions of crashes cropping up in Version 2;
Bugs/Problems
-------------
(A few of these might contain spoilers)
The bugs can be divided into three sections, Graphical Glitches, Sound Bugs,
and Miscelaneous problems. Which is exactly what I have done. Most of these
bugs have also been reported by various people on ALT.FAN.PRATCHETT (usenet),
so it is not an isolated problem.
Graphical Glitches:
The majority of these center around mysteriously dissapearing or flashing
sprites. As I have mentioned, these do not stop you finishing the game,
but hardly contribute to the atmosphere, and give it a slightly less than
polished finish. A few examples are:
The disappearing beggar in the street in Act 2.
The scared guy in Act 2 who teleports from seat to seat.
The walkthroughable door in the Inn.
The Witch in Act 2 who flips back to her position in Act 1 when you click
on the custard book (try it), and manages to both in the town square,
and the palace later in act 2..
Wierd one this: In the psychatrickerists/Clickies acting agency,
you are called up when the milkmaid has signed her ottograph. The
receptionists clothes change back to what she was wearing in acts 1 and 2
and the milkmaid disappears into thin air.
The Dunnyman's miraculous gold tooth which hangs in the air and wiggles
when he has long gone (when you give him a doughnut).
There are a number of similar glitches which turn up regularly.
Sound Bugs:
These are very noticable throughout the game. The most common is speech being
repeated, or replaced by subtitles. I turned the subtitles one once, and
noticed that the speech repeating bug seemed to be related to the timing
being off.
Other occurences include:
The volume controls don't work..
The clicking in speech experienced by most users, regardless of sound
card make..
Talking to the guards in act 2: Their speech is often replaced by the
bizarre ?________?.. not exactly revealing to say the least.
Trying to put the money pouch in the luggage. I can live with 'I can't do
that', but it is kind of wierd that it is said in one of Rob Brydon's yokel
voices rather than Eric Idle's voice. A similar occurence is trying to wake
the librarian in the past in Act 2.
Talking to the Dunnyman in Act 2. Rincewind finishes the conversation with
Carrots voice, no less!
Miscel problems.
These are various problems, seemingly unrelated to the other to categories.
This includes:
The one bug that seems to make the game crash, turning the subtitles on.
This seems to randomly crash the game, particularly when done at the
beginning of the game.
Some sequences seem to repeatable. For example. the method of getting
the chimney sweeps gold item can be repeated again and again (I'm saying
nothing more.. I don't want to spoil it for anyone)
One problem that seems to have cropped up as well, is the fact that some
people go upstairs into the Psychatrickerists on Act 2, and come down
empty handed, leaving out the intermediate sequence. I have managed to
duplicate this by saving my game while sitting down in the Psychiatrickerists
,so I suggest you do not save whilst in there. An alternative solution is
to simply get up before you are called, leave the Psychiatrickerists,
then return. The problem will be ok as long as you don't re-save.
I only have the CD version, so I can't verify if the graphic glitches occur
on the floppy version.. perhaps someone could give me some feedback on this..
The above bugs may seem pretty damning, but I all honesty, I tried not to let
them spoil my enjoyment of the game. Discworld is still a game definitely
worth getting. It just seems a shame the bugs got through.
2.6 Where can I get a patch/what does it fix?
---------------------------------------------
A patch has been released for Discworld CD version 1. floppy owners are
still left patchless. If you want to get the floppy patch...
The file is: disc104n.zip
and it is available at the following sites:
ftp://Lspace.cp.tn.tudelft.nl/pub/pratchett/games/discworld and
ftp://ftp.britain.eu.net/pub/misc/pratchett/games/discworld in Europe,
ftp://theory.lcs.mit.edu/pub/pratchett/games/discworld in America
ftp://death.socs.uts.edu.au/Mirror/Pratchett/games/discworld in Australia.
To use it, unzip it into a temporary directory, and run the batch file.
What does it fix? :
Not a lot of the bugs, really. It does fix the clicking noise that
accompanied the speech in the unpatched version, and I have not had
the game crash on me since installing it.. the game seems to cope with
switcing between subtitles and no-subtitles quite easily. It also
fixes the volume controls, which now actually do control the volume
of sound, music and speech.
It doesn't seem to fix any of the other graphical or sound glitches
however, but it is a shame. However, the one downer about the patch, is
that it seems to replace the excellent Sound Blaster/FM music with some
rather average MIDI music, that doesn't sound as good. The patch seems to
replace the standard drivers with an entirely new set of drivers. I am
currently experimenting with the drivers to see if I can get FM music from
the patch by swapping drivers.. although I have neglected to keep a copy
of the original v1.0 Discworld executable. can anyone help me with this?
2.7 Discworld and Windows 95
----------------------------
Ah, all was going well, till Bill Gates parked his car in the PC market.
So while he and IBM are trying to outstare each other, you're left trying
to run Discworld on Windows 95. And are you having any success? Perhaps.
Windows 95 harbours a certain animosity towards Dos games. How much success
you have seems to depend greatly on whether Win 95 likes your hardware
configuration. Some people have reported that Discworld ran perfectly
on the aformentioned operating system, while others have had a few problems.
These problems range from Discworld refusing to run, to running without
music or sounds. There appears to be no easy way round it, and while I'm
sure I could suggest ticking the various checkboxes for each application,
not too many people are technically minded to know what each does. The
help system doesn't help all that much, either. If all goes well, Discworld
will run, maybe grudgingly. Otherwise, you may have to switch to Dos mode,
and try again. Discworld was written for Dos specifically, and as such, may
turn up a few problems.
I've recently got Windows 95, and I've tried running Discworld 1 on it, and
it worked reasonably well, except for hanging notes between scenes. Hmmm.
It still varies from PC to PC.
2.8 Discworld Version 2: The Directors Cut
------------------------------------------
This is Discworld as it should have been originally.. it fixes most of
the bugs, graphical and sound glitches in the original version. It also
contains a number of new graphical bits, and cut-scenes, such as added
animation, and also a host of new sounds. The chances are, at the time
of writing this faq, you will have the latest version, which has made
its way into the stores. If you don't, it can be obtained by
mailing or phoning Psygnosis / Sony Interactive.
so to get it, you'll have to contact Psygnosis /
Sony Interactive after buying Version 1.
2.9 Technical Support + Trouble Shooting
-----------------------------------------
Psygnosis / Sony Interactive can be reached for Technical Support on
helpline@psygnosis.co.uk, and specifically for Discworld on
Rince.wind@psygnosis.co.uk in the United Kingdom. They can also be reached in
America on: helpline@psygnosis.com
Psygnosis US's email dept seem quite responsive, but a lot of people have had
problems getting any reply from Psygnosis UK's email address.
They should be able to answer a number of questions / problems you may have..
but here's a few of the commonest problems I've come across.. many can be
applied to games in general, but some cover specifics of the Discworld Game..
pretty basic for now, but I'll have more suggestions in the next faq. Some
software or hardware configurations can cause problems. for example,
IBM's Blue Lightning was notorious for having sound problems with a number
of games. Doom included.. if you can, try and test the game on a friend's
computer, and make a note of their setup. I think the PC has to be the only
machine that manages to be compatible and incompatible at the same time.. (?)
These, so far, relate to the PC versions.. I'm working on putting in Mac
technical support, but I only have a PC to hand.. there is one notable
problem with the Mac version, however, and that is that certain high
level Macs seem to have a problem running the game. that's progress, eh? :)
This seems to be most common in Macs produced since the game's first release.
If you're still having problems, or don't know how to do certain things
mentioned here, please contact Psygnosis / Sony Interactive tech support, or me,
but
*DISCLAIMER* again.. if you screw up your computer doing these things, it's
not my fault. although you'd usually have to remove the case to do that..
and always remember to put your hand on an earthed piece of metal.. the power
supply, etc.. to discharge static. and if you open the case.. make
sure the PCs turned off first.. anyway..
DISCWORLD 1:
------------
Q: I've got Windows 95 installed, and...
A: Stop! Stop right there... while Windows 95 claims to do everything
you want it to do, running Dos games (of which Discworld is one),
makes it a little temperamental. Try looking at section 2.7, for
more info.
Q: The game or install routine locks up whenever I start the game..
A: This could be a number of things. If you've managed to install the
game properly, and it still locks up, you can try the following steps..
1. Check that the install routine identified your soundcard correctly.
eg, that if you have an SB16, you have configured the program for
an SB16, or the configuration that your card emulates. Also, check
that the install routine has assigned the correct IRQs and DMA values..
Default values for a card are usually IRQ 5 or 7, DMA 1, and A220.
You could also try changing the IRQ and DMA values on the card..
read the manual supplied with your card for details on how to do this..
but don't try anything unless you're absolutely sure..
2. The Dos Extender, Dos4GW that this program uses, is known to have a
few problems with certain memory managers, QEMM, Memmax, etc, so
try removing these from your autoexec.bat and config.sys files..
add a REM in front of any line containing those words.. also,
EMM386.EXE can cause problems occasionally.. if all else fails,
create a basic setup with just himem.sys installed, and your CD drivers
if nessecary..
If the install program locks up before it lets you pick a soundcard,
it's more likely to be conflicting device drivers. If it locks up while
detecting a soundcard, try both of the above anyway..
Q: The game hangs ..
A:As mentioned in step 1 above, re-run the install routine, and make sure
you've picked the right soundcard.. and try changing the IRQ, and DMA,
both in the program, and on your sound card.
Again, try removing all unnessecary drivers, as in step 2, then try
running the program again.
Plus, if you're using the CD version, make sure you're running the latest
version of your CD drivers..
There is also a bug that some people have come across, in the Floppy
version, although it only seems to crop up on some machines. In this case,
the game locks up in act 2, at the Monks summoning. as well as
performing steps 1 + 2, you can reload the game, and try again. If this
fails, and the game consistently crashes, which seems to happen in some
cases, save your saved game, and get a friend, Psygnosis / Sony Interactive
tech support,
or me, to play past the summoning, and resave the game, then give it back
to you.
Q: There is no sound at all..
A: Try performing steps 1 + 2.. that is, changing the IRQ, and re-installing,
plus removing unnessecary drivers. Also, make sure your card is plugged
in properly, and the speakers are connected. Within the game itself, try
pressing F1, and changing the volume sliders.
Q: Sound is of poor quality/crackling.
If the sound quality is poor, then you can try changing the settings, a la
step 1, or moving your sound card away from the CPU inside the machine.
In V1.00 of the CD and Floppy versions, however, there is a bug which makes
the sound break up. There is a patch available for this.. currently only
a CD patch, with a Floppy patch due soon, but you can use the CD patch to
extract the new drivers and copy them into your floppy directory..
There is also a new CD available.. from Psygnosis / Sony Interactive, or it may
be in your
local store.. contact Psygnosis / Sony Interactive for details.. they'll replace
it free
of charge.
Q: There is a problem with.... GENERAL BUGS.
Yep.. there are a few glitches in V1.00.. nothing that should make the game
unplayable, but you can check the buglist above to find out what they are..
If you have any other problems, you can contact Psygnosis / Sony Interactive,
or email me.. I'll try to help as soon as I can, but I'm not employed or paid
by Psygnosis at all, and I can't reply 24 hours a day. See the 'general'
section for Psygnosis's contact numbers.
And there you go. Should make things a little easier than dialling the
other side of the world.
3. Discworld 2: Missing, presumed... ?
--------------------------------------
3.1 Scenario and misc. information.
-----------------------------------
Discworld 2 again features Rincewind in the starring role, but this
time it's not dragons he's chasing, but Death himself. Thanks to
a thaumaturgical incident, Death has disappeared to the other side
of the Disc, and it's up to you to track him down. Eventually, that
is. You first have to find out where he's got to. Discworld 2 is
split into four acts, each with a different aim, much like Discworld
1. Perfect Entertainment are again responsible for the game, but
Discworld 2 has a many improvements over the first game.
The user interface has undergone a few changes, while the
look and feel has remained the same. You can now place objects in
the luggage by double clicking an object on it. Also, all the icons
are animated, with other tweaks here and there. For example, you'll
no longer get 'I can't do that', when you try to use an object in
the wrong place. You'll get a message appropriate to that item; if
you try to use the ice block on Granny Weatherwax, you'll be told that
'That doesn't need cooling down. Then there's the graphics. They have
completely changed since the previous games. The entire game is now in
SVGA, with all the graphics looking much sharper and more cartoony than
the original. Not that there was anything wrong with the first game's
graphics, but there's still a huge contrast; an animation system called '
Toonz' has been used to convert the hand drawn animation frames in the game.
Discworld 2 also uses an inhouse system called Tinsel, to co-ordinate the
characters and items on-screen.
The voice talent includes Eric Idle, reprising his role as
Rincewind, with Rob Brydon and Kate Robbins bringing many of the other
Discworld characters to life. And Nigel Planer (he of
The Young Ones) has added his talents to the production; he provides the
voices to a number of characters, including a Neil type hippy character.
Discworld 2 runs under both DOS and Windows 95, both versions appearing
on the same CD, and it's damn good. There's also only one version as
far as I know. There's also a song, 'That's Death'. There are various
different non-english versions as well, which have speech, but they
don't have the same people doing the voices as the english version
does. Discworld 2's difficult is perfectly pitched, in my opinion at
least; you can be puzzling over something a while, then suddenly, you
think 'Hang on.. why don't I try...' and it works!
3.2 What machine do I need to run it?
-------------------------------------
Well, here are the minimum specs from the manual;
486DX4 66Mhz,
16 MB of RAM for Win 95 version, 8MB for MS-DOS (ver 6.0 or better)
640X480 256 colour SVGA display.
Double-speed CD-ROM drive
Sound card and amplified speakers or headphones.
Single-hemisphere electro-colloidal brain with cognitive functions
And the recommended specs are:
Pentium 90 Mhz or greater IBM-compatible computer.
Twin-hemisphere electro-colloidal brain with cognitive functions
Both MS-DOS and Windows 95 executables are included on the CDs, so you
can run under either OS. And you only swap CDs once in the game.
3.3 Where do I get a demo?
--------------------------
There is a demo available, currently making appearance on various
magazine coverdisks. Bear in mind that the demo version you get
may or may not reflect the current state of the game; the demo
appearing on PC Zone's cover CD was over two months old when it
was published. The demo allows you to explore the shades, with
the aim of getting onto a ship to take you out of Ankh-Morpork.
The demo includes approximately four puzzles, and
introduces you to the Dead Collector, the Mortician, Foul Ole
Ron, Coffin Henry, and Duckman. The demo itself can be run
without the CD, with the aid of FakeCD, and can be zipped
up into a 44 meg file. Unfortunately, I don't have the disk space
in my user area to upload this; I'll keep you posted if anyone
puts it on an FTP site. Note; at the time of writing, the demo
version I have seen runs under Windows 95 only, so while the
final version will run under DOS, it's worth checking in the
magazine quickly, if you're buying the mag just for the demo.
The December issue of PC Gamer UK (Issue 37) also has
a Discworld 2 demo on the cover, but it seems to be exactly
the same one as the PC Zone demo.
3.4 Reported Bugs/Problems
--------------------------
A few bugs have come to light:
First is the program crashing with a corrupt 'DINING.MUS' file. This has only
happened to a few people; if this crops up, you should try taking your CD back
to the
shop and getting a new one.. it may just be that you have a faulty CD.
Secondly, several people have been unable run the game properly under Win 95 if
it's
installed to driver other than the CD drive. This is fixed in the patch.
Also, some people have reported various odd problems, such as not being able to
get the
ladder from Casanunda, or finding that various characters have disappeared. This
problem
can be caused by loading saved games from the DOS version of DW2 into the Win 95
of
version 2. However, several people have come across this bug, despite using only
one
operating system. Perfect are looking into this at present. All I can recommend
for
the moment is to save your game regularly, in different slots; if you come
across this,
try reloading an earlier game, or restarting. I'll update this faq when I get
more
information.
3.5 Where can I get a patch/What does it fix?
---------------------------------------------
There is a patch out for the Win 95 version of Discworld 2, and according
to David Johnston, Software Manager bloke at Perfect, it does the following:
- Corrects movie synchronisation on specific machines
where the sound can drift out of sync. Also improves
performance of movies on slower machines.
- Speeds up loading and playing of many scenes especially
on low-memory machines.
- Corrects the system registry so that the game will run
from whatever drive you install it to (Simply install to
the required drive then run this patch).
You can get the patch from:
-------------------------------
The Discworld Game Page, in the 'Files' section:
http://www.lspace.org/games/discworld
-------------------------------
The Patches Scrolls:
http://www.inf.tu-dresden.de/~mr2/
------------------------------
The Online Gaming Review Download page at:
http://www.ogr.com/games/downloads.html
------------------------------
Or by FTP from:
ftp://ftp.inf.tu-dresden.de/pub/ms-dos/games/patches/dw2_wp2.zip
------------------------------
And the LSpace Archives, at:
ftp://ftp.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/games/discworld2/dw2patch.zip
------------------------------
The patch is also available on the coverdisk of PC Gamer Magazine (UK),
in the patches directory. That's on every cover CD from issue 40 onwards.
3.6 Discworld and Windows 95 / OS 2
-----------------------------------
Discworld 2 runs under both Dos and Windows 95, so there
shouldn't be many problems with at all with Windows 95 as
there were with Discworld 1. If you are having problems,
mail me.
As for OS/2, Discworld 2 hasn't been written or tested
for OS/2, and the Dos version may or may not work under
the system.
However, I have been sent an email by Oliver Buettner in which he says that
the following OS2 settings should allow you to run Discworld 2:
---
Discworld 2 works under OS/2 (tested under Warp 4) . You only have to
do some changes in the DOS-Session parameters:
INT_DURING_IO: ON
IDLE SENSITIVY: 100
SESSION PRIORITY: 32
AUDIO ADAPTER SHARING: REQUIRED
VIDEO_8514A_XGA_IOTRAP: OFF
I don't know, if they are all necessary but these are the corrections I
have made and it works. I'm using a SB32 and so I also had to add the
"SET BLASTER=..."-statement to my autoexec but this is required for all
DOS-games (like most of the session parameters).
And I don't have any memory problems running Discworld under OS/2 like
I had under DOS!
But I still have one problem: after some minutes (quite irregular) the
sound starts to crackle. I don't know if this is a specific SB32 - OS/2
- DOS-Box problem but I don't think so. I don't know how to fix it yet.
----
3.7 That's Death
----------------
'That's Death', is a song written and performed by Eric Idle,
especially for Discworld 2. It may be released as a single,
though how well it'll sell is another matter. Should you feel
the strange desire to know the words to the song, here they are;
--
There's a place you're always welcome,
It's as nice as it can be,
Everyone can get in,
'cos it's absolutely free..
That's Death.
No need to take a rest,
Just lie around all day,
With not a single bill to pay,
Hooray...
That's Death.
No more sicknesses or flue..
If you've lived beyond your means,
You can die beyond them, too,
Boo-hoo...
Well, the greatest and the finest,
Mmm, have already died,
Why not simply join them,
On the other side?
That's Death..
Say farewell to all your ills,
Rip up all your bills,
And pop your final pills,
Amen...
That's Death...
It's a tete a tete with fate,
If you're not feeling great,
Then it's the best way to lose weight,
Mate...
Nothing here to hurt you,
No-one's here to nag,
Come die with me,
If your life's a drag...
That's Death...
~Death, Death~
The wealthy and well bred,
All of them are here,
And they're all completely dead,
~So dead~
That's Death...
~Death, Death~
No more headaches, no more pain,
Of the millions who've died,
No-one came back to complain,
~Uh-huh~
You can't take it with you,
You can't keep what you've got,
So why not just lie back,
And simply rot?
~Death, Death~
Just simply rot,
~Death, Death~
It's so cool, it's hot,
~Death, Death~
And That's Death.
--
3.8 Technical Support and Troubleshooting;
------------------------------------------
Most of what I've said about Discworld 1 troubleshooting
applies equally to Discworld 2, but if you have a specific
problem, mail me, and I'll try to help. If I get enough
queries about a specific problem, I'll list it here.
The Discworld 2 patch also contains a number of Questions
and Answers, provided by David Johnston, which I've reproduced
here.
--------
Q. Why won't Discworld II (Win 95) run if I install it to
a drive other than C.
A. The Windows installation program on early versions of
Discworld II set a system "registry key" to "C" regardless of
the drive it installed to. To correct this you need to change
the registry key to point to the drive you did install Discworld II
on (see below). Or you can simply run the patch program to correct
it automatically.
- Run 'regedit' from the 'Start' menu, 'Run' option.
- Expand 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE' (click on the plus symbol)
- Expand 'SOFTWARE'
- Expand 'PERFECT Entertainment'
- Select 'Discworld II'
- Select 'Drive' in the right-hand window
- Select 'Edit' then 'Modify' from the menu
- Enter the new drive letter (where you installed Discworld II)
- Close RegEdit and run Discworld II
----------------------
Q. Why does the game (Windows only) pause briefly whenever
Rincewind changes scale?
A. The Windows installation program on early versions of
Discworld II copied some files to the wrong place on your hard
drive. If you move these files (see below) to the correct
folder the momentary pauses will disappear. Or you can simply
run the patch program to correct it automatically.
n.b. this problem may only be visible on machines with the minimum
specified amount of RAM. See also the following tip for speeding up
CD access generally.
- There is a folder called CACHE under the folder you
installed Discworld II in. The installation program incorrectly
copied 21 files (needed for faster access) into a folder called
DW2 within the CACHE folder. Simply move the files back to the
CACHE folder and the pauses should vanish.
----------------------
Q. My CD ROM drive does not appear to be fast enough to run
Discworld II properly. The sound cuts out briefly every now
and then. How can I speed the game up on my machine?
A. This is a tough one as it depends on the configuration of your
machine. If you have a lot of free drive space you can move many
files from the Discworld II CDs to your hard drive (see below).
Discworld II still requires the presence of the CDs but will
check the hard disk first before loading files, this will speed
up the game significantly.
- There is a folder called CACHE under the folder you
installed Discworld II in. Most files can be copied here from
the DW2 folders of either CD 1 or CD 2, however, some files
(of the same name) are different on CD1 and CD 2. To cater for
these specific files you can create folders under the CACHE folder
called CD1 and CD2. The files in question relate to text and speech
and have extensions of .SMP, .TXT and .IDX (see following hint for
details). Any of these files from the DW2 folder of CD 1 can go in
CD1 and those from the DW2 folder of CD 2 can go in CD2.
n.b. To save space you only have to have files from the CD you
are currently playing on your hard drive.
----------------------
Q. I only want to copy some files from the CDs to my hard drive
to speed it up. What are the various file types on the Discworld II CDs?
A. To make your choice of files to copy easier here are some details
of the more important file types on the Discworld II CDs. The CACHE
folder is found within the folder you installed Discworld II. The CD1
and CD2 folders should be created within the CACHE folder (if required).
File Type Description Should I copy to hard disk? Where to copy...
--------- ----------- --------------------------- ----------------
.MUS Music data Reduces CD access significantly if CACHE folder
copied to hard disk as music is read
in regularly. Should improve scenes
containing lots of sound effects.
.SCN Code and Scene load times reduced if copied to CACHE folder
graphics hard disk - no other benefit.
n.b. some critical scenes are already
copied to hard disk during installation.
.CDP Graphic Smoothes out brief pauses while CACHE folder
sequences loading extra graphics within a scene.
.BMV 'B movies' Only copy to hard drive if the movies CACHE folder
are playing badly or sound shuts off.
Movie pre-load times are also reduced
if the movies are copied.
.SMP Speech Only copy to hard drive if you are CD1 or
/Sound FX experiencing regular sound glitches. CD2 folder
.IDX Speech Loaded once only - can stay on CD. CD1 or
index CD2 folder
.TXT Sub-title Loaded once only - can stay on CD. CD1
text or CD2 folder
-------------------------------------------
Q. Why is the sound in Discworld II distorting when running
under Windows 95 on my Packard Bell PC?
A. There may be a conflict with the 'Software Wave Table'
feature of your sound card. Try turning the option off
(See below).
- Open the control panel (under 'setting' on the Start menu)
- Open 'system'
- Select 'Device Manager'
- Expand 'Sound, video and game controllers' (click on the plus symbol)
- Select 'Sound 16 SRS & Wave Table'
- Click on the 'Properties' button
- Select 'Settings'
- De-select the option 'Software Wave Table Enabled'
- Close the control panel windows and run Discworld II
-------------------------
3.9 Bits and Bats
-----------------
Easter Eggs:
Discworld 2 also contains a few little 'easter eggs', that is,
hidden features, sequences and so on. Some are activated by
keypresses or command line sequences, others by using objects
in a certain way. Here's all the ones I know about, and according
to David Johnston, head programmer at Perfect, there are more to be found:
1: In Act 2, try using the special effects imp on Rincewind
2: Also in Act 2, if you enter the magic stone circle ten times, Rincewind takes
a little trip back in time.. to meet his Discworld 1 counterpart.
4. I'M STUCK!
-------------
Discworld 1
-----------
I know that there's already a walkthrough floating about, but a lot of
people have asked for specific hints, not spoilers. What I have done with
this hint file is to go through most of the common problems in the game,
ACTS I-IV. It is available at the same site as the faq, or by mailing me.
Discworld 2
-----------
I've written a walkthrough for Discworld 2 which is available at the
same site as this faq, or by writing to me. I'm also in the process
of making a hint file for the game. Again, mail me if you're stuck.
The walkthru for Discworld 2 can be found at:
The Discworld Game Pages:
http://www.lspace.org/games/discworld
------------------
The LSpace Archives...
ftp://ftp.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/games/discworld2/walkthru.txt
--------------
The Spoiler's Centre...
http://spoiler.et.ee/ADVENTURE/Psygnosis/Discworld2.html
--------------
Paul Hatton's home page...
http://www.hatton.demon.co.uk/paul.htm
You can mail me if you have a question that isn't included in the faq,
but please please PLEASE have the subject like 'Discworld 2 help'
or something, I want to be able to sort it out from my other mail.
Chris McMullen
C.S.McMullen@cms.salford.ac.uk
Hint Books
----------
There are hint books available for Discworld 1, and Discworld 2, both
sold separately. They are available in most decent bookstores.
5. The Colour of Magic
----------------------
The Colour of Magic was originally programmed for the Spectrum (and maybe
the C64.. I'm looking into this) by Delta 4, for Pirahna software. It is
a text based adventure game, with a few scattered graphics, and is based
solely on the Colour of Magic book. It follows the adventures of Rincewind
and Twoflower through the discworld, and sticks to the plot very closely..
so a knowledge of the book could help a lot. If you have never played a text
adventure before, however, you could be in for a difficult time. As a game,
it isn't particularly difficult in terms of puzzles, but trying to find the
words to perform an action isn't easy. To talk to Twoflower, I tried.
SAY HELLO TO TWOFLOWER
SPEAK TO TWOFLOWER
WELCOME TWOFLOWER
EXAMINE TWOFLOWER
TALK TO TWOFLOWER
SAY HELLO TWOFLOWER
BUGGER OFF TWOFLOWER
HIT TWOFLOWER
SWEAR
I think you get the idea. I eventually got the right word, but it took a
while.. as things stand. I've got quite a bit further, and the game
does follow the plot of the book pretty closely, right down to the bar
fights.. worth checking out if you can get the snapshot, but don't expect
it to keep you entertained for long. or to come back to it... unlike
to the Discworld TWG/P10 game.
You can get the snapshot and solution from the Pratchett archives, in
the pub/pratchett/games directory, from the same sites as the faq. However,
it would seem that you need an emulator with the capabality to save a position
to tape or some other medium. The game, on loading parts 2-4, asks for a
previously saved game. Perhaps some kind soul with such a setup could play
the game, and save a snapshot shortly after loading from parts 2-4.
6. Discworld MUD
----------------
The Discworld MUD is a Multi-User-Dungeon game, set on the Discworld..
that much you will have guessed. It can be reached by telnetting to:
discworld.imaginary.com 4242
I'll give credit to the admins as soon as I find out who they are.. (good
job there..). The Mud contains many of the locations and characters from
the book, behaving in a very recognisable way, as part of the Discworld.
You can get a character straight away, but you are requested not to use
a character from the book, which is a good idea IMO.. it helps populate
the world in an original way.. rather than filling it up with recognized
characters. So be original. (thats original, not plagaristic)
Another good point is how, upon typing WHO, your name is displayed with a
rating, reflecting your actions. Whilst I was on, there were also another
5 players around.. presumably up to something conspiratorial, but then again,
I did log on at a quiet time..
The Discworld Mud has again moved, to what should be it's final location,
as mentioned above. While there's a fair amount of lag, it's nowhere near
as lagged when it was in Oz, and it's now actually playable..
You can be as nasty or as nice to the denizens as you like (though
courtesy to other players is a good idea), so check it out. And finally,
I'd like to give a big bucket of pig parts to the sods who, while I
foolishly left my terminal unguarded, launched my character into a plethora
of unsavoury shouts. Thanks a lot.
7. FORTHCOMING ATTRACTIONS
--------------------------
7.1 Other Discworld Games
-------------------------
Psygnosis / Sony Interactive/TWG games have got the license to produce more
Discworld games, with Pterry to ok things. A third Discworld game would seem
probably, but I wouldn't expect it for a long long time.
Discworld the Game is programmed using a system called TINSEL, a
custom language, and means that games can be compiled on a PC, and ported
over to various systems, with not too much fuss, and is being transferred to
other formats.. see below. If Discworld 2 is a success, and it'd be difficult
for it not to be, perhaps DW2 will similarly grace other formats.
7.2 Discworld on other formats
------------------------------
Mac Discworld 1:
----------------
Discworld 1 is also available for the Apple Mac, on CD only. It is, in
effect, virtually identical to Version 2 of Discworld for the PC-CD.
It will run on most Macs, but has some problem with high end Macs..
a lot of people have had trouble getting it to run on a Power mac, so keep
that receipt.
It has been suggested that it is System 7.5.1 that causes the problem..
There is now a patch available, at the following addresses :
ftp://ftp.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/games/discworld and
ftp://ftp-us.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/games/discworld in America
ftp://ftp-au.lspace.org/Mirror/Pratchett/games/discworld in Australia.
The file is:
discworld-update.sea.hqx
which seems to fix the PowerMac incompatibility bug. There's also a new
version of System 7, that you could try. I'll find the URL by the
next faq revision.
Finally, Tim Arnot has this to say about the Mac version of Discworld 1.
---------
This is a summary to alt.fan.pratchett of the major problems found in the
Mac version of the DISCWORLD game. My thanks to Dave Le Good
(dave@minuet.demon.co.uk), Peter Young (petey@hwuk.demon.co.uk) and Richard
Barrett (R.Barrett@ftel.co.uk) for additional information, plus a whole
host of other folks for expressing an interest.
Note 1: This report does not concern itself with problems that may be
encountered during gameplay, nor does it contain any spoilers. It simply
addresses the question "will it run on my Mac"
Note 2: This article was originally sent out to some people in draft form
for comment. Comments to the draft have been added in brackets [] with
appropriate attributions.
1. Solvable problem: "Error: Discworld is unable to find the Discworld CD"
It seems this is caused by having file sharing switched on. Cure: Turn off
file sharing.
(actually I believe this may related to a bug in System 7.5.1 that produces
CD errors with various combinations of file sharing, SCSI manager and RAM
Doubler. It is reputedly fixed by System 7.5 Update 2.0)
[This error can also happen if you do not have a late version on the ISO
9660 file access extension, as on my 475. v5.0.2 works. - Dave]
[The release note with Connectix' RAMDoubler updater for 1.5.1 says
(amongst other things):
a. RAM Doubler no longer causes folders to appear "missing" on some
Macs when Apple CD-ROM 5.0 and file sharing are in use simultaneously.
b. Certain CD-ROM sound files now play with RAM Doubler installed.
Its available in:
ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/computing/systems/mac/Collections/umich/misc/upda
te/
I've used the updater to fix a RAMDoubler incompatibility with the 603
processor in my 5200. I can't comment on other benefits claimed by the
release note but Connectix were prompt and professional in dealing with the
603 problem so I'd be fairly optimistic. - Richard]
2. Unsolvable problem: The program crashes PowerMacs on startup.
(The exact symptoms seem to vary - sometimes the machine just freezes,
other times it displays an exception alert.) This problem only affects
Power Macs, but curiously, not all Power Macs (we have been unable to
determine what specific factors cause it to work or fail)
A summary of machines is included below (amount of real memory installed is
specified where known):
Power Macs on which the game has worked:
7100/80 av cd (16Mb)
6100/60
8100/80
Power Macs on which the game has not worked
Performa 5200 (24Mb)
6100/66 (24Mb)
7100/66 (x3) (24Mb/32Mb/??)
9500/120 (x2)
8100/80 (x3)
Quadra 650 w. PPC Upgrade card (32Mb)
Totals: Success 3, Failure 10
According to one of the playtesters at Psygnosis (identity withheld from
this summary), it has been tested and found to work on the following
PowerMac systems:
Machine RAM (Mb) MacOS
------- -------- -----
PowerMac 8100/100av 49 7.5
PowerMac 6100/60 17 7.1.2
PowerMac 6100/60 11 7.1
PowerMac 6100/60 21 7.1.2
[Wierd memory configurations. How when all the machines involved take 72
pin SIMMs (which usually come in 4,8,16 & 32 Mb) installed in pairs can you
end up with Mbs which aren't a multiple of four let alone an odd number?
This could be the explanation. - Richard]
3. A Dealer Comment
I called up a Mail Order Mac software dealer this morning (MacGold Direct,
01723-582100), and the first thing the sales assistant said when I enquired
about the program was "Do you have a PowerMac?" "Why?" says I, "Because
we've been told that it doesn't run on PowerMacs" When I asked who had told
them (i.e. Psygnosis or the users), she said that she didn't know for sure
but presumed it was from user feedback.
[I did talk to their helpline (0151 282 3333) today. On the fourth try they
finally answered the phone. Paraphrasing, the guy said, sorry guv I'm a PC
expert not a Mac man, they're out to lunch! When pressed he more or less
said:
a. that it didn't work right on the PowerMac
b. that there had also been troubles on the PC version
c. a fixed CD would take a couple of months
d. there was no current plan to publish fixed software via the net (a
fix for the PC version is available this way i believe)
This conversation (being the fourth over the period of a week) did not give
me a warm and fuzzy about Psygnosis or the product developers. Frankly,
Psygnosis' people don't seem to have a clue about the problem or what's
being done to fix it. Its amateur night in dixie. - Richard]
4. Conclusion:
If you have a 68K Mac, it works fine (or can be made to do so if you suffer
>from problem #1 above). If you have a PowerMac, at least one dealer claims
it won't work, and based on our collection of machines you may have a
3-in-10 chance of it working (caveat: 601-based machines only. None of our
603- or 604-based machines has had it working).
Time, I think for Psygnosis to get their finger out.
Tim.
--end article---
Playstation and Saturn Discworld 1:
-----------------------------------
Discworld is also available for the Saturn and Playstation. I've
not had any reports of problems with those versions. However, if you want
to save your game on the Playstation version, you'll need a memory card.
Mac Discworld 2:
----------------
There are no plans to produce Mac Discworld 2 at the time of writing,
though Perfect told me it wouldn't be that hard to convert. Apparently,
Mac Discworld 1 sold relatively few copies compared to Discworld on
other formats.
Playstation and Saturn Discworld 2:
----------------------------------
Well, the Playstation version of Discworld 2 was in development when
I last saw it, so expect it to come out maybe a few months
after the PC version, the Saturn version a little later.
7.3 How to contact Psygnosis
----------------------------
You can contact Psygnosis at a number of offices around the world. I
only have the address of one US site, though. I'm also trying to dig out
the email address, if any , of these sites. I'm not sure if all of these
locations man a helpline, so if you have problems, let me know. If you're
trying to get hold of the Director's Cut, remember to ring to check
that these offices can help.
Anyway.. here they are. The phone/fax numbers are the numbers you dial
from within the country.. don't forget to add the appropriate national
dialling code if you're calling from outside the country/continent.
UK OFFICES:
--
PSYGNOSIS CHESTER,
1st Floor, Suite D,
Chester Business Park,
Chester,
CH4 9QT
Tel: 01244 674567
Fax: 01244 683863
--
PSYGNOSIS LIVERPOOL,
Napier Court,
Wavertree Technology Park,
Liverpool,
L13 1EH
Tel: 0151 282 3000
Fax: 0151 282 3003
--
PSYGNOSIS LONDON,
Waverly House,
10-12 Noel St,
London,
W1V 4NE
Tel: 0171 439 2906
Fax: 0171 439 2904
--
PSYGNOSIS SOUTH WEST,
Bonds Mill,
Stone House,
Glocs.
Gl10 3RG
Tel: 01453 821 864
Fax: 01453 821 112
--
OFFICE IN GERMANY:
PSYGNOSIS GERMANY,
Euro House,
Lyoner Street 26,
60528 Frankfurt,
GERMANY.
Tel: 00 49 69 66 54 31 35
Fax: ?
--
OFFICE IN FRANCE:
PSYGNOSIS FRANCE,
131 Avenue de Wagram,
75017,
PARIS
Tel: 00 331 44 40 64 44
Fax: 00 331 44 40 66 66
--
OFFICE IN AUSTRALIA:
c/o Sony Music Entertainment (Australia) Pty Ltd,
15 Waltham Street,
Artarmon,
NSW 2064
tel / fax - (02) 439 5197
mobile - 015 490634
--
OFFICE IN THE US:
Psygnosis
919 E. Hillsdale Ave.
Foster City, CA 94404
Tel: 415 655 5683
--
7.4 Discworld 3
---------------
There's no definite plans for Discworld 3 at the moment, though
it'd seem an obvious progression. When asked about the possibilty of
a third game, Terry Pratchett said:
"It's open. But if it happens, I want it to be a different sort of game."
Quite what that means, I'm not sure. Still, you never know.
7.5 The Discworld Desktop Theme
-------------------------------
There is apparently, a Discworld game theme in development for Windows 95.
Being developed by a company other than Perfect, it should all sorts of
bells and whistles, and graphical bits to add to your Win 95 desktop.
I've no idea when or if it'll make it out of production.
There are also two Discworld screensavers currently available; one is a
'Luggage screensaver', bundled with copies of Discworld 2 in certain stores.
I haven't actually seen this one running, and I don't have a copy.
The second is a screensaver showing scenes from the game, which you can
download from:
The Discworld Game Page at:
http://www.lspace.org/games/discworld
in the files section
or from the L-Space archives at:
ftp://ftp.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/games/discworld2/dwsaver.zip
ftp://ftp.uk.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/games/discworld2/dwsaver.zip
ftp://ftp.us.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/games/discworld2/dwsaver.zip
ftp://ftp.au.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/games/discworld2/dwsaver.zip
8. CREDITS and FEEDBACK
-----------------------
8.1 Where can I get the faq?
----------------------------
Well, it should be available via FTP at the following sites..
ftp://ftp.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/faqs/discworld-game-faq and
ftp://ftp-us.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/faqs/discworld-game-faq in America
ftp://ftp-au.lspace.org/Mirror/Pratchett/faqs/discworld-game-faq in Australia.
8.2 The Discworld Game Page
---------------------------
There's also now a Discworld Game Page , with screenshots, and an HTMLed
hint file, new info, and lots of stuff. It's still under construction,
as is practically every Web Page on the net.. you can find it at:
http://www.lspace.org/discworld/games/
8.3 Credits.
------------
Terry Pratchett, for obvious reasons..
Psygnosis , and Perfect Entertainment
and co, for producing a top game, which thankfully didn't go for a stroll
down crappy way , like many other licenses.. guess the material helped, but
it could have been a duffer.. good work..
David Johnston, and Gregg (that's 3 G's) Barnett, for programming the game,
and a particular thanks to David for helping with certain points in the faq,
oh, and getting me an invite to Perfect HQ and the Discworld 2 release party.
Hurrah!
Malwen, for sending me the Z80 Snapshot of the Colour of Magic..
much appreciated.. I sense hours of headbanging frustration ahead.. :)
The numerous people who mailed me with minor corrections, mainly to tell
me about the 'Guards! Guards!' book. and ideas for amendments..
Tim Arnot, Dave Peto and dave@minuet for Mac DW info..
Oliver Buettner for the OS2 Warp info
All of alt.fan.pratchett... I'm not sure quite why...
FEEDBACK: Let me know what you think of the FAQ, and mail me if you have any
comments, criticism, ideas .etc..
Chris McMullen
C.S.McMullen@cms.salford.ac.uk
------------------------------
Introduction
------------
*WARNING.. This may contain some spoilers (but hopefully not too many) *
This FAQ is (c) Chris McMullen (1997)... it can be stored on BBS,
FTP sites, Web sites, and so forth, as long as it is unmodified.
Magazines, and Shareware/PD CD manufacturers can put this on their
CD's, as long as I'm asked for permission first. The Discworld
Game Faq is also completely unofficial, not officially linked to
Psygnosis or Perfect Entertainment. You get the picture.
This is v2.05 of the Discworld Faq, and contains info on the current
and upcoming Discworld Games. feel free to mail me with any corrections,
suggestions, greetings, flames at :
C.S.McMullen@cms.salford.ac.uk
New Stuff for this faq:
This and that. The Discworld 2 section has had a big update, and there are
minor modifications to other sections. Discworld 2's out! Hurrah!
(N)=New sections.
(M)=Modified sections
CONTENTS:
1. Background
1.1 What is Discworld?
1.2 How many Discworld games are there?
(M)1.3 Which characters/locations are in the Discworld games?
1.4 What books are they based on?
(M)1.5 What Pterry did / DW Development.
(M)1.6 Perfect Entertainment.
2. Discworld 1.
2.1 Scenario and misc. information.
2.2 What machine do I need to run it?
2.3 What is the difference between the various versions?
2.4 How many different versions are there? Where can I get a demo?
2.5 Reported Bugs/Problems..
2.6 Where can I get a patch/what does it fix?
2.7 Discworld and Windows 95
2.8 Discworld version 2: The Directors Cut
2.9 Technical Support and Troubleshooting;
3.(N)Discworld 2: Missing, presumed... ?
3.1 Scenario and misc. information.
3.2 What machine do I need to run it?
3.3 Where do I get a demo?
(M)3.4 Reported Bugs/Problems
(M)3.5 Where can I get a patch/What does it fix?
(M)3.6 Discworld and Windows 95 / OS/2
3.7 That's Death
3.8 Technical Support and Troubleshooting;
3.9 Bits and Bats
4. (M)I'M STUCK / Where to get the walkthrus and hint files...
5. THE COLOUR OF MAGIC.
6. THE DISCWORLD MUD.
7. General
(M)7.1 Other Discworld Games
(M)7.2 Discworld on other formats;
7.3 How to contact Psygnosis;
(N)7.4 Discworld 3
8. CREDITS and FEEDBACK
8.1 Where can I get the faq?
(M)8.2 The Discworld Game Page.
(M)8.3 Credits.
1. GAME BACKGROUND/SCENARIO.
---------------------------
1.1 What is Discworld?
----------------------
Seeing as there are bound to be some people who don't what Discworld is,
I'm going to give a brief overview of the whole thing. Basically, the
Discworld is the setting for a large number of very funny fantasy books
(I mean, lets face it.. Tolkien was ok at writing fantasy books, but
they were all boringly straight-faced), all written by Terry Pratchett.
The Discworld books manage to be both funny and interesting to read, and
Pterry manages to give a ribbing to just about everything in his path.
The Discworld is the setting for all the Discworld books, and is,
quite simply, a large flat Disc of land, which is supported on four
elephants. These elephants, in turn stand on the back of Great A'Tuin,
a huge star turtle (sex and destination unknown). Because of the Discworld's
shape, there is no North, South, East and West. Instead, there is Hubward:
towards the centre of the Disc, Rimward: Towards the edge of the Disc,
Turnwise, in the direction the Disc turns, and Widdershins, in the opposite
direction. There are a large number of settlements and cities on the Disc,
and it's population contains a wide number of races.. Humans, Trolls, Dwarfs
(beards compulsory), as you might find on any normal fantasy world. Except
that Discworld is by no means normal.
The central character to many a Discworld book (and to both the games)
is Rincewind, a student (relatively speaking) at Unseen University, where
wizards learn to be wizards.. usually. He is also accompanied by The Luggage,
a somewhat unpredictable mobile trunk, with a large number of feet, and
quite a vicious bite. now.. let the (mis)adventure begin.
1.2 How many Discworld games are there?
---------------------------------------
There are actually four games, the first being a text adventure
'The Colour of Magic' available for the Spectrum( forgive me while I get all
nostalgic ).. I have just managed to obtain a copy, and am currently in the
middle of playing it (stand up, get beer, say hi, say hello, talk to
Twoflower, start hitting keyboard). There are more details later on in the
faq.
The second game, is simply called 'Discworld', released recently by
Psygnosis / Sony Interactive, and Perfect Entertainment, which is a point and
click
adventure, available on PC and Mac +
PC CDROM, Playstation, and Saturn.. It was originally to be called Discworld:
The Trouble with Dragons, but eventually became just 'Discworld'.
The third game is 'Discworld 2: Missing, presumed... ? , produced again by
Perfect Entertainment, and published by Psygnosis. It is a little easier
than the original game, but no less astounding. Read on for more details.
There is, however, another option open to Discworld fans.. the Discworld
MUD. This, for anyone who may not know, is a multi user game, set on the
Discworld, will many of the characters you will recognise. However, the
game actually allows you to create your own character, and meet,
greet and maim other DW inhabitants.. and other players.. it has a basic
text interface, like most muds, but the atmosphere is still quite good when you
know that there are typically unpredictable players around. There's a
separate section on this later on.
1.3 Which characters/locations are in the Discworld game?
------------
Discworld 1
-----------
Ankh-Morpork features heavily in the game. So, many of the people/locations
will be familiar to anyone who has read even a single Discworld book. The
locations include the Broken/Mended Drum , the Alchemist's /Alchemist's
Alley, The Patricians' Palace, the City Gate (complete with Nobby, Carrot,
and Vimes) Unseen University, of course, the Palace, the Shades, the Edge
of the Disc, and a number of others. People who have read the books will
be right at home. And if you haven't read any (why not?), you'll soon
catch up.
Here are some of the recognizable characters which make an appearance
in Discworld 1:
Archchancellor,
The Bursar
Carrot
Death
Detritus
Dibbler
Gaspode
The Librarian
The Luggage
Rincewind
Nanny Ogg
Nobby
The Patrician
Lady Ramkin
Mr Silverfish
Vimes
Windle Poons
Discworld 2
-----------
Discworld 2 adds a whole host of other characters and locations, as well as
many old favourites. The characters include;
Angus,
Archchancellor,
Alberto Malich,
Bursar,
Cassanunda,
Coffin' Henry,
Count and Countess Notfaroutoe
Dean,
Dibbler,
Duckman,
Foul Ole Ron,
Granny Weatherwax,
Greebo,
Ixolite the banshee,
Mad Drongo,
Ponder Stibbons,
Reg Shoe,
Rincewind (obviously),
Schleppel the bogeyman,
Skaz,
St Ungulant,
Susan Sto Helit (Death's Grand-daughter),
The Luggage,
The Patrician,
Windle Poons.
1.4 What books are they based on?
---------------------------------
Discworld 1
-----------
The game appears to have a similar storyline, very similar in fact,
to 'Guards! Guards!'. Without giving too much away about the book or the
game (anyone who has read the book will know what I mean), they both have
a number of things in common:
The basic 'dragon summoned up by slightly disturbed hidden order' bit.
The use of L-Space.
The members of the order.. almost identical in character and occupation to
the book, but with different names.
The way in which the dragon is disposed of.. I'm not saying too much on
this one..
Discworld 2
-----------
Discworld 2: features the welcome return of
Rincewind, the wizzard. Welcome to all that is, except
the staff of Unseen University. In fact, most of Ankh-Morpork.
But especially unwelcome to Death, for what is initially a simple
reaping job, goes horribly wrong, thanks to Rincewind's inept
thaumatergical meddling. The end result is that Death goes
missing presumed, er, missing. And without Death, things start
running less than smoothly. People stop dying properly, and something
has to be done. Guess who gets the job?
Discworld 2: Missing, presumed.. (or Mortality Bytes as it's
known as in the U.S), features characters and scenes from most of
the Discworld books, but the plot borrows bits from Reaper Man, and
Moving Pictures, amongst others.
1.5 What Pterry did / DW Development..
--------------------------------------
Terry Pratchett (credited in Discworld 2 as 'Throwing rocks from
afar'), has obviously had quite a lot of input as far as the
Discworld games are concerned, usually making sure they get things
right; at one point, he didn't like the Librarian's voice in Discworld
2, so it was changed, sharpish. Terry said:
"I've done everything I need to do, including a lot of work on the script,
but I've been doing so much lately I haven't had time to rattle the
programmers' cage."
Really? Perfect must have been *so* disappointed. Not that things weren't
a tad hectic during the development of DW2. I visited Perfect HQ
a while back, and all concerned were trying to get the master of Discworld
2 finished to ship out to the US. I'm still not sure why the US should
get Discworld 2 first. Unfair!
1.6 Perfect Entertainment.
--------------------------
Perfect Entertainment were previously two co-operating companies,
Teeny Weeny Games, and Perfect 10, but have now merged to become
one company, Perfect Entertainment. The Discworld 2 credits
list the following people as being involved in the game; I cut
and pasted these out of the english.txt file, so there might be
a few missing..
Written, Directed and Produced by:
Gregg Barnett
Executive Producer:
Angela Sutherland
Programming Director:
David Johnston
Tinsel System Programmer:
John Young
Game Programmers:
David Johnston
Paul Carpenter
Mark Judge
Additional Programming:
Adrian Brown
Jason Brooke
Dialogue:
Paul Kidd
Animation Director and Lead Animator:
Simon Turner
Technical Art Director:
Paul Mitchell
Creative Art Director:
Nick Pratt
Chief Animators:
Steve Packer
Ben Willsher
Additional Animation:
David Swan
'That's Death' Animation:
Rob Newman
Layouts and Storyboard:
Nick Pratt
Lee Taylor
Animation Scripting:
Paul Mitchell
Guillaume Camus
David Hurst
Mark Booth
Simon Turner
External Animation Studio:
FilCartoon
Music Director & Composer:
Rob Lord
Sound Effects
Mark Bandola
Paul Weir
Voice Sample Conversion:
Jeremy Tranter
2 TECHNICAL DETAILS
-------------------
2.1 Scenario + misc information
-------------------------------
The scenario of Discworld 1 is pretty similar to 'Guards, Guards'. A
typically nasty secret order has summoned up a dragon, and is using
it to reek havoc upon the city. But it's not down to Carrot and
co to stop it. It's down to Rincewind, the highly inept wizard. You
take control of him, and try to save the city from destruction, in
a journey that takes you from Ankh-Morpork, through L-Space, all
in true Pratchett style.
2.2 What machine/specs do I need to run it?
-------------------------------------------
To run the PC-CDROM version, you need 4MB of memory, with at least 2700K
of Extended Memory. Base Memory is not seem important, as Discworld uses the
DOS4GW dos extender.. which treats all memory as one block. You also need,
of course, a Single Speed or upwards CD-ROM drive. Plus, a VGA card and
display. A mouse is not essential but recommended if you want to pick out
objects without the cursor sliding around like an elephant on an ice-rink.
Some sort of sound card is recommended.. you won't be able to hear the
sound/speech without it.
Discworld supports:
Gravis Ultrasound,
Soundblaster,
Soundblaster Pro,
Soundblaster 16, plus any clones,
Adlib,
Roland,
Soundblaster AWE32
Discworld PC-CDROM also used just around 1.6 meg of hard disk space. The
requirements for the PC-Floppy version are almost identical, except that
the PC-Floppy does not need a CD-ROM drive(obviously), and takes up more
disk space. Quite a lot of Disk space... nearly 50 meg in total, so
make sure you can get enough space together.
The Apple Mac version requires a Mac with System 7.0 upwards, 4.3 Meg of
memory, and a 68000 processor, although it prefers (prefers?) a 68030
or 68040 processor. It is also recommended you have Sound Manager, version
3.0 upwards. And a CD drive.. it's CD only, folks.
2.3 What's the difference between the various versions?
----------
The CD versions have full speech for all the characters (most of the time
-see bugs), which is generally of a very high standard. The characters talk
exactly how I would imagine them to from the books (but imagination is the
whole point of the books anyway) The voiceovers are done by:
Eric Idle -Ex-Python.. Splitting Heirs, etc.. (Rincewind)
Tony Robinson -Excellent Actor/Comedy Actor.. credits include BlackAdder,
Maid Marian, and the voices for a number of Pratchett
audio tapes. (A number of characters)
Jon Pertwee -Best remembered for Dr Who, and a number of other productions,
(Several Characters) Now dead, sadly.
Kate Robbins -Character/voice actress... Spitting Image
(Many Characters)
Rob Brydon -Character/voice actor.. Spitting Image again.. a man of many
voices.. all of them completely different
(All the other characters)
Apart from the voiceovers, there appears to be only one difference.. although
this is yet to be confirmed. The difference is, that whilst the Discworld CD
version has full sound effects, the Discworld Floppy version seems to only
have music. This seems somewhat puzzling, obviously cuts would have to have
been made to fit it on a reasonable number of disks. In fact, I've confirmed
this.. the HD version has music, but no sound effects, sadly...
The CD-ROM access is suprisingly fast on a double speed..
faster than many HD-based games I have seen. Transferring it to HD is
reported to produce only a minor speed difference (why can't all CD-Rom games
be this fast?)
2.4 How many different PC versions are there? Where can I get a demo?
------------------------
There are, in total 5 versions of the full game, and also 2 demos..
I'm checking if there's a Mac demo, which seems likely.
1: The PC floppy version, currently with no patch available.
This is currently the only floppy version available. And with Discworld 2
on the way, there's no sign at all of a Discworld 1 floppy patch.
2: The PC CD Version 1.
This is the version PC CD owners are most likely to have. It contains
all the bugs mentioned in section 2.4. There is a patch available for this
version, but it still remains buggy. This is the version retailers stock.
3: The PC CD Version 2. Discworld: The Directors Cut.
This is a completely fixed version of the Discworld version 1.. with
virtually every bug removed. It is not, unfortunately, available from
retailers, and can only be obtained in exchange for the PC CD version 1.
4: The Apple Mac version:
This is more or less the Mac version of the Directors cut, with the
extra graphics, and bug fixes of the PC CD version 2.. it's currently
available in the UK, and various european retailers, but at the time
of writing, not in the U.S. This is currently only available on CD.
5: The PC CD Version 2. Discworld: The Director's other cut.
This is a third version of the PC-CDROM Discworld game. It has had
the final few glitches fixed, and is now apparently flawless. I haven't
actually played this, and it's not publicly available on its own.
Perfect Entertainment tell me that this may be bundled with Discworld
2 in the U.S.
By the way, the 'Director's Cut', is just what I call the other versions
of Discworld 1. This isn't an official title, so Psygnosis might not
know what you mean. If they seem puzzled, refer to it as 'Discworld 1
version 2'.
There are also 2 demo versions. Version 1, the older version is a small
demo centred around the problem of getting the fishmongers belt. It
has no sound, and is available from a number of sites.. I'll put a list
in the next faq. it's a kind of work in progress demo.
The second version is a CD demo, containing the part of the first Act
set inside the Unseen University, and has all the speech to match.
it is also almost bugless.. this is available on a number of PC mag CD
coverdisks.. including the June 1995 Issue of PC Format.
2.5 What's this about bugs? Reported Bugs/Problems
-----
Although the first version of game doesn't seem at all unstable ,there are a
large number of annoying bugs. None of these appear to render the game
un-completable in anyway, but they can be really irritating. PC-Zone, a UK
magazine managed to review the game in early December.. when the game was
still being coded.. and spookily failed to point out any probs.
Anyway.. I'm meant to be objective about this. So, I have a list
of reported bugs and problems, all witnessed at first hand, along with any
comment/solutions. These bugs are mostly shared by the PC Floppy version,
but there have been reports of the game crashing just before the identity
of the monks are revealed.
I've also recieved mentions of crashes cropping up in Version 2;
Bugs/Problems
-------------
(A few of these might contain spoilers)
The bugs can be divided into three sections, Graphical Glitches, Sound Bugs,
and Miscelaneous problems. Which is exactly what I have done. Most of these
bugs have also been reported by various people on ALT.FAN.PRATCHETT (usenet),
so it is not an isolated problem.
Graphical Glitches:
The majority of these center around mysteriously dissapearing or flashing
sprites. As I have mentioned, these do not stop you finishing the game,
but hardly contribute to the atmosphere, and give it a slightly less than
polished finish. A few examples are:
The disappearing beggar in the street in Act 2.
The scared guy in Act 2 who teleports from seat to seat.
The walkthroughable door in the Inn.
The Witch in Act 2 who flips back to her position in Act 1 when you click
on the custard book (try it), and manages to both in the town square,
and the palace later in act 2..
Wierd one this: In the psychatrickerists/Clickies acting agency,
you are called up when the milkmaid has signed her ottograph. The
receptionists clothes change back to what she was wearing in acts 1 and 2
and the milkmaid disappears into thin air.
The Dunnyman's miraculous gold tooth which hangs in the air and wiggles
when he has long gone (when you give him a doughnut).
There are a number of similar glitches which turn up regularly.
Sound Bugs:
These are very noticable throughout the game. The most common is speech being
repeated, or replaced by subtitles. I turned the subtitles one once, and
noticed that the speech repeating bug seemed to be related to the timing
being off.
Other occurences include:
The volume controls don't work..
The clicking in speech experienced by most users, regardless of sound
card make..
Talking to the guards in act 2: Their speech is often replaced by the
bizarre ?________?.. not exactly revealing to say the least.
Trying to put the money pouch in the luggage. I can live with 'I can't do
that', but it is kind of wierd that it is said in one of Rob Brydon's yokel
voices rather than Eric Idle's voice. A similar occurence is trying to wake
the librarian in the past in Act 2.
Talking to the Dunnyman in Act 2. Rincewind finishes the conversation with
Carrots voice, no less!
Miscel problems.
These are various problems, seemingly unrelated to the other to categories.
This includes:
The one bug that seems to make the game crash, turning the subtitles on.
This seems to randomly crash the game, particularly when done at the
beginning of the game.
Some sequences seem to repeatable. For example. the method of getting
the chimney sweeps gold item can be repeated again and again (I'm saying
nothing more.. I don't want to spoil it for anyone)
One problem that seems to have cropped up as well, is the fact that some
people go upstairs into the Psychatrickerists on Act 2, and come down
empty handed, leaving out the intermediate sequence. I have managed to
duplicate this by saving my game while sitting down in the Psychiatrickerists
,so I suggest you do not save whilst in there. An alternative solution is
to simply get up before you are called, leave the Psychiatrickerists,
then return. The problem will be ok as long as you don't re-save.
I only have the CD version, so I can't verify if the graphic glitches occur
on the floppy version.. perhaps someone could give me some feedback on this..
The above bugs may seem pretty damning, but I all honesty, I tried not to let
them spoil my enjoyment of the game. Discworld is still a game definitely
worth getting. It just seems a shame the bugs got through.
2.6 Where can I get a patch/what does it fix?
---------------------------------------------
A patch has been released for Discworld CD version 1. floppy owners are
still left patchless. If you want to get the floppy patch...
The file is: disc104n.zip
and it is available at the following sites:
ftp://Lspace.cp.tn.tudelft.nl/pub/pratchett/games/discworld and
ftp://ftp.britain.eu.net/pub/misc/pratchett/games/discworld in Europe,
ftp://theory.lcs.mit.edu/pub/pratchett/games/discworld in America
ftp://death.socs.uts.edu.au/Mirror/Pratchett/games/discworld in Australia.
To use it, unzip it into a temporary directory, and run the batch file.
What does it fix? :
Not a lot of the bugs, really. It does fix the clicking noise that
accompanied the speech in the unpatched version, and I have not had
the game crash on me since installing it.. the game seems to cope with
switcing between subtitles and no-subtitles quite easily. It also
fixes the volume controls, which now actually do control the volume
of sound, music and speech.
It doesn't seem to fix any of the other graphical or sound glitches
however, but it is a shame. However, the one downer about the patch, is
that it seems to replace the excellent Sound Blaster/FM music with some
rather average MIDI music, that doesn't sound as good. The patch seems to
replace the standard drivers with an entirely new set of drivers. I am
currently experimenting with the drivers to see if I can get FM music from
the patch by swapping drivers.. although I have neglected to keep a copy
of the original v1.0 Discworld executable. can anyone help me with this?
2.7 Discworld and Windows 95
----------------------------
Ah, all was going well, till Bill Gates parked his car in the PC market.
So while he and IBM are trying to outstare each other, you're left trying
to run Discworld on Windows 95. And are you having any success? Perhaps.
Windows 95 harbours a certain animosity towards Dos games. How much success
you have seems to depend greatly on whether Win 95 likes your hardware
configuration. Some people have reported that Discworld ran perfectly
on the aformentioned operating system, while others have had a few problems.
These problems range from Discworld refusing to run, to running without
music or sounds. There appears to be no easy way round it, and while I'm
sure I could suggest ticking the various checkboxes for each application,
not too many people are technically minded to know what each does. The
help system doesn't help all that much, either. If all goes well, Discworld
will run, maybe grudgingly. Otherwise, you may have to switch to Dos mode,
and try again. Discworld was written for Dos specifically, and as such, may
turn up a few problems.
I've recently got Windows 95, and I've tried running Discworld 1 on it, and
it worked reasonably well, except for hanging notes between scenes. Hmmm.
It still varies from PC to PC.
2.8 Discworld Version 2: The Directors Cut
------------------------------------------
This is Discworld as it should have been originally.. it fixes most of
the bugs, graphical and sound glitches in the original version. It also
contains a number of new graphical bits, and cut-scenes, such as added
animation, and also a host of new sounds. The chances are, at the time
of writing this faq, you will have the latest version, which has made
its way into the stores. If you don't, it can be obtained by
mailing or phoning Psygnosis / Sony Interactive.
so to get it, you'll have to contact Psygnosis /
Sony Interactive after buying Version 1.
2.9 Technical Support + Trouble Shooting
-----------------------------------------
Psygnosis / Sony Interactive can be reached for Technical Support on
helpline@psygnosis.co.uk, and specifically for Discworld on
Rince.wind@psygnosis.co.uk in the United Kingdom. They can also be reached in
America on: helpline@psygnosis.com
Psygnosis US's email dept seem quite responsive, but a lot of people have had
problems getting any reply from Psygnosis UK's email address.
They should be able to answer a number of questions / problems you may have..
but here's a few of the commonest problems I've come across.. many can be
applied to games in general, but some cover specifics of the Discworld Game..
pretty basic for now, but I'll have more suggestions in the next faq. Some
software or hardware configurations can cause problems. for example,
IBM's Blue Lightning was notorious for having sound problems with a number
of games. Doom included.. if you can, try and test the game on a friend's
computer, and make a note of their setup. I think the PC has to be the only
machine that manages to be compatible and incompatible at the same time.. (?)
These, so far, relate to the PC versions.. I'm working on putting in Mac
technical support, but I only have a PC to hand.. there is one notable
problem with the Mac version, however, and that is that certain high
level Macs seem to have a problem running the game. that's progress, eh? :)
This seems to be most common in Macs produced since the game's first release.
If you're still having problems, or don't know how to do certain things
mentioned here, please contact Psygnosis / Sony Interactive tech support, or me,
but
*DISCLAIMER* again.. if you screw up your computer doing these things, it's
not my fault. although you'd usually have to remove the case to do that..
and always remember to put your hand on an earthed piece of metal.. the power
supply, etc.. to discharge static. and if you open the case.. make
sure the PCs turned off first.. anyway..
DISCWORLD 1:
------------
Q: I've got Windows 95 installed, and...
A: Stop! Stop right there... while Windows 95 claims to do everything
you want it to do, running Dos games (of which Discworld is one),
makes it a little temperamental. Try looking at section 2.7, for
more info.
Q: The game or install routine locks up whenever I start the game..
A: This could be a number of things. If you've managed to install the
game properly, and it still locks up, you can try the following steps..
1. Check that the install routine identified your soundcard correctly.
eg, that if you have an SB16, you have configured the program for
an SB16, or the configuration that your card emulates. Also, check
that the install routine has assigned the correct IRQs and DMA values..
Default values for a card are usually IRQ 5 or 7, DMA 1, and A220.
You could also try changing the IRQ and DMA values on the card..
read the manual supplied with your card for details on how to do this..
but don't try anything unless you're absolutely sure..
2. The Dos Extender, Dos4GW that this program uses, is known to have a
few problems with certain memory managers, QEMM, Memmax, etc, so
try removing these from your autoexec.bat and config.sys files..
add a REM in front of any line containing those words.. also,
EMM386.EXE can cause problems occasionally.. if all else fails,
create a basic setup with just himem.sys installed, and your CD drivers
if nessecary..
If the install program locks up before it lets you pick a soundcard,
it's more likely to be conflicting device drivers. If it locks up while
detecting a soundcard, try both of the above anyway..
Q: The game hangs ..
A:As mentioned in step 1 above, re-run the install routine, and make sure
you've picked the right soundcard.. and try changing the IRQ, and DMA,
both in the program, and on your sound card.
Again, try removing all unnessecary drivers, as in step 2, then try
running the program again.
Plus, if you're using the CD version, make sure you're running the latest
version of your CD drivers..
There is also a bug that some people have come across, in the Floppy
version, although it only seems to crop up on some machines. In this case,
the game locks up in act 2, at the Monks summoning. as well as
performing steps 1 + 2, you can reload the game, and try again. If this
fails, and the game consistently crashes, which seems to happen in some
cases, save your saved game, and get a friend, Psygnosis / Sony Interactive
tech support,
or me, to play past the summoning, and resave the game, then give it back
to you.
Q: There is no sound at all..
A: Try performing steps 1 + 2.. that is, changing the IRQ, and re-installing,
plus removing unnessecary drivers. Also, make sure your card is plugged
in properly, and the speakers are connected. Within the game itself, try
pressing F1, and changing the volume sliders.
Q: Sound is of poor quality/crackling.
If the sound quality is poor, then you can try changing the settings, a la
step 1, or moving your sound card away from the CPU inside the machine.
In V1.00 of the CD and Floppy versions, however, there is a bug which makes
the sound break up. There is a patch available for this.. currently only
a CD patch, with a Floppy patch due soon, but you can use the CD patch to
extract the new drivers and copy them into your floppy directory..
There is also a new CD available.. from Psygnosis / Sony Interactive, or it may
be in your
local store.. contact Psygnosis / Sony Interactive for details.. they'll replace
it free
of charge.
Q: There is a problem with.... GENERAL BUGS.
Yep.. there are a few glitches in V1.00.. nothing that should make the game
unplayable, but you can check the buglist above to find out what they are..
If you have any other problems, you can contact Psygnosis / Sony Interactive,
or email me.. I'll try to help as soon as I can, but I'm not employed or paid
by Psygnosis at all, and I can't reply 24 hours a day. See the 'general'
section for Psygnosis's contact numbers.
And there you go. Should make things a little easier than dialling the
other side of the world.
3. Discworld 2: Missing, presumed... ?
--------------------------------------
3.1 Scenario and misc. information.
-----------------------------------
Discworld 2 again features Rincewind in the starring role, but this
time it's not dragons he's chasing, but Death himself. Thanks to
a thaumaturgical incident, Death has disappeared to the other side
of the Disc, and it's up to you to track him down. Eventually, that
is. You first have to find out where he's got to. Discworld 2 is
split into four acts, each with a different aim, much like Discworld
1. Perfect Entertainment are again responsible for the game, but
Discworld 2 has a many improvements over the first game.
The user interface has undergone a few changes, while the
look and feel has remained the same. You can now place objects in
the luggage by double clicking an object on it. Also, all the icons
are animated, with other tweaks here and there. For example, you'll
no longer get 'I can't do that', when you try to use an object in
the wrong place. You'll get a message appropriate to that item; if
you try to use the ice block on Granny Weatherwax, you'll be told that
'That doesn't need cooling down. Then there's the graphics. They have
completely changed since the previous games. The entire game is now in
SVGA, with all the graphics looking much sharper and more cartoony than
the original. Not that there was anything wrong with the first game's
graphics, but there's still a huge contrast; an animation system called '
Toonz' has been used to convert the hand drawn animation frames in the game.
Discworld 2 also uses an inhouse system called Tinsel, to co-ordinate the
characters and items on-screen.
The voice talent includes Eric Idle, reprising his role as
Rincewind, with Rob Brydon and Kate Robbins bringing many of the other
Discworld characters to life. And Nigel Planer (he of
The Young Ones) has added his talents to the production; he provides the
voices to a number of characters, including a Neil type hippy character.
Discworld 2 runs under both DOS and Windows 95, both versions appearing
on the same CD, and it's damn good. There's also only one version as
far as I know. There's also a song, 'That's Death'. There are various
different non-english versions as well, which have speech, but they
don't have the same people doing the voices as the english version
does. Discworld 2's difficult is perfectly pitched, in my opinion at
least; you can be puzzling over something a while, then suddenly, you
think 'Hang on.. why don't I try...' and it works!
3.2 What machine do I need to run it?
-------------------------------------
Well, here are the minimum specs from the manual;
486DX4 66Mhz,
16 MB of RAM for Win 95 version, 8MB for MS-DOS (ver 6.0 or better)
640X480 256 colour SVGA display.
Double-speed CD-ROM drive
Sound card and amplified speakers or headphones.
Single-hemisphere electro-colloidal brain with cognitive functions
And the recommended specs are:
Pentium 90 Mhz or greater IBM-compatible computer.
Twin-hemisphere electro-colloidal brain with cognitive functions
Both MS-DOS and Windows 95 executables are included on the CDs, so you
can run under either OS. And you only swap CDs once in the game.
3.3 Where do I get a demo?
--------------------------
There is a demo available, currently making appearance on various
magazine coverdisks. Bear in mind that the demo version you get
may or may not reflect the current state of the game; the demo
appearing on PC Zone's cover CD was over two months old when it
was published. The demo allows you to explore the shades, with
the aim of getting onto a ship to take you out of Ankh-Morpork.
The demo includes approximately four puzzles, and
introduces you to the Dead Collector, the Mortician, Foul Ole
Ron, Coffin Henry, and Duckman. The demo itself can be run
without the CD, with the aid of FakeCD, and can be zipped
up into a 44 meg file. Unfortunately, I don't have the disk space
in my user area to upload this; I'll keep you posted if anyone
puts it on an FTP site. Note; at the time of writing, the demo
version I have seen runs under Windows 95 only, so while the
final version will run under DOS, it's worth checking in the
magazine quickly, if you're buying the mag just for the demo.
The December issue of PC Gamer UK (Issue 37) also has
a Discworld 2 demo on the cover, but it seems to be exactly
the same one as the PC Zone demo.
3.4 Reported Bugs/Problems
--------------------------
A few bugs have come to light:
First is the program crashing with a corrupt 'DINING.MUS' file. This has only
happened to a few people; if this crops up, you should try taking your CD back
to the
shop and getting a new one.. it may just be that you have a faulty CD.
Secondly, several people have been unable run the game properly under Win 95 if
it's
installed to driver other than the CD drive. This is fixed in the patch.
Also, some people have reported various odd problems, such as not being able to
get the
ladder from Casanunda, or finding that various characters have disappeared. This
problem
can be caused by loading saved games from the DOS version of DW2 into the Win 95
of
version 2. However, several people have come across this bug, despite using only
one
operating system. Perfect are looking into this at present. All I can recommend
for
the moment is to save your game regularly, in different slots; if you come
across this,
try reloading an earlier game, or restarting. I'll update this faq when I get
more
information.
3.5 Where can I get a patch/What does it fix?
---------------------------------------------
There is a patch out for the Win 95 version of Discworld 2, and according
to David Johnston, Software Manager bloke at Perfect, it does the following:
- Corrects movie synchronisation on specific machines
where the sound can drift out of sync. Also improves
performance of movies on slower machines.
- Speeds up loading and playing of many scenes especially
on low-memory machines.
- Corrects the system registry so that the game will run
from whatever drive you install it to (Simply install to
the required drive then run this patch).
You can get the patch from:
-------------------------------
The Discworld Game Page, in the 'Files' section:
http://www.lspace.org/games/discworld
-------------------------------
The Patches Scrolls:
http://www.inf.tu-dresden.de/~mr2/
------------------------------
The Online Gaming Review Download page at:
http://www.ogr.com/games/downloads.html
------------------------------
Or by FTP from:
ftp://ftp.inf.tu-dresden.de/pub/ms-dos/games/patches/dw2_wp2.zip
------------------------------
And the LSpace Archives, at:
ftp://ftp.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/games/discworld2/dw2patch.zip
------------------------------
The patch is also available on the coverdisk of PC Gamer Magazine (UK),
in the patches directory. That's on every cover CD from issue 40 onwards.
3.6 Discworld and Windows 95 / OS 2
-----------------------------------
Discworld 2 runs under both Dos and Windows 95, so there
shouldn't be many problems with at all with Windows 95 as
there were with Discworld 1. If you are having problems,
mail me.
As for OS/2, Discworld 2 hasn't been written or tested
for OS/2, and the Dos version may or may not work under
the system.
However, I have been sent an email by Oliver Buettner in which he says that
the following OS2 settings should allow you to run Discworld 2:
---
Discworld 2 works under OS/2 (tested under Warp 4) . You only have to
do some changes in the DOS-Session parameters:
INT_DURING_IO: ON
IDLE SENSITIVY: 100
SESSION PRIORITY: 32
AUDIO ADAPTER SHARING: REQUIRED
VIDEO_8514A_XGA_IOTRAP: OFF
I don't know, if they are all necessary but these are the corrections I
have made and it works. I'm using a SB32 and so I also had to add the
"SET BLASTER=..."-statement to my autoexec but this is required for all
DOS-games (like most of the session parameters).
And I don't have any memory problems running Discworld under OS/2 like
I had under DOS!
But I still have one problem: after some minutes (quite irregular) the
sound starts to crackle. I don't know if this is a specific SB32 - OS/2
- DOS-Box problem but I don't think so. I don't know how to fix it yet.
----
3.7 That's Death
----------------
'That's Death', is a song written and performed by Eric Idle,
especially for Discworld 2. It may be released as a single,
though how well it'll sell is another matter. Should you feel
the strange desire to know the words to the song, here they are;
--
There's a place you're always welcome,
It's as nice as it can be,
Everyone can get in,
'cos it's absolutely free..
That's Death.
No need to take a rest,
Just lie around all day,
With not a single bill to pay,
Hooray...
That's Death.
No more sicknesses or flue..
If you've lived beyond your means,
You can die beyond them, too,
Boo-hoo...
Well, the greatest and the finest,
Mmm, have already died,
Why not simply join them,
On the other side?
That's Death..
Say farewell to all your ills,
Rip up all your bills,
And pop your final pills,
Amen...
That's Death...
It's a tete a tete with fate,
If you're not feeling great,
Then it's the best way to lose weight,
Mate...
Nothing here to hurt you,
No-one's here to nag,
Come die with me,
If your life's a drag...
That's Death...
~Death, Death~
The wealthy and well bred,
All of them are here,
And they're all completely dead,
~So dead~
That's Death...
~Death, Death~
No more headaches, no more pain,
Of the millions who've died,
No-one came back to complain,
~Uh-huh~
You can't take it with you,
You can't keep what you've got,
So why not just lie back,
And simply rot?
~Death, Death~
Just simply rot,
~Death, Death~
It's so cool, it's hot,
~Death, Death~
And That's Death.
--
3.8 Technical Support and Troubleshooting;
------------------------------------------
Most of what I've said about Discworld 1 troubleshooting
applies equally to Discworld 2, but if you have a specific
problem, mail me, and I'll try to help. If I get enough
queries about a specific problem, I'll list it here.
The Discworld 2 patch also contains a number of Questions
and Answers, provided by David Johnston, which I've reproduced
here.
--------
Q. Why won't Discworld II (Win 95) run if I install it to
a drive other than C.
A. The Windows installation program on early versions of
Discworld II set a system "registry key" to "C" regardless of
the drive it installed to. To correct this you need to change
the registry key to point to the drive you did install Discworld II
on (see below). Or you can simply run the patch program to correct
it automatically.
- Run 'regedit' from the 'Start' menu, 'Run' option.
- Expand 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE' (click on the plus symbol)
- Expand 'SOFTWARE'
- Expand 'PERFECT Entertainment'
- Select 'Discworld II'
- Select 'Drive' in the right-hand window
- Select 'Edit' then 'Modify' from the menu
- Enter the new drive letter (where you installed Discworld II)
- Close RegEdit and run Discworld II
----------------------
Q. Why does the game (Windows only) pause briefly whenever
Rincewind changes scale?
A. The Windows installation program on early versions of
Discworld II copied some files to the wrong place on your hard
drive. If you move these files (see below) to the correct
folder the momentary pauses will disappear. Or you can simply
run the patch program to correct it automatically.
n.b. this problem may only be visible on machines with the minimum
specified amount of RAM. See also the following tip for speeding up
CD access generally.
- There is a folder called CACHE under the folder you
installed Discworld II in. The installation program incorrectly
copied 21 files (needed for faster access) into a folder called
DW2 within the CACHE folder. Simply move the files back to the
CACHE folder and the pauses should vanish.
----------------------
Q. My CD ROM drive does not appear to be fast enough to run
Discworld II properly. The sound cuts out briefly every now
and then. How can I speed the game up on my machine?
A. This is a tough one as it depends on the configuration of your
machine. If you have a lot of free drive space you can move many
files from the Discworld II CDs to your hard drive (see below).
Discworld II still requires the presence of the CDs but will
check the hard disk first before loading files, this will speed
up the game significantly.
- There is a folder called CACHE under the folder you
installed Discworld II in. Most files can be copied here from
the DW2 folders of either CD 1 or CD 2, however, some files
(of the same name) are different on CD1 and CD 2. To cater for
these specific files you can create folders under the CACHE folder
called CD1 and CD2. The files in question relate to text and speech
and have extensions of .SMP, .TXT and .IDX (see following hint for
details). Any of these files from the DW2 folder of CD 1 can go in
CD1 and those from the DW2 folder of CD 2 can go in CD2.
n.b. To save space you only have to have files from the CD you
are currently playing on your hard drive.
----------------------
Q. I only want to copy some files from the CDs to my hard drive
to speed it up. What are the various file types on the Discworld II CDs?
A. To make your choice of files to copy easier here are some details
of the more important file types on the Discworld II CDs. The CACHE
folder is found within the folder you installed Discworld II. The CD1
and CD2 folders should be created within the CACHE folder (if required).
File Type Description Should I copy to hard disk? Where to copy...
--------- ----------- --------------------------- ----------------
.MUS Music data Reduces CD access significantly if CACHE folder
copied to hard disk as music is read
in regularly. Should improve scenes
containing lots of sound effects.
.SCN Code and Scene load times reduced if copied to CACHE folder
graphics hard disk - no other benefit.
n.b. some critical scenes are already
copied to hard disk during installation.
.CDP Graphic Smoothes out brief pauses while CACHE folder
sequences loading extra graphics within a scene.
.BMV 'B movies' Only copy to hard drive if the movies CACHE folder
are playing badly or sound shuts off.
Movie pre-load times are also reduced
if the movies are copied.
.SMP Speech Only copy to hard drive if you are CD1 or
/Sound FX experiencing regular sound glitches. CD2 folder
.IDX Speech Loaded once only - can stay on CD. CD1 or
index CD2 folder
.TXT Sub-title Loaded once only - can stay on CD. CD1
text or CD2 folder
-------------------------------------------
Q. Why is the sound in Discworld II distorting when running
under Windows 95 on my Packard Bell PC?
A. There may be a conflict with the 'Software Wave Table'
feature of your sound card. Try turning the option off
(See below).
- Open the control panel (under 'setting' on the Start menu)
- Open 'system'
- Select 'Device Manager'
- Expand 'Sound, video and game controllers' (click on the plus symbol)
- Select 'Sound 16 SRS & Wave Table'
- Click on the 'Properties' button
- Select 'Settings'
- De-select the option 'Software Wave Table Enabled'
- Close the control panel windows and run Discworld II
-------------------------
3.9 Bits and Bats
-----------------
Easter Eggs:
Discworld 2 also contains a few little 'easter eggs', that is,
hidden features, sequences and so on. Some are activated by
keypresses or command line sequences, others by using objects
in a certain way. Here's all the ones I know about, and according
to David Johnston, head programmer at Perfect, there are more to be found:
1: In Act 2, try using the special effects imp on Rincewind
2: Also in Act 2, if you enter the magic stone circle ten times, Rincewind takes
a little trip back in time.. to meet his Discworld 1 counterpart.
4. I'M STUCK!
-------------
Discworld 1
-----------
I know that there's already a walkthrough floating about, but a lot of
people have asked for specific hints, not spoilers. What I have done with
this hint file is to go through most of the common problems in the game,
ACTS I-IV. It is available at the same site as the faq, or by mailing me.
Discworld 2
-----------
I've written a walkthrough for Discworld 2 which is available at the
same site as this faq, or by writing to me. I'm also in the process
of making a hint file for the game. Again, mail me if you're stuck.
The walkthru for Discworld 2 can be found at:
The Discworld Game Pages:
http://www.lspace.org/games/discworld
------------------
The LSpace Archives...
ftp://ftp.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/games/discworld2/walkthru.txt
--------------
The Spoiler's Centre...
http://spoiler.et.ee/ADVENTURE/Psygnosis/Discworld2.html
--------------
Paul Hatton's home page...
http://www.hatton.demon.co.uk/paul.htm
You can mail me if you have a question that isn't included in the faq,
but please please PLEASE have the subject like 'Discworld 2 help'
or something, I want to be able to sort it out from my other mail.
Chris McMullen
C.S.McMullen@cms.salford.ac.uk
Hint Books
----------
There are hint books available for Discworld 1, and Discworld 2, both
sold separately. They are available in most decent bookstores.
5. The Colour of Magic
----------------------
The Colour of Magic was originally programmed for the Spectrum (and maybe
the C64.. I'm looking into this) by Delta 4, for Pirahna software. It is
a text based adventure game, with a few scattered graphics, and is based
solely on the Colour of Magic book. It follows the adventures of Rincewind
and Twoflower through the discworld, and sticks to the plot very closely..
so a knowledge of the book could help a lot. If you have never played a text
adventure before, however, you could be in for a difficult time. As a game,
it isn't particularly difficult in terms of puzzles, but trying to find the
words to perform an action isn't easy. To talk to Twoflower, I tried.
SAY HELLO TO TWOFLOWER
SPEAK TO TWOFLOWER
WELCOME TWOFLOWER
EXAMINE TWOFLOWER
TALK TO TWOFLOWER
SAY HELLO TWOFLOWER
BUGGER OFF TWOFLOWER
HIT TWOFLOWER
SWEAR
I think you get the idea. I eventually got the right word, but it took a
while.. as things stand. I've got quite a bit further, and the game
does follow the plot of the book pretty closely, right down to the bar
fights.. worth checking out if you can get the snapshot, but don't expect
it to keep you entertained for long. or to come back to it... unlike
to the Discworld TWG/P10 game.
You can get the snapshot and solution from the Pratchett archives, in
the pub/pratchett/games directory, from the same sites as the faq. However,
it would seem that you need an emulator with the capabality to save a position
to tape or some other medium. The game, on loading parts 2-4, asks for a
previously saved game. Perhaps some kind soul with such a setup could play
the game, and save a snapshot shortly after loading from parts 2-4.
6. Discworld MUD
----------------
The Discworld MUD is a Multi-User-Dungeon game, set on the Discworld..
that much you will have guessed. It can be reached by telnetting to:
discworld.imaginary.com 4242
I'll give credit to the admins as soon as I find out who they are.. (good
job there..). The Mud contains many of the locations and characters from
the book, behaving in a very recognisable way, as part of the Discworld.
You can get a character straight away, but you are requested not to use
a character from the book, which is a good idea IMO.. it helps populate
the world in an original way.. rather than filling it up with recognized
characters. So be original. (thats original, not plagaristic)
Another good point is how, upon typing WHO, your name is displayed with a
rating, reflecting your actions. Whilst I was on, there were also another
5 players around.. presumably up to something conspiratorial, but then again,
I did log on at a quiet time..
The Discworld Mud has again moved, to what should be it's final location,
as mentioned above. While there's a fair amount of lag, it's nowhere near
as lagged when it was in Oz, and it's now actually playable..
You can be as nasty or as nice to the denizens as you like (though
courtesy to other players is a good idea), so check it out. And finally,
I'd like to give a big bucket of pig parts to the sods who, while I
foolishly left my terminal unguarded, launched my character into a plethora
of unsavoury shouts. Thanks a lot.
7. FORTHCOMING ATTRACTIONS
--------------------------
7.1 Other Discworld Games
-------------------------
Psygnosis / Sony Interactive/TWG games have got the license to produce more
Discworld games, with Pterry to ok things. A third Discworld game would seem
probably, but I wouldn't expect it for a long long time.
Discworld the Game is programmed using a system called TINSEL, a
custom language, and means that games can be compiled on a PC, and ported
over to various systems, with not too much fuss, and is being transferred to
other formats.. see below. If Discworld 2 is a success, and it'd be difficult
for it not to be, perhaps DW2 will similarly grace other formats.
7.2 Discworld on other formats
------------------------------
Mac Discworld 1:
----------------
Discworld 1 is also available for the Apple Mac, on CD only. It is, in
effect, virtually identical to Version 2 of Discworld for the PC-CD.
It will run on most Macs, but has some problem with high end Macs..
a lot of people have had trouble getting it to run on a Power mac, so keep
that receipt.
It has been suggested that it is System 7.5.1 that causes the problem..
There is now a patch available, at the following addresses :
ftp://ftp.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/games/discworld and
ftp://ftp-us.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/games/discworld in America
ftp://ftp-au.lspace.org/Mirror/Pratchett/games/discworld in Australia.
The file is:
discworld-update.sea.hqx
which seems to fix the PowerMac incompatibility bug. There's also a new
version of System 7, that you could try. I'll find the URL by the
next faq revision.
Finally, Tim Arnot has this to say about the Mac version of Discworld 1.
---------
This is a summary to alt.fan.pratchett of the major problems found in the
Mac version of the DISCWORLD game. My thanks to Dave Le Good
(dave@minuet.demon.co.uk), Peter Young (petey@hwuk.demon.co.uk) and Richard
Barrett (R.Barrett@ftel.co.uk) for additional information, plus a whole
host of other folks for expressing an interest.
Note 1: This report does not concern itself with problems that may be
encountered during gameplay, nor does it contain any spoilers. It simply
addresses the question "will it run on my Mac"
Note 2: This article was originally sent out to some people in draft form
for comment. Comments to the draft have been added in brackets [] with
appropriate attributions.
1. Solvable problem: "Error: Discworld is unable to find the Discworld CD"
It seems this is caused by having file sharing switched on. Cure: Turn off
file sharing.
(actually I believe this may related to a bug in System 7.5.1 that produces
CD errors with various combinations of file sharing, SCSI manager and RAM
Doubler. It is reputedly fixed by System 7.5 Update 2.0)
[This error can also happen if you do not have a late version on the ISO
9660 file access extension, as on my 475. v5.0.2 works. - Dave]
[The release note with Connectix' RAMDoubler updater for 1.5.1 says
(amongst other things):
a. RAM Doubler no longer causes folders to appear "missing" on some
Macs when Apple CD-ROM 5.0 and file sharing are in use simultaneously.
b. Certain CD-ROM sound files now play with RAM Doubler installed.
Its available in:
ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/computing/systems/mac/Collections/umich/misc/upda
te/
I've used the updater to fix a RAMDoubler incompatibility with the 603
processor in my 5200. I can't comment on other benefits claimed by the
release note but Connectix were prompt and professional in dealing with the
603 problem so I'd be fairly optimistic. - Richard]
2. Unsolvable problem: The program crashes PowerMacs on startup.
(The exact symptoms seem to vary - sometimes the machine just freezes,
other times it displays an exception alert.) This problem only affects
Power Macs, but curiously, not all Power Macs (we have been unable to
determine what specific factors cause it to work or fail)
A summary of machines is included below (amount of real memory installed is
specified where known):
Power Macs on which the game has worked:
7100/80 av cd (16Mb)
6100/60
8100/80
Power Macs on which the game has not worked
Performa 5200 (24Mb)
6100/66 (24Mb)
7100/66 (x3) (24Mb/32Mb/??)
9500/120 (x2)
8100/80 (x3)
Quadra 650 w. PPC Upgrade card (32Mb)
Totals: Success 3, Failure 10
According to one of the playtesters at Psygnosis (identity withheld from
this summary), it has been tested and found to work on the following
PowerMac systems:
Machine RAM (Mb) MacOS
------- -------- -----
PowerMac 8100/100av 49 7.5
PowerMac 6100/60 17 7.1.2
PowerMac 6100/60 11 7.1
PowerMac 6100/60 21 7.1.2
[Wierd memory configurations. How when all the machines involved take 72
pin SIMMs (which usually come in 4,8,16 & 32 Mb) installed in pairs can you
end up with Mbs which aren't a multiple of four let alone an odd number?
This could be the explanation. - Richard]
3. A Dealer Comment
I called up a Mail Order Mac software dealer this morning (MacGold Direct,
01723-582100), and the first thing the sales assistant said when I enquired
about the program was "Do you have a PowerMac?" "Why?" says I, "Because
we've been told that it doesn't run on PowerMacs" When I asked who had told
them (i.e. Psygnosis or the users), she said that she didn't know for sure
but presumed it was from user feedback.
[I did talk to their helpline (0151 282 3333) today. On the fourth try they
finally answered the phone. Paraphrasing, the guy said, sorry guv I'm a PC
expert not a Mac man, they're out to lunch! When pressed he more or less
said:
a. that it didn't work right on the PowerMac
b. that there had also been troubles on the PC version
c. a fixed CD would take a couple of months
d. there was no current plan to publish fixed software via the net (a
fix for the PC version is available this way i believe)
This conversation (being the fourth over the period of a week) did not give
me a warm and fuzzy about Psygnosis or the product developers. Frankly,
Psygnosis' people don't seem to have a clue about the problem or what's
being done to fix it. Its amateur night in dixie. - Richard]
4. Conclusion:
If you have a 68K Mac, it works fine (or can be made to do so if you suffer
>from problem #1 above). If you have a PowerMac, at least one dealer claims
it won't work, and based on our collection of machines you may have a
3-in-10 chance of it working (caveat: 601-based machines only. None of our
603- or 604-based machines has had it working).
Time, I think for Psygnosis to get their finger out.
Tim.
--end article---
Playstation and Saturn Discworld 1:
-----------------------------------
Discworld is also available for the Saturn and Playstation. I've
not had any reports of problems with those versions. However, if you want
to save your game on the Playstation version, you'll need a memory card.
Mac Discworld 2:
----------------
There are no plans to produce Mac Discworld 2 at the time of writing,
though Perfect told me it wouldn't be that hard to convert. Apparently,
Mac Discworld 1 sold relatively few copies compared to Discworld on
other formats.
Playstation and Saturn Discworld 2:
----------------------------------
Well, the Playstation version of Discworld 2 was in development when
I last saw it, so expect it to come out maybe a few months
after the PC version, the Saturn version a little later.
7.3 How to contact Psygnosis
----------------------------
You can contact Psygnosis at a number of offices around the world. I
only have the address of one US site, though. I'm also trying to dig out
the email address, if any , of these sites. I'm not sure if all of these
locations man a helpline, so if you have problems, let me know. If you're
trying to get hold of the Director's Cut, remember to ring to check
that these offices can help.
Anyway.. here they are. The phone/fax numbers are the numbers you dial
from within the country.. don't forget to add the appropriate national
dialling code if you're calling from outside the country/continent.
UK OFFICES:
--
PSYGNOSIS CHESTER,
1st Floor, Suite D,
Chester Business Park,
Chester,
CH4 9QT
Tel: 01244 674567
Fax: 01244 683863
--
PSYGNOSIS LIVERPOOL,
Napier Court,
Wavertree Technology Park,
Liverpool,
L13 1EH
Tel: 0151 282 3000
Fax: 0151 282 3003
--
PSYGNOSIS LONDON,
Waverly House,
10-12 Noel St,
London,
W1V 4NE
Tel: 0171 439 2906
Fax: 0171 439 2904
--
PSYGNOSIS SOUTH WEST,
Bonds Mill,
Stone House,
Glocs.
Gl10 3RG
Tel: 01453 821 864
Fax: 01453 821 112
--
OFFICE IN GERMANY:
PSYGNOSIS GERMANY,
Euro House,
Lyoner Street 26,
60528 Frankfurt,
GERMANY.
Tel: 00 49 69 66 54 31 35
Fax: ?
--
OFFICE IN FRANCE:
PSYGNOSIS FRANCE,
131 Avenue de Wagram,
75017,
PARIS
Tel: 00 331 44 40 64 44
Fax: 00 331 44 40 66 66
--
OFFICE IN AUSTRALIA:
c/o Sony Music Entertainment (Australia) Pty Ltd,
15 Waltham Street,
Artarmon,
NSW 2064
tel / fax - (02) 439 5197
mobile - 015 490634
--
OFFICE IN THE US:
Psygnosis
919 E. Hillsdale Ave.
Foster City, CA 94404
Tel: 415 655 5683
--
7.4 Discworld 3
---------------
There's no definite plans for Discworld 3 at the moment, though
it'd seem an obvious progression. When asked about the possibilty of
a third game, Terry Pratchett said:
"It's open. But if it happens, I want it to be a different sort of game."
Quite what that means, I'm not sure. Still, you never know.
7.5 The Discworld Desktop Theme
-------------------------------
There is apparently, a Discworld game theme in development for Windows 95.
Being developed by a company other than Perfect, it should all sorts of
bells and whistles, and graphical bits to add to your Win 95 desktop.
I've no idea when or if it'll make it out of production.
There are also two Discworld screensavers currently available; one is a
'Luggage screensaver', bundled with copies of Discworld 2 in certain stores.
I haven't actually seen this one running, and I don't have a copy.
The second is a screensaver showing scenes from the game, which you can
download from:
The Discworld Game Page at:
http://www.lspace.org/games/discworld
in the files section
or from the L-Space archives at:
ftp://ftp.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/games/discworld2/dwsaver.zip
ftp://ftp.uk.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/games/discworld2/dwsaver.zip
ftp://ftp.us.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/games/discworld2/dwsaver.zip
ftp://ftp.au.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/games/discworld2/dwsaver.zip
8. CREDITS and FEEDBACK
-----------------------
8.1 Where can I get the faq?
----------------------------
Well, it should be available via FTP at the following sites..
ftp://ftp.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/faqs/discworld-game-faq and
ftp://ftp-us.lspace.org/pub/pratchett/faqs/discworld-game-faq in America
ftp://ftp-au.lspace.org/Mirror/Pratchett/faqs/discworld-game-faq in Australia.
8.2 The Discworld Game Page
---------------------------
There's also now a Discworld Game Page , with screenshots, and an HTMLed
hint file, new info, and lots of stuff. It's still under construction,
as is practically every Web Page on the net.. you can find it at:
http://www.lspace.org/discworld/games/
8.3 Credits.
------------
Terry Pratchett, for obvious reasons..
Psygnosis , and Perfect Entertainment
and co, for producing a top game, which thankfully didn't go for a stroll
down crappy way , like many other licenses.. guess the material helped, but
it could have been a duffer.. good work..
David Johnston, and Gregg (that's 3 G's) Barnett, for programming the game,
and a particular thanks to David for helping with certain points in the faq,
oh, and getting me an invite to Perfect HQ and the Discworld 2 release party.
Hurrah!
Malwen, for sending me the Z80 Snapshot of the Colour of Magic..
much appreciated.. I sense hours of headbanging frustration ahead.. :)
The numerous people who mailed me with minor corrections, mainly to tell
me about the 'Guards! Guards!' book. and ideas for amendments..
Tim Arnot, Dave Peto and dave@minuet for Mac DW info..
Oliver Buettner for the OS2 Warp info
All of alt.fan.pratchett... I'm not sure quite why...
FEEDBACK: Let me know what you think of the FAQ, and mail me if you have any
comments, criticism, ideas .etc..
Chris McMullen
C.S.McMullen@cms.salford.ac.uk