I have no mouth and I must scream

Elurindel · Post by **Elurindel** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 6:41 pm

Please bear with me, as I'm new to emulation software. As implied by the title, I am interested in playing the game, and heard it could be done using ScummVM. Can somebody explain the simplest way to do this, please?

clem · Post by **clem** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 6:51 pm

you need the original CD
you copy the required files to your harddisk
you install ScummVM and add the game by telling ScummVM where it can find the datafiles on your harddisk

this guide might help.

there is a page with the list of required files.

Searching the forum/reading the documentation might also help.

Elurindel · Post by **Elurindel** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 6:53 pm

Ach, now that's the major problem: The CD.

I've tried both ebays, so where else might I find the original CD?

clem · Post by **clem** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 6:56 pm

these two pages:
http://forums.scummvm.org/viewtopic.php ... =buy+mouth
http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Where_to_buy_games

refer to this page:
http://harlanellison.com/herc.htm

don't know more that that

edit:
Amazon has a listing, but the prices are quite high

Elurindel · Post by **Elurindel** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 7:45 pm

Well, it looks as though Amazon would be simpler to buy from. I don't fancy printing out an order form and mailing that. Looks more trouble than it's worth, so amazon it is.

Arantor · Post by **Arantor** » Tue Feb 12, 2008 9:02 pm

I did actually try emailing the harlanellison.com people about buying it (as I live in England and can't readily draw US funds) but that was 3 weeks ago and I've heard nothing.

Guess it is Amazon then...

Darth Malt · Post by **Darth Malt** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 2:16 am

Arantor wrote:I did actually try emailing the harlanellison.com people about buying it (as I live in England and can't readily draw US funds) but that was 3 weeks ago and I've heard nothing.

Guess it is Amazon then...

I successfully purchased a copy from harlanellison.com by mailing them a check (I live in the US though). Not only did I get the game, but the two books that I also ordered turned out to be signed by the author - and I also got recordings of short stories read by the author as a bonus gift (on C-cassette though, a month or so after I had finally dragged out and sold my old cassette deck that had spent the last decade in the attic)! Nice gestures!

Elurindel · Post by **Elurindel** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:20 am

Well, I won a copy on ebay, so now it's just a question of getting it over here.

Elurindel · Post by **Elurindel** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 3:19 am

Well, I have the game, which works fine on ScummVM so far, but the only disappointing thing is that there's no sound. Is there a way to get it to work on here? And possibly to change the screen size?

Post by **eriktorbjorn** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 5:33 am

Elurindel wrote:Well, I have the game, which works fine on ScummVM so far, but the only disappointing thing is that there's no sound. Is there a way to get it to work on here? And possibly to change the screen size?

I get sound effects and voices. I assume they are in the sfx.res and voices1.res, ..., voices6.res, voicess.res files.

I'm not sure what you mean by changing the screen size. Scalers should work as for any other game. However, it ignores the default setting for the scaler so you have to set it specifically for that game. (The assumption is probably that just because you want to scale 320x200 pixels to 640x400 doesn't necessarily mean you want to scale 640x480 to 1280x960, so if you do you have to explicitly say so.)

Elurindel · Post by **Elurindel** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 7:44 pm

Ah, maybe I wasn't clear on that. by screen size, I mean the ScummVM window itself.

Post by **eriktorbjorn** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:50 pm

Elurindel wrote:Ah, maybe I wasn't clear on that. by screen size, I mean the ScummVM window itself.

Well, there are the scalers, known as Graphics modes in the settings dialog, that can scale the image to two or three times the original size. In this case, that means the game can be played at 640x480, 1280x960 or 1920x1440 pixels. Nothing in between those, though.

Elurindel · Post by **Elurindel** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 9:28 pm

Right. And by sound, I actually meant music. I get voices and SFX, but none of the great music.

Post by **eriktorbjorn** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 9:41 pm

Elurindel wrote:Right. And by sound, I actually meant music. I get voices and SFX, but none of the great music.

That's the musicfm.res and musicgm.res files, but I assume you've already copied those from your CD. Does it work if you set the music driver to Adlib? That's not the ideal setting, of course, but at least it would reveal if the game is playing any music at all.

Failure to play MIDI music can be caused by a lot of things, depending on your operating systems. Does it work in any other games, e.g. Beneath a Steel Sky?

samwise · Post by **samwise** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 2:11 pm

Arantor wrote:I did actually try emailing the harlanellison.com people about buying it (as I live in England and can't readily draw US funds) but that was 3 weeks ago and I've heard nothing.

Guess it is Amazon then...

Umm .. you can't actually email The Harlan Ellison Recording Collection people. The store is essentially managed by Harlan's wife and anything you order is shipped direct from their home in the US (which is why they can provide items autographed by Harlan). Unless you know them personally, the only way to communicate with them and, consequently, the store is by post or through the Art Deco Dining Pavilion, a web guestbook at the Harlan Ellison Webderland, an official fan-site. They don't "do" most of the Internet like email or PayPal etc.

They seem to be happy to ship internationally, so the easiest thing to do is to follow the instructions on the HERC webpage by sending them cash and a completed order form. Most post offices in the UK can convert sterling into US dollars, so it's not actually that onerous. I think they'll also accept sterling and possibly other currencies, but you'd best check that with them first.

The store is certainly still operating at the time of writing, though you can check that in the future and confirm you've calculated the postage costs correctly by asking about potential orders on the Pavilion.

An old copy of the Rabbit Hole - the HERC members' newsletter - from Summer 2002, says that the game can still be ordered while stocks last, but that the PC version has limited quantities available. It's still in stock now, tho, afaict.

The products are brand-new and definitely cheaper than Amazon, which won't allow those third-party sales to ship outside the US anyway, IIRC.

HTH,

Sam.