Black Mirror 2 - issues
 

Hello there, I have recently installed Black Mirror 2 on my PC and started to play it through until I realized something was a miss! I have got to a stage in the game where I need 2 Bowls to complete a Home made Dark Room in my mothers house. (First chapter). Now at first I thought well I obviously
missed something in previous screens but after much painstaking searching I thought bugger this lets consult the Wide World Web.... after doing so I found that there may be some compatibility issues. First of all I noticed that the movie sequence at the start is non existent, Second you apparently start off with a Camera in the inventory...I do not. Thirdly I found out that you can get the second bowl from the Dog cage at the back of the Photo store. But the pointer doesn't even recognize that there is a cage there. Now after installing twice more it has the same problem. Can someone out there either Help or confirm that this is a problem.... or am I just smoking the Bongo!!
Your Help is most appreciated!!!
Weare6

Black Mirror II uses a copy protection that not just checks the DVD when launching the game. There are also several checks while you're playing. So the original DVD have to stay in your DVD drive while you're playing.

If some checks of the copy protection fail certain behaviours (missing camera, missing cutscenes, disabled hotspots, etc.) are triggered. These behaviours first are only annoying but sooner or later lead into dead ends. The things you're describing are known to be such behaviours. The amount of copy protection check failures are stored in the savegames, so if some of the behaviours have already occured you have to use a savegame that was created before a copy protection check failed.

In your case you have to start over I think and make sure that the original DVD is in the DVD drive.

Thank you Bakhtosh for responding. Ahhh well what you say does make a lot of sense and I have indeed done just that. Restarted the game from scratch while having the original DVD in the Drive. Unfortunetly the problem is still occurring even after 2 more attempts. My next step is to try it on a mates PC. Now if this works then there maybe a conflicting hardware problem in my PC.... and if it doesn't well... damn all I can think is the issue is with the Game disk itself. Its a shame I was really getting into the game until this issue showed it ugly head.
Anyway thank you kindly Bakhtosh for your response, your help is most appreciated. Cheers
Weare6

What problem does exactly reappear. From the problem you wrote above the following are definitely triggered by the copy protection if some disc checks has failed:
- missing intro
- missing camera
- disbled bowl hotspot at the dog cage in the backyard of Fullers house
This is at least the case with the german version. What version do you play?

I am playing the English version. Yes the issues you stated above keep on occurring but when I do install the game there is no apparent errors or any indication it has come across any copy protection issues. Thanks again for your help.
Weare6

The copy protection does not always check the same thing. Copy protections can check different things at the disc and they usually try to check if the EXE was manipulated. So it's quite possible that the disc check on launch passes, but other checks fail. F.e. if you're using some kind of live-debugger at you're system, or if your DVD-ROM needs too long to read again (start to spin again) after it went to sleep mode, or if another part of the disc is checked.

I'm not complete sure of course because I'm talking about the experiences with the german version and you're using the english one.

But maybe it would be a good idea to try out the german demo: Link
Of course you won't understand a thing, but you can check if the intro movie is played and if the camera is in the inventory.

I do notice that it does take a while for the CD to start spinning. mmm worth a look into.. I have recently tried it on my mates Laptop and it works fine with intro movie; camera in inventory and I even was able to get the Dogs Bowl to further my progress. My computer in question is rather old (at least 3 years)
maybe the problem lies there as you mentioned. I will do some tests and see what I come up with.... thanks heaps Bakhtosh for your helpful words and wisdom. cheers