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Let’s Subtitle Blade Runner by Westwood Studios
Latest update: July 20 2019
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Hi everyone!
As you may know, the ScummVM team has been working on supporting the Blade Runner point and click adventure game (1997, Westwood Studios) for some time now. There’s still some work to be done but it’s coming along quite nicely.
I’ve been working on adding subtitles (which will be optional) to the game. The original game did not have any subtitles and this might have discouraged adventure gamers from enjoying the game.
Anyway, the basic coding work for subtitles support is done and is part of the ScummVM project since Christmas 
so it’s been part of the official daily development builds since.
However, there’s also the need for the transcript of the in-game and cutscene dialogues in the videos. I’ve done this for the English language but I need some help.
Since I’m not a native speaker and the work was mostly done by listening to the audio and figuring out the transcript, there are a few quotes that I’m unsure of, and there are bound to be a few syntactical errors as well.
I’ve tried my best to polish the transcript while keep it faithful to the audio, but now I’ll need the help of any volunteers to improve the quality of the subtitles.
The public version for SUBTITLES.MIX file, that is needed by the game to display the subtitles, is now available at the ScummVM site in a zip file here:
https://www.scummvm.org/games/#bladerunner
In order to test the subtitles in-game, you’ll need a recent development build of ScummVM, and an installed version of Blade Runner (English) (link has instructions of what to copy from the CDs) on your HDD. The SUBTITLES.MIX file should be copied in the game’s installation folder. You’ll have to launch ScummVM, detect and add the Blade Runner game and launch the game via ScummVM. The subtitles can then be enabled from the game’s KIA menu (options) and/or the ScummVM menu options for the game.
As I said, the game is still not fully supported (notably there are some pathfinding issues) but I believe it should be playable otherwise.
If you want to avoid the hassle of installing and playtesting the game, you could alternatively check my playlist for a subtitled Let’s Play of the game. The subtitles that I’ve added there (using Youtube’s closed captions system) should be the same as in the online Excel, so any issues with those subtitles would be issues that require fixing in the Excel. The Let’s Play series is not complete as of yet, though. It will be progressing but not rapidly.
The playlist for the LP starts here:
Let me know of any questions or feedback you might have and thank you in advance to anyone willing to test and help out with the subtitles.
Impressive!
I have not played the game and do not want to spoil it by proofreading the transcript.
How likely is it that GOG.com acquires the right to distribute the game once it is is fully supported by ScummVM?
Thaks a million for this effort, stroggoff!
I’m a hearing-impaired person and can’t be of much help to you, alas.
Everybody wants to be Cary Grant.
Even Me.
-Cary Grant
I have a brand new laptop not state-of-the-art or anything but I have no problem running Blade Runner. I mean if you look around there’s a couple little patches that you can also install out there to make it run smoother but overall the game still runs fine on Modern computers
How likely is it that GOG.com acquires the right to distribute the game once it is is fully supported by ScummVM?
I’d like to think that GOG will eventually get it for their catalogue, and maybe full support by ScummVM would be an extra motivation for them. But I can’t really say for sure, since it’s almost certain there are several copyright issues to be resolved with the parties that hold them.
I have a brand new laptop not state-of-the-art or anything but I have no problem running Blade Runner. I mean if you look around there’s a couple little patches that you can also install out there to make it run smoother but overall the game still runs fine on Modern computers
The thing is ScummVM provides numerous advantages over simply running the original game with 3rd party patches. Like for example the multi-platform compatibility (Android, iOS, macOS, Linux etc), and, case in point, the subtitle support for the game. It’s also easier to fix known bugs of the original game and/or restore content that didn’t make it to the final game (this is yet to be decided, but it is possible!).
While I’ve never had problems running Blade Runner, that subtitle support does sound like a good reason to use ScumVM to run it. There’s a couple of lines in the game I’ve never really managed to catch.
Just out of curiosity, will it be possible to make the game support different languages in subtitles as well?
Just out of curiosity, will it be possible to make the game support different languages in subtitles as well?
Yes, but it’s a semi-automated process. Which means that someone will have to provide the translation to a different language and may have to create a font (all character glyphs as a png image) for the subtitles in said language.
The tools for this are open source Python scripts and are maintained in the ScummVM code repository.
For example, I’ve tested Greek subtitles (and menus) with the English version (English audio). I’ve also tested the English subtitles with the French, Spanish, German and Italian version, though it would probably be better if subtitles were provided in the respective languages for those versions as there are some differences in how the text should be split in successive quotes.
How likely is it that GOG.com acquires the right to distribute the game once it is is fully supported by ScummVM?
I’d like to think that GOG will eventually get it for their catalogue, and maybe full support by ScummVM would be an extra motivation for them. But I can’t really say for sure, since it’s almost certain there are several copyright issues to be resolved with the parties that hold them.
I have a brand new laptop not state-of-the-art or anything but I have no problem running Blade Runner. I mean if you look around there’s a couple little patches that you can also install out there to make it run smoother but overall the game still runs fine on Modern computers
The thing is ScummVM provides numerous advantages over simply running the original game with 3rd party patches. Like for example the multi-platform compatibility (Android, iOS, macOS, Linux etc), and, case in point, the subtitle support for the game. It’s also easier to fix known bugs of the original game and/or restore content that didn’t make it to the final game (this is yet to be decided, but it is possible!).
do you know of cut content from blade runner, its one of my favorite adventures of all time and I never knew of a lot of cut content. It would be nice if all the bugs were fixed although the nature of the game being random every time you play it makes it somewhat harder to fix all the glitches. but if just the gun range glitches can be fixed that would be nice.
To go off topic yet stay on topic, I do love this game and I adore both blade runner movies, this universe is amazing to me. Since there is no real official ending to the game, My head canon ending his McCoy is a real blade runner who is doing a job, basically the opposite of deckard aka a replicant sympathizer, just to show a different side
do you know of cut content from blade runner, its one of my favorite adventures of all time and I never knew of a lot of cut content. It would be nice if all the bugs were fixed although the nature of the game being random every time you play it makes it somewhat harder to fix all the glitches. but if just the gun range glitches can be fixed that would be nice.
Yes there’s quite a bit of content that you can’t access in the original game, either because it was cut or there’s some coding bug that prevents you from getting it. I’d say it’s a lot, but I’m kind of biased, since I’ve put in many hours going through pieces of it and sorting it out, trying to make sense of the various parts and how they would connect (especially if it’s not apparent).
An example of this is Runciter’s Voigt-Kampff test, which is entirely cut from the game. Another is Rachael’s and McCoy two meetings (Act 3 and Act 4) at McCoy’s building after they meet up at Tyrell’s office. There are more stuff like that.
I’m trying to show them; restore them or recreate them as part of the outtakes for my Let’s Play (linked in the original post above). These start from the second outtake video. There’s still most of the 3rd Act and the remaining two Acts yet to cover. But this process takes a lot of time; and my spare time has been very little the last few months. Hopefully, this will be a temporary thing, and I’ll get back to it soon.
How likely is it that GOG.com acquires the right to distribute the game once it is is fully supported by ScummVM?
Next to zero, really. Blade Runner the game, just like the movie was for the longest time, one of those properties which are behind a hellish mess of different parties not willing to, or interested, in working together to actually release the said IP to the market again. The fact that Scott managed to release his final cut of the movie a couple of years ago was a result of decades of people trying to settle their own takes on what each was entitled to. I’d imagine the fact that the movie alone was so difficult, the situation with the game is a somewhere worse place than it is to the long-awaited re-release of No One Lives Forever.
This is great! I am going to have to play the game again now!
I enjoy playing adventure games on my Alienware M17 r4 and my Nintendo Switch OLED.
do you know of cut content from blade runner, its one of my favorite adventures of all time and I never knew of a lot of cut content. It would be nice if all the bugs were fixed although the nature of the game being random every time you play it makes it somewhat harder to fix all the glitches. but if just the gun range glitches can be fixed that would be nice.
Yes there’s quite a bit of content that you can’t access in the original game, either because it was cut or there’s some coding bug that prevents you from getting it. I’d say it’s a lot, but I’m kind of biased, since I’ve put in many hours going through pieces of it and sorting it out, trying to make sense of the various parts and how they would connect (especially if it’s not apparent).
An example of this is Runciter’s Voigt-Kampff test, which is entirely cut from the game. Another is Rachael’s and McCoy two meetings (Act 3 and Act 4) at McCoy’s building after they meet up at Tyrell’s office. There are more stuff like that.
I’m trying to show them; restore them or recreate them as part of the outtakes for my Let’s Play (linked in the original post above). These start from the second outtake video. There’s still most of the 3rd Act and the remaining two Acts yet to cover. But this process takes a lot of time; and my spare time has been very little the last few months. Hopefully, this will be a temporary thing, and I’ll get back to it soon.
thats awesome, I never knew about those, I always figured there wasnt much cut content, just content that didnt run right together bc of the random nature of the game. I would have loved to see runciter’s test, I never thought he was a rep though based on how he treated lucy, just a scum bag that also sold fake animals. I thought having rachel once in the game was a cool cameo. to be honest the only thing that bothered me about the game is after clovis broke in and almost killed tyrell, tyrell should have been better prepared for roy batty’s attack in the original movie.Since the movie and game run at the same time about
thats awesome, I never knew about those, I always figured there wasnt much cut content, just content that didnt run right together bc of the random nature of the game. I would have loved to see runciter’s test, I never thought he was a rep though based on how he treated lucy, just a scum bag that also sold fake animals. I thought having rachel once in the game was a cool cameo. to be honest the only thing that bothered me about the game is after clovis broke in and almost killed tyrell, tyrell should have been better prepared for roy batty’s attack in the original movie.Since the movie and game run at the same time about
There’s a few bits that I can understand why they were cut (mostly because some of those make it seem like the game makes assumptions about the player’s allegiances, some introduce small conflicts with the movie—and in a few occasions because some are part of mechanics that seem to have been dropped). But then again the game does offer a “designer’s cut” option that barely has any impact on anything (it seems like they intended to use it for something, but gave up really early on and it only affects one or two dialogues in the entire game). So all this removed / dropped stuff could be part of that—as in activated with that option switch.
Because there’s also content that is missing (from dialogues or scenes) that is either due to some bug or maybe they thought that the dialogue would go on for too long or that it would hurt the pacing of the gameplay (?). I can’t be sure.
The good news is that the transcript is also done for all this content, and that all the official localizations for the game seem to have localized this cut content too, even though it never plays in-game. Maybe there was an intention to release some patch that would unlock / or fix this content at a later time?
Anyway, I’m not really sure as of yet as to how would be the most appropriate way to go about it, and it’s hardly a priority right now, but I know I’d like to see this content become available somehow to people that would play the game through ScummVM.
It could be interesting, if possible, to have some sort of a “fan cut” option in ScummVM itself, that could be used to restore at least some of the cut content. That would leave it for the players to decide if they want to see it all or have the game as it was originally released.
As I’ve understood that BR uses voxels in the character models, is it possible to smooth out their in-game details, like add some more details to them that way? Or were they done as voxels first and then turned into bitmap animations?
As I’ve understood that BR uses voxels in the character models, is it possible to smooth out their in-game details, like add some more details to them that way? Or were they done as voxels first and then turned into bitmap animations?
I’m not entirely sure; the models seem to be composed from horizontal slices of voxels if that makes any sense, and the animations are specific sets for each model and can’t be changed (you can’t use a skeleton to create a new one, or apply an animation from one model to another).
I also recall reading or listening to one of Leary’s interviews about the game, and he said they regretted the big compression they had to use for the models; it was either due to a time/deadline issue or due to having to fit too much content in separate CDs, or maybe it was both). But that probably means that unless someone from Westwood has kept backups (before all the game data were lost, so this is a slim possibility) and they’re willing to share them if/when the game’s licenses are sorted out for re-distribution, it will be nearly impossible to restore high resolution for the models.
Barring some surprising turn of events about those lost resources, I don’t think ScummVM’s goal will be to restore the game assets’ quality.
Ah, now I remember, I’ve read something about the way the characters were done in BR. If I remember correctly, they stated that the method they used back then wasn’t very orthodox and isn’t very friendly in terms of retooling it afterwards. It is a shame, really, as it would be interesting to see the character fidelity brought closer to the BG art. Not that they look terrible as they are now, by any means.
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