• Log In | Sign Up

  • News
  • Reviews
  • Top Games
  • Search
  • New Releases
  • Daily Deals
  • Forums

Adventure Gamers - Forums

Welcome to Adventure Gamers. Please Sign In or Join Now to post.

You are here: HomeForum Home → Gaming → Adventure → Thread

Post Marker Legend:

  • New Topic New posts
  • Old Topic No new posts

Currently online

apignarbchrissie

Support us, by purchasing through these affiliate links

   

Black Dahlia desperately needs a new ending

Total Posts: 3

Joined 2020-05-05

PM

Anyone remembers Black Dahlia?

Seriously, it needs a better ending. After all the effort the player puts in the game, they get that ending?The ending doesn’t even make sense since the Black Dahlia killer was never even caught in real life. They tried to tie-in real life events like Pearl Harbor and the killing of Elizabeth Short so why make such and ending that is the exact opposite of what happened in real life? I hope someday that the downloadable version on Steam is upgraded with a recut special ending.

Edit:Sorry I thought Steam had it but I was wrong.

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 1075

Joined 2003-09-30

PM

Hmm..

     

“Going on means going far - Going far means returning”

Avatar

Total Posts: 3200

Joined 2007-01-04

PM

I actually enjoyed this game back in the day. The story, while fictional, is inspired by the real life Cleveland Torso Murderer and the infamous murder of Elizabeth Short in Los Angeles.

So, it was only inspired by true events and is a work of fiction so they could do anything with the story they wanted too.


Heart

     

I enjoy playing adventure games on my Alienware M17 r4 and my Nintendo Switch OLED.

Total Posts: 3

Joined 2020-05-05

PM

Mikekelly - 06 May 2020 11:14 AM

I actually enjoyed this game back in the day. The story, while fictional, is inspired by the real life Cleveland Torso Murderer and the infamous murder of Elizabeth Short in Los Angeles.

So, it was only inspired by true events and is a work of fiction so they could do anything with the story they wanted too.


Heart

The ending still stinks though, having the hero get arrested and blamed for the murders is like showing a disregard for the player who put in so much effort. Other games have tragic endings but they usually have multiple endings in which the player can choose to view a particular ending by their actions.

Also,the ending was unnecessary as they were largely making a game with mainstream(non-alternate) history. Then all of sudden at the ending they venture into alternate-history by saying that the wrong man had been arrested and charged!

Unless Take 2 comes up and says that the ending was open ended, the ending still stinks.  Laughing

But don’t just take my word for it. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172179/reviews
Jemmy:
“The ending(s). AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!! It felt like so much effort and oh so very little
payoff. “

GreaterMalison:
“Being a video game enthusiast i’ve often pondered what were the best and worst endings to a video game I’ve ever seen. Deciding on the best would take some time, but as far as the worst goes i don’t have to rack my brain for very long before I remember that I once played thru a little known PC game called Black Dahlia.”

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 5034

Joined 2004-07-12

PM

I recall that the game had two possible endings.

     

For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.

Total Posts: 3

Joined 2020-05-05

PM

rtrooney - 06 May 2020 03:25 PM

I recall that the game had two possible endings.

Yes. Forgot about that. What I meant is that at least in other games there are good and bad endings. This one is about having to choose one among all three bad endings.

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 1782

Joined 2010-01-10

PM

rtrooney - 06 May 2020 03:25 PM

I recall that the game had two possible endings.

There were 3 actual endings.

Do nothing. Shoot the gem. Shoot Winslow.

I can remember what happens after 2 of the endings but not the 3rd   Meh

     

Life is what it is.

Avatar

Total Posts: 5034

Joined 2004-07-12

PM

I went back and looked at my walkthrough notes. It has been since forever that I played the game. This is what everyone thought at the time.

After escaping from the burning lodge, Jim returns to King’s House.  Read the statements on the wall.  The projector in the sunken area has a film.  Caution:  Although the film doesn’t show any actual violence, the suggested violence may be bothersome.  All the evidence in the room points to King’s death and Alice’s abduction or death.  The film will confirm that Alice is alive.  Viewers of the film should note the time on the cuckoo clock:  4:55.  The cuckoo clock is allegedly a puzzle, but nothing had to be solved in my game.  See @Clock for the solution if you do need to solve it.

There are two basic endings to Black Dahlia.  Save a game when you find Alice to play through all of them.  Caution:  All of the endings are gruesome.  The “good ending” is certainly not the greatest for Jim but the world has once again been saved from a madman.  There are three ways to see the other ending.  See @Endings for the list.  If the ending doesn’t quite make sense, reread Santini’s Notes.  If I have interpreted these notes correctly, in the bad ending, Winslow is transferred into Jim’s body, and it is really Winslow, not Jim, in the TV news program.

     

For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.

Avatar

Total Posts: 505

Joined 2005-07-07

PM

Long time since I played it, but I seem to remember being more upset about the developer assuming all players are mind readers, having some kind of telepathic connection with them. Too many puzzles are seriously underclued, which is particularly bad in a type of game where one would like a certain flow in the story.

My feeling after finishing BD was that it could have been fantastic, but was let down by bad puzzle design (and being too long). Can’t recall any of the endings.

     

Total Posts: 310

Joined 2018-12-01

PM

A new ending? Not many people would even get to see it, considering the game isn’t even available anywhere. It needs a GOG release, pronto.

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 505

Joined 2005-07-07

PM

Vehelon - 07 May 2020 04:33 AM

A new ending? Not many people would even get to see it, considering the game isn’t even available anywhere. It needs a GOG release, pronto.

I think I have at least two physical copies of it, surely it should not be that hard to find. To get it to work with win 10 is a different matter. Think I played it on a win XP machine and possibly with a win 95 emulator.

I’ve seen it packed with an emulator around the net, but downloading it is probably only legal if you own a legal copy of the same release of the game (in some countries at least).

     
Avatar

Total Posts: 5034

Joined 2004-07-12

PM

I have a physical copy as well. I know there was a patch to the game. I’m not sure I have a copy of the patch copied to disk.

Not that it matters. I think the last OS that the game would run on was XP with 95 emulator. I’ve seen descriptions of how to get the game to run on current systems. But, so far, no evidence that anyone has succeeded.

You would also need to have an external USB CD reader, which I have used to access data CDs in the past, in order to even access the disks.

Until either GOG or Steam makes the effort to make a workable, downloadable version of the game available, I think we’re out of luck.

     

For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.

Avatar

Total Posts: 1782

Joined 2010-01-10

PM

rtrooney - 07 May 2020 06:31 PM

I have a physical copy as well. I know there was a patch to the game. I’m not sure I have a copy of the patch copied to disk.

If anyone wants a copy of the patch mentioned by Tim then PM me with an email address and I’ll send it over. It’s only 758kb (zipped) in size so no problems there. All I can say is I’ve never got it to work.

Like Tim I also still have the discs but I also have an XP machine sitting around. I may have a go at running it over the weekend Smile

     

Life is what it is.

Avatar

Total Posts: 5034

Joined 2004-07-12

PM

There may have been some minor bugs that were solved by the patch. But the Big Bug was that you couldn’t solve the “rune” puzzle without it, and thus, couldn’t finish the game. I don’t remember whether you had one more rune than spaces to put them or the opposite. Regardless, unless you had the hex code to bypass the puzzle, it was a dead end.

     

For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.

Avatar

Total Posts: 1782

Joined 2010-01-10

PM

rtrooney - 08 May 2020 12:23 PM

There may have been some minor bugs that were solved by the patch. But the Big Bug was that you couldn’t solve the “rune” puzzle without it, and thus, couldn’t finish the game. I don’t remember whether you had one more rune than spaces to put them or the opposite. Regardless, unless you had the hex code to bypass the puzzle, it was a dead end.

Now that’s mildly embarrassing as I passed comment on that very thing in a BD thread from some years ago. Also I’m getting confused with that patch and reading somewhere about a patch to get BD to run on more modern machines. The original patch works re the rune puzzle.
The actual problem was if you put a rune into the incorrect slot in the wire-frame you couldn’t remove it thus not being able to move past the puzzle.

Tried running BD on my old XP box to dismal failure. First fail was insufficient disc space for the install which was garbage as it’s a 500GB HD. I’ve come across this problem in the past with old games so downsized the C: partition to 12GB. The installation, after starting up, then failed saying it couldn’t read from Drive D: (the optical drive). Created a BD folder on the C: drive, copied the CD into the folder and tried running it only to get the lack of disc space message again. OK, I thought, I’ll build a Windows 95 PC on a spare HD only to find I don’t appear to have a Win95 installation disc anymore. Which is odd as I still have DOS 6.22 and WFW 3.11 installation files plus everything from Windows 98 up to Windows 10.

I’m going to have to think again Smile

     

Life is what it is.

Avatar

Total Posts: 505

Joined 2005-07-07

PM

Jabod - 09 May 2020 05:44 AM
rtrooney - 08 May 2020 12:23 PM

There may have been some minor bugs that were solved by the patch. But the Big Bug was that you couldn’t solve the “rune” puzzle without it, and thus, couldn’t finish the game. I don’t remember whether you had one more rune than spaces to put them or the opposite. Regardless, unless you had the hex code to bypass the puzzle, it was a dead end.

Now that’s mildly embarrassing as I passed comment on that very thing in a BD thread from some years ago. Also I’m getting confused with that patch and reading somewhere about a patch to get BD to run on more modern machines. The original patch works re the rune puzzle.
The actual problem was if you put a rune into the incorrect slot in the wire-frame you couldn’t remove it thus not being able to move past the puzzle.

Tried running BD on my old XP box to dismal failure. First fail was insufficient disc space for the install which was garbage as it’s a 500GB HD. I’ve come across this problem in the past with old games so downsized the C: partition to 12GB. The installation, after starting up, then failed saying it couldn’t read from Drive D: (the optical drive). Created a BD folder on the C: drive, copied the CD into the folder and tried running it only to get the lack of disc space message again. OK, I thought, I’ll build a Windows 95 PC on a spare HD only to find I don’t appear to have a Win95 installation disc anymore. Which is odd as I still have DOS 6.22 and WFW 3.11 installation files plus everything from Windows 98 up to Windows 10.

I’m going to have to think again Smile

Should work with W98. I think that’s how I played it, on Win XP with win98 on a VM. I recall the game was planned to be playable in DOS too, like Gabriel Knight 2, but they scrapped the DOS version of the game last minute. You can still find some telltale files from the DOS version on the discs IIRC. Would have made things easier today if it was a hybrid DOS/Windows game.

     

You are here: HomeForum Home → Gaming → Adventure → Thread

Welcome to the Adventure Gamers forums!

Back to the top