Blackthorne

[Kosta]

Feel free to comment and discuss this game here. Also, if you have any useful tips or tricks don't hesitate to share them with the others! Thanks!

Review (http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/56)

[Austin]

Uhh.. Interplay? I thought it was Blizzard.

[Timpsi]

Originally posted by Austin@Jan 12 2005, 04:41 AM
Uhh.. Interplay? I thought it was Blizzard.
Developed by Blizzard, published by Interplay.

[Eagle of Fire]

Oh, is this game ABW again? 'Cause it wasn't anymore since a little while now.

[darksideAlice]

This game is soooooo cool!! :OK:

[mkbaraka]

I downloaded it, but I can't open it. When I click to open it, it shows the dos prompt screen open briefly, then go away.

[Guest]

you'll need dosbox, get it in the utilities section

[mkbaraka]

When I drag the file into dosbox it says it can't find the data.dat how do I fix that?

[Guest]

Not Bad!But i have see better games.

[The Fifth Horseman]

I played it, but always got stuck in the wasteland episode... there was this cliff and I had no idea how to get down or through...

[Daniel]

Running with DOSBox it is really slow... Is there another way (I don't consider installing win98 or worst as a solution...) ; )

Daniel

[The Fifth Horseman]

There is. Get a faster PC. :bleh:

Actually, change the cycles setting of your DosBox to something higher and then try again.

What is your CPU?

[Daniel]

My CPU is a AMD Athlon™ XP 2200+

[Guest]

I've forgotten, 1.8 GHz, with 256 MB of RAM

Daniel

[GabbaMan]

Originally posted by Daniel@Mar 2 2005, 10:42 PM
Running with DOSBox it is really slow... Is there another way (I don't consider installing win98 or worst as a solution...) ; )

Daniel
Danie- if you want more speed, try ctrl-F8 and ctrl-F12... easy

[Guest]

Hey, how do you increase you maximum health? I noticed in the screenshots that the guys health was past 6.

[Demon Hood]

I REALLY DIDN'T LIKE IT I ALWAYS TOUGHT IT WAS A ROBOTIC COPY OF PRINCE OF PERSIA....... :yawn:

[Gejmer Božo]

Originally posted by Demon Hood@Apr 2 2005, 07:23 AM
I REALLY DIDN'T LIKE IT I ALWAYS TOUGHT IT WAS A ROBOTIC COPY OF PRINCE OF PERSIA....... :yawn:
They have much in common, especially movement of the charachter but it is not a reason to hate it. This game is a lot of fun! I kill literally everything that comes in my path! Bwahahahahahahaha....

[The Occupant]

I like this game!! i played this game on NES and i thoufght it was SO coolies. btw HOW did you get those screenshots? when i try all i get is this scrambled mes. how do you do it?!

[WolverineDK]

Originally posted by The Occupant@May 5 2005, 09:42 PM
I like this game!! i played this game on NES and i thoufght it was SO coolies. btw HOW did you get those screenshots? when i try all i get is this scrambled mes. how do you do it?!
sorry don´t you mean SNES ? :)

[t0mme]

Originally posted by WolverineDK @ May 5 2005, 11:48 PM
Originally posted by The Occupant@May 5 2005, 09:42 PM
I like this game!! i played this game on NES and i thoufght it was SO coolies. btw HOW did you get those screenshots? when i try all i get is this scrambled mes. how do you do it?!
sorry don´t you mean SNES ? :)

Yeah, he means SNES

[Office_Monk]

Originally posted by The Occupant@May 5 2005, 11:42 PM
btw HOW did you get those screenshots? when i try all i get is this scrambled mes. how do you do it?!
I'd love to know that too... Is there a snapshot function in dosbox? Lazy as I am I use the GUI D-fend for Dosbox but couldn't find such a function...

[abc]

Originally posted by Office_Monk @ Aug 8 2005, 11:17 AM
Originally posted by The Occupant@May 5 2005, 11:42 PM
btw HOW did you get those screenshots? when i try all i get is this scrambled mes. how do you do it?!
I'd love to know that too... Is there a snapshot function in dosbox? Lazy as I am I use the GUI D-fend for Dosbox but couldn't find such a function...
There's a program called 'Screen Thief' that grabs screenshoots in DOS. You have to run it first then a game from which you want to grab a screen (all in DosBox or in pure DOS, not form Windows). It won't work with certain programs because of their 'memory management' but with Black Thorne it should work fine - years ago I played Black Thorne along with Game Wizard loaded and this program is more resource demanding than Screen Thief (I've used it to save positions before long jumps on some levels:).
Maybe there is also an option in DosBox for grabbing a screen?
Anyway, great game!

[Office_Monk]

Found out how to get screencaptures in Dosbox/D-fend: ctrl-F5

[Guest_Adrian]

:D ITS DA BEST SO COOL!!! !!!!!!!!!! :OK:

[bt]

Originally posted by Daniel@Mar 2 2005, 10:42 PM
Running with DOSBox it is really slow... Is there another way (I don't consider installing win98 or worst as a solution...) ; )

Daniel
That's right. But forget it and try playing on some SNES emulator. ;)

[Blood-Pigggy]

A better solution is just turning the cycles up a bit.
Skipping a few frames doesn't hurt either, but not more than 3, otherwise it starts looking very choppy.

[Floyd]

I agree play it on a snes emu it's the dogs :tomato: :max:

[RastaJew]

This game wants to be an "athletic platformer" like Flashback and Out of this World but it doesn't quite measure up. It lacks the cutscenes of Flashback and particularly Out of this World that immersed the player in the game world. In Blackthorne you get to the last screen of one episode. someone tells you "Go find <whoever> in the forest", there's a repeat of the intro scene of Sarlac telling the orcs to go kick some behind but with different text, and you're suddenly in the first forest level.
So obviously the story isn't that fleshed out either. There's backstory but not much happens during the game. There are a few NPC good guys around but they don't have much purpose. They are basically an alternative to having health and weapons just lying on the ground. Sometimes you can save them or help them fight an orc or get a hint from them. I wouldn't even call them characters because they all use the same sprite and none of them have more than about eight words to say about how much they hate Sarlac. At the end of each "episode" there's a different looking NPC who says about twenty words instead. It would have been nice if when you think back on the game you could remember a certain character like Fallout's Harold the ghoul. But in Blackthorne you don't even really connect with the player character and his story.
The levels are repetitive. The levels are split into screens like in Flashback but each screen has jumps and puzzles and fights that you've already seen elsewhere. It's just running around, climbing ladders, shooting monsters, finding keys/bridge passes/bombs to get past a barrier and make it to the end. In Flashback it didn't feel like you were just trying to get to the end of the level. You were trying to complete a mission for an NPC and you could find diary entries and stuff which would trigger cutscenes.
The screens look repetitive too. The graphics are good (especially in the forest and the swamp) but every screen is made up of identical platforms and walls. Every screen looks the same from the beginning of an episode to the end.

So Blackthorne needed to have more plot, characters and variety to be a classic. That's why the first 4 highest rated games on Mobygames are point and click adventures.

[RastaJew]

Your max health increases at the end of each episode.

I used Video Thief for screenshots. Go here for more info http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq6#f8

[Bomm]

is there anyway of running this game without ems memory??

[The Fifth Horseman]

Your max health increases at the end of each episode
IIRC, you need to find a max-health-up item of some sort.

[guesst]

Originally posted by Bomm@Feb 15 2006, 08:15 PM
is there anyway of running this game without ems memory??
What do you mean? Do you need to turn off EMS or do you not have any EMS.

Since I can answer the first, assuming you're using DOSBox, edit dosbox.conf and look for EMS=true under memory, near the end. Change it to EMS=false and voila. No EMS.

[GeometriX]

I must admit that Blackthorne was always one of my favourite Blizzard games. I really enjoyed the gameplay. I agree that it seems a little shallow compared to the likes of PoP, Flashback & Out of this World, but I think Blackthorne is to platformers what Quake is to FPSers, just good old mindless fun! And btw, playing this game on a decent sound system (5/7.1) sure does rock! The game always had awesome sound, but on a modern setup it's phenomenal.

PS: It is certainly much more playable on SNES, controls are easier, framerate is better and you can get some really nice graphics filtering with ZSNES.

[Office_Monk]

Originally posted by RastaJew@Oct 20 2005, 07:37 PM
This game wants to be an "athletic platformer" like Flashback and Out of this World but it doesn't quite measure up. It lacks the cutscenes of Flashback and particularly Out of this World that immersed the player in the game world. In Blackthorne you get to the last screen of one episode. someone tells you "Go find <whoever> in the forest", there's a repeat of the intro scene of Sarlac telling the orcs to go kick some behind but with different text, and you're suddenly in the first forest level.
So obviously the story isn't that fleshed out either. There's backstory but not much happens during the game. There are a few NPC good guys around but they don't have much purpose. They are basically an alternative to having health and weapons just lying on the ground. Sometimes you can save them or help them fight an orc or get a hint from them. I wouldn't even call them characters because they all use the same sprite and none of them have more than about eight words to say about how much they hate Sarlac. At the end of each "episode" there's a different looking NPC who says about twenty words instead. It would have been nice if when you think back on the game you could remember a certain character like Fallout's Harold the ghoul. But in Blackthorne you don't even really connect with the player character and his story.
The levels are repetitive. The levels are split into screens like in Flashback but each screen has jumps and puzzles and fights that you've already seen elsewhere. It's just running around, climbing ladders, shooting monsters, finding keys/bridge passes/bombs to get past a barrier and make it to the end. In Flashback it didn't feel like you were just trying to get to the end of the level. You were trying to complete a mission for an NPC and you could find diary entries and stuff which would trigger cutscenes.
The screens look repetitive too. The graphics are good (especially in the forest and the swamp) but every screen is made up of identical platforms and walls. Every screen looks the same from the beginning of an episode to the end.

So Blackthorne needed to have more plot, characters and variety to be a classic. That's why the first 4 highest rated games on Mobygames are point and click adventures.
I think Blackthorne just wanted to be the videogame equivalent of a quick action movie: there's some story, but the action is what's important.

Besides, how cool is it to fire behind you: Hasta la vista, baby!

[Raasted]

Indeed - the "fire-behind-you" feature is one of those things that charactarise the game - it acutally doesn't make much sense, it isn't necessary at all - but it is great fun, and look good too :OK:

/Raasted

[Lichor]

I cant get this damn thing to work. I dragged it to a dos box and it said cannot find the dot.dat file.

I played it on the snes and thought it was the coolest game ever.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Wait. Do you mean DosBox emulator?

Did you try running DosBox first and then the game?
Note - there are frontends, like DFEND, that allow you to simplify the process and store separate settings for different games. Useful if you have problems with the "raw" DosBox.

[Lichor]

Still dosent work.

Nice logos.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Try redownloading.

[Raasted]

And if you havn't done that already - you should upgrade to dosbox 0.65 (not that it should make any difference - but you know :max: )

/Raasted

[Guest]

Originally posted by Raasted @ May 25 2006, 09:02 PM

Indeed - the "fire-behind-you" feature is one of those things that charactarise the game - it acutally doesn't make much sense, it isn't necessary at all - but it is great fun, and look good too :OK:

/Raasted



Actually, the "fire-behind-you" button is quite handy against the big boss.... at the end.

And for close combat... when you fight an orcy creature. When he hides you can just walk past him, wait till he appears and then bamm... the "fire-behind-you" action :brain: . Of course, with stronger orcs you need to do this twice or more. But that is even more fun :woot:

[Lucullus]

I got hooked on Blackthorne on good ol' pc... and then it came on SNES... even better... even today I still pull out the game and play it because it's mindless fun really. So what if the plot is shallow? Quake doesn't even have a plot ;)
Some games are made to give you relief from the tougher ones that has you stuck for hours perhaps.
Blackthorne rules... 2 thumbs up and yeah... "fire-behind-you" feature rules and makes it more than just one way shooting... and for the time it came out that was a major thing. I also recall playing Master of Magic at the same time :)

[mudman]

Gaaah!! :wall: I cant get it to run. using dos box (latest) with defend... reports that setup was not run properly but setup asks for copy protection, ran the crack and setup does nothing... says there is a sound card issue.... I checked and double checked the dma irq and stuff. O.o im lost :unsure:

[The Fifth Horseman]

Try running WITHOUT D-Fend. From what I heard, it can sometimes cause problems.
Also, are you certain the emulated soundcard is supported by the game? Enter DosBox.conf and change sbtype to SBPRO2 (or even SBPRO1).

If you don't know how to do it, please refer to official FAQ (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php?page=dosbox.conf) for more detailed information on DosBox.conf .

[mudman]

Originally posted by the_fifth_horseman @ Jul 31 2006, 10:55 AM

Try running WITHOUT D-Fend. From what I heard, it can sometimes cause problems.
Also, are you certain the emulated soundcard is supported by the game? Enter DosBox.conf and change sbtype to SBPRO2 (or even SBPRO1).

If you don't know how to do it, please refer to official FAQ (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php?page=dosbox.conf) for more detailed information on DosBox.conf .


DAMMIT!! I got rid of dos boxer cos its riddled with bugs... :tai: Defend looked good.... it really did <_< I am sick of how it takes forever to to load stuff in dos box...

And yeah.. it worked fine without defend.... :mad:

[The Fifth Horseman]

To my knowledge, D-Fend is much more problematic then DOS-Boxer. Tales of savegame corruption and the like are not uncommon.

[Morrin]

Man this game is cool. One of the first pc games that I saw, and left me quite speechless.

[xonic64]

First time I played it as a kid I was completely hooked from the moment I saw Kyle being beamed into this colorful, VGA fantasy world. The music was atmospheric and the sounds were realistic. I adore this game and it's one of the few games that I give a pretty high rating because of it's durability. I'm still playing it for Androthi's sake!

[Guest]

Does anyone know where I can view the manual?
:huh:

[thatmexicanguy]

You could try looking for a manual on www.replacementdocs.com

Great platformer, though. It kinda' reminds me of a futuristic Warcraft, or even the Warhammer 40k universe.

[KWDEMON]

I cant get dosbox to make it run eaither??

[The Fifth Horseman]

Without knowing what you have exactly done and what specifically is the problem, we cannot help you.
Until you post more detailed information about your problem, I can only refer you to this FAQ (http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php?page=Basic+Setup+and+Installation+of+Dos Box).

Please post a more detailed description of your problem including any and all error messages you encountered.

[Iowa]

I've encountered two problems, after downloading Blackthorne.

1) When unzipping, I run the install program and am returned to Winzip without the files being removed from the temporary folder and installed anywhere. I have already solved this by copying the files from C:\Windows\Temp to My Documents\Blackthorne [a folder that I created].

I am writing about the first problem even in the advent of my solving it because this isn't the only time i've had a problem with DOS games on Abandonia lacking installers. When "Blood" was abandonware, I had to do the exact same thing, except it worked!

2) after copying the files and running setup, I run "Black.exe" and am given this error:


AN ERROR HAS OCCURED WHILE RUNNING PC BLACKTHORNE

AT LEAST 2048k OF EMS IS REQUIRED.


What does this mean? I have tried to run it from both the Windows 98 interface and from straight DOS, and was given the same error both times...

If it is any help at all, here are my system speculations:

Windows 98
330 MHZ Pentium II Processor
Nvidia TNT Graphics card (16 MB)
Sound Blaster compatible sound card (not functional)


Any help at all would be appreciated...

[Geezer]

Iowa, In DOS are you loading EMM386.EXE in your config.sys file? If so, paste the line here so I can see it. There are certain things that can and can't be on it in your case. If it has the NOEMS switch in there you need to get rid of NOEMS and replace it with RAM so that expanded memory is available.

If you are trying to run the DOS program in Win98 it is better to work with the PIF file for black.exe which would be named black.pif (will have an MSDOS icon). Right click black.pif and edit it to change the memory configuration. Make sure that it is providing expanded memory and then you can start the program by clicking the black.pif icon. Before I started using DOSBox I used to use this method all the time and it worked more often than not.

[Cosmonaut_Roger]

Originally posted by the_fifth_horseman @ Aug 9 2006, 01:57 PM

To my knowledge, D-Fend is much more problematic then DOS-Boxer. Tales of savegame corruption and the like are not uncommon.



Huh, that's funny because I've just started having problems with D-fend recently and I've never tried Dos-Boxer. Is it pretty intuitive to use? I'm going to have to check it out now, which is too bad because I've got all these saved profiles in my D-Fend program.

[Japo]

Originally posted by Cosmonaut_Roger @ Mar 3 2007, 02:57 PM
Huh, that's funny because I've just started having problems with D-fend recently and I've never tried Dos-Boxer. Is it pretty intuitive to use? I'm going to have to check it out now, which is too bad because I've got all these saved profiles in my D-Fend program.
D-Fend and Boxer are only frontends that run DOSBox, I don't think they can be more problematic than a BAT file. If you don't configure them well or if they don't provide you 100 per cent of DOSBox's own flexibility, that's another issue. I used Boxer for a long time and I had no problems, I'm pretty sure it's safe but I don't think D-Fend is less safe and it's the frontend recommended by the DOSBox developers, and they know business. D-Fend is conceived to almost necessarily have one profile for each game, whereas in Boxer it's more straight forward to have one configuration for several games, although you can also make it launch a given game for you if you just put it in the autoexec section of Boxer, but that might be less GUI than what people are used nowadays.

Anyway I think I was using an old version of Boxer, and now I've switched to using DOSBox without frontend, with shortcuts and modified conf files when necessary. It's not hard at all once you've got used to configure those same things via frontend, and it gives you most flexibility and control, beats any frontend.

[Iowa]

Originally posted by Geezer @ Mar 2 2007, 06:41 PM)

Iowa, In DOS are you loading EMM386.EXE in your config.sys file? If so, paste the line here so I can see it. There are certain things that can and can't be on it in your case. If it has the NOEMS switch in there you need to get rid of NOEMS and replace it with RAM so that expanded memory is available.

If you are trying to run the DOS program in Win98 it is better to work with the PIF file for black.exe which would be named black.pif (will have an MSDOS icon). Right click black.pif and edit it to change the memory configuration. Make sure that it is providing expanded memory and then you can start the program by clicking the black.pif icon. Before I started using DOSBox I used to use this method all the time and it worked more often than not.

Darn it all, I hate it when this happens, here you are providing perfectly reliable help to me and here I sit with my abysmal knowledge of DOS completely unable to understand what you are saying...

However, in my directory, I have neither a "config.sys" nor a "black.pif". These are the files in my directory:

Crack.com
Setup.exe
Black.exe
Data.dat


Am I missing files or something? Because I don't belive I can edit the "data.dat" file, whenever I try to do so, it's just a huge list of symbols and what I presume to be the layout for in-game text displayed.

Sorry for me being so challenged :wall: .

[Geezer]

I'm sorry Iowan, I will be more specific this time. First off let's forget about running the game in DOS because I just tested it in Win 98 and it runs fine. Here's what you need to do.



1. Right click black.exe and create a shortcut. This will add an icon to your folder that will have the MSDOS logo.



2. Right click the new shortcut icon and select properties. You will now be presented with a properties window with a number of tabs across the top.



3. Click on the "program" tab and click the advanced button. Select the radio button that says "keep program from detecting windows. The top two radio buttons should now be selected. Click "OK".



4. Click on the "memory" tab and change both the expanded memory and extended memory to "auto".



5. Click on the "apply" button at the bottom.



6. Do not try to change the screen settings to have the game play in a window it will only play in Full Screen mode.



6. Start the game (now and from now on) by clicking the new MSDOS icon. In the future you don't need to reconfigure the game as long as the PIF file (MSDOS icon) is there and you select it to start.



Note: I notice in the game documentation that you can speed up the game in WIN 95/98 by typing the word FASTER while playing. Works similar to a cheat code.

[The Fifth Horseman]

now I've switched to using DOSBox without frontend, with shortcuts and modified conf files when necessary. It's not hard at all once you've got used to configure those same things via frontend, and it gives you most flexibility and control, beats any frontend.[/b]
Same here. One generic config plus a dozen or so for individual games.

[batilc]

I been lookin for someone who had same problem with me but no i think noone did (or not did write here//or i did not understand what i read, whatever:) )

Anyways, here's my problem with the starting the game. This is my first time actually, so i just followed the steps about DOSbox. But here's what i do. (Tell me if I'm wrong) After the sound card selection in setup.exe, (i choose all of them by simply "enter"ing to whatever it says there) i need to launch the game by writing "crack", right (in my blackthrone folder)? However, it does not start this way. There's just an image shaped by /,\,_'s and it writes "blackthrone from interplay" and continues like "dark knight bla bla, enjoy this cool game blabla pentagram". And nothing happens afterwards. When I try to start game by black.exe, it just gives me an information about (what was that) some Midi files for YAMAHA OPL 2 something. I have not worked with ms-dos that much so i can't find any ways to solve this problem. Please help me with this, I'm dying for tis game! My whole childhood was full of these: blackthrone, flashback, myst, warcraft etc... And it was a fortunate encounter to find this one:)

Seeking for your immediate help...

[Iowa]

Originally posted by Geezer @ Mar 3 2007, 01:17 PM

I'm sorry Iowan, I will be more specific this time. First off let's forget about running the game in DOS because I just tested it in Win 98 and it runs fine. Here's what you need to do.


I tried this remedy and was returned with the same error, are there any other possible fixes?

[batilc]

Hey, a solution came up! When i turn off the sounds (not the music) It runs with black.exe!!! However, it is not that much fun without gun sounds!! How can I fix this problem?

P.S: Trying to choose different sound setups on setup.exe is already tried.

[Japo]

It seems that the game crashes when trying to initialize sound. Even though you say you tried different configurations, there should be no problem if you use DOSBox and you choose the right one, really. The DOSBox default is: Sound Blaster (Pro in this case), adress/port 220, IRQ 7, DMA 1. These should work.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Actually, default is Sound Blaster 16.
Backwards compatibile with SB Pro / Pro II.

[Japo]

Yeah I meant that the closest option in Blackthorne is SBPro, I've got it installed and checked it.

[Lord Douglias]

I can't get to the 4th level...I get to what I presume is the end of the 3rd. There is a big chasm. If I try to jump it I fall in and lose 2 hit points, which is usually all I have by this point. If I climb down I can't climb up the other side. What am I missing?

[Lord Douglias]

OK...I will answer my own question. How to get past the chasm near the end of the 4th level? I forgot about the "Big jump" that you learn in tutorial. Arrow..."D" (run)..."F" (jump). But its tough to do it correctly. For some reason I can't hit the the keys just so every time...Thus loose precious hit points. So I have a cheat! Minimilize your screen. "Cntl F11" to slow Dosbox way way down to like 900CPU. Then hit arrow key...then "D"...After he takes one running stride in slow motion let go the "D" and quickly hit "F". Its really no different than at normal speed (about 5000CPU for this game) but just much easier to do.

[amit]

i cant find the levitator in first level of forest
can anybody help

[_r.u.s.s.]

patience my son :D

[Red Baron]

Uhhh, guys...Is this a demo or a full version of the game?

[Red Baron]

Ah, and I want to ask how can I plant a bomb on a door without hurting myslef? I ask, because I tried to plant bombs several time, and each time it exploded and hurt me badly...

[The Fifth Horseman]

Originally posted by Red Baron @ Jun 12 2007, 12:44 PM

Uhhh, guys...Is this a demo or a full version of the game?

The only demo on Abandonia is that of Constructor (and that's there for a reason).

[Japo]

Originally posted by Red Baron @ Jun 12 2007, 12:48 PM
Ah, and I want to ask how can I plant a bomb on a door without hurting myslef? I ask, because I tried to plant bombs several time, and each time it exploded and hurt me badly...
Throw them from a distance?

It's the full game.

[rbaleksandar]

I don't know how the passwords work. Could somebody just tell me how can I enter a password, because everytime I start the game, I have to start it from the beginning.
Thanks ^_^

[E-Mail]

This game is GREAT, i still own it today for my SNES, im going to hook up my system up after i go to the store, but i remember shooting Everyonr, from my people to the traitors on the game, well it started when those guys i helped didnt say thank you or they said it was hopeless, i would walk away then do the shoot behind my head shot and kill them guys, man i dont want to go to the store now lmao

[Novarius]

@rbalek u get the Passwords at the End of every lvl just when u Enter the New one. Its like in Lost Vikings.

[Casublett]

My personal favorite of this style (Prince of Persia, Flashback) of game. Although not as atmospheris as Flashback, the basic game dynamics are more fun IMHO.

[tormentor]

Far out I love this game. :kosta:




I've gotta track this one down on gameboy advance!

[Guest_Kat_*]

Im having trouble with running Blackthorne on DOSbox. Ive done everything up to point where i type in C:\BTHORNE\black into the prompt but when i do that i just comes up with a whole buch of text saying something like "General MIDI timbres for Yamaha OPL-2- and OPL-3-based sound cards were produced by the Fat Man™ ......" and then does nothing at all.
Have i done something while setting it up, or is there a way to get past this?

Thanks

[_r.u.s.s.]

increase your cycles

[Guest]

i did every thing rigth.. but when i finish the setup step its show a mensagem ordering me do type 'BTHORNE'
i have typed BTHORNE and bthorne 'BTHORNE' and 'bthorne' but dont work... the dosbox shows it--> illegal command what a im suposed to do???? :wallbash:

[The Fifth Horseman]

Run:
dir *.exe
dir *.com

What filenames were returned?

[twilight23]

I seem to be missing something. I have Blackthorne and I have DosBox.

However, I can't get Blackthorne to run. I've tried selecting SB Pro and SB (as I saw suggested somewhere) but bthorne.exe does the "normal" lockup (displays a message about MIDI and hangs). I also tried using setupg.exe and bthorneg.exe for Gravis Ultrasound support but get the same exact hang.

What exactly do I need to set in the dosbox config to get bthorne working?

[twilight23]

Never mind. I found the answer on Dosbox forums.

For anyone else still having problems, in the dosbox config:
core=dynamic
cycles=20000
sbtype=sbpro2

Those changes got it working for me.

[Augustin]

twilight: thanx so much! i had the same problem as you and I tried your advice and it worked!!! i can play blackthorne again... i am happy!, however, in setup i selecten General MIDI for it. now my music is even better than i herad when i played it in DOS. :D

[projectoffset]

i did every thing rigth.. but when i finish the setup step its show a mensagem ordering me do type 'BTHORNE'
i have typed BTHORNE and bthorne 'BTHORNE' and 'bthorne' but dont work... the dosbox shows it**** illegal command what a im suposed to do???? :wallbash:

I'm having this same problem. Can anyone help me with this?

[The Fifth Horseman]

You probably skipped one or two very important things, as the error message indicates the executable is not present in the directory you're trying to run it from.

In order to know what's exactly going on and so help you resolve your problem, I need you to answer these questions:
* Where have you unpacked the game to on your HDD?
* Did you modify your DOSBox autoexec? If no, skip to the next question. If yes, what did you put in it?
* What exact commands have you entered after starting DOSBox?
* Repeat everything you did until you get the error, then enter the DIR command. What does it return?

[projectoffset]

You probably skipped one or two very important things, as the error message indicates the executable is not present in the directory you're trying to run it from.

In order to know what's exactly going on and so help you resolve your problem, I need you to answer these questions:
* Where have you unpacked the game to on your HDD?
* Did you modify your DOSBox autoexec? If no, skip to the next question. If yes, what did you put in it?
* What exact commands have you entered after starting DOSBox?
* Repeat everything you did until you get the error, then enter the DIR command. What does it return?

-I unpacked it on C. It looks like this C:\BlackThorne.
-I did not modify it, so I'm skipping to the next one.
-I enter these commands:
Mount c C:\blackthorne
c:
dir
setup
At this point I save settings and exit. After that, it says, "Setup complete! Type 'BTHORNE' to start game." However, it says that BTHORNE is an illegal command after doing so.
-This is what I get:
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/5143/newgimpimage3cf9.png

[The Fifth Horseman]

Just like I presumed, the directory does not contain an executable of the name you are trying to run.

Try running Black.exe.

[projectoffset]

It managed to activate black.exe, however, all i get is a black screen. Nothing else.

[The Fifth Horseman]

I'll dig a different archive up from my personal collection, then.
It looks like we have to replace the one currently on the site - thanks for bringing the problem to my attention.

[dosraider]

The game works, run setup, then crack, then black.

[Edit]
I think that you only need to run crack once.

[nicadi]

One tiny correction: the game has precisely 17 levels: each set of 4 levels takes place in a specific setting (I think they were "The Mines", "The Forest", "The Wastelands" and "The Castle Dungeons" – but I'm not entirely sure). The last level was the Boss battle.
This particular game has a very special personal significance to me, as it was the very first PC game I have ever finished... :amused:
I think I still have the password list somewhere...

[Andras78]

It is nice game, but it is similar than Flashback. The story is different, but the type of levels are almost same. :oh:
I mean especially the background colors of the different levels... Nevermind, it is great game :)

[lifemagic]

This is probably a bit obvious for the average geek here... but someone was asking earlier how to enter passwords as they were playing the game from the start each time. Same with me but just worked it out.

At the start, you have options, like start, practice, password etc. Choose passwords, and there's four letters with one flashing. Use up and down cursor keys to change the flashing letters to the password, then start playing where you left off.

Yes, it took two days for me to get that, doesn't bode well for me finishing the game, huh?

[zirkoni]

...Use up and down cursor keys to change the flashing letters to the password, then start playing where you left off...
Or you can just type in the letters.

[RRS]

I'll dig a different archive up from my personal collection, then.
It looks like we have to replace the one currently on the site - thanks for bringing the problem to my attention.
Yeah, like with what Underdogs had (found @ hotud.org today). For example with abandonia version you won't set up GUS soundcard as setup batch file is missing.

[Weavaloid]

It's been a long time I didn't play this game but when I did the setup and stuff, it gives an error and stuff. :oh:
In other words I can't play the game, for some reason I was disapointed cause I can't play the game :(

[arete]

The game works, run setup, then crack, then black.

[Edit]
I think that you only need to run crack once.

Make sure you have dosbox. You do have dosbox, right?

[Minim]

To everyone having problems running this game in DOSbox:

First run setup.exe and choose soundblaster pro for sounds and adlib for music. Just hit enter and accept the defaults for all the IRQ/DMA selections and then save and exit setup. It will say run bthorne to start the game but that isn't right.

Run crack.exe

To run this game properly, you next need to make sure that the cycles in DOSbox are set high enough - in the main window, press ctrl and F12 and you will see the CPU cycles in the bar at the top of the window increase from 3000 to 3500. Keep pressing ctrl and f12 until the cycles are around 12,000.

Once cycles are set to 12000 type 'black' and the game will load.

This will fix the black screen error and the error with the midi message and the game will load. It hadn't crashed before - it was just running really slow.

I hope this helps...

[RossBay]

Cool game, i have only played the SNES version of it though.

[Weavaloid]

To everyone having problems running this game in DOSbox:

First run setup.exe and choose soundblaster pro for sounds and adlib for music. Just hit enter and accept the defaults for all the IRQ/DMA selections and then save and exit setup. It will say run bthorne to start the game but that isn't right.

Run crack.exe

To run this game properly, you next need to make sure that the cycles in DOSbox are set high enough - in the main window, press ctrl and F12 and you will see the CPU cycles in the bar at the top of the window increase from 3000 to 3500. Keep pressing ctrl and f12 until the cycles are around 12,000.

Once cycles are set to 12000 type 'black' and the game will load.

This will fix the black screen error and the error with the midi message and the game will load. It hadn't crashed before - it was just running really slow.

I hope this helps...

Thanks for the tip, I'm looking forwurd when Abandonia works again with the downloading

[Redbenny]

i have no f**king idea how to use this stupid f**ked up piece of shit Dosbox, i have no idea how to run this f**king game using stupid primitive dos language bullshit. why the f**k cant you just download a f**king game and PLAY THE F**KING ****. F**K. MY. LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[arete]

BECAUSE THE GAME WAS MADE BEFORE WINDOWS EXISTED

Now please don't swear on the forum. Only mad Englishmen and angry Poles are allowed to do that.

[dosraider]

i have no f**king idea how to use this stupid f**ked up piece of shit Dosbox, i have no idea how to run this f**king game using stupid primitive dos language bullshit. why the f**k cant you just download a f**king game and PLAY THE F**KING ****. F**K. MY. LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Read the f**king tutorials.
http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/forumdisplay.php?f=90


Now please don't swear on the forum. Only mad Englishmen and angry Poles are allowed to do that.
.... And friendly Belgians.
:rant:

[The Fifth Horseman]

why the f**k cant you just download a f**king game and PLAY THE F**KING ****.:doh: Because the game was made for MS-DOS.

Because then Microsoft went and gave one big "f**k you" to their every loyal customer instead of adding proper backwards compatibility in most versions of Windows.

Because the game's producer doesn't have any interest in remaking it or re-releasing a modified version that works under Windows.

Now read the goddamn tutorial. Resistance is futile.

[El Quia]

Now please don't swear on the forum. Only mad Englishmen and angry Poles are allowed to do that.


Buuu, you are being racist against irate argentinians!!!!

[hunvagy]

i have no f**king idea how to use this stupid f**ked up piece of shit Dosbox

As stated above, RTFM

i have no idea how to run this f**king game using stupid primitive dos language bullshit.

You know it might be primitive, but it is what people used prior to 1995. And it also made you THINK, a quality most people, like the ones swearing and huffing without ANY real reason don't use anymore.

Besides, there are various ports on other systems. Just buy yourself a SNES or a Genesis or a Genesis with 32X and play it on those consoles. Problem solved, no "stupid primitive DOS language bullshit", you just have to push the power button and use a TV, which I hope you are capable of. And on the plus side, we all are spared of your beautiful and productive comments here.

[The Fifth Horseman]

i have no idea how to run this f**king game using stupid primitive dos language bullshit.
Everything you need is described in beginner's guide to DOSBox (http://www.abandonia.com/vbullet/showthread.php?t=14406).
Once you set up the automatic mounting and Norton Commander - which means in about five to fifteen minutes, thirty if you're a very slow reader - you won't have to deal with the command line interface again.

You know it might be primitive, but it is what people used prior to 1995.It's what some (admittedly, insane) people still use. Gotta love Total Commander. :D

[TotalAnarchy]

Lol at Fifth quoting hunvagy :D

[Bejelith]

Recently downloaded Blackthorne and attempted to play it on DosBox.
It does play if I set it to "No sound" and set "AdLib Sound Card" for music.
Whenever I set it to "Sb Pro" though, the screen only throws a message about General MIDI and Yamaha, and then freezes.
Any clues? It is a total cockblock not to have sound effects...


Besides, there are various ports on other systems. Just buy yourself a SNES or a Genesis or a Genesis with 32X and play it on those consoles.

SNES version has no blood!:whops:
And the 32X version has those weird rendered sprites!

So till I find a way to run it smoothly on DosBox, no Blackthorne for me.

[dosraider]

So till I find a way to run it smoothly on DosBox, no Blackthorne for me.
Dosbox 0.74, default config.
SBPro for digital ànd music.
Input cycles=max before you run the game.
Works flawless here.

[Bejelith]

Maxing out the cycles (Ctrl+F12) did the job.
Thanks!!

[Lantern Jaw]

Hey,

I love abandonia, but my PC seems to think many of the zip files are corrupt when I try to unzip them. Including Blackthorne. I even tried running a Zip recovery program on it and it still didn't work.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Upload the "corrupted" archive somewhere so I can see what's the problem with it. Which browser and which unarchiver are you using?

[Eagle of Fire]

My bet is that he is using the unarchiver bundled with Windows XP. Which is crap, BTW.

[Lantern Jaw]

Upload the "corrupted" archive somewhere so I can see what's the problem with it. Which browser and which unarchiver are you using?

Sorry guys, it's my PC afterall. Funnily it works if I right click save target as, instead of just left clicking "get it".

Anyways, sorry to mess you about.

[Unregistered-AAA]

OK, I've downloaded the game and ran setup. But I have a problem with launching the game.

When I set up "digitizen sound card" (Sound blaster Pro etc.), the game does not start. If I select "no sound", the game starts but I cannot hear few important sounds gun, laughter of a beast etc.

Game also works with "music sound card" enabled, so basically I can hear everything except guns.


Any Ideas?


Thank you!

[The Fifth Horseman]

Are you running the game in DOSBox?

[Unregistered-AAA]

Yes, from the DOS Box.

Are you running the game in DOSBox?

[Abandoned Witch]

One of my favorites since I found this game years ago.
I am playing the other versions of Blackthorne right now.

[Dinic]

I love this game, alot like flashback.
I play the GBA version.

[Blackwolf454]

I have done everything to get blackthorne to work but everytime I try launch it gets stuck here

[dosraider]

The game works, run setup, then crack, then black.
.

[Guest]

I have done everything to get blackthorne to work but everytime I try launch it gets stuck here

lol i had the same thing, you should read the rest of this thread, u need to run setup, then crack, then increase the cycles with cntrl + f12 to 12000 and THEN run Black
it works :)

[BranjoHello]

So, I got a Q to all the guys who beaten the game:
Last boss, hard or not?

I wouldn't say the game is much difficult altogether, but I just can't put my finger on the matter of Sarlac. I have beaten him in second try.
Was I incredibly lucky or is he an easy boss?! It certainly was a awkward moment to be prepared for a tough fight and then...."well done, you have beaten the game".

[HopefulHelpful]

My brother figured this out for me this past xmas because I was saying how I really wanted to play Blackthorne again... it's worked for me every time hopefully it helps someone here.

Launch DosBox normally and mount your "BTHORNE" folder

BEFORE you launch bthorne.exe press Ctrl+F12 until the cycles get to at least 12,000 (the exact number doesn't matter).

From what my brother said it would work either way it's just that if you don't up the cycles it takes a ridiculously long time to launch and isn't really playable.

Hope that helps someone. Peace.

[MrFlibble]

Apparently Blackthorne can be now downloaded for free from Blizzard (a Battle.net account is needed):
http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/10/31/blizzard-classic-blackthorne-now-available-for-free-download/

[Japo]

Thank that website for the valuable heads up, but that isn't a very good article because:

- It only talks about the "plot" of Blackthorne which nobody cared about in case it really existed except for WOW fans who didn't know this game at the time, and the plot was certainly not the reason why it was cool.

- The game can be downloaded without logging in or having an account:
https://us.battle.net/account/download/?show=classic

Thanks Flibble

[MrFlibble]

- The game can be downloaded without logging in or having an account:
https://us.battle.net/account/download/?show=classic
Thanks for clarifying this! :D

[Office_Monk]

Thank that website for the valuable heads up, but that isn't a very good article because:

- It only talks about the "plot" of Blackthorne which nobody cared about in case it really existed except for WOW fans who didn't know this game at the time, and the plot was certainly not the reason why it was cool.

- The game can be downloaded without logging in or having an account:
https://us.battle.net/account/download/?show=classic

Thanks Flibble

Found it yesterday, pretty cool they included dosbox to make the game windows "compatible". :D

[Mystvan]

Thank that website for the valuable heads up, but that isn't a very good article because:

- It only talks about the "plot" of Blackthorne which nobody cared about in case it really existed except for WOW fans who didn't know this game at the time, and the plot was certainly not the reason why it was cool.

- The game can be downloaded without logging in or having an account:
https://us.battle.net/account/download/?show=classic

Thanks Flibble

Many thanks, O great emperor Japo(deis). :king: :kosta:

I remember that my brother played this game and managed to defeat the last boss. It was not my game genre since I preferred less frenetic platform games (without somersaults, rollovers, etc.) like Altered Beast, Golden Axe, etc. :roll:

[Mystvan]

Many thanks, O great emperor Japo(deis). :king: :kosta:

I remember that my brother played this game and managed to defeat the last boss. It was not my game genre since I preferred less frenetic platform games (without somersaults, rollovers, etc.) like Altered Beast, Golden Axe, etc. :roll:

At first, as I was just watching my brother play this game, I figured the main character was anything but human-looking. But I was wrong.

The reason was because many opponents looked fierce, bestial and not human at all.

Another reason was that the character strengthened each phase of the game as HP, attack power, etc.

And in the end, though powerful, he was far less powerful than the Final Boss and needed to dodge, roll, and attack to gradually defeat his enemy. He even looks like the Punisher.