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 and Download (if available)

This One is great but it has a big Bug as one can solve
the first two in a very short amount of time and if I am not mistaken
this also goes for the third, you hast have to be fast...

Definitely very gothic and gruesome. I'll give it that. The historical photos are rather graphic. Then again, I suppose that the crimes were just as graphic and horrible.

When I try to start the game, my computer stops responding.
I was able only once to start it. I don't know what to do. I can't use DOSBox, but I usually can run MS-DOS games because my OS is Windows 98.
:help: :wall:

I'm using windows 98 as well and all I did was open up the Jack.bat file that was in the Zip when I downloaded it. Is that what you're doing?

It works fine under Win98SE here (which is how I tested DOS compatibility) Were you running alot of different things at the time?

I was running my firewall and eDonkey2000; I started the game with jack.bat.

BTW, the error was saying something about VXD+ some numbers.

does anyone know if there exists a walkthrough for JtR?

I have not seen any out there, I looked for it on google after I started working on the review. If one is out there, I hope they would message me and let me know.

[font=Impact][size=7][color=black]Ppl ppl what if you try to use the great DOSbox??? You will realise all your troubles seem to fade away... To a walktrought try www.the-underdogs.org, you will find their library quite intersting!
V?o-se tds fdx camonas cromos. :wall: :ranting:

I just entered "'Jack the Ripper" walkthrough" into Google and got plenty of walkthroughs. I don't know how good any of them are, but from experience in other games I would recommend the graduated hints at uhs-hints.

The Jack the ripper walkthroughs are usually for one of the many jack the ripper games out there, Jacks a popular subject. :)

You want to find 1995 Gametek Jack the Ripper I believe :)

Jack is one of the more popular themes out there as it's kind of got a cult following of people called 'Ripperologists' that try to figure out who the real killer was. With that many people out there, it wouldn't be TOO hard to imagine that this is just one of MANY MANY games out there.

I wouldn't get my hopes up for a walkthrough for Gametek's Jack the Ripper, at least google didn't come up with any.

On a side note, there have been 2 remarkably well-constructed theories in the past decade about the Ripper's true identity. Apart from the run of the mill books that repeat the same facts over and over again, there are a few interesting works about "Jack".

I know its been a while so I hope your still reading this Another Guest..
could you direct me to the Two new theorys, because I would love to read em.

I've sent you a PM about it, so we don't stray a bit off-topic here :)
Apparently those theories aren't as new as I thought, though I only came across those books 1 or 2 years ago.

http://www.gameboomers.com/wtcheats/pcJj/JackRipper.htm

is a good walkthrough for the game. I'm having a problem though... I'm having a problem with the puzzle next to the laundry Wang door... I know the answer, it just doesn't open the door...nothing I input as an answer does... Help? Please? maybe it's another bug in the game? I doubt it though, cause on the walkthrough it says the same answer as I'm inputting and still the game doesn't accept any answer I put...

Thanks

Sorry Jacqui...but that is the other version of Jack the Ripper not the game on this site. I am not able to assist you, other than gamefaqs can probably give you more information

Hello! I downloaded Jack the Ripper yesterday and tried playing it. I suppose I cannot understand how it works though. I visited all places again and again, interrogated tha witnesses, searched all locations, for 3 days in a row. Then, after the fourth day I ended up dead. How am I suuposed to arrest someone? There is no such option at the menu. Could someone please give me a tip on how to do the whole thing? Thank you :D

With the clues that you have you need to highlight some of the information by double clicking on the relevant text. Then you need to go to your study and use your information you have found with other information to make conclusions. This advances you into the game.

ok thank you Doc

I've download this game the other day, I loved it but there is one problem. I can't find any walkthroughs or the manual! :help:

HOTU has a manual...as for a walkthrough..there isn't one....at least for this version. If it does exist its not in English or on Google. I have considered posting a bounty for a person providing one, if I can find something suitable to give :)

For walkthrough www.gamesover.com jack the ripper (older game).

Thank ya Threepwood, but unfortunatly this isn't the same jack the ripper game. Its a very popular title and the walkthroughs for 2 other versions.

I'm trying to run the game in dosbox, but it is too slow! I've overclocked A LOT (something like 20K cycles) and it didn't speed up a bit. I've never had problems with dosbox. Can anyone imagine what the problem is?

Don't increase the number of cycles too much, beyond a certain point the game will run slower again.
Also, have you tried skipping frames (1 or 2 usually work without you noticing it in the graphics, while increasing the game speed nicely)?

Thanks for the help, I'll try that.

I have problems starting the game. After the intro it keeps telling me that I have "not enough high memory". Can anyone help me?

It sounds like you're not running the game in Dosbox... You can find it as well as a manual on how to use it at http://www.abandonia.com/main.php?nav=programs
A front-end to Dosbox that makes it a lot easier to use, can be downloaded from members.home.nl/mabus/dfend.htm

when i try to run this i just get all lines on my screen. any answers?

POTENTIAL SPOILER

To switch to different solutions from title page use ALT + 1.

Ok, i`ve done 1-3, but can`t access solutions 4/5 beacues you need to register. 1 and 3 are VERY easy to solve, the suspects are strongly implicated by the evidence/witness statements early on. 2 I found hard, i ran it through to the fifth murder and couldn`t solve it (i was suspecting the right person but couldn`t pin down the evidence to implicate them), on a second run (after reassuring myself i had the right suspect) i solved it by the second murder. Solution 2 has kind of a twist if you run it right through to the last murder which can be off putting, but if you think logically you should stay on the right track.

Anyone know how you access 4 and 5?

Is it possible to see some example of premise's combination?
Thank you in advance.

The game seems very interesting and those realistic entries are just marvelous, but i cannot really play, even in the DOSbox, as the mouse pointer just goes to all the possible directions except for the one needed. I tried to play with the CPUs and the frameskip, but the result is the same - it's a pain to click. Did anyone had some problem like that?
Thanks a lot!

Use Dynamic Core and high cyclecount. Something around 20 000 or higher.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(the_fifth_horseman @ Jul 27 2006, 11:40 AM) [snapback]245429[/snapback]</div>Thanks a lot!!!! I'll try that!

<_<

I'm sorry to say that, but the game is - as far as concerning its game character - crap.
I'm especially sorry to say that, because first it seemed quite interesting but soon turned out to be a major disappointment.

The only good thing is that it is quite well researched incorporating authentic places and persons.

The fact that the graphics weren't up to date for 1995, that you won't hear a bleep of sound from your loudspeakers (or is it just me?) and that the interface is a little bit cumbersome wouldn't hurt that much if the game itself would give you anything.
And yes, as long as you play it it's quite fun. First I needed to learn how to do the job and how to use the interface. Once I got to that point I restarted the first case and solved all three accessable cases in less than an hour (not meaning less than an hour for each individual case, but for all three cases in a row). Without underestimating the content of the individual cases I can state that I could provide a walkthrough for cases 1 + 3 in just one or two longer sentences and maybe two or three longer sentences for case 2. The rest is filled with false leads and clues and so on. There also may be some additional clues to gather that I did not get, but even then it's laughable that you can solve case 3 for instance by just interviewing one person doing a short search on the crime scene and making two obvious conclusions out of it, without ever leaving the first scene!
Furthermore the short content is quite straightforward, as long as you don't have the attention span of an average monkey. You'll notice the important hints and leads instantly, which will push you directly to the solution, combining premises for conclusions is trivial and obvious, and so on.

Nope, the idea surely was good and could have been a good base for a good game, but with that utter lack of content (in terms of gameplay) you cannot consider this one a proper game. I just gave it a rating of 1.

Ignore Sherlock. He's just being arrogant and condescending (much like his namesake).

He was, however, right (much like his namesake) in that the cases can be solved very quickly if you make the right connections. One mistake I made before getting a feel for the game (NB: I have only played solutions 1, 2, and 3 (if you haven't finished #1 yet, when you do you can replay and pick a different solution where someone else will be the ripper, but it wants you to send in a registration card before you get solutions 4 and 5)) was thinking that some of the more obvious clues had to have been decoys and that there must have been something more sinister, such as an attempted framing, going on.
If you're stuck a few things to try are:
a) For premises x and y where x seems to go with y, check for a z that is similar but may not seem to fit as well to your mind;
VERY OBFUSCATED SPOILER IN HERE
b) Where premise x seems to go with y, check to make sure there is not a smaller step that you must go through first ie. x didn't happen before one o clock and had already happened at two o clock, therefore it happened between one and two, then combine that conclusion, with z that happened before one o clock, rather than combining x and z directly.
END SPOILER

c) Plan your movements logically, using information you have gathered to decide where to go next rather than going somewhere random, this way you are less likely to spend time in irrelevant areas.

d) If you are still running out of time use the save and load feature to check out areas, and reload if nothing productive happens.

e) ORGANISE YOUR JOURNAL! Use double click to rename premises to something more meaningful as you gather more information and ESC to bring up the second journal window so you can put related things together.

Sadly the game does become somewhat under-challenging once you figure out how it all works, but if anyone is still having trouble feel free to email me at The electric monkey at hot mail dot com (remove the spaces yadda yadda at equals @ dot = .).

PS: If anyone knows where I might get hold of the fourth and fifth solutions I would be most grateful.

This game looks good but it is hardly playable for me! TOO SLOW! I've played around in DosBox with different cycles around 10000-20000 cycles and frameskips from 1-3. Still the same! Sometimes it works with a smooth mouse instead of a half-frozen one but once I click anything is gets slow! Nothing changes...

I'm running on 1.6Ghz WinXP with DosBox.

Any ideas what to do?

In dosbox.conf set core=dynamic. This should allow you to increase cycles a bit.

Hmm, did that and it improved the mouse a bit so now it is kinda smooth although not the best like other games (still choppy). But... it's still slow. Typing my name is so slow like it takes 10 seconds+ to backspace John Doe and it doesn't respond to my typing for like another 10 seconds. I got frustrated and quit. I've never had any problem like this before... Maybe this isn't a game for me... <_<

I'm strangely interested in serial killer stories... :blink: I have to admit I can't believe it.
The last victim is the most disturbing and haunting killing I've heard of so far

I'm pretty sure the first murderer is Dr. Philips, but I cannot put together a working hypothesis, rather it won't let me.

Same here. It seems to point to him but I can't seem to get a conclusion from the premises.

Maybe I'm not a hardcore adventurer and detective, but I'll bive it a go. :)

Jack the Ripper Walkthrough
 

Since noone else (to my knowledge) have posted a walkthrough,
I thought I'd do it, so here goes:

Case/Mystery 1:


I usually skip to "Next eventful day" on this one. I don't know if you
can solve it earlier*. Go to (on the "second day") 29 Hanbury Street (front)
and examine
the place to find a fishing fly. Get that info in your notes.

Go to 29 Hanbury Street (back) and speak with John Davis.
You will now find that John Davis stepped on a fishing fly and discovered
the body 5:45 AM. Combine this info with the one you got from the fishing fly
to come to the conclusion that the fishing fly was dropped before 5:45.

Now go find Dr. George Phillips. (He is usually found at the mortuary
if he's not at the scene of the crime). Combine his statement that

he first arrived at Hanbury St. at 10:26 AM with the one that
the fishing fly was dropped before 5:45 AM.

You will conclude that Dr. Phillips was at 29 Hanbury
St. before 5.45 am at the night of Chapman's murder.
Combine that latest conclusion with the one where
Phillip states that he first arrived at Hanbury St. at 10:26 AM
and you have solved it.

*ATTENTION: I discovered you can do this much easier. First combine Pc John Neils' statement that nothing unusual happened at
3:15 AM and the statement where he says he discovered the body at 3:45 AM, to conclude that the murder of Polly Nichols occured
after 3:15 AM & before 3:45 AM.
Use this conclusion combined with Dr. Phillips statement that he was at the scene of
Polly Nichols' murder no later than 3:15 AM and you have solved it. (I'm such a fool lol)

Case/Mystery 2:


Interrogate Mr. Walter Purkiss and get the info
where he remarks that he only saw two prostitutes walking together
on Buck's Row.

Find Mrs. Harvey - (Miller's Court or wherever you may find her).
She says:
"I did not know Polly Nichols had copped it until you told me".

Now go see Mary Kelley. (Doorset Street or wherever you may find her).
Kelly says that she heard of Nichols' death from Mrs. Harvey.

Combine this with Mrs. HArvey's statement and you will find that Mary Kelly
lied.

Ellen Holland (wherever you might find) says that she saw Mary Nichols' some
time after 2:45 AM on August 31 with Mary Kelly at the corner of Wentworth Street
and Brick Lane. Combine this statement with the info Purkiss gave you
that he only saw two prostitutes walking together on Buck's Row,
to conclude that Mary Kelly was with Nichols just before she
was murdered. Combine this latest conclusion with the fact that Mary Kelly
lied, and you have solved it.



Case/Mystery 3:


Search the crime scene location. Interrogate PC James Harvey and combine the info
that a button is missing from his uniform and that he has the badge number 964 City.
Combine the given conclusion with that a brass button was found underneath Polly Nichols'
body labeled 964 C, and you have solved it (that easy, huh?).

Wow, that last picture was graphic
 

I wasn't sure where to go in this game, but I seemed to get everything I needed...It's not the most interesting, can get a little dull with no music or sound. But the scenery is wonderfully created.
Btw, I wasn't expecting the game to actually have Mary Kelly's picture. I've never seen it before---I feel the description is bad enough. I needed a break after that...I got freaked

This has to be the _best_ game I've played in ages (apart from Scumm adventures, which are pretty good too) but it really needs the manual...

It lists people's locations and gives more information to help in solving the harder crimes.
The walkthru is only for that person's game and it seems to be only for the easier settings..? I don't know - none of the mysteries I've solved have been like that (okay, I'm lying..).
I am playing only intermediate level.

I haven't found the manual. But then, I haven't really looked so it's no surprise.
Maybe I'll check it out later. If I need it at the higher levels.
I'm starting to make a list of where people are and at what times.

Bit like the saddo stuff that I do to crack the cases on Covert Action.
You know, get my pads and pens and spend more time and effort playing a god-damn computer game than doing something constructive.

Maybe I should do something else.
Oh yeah, I do. Spend time doing sweet FA.

This game has to be in my top 20 of greatest games ever.
Right behind Rayman Raving Rabbids game for Wii.

But it needs the manual for people to experience it's true magnificence and the art of either trial and error or deductive genius.

(actually, you don't need the manual if you're the type of person who enjoys these games - you're like me: the type who goes around putting up fake "lost" posters of the world's ugliest dog and suffering the prank calls and occasional thanks for the laugh [which is why I put my number on it].
People need all the humour they can get in a putrid city, facaded with beauty and the boot - stamping on a human face, forever)


[ed]
And okay - I'm just trying to be enthusiastic because I read the walkthru accidentally when reading this thread for a manual.
Sometimes the information just goes in and you can't help it... sucks.
Thanks for spoiling a great game - I was on the verge of breaking case 2 but was stumped as people kept disappearing before I could speak to them (Scotland Yard has interrogations).

Never mind.

Hopefully a lot of boring shite will put people off reading this thread.

After a lengthy post, some good old chap did deliver me a manual.

It has everything you need - all the things I was going to collate.
Thanks to the person who found it out for me and if you want it, I will share it with you.

It helps win on harder difficulties.
Way more satisfying, but not as satisfying as making ascii drawings

sorry to ask, and maybe to spoil something
but
i've been playing the game several times, but i seem to be not able to go past the first stage:
i start the game (difficulty doesn't seem to affect anything but "clock speed") i find myself in bok street (or something similar)
to be short all i have to do is talking to those policemen, to dr phillips, go back to my study and "join" policeman who checked the place at 3.15 and policeman who found corpse 3.45
and then add this conclusion with dr phillips who siad he was on the body by 3.15

as i do this game ends with newspaper, scores etc and asks me whether i want to play again or not
no matter what i choose, only the first time i could access second stage, but i wanted to restart and lost it.. :'( it seems forever...
i even tried alt 2,3, etc in first window but they seem completely uneffective..

can anyone tell what i'm doing wrong?

How do you get old Jack working in DosBOX?
 

How do you get it to run in dosbox? I've followed the instructions, but I can't change the directory to jack the ripper because the name is too long and the suggested abridged version: CD jack~1 ... is impossible to type in dosbox (it won't let me type the tilde).

Oh for the day when computers will just automatically do as you say, Star Trek like...

For starters, in DOSBox you can start typing a directory or file name and then hit tab for autocomplete. If the suggested autocomplete isn't the one you wanted, continue pressing the tab key until it appears. It is a nifty and nice trick to save on the typing :p

But the real advice here is trying not to have directory names longer than 8 characters. Some old DOS games would freak out at that, ~ thingy notwithstanding. So, my advice is shortening the directory name to "jack" or "ripper" or whatever. BTW, it is easier to change the directory name from windows than within DOSBox. Sure, it can be done, but do it from windows to save you the trouble.

Im not getting any sound, is this normal or do i have a configuration error?

I have a problem with the game. when I tried to play it I received a message: not enough high memory to load newspaper (and some more messages similar to that). I pressed escape to delede all the messages, but then I couldn't play the game!:headslap: What should I do to overcome the problem?

.... dosbox?

cases 4 and 5 ?
 

Hi, I realise I'm posting this 15 years after the start of the thread and 10 years since the last post. But, does anyone know how to access cases 4 and 5? Thanks!

Ten years ago you asked how to access _solutions_ 4 and 5, no? And as I see, they are simply not in game - you are supposed to get them by mail.

How to access cases themselves, I don't know. Aren't there linear progression? I.e. solve case 3->get case 4? (I didn't play the game).

The game says you're supposed to get cases 4 and 5 by post. By registering with a company that doesn't exist anymore. I imagine, back in the day, many people will have done it, and so the full game may be available somewhere.

So I'm hoping someone can share a link where you can get the full game, including cases 4 and 5.

Or perhaps all you received by mail were instructions on how to unlock cases 4 and 5 without having to add any more files.

My box of this game had no registration card...
But even if it had - it seems that Intergalactic Development has closed its doors soon after releasing this game in 1995.

No - you had to send 5 USD to the developers, and they would send you a 3.5" disk with more mysteries to solve. Those files are definitely missing on the CD - they should have names like "ripper4.mbl", "jackev4.ev" etc. I am afraid they are lost forever - unless some of the developers have saved them and could be still contacted and talked into sharing...