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Scratches

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 22:46, 15 April 2019 by Garrbot (talk | contribs) (→‎Audio settings: updated template usage)
Scratches
Scratches cover
Developers
Nucleosys
Publishers
Got Game Entertainment
Meridian4
Release dates
Windows March 8, 2006
macOS (OS X) July 28, 2011
Scratches on Wikipedia

Key points

Both GOG.com and Steam versions are fully compatible with Windows Vista and later.
Retail versions are fully compatible, but require patching and configuration to get working.
Game removed from GOG.com and Steam in January 2015.[1]

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions
Senscape Forum

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
DRM-free
Has 3 Releases, The Original, Director's Cut, and some copies of Director's Cut came with an extra disc with patches to fix problems in the 1-disc version.
Windows
Game removed from GOG.com and Steam in January 2015.[1]
Steam version can be ran without Steam running, and is DRM-free.[2]

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %APPDATA%\Nucleosys\Scratches\
%APPDATA%\Nucleosys\Scratches Director's Cut\
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/46460/pfx/[Note 1]
The scream.cfg location differs between releases.

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %APPDATA%\Nucleosys\Scratches\
%APPDATA%\Nucleosys\Scratches Director's Cut\
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/46460/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video settings

Options Menu
Options Menu

Template:Video settings

Input settings

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Spanish
Retail version, download.

Issues fixed

BSoD on modern Windows (Retail)

Attempting to run the original Scratches or Scratches: Director's Cut on Windows Vista or above will cause Windows to crash to a blue screen.
This issue is caused by how modern Windows handles an outdated call for the monitor refresh rate.
Manually the edit configuration refresh rate[3]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open scream.cfg.
  3. Change RATE 0 to RATE 60.
  4. Save the file.

Notes

The explanation for the problem and how it can be fixed was provided by the original developer of the game.

Crashing in-game (Retail)

The original version of Scratches is prone to crashing on modern computers.
This issue was initially due to features that were added to Intel CPUs at the time, features that have since become standard in all Intel CPUs.
Download and install an official patch[4]
  1. Download and install this patch for Scratches. A mirror of this patch is available here.

Notes

This patch was provided by the original developers during this game's original run.
This patch will break compatibility with existing save files.

Crashing during The Last Visit (Retail)

The initial release of Scratches Director's Cut came with only one disc, which contained a game breaking bug that would cause the game to crash during the additional content chapter of the game.
Future releases had two discs, with the second disc containing copies of the patches below, as such this issue should not be present on those copies, so long as the patches on Disc 2 are installed.
Download and install a patch and an update[4]
  1. Download and install this patch for Scratches Director's Cut. A mirror of this patch is available here.
  2. Download and install this update for Scratches Director's Cut.

Notes

Only a mirror is available for the update because of Wayback Machine's file size limit.
The update dramatically improves the visuals of the game overall, and fixes some minor visual bugs.

Run the game at screen refresh rate

Fullscreen mode defaults to 60 Hz, even if the screen refresh rate is set higher than that.
Set screen refresh rate[citation needed]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Open scream.cfg.
  3. Change RATE 60 to the screen refresh rate (e.g. RATE 120).

Camera speed is too fast

Cap the frame rate at 60 FPS[citation needed]

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
OpenGL
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

System requirements

Windows
Minimum
Operating system (OS) XP, Vista, 7
Processor (CPU) 1.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 500 MB
Video card (GPU) 64 MB of VRAM
OpenGL 1.2 compatible
DirectX 9.0c compatible
macOS (OS X)
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10.6.8
Processor (CPU) Intel Core 2 Duo 2 GHz
System memory (RAM) 512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)
Video card (GPU) 64 MB of VRAM
OpenGL 1.2 compatible

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/46460/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (46460) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Game removed from steam - last accessed on 2016-09-27
  2. Verified by User:Cheatfreak47 on 2016-09-27
  3. Problems running Scratches on Win 7? - last accessed on 2016-09-27
  4. 4.0 4.1 Mirror of the Nucleosys downloads page - last accessed on 2016-09-27