Broken Sword 1 on PC - please help?

[MsStobbart]

Firstly, hey, I'm new here. This place looked quite appealing to me so thought I'd join. Secondly, hope I've posted this in the right place, sorry if I haven't.

Basically I've decided recently to play Broken Sword again after about 7 years. I bought a Broken Sword 1 & 2 two-in-one disk from eBay, and it says it's compatible for Win XP. I had no trouble installing the game, and have had no trouble getting it to play. That isn't the problem. The problem is: I have a 19 inch Dell screen (it's not widescreen) - not sure how relevant this part is - but basically, when I play the game there's a whole chunk of maybe an inch or two missing on the left side. For example, when the Revolution logo comes up at the intro, it's more shifted to the left, when it should be centered. And in gameplay, the first item of inventory on the top bar, or first action or conversation topic on the bottom bar, cannot be seen, as this chunk is off-screen!

I've tried everything I know of. I'm no expert with this kind of thing so frankly I'm lost - I tried fishing around on Google for answer but the only problems like this I found were for people with widescreen monitors. I downloaded a prog called ScummVM (mainly because it was mentioned on so many sites for helping the game run on XP) but even playing it through that on full-screen created the same problem!

I can play it in a small window (which isn't resizable :\ ) but that kind of takes away from the expierience - I want to be able to play it full screen but without a chunk being taken off the edge - even if it means having a small black frame around the game.

Please, please, PLEASE help before I despair completely? :D

[Kurufinwe]

Welcome to the forums, MsStobbart. :) I've moved your thread to the Tech Help forum.

It looks more like a problem with the way your video card is set up (doesn't seem to handle the game's resolution properly) than a problem with the game itself. Maybe you should try looking in your card's control panel for some option that might look relevant.

Another thing you might want to try is increase the resolution in ScummVM, in hopes that other resolutions might be better supported. Hit CTRL-ALT-+ to do that, and try both 2X and 3X.

[Gazzoid]

Have you tried adjusting the screen size via the monitor? There's usually buttons to press at the bottom of the monitor. Maybe Menu, Reset or arrow buttons? Press them to see if it comes up with a list of options for you to scroll through. Usually you can adjust the brightness, contrast or screen size from here, or even reset them to their default settings. You should be able to stretch/reduce the screen size vertically or horizontally.

[daikatana_]

Welcome...:)

It really seems more that the problem is with you monitor than the game itself. Because the game runs in a different resolution than your desktop is, you need to adjust your screen manually (perhaps). If you have an LCD display, there should be a center button, or auto adjust, or something like that, if you have a CRT monitor, try to adjust the screen by yourself with monitor OSD. If it won't help, there is even possibility to adjust screen in your graphics card drivers. Or change refresh rate for the resolution Broken Sword runs in. 640x480 maybe. But your display should tell you what resolution it is.

[Magget]

Try changing the screen-resolution in Windows so that it matches the one in the game. If your windows-screen is now to the left, after doing this, move it using the controls on your monitor. and then try playing the game. That's all I can think of. I've played BS1 with and without ScummVM on an XP-system without any problems, so I think it's some windows-setting that needs to be changed.

[Jolaes]

You might want to change the way aspects are handled: for example, if you have an nvidia graphics adapter, right click on desktop -> properties -> settings -> advanced -> Geforce tab -> nview display settings -> Device settings -> device adjustments. There are 4 (but basically 2) options.

It's almost the same drill with Ati cards.

if all else fails, black-belt tuning with customized drivers + Powerstrip can help.

[MsStobbart]

Ah thankyou all! I've finally got it working! It was so simple, I just feel like an idiot now. I was literally searching for answers for about a week, then just one post on here & I get it lol! :D Thanks alot for all your replies!