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Blades of Avernum

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Blades of Avernum
Blades of Avernum cover
Developers
Spiderweb Software
Release dates
macOS (OS X) March 17, 2004
Windows June 9, 2004
Taxonomy
Series Avernum
Blades of Avernum on MobyGames
Blades of Avernum on Wikipedia
Subseries of Exile / Avernum
Avernum 2000
Avernum II 2000
Avernum III 2002
Blades of Avernum 2004
Avernum IV 2005
Avernum V 2007
Avernum VI 2009
Avernum: Escape from the Pit 2011
Avernum 2: Crystal Souls 2014
Avernum 3: Ruined World 2018

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.

Key points

Supports external maps.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Official forum
Useful links

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Developer website
DRM details are not known
Only a demo.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
GOG.com
DRM-free
Part of "Avernum: The Complete Saga".
Windows

Essential improvements

Maps

Unlike other games in the first Avernum trilogy, Blades of Avernum supports scenarios to be created and added into the game.
Scenario list - List of websites that contain Blades of Avernum scenarios and instructions on how to add them.
Spiderwebs Forum - Scenario reviews
Spiderweb forums - Blades of Avernum Editor

Scenario editors

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\irunin.ini[Note 1]
macOS (OS X)

Save game data location

System Location
Windows
  • .sav
macOS (OS X)
Save games can be created in any location.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy

Video

Game settings
Game settings

Input

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
No voicework present.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English

Issues fixed

You can work around many glitches by using game's character editor.

Black screen with only sprites visible

When transferring old save games, this can happen because the game acts as a demo and a registration key is required (this does not happen on GOG.com version of the game).

Installing from CD on Vista and later

If you have problems, follow these steps:
CD on Vista and later[citation needed]
  1. Open "Computer" in the Start menu, right-click on the CD and select Explore.
  2. Run the installer program (the application that has Install at the beginning of the name).

Installer/game not launching correctly on newer Macs

Renaming to .app[citation needed]
Blades of Avernum might not run properly on newer Macintoshes and trying to run the game/installer will give an error. This problem is caused by the name of the program not ending in .app.
  • To fix the problem, change the name of the program so it ends in .app. If you are trying to run an installer from a CD, copy it to your machine, change the name so that it ends in .app, and run it.

Screen Freeze Bug On OS X

Screen Freeze[2]
In recent versions of OS X, game's graphics might occasionally freeze for a small number of users. The game is playing in the background and sound effects are still happening, but the graphics are no longer refreshed on the screen.
  • Solution:
    1. When the screen freezes, type Shift-R. This should enable you to resume the game normally.
    2. Upgrade to the newest version of the game.

Reactivating Character Editor

Character editor[citation needed]
  • Macintosh: Throw away the "Blades of Avernum Prefs" file in the Preferences folder.
  • Windows: Delete the "BladesOfAvernumData.dat" file in the Avernum Data folder.
If you have registered the game, this might unregister it. If your game suddenly becomes unregistered, see Requesting a new key.

"Requires admin privileges to run" when installing CD on Mac

Admin privileges[citation needed]
  • First solution: Install the demo and request a new key.
  • Second solution:
  1. Open the Install file. A window will open with the game art and an installer with the game icon. It will have a name like "Install Blades of Avernum (Full)". Drag this installer onto your desktop.
  2. Hold down the Control key and click on the installer and select "Show Package Contents."
  3. Open the Contents folder and then the Resources folder.
  4. Open the file "installscript" If it asks you what program to open it with, choose TextEdit.
  5. Scroll down until you find these lines and change it to FALSE:

Require Authentication

TRUE

  • Save and quit. The installer should now work.

Other information

Backing up the registration key

If you want to play the game with the same key, transfer the Blades of Avernum.dat file (Windows) or "Blades of Avernum Prefs" (OS X) located in the Preferences folder (inside the Systems folder on your hard drive) to a safe place.

Requesting a new key

If you have lost a registration key, go to this page or e-mail the developer to get one.[3] Be sure to add:
  • The game title
  • The complete mailing address you ordered the game under (NOT an E-mail address)
  • The new game and/or editor registration number the game is giving you now
  • Windows or Macintosh version

Other information

API

ExecutablePPC 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
[4][5]

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP or newer
Processor (CPU) 1.6 GHz
System memory (RAM) 256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 30 MB
Video card (GPU) DirectX 7 compatible
macOS (OS X)
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 10.6.8
Processor (CPU) 1.6 GHz
System memory (RAM) 256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 30 MB
Video card (GPU) 64 MB of VRAM
Recommended two-button mouse, or Apple mouse with Secondary Button / Secondary Click enabled.
These are GOG.com system requirements; retail requirements are much lower.


Notes

  1. When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References

  1. Spiderweb Forums - Avernum 1 - Black screen freeze on main map. - last accessed on May 2023
  2. Blades of Avernum Tech Support - last accessed on May 2023
  3. General Games Troubleshooting FAQ - last accessed on May 2023
  4. Avernum: The Complete Saga on GOG.com - last accessed on 2020-01-10
    "Mac notice: The game is 32-bit only and will not work on macOS 10.15 and up."
  5. https://macintoshgarden.org/games/blades-of-avernum - last accessed on 2021-01-24