Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars

For the 2010 remake, see Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars: Director's Cut.

Broken Sword
Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars	1996
Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror	1997
Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon	2003
Broken Sword 4: The Angel of Death (Secrets of the Ark)	2006
Broken Sword 2.5: The Return of the Templars (unofficial)	2008
Broken Sword II: The Smoking Mirror - Remastered	2009
Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars: Director's Cut	2010
Broken Sword 5: The Serpent's Curse	2013
Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars: Reforged	2024
Broken Sword - Parzival's Stone	2024

Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars is a singleplayer adventure game in the Broken Sword series.

Key points

Released as Circle of Blood in the United States

Can be run under ScummVM.

General information

Developer Discord server

Broken Sword Wiki

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
GOG.com		Bundled with Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars: Director's Cut. Pre-configured with ScummVM.
Steam		Free DLC for Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars: Director's Cut. Pre-configured with ScummVM.

Demos

Demos are available from ScummVM.

Game data

Configuration file location

System	Location
DOS	<path-to-game>\SWORD.INF
Windows	<path-to-game>\sword1.ini^{[Note 1]}
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X)
Linux

It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game data location

System	Location
DOS	<path-to-game>\SAVES\
Windows	<path-to-game>\save^{[Note 1]}
Mac OS (Classic)
macOS (OS X)
Linux

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

ScummVM 2.1+ supports cloud saves on third-party cloud storage services. See the ScummVM documentation for details.

Video

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		For DOSBox toggle with `Alt`+`↵ Enter` (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)		For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
60 FPS and 120+ FPS

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		For DOSBox set in the DOSBox configuration file.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		For DOSBox use the DOSBox Mapper (see the glossary page for other workarounds).

Audio

In-game audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, Speech, FX.
Surround sound
Subtitles		Cutscenes natively lack subtitles. See Cutscene subtitles.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost		For DOSBox change the `priority` background value in the DOSBox configuration file.
Royalty free audio

Cutscene subtitles

Install the ScummVM subtitles add-on^[3]

Requires ScummVM 0.10.0 or later.

The Steam version is preconfigured with ScummVM 1.9.^[3]

Download the corresponding subtitles add-on archive from ScummVM:
- For ScummVM 1.5+: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - Cutscene Pack (all languages, Updated Subtitles AddOn) - requires ScummVM 1.5.0 or more
- For older ScummVM versions: Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars - Cutscene Pack (all languages, Subtitles AddOn)
Extract the contents of the archive to a convenient temporary location.
Locate the directory from the extracted archive that corresponds to the language of the game installation (e.g., ENG\ for English). See readme.txt for details.
Copy the *.txt files from this directory to <path-to-game>\SMACKSHI\.
- This should be the directory containing *.SMK cutscene files.
Start the game normally via ScummVM with subtitles enabled.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech				Retail only.
French
German
Hungarian				Fan translation, download.
Italian
Polish				Fan translation, download.
Brazilian Portuguese				Retail only (Tec Toy).^[4] Download (ScummBR).
Russian				Retail only.
Russian				Unofficial localization by «Fargus Multimedia»
Spanish

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
DirectDraw	2	Original Windows release.
DOS video modes	SVGA

Executable	PPC	16-bit	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows					64-bit requires 64-bit build of ScummVM.
Mac OS (Classic)

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Cutscenes	Smacker

System requirements

Steam

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	Vista,7,8,10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium
System memory (RAM)	64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	1.5 GB
Video card (GPU)	64 MB of VRAM

Disc Version

DOS
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	5.0	6.2
Processor (CPU)	Intel 486DX2 66 MHz	Intel Pentium 60 MHz
System memory (RAM)	8 MB	16 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	18 MB	150 MB
Video card (GPU)	SVGA 1 MB of VRAM

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95	98
Processor (CPU)	Intel 486DX2 66 MHz	Intel Pentium 60 MHz
System memory (RAM)	8 MB	16 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	18 MB	150 MB
Video card (GPU)	DirectX 2 compatible

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10.6.8
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core Duo 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	1.5 GB
Video card (GPU)	64 MB of VRAM

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 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

↑ Original Broken Sword added exclusively to GOG's Director’s Cut edition - GOG.com
↑ The "what did just update?" thread, page 329 - Forum - GOG.com - last accessed on May 2023
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 Verified by User:Baronsmoki on 2022-08-03
↑ Tec Toy Wiki.

[gamedir-3] 1.0 ^1.1 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).

[1] Original Broken Sword added exclusively to GOG's Director’s Cut edition - GOG.com

[2] The "what did just update?" thread, page 329 - Forum - GOG.com - last accessed on May 2023

[baronsmoki_2022-08-03-4] 3.0 ^3.1 Verified by User:Baronsmoki on 2022-08-03

[5] Tec Toy Wiki.

[1]

[2]

[Note 1]

[3]

[4]

Developers

	Revolution Software
Publishers
	Virgin Interactive
Retail re-release	Sold Out Software
Engines
Original	Virtual Theatre
Re-release	ScummVM
Release dates
DOS	September 30, 1996
Windows	September 30, 1996
Mac OS (Classic)	September 30, 1996
Windows (ScummVM)	January 11, 2011^[1]
macOS (OS X) (ScummVM)	October 18, 2012
Linux (ScummVM)	March 20, 2015^[2]
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Relaxed
Controls	Point and select
Genres	Adventure
Art styles	Cartoon
Themes	Detective/mystery, Europe, Middle East
Series	Broken Sword