The Dame Was Loaded (1996)

[corsair91]

The Dame Was Loaded (1996)

https://www.ziggurat.games/game/the-dame-was-loaded
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dame_Was_Loaded
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0197393/
https://www.mobygames.com/game/dame-was-loaded
https://www.mobygames.com/game/dame-was-loaded/screenshots
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Dame_Was_Loaded
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/TheDameWasLoaded
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/pc/198957-the-dame-was-loaded/faqs/1669
https://the-spoiler.com/ADVENTURE/Beam/The.dame.was.loaded.html
https://www.pcgamer.com/solving-crimes-against-the-clock-in-the-dame-was-loaded/

The Dame was Loaded
https://www.dosbox.com/comp_list.php?showID=2000&letter=T


The Dame Was Loaded is a first-person point-and-click adventure game for MS-DOS and Macintosh created by Australian developer Beam Software (now Krome Studios Melbourne). It was published in 1996 by Philips Interactive Media.

The game is a detective film noir set in the 1940s and combined live action cinematic's with pre-rendered point-and-click gameplay.

The live action was produced by Vixen Films, director Jo Lane, and was at the time the largest multimedia production ever made in Australia.

The game is nonlinear, having nine possible endings featuring over thirty fully acted and voiced characters to interact with and over one hour of fully performed cinematics.


Innocent-looking dame Carol Klein hires down on his luck hardboiled private dick Scott Anger to find her brother, since she hasn't heard from him for some time. Anger learns that his case is connected to some murders and a bank robbery.


The Dame Was Loaded is a detective mystery adventure game reminiscent of private eye movies of the 1940's. The player controls detective Scott Anger, a Sam Spade type of character, who is hired by a mysterious woman to find her missing brother, Dan. What at first appears to be just another missing persons case, Anger's investigation soon reveals that Dan was somehow involved in some much larger crimes including several murders and a bank robbery.


Ad Blurb
US Box Cover - Front & Back:

Corruption, Deceit, Lust, Murder...
Some private detectives have it all

An Adventure Set in the World of a 1940's Private Eye

Dames are trouble, but trouble is your business. For a dame, and maybe a hundred bucks in advance, you'd lose a few teeth and a few friends. For sweet Carol Klein, you might even stand in front of a gun or two. In a sleazy world of corrupt officials, stolen diamonds, lust and murder, you must solve the case and stay alive.

The world's first fully-interactive film noir detective adventure
Adventure gaming with incredible full-screen video graphics
30 cunning characters in a deviously twisting, non-linear plot
Rich 1940's world, full of classy joints, sleazy dives and danger
Original cool jazz soundtrack
9 gripping conclusions... dependent on your detective skills
2-disc set with over 40 hours of game play


Games has limited Abandonware availability as now on GOG or Steam

Streaming link (play in your browser)
https://archive.org/details/msdos_Dame_Was_Loaded_The_1996
(possibly Sluggish as a 2 CD game)


Controls (read if you need them)
https://www.gog.com/forum/the_dame_was_loaded/controls_read_if_you_need_them


The Dame Was Loaded - trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs0O09HAiwg


The Dame Was Loaded gameplay (PC Game, 1995)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMnISqYLEj0

The Dame Was Loaded (part 01 walkthrough)


The Dame was Loaded Walkthrough
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLa9jkK5TCsFWlDNuGjwSL7t1qvhL6LYvK

Daniel Lassiter


The Dame Was Loaded (part 01 walkthrough)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jMUIjYELwM

123Pazu

[corsair91]

The Dame Was Loaded (1995) Fan-Film Edit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPqPcpaVygw

Josh Buckland
runtime 1:36:18

"Corruption, Deceit, Lust, Murder... Some private detectives have it all..."
--------------
Scott Anger, private detective, has just come off a month-long bender sparked by the drive-by shooting death of his beautiful client and lover, Angela. Anger is soon hired by a mysterious woman to find her missing brother, Dan.
What at first appears to be just another missing persons case, leads to a whole series of major crimes--bank robbery, arson, and murder. And when some unsavory characters suspect Anger knows more than he's letting on, his life--and the lives of those around him--hangs in the balance.
The Dame Was Loaded is a noir crime tale to rival the great Hollywood classics of the 30s and 40s. It is presented in the 1st-person perspective, similar to 'The Lady in the Lake.' (1947)
------------
This is a fan-film edit of the 1996 FMV film-noir adventure-game The Dame Was Loaded. It is intended to be enjoyed as a feature-length film.
It has been cut down to just its story elements and post-processed to simulate the B&W film grain of the golden-era of Hollywood.
I do not own any of the rights to this material, this is merely a non-profit homage to the game and it's themes. All material copyright by Vixen Films, Beam Software, & Philips Interactive Media.
It was designed by Alfred Milgrom & David Giles

[corsair91]

The Dame Was Loaded

Steam

https://www.ziggurat.games/game/the-dame-was-loaded
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1006440/The_Dame_Was_Loaded/
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1006440/discussions/

Genre: Adventure, Strategy

About This Game

An adventure set in the world of a 1940s private eye

Dames are trouble, but trouble is your business. For a dame, and maybe a hundred bucks in advance, you'd lose a few teeth and a few friends. For sweet Carol Klein, you might even stand in front of a gun or two. In a sleazy world of corrupt officials, stolen diamonds, lust and murder, you must solve the case and stay alive.

The world's first fully-interactive film noir detective adventure
30 cunning character in a deviously twisting, non-linear plot
Rich 1940s world, full of classy joints, sleazy dives and danger
Original cool jazz soundtrack
9 gripping conclusions...depending on your detective skills
Over 40 hours of gameplay to unlock all endings

System Requirements

Minimum:
OS: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10
Processor: Pentium 4, Athlon 64 or later
Memory: 256 MB RAM
Graphics: Athlon 64 or later
Storage: 1 GB available space

Game packaged with Dos-Box

[corsair91]

The Dame Was Loaded

GOG

https://www.ziggurat.games/game/the-dame-was-loaded
https://www.gog.com/game/the_dame_was_loaded
https://www.gog.com/forum/the_dame_was_loaded

Genre: Adventure - Puzzle - Detective-mystery
Release date: April 30, 1996

Works on: Windows (7, 8, 10)


Description

An adventure set in the world of a 1940's private eye

Dames are trouble, but trouble is your business. For a dame, and maybe a hundred bucks in advance, you'd lose a few teeth and a few friends. For sweet Carol Klein, you might even stand in front of a gun or two. In a sleazy world of corrupt officials, stolen diamonds, lust and murder, you must solve the case and stay alive.

The world's first fully-interactive film noir detective adventure

30 cunning character in a deviously twisting, non-linear plot
Rich 1940's world, full of classy joints, sleazy dives and danger
Original cool jazz soundtrack
9 gripping conclusions... dependent on your detective skills
Over 40 hours of gameplay to unlock all endings


System requirements

Minimum system requirements:

System: Windows 7 / 8 / 10
Processor: 1.8 GHz
Memory: 512 MB RAM
Graphics:
3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended)
Storage: 1GB available space

This game is powered by DOSBox.

[corsair91]

https://www.gog.com/forum/the_dame_was_loaded/old_reviews_of_the_game

Review originally published on Quandary, which is now defunct.

THE DAME WAS LOADED
Developer: Beam Software
Publisher: Philips Media
Year Released: 1996

Review by Steve Ramsey (March, 2003)

It's nice to review a local product, even if the game is set nowhere near home. Featuring Australian actors, some who went on to become better known (at least down under); The Dame Was Loaded is a full motion video detective game set in the USA in the 1940s.

The main protagonist is Scott Anger. Like all noir-ish detectives he carries a wound from which he cannot escape. Surfacing recently from the bottom of a bottle, a mundane missing brother case seems like a good way to get things going again.

I myself recently surfaced from hunting for vampires, and I mention it only because this game shares with Dracula Unleashed a game mechanism that if I had never seen it again I would not have been upset. Seeing it again so soon was cause for mild panic.

Real time
I refer to the fact that time is a key component of the game. Whilst real time might add something special to strategy games, it does nothing for adventure games when it prevents you from successfully completing the game. More than that, you usually aren't even aware that you have missed a key event until such time as time runs out and the game ends unsuccessfully.

At face value, real time might be seen as more natural. Clearly the world does not stand still waiting for you to come along. Perhaps also there is a view that with full motion video, real time better suits the reality of the game world. Yet the second Gabriel Knight game springs to mind as an excellent example of full motion video game play, and whilst some events needed time to advance, time passing was triggered by your character achieving the necessary objectives. There was nothing unnatural about the game play, and I suspect the fact that more recent games avoid a real time mechanism is testament to its unlike-ability, if not its unsuitability. Adventure players tend to like poking about and taking their time, rather than having time take them where it may.

The passage of time in this game seems more forgiving than in other such games, and some events or actions are not essential to finish, but if other events pass you by then so will the game. You have three days to find the missing brother, and on the first occasion I survived the three days but as I had not found the brother, the game simply ended. Whilst I had "finished" the game, there was clearly much more to do; not only did I have to find the brother, but I had not even accessed the second of the two game CDs.

Several restarts from various periods didn't get me much further, but eventually I managed to achieve an extension of the three-day deadline, which gave me access to the next disk. To do so, though, I had to replay many sequences and events, not really knowing whether what I was doing would lead to success. I did not, in fact, know if there was a single key event, or whether a particular sequence of events was required. Too many road signs makes for dull playing, but I thought The Dame could have been a bit more explicit. There are some rather convoluted (and at times slightly obtuse) sequences.

There are apparently 9 different endings, depending upon what you do or don't do. I found 3, which was enough for me.

Real trouble
Exacerbating the time aspect is the fact that you only have 5 save game slots. Given the need to reload and retrace your steps, trying different things at different times, this was way too few.

Scott has 3 inventories, one on his person, another in his office and one in the boot of his car. You may very well have to swap things between them as he can only carry so much. I didn't mind this but accessing the inventories is a pain, requiring both the left and right mouse buttons to be clicked at the same time.

The inventory menu also contains a notebook in which information is automatically recorded, a watch to keep track of the time and which can also be used to advance time, and a wallet. Scott will spend money, but must also acquire more. He can do this in a variety of ways, some less than legal.

Scott can talk to many characters, some of whom may have to be encouraged to talk. There are many ways to achieve this, each reasonably well connected to the character involved. A menu of conversation topics can be accessed for each conversation. Some necessary snooping will also require Scott to find ways to distract characters, or even get them to leave the room. But don't spend too long looking at things you shouldn't, and nor must you spend too long in certain sticky situations. Time is critical for certain situations, as well as overall.

Real video
Whilst the game is full motion video, many of the screens will be still shots, and voice-overs will occur without a video sequence resulting. This is most usually when questioning another character - that character and the scene will be predominantly static throughout the interrogation, the game occasionally interspersing still close-ups or short video sequences.

Unlike many FMV games, the videos and game world scenes utilise the whole screen. It is a bit grainy and pixelly, but it is ok to watch and look at, though on occasion the need to discern fine detail can be difficult.

Icons will indicate something can be moved or examined, or that a conversation can occur, but you will not get an icon to indicate that an inventory item can be used. In that regard you are on your own.

Arrows will indicate you can move in a particular direction, but movement within scenes tends to be fairly limited. Movement between different locations is in Scott's car, utilising the map in the glove box on which new locations will appear as you learn more. Helpfully, Scott will often tell you if there is no point going to a particular location at this time, thereby saving you time of your own.

The character acting ranges from acceptable to poor. Typical of a product with this title, there are gangsters and card sharks (you will have to play a bit of poker so brush up on your rules); crooked cops and long legged women. Everyone seems just a little bit dirty, so finding the true villain(s) will take some doing. The plot does not rise to any great heights, but it does wriggle about and do its best to shake you off. Needless to say the missing brother is the just the start.

Reality check
The game is in DOS but will launch itself from the Windows directory. It ran fine on my P4 with no fiddling required, other than for sound. I had to configure the sound card within the install program, and could never get rid of an occasional choppiness. I also found that occasionally the game would launch without sound (probably a driver issue) and I would have to restart the computer.

There is some ambient noise, and fairly good use of background music. There are no subtitles.

In the end, the real time nature of the game prevented me from enjoying this outing. I decided early on to forget about time, and simply play as I normally would. Then when time ran out, I would review what I had done, and try a different path through the game. This got me through, but I saw a lot of the same parts over and over, every replay detracting from the overall experience.

Timed puzzles are anathema to many adventure players, and those same players will no doubt not look favourably on timed games. However there are undoubtedly players that do like this characteristic, and it certainly adds a different element to what is going on. I doubt though I will be hurrying to play another such game.

Quandary Rating: 2/5

Steve Ramsey 2003

System Requirements:
486 DX 33, 8Mb RAM, CD ROM, 6 Mb disc space,
(Note - the DOS Operating System was not specified)

[corsair91]

Info on the cancelled CD-i and Mac versions

https://www.gog.com/forum/the_dame_was_loaded/info_on_the_cancelled_cdi_and_mac_versions

also here

https://cdii.blogspot.com/2007/04/dame-was-loaded-another-cd-i-game.html

[corsair91]

Abandonware review
(so no link)

The Dame Was Loaded is an Australian made interactive movie and attempts to recreate the atmosphere of film noir.

The game is set in the 1940s and the player takes on the role of private detective Scott Anger who takes on a missing persons case, which leads to a murder mystery and a case of stolen diamonds.

The Dame Was Loaded is a point and click adventure game that features over an hour of fullscreen fmv and over thirty characters to interact with. The game has a twisting, non-linear plot and there are nine possible game endings.

It is the 1940's. You are Scott Anger, Private Dick. You have just recovered from a prolonged drunken stupor that was the result of your girlfriend being killed. Back on your feet, you are determined to put the past behind you and start again in the Private Detective business.

Along with your sleepy partner, Ralph Spencer, you are in your office when she walks in. She has the face a man could die for and eyes that could trap your soul. And her smile... She says her brother is in the city and she has lost contact with him and fears the worst. She has only enough money to hire you for three days, so the clock is ticking. Armed with a photo of her brother and a strong desire to see that smile again, you set off.

This game reminded me a lot of another detective game, although a futuristic one, called Under a Killing Moon. So if you have ever played Killing Moon and like it, you will probably like The Dame was Loaded. It is your classic Phil Marlow or Sam Spade gumshoe detective novel brought to life. The game opens with you trying your hand once again in the P.I. business, after the death of your sweetie which sent you into the gutter for a few months. Your first case is a simple location of a missing person, but soon you find more than you bargained for. You must go out into the city and find clues. Friends you have met in the past can help you along the way. From classy dames to shady characters, cops to criminals, this game has it all. And remember, no one looks professional until they have had their daily shave.

The graphics were cool. Two CD's supply several full screen cinema clips with strong, clear voices and authentic '40's music. All of the screens are full, not a smaller window as in Under a Killing Moon. In addition to the graphics and voices, The Dame was Loaded is a good mystery game. Also, as an interesting twist, characters you talk to will get impatient and angry if you hang around asking stupid questions. So you cannot just fire away anything, you have to think some.

Despite the fact that The Dame was Loaded was a pretty good game, I think its major problem was the designers. Like so many other games, if the designers had just put a little more thought into the details, this could go from a good game to a great game. First of all, you can only save the game in your office. Well, since this is a time based game, traveling to your office takes time. And since you only have three days to solve the case, travel time eats up much of that.

The time thing is one of the largest frustrations by itself. Unlike Under a Killing Moon which moved you to the next day when you had done everything, The Dame was Loaded has no such feature. You can pass time or sleep whenever, eating up time you have so little of. Also, it is easy to get stuck and not know what to do next. Because of the time constraint, you do not have much chance to hop around and use trial and error. I think the 'hint' feature in Under a Killing Moon would have been helpful here or would at least have eased up on the time constraint.

Nostalgic of the old private eye movies of the 1940's, you play detective Scott Anger, a Sam Spade type of guy, who is hired by a mysterious woman to find her missing brother, Dan. What at first appears to be just another missing persons case, Anger's investigation soon reveals that Dan was somehow involved in some much larger crimes including several murders and a bank robbery.

Similar in style to Tex Murphy, use your sleuthing skills to solve this graphical adventure game.