Genre: Adventure
Release Year: 1997
Developer: Westwood Studios
Publisher: Virgin Interactive
Age Rating: 15+
Playability Status: Perfect
Tested On: Windows 8 x64
Availability: Copyright retained - Out of print/unavailable
Ridley Scott’s seminal sci-fi movie may not have set box office records when it was first released, but its status as one of the most influential science fiction movies is hard to debate. Despite its cult following, there have only ever been two videogames based around the vivid, dystopian world of the movie. The first game was launched for early home computers and was something of a flop, the second game however was much more of a success. Developed by Westwood Studios, the sadly now defunct game studio better known for the excellent Command and Conquer series of games, the game is a point and click adventure that expands on the universe created in the movie. Playing as detective Ray McCoy, you must hunt down a gang of psychotic replicants (androids almost indistinguishable from real humans). The game was extravagant for the time, shipping on four CD-ROMs and was met with critical acclaim.
Installation
If you are running a 32 bit version of Windows, you can install Blade Runner just by inserting the first CD-ROM into your computers optical drive and then following the on-screen prompts.
If you have a 64 bit version of Windows, then unfortunately the standard installer will not work on your version of the operating system. Since the game itself works perfectly fine, we produced a replacement installer for 64 bit users. Our installer worked pretty well, but German retrogaming site rePlaying.de have produced a better, more complete replacement installer that fixes several issues you may encounter as you get further into the game (for instance, problems on the firing range). Visit this page to download their installer. Simply run the installer once it is downloaded and make sure the first of the games four CD-ROMs is in your computers optical drive. The installer is multilingual and will work with the German and English versions of the game.
Remember, like many old games, Blade Runner will place its save game data into the same folder as the game itself. If you choose to install the game to your program files directory, you may need to manually set the folder permissions on the save game folder to allow for write access. For more information on this, see this tutorial. The installer will automatically choose an alternative folder, so keep this in mind if you decide to change it.
Once you have installed your game using the replacement installer, you should also download and install the replacement HDFRAMES.DAT file. This file is available on the same webpage as the installer above. The file is downloaded as a .rar archive. To open it, you can use the popular free 7-Zip utility. If you’ve never used 7-Zip before and need some help, you can find tutorials here.
Patching
There was one updated executable file produced for the game, though exactly what issues it fixes is unclear. The update can be downloaded here. If you installed the game with the replacement installer, this update is already included.
Playing the game
There are no other options to set or configure, so simply start the game and report for duty. If you have problems starting the game make sure to turn off any secondary monitors before launching.
ther is no ist disk
I beg your pardon?
There is no install disk. Might be the error that person is getting.
The game installed without a hitch with your 64 bit installer patch, but when I go to play the game, the graphics are all screwed up. Is there a specific graphics setting I should set before I play this game?
Thanks!
Take it back, got the graphics settings adjusted. Different problem now. Got through the first part of the game. Retired first Replicatnt and went to bed. Got to the cut scene in the zero G chamber. When scene ended, i got an error message that said CD Drive was not found. It didn’t ask for the second disc or anything, it just said that the drive was not found and kicked me out of the game. I have tried repeatedly with the same answer. Help?
What version of Windows and what settings did you need to change.
I confess I didn’t play that far (though it looks a pretty cool game, just I have a huge list of games to get around to) so I can’t help you. However if you do find an answer please come back and let us know.
Oh also you might want to try the CPU patch here http://www.replaying.de/blade-runner/blade-runner-patch-windows-vista-7-8-x64/ but that should be for the shooting gallery, I can’t find mention of your problem.
Hi,
I just got into the exact same problem. Did you find a fix?
After many problems I were able to find a permanent solution for all of the issues that came up running the game in Windows 64 bit. On my laptop using for work I have Linux Mint, so I installed PlayOnLinux that came with the distribution. I installed Blade Runner using PlayOnLinux and it worked very well! The only issue I have is when I ALT-TAB out of the game back to desktop and the game crashes. Anyhow, avoiding this and no other issues.
When I try to run the game it says:
Unable to detect CD-ROM drive
This popped up for me because I didn’t have CD1 in the drive.
I get this too but and I have mounted the files with bd-rom but it didn’t help
If you Replace CD1 WITH CD2 before the cut scene ie before Ray goes to bed the game should run
Windows 8.1
R7 graphics
Hope this works for the rest of the game
I successfully installed on my Windows 8 64bit machine (laptop), but with CD1 mounted on virtual disk, game is stuck on “Can’t detect CD-ROM drive”.
How can I fix ?
Thanks
I got it to install fine. I have all the original discs but when I run the game I see the Blade Runner logo then nothing happens. If I hit enter it loads the first image of the opening sequence but thats as far as it goes. I can’t even use my computer after that the blade runner game overlays over all other desktop programs. All I can do is reboot my pc.
Any ideas?
Running Windows 7 with 8 gb ram
I get an error about the cdframes.dat being out of date. cant even load into the game. Game is set to windows 7 compatibility with 16 bit graphics active.
any thoughts?
I just tried to run a bit of the game before bed and realised I couldn’t get the witness statements out of the cop in front of Runciter’s Pet Store. Is this likely a CPU issue that I need the patch for or is it more likely that I missed a clue in order to change the cop from “canvassing” to giving me the witness statements?
You mention an early Blade Runner game for early computers. I can find no reference to this. Was it just called Blade Runner and what systems was it for? Never have heard of it so was very interested to find it.
Found it. Thanks for mentioning it as I never has heard of it. Going to run in an emu.
Indeed, here – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner_%281985_video_game%29
I got the game today and need some help. I followed the steps.
I installed the disks okay, when I tried to start the game my resolution changes to like 800×600 and I get: BLADE.EXE STOPPED WORKING. It just flat out stops and I have to close.
I reinstalled the game, I click play and it works! I watch the opening cut scene, walk around then save my game. I quit, and then try to start it again. I get the same issue as before.
What should I do?? I am running Windows 10 64bit, so I had to download the installer.
Any help would be great!
I’m having the same problem all of a sudden, though in my case a reinstall does not fix it. Don’t think I’m running anything that should interfere with this (and haven’t changed anything since this did work properly), so I’m not really sure on the culprit.
hello, for me the problem is this:
After proceeding with the installation from all the discs the setup manager terminates with an error “cannot locate bladerunner.ink”. Can you help me? Do i have to keep all cds mounted until the end of installation?
Nope should only need one at a time.
Installed with little problems, also downloaded the HDFRAMES.DAT file. However upon gameplay my screen is tiny! How do I enlarge the game??
I do have an HD display, but the screen size of game is quite small…
This is probably a setting you need to change on your monitor.
I’m having trouble with Animoid Row, characters are missing or just disappearing so I can’t get any further with the game. Can anyone help? Thanks
Hi I am experiencing the same problem worn animoid row. Did you ever find a solution?