The Dame Was Loaded

Ok, the story and gameplay are good, but the mechanic of TIME is just god awefull. You have a certain time to solve certain things, there is a day and night cycle and things need to be done at a certain time.
Some locations are open very specific hours, if you dont make it because you went somewhere else or spend to much time looking at other clues, the game punishes you by giving you a game over.

I get it, it gives this game a lot of replayability, witch was good back in the day. When you had no ohter games and nothing to day, games had to last for a very long time. By kicking you back to start the game takes a long time to finish.

But trough the eyes of a modern player this is extremely frustrating and often does not make sense.
If you are looking for a fun good adventure story, maybe something like Tex Murphy, this could be it.
But if you dont follow a walktrough down the letter you wont make it.
So dont buy it, watch the lets play instead, save yourself time frustration and money and look elsewhere for that old skool PI experience!

I grew up playing this game so my review will be a bit bias. It's a fun, challenging game with in-game day cycles that may be frustrating at first if you haven't played before, or in a while. There's multiple endings based on your choices and if you get to certain locations in time. Pretty hilarious characters and it's just as great as I remembered it from roughly 20 years ago. If you enjoy point-clicker games and murder mysteries, you may enjoy this game!

Made in 1991 The Dame Was Loaded was years ahead of it's time in terms of graphics and multimedia quality. It came out as DOS game when DOS based PCs were moving to Windows 3.1 and it was forgotten as if I recall the game did not play well in Windows. The entire production is nothing but talent all of which were Australians faking American accents including the lovely Shanyn Asmar who appears as Louise Creel. A classic game largely forgotten and glad Steam has brought it back.

A sendup of hard-boiled film noir detective thrillers hammed up gloriously by a cast of (apparently) Australian actors...

i miss my wife

This is a really well done game ruined by a terrible save game system and too restrictive time limit system. Time limits can be fun but it's too harsh in this game compared to the many other adventure games I've played with a time limit. You can only save AND load in one spot on the map, and it takes time to get back there depending on where you go in the world, meaning you can't realistically save after you do a lot of stuff. Because many things in the game are time dependent, you'll be redoing things constantly even if you make a small mistake. That said, I still recommend the game because it's made really well for an adventure game and a classic noir detective story, and is charming as hell on top of that.

This game needs to be improved a little. Kept trying to get past the landlord and I kept pressing the buttons the help guide said to press, but nothing happened. Maybe they could reconfigure it to a set of keys instead of ctrl+ alt

This is a great FMV point-and-click game. The controls are very basic but they don't take away from the game. This game is also very difficult. It will NOT hold your hand (It will update anything you discover in your notebook, however) and you will most likely miss crucial things and end up getting stuck and having to restart multiple times. Thankfully the typewriter in your office provides game saving/loading. And don't let the intro fool you, there is a LOT to do in this game.

Even after 10 hours and about 7, 8, or 50 restarts, I wasn't able to beat the game. The game seems short enough that it doesn't take long to make up lost ground and try something different to see if you can progress further. It's also kind of fun to see all the different ways there are to get a game over.

Just remember:
ESC: Skips most cutscenes and dialog (Does not open or close any menus or inventories)
F1: Help (Lists the mouse/keyboard controls)
CTRL + F4: Switch between CD1 and CD2 (Does not give feedback about which CD is selected)

This is a great game in the classic fmv variety. A compelling Hard Boiled mystery as you race against the clock to progress in the case. Fans of detective games, fmv games will LOVE this game. A streal!!!!

its a very old game but i really like it. the creators of the games spent a lot of time filming the cut scenes and taking pictures of all the clues or devices used in the game to further the plot. for its time it is A grade game. it can get a little frustrating like any point and click game when the sequence of events or devices are need to get to the next check point so to speak and your not sure what you have missed. but if you can't figure it out walkthroughs can be found. it is a detective story so it goes with the territory.

Nostalgia! Yes, I do not currently have a lot of hours played on this game in my Steam account, however, I originally owned this game when it came out back in 1995. (Yes I am aging myself here!). It was actually 1 of 2 games that I was able to obtain with my very first computer purchase (the other in fact was another FMV game).
As an avid lover of the FMV and Noir genre, this game, for me, was the whole package. It is in the style of the FMV genre with the combination of the point 'n' click genre.
The interactions with the characters, the ability to travel to different locations and also interact with the scenery made this a unique version of an FMV game. It is very cheesy (typical 1940 Film Noirs) and I love it!
New players, or those who have adapted to the new versions of FMV (basically no interaction aside from quick timed choices), might find the game a little difficult to navigate., but if you give it some time, you should be able to fall in love with its charm as I originally did. I will be setting aside some time to play again as I did not originally find all of the different ending possibilities.

I'd really want to give this game a thumb up. It mixes two great eras together : the noire stylish 1940s and the fantasy of the early 90s with a colorful cast of actors and the limitations of the FMV medium that can satisfy a fetish if you're into retro games.
Note that the game is packaged with Dos-Box and worked flawlessly on my Windows8 PC.

Unfortunately the adventure itself is way too complex to be enjoyable as an FMV game. As you know, repetitions are a staple of this genre and they make it really difficult to search the needle in the haystack of this game.
The game has a time limit, with only 3 days to unlock the second part of the adventure, then there is a night/day cycle which means some among the dozen available locations will be closed depending on the time you reach them (travelling between locations takes time), then there is the difficulty linked to the puzzles themselves. Add to that that some sequences are only triggered under certain conditions, which are rarely obvious or easy to guess.
All of that renders the game impossible to beat without a walkthrough. It's literally impossible to accomplish all the actions required in 3 days, in correct order, without knowing beforehand. Brute forcing is not an option as the amount of combinations would require hundreds of plays before you stumble on the solution.

You'll probably want to play a bit by yourself first, but after a couple days enjoying the dialogs, the amount of repetition will make you want to either quit or restart fresh with a walkthough at hand. But then the alt-tabbing becomes annoying and you'll have to play with a small window.

But here's the catch : even with a walkthrough in hand and closely following all the steps written, I didn't manage to unlock the second part of the game.
Which makes me seriously wonder : Did anybody actually ever finished this game?
I wouldn't be surprised if the answer was no.

I'm not saying that the game isn't worth it, and if you're a FMV fan you'll probably want to play it, but be aware that it's a game you won't finish.

(follow my curator page GenXPlayers for more retro and indie reviews)

I'm old enough to have played in the 90ties, but I didn't. Therefore, it took me a while to love this game and get how the controls work. The game can only be played properly with the help of a DOS emulator.

It's a well made, short game. Entertaining and keeps you interested until the end.

I recommend you make regular use of the save function or you might have to start all over several times.

Not the best representation of its genre, but not the worst one either. A film-noir FMV adventure game with an interesting timed gameplay mechanic that may rub some people the wrong way. You are given three days to solve a case, and the game has several endings, depending on how much detective progress you make throughout that time. The timer forces you to make critical decisions as to what places to visit next, what leads to follow, and what puzzles to attempt solving with whatever items you find. If you screw up in your decisions, you end up wasting time and inching closer to game over, forcing you to start from the beginning. It's a trial and error process that will infuriate people who do not wish to consult a guide; many of the puzzles in this game are fairly cryptic, and the limited time doesn't help matters.

The inventory management system is clunky. Some of the FMV quality isn't very good/hasn't aged well, and the game sometimes only shows still images of characters in some of the dialogue scenes, instead of full FMV video. As well, you have to return to the typewriter at your office in order to save/load/quit the game, instead of being able to save anytime; this is problematic, because travelling back to your office to save means advancing the game clock.

If you can look past these issues, there are some great aspects of the game that may entertain you. The storyline and dialogue is well written. It contains several interesting plot twists. The 90's cheeseball voice acting is so bad it's spectacular; I found myself howling in laughter at the dialogue/character acting in many scenes. The close-up still images of character faces during some of the dialogue can be scary, but it adds to the cheese. And at $7, you will find a lot of replay value with the multiple game endings to uncover. While it is certainly not on the same level of quality as adventure games like Grim Fandango, Gabriel Knight or Tex Murphy, The Dame was Loaded is still a decent adventure game overall if you can handle the game's timed mechanic. I recommend it mainly for adventure gaming enthusiasts. 7/10.

It's old, and literally just run on dosbox, but it's playable, and it's a cheesy fmv noir game from yesteryear that we never realised we need.