Check out our Monthly Survey Page to see what our users are running.
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

First Three Games From Blackwell Series Available On Steam For Linux

By - | Views: 7,411
For all the classic-style adventure fans: You can now grab the first three parts from Blackwell series on Steam for Linux!

YouTube Thumbnail
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Accept Cookies & Show   Direct Link

There are many reviews for the three games and most of them are positive. I personally like the style of the games as I'm one of the "old" adventure fans from the LucasArts era :)

You can buy the games from Steam for €4.49 each.

Official about

Blackwell Legacy
When Rosa Blackwell's only relative dies after twenty years in a coma, she thinks the worst is over. This all changes when Joey Mallone, a sardonic ghost from the 1930s, blows into her life and tells her that she is a medium. Whether they like it or not, it is up to them to cure the supernatural ills of New York in this critically-acclaimed series of point-and-click adventure games.
When three NYU students kill themselves one after the other, nobody thinks that a sinister force is at work. Nobody but fledgling medium Rosa Blackwell and her new spirit guide Joey Mallone. It's trial by fire as they set these troubled spirits to rest.

Blackwell Unbound
The year is 1973. The sound of a lone, ethereal saxophone drifts over the Roosevelt Island promenade, while a series of accidents plague a midtown construction site. The citizens of Manhattan take no notice of these events, let alone think they are connected.
Embittered medium Lauren Blackwell and her spirit guide Joey Mallone are the only ones who believe that there is anything strange going on, and they are the only ones who can stop an enigmatic killer from striking again...

Blackwell Convergence
A new film opens to rave reviews, despite its bloody history. A beautiful uptown office remains unoccupied, despite its prime location. A downtown artist berates himself for selling out, while a Wall Street investor congratulates himself on a job well done. Just normal life in the big city? Or is somthing more sinister binding these events together?
Bizarre connections are a dime a dozen for the Blackwell family, but just how far back to they go? Medium Rosa Blackwell and her spirit guide Joey Mallone are about to find out.


What do you think of the Blackwell series? Do the games run well for you? Tell us in the comments. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Adventure, Steam
0 Likes
The comments on this article are closed.
6 comments

Samsai Oct 14, 2014
The comments on this article were closed for some reason. We are going to try to track down the issue and I've re-opened this article's comments.
sr_ls_boy Oct 14, 2014
I keep singing this tune.
Don't click on the link.

View video on youtube.com
aL Oct 14, 2014
I loved these 3 games. 3-4h long each. They were in a humble a while back. Loved the voices, the story, the mechanics, the charcaters, the ambientation...

You have to like conversational games, of course.

Its supposed to be a 5 games set, but the last 2 games are not yet ported (they are already working on it)

I cant wait to play the last 2.. I read the ending is very good as well :)

wadjet games released another conversational game lately, "a golden wake". I will buy it and play it at some point... since it seems nice... but freaking borderlands 2 is taking up all my gaming time lately!!
aL Oct 14, 2014
Quoting: GuestThey are using Adventure Game Studio which is pretty much terrible under Linux: games start in fullscreen (ugly, pixellated) with no alt-tab support (under Xfce at least). I can press alt-return to switch to windowed, but then the window is a bit small and there is no option to make it bigger. It would be playable, though, if the mouse wasn’t locked to the window… well, kind of… sometimes I can make it move outside.

So I don’t know, the games themselves might be good, but technically they are very bad. Only two or three fixes are needed to make them playable: use SDL2 so that alt-tab works, let the user resize the window (since SDL2 uses OpenGL to draw stuff I think zooming the gfx shouldn’t be too hard), and do not warp the mouse pointer back into the window… it’s not an FPS damnit.

Edit: I kinda like that the main character is an introvert though… and might try to play a bit more.

well, the ugly pixelated thing is because... they are all old (you can see how they improved after each game...) and well, they were looking for the retro style (yeah, in 2006 there were good looking games already). I liked the pixelated art, low resolution style of the game. It didnt remove any of the fun.

I played it on xfce (debian testing) as well... and I didnt remember having alt + tab issues... so I just tested it again (legacy) and it worked.

Other than that... I got interested watching the trailer... and got hooked after less of 5 minutes of playing it... the voices are superb!!

If this didnt happen to you, maybe this kind of games are not for you. I understand this genre + visuals + mechanics are not for everybody... but Im kind drooling waiting for the next 2 games to be ported

PS: im not sure the main characters (you get to play the aunt in the second one) are introverts. They just happen to have an unusual job and... a power nobody else have
aL Oct 14, 2014
Quoting: aLIf this didnt happen to you, maybe this kind of games are not for you. I understand this genre + visuals + mechanics are not for everybody... but Im kind drooling waiting for the next 2 games to be ported

Just to make my point clearer. Out of the last conversational games I played... I liked the deponia journey... but at some points it felt like a chore playing it... with the blackwell games, I was hooked pretty much from beginning to end.

Gemini rue... I dindt like the mix of action and conversational

the journey down. The first one was very well done. Characters wise, story, dialogues... the second one... no so much. Specially the art, animations and puzzles...

the shiva. I played it for 1 hour or so... It didnt really hooked me...
flesk Oct 14, 2014
View PC info
  • Contributing Editor
Quoting: ArneJWhat do you think of the Blackwell series? Do the games run well for you?

Quoting: aLI loved these 3 games. 3-4h long each. They were in a humble a while back. Loved the voices, the story, the mechanics, the charcaters, the ambientation...

I also love these games (played the first 4) and think they're some of the best point-and-click adventures I've played in recent years. In case you missed it, I covered the Linux Humble Bundle debut in an article on GOL last month.

Quoting: aLwadjet games released another conversational game lately, "a golden wake".

I've played it and thought it was good. The puzzles are a bit inconsistent though. Some of them felt very unique but the game feels slightly imbalanced and if you play it mostly for the puzzles it might feel too linear. I recommend it for the story and atmosphere though.

Quoting: GuestThey are using Adventure Game Studio which is pretty much terrible under Linux: games start in fullscreen (ugly, pixellated) with no alt-tab support (under Xfce at least). I can press alt-return to switch to windowed, but then the window is a bit small and there is no option to make it bigger. It would be playable, though, if the mouse wasn’t locked to the window… well, kind of… sometimes I can make it move outside.

I have the same Alt+Tab issue with my integrated Intel card, but not with my dedicated GeForce GT 630M. The games are definitely pixellated since the engine goes way back (1997). Until recently the games have been limited to 320x200 pixels, but I think it was increased to 640x400 after it was open sourced.

There's a file in the installation directory of AGS games that can be edited to change things like windowed mode and GFX filter called acsetup.cfg. For windowed mode you simply change the line "windowed=0" to "windowed=1". Tweaking the "gfxfilter" line might help a bit with your visual experience with AGS games, but the values aren't exactly well documented as far as I've been able to glean from the official website and the GitHub repository. It accepts the values "None", "StdScale2", "StdScale3", "StdScale4", "AAx2", "AAx3", "AAx4", "Hq2x" and "Hq3x". You can read more about StdScale, AAx (I think) and Hqx on Wikipedia and experiment a bit to figure out what you prefer.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.