Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare

Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare

Developers
	Darkworks
Windows	Spiral House
Publishers
2001-2003	Infogrames
2003-2018	Atari
2018-present	THQ Nordic
Retail (Japan)	CyberFront
Retail (Russia)	Akella
Engines
	Shadow Engine
Release dates
Windows	June 22, 2001
Reception
Metacritic	66
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Themes	Lovecraftian
Series	Alone in the Dark

Alone in the Dark
Alone in the Dark	1992
Jack in the Dark	1993
Alone in the Dark 2	1993
Alone in the Dark 3	1994
Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare	2001
Alone in the Dark (2008)	2008
Alone in the Dark: Illumination	2015
Alone in the Dark (2023)	TBA

Key points

Unplayable under Windows 10 due to serious graphical glitches, check Issues fixed for a solution.
The GOG.com version (all languages) has been fixed since early October 2018.

Music is very poorly converted from the Dreamcast version

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Russian versions have a simple disc check. All other versions are DRM-free.
GamersGate
GOG.com		Windows 10 problems fixed
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
Steam		See Launch.exe does not work (Steam version)

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Spiral House\launch\Data
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/259190/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\_Alone4_.000.sav
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/259190/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

Launcher

Only two graphics options are available. Resolution can be set manually and a "high quality" mode can be enabled; greatly improving shadow quality.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		4:3 aspect ratio only. Selecting a 16:9 resolution will only 'stretch' the image. Select a 4:3 resolution to see the correct aspect ratio displayed.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD		4k resolutions can be selected, but it will be a stretched 4:3 image.
Field of view (FOV)		Backgrounds are pre-rendered; no camera controls are available.
Windowed		Run alone4.exe with -windowed x=custom y=custom command line argument. Replace "custom" with any value (e.g. -windowed x=800 y=600).
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		VSync does not work on Windows 10
60 FPS
120+ FPS		It causes errors during gameplay. See High FPS Issues.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

In-game input settings

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Mouse buttons cannot be bound to commands
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus		Mouse buttons work but no cursor is visible while in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion		Game does not use the mouse for gameplay
Controller
Controller support		"Action/Fire" will also confirm menu options, while "Run" will work as a back button in menus.
Full controller support		Pause (Esc) cannot be bound to a controller
Controller remapping		By default, all buttons are unbound. Options allow for one keyboard binding and one controller binding.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion		"Tank controls" with fixed camera angles. Aiming cannot be inverted.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers		Triggers, thumbstick clicks and D-pad inputs are not detected.
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

DualShock 4 controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

In-game general settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, SFX and Dialogue.
Surround sound		Stereo & mono options
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French				Retail and GOG.com only.
German				Retail only; download for digital releases.
Italian				Retail only; download for digital releases.
Spanish				Retail and GOG.com only; download for Steam release.
Japanese				Retail only.
Brazilian Portuguese				Retail only; download for digital releases.
Polish				Retail only; download for digital releases. The FMVs are only subtitled.
Russian				Retail only.

Issues unresolved

Cheat mode and resolution settings

Running cheat mode will not allow the game to save the launcher resolution setting.

Issues fixed

Fix serious graphical issues on Windows 10

Common issue is white block in menu, and the blue characters models on white backgrounds.

Fix graphical issues
Download these files from dropbox. Replace the original alone4.exe with the .exe from the Spanish GOG.com version. Put the LOC_##.COK file in the Provider folder and rename it to Locale (Don't forget to DELETE the .COK extension).

Alternative solution for any windows version

Fix graphical issues with bonus
Download patch with integrated 10 / 15 save slots for russian version Download patch with integrated 10 / 15 save slots for english version Extract any zip archive to the game dir. Renaming is not necessary. Notes This fix is based on the english demo version

No movies, audio only

Sometimes running High Quality means the movie video becomes disabled.

Run as administrator
Set launch.exe and alone4.exe to run as admininistrator. Set alone4.exe to run in compatibility for Windows 2000.

Launch.exe does not work (Steam version)

Launch.exe does not work on the Steam version, preventing you from adjusting the resolution from the default 640x480.

The following is a corrected version of launch.exe for Steam. It also comes bundled with a partial fix for the game not running on Windows 8 or 10, as well as higher-quality movies ripped from the Dreamcast version.

Use unofficial fix
Download Alone In The Dark TNN Fixes & Cutscenes. Delete the movies folder inside the installation folder. Extract everything from the archive into the installation folder and replace as necessary. Run the game directly through launch.exe instead of launching it through Steam.

High FPS Issues

Limit the frame rate to 60 FPS[citation needed]

Set the refresh rate to 60Hz

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
OpenGL	1.1

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Miles Sound System	6.0h
Cutscenes	Bink Video	1.0x

Activate cheat mode

Running cheat mode will not allow the game to save the launcher resolution setting.

Activate cheat mode
Edit the shortcut and replace launcher.exe with alone4.exe. Add the -wizardmaster command line argument. The cheat menu will be visible in the inventory.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95 OSR2	98, ME, 2000
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium II 300 MHz AMD K6-2 300 MHz	Intel Pentium III 600 MHz
System memory (RAM)	64 MB	128 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	400 MB	500 MB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia RIVA TNT ATI Rage Pro 8 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.0 compatible	16 MB of VRAM

The game is not compatible with the Savage 4, 4 Pro +, Savage Rage II C, SIS 6326, Permedia 3, Riva 128ZX chipsets