Mastress Alita
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|  | Checklist of Game Problems
« Thread Started on Jun 7, 2005, 11:47pm » | |
In all my experience with Japanese gaming, if you are having a problem with a game, then it is most likely going to be one of these five things.
1. Your system is not set into native Japanese language support (A.k.a. Japanese as the default for non-unicode programs).
Hands down #1 most common problem. Japanese games require Japanese language support to play them.
If you are on Windows 98/Me, these operating systems do not have built-in OS Japanese support. You can give the system third-party Japanese language supporting using a program like NJStar Communicator, but this is not giving you the OS support that the majority of games need (I'd wager a good 85% or higher of games need native Japanese language support). If you use either of these operating systems, you are going to need either a) a Japanese version of Windows or b) upgrade to Windows 2000/XP, which have native support.
If you have Windows 2000/XP, Japanese language support is built-in; you just have to change some settings in your Regional Settings to enable it. I have instructions for how to do this on Windows XP. Instructions on how to do this in XP and 2000 are also on this site. NOTE! You will need your 2000 or XP CDROM to first install the Eastern language support! So make sure you have that.
Not having your computer properly set to native Japanese language support will likely cause the game to either not install or not be able to load/run.
2. You did not apply patches to the game from the official website.
Second most common problem. Software has bugs. Companies, of course, always discover this after they release a program. So what do they do? They make a patch that you have to download and apply to the program to fix the problem. This isn't a new concept. Games are no different.
If you have a problem, especially with problems loading or crashing (often when trying to go on certain scenerios or picking certain options), error messages, or problems with CGs unlocking, these are very common things that game companies discover and release patches for.
I have created an archive of game patches it make it easy to find game patches. The archive is located here:
BL and Girls' Game Patch Archive
Always check the archive or the game's company website, and if there is a patch available, download it and apply it. Always do this right after you install a new game. You wouldn't want to play twenty times and not be able to unlock three CGs only to find out it was because you didn't apply a patch, and now you have to apply it and start over, right? So do it first thing.
3. Game has copy protection.
If you are trying to install or run a game and get errors, oftentimes saying "Insert CD into the CDROM" even though you have the CD in the drive, this is a big clue that the game has copy protection.
Copy protection is just that -- programming that activates when a game is copied to keep them from being distributed illegally. Some games that I've discovered with copy protection are listed on my Troubleshooting page here. There are likely others as well. You can scan you game for protections using Protection ID or my personal favorite, A-Ray Scanner. Note that the program doesn't /always/ detect protection that may be there (though I've found this program works the best of the protection scanners I've tried).
The only thing you can do is to attempt to make an image file of the CD and then mount that image with a program like Alcohol 120%, which can work-around or emulate protection, or get a different copy of the game image file that has been properly made around the protection.
For protection like SafeDisk, Alcohol 120% should be able to make a working image file. Protection like AlphaROM, on the other hand, is incredibly nasty and you will like need either an image file already made around the AlphaROM or a crack file to apply to the game to get around the protection (and these "noCD" patches for AlphaROM games are pretty rare).
4. Game files are corrupt.
Something on your game CD/image is corrupt. Corrupt files can cause just about anything: problems installing, crashing, sound or voice not to work, ect. ect.
The first thing to do is to make sure you've already done the above three things (absolutely sure your system is properly set to Japanese, that you've applied any available patches, and that you aren't dealing with copy protection). Once you've ruled that out, corruption is the likely cause of the problem.
It is hard to tell if a game has corruption. One of the best things to first do is scan the disk sectors using CD Speed to see if there are any red sectors. These indicate damaged sectors, which is a good indication of file corruption (if you scan a game and there is a large band of red sectors at the beginning of the disk, this means the game has SafeDisk copy protection, so these "bad sectors" are normal in that case).
However, just because a game sector scans as all green doesn't mean it doesn't have corruption. If you are having problems, try it on another system (again, make sure that system has proper Japanese language support, apply patches, check for copy protection). If it doesn't work on that machine either, then I suggest getting a copy of the game from a different source (and remember, game image files get passed around quite a bit -- you may have trouble finding a source that is different from yours. Best bet is to find someone who knows they have a working copy, have them make an image file, and then get that image file).
5. Conflict with your system.
If you have gone through all of the above: set system properly to Japanese, applied patches, made sure you aren't dealing with copy protection, and have a known-good image file/disk, then it is likely a problem with your individual system. This could be a problem with your video or sound card, codecs, Direct X, or just about anything else. Make sure that your system specs match or are better (preferred) than the requirements of the game. If they are, that /still/ doesn't mean it can't be a conflict with something on your machine! The only thing you can do at this point is making sure you have updated DirectX and see if you can't find out if a game requires a specific codec and get that installed, or just trial-and-error with the settings inside the game. And if it still doesn't work, then about this point you'll have to give it up that it just doesn't cooperate with your machine.
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Mastress Alita
BL Game Goddess
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Joined: Oct 2004
Gender: Female
Posts: 972
Location: Idaho, USA
|  | Re: Checklist of Game Problems
« Reply #1 on Jul 2, 2006, 6:45pm » | |
Other things to try:
Here are just a few other things to try when the above doesn't work for you.
-Try changing the Regional Settings of your computer to Japanese. Note that the regional setting is not the same as having non-unicode set to Japanese on your computer. This fixes most problems with errors on games made with Macromedia, but this also may help on older games (such as ones made for Windows 95/98). Also, sometimes when having trouble with a game, try changing your timezone to Tokyo's time zone (GMT+09:00). (A big hint of when to try changing your regional settings and time zone are when you get Director errors or Environmental errors).
-Make sure you are running the best drivers for your video card and sound card that are available from the manufacturer's website. If you are not sure what kind of video or sound card you have, you can find out in Device Manager (on Windows XP, right-click on My Computer, select Properties, go to the Hardware tab, and click the Device Manager button). Also make sure your version of DirectX is up-to-date: you can get DirectX from Microsoft's website.
-Check to see if you are possibly missing a needed codec. I ran into this problem on an ero game once, where it would crash when trying to open it. I looked at the documentation and found some copyright information referring to Vorbis OGG, so I went to their website and downloaded their newest codec, and then the game loaded right up. This will usually be an issue when a game is trying to load a movie right when it starts up (which is pretty common these days). Try finding out if any specific codecs are referred to in their readme files, or just try installing some comprehensive codec packs. Also look to see if there is any way to access game settings from the installer to disable opening movies that may be causing your game to crash on load-up (this has worked for me on Takuyo's Hoshigari Empusa! and For Symphony; both would lock-up when I tried loading up the game, but I could access game settings from the installer to disable the opening video, and then both games would load correctly and I could play fine after that).
-Change the Hardware Acceleration of your video. On XP you can do this by right-clicking the Desktop, click Properties from the drop-down menu, go to the Settings tab, click the Advanced button, go to the Troubleshoot tab, and try different acceleration settings by moving the slider. I've found this effective on several games, where some newer games require the highest setting, and some older games run when it's set on a medium or lower setting. If you are having sound issues, you can also try changing the hardware acceleration of your sound: on XP, go into Control Panel, Sound and Audio Devices, Audio tab, click the Advanced button under Sound Playback, click the Performance tab, and try different settings with the Hardware Acceleration slider.
-If it is an older game and it won't install, try XP's compatibility mode. Right click on the installer, go to Properties, click on the Compatibility tab, and click to try running in Windows 95 or Windows 98/Me. You can also try changing the display settings by setting the program to run in 256 colors or 640x480 screen resolution. If you can install fine but not run an older game afterwards, do the same only with the game.exe. You can also right-click on the Desktop, go to Properties, click on Settings, and try changing your color quality and screen resolution (for example, some games will only run in 16-bit color quality). Compatibility Mode is effective on many older games.
-If it is a /really/ old Windows 95/98 game, and even XP Compatibility Mode won't work, you can set up a virtual drive on your system. I used Microsoft Virtual Machine, and created a virtual drive with Windows 98 settings, and installed a Japanese version of Windows 98 on it (remember, you will need the Japanese version of the OS, regular Windows 98 doesn't provide Japanese native support). I then installed the game that wouldn't run on XP's Compatibility Mode to the Windows 98 virtual drive, and it worked like a charm. However, this may not be an issue for you unless the game is very old and simply can't run on XP.
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