Hi everyone. I'm not sure I'm asking this in the right section, so if not, please let me know and/or move my post-thank you!
Recently I've been playing a lot of Nancy Drew games and LOVE the graphics so much, that I would love to have some of them as wallpapers for my laptop. Does anyone know how to do that, and if so, is it legal to do so? If it is okay to do, I'd love to have someone walk me through how to make them.


Thanks so much you all,
Tracy

Let's wait for a tech to give you a better description on how to do a wallpaper and the lagalities of it. I make my own personal (not game) wallpapers too (4 legged companions).

You can also check Her Interactive wallpaper archives for more info.

Thanks, MaG. I'll check back again later and will peek into the link you gave me. That's neat that you can make your own wallpapers, btw. I bet they're cute!

Tracy

I use many of my own photos for wallpaper. All you have to do is right click the photo and select set as background.

Hi Draclvr. Thanks for that. I can do that, but I'm not sure how to get graphics (pictures) out of an actual Nancy Drew video game and into my computer.

Thanks!
Tracy

You will need special software to do that. My Nvidia Video card comes with the ability to take in-game screenshots and even game video. It's called ShadowPlay.

Sometimes you can use PrntScreen and sometimes you can't. What version of Windows are you running? Fraps is a paid for program that will grab game screenshots. You can read more here.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/take-videos-screenshots-games-windows/

Thanks so much for your help and the link-I'll check that out. Btw-I'm using Windows 10 and that's on my laptop. (I can get specs if needed) : )

Tracy, who's eager to paper her "wall" with ND!

I don't think it will work if the game isn't windowed, but you can try Windows Key/Prntscreen which may create a .jpg file in your Pictures folder in a file called Screenshots.

If you can window the game, you can also use the Snipping Tool to grab a screenshot of your screen.

Hi Tracy,

I know many people here have somewhat b/w attitude what it comes to Steam.

But should you play your Nancy Drew games on Steam, there you can take a screenshot with F12 key (by default) at any time (link). That works with almost every game there.

Timo

But if she already has the games on disc, she probably won't want to re-purchase them on Steam just to take screenshots.

Of course not, but does she? Even after re-reading the topic through I didn't find any information about the media. And this Steam screenshot key information was intended for everyone who may accidentally have skipped it, but most Steam users probably know that already.

Timo

Yes, sometimes the PrintScreen key works and sometimes it doesn't. It may even work in one part of the game and not another. For example you may not be able to take a screenshot using the PrintScreen key during a cut scene, but it will work during normal gameplay. It does work for "some" Nancy Drew games but I don't know about all of them.

To use the PrintScreen key, start the game and tap the PrintScreen key when you're at the part of the game where you want to take the screenshot. I usually tap it more than once because sometimes 2 taps works where 1 tap does not (I don't know why, but this has happened with more than one of my computers in the past and in more than one version of Windows). Then close or minimize the game, open MSPaint or Irfanview or whatever graphics program you like, and paste the screenshot into the program. Then save the screenshot.

It has been a long time since I tried to save a screenshot in a Nancy Drew game, but last time I tried it was successful -- as long as I didn't try to take the screenshot during a cut scene.

If you have the game windowed, you can use Alt-PrintScreen (hold down the Alt key and press the PrintScreen key) to take a screenshot of the active window. Then paste into MSPaint (or whatever graphics program you like) and save the screenshot. If you mistakenly select something other than the game Window, you'll get a screenshot of "that something" instead of the game window.

And of course you can use the Snipping Tool in Vista and later.

If you want a screenshot from a cut scene, you will probably need special software like FRAPS.

The free version of Fraps does this whether you play the game in full screen or windowed. You can also define which key combo you want to use to take screenshots.

But doesn't the free version of Fraps watermark your screenshots?

Think the watermark is in vids. None in screenshots.

Cool... then that might work if the easy stuff Jenny mentioned doesn't.

Thanks so much for your great info and ideas, you guys. I'm going to play around with it and see what I can do before getting new software. Maybe I'll luck out and be able to do the PrintScreen option.


Tracy, off to play and glad for your help!

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

In case you're interested, I use the free version of FRAPS to take almost all of my game screenshots. That's what I used to create my current Zoe avatar. There is no watermark on any screenshots. The free version only takes bmp pictures, but you can convert them to png or jpeg if you'd prefer. (I usually change them to png.) I find it a lot easier than using print screen because I can take several pictures in a row if I want, then pick the best one and eliminate those I don't want. With print screen, you can only take one, and it has to be perfect the first time. Also, I find that print screen does not work for most of my games, and I just end up with a black screen when I paste it in the paint program. Just in case you encounter this issue, you may consider using FRAPS.