I know a lot of people had trouble with this game. Just thought I'd add mine to the list.

I first tried it on my Win7 because I felt I had similar specs to JKEerie (in the Windows 7 and Games thread by Draclvr). I have the same video card, 9GB Ram, and Core i7. I don't have a gaming laptop, just a regular desktop. I was able to get to the menu and options but when I hit play I just got a blank screen and had to hit the power button on my computer to get out. After about 5 attempts at trying to get back into my computer (kept saying I was locked and scared the living daylights out of me) (One of the things I absolutely HATE about Windows 7!!) I finally got back in and uninstalled the game.

Then I tried it in my XP which I didn't have any hope for and was proven right. I couldn't even get to the menu screen in there and had to hit the power button to get out but at least I could get back in without any problem. I uninstalled it and shelved the game.

Sad. I'd really hoped to be able to play it.

Do you have an Intel graphics processor? If so, I've been unable to play the game successfully on any of those I used.

It wouldn't work on my computer either. Either the requirements for the video card are higher than those listed, or the SecuROM copy "protection" prevented the game from playing.

I recommend watching this 52-part YouTube series if you want to know what the game is about:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3--KOzF440

Er, am I allowed to just say that when I played the Alter Ego that I got from Jenny100 in August 2010 on my Dell M1530 laptop (running XP) it ran perfectly, no Securom problems, no people's body parts (legs/arms) poking thru any of the game's scenery objects (tables, boxes/bags, etc).

My M1530's specs are:
Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 CPU @ 2.20 GHz, 789 MHz, with 3.50 GHz RAM running XP_sp3, 256 MB Nvidia 8600M (no Optimus technology), 300 GB capacity HDD.

I wonder why the game ran perfectly in this laptop and not in his? Is it b/c of the intergrated (onboard) graphics?

Cruise,
If you do a Google search for SecuROM problems, you'll find your answer. If you're going to be a tech, you need to learn to do your own searches.

Inland, not sure what you mean by Intel graphics processor. I have a Dell Studio XPS 9100 Intel Core i7-930 processor (8MB L2 Cache, 2.80 GHz)and my video card is ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5. I have 9GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333 MHz (whatever all that means).

Jenny, thanks for the You Tube link - 52 parts - yikes. Maybe I'll check it out.

The game automatically installs to C Program Files. If I wasn't so afraid of getting locked out of my system forever I would maybe try installing it again manually somehow and somewhere else but I've got a LOT of other games to play so it's not really a big deal. Just a normal disappointment that something you buy doesn't work as it should.

Cruise, glad you were able to play!

You have a Radeon HD 5870 instead of Intel graphics. Your computer is way better than what the game says it needs.


I liked that particular playthrough because it was almost like playing the game myself, or along with a friend.

As Jenny stated, your video card is more than adequate, although you may want to check your drivers. Also, did you allow DirectX 9 to install with the game? You should always do this even though you're probably running DX 10 or 11.



Installing anything to the Program Files folder can lead to problems under Windows 7. Try reinstalling the game to your User folders.

Hi Oldbroad

When you install the game is there an option to browse to the right hand side of where the game suggests to install it?

If there is, you'll need to click on the black arrow and choose C:/User folder or C:/ games.
If the Games folder doesn't exist remember that you can right-click on an empty space on your screen and choose new folder, then rename this folder to Games. And then install the game there.

If you're afraid of what you're talking about, you could always make a restore point...

I always install the Direct X if it asks.

If I tried to manually install the game rather than use the auto install, will it give me an option to install it to a different place? With auto install, it does not. It just goes to C Program Files. There is no way to change it.

Do I need to set up an administrator to choose "run as adminstrator"?

If I try this again and I get stuck to where I have to use the power button to shut down my system and am again locked out, how do I get unlocked? I truly don't know how I got past that last time.

What do you mean by "locked out?" Did you get an error message and if so, what was it?

As stated in the first post above, I had a blank screen and I couldn't do anything but use my power button to shut my computer off. When I turned it back on it said I was locked out or the computer was locked or something locked and I couldn't get onto my computer. I think I might have eventually hit change user even though I'm the only user and it restarted and I was able to get back on then. I'm really not sure because I was scared I'd never get back on the computer and was not too calm about it. I just finished paying the thing off last month YAY!

It's hard to know what happened without the actual message, but it sounds like it might have booted up into an Administrator account? I'm not sure. But, if you did a change user and it then booted up, it sounds like it worked OK. I know that panicked feeling when something like that happens well!

It wasn't an error message, just said Jackie's locked on the screen when you first turn your computer on.

Did you set it up with a password?