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XP games won't run on Windows 7 #836298
09/18/12 06:56 AM
09/18/12 06:56 AM
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 66
Cheshire
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The traveller Offline OP
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The traveller  Offline OP
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Hi,
Can anyone help please? We have had a new computer and I have got some XP games I haven't played and I want to use on Windows 7, I have tried various ways to load them, some I have managed to get to work but I can't get the ones listed below to load or run.
The games are:-
Lifestream
In Memoriam
Midnight Nowhere
Nancy Drew the Haunted Carousel
The Egyptian Prophecy
Scratches.
I have tried the Microsoft Compatibility Troubleshooter with no success. Any ideas would be really useful.
Thanks Myrtle

Re: XP games won't run on Windows 7 [Re: The traveller] #836312
09/18/12 08:44 AM
09/18/12 08:44 AM
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 40,644
southeast USA
Jenny100 Offline
GB Reviewer Glitches Moderator
Jenny100  Offline
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Sonic Boomer

Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 40,644
southeast USA
Have you tried running them in compatibility mode with "Visual themes," "Desktop composition," and "Display scaling on high DPI settings" disabled?
Also try both XP and 2000 compatibility, and even 98 compatibility for the oldest games.
***picture of options on compatibility tab***

Have you tried installing them to your user's Documents folder instead of the default location? Windows blocks some games from installing to or running from C:\Program Files and C:\Program Files(x86).

Have you tried both installing and running them as an Administrator (using the option in the right-click menu)?

Have you confirmed that the problem isn't a widescreen monitor problem rather than a Windows 7 problem? Some games will start if you change your desktop resolution to what the game uses instead of starting from your usual desktop resolution. Even if you don't have a widescreen, sometimes starting a game from a lower resolution than normal on an LCD monitor will help the game start.

In Memoriam may not run because of a QuickTime problem or because the website that's necessary to start the game has moved.

The Egyptian Prophecy is listed as one that won't run in Draclvr's thread, but the Nancy Drew game should run. Maybe the problem with the Nancy Drew is similar to the problem listed for Stay Tuned and Royal Tower (that's a guess though). The Egyptian Prophecy might run inside VMware Player or Virtual PC, but I haven't confirmed that.

Draclvr's thread has a fix for Scratches:
Quote:
Scratches installed, but trying to play the game caused a BSOD and a memory dump. Upsydaisy reported the same result on her newly installed Windows 7. I tried playing both from a full installation and playing from the disk - same result.

EDIT for Scratches. Inland and I found a work-around posted by the game developer. You must edit the Scream.CFG file. To accomplish this in Windows 7, go to C:/Program Files/Nucleosys/Scratches. Find the Scream.CFG file and right click. Select Properties and from within that window, change the Open With option to either Notepad or Word Pad. Change the Rate from 0 to 60. Save the file, exit and restart the game.


Draclvr and Inland are the real experts here, and other Gameboomers members have a lot more first-hand experience than I have. I've used Win7 for office stuff, but not games.

Re: XP games won't run on Windows 7 [Re: Jenny100] #837847
09/24/12 05:17 AM
09/24/12 05:17 AM
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The traveller Offline OP
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Hi Thank you for all your help. I have managed to load and run Scratches on the virtual machine. Nancy Drew did load but caused problems so I have abandoned that as I am not so bothered about that game. I have had no success with the other four. I have tried all the options that were suggested and none of them worked. Two loaded but wouldn't run, the other two wouldn't even load on the virtual machine. Before I abandon them completely has anyone any further ideas. Thank you Myrtle

Re: XP games won't run on Windows 7 [Re: The traveller] #837877
09/24/12 09:36 AM
09/24/12 09:36 AM
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 40,644
southeast USA
Jenny100 Offline
GB Reviewer Glitches Moderator
Jenny100  Offline
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Sonic Boomer

Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 40,644
southeast USA
Did Lifestream not load in a Virtual Machine?
According to the support page, it won't run in Vista or Windows 7. But the support page has some other suggestions that might work inside a Virtual Machine.

http://unimatrixproductions.com/support_lifestream.html

Quote:
ERROR: Video sequences won’t play <or> I received the following error: “Error while attempting to play the following video file: <filename.avi>. Automation Error. Unspecified Error.”

SOLUTION: This is, by far, the single most frequent error report we get for Lifestream. Installing a newer version of Xvid fixes this problem. First, uninstall Xvid from your system. Then, download the latest version of Xvid from here. Reinstall Xvid, restart your computer, and then your problem should be solved.


ERROR: I receive the following error message: “Error executing script. Make sure that the global variables do not have names that are reserved by the engine. The Scripting Engine returned the following error message: Invalid character.”

SOLUTION: Your PC’s native language is not set to English. This can cause a conflict with Lifestream's scripting engine. To fix the problem, switch the native language to English.


ERROR: My problem is not listed here. What should I do?

SOLUTION: Contact us!

Re: XP games won't run on Windows 7 [Re: Jenny100] #837878
09/24/12 09:49 AM
09/24/12 09:49 AM
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 48,169
near Yosemite
Marian Offline
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Marian  Offline
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Sonic Boomer

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Posts: 48,169
near Yosemite
If you want to get The Haunted Carousel to run on Windows 7, follow the instructions here. This method should work. wave

Re: XP games won't run on Windows 7 [Re: The traveller] #838654
09/27/12 11:19 AM
09/27/12 11:19 AM
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 66
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The traveller Offline OP
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The traveller  Offline OP
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Thank you everyone for your help I hav e given up on the games. I need some new games now do you have a list of windows 7 games anyone. Thanks Myrtle

Re: XP games won't run on Windows 7 [Re: The traveller] #838782
09/27/12 08:00 PM
09/27/12 08:00 PM
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 40,644
southeast USA
Jenny100 Offline
GB Reviewer Glitches Moderator
Jenny100  Offline
GB Reviewer Glitches Moderator
Sonic Boomer

Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 40,644
southeast USA
You might check Draclvr's ***Windows 7 and Games*** thread to find out what older games have been played successfully. Any new game should work on Windows 7.

Re: XP games won't run on Windows 7 [Re: The traveller] #839180
09/29/12 02:07 PM
09/29/12 02:07 PM
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 66
Cheshire
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The traveller Offline OP
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The traveller  Offline OP
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Thanks everyone for the help. Myrtle

Re: XP games won't run on Windows 7 [Re: The traveller] #839184
09/29/12 02:13 PM
09/29/12 02:13 PM
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 40,644
southeast USA
Jenny100 Offline
GB Reviewer Glitches Moderator
Jenny100  Offline
GB Reviewer Glitches Moderator
Sonic Boomer

Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 40,644
southeast USA
Good luck, Traveller.

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