Hello

I've noticed that Beyond Atlantis 2 is listed as working under Windows 7 in the Windows 7 thread, but unfortunately it's refusing to work on my new alienware laptop which came with windows 7. I copied the contents of each of the 3 dvds into a folder on the laptop as I have an exernal dvd drive and I find this the easiest arrangement with games. It copied OK and seemed to install from the folder with no errors. However when I double click the desktop icon to try and play it just keeps immediately coming up with the message that the .exe is not working and trying to find a solution which of course it doesn't. I've also tried running it under compatibility mode set to different versions of Windows, all to no avail! It's strange because when I tried to run this game on my last laptop under vista it would get just past the initial video and then crash, but now it's not even running - has anyone any idea or suggestions about my problem?

The game is compatible with both the 32 and 64 bit editions of Vista, so there should be no issues running it under windows 7 -

Windows Vista Compatibility Center

There is a patch from TAC, but it addresses a crash at the beginning of the game -

Beyond Atlantis 2 Patch

Try installing the game from the external DVD drive.

OK, thanks for the suggestions, I'll try and install it rather than copy it over and I'll install the patch too, fingers crossed...

I seem to remember the game was problematic under vista whatever I did and I had to give up.

I didn't even have to install or play in compatibility mode on my 64-bit Windows 7. All it needed was the patch to stop it from crashing when you first talk to a guard, but I needed that when I played it in XP too.

It played better in Win 7 than it did in XP for me.

It sounds like a copy "protection" problem. You're trying to run the game using a folder as a CD, but it isn't a CD and the copy "protection" recognizes that. If you want to run the game entirely from the hard drive, you'd need a CD emulation program to mount images of the game CD's.

Hi draclvr I'm glad you got the game to play, I will investigate re-installing it differently and install the patch and see if that helps.

This game is available in a DRM-free version from DotEmu.
http://www.dotemu.com/en/download-game/431/beyond-atlantis-atlantis-2

Hi Jenny100, I think some games are happier than others to be copied, I just played Secret Files 2 copied into a folder and I have played other games that way too, of course it may be something to do with that and I will try a re-install a different way to see what happens.

Hi again Jenny100 thanks for the drm free link, as I have the original game disks I will try a re-install with them first but I have the download option as a last resort now

I just reinstalled to double check and it's playing with no issues or extra steps at all - well, other than installing the patch. When I uninstalled before, I made sure to remove everything including the registry entries. Hope you can get it working!

Thanks all for the swift help and suggestions! I will get back if I have continued problems!

Just to say I've given up on this game now, I tried installing it directly from the external dvd drive which seemed to work. but then when I tried to run the game, after the initial error message about screen resolution I had to once again mess about trying to run it in xp compatibility mode. It then started up, I pressed escape to skip the intro video and selected the player 1 button. then it asked for the correct cd (2) to be in the drive so I put cd 2 in the drive but no matter how long I waited or pressed button, it just wasn't happy. so I've had enough of the messing now and will have to give up on the game, it's a shame because it's not that old but I've wasted enough time on it already!

I hate that it didn't work for you like it did for me. It's a 2001 game, so it's pretty long in the tooth.

If the problem is the copy "protection" on the CD, OR the laptop's not detecting that a different CD has been put in the drive (which is a problem I've seen in Dell laptops, and Dell owns Alienware), you can get around it by using DotEmu's DRM-free version which uses no CD's.

Alternatively, this game does run using CD emulation programs, which would allow you to get past the disc recognition problem. But unfortunately certain copy "protections" (like SecuROM) blacklist CD emulation programs, which would mean other games that are using those copy "protections" might stop working if you install a CD emulation program.

Yes I have no idea why it still refused to accept the second cd, but not to worry, I have other fish to fry, Lost Horizon is on its way and hopefully I won't have issues with that!