Advice for pre-2012 games on Windows 8 and beyond

[Clephas]

This is just a bit of advice coming from someone who has had to recently troubleshoot a lot of older games in recent months.  A lot of the VNs from before the release of Windows 8 simply can't work on the later OS's without a bit of troubleshooting.  So... here is a bit of advice.

 

First, never install any Japanese VN in the programs folder.  I know this might not seem like a big issue, but about one third of all VNs will refuse to function on a non-Japanese system when installed in the programs folder, for some reason.  This is particularly problematic with pre-Windows Vista VNs, which often cannot save or alter settings when installed in the programs folder. 

Second, check for an x64 fix patch on the VN company's website support page.  Most of the major companies that haven't gone out of business have made patches for their older works to let them work on later systems (incidentally, this seems to be primarily a problem with proprietary engines, and most games based off of Kirikiri don't seem to have this problem).   Also make sure you download any fix patches that are still active, because their content is not always included with the fix for x64 systems.  Then, you should always install the fix patches before the x64 patches, as they frequently change the exe file (thus unfixing the problem with x64 systems).

Third and final, as a last resort, consider emulating an earlier Windows system (make sure you don't allow internet to be used by the virtual pc, since ransomware vulnerabilities are integral to all pre-Windows 7 systems and even a properly updated pre-Windows 10 system will often still be vulnerable to certain types of nasty malware developed in the last few years).  This can often get around the issue entirely... but I don't recommend it as a first option, lol.

 

If you have anything to add in terms of suggestions, please do.

 

Edited July 18, 2017 by Clephas

[fun2novel]

I would suggest to stick with a virtual pc. VirtualBox is a great virtual machine program. It's free and you can install all kinds of OSs. If you have a system that runs Win10 it's probably good enough to run a virtual machine with a WinXP or Win7. Install your vns on your virtual machine and there you go. You can even adjust the size of the screen (some older vns don't have that ability but it's no problem if you run in a VM). Keeps your computer clean too.

But how will the text hooking work? Say you have ITH on your system and the vn is in a virtual machine. It's possible but might take a few extra steps to make it work.

Edited July 18, 2017 by fun2novel

[Tyr]

3 hours ago, fun2novel said:

But how will the text hooking work? Say you have ITH on your system and the vn is in a virtual machine. It's possible but might take a few extra steps to make it work.

You open ITH in your virtual box, then you activate "clipboard sharing". TA or whatever you use, which runs on your Host OS, will get everything the ITH in the virtual box captures since it will be shared between Guest OS and Host OS. Simple solution and works flawlessly (as long as you use VirtualBox as your virtual machine).

I use VirtualBox for every game prior to Windows 7 and never had a problem with it. It's really the best solution to play older games.
I have a WinXP VM for nearly every game and a Japanese Win98SE VM for really, really old games that only work on this OS. You can't use ITH in Win95 or Win98, so if you want to hook them, you have to hook the VM itself. I doubt anyone wants to do it, so I wont go into it here, but it is possible. ^^

[fun2novel]

53 minutes ago, Tyrosyn said:

You open ITH in your virtual box, then you activate "clipboard sharing". TA or whatever you use, which runs on your Host OS, will get everything the ITH in the virtual box captures since it will be shared between Guest OS and Host OS. Simple solution and works flawlessly (as long as you use VirtualBox as your virtual machine).

I use VirtualBox for every game prior to Windows 7 and never had a problem with it. It's really the best solution to play older games.
I have a WinXP VM for nearly every game and a Japanese Win98SE VM for really, really old games that only work on this OS. You can't use ITH in Win95 or Win98, so if you want to hook them, you have to hook the VM itself. I doubt anyone wants to do it, so I wont go into it here, but it is possible. ^^

Great. Thanks for sharing!

[Jartse]

Before giving up on Win 8/10, try Windows XP compatibility mode, it might just happen to work.

Also note that the x64 patches don't apply if you happen to be running a 32 bit windows 8 or windows 10.