(Updated 3-6-05)
While answering a question on the G-collections BBS, I seem to have stumbled across a way to bypass V-mate when starting Hitomi. You have to start the program legitimately first. Then, once you perform the simple bypass procedure, Hitomi will start without running V-mate, and thus will start without an Internet connection. The bypass expires once the computer is restarted, requiring the bypass procedure to be performed once more (again, the game must be started legitimately first). Standby does not count as a “restart.” Hibernation does. With the help of volunteer testers, I have tested this bypass and confirmed that it works with Let’s Meow Meow, Hitomi, Pick Me Honey!, and Sagara Family. It should work with all subsequent games as well (unless GC fixes the “bug” that allows it to work).
I think there’s some people here who would be interested in this bypass. Although V-mate games can be minimized, and the Internet connection is not required once the game is started, Hitomi takes up quite a lot of resources when running in the background (something like 50% of the CPU on my 3.1 GHz computer). Also, it’s a lot more convenient to just keep the computer on (or on standby), rather than keeping the V-mate game(s) in question minimized all the time. Furthermore, I’m told that the bypass seems to reduce crashing for some users that experience crashes while playing V-mate titles.
The bypass procedure is now publicly available at Animetric forums. Those interested may go here to see it:
http://animetric.ibforums.com/index.php?showtopic=5397
Since the bypass procedure is now publicly available, I of course am not accepting further e-mails on the matter.
[This message has been edited by Dark_Shiki (edited 03-05-2005).]