Virtual Mate and Windows 7 -- Patches?

JAST Games Windows Compatibility
#1

Hi, we’ll be issuing a statement on Windows 7 soon, but so far we’ve seen that our games, including the download versions, seem to run fine on Windows 7 32-bit. Windows 7 64-bit, which we only just got our mitts on here in Japan, is likely to not be compatible with the download games due to the V-Mate limitations. We are working hard on a long-term fix for this (really) but if you’re using the 32-bit version, you should be good. I assume since the games don’t seem to be working that you are using the 64 bit mode?

Another thing to try, if you have a version of Win7 that supports the “XP mode” is to try that. Essentially you’d be running a version of XP invisibly inside your 64 bit install, which should work. Any feedback you can give us would be helpful.

#2

Wait. Are you running the games with the XP Compatibility box checked or are you running the games in the XP Mode virtual? There’s a major difference.

Run it in the XP Mode: I got mine to work on that. If you didn’t do this stuff, you’re not running XPM. The link is to and from the offical Microsoft site, so it’s all legit. :slight_smile:

Once you’ve installed XPM, install the games in the XP environment. Do the Virtual Mate from there as well. If Windows 7 has internet access, the XPM will have it too. You can then play the games in the XP environment or in Windows 7 if you turn on the integration options (which are already on by default). Just make sure the games add themselves to the “All Programs” list when doing installation. They’ll then show up in the All Program list for Windows 7 under the Virtual PC part.

64-bit Windows has general issues running 32-bit programs. Personally, I find it to be more trouble than it’s worth. Unless I have programs that NEED to run in 64-bit (like Exchange or SQL Server), I avoid it. Many games actually run worst in 64-bit… even the newest hottest titles. :frowning:

XP Mode is one of the greatest things to happen to Windows (I won’t say invent because M$ stole it): using it should fix your problem.

#3

If you have the installation disc of Windows XP and a legit XP serial key, you can use another program by Microsoft: Virtual PC 2007 (official M$ link). After installing it, you’ll need to apply a patch for it work on Windows 7, which can be found here.

This site here has instructions on how to install VPC2007 (and screenshots too). Here’s part 2 of the instructions.

Same deal… setup the virtual, install the game in the virtual, activate the VMate in the virtual… The real major difference, is that VPC2007 doesn’t have the cool integration mode for Windows 7 that XPM has. Won’t be as pretty and smooth, but it will work. You’ll need an XP installation disc though. If you wanna go that route, I can offer help if you get stuck somewhere. Virtual PC is easy to use, once you get the hang of it.

If you don’t like using an M$ product for personal reasons (I know not everyone is keen on Bill Gates), [b]there’s also VirtualBox[/b] that’s easy to use and setup (and best of all free too). Still need an XP installation disc though. Documentation for that program can be found here.

#4

Won’t install or activate. Microsoft – being the greedy company that it is – put lockouts for the versions of Windows 7 they don’t want to have XPM on them. :frowning:

VPC2007 is the virtual environment all other operating systems are supposed to use, but that doesn’t get a free copy of Windows XP with them like XPM does.

#5

I’m still stuck using the Windows 7 RC since the web shop I ordered the full version from keeps pushing the shipping date for it forward. Originally they were supposed to get them on October 29th, currently it’s saying November 22nd (unconfirmed) and it’ll probably get delayed even further -_-;

Not that I’m looking forward to another clean system install, installing all my games, and probably contacting various games publishers about my limited number of activations for their games having run out. I hate limited activation DRM.

When my copy DOES arrive though, I’ll give the XP mode a try. Hopefully it’ll be before New Years…

#6

Well, my Win 7 Ultimate box finally arrived tonight, so I gave this a spin. Installed the WinXP mode from the MS website and all that jazz. Installed Vmate on the virtual XP PC, and just copied over the download edition of Crescendo from my old Win 7 RC drive to the XP’s virtual one. After taking a wild guess as to what my Vmate login details were, it crashed with an error message. Tried again, and the game started.

The sound and music plays normally, voices work, nothing seems out of the ordinary. The only thing I noticed was that nothing in the virtual machine seems to be capable of running in full screen mode even if the virtual PC itself does. Trying to run the game full screen would just place the window up in the top left corner and remove the standard Windows border around it. I got the same result when simply trying to maximise anything at all, like the Windows Explorer window. No idea if it is a limitation/incompatibility of my hardware or the XP mode itself.

In short, it does seem like the XP mode will allow the VMate protected games to play. However, you need either the Professional or Ultimate editions to be able/allowed to use XP mode, the standard Home Premium edition cannot, so a different solution is hopefully found, if only moving the games over to Software Defender.

Edit
I found out why it crashed the first time; I tried running the copy of the game that was still on my Win 7 drive, which apparently doesn’t work. The game has to reside on the Virtual XP’s harddrive. The second time I ran the correct copy, hence why it didn’t crash again. It doesn’t need to be actually installed within the XP environment though, simply copying over the already installed game to the virtual harddrive is enough.

#7

The download version of Snow Sakura works just fine on the XP mode as well. Since I had the downloaded archive file from G-Collections still on my harddrive I just installed it on the Windows 7, started the XP Mode and moved the installed game over to the virtual XP mode harddrive manually. Started it up and it worked perfectly. I miss full screen play, but ah well. I’m not sure how powerful a computer you need to play the game through XP Mode, but I assume if you’re able to run the XP mode at all it shouldn’t be an issue. Windows 7 64 bit requires 2GB of RAM (or so the box says) and the XP mode an additional 1GB of RAM.

Edit
Figures of Happiness works as well. Installed it from within the XP mode this time, and it worked just fine. The intro seems to have some very slight tearing issues (like you get in some games when v-sync isn’t enabled), but I can’t remember if it wasn’t like that on my old normal XP install and it’s not really a problem anyway.