In much excitement, I accidentally found Myst IV: Revelation at the library! Unfortunately, however, it refuses to play -- or give any sort of sign of awareness -- on my computer. I have no idea why, and it's a bit of a frustration for finding a game that you've been wanting to try (and especially because it's in German now!). Does anyone have any ideas on how I could fix the problem? Typically, PC games are not "region-locked" like most console games are, so I would find it a little odd if that was the case...
I also found two more games, but they also refuse to work. I thought it could be yet another potentially helpful language resource to try and play games in German! Alas.
Last but not least, my operating system is Windows Vista, which should be able to play these '98/XP games, riiiight?
Saturday, November 01, 2008
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15 comments:
Sorry to dissappoint you, but "newer" not always means "better" :(
Vista may have a cool visual side, however not all older software (especially games) works on it. We had the same problem over here trying to run "Worms armageddon" on vista. The colors were inverted, and the game crashed. But we mamaged to fix it.
What's exactly your problem?
Martin
Yeah, I really know new isn't always better.... and it is definitely true for Vista :P . It is basically only a shinier, "prettier" version of an older Windows OS.
So then. When I put the game CDs in, I can hear the CD drive running for a moment, but after a little while, it just stops. Nothing shows up on the computer -- No Autoplay, nothing in My Computer, no new data found. The computer behaves as if it does not recognize that anything new has happened at all.
Now that's something different.
Would it be a software problem, you could google for patches or ways to ommit it (mostly messing around with the Windows configuration)
A CD not wanting to start could have either 2 reasons:
1. If the CD is only a copy of the original (CD-R), there's always a probability that the lense doesn't "see" it. Happens from time to time, especially if the CD is from an no-name brand, which uses some non standart organic dye for the data-carying layer. Can also (but not so often) happen with CD-Rs from companies considered as good (like TDK, Verbatim, Sony, EMTEC).
2. If the CD is an original one, the side facing the lense must be scratched pretty badly. Original CDs have an alluminium layer which is good with practically any lense out there. Since you got it from a library it suppose it must be rather an original, alluminium based CD.
And yes. Games are not region limited. So, theoretically speaking, you should be able to open it.
However....
IF the game's on a DVD there could be a problem. DVDs have the region-lock as standart. and european DVDs wouldn't run on computers bought in the states. That's the basic rule for movies. Of course there are ways to ommit it. But realy - why would anybody put a region-lock on a data DVD with a game? Wouldn't seems to be a good marketing strategy.
Hope it wasn't to technical ;)
Martin
Danke für diese Information ;) . Well, I just checked now -- Myst IV is a DVD-Rom, and the other two games are CD-Roms. However, just as you said... Es macht kein Sinn to put a region-lock on a game DVD.
Also, I checked out a few German DVD movies a few weeks earlier, and they worked with no problem.
Ach, ich weiß nicht... All of the discs are in very good shape (hardly any scratches at all), and yes, they are all legitimate, "legal" original copies.
Also ehrlich gesagt, sehe ich so was zum ersten Mal. Ich denke darüber nach, woran es liegen könnte.
Ich hab generell ein Interesse für technische Probleme und versuche sie zu lösen. Das geht aber schlecht per Internet. Einige Sachen aber muss man eben selber sehen um sie zu begreifen.
Naja...wenn Du weiter ähnliche Probleme haben wirst könnte ich eventuell irgendwann vorbeikommen und es mir anschauen.
Aber wir reden noch an Donnerstag darüber.
Martin
"my operating system is Windows Vista, which should be able to play these '98/XP games"...
Hahahahahahahahahahaha. HAHAHAHAHA. *ahem*.... I'm sorry, I'm not laughing at you. I'm laughing at the accursedness of Windows Vista. It has a tendency to not play well with others. Which is to say, they've started having to put "Vista compatible" on a crap-ton of things (including printers, etc), because so many things are NOT Vista compatible. I could go on and on about how utterly retarded the Vista operating system is (have you ever checked how much of your RAM it takes up?), but I'll keep you from that.
Yeah... I certainly do know. And I have Windows Vista because it was on my new computer at the time -- not vice versa ;P .
You could downgade. People have done it. It will certainly make your compoo-poo work faster.
Already considered that with my father months and months ago, but it was eventually agreed that if my computer ever had any problems (especially while I'm here in Germany) and I had to call tech service, it's suddenly going to turn risky when I try to explain my problems and they eventually figure out that I've jacked out a pirated copy of an OS for downgrade.... If that makes sense. It was more worth it to shrug and just keep Vista with its shiny but unremarkable self.
Oh, I did forget to mention that my father and I eventually also decided to counter the issue of Vista acting like the stupidest and fattest mule in the barn who nevertheless eats most of the feed among the animals by buying some extra RAM to plug in. So that's that. I guess you could say my computer at least runs alright since we did that. Er, strictly speed-wise. (Obviously it's still drooling dumbly when I give it a merely Windows XP game disc.)
Ever considered Linux?
Martin
Hm. Nein, eigentlich niemals.
You could get a legal, instead of pirated, copy of an earlier version of Windows. That would solve things.
WOW. It's a real word now! "dings" is my verification word. Haha.
Regarding the region-locked part of things, PC games are actually going more that way, though I doubt that is the problem in this case.
Providing unhelpful information,
Aubrey
Wow, that's inconvenient. I wonder what for.
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