Hi guys. I found a thread on Google from the old forum. A staff member said you want to hear about Windows 7 issues with GameTap. Was glad to hear this as I've been using the RC and am experiencing some issues, figure you might want to look at these before the OS comes out.

https://secure.gametap.com/forums/threa ... 3&tstart=0

I'm using the x86 version of Windows 7 RC. I'm on a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop, P8700 CPU, 4GB RAM and an ATI HD 4330. I have the Windows 7 ATI driver.

So far I've tried to launch Planescape Torment and Baldur's Gate II. Planescape's Torment.exe crashes shortly after clicking Play (Firefox 3.0.10). I've tried disabling UAC as well as running Firefox as an administrator to see if these solved the problem.

Baldur's Gate II was a bit different but it also wouldn't start. After clicking Play, the BG2 launcher would pop up with an Install button rather than a Play button. Clicking Install just closes the thing.

Coincidentally I've only tried Infinity Engine games so far. I'll try others as well. If there's an existing Windows 7 thread, I couldn't find it, but I figured I should report whatever issues I've been having even though it's not a retail build of Windows 7.

Follow-up:

Baldur's Gate (original, but the same engine as the previous two games which did not work) seems to work fine. The Last Express also seems to work fine, and so does Sam & Max. Just trying to test an array of games. So far BG2 and Planescape are the only ones that don't work.

edit: Heroes III also works.

Icewind Dale also works fine. So 2 of 4 Infinity Engine games that I've tried do not work in Windows 7.

Let me know if this information is useful or not. I'll stop reporting for now since most things seem to work.

I think it's useful , thanks! I'll clue in the devs to this thread.

I am also grateful for your reports. I'll be adding some of my own soon enough.

Cool Thanks guys.

Could you test Grandia 2 for me? I am considering downloading Windows 7 as it looks so nice. I'm sure it might even be better then XP in a year or so.

I've got 2gigs of ram though... should i upgrade my ram to my max of 4gigs before i download it?

I'll give it a shot. Is that an emulated game? Or is it Windows? If it's emulated, I'd imagine it works.

As for your memory, 2GB is definitely enough for Windows 7. It's got a smaller memory footprint than Vista and I ran Vista with 2GB for just over a year and a half (still running Vista on my desktop, but I recently upgraded to 4GB for when I do production work and stuff -- not necessarily needed for gaming yet).

Puzzle Quest gives me an error (which pops up as a Windows error) called "Protection" (in the title bar) and in the window it says "Error: 153". I have to restart the GameTapPlayer process in order to launch a different game or else I get GameTap error 4062.

Grandia II launches and I get to the main menu. Selecting New Game begins the "Now Loading" screen, but shortly after, a black screen is all I get. Doesn't go further. The program doesn't freeze and it never goes to "not responding" in the task manager but I have to use that to close the game.

Attempting to launch Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader does not work. I click Play and nothing happens, but it's clearly trying to launch as I get error 4062 again if I try to launch a different game. Have to reset the process again.

Suspected that the Granda II issue may not be a GameTap or Windows 7 issue since the game starts, so I looked around for it. Seems to be a common problem. A movie plays after the first loading screen that uses an obscure/old codec. Movie can be skipped by pressing F9, and then the game plays. I'm running on default codecs for Windows 7, haven't had to install any yet myself.

Ok so has any of the Tomb Raider series been tested yet on Windows 7?

One thing to note, it's tricky to identify whether these issues are because Win7 differences are affecting the native game code or if the GameTap device driver is acting up in Win7.

Games released prior to Vista's existance (circa 2004) are at the greatest risk of not performing properly in Win7. If you play any contemporary games from the last 5 years and they don't launch, I would definitely like to know. Puzzle Quest is a good example, however I think it worked for me. I'm downloading it again now.

So far, I've had no issues with any emulated games. My only Win7 testbed is an Asus EeePC 1000HE model, so there aren't TOO many Windows games I can test on it due to the limited HW specs.

Ok so i have fixed the video codec problem for Grandia 2. I am going to test tomb raider with the solution i have used. For the grandia you want to go to the local drive and to the gametap player folder and change the gametap player's compatibility to winodws xp service pack 3 and it will be able to run the game as well as the video scenes. Hope this works well for all other games i will be back to give more info.

Has anyone tried using Win7's "XP Mode" with GT, yet?

For me, I've been able to make exactly zero parts of GameTap work on Windows 7. That includes, among other highlights, the uninstaller. Browser games hang at the "Powered by Gametap" screen forever; nothing else will enqueue to download.

I'm willing to believe I botched my attempt to configure a different game storage location (write. a. config. app.), but not willing to believe that's why the uninstaller doesn't work.

Tech support gave me nothing but "Windows 7 is unsupported, use XP mode", not even instructions for what to manually scrape out of the system to get rid of GameTap so I can try again on a clean install, even though I explicitly asked for such.

I'm working on a knowledgebase article for clearing out GT elements for such a situation. I'll link it when it's done. Hopefully some time tomorrow =0

I'd love to know when it's up. I just got a chance to try GameTap on my other Windows 7 gaming desktop computer (it's my high-end gaming computer that does't work with GT; apparently, my average gaming computer is just fine) and it's working perfectly. I was able to uninstall GameTap (after the most recent update) from the other computer, but reinstalling it didn't fix the issue.

Manual cleaning is the next step.

Sorry hadn't checked this thread in a while.

XP Mode in Windows 7 does not have Direct 3D support, so no games are likely to work through it.

All the same issues I mentioned initially persist for my Windows 7 RC install. No Planescape, Baldur's Gate, etc. But some games do work, like Icewind Dale. It would seem to me this is some issue with specific games interacting with Windows 7 through GameTap. These all work fine in Vista still. I think Serious Sam is the only game I haven't been able to run in Vista (through GameTap, that is -- it works when I use my discs).

Kistaro, have you tried Planescape on your Windows 7 install yet? You're on the RC, right? Not one of the leaked, post-7100 builds?

Kistaro wrote: Tech support gave me nothing but "Windows 7 is unsupported, use XP mode".

Well thats 3 for 3 on the operating systems I use. No Ubuntu support (forgivable), no 64-bit support (UNFORGIVABLE in this day and age), and no Windows 7 support.

I've found it to be just about possible to play SOME games under Windows 7 and GT - Most of the "Putt Putt" games work but the "Pajama Sams" and "Reader Rabbit" all seem to have issues (Yes, I subscribed to GT for some games that are over 12 year old because I dug up the disks the other day for my 4 year old daughter and found they had all been scratched from extensive use with the other chils).

Getting the few games that do work to work is a nightmare though; I have to constantly kill and restart the gametap background client, switch computability modes and run them all as admin. And 1/2 the time downloads dont then work - TRULY appalling.

I wouldn't call it "appalling," considering Windows 7 isn't even RTM yet, but I would definitely hope the issues are being looked at with its release being just a few months away.

Bloodrayne will also not start when i press the "play" button.
Its fully downloaded, and my location bar reads "http://www.gametap.com/games.html#launch_BloodRayne_gametap_476050" but nothing happens
Windows 7.100, firefox 3.5

Having tested GT on Win7 extensively this weekend I can safely say that Exent and Windows 7 simply do not get along. 12 out of 16 games tested did not launch, either only showing up as an empty process in Task Manager (Typing of the Dead, Syberia II, Pirates!), showing Protection Errors (Puzzle Quest), or requiring DLLs that are missing(Shadowgrounds, Sherlock Holmes). And just a hunch, but I'm guessing Win7 doesn't play well with said DLLs either.

As for games that DO work; as Sokkrates alluded, Interplay games like Fallout do launch, along with Grandia II. Tomb Raider Anniversary launches. Hitman 2 gets to a Ubisoft launcher but does not work beyond that. Mr. Robot launches.

I think Yummy encryption will fix some of this. The games that launched with errors may simply not be Win7-compatible (even in XP compatibility mode). While the games spawning junk processes probably SHOULD work under Yummy. That's my guess, anyway.

For now I recommend sticking to XP if you can.

For reference, I'm testing GT on my secondary computer: an adequate 2.0 ghz dual core computer with a GeForce 7600GT and 2 gigs of ram. It's older but it's certainly enough to run 99% of the GameTap library. I've been running GTPlayer as admin in XP and Vista SP1 compatibilty modes. Gametap.com is in the DEP. And anyone with Win7 already has DirectX 11.

e: 13 out of 17 failed now. Dark Fall doesn't launch either.

e: 14 out of 19 failed now. Sam & Max launches, as Sokkrates mentioned. Return to Mysterious Island does not.

My Win7 compatibility list (YMMV):

LAUNCH:
Agatha Christie: Evil Under the Sun
Al Emmo
Baseball Mogul 07
Fallout
Grandia II
Insecticide
Interstate 76 Gold
Jack Keane
Marble Blast Gold
MDK
Mr. Robot
Sam & Max
Voyage

DON'T LAUNCH:
Dark Fall
Deus Ex (Regular or GOTY)
Fable: The Lost Chapters
Hitman Codename 47
Hitman Contracts
Konami's NES Collection
Prince of Persia: Sands of Time
Return to Mysterious Island
Second Sight (Protection Error 153)
Sid Meyer's Pirates!
Soul Reaver 2
Thief: Deadly Shadows
Typing of the Dead
X-Com (Error: "Couldn't Create Process")

POSSIBLY INCOMPATIBLE WITH WIN7/ERRORS AFTER LAUNCH:
Beyond Good and Evil
Hitman 2
Rainbow Six
Runaway: A Road Adventure
Serious Sam
Shadowgrounds (missing DLLs)
Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened (missing DLLs*)

Why Voyage works and Return to Mysterious Island doesn't is beyond me. At some point I'll be re-downloading a couple of these games and making sure GT's horrifically flawed download manager isn't just trying to pull a fast one on me.

* Sherlock Holmes requires specific PhysX DLLs to run (like NxCharacter.dll), and both NVIDIA and AGEIA PhysX installations DO NOT install those specific DLLs onto this system, which leads me to believe it is simply not compatible.

Sid Meier's Civilization IV, Clive Barker's Jericho, and Grid work on Windows 7. Stalker popups menu to start game, but doesn't launch. I don't know how you would classify that.

Small update. Konami's NES Collection (a windows product) does NOT launch in Windows 7.

Also, while Evil Under the Sun launches, it is practically not completable. Something about the maid's pathfinding causes the game to crash (granny2.dll being the suspect). It's worth pointing out that The Adventure Company has put out a patch for this game, although I don't know if it fixes that specific problem.

That is a fault of the game, though, not Gametap. I was able to complete Voyage, so not all Adventure Company games have this problem (although a couple don't launch...).

e: I'm one lucky *****, I was able to talk to the maid and get out of the room before she was able to finish her pathfinding and crash the game. Thank you reflexes. Unfortunately anyone else who has this glitch is probably screwed.

*EDIT*: Language