HOW TO GET 'FINAL FANTASY VII PC' RUNNING ON YOUR WINDOWS 2000/NT 5 SYSTEM
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Document's Purpose
2.1 The 'Problem'
2.2 Is This Your 'Problem'?
2.3 My 'Problem' Is Different
2.4 How To Fix The 'Problem'
2.5 Other 'Problems' Now
2.6 Problems & Solutions
3.1 Open Document
1.1 Introduction
First of all, I would like to introduce myself as a person who loves the Final Fantasy series, especially Final Fantasy VII. I am also a person who had his Playstation console broken and couldn't play Final Fantasy VII anymore -- but -- like others during the time of Windows 98, I purchased the PC version of Final Fantasy VII. As the years went on, majority of people upgraded to NT 5 (i.e., Windows 2000, Windows XP) to take advantage of NT's power and reliability. A dream come true to Windows 9x users for sure, but a nightmare for those who play Final Fantasy VII for the PC. This documentation will help you run FINAL FANTASY VII PC on your Windows 2000 system and give insight to Windows XP users.
1.2 Document's Purpose
The reason I wrote this document is to help others who are having problems running FINAL FANTASY VII PC on their Windows 2000/NT 5 systems. I recently upgraded to Windows 2000 Professional from Windows 98 and I suffered greatly trying to get this game to run properly. I don't want any other Final Fantasy fan to suffer like I did. I hope this document will be deemed useful in the Final Fantasy community. (To read more information about this document, see section 3.1.)
2.1 The 'Problem'
Generally, the problem behind FINAL FANTASY VII PC is the fact that it was poorly ported from Playstation to PC by Eidos Interactive, Inc. The quick porting scheme resulted in the lack of backward-compatibility. It is worth noting that most old games run perfectly on Windows 2000 and Windows XP (with some exceptions, of course).
2.2 Is This Your 'Problem'?
For many people, the main problem to FINAL FANTASY VII PC on Windows 2000 is the crash during the first battle with the two MPs (Military Police). This usually occurs after the introduction movie ends, when the group gets off the train, and Cloud (the main character) has to fight the two MPs; a few seconds into the battle, the game crashes and returns you to the Desktop. If this is your problem, it is possible to fix it (see section 2.3). The game has other problems, too, but it is possible to fix those as well (see section 2.6).
2.3 My 'Problem' Is Different
See section 2.6 for a list of other problems and solutions.
2.4 How To Fix The 'Problem'
If your problem is of that listed in section 2.2, and you are running the Windows 2000 operating system (edition is irrelevant), then here is the solution to fix it:
* Make sure you are running Windows 2000 Service Pack 2. If not, upgrade (or downgrade from SP3) to Service Pack 2. Downloading and installing a service pack is provided by Microsoft for free. Visit
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/servicepacks/sp2 for more information.
* Make sure you have the rights to login as Administrator (if not, ask your Administrator to do the following). Simply login as Administrator and enable compatibility support on the system. This is done by typing the following command in the Command Prompt or in the 'Run...' dialog box located in the Start Menu: regsvr32 %systemroot%\apppatch\slayerui.dll
* Download and install Microsoft's Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit 1.1 located at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/compatibility/act.exe.
* Reboot (restart) your system.
* After rebooting, launch the program called 'QFixApp' located in Start Menu > Programs > Application Compatibility Toolkit. From here, simply 'Browse' to the ff7.exe application (assuming you've already installed FINAL FANTASY VII PC), select 'CheckWriteFileBuffer.dll' and 'VirtualRegistry.dll' *only*, and click 'Run'. You should now get passed the first battle and play the game in its entirety.
Note: It is very important for all Windows 2000/NT 5 users to patch their ff7.exe with the Chocobo patch. See section 2.6 (A-4) for more information.
2.5 Other 'Problems' Now
If you have successfully launched ff7.exe via 'QFixApp' (as directed in section 2.4), but you are encountering other problems (e.g., movie not playing, no sound, etc.), there is no need to fear! These are easily fixed. See section 2.6 for a list of other problems and solutions.
2.6 Problems & Solutions
The following contains a list of common problems and solutions to various issues with FINAL FANTASY VII PC (in Question and Answer format):
Q-1: "How come the movies won't play (I see a black screen)?"
A-1: The reason the movies won't play is because you do not have the proper codecs installed for Windows Media Player. For this reason you see a black screen when you launch the game or elsewhere. Simply download and install Microsoft's Windows Media Player Codecs located at
http://download.microsoft.com/download/winmediatech40/Install/8.0/WIN98Me/EN-US/wmpcdcs8.exe.
Q-2: "How come I don't hear the audio in the movies?"
A-2: The reason audio won't play in the movies is because you are missing a codec, have a bad codec, or in need of an updated codec. See A-1 to download and install Microsoft's Windows Media Player Codecs. This usually fixes all audio/video problems.
Q-3: "How come the movies and/or movie audio skip?"
A-3: Besides the obvious reason of a low-end system, this might also be caused by bad or outdated codecs. I suggest downloading and installing Microsoft's Windows Media Player Codecs. This usually fixes all audio/video problems. See A-1.
Q-4: "How come the game crashes during the Chocobo races?"
A-4: This is caused by a bug. Fortunately, a patch has been developed and is located at
http://www.qhimm.com/ff7_chocobo_patch.zip. The Final Fantasy community is still thanking its developer for supplying us with such an outstanding patch!
Q-5: "How come I don't have the option to play in Direct3D mode?"
A-5: Assuming you do have a 3D video card, it is possible to use an updated ff7config.exe file to set up hardware acceleration. Visit
http://www.eidosinteractive.com/support/search.html?gmid=44 and look for the nVidia Riva patches. It is also advisable to experiment with other drivers for your card. Getting hardware acceleration to work with FINAL FANTASY VII PC is a challenge and a game of its own!
Q-6: "How come I wasn't provided the solution to my 'problem'?"
A-6: Many people have varying computer specifications and configurations. It would be impossible to list *every* possible scenario. I would suggest you to visit
http://www.eidosinteractive.com/support/search.html?gmid=44 and see if a patch for your 'problem' exists. I would also recommend searching Web sites, newsgroups, forums, and etc.
3.1 Open Document
As a closing note, I would like to mention that this document is strictly an "open document." By that I mean anyone is free to copy and post (or even modify) this document anywhere he or she likes. For the sake of integrity, all I ask is the original text be left unchanged and any modifications clearly stated as so.
I hope this documentation has helped people. I wish everyone the best of luck with FINAL FANTASY -- the best RPG in the past, present, and future!
- created 26 October 2002, <FinalFantasyRox>
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