I recently got FF7 from a friend. This is what I did.
Patched to 1.02
Xp Patch 1.04
Result: Black Screen at start up
Press enter
New Game / continue ==> I click on new game
black screen
nothing....
so, what can I do to fix this? And what other fixes do I need to get the game to work?
I had the black screen issue from the very opening of the game. im was trying to run it on xp and got it to work on xp, so my following solution is only for xp. btw, it worked well with vista in terms of the black screen issue in that it was never an issue. i made sure i had all my video/graphics related drivers were updated before i started tinkering.
the following is for the purpose of getting pass the black screen part only:
dwld the true motion codec (about 2mb)
also attain ffdshow program
once true motion thing is installed, open ffdshow video decoder configuration
look for true motion and disable this decoder
now that worked for me. I had to install a lot of different true motion files that i searched all over online cause i thought i just didnt have the right copy, eventually found the one from
http://fem1.uniag.sk/Miroslav.Jezik/ff7ncopam.html. I did not try doing the ffdshow thing until i had this one (no particular reasoning for doing it for this one). also, i thought i would have to make the shortcut of ffvii compatible to 95 or 98 (right click ffvii shortcut->properties->compatability tab->run this program...button (98 or 95 since it is an old game)) but not required. this site formerly mentioned (also posted in one of the forums here as neat compilation of patches or something) is helpful for other issues/revamps, but have yet to try all of them. This gets u passed the beginning movie, the new game screen and the train scene at the begginning of the game. I have yet to play the rest so can only say that it works that much. luck.
Also for those on laptop, that keyboard issue, well i use the fn on my comp to bypass it. Holding that and pressing any of the fn buttons on ur comp, u should be able to figure out what does what. holding fn and pressing enter is basically enter, holding fn and 8 i think is up, etc... once the game starts, go to the menu screen and change keys with the config option in the game. i did not use the key board patches and it worked the last time i tried. didnt try it recently so dont hold me on this.
One issue i have, which i can do without but would be nice to get, is the saints high res file. One of the two patches (the one with higher res than the other) works. The other is considered a trojan and the system would not allow one to unzip this patch. likewise for the reunion file. Any ideas on how to use these files without trojan response issues. Also, is the npc 0.6 file better than any of the former two? any other revamp suggestions would be greatly appreciated