Can't get EoSD to work, please help

[bronx819]

I've been trying for a couple days to get Touhou to work, this is my first game aside from 1-5 and I can't get it started.



I downloaded it from Zun's official site and got the english patch but I'm always getting this message on the startup, I've updated my drivers and directx, locale is set and everything, I'm stumped. I'm on Win7 if that helps

[Karisa]

The game downloads on ZUN's site are the free trials, not the full versions.

If you tried to apply an English patch to a trial version, I'm not surprised that it wouldn't work, since the patches are made for the full games (aside from maybe DDC's; I recall that game's demo having an English patch).

[Agent of the BSoD]

If you tried to apply an English patch to a trial version, I'm not surprised that it wouldn't work, since the patches are made for the full games (aside from maybe DDC's; I recall that game's demo having an English patch).

Not quite right here. The English patch does indeed work on the trial version. It's even stated on the first screen of the patch. EoSD and PCB are the only games with static English patches that do this. DDC can have the trial run the English patch (and other languages) through the Touhou Patch Center's patcher program.

Looking from that picture, however, it looks like you tried to apply the latest game patch to a trial version. You can't do that. Just take the trial version 0.13 download and only apply the English patch to that. Don't use the 1.02h patch on it, that won't work, as it's for the full version. That's probably where you went wrong. The download alone will be all you need, besides the English patch of course.

[bronx819]

Sorry for not replying for a while, school and work have been tormenting me. On the upside I got EoSD to work after about 6 hours of effort (even polished my skills a bit, though normal without any continues is still impossible) and now PCB presents a new problem. Oh and thanks for that bit on the trial, it was really helpful.

Are EoSD and PCB problems on their own? Or does my PC have a problem with Touhou in general? Whenever I try running PCB its way worse than EoSD, I have to ctrl alt del and stop the process just to stop my PC from freaking out.

[Ranko Hoshino]

This isn't really related to the topic, but Ctrl+Shift+Esc does bring up the task manager directly as a small tip.

[Agent of the BSoD]

I don't quite understand what you mean by "freaking out". The game engines for those particular games are a bit finicky at times, but usually it's something that can be avoided. What exactly isn't working right?

[bronx819]

Oh that's much easier, thanks for the tip lol

Its kinda hard to describe, the screen flashes a bit then the task bar flashes black and blue, I think its got something to do with aero, and I can't do anything, I can't hit start or touch anything, and it keeps going until I stop the process directly. With EoSD the screen flashed a couple times then an error message showed up, but with PCB nothing starts or shows up. Oh and it happens when I hit th07e, is it a screen resolution issue?

[Agent of the BSoD]

Are you playing in a window or fullscreen? Usually problems only happen when in fullscreen, particularly with Windows Aero.

If you're seeing the actual game window flicker in fullscreen, then the way to fix that is to right click the game exe, choose Properties, go to the compatibility tab, and check Disable visual themes and Disable desktop composition.

If something else is happening and/or this doesn't fix it, then I'm not entirely sure what's going on. Hopefully this helps.

[bronx819]

Ah, it was the fullscreen! I disabled it and it worked, well the only annoying part is that whenever the games open my PC switches to sero basic, luckily it goes back to normal after I exit the game but is there any way to fix that issue? Also I disabled the visual themes and desktop composition. Either way you're a life saver!

[Agent of the BSoD]

Yeah, having those two options checked disables that aero look. That was on purpose because it's the only way to stop the game window bleeding in when in fullscreen. The games should run fine in fullscreen this way. The early Touhou games don't seem to like aero. (I, myself, use the Windows Classic look because of performance issues with my old hardware, so I don't even need them checked since the games run fine on their own)

[bronx819]

Unfortunately my PC still goes to aero basic whenever I open it up even though I have those two options checked, well its not too much of an issue, the later Touhou games should be fine right?

I had my PC build almost a year ago, maybe that's why I've been having problems. I looked around the forums and everyone else seems to be having different issues, for me its always the game works or doesn't work, and if it works it works almost perfectly

[Kappa]

Yeah, having those two options checked disables that aero look. That was on purpose because it's the only way to stop the game window bleeding in when in fullscreen. The games should run fine in fullscreen this way. The early Touhou games don't seem to like aero. (I, myself, use the Windows Classic look because of performance issues with my old hardware, so I don't even need them checked since the games run fine on their own)

The THCRAP can apply an optional patch which fixes Aero compositing where it would otherwise break... that said, I don't know if THCRAP would work on trial versions of the games, nor can I vouch for its effectiveness or lack thereof in fullscreen since I run windowed.

Unfortunately my PC still goes to aero basic whenever I open it up even though I have those two options checked, well its not too much of an issue, the later Touhou games should be fine right?

I had my PC build almost a year ago, maybe that's why I've been having problems. I looked around the forums and everyone else seems to be having different issues, for me its always the game works or doesn't work, and if it works it works almost perfectly

In my experience, unmodified versions of even the latest games will break Aero's face.  Again though, Aero patch.