BL Game FAQ -- Please READ before posting your question!

[obsidianstars3]

I decided to move the guide to the Tech Help since most of the question I post are technical problems. ^^

Q1) Is (insert game name here) in English?
A1) The only games in English are Kuro no Tsuki and Graduation. For Kuro no Tsuki, the English patch can be obtained in the ~~Kuro no Tsuki Game Patch~~ sticky thread. For the Graduation game (by the company Joinac) the language can be set in Japanese or English so you do not need a patch. PLEASE DO NOT KEEP ASKING WHETHER BL GAMES ARE IN ENGLISH! I'm going to change this to Question 1 in hopes that people will actually read this. >_<


Q2) I can't get the game you've uploaded to work. What's wrong?
A2) Please keep in mind that I haven't actually played all the games I've uploaded. If you're having problems with your game and the answer is not located in this FAQ, feel free to post your question in the Technical Help Hotline forum. Just make sure you search to see if your problem has already been posted by someone and solved. There may be others who've had the same problem and can help.

Specific Games:

Silver Chaos
----Q) My game freezes in the hallway and ??? or gibberish shows up! What's wrong?
----A) You need to set your computer's compatibility to read Japanese characters. Silver Chaos will NOT work in Windows 98. If you have Windows XP you can read how to set your settings to Japanese to play the game in the FAQ's Question 3.

Togainu no Chi
----Q) I can't seem to get Togainu no Chi to install!
----A) Try following the installation guide at this place: hxxp://www.deathsvertigo.com/trueblood/install.html


Q3) I can't see the Japanese words! They come out as gibberish or in question marks.
A3) That's most-likely because you have not installed any sort of Japanese language support. You'll need to have the Japanese langauge support before you can be able to view the Japanese characters. Windows XP users will need to go to My Computer >> Control Panel >> Regional and Languages Options, then click on the Languages tab, check mark the Install files for East Asian languages, insert your Windows XP CD and let it install those languages. Sorry, I'm unfamiliar with other forms of Windows. NJStar and Asiansuite may work for Win98, but they do not work for certain games like Silver Chaos. You'll just have to suffer it out or get Windows XP.


Q4a) What are these large files in the .zip/.rar file that I've downloaded?
A4a) These files are most-likely (as in 99.9% most-likely) image files.

Q4b) And what are these "image files" you speak of?
A4b) Image files are pretty much self-explanatory. They are files made by using Alcohol 120%, Nero (yes it is possible), Clone CD, WinISO, and other various image-making programs in which the CD is directly copied from the disc and placed neatly onto your little hard drive. Ever since the dawn of legal protection in which CDs came equipped with, computer geeks all over the world retalliated! They gasped in horror and thus have worked pain-stakingly hard under excrutiating conditions to find a way around this so called "CD copyright protection" which disables the direct-copying of that commercial CD onto your blank CD. And their answer? Image files. Yep, an image file is like a xerox copy of your CD in which it is stored onto your computer. It defies the copyright protection because you just packed all of that right into that image file. Therefore now you can burn it onto a CD without the copyright protection crashing your burner. =) So.. what formats do these image files come in? Well, they come in a variety of formats. Just look for the extensions: .iso, .img, .bin & .cue, .mdf & .mds, .ccd, .cdi, etc. There are definitely a lot more, but these are the common ones. ^_^


Q5) How do I burn the game's image files onto a CD?
A5) First of all, find a game you want and download it. Usually these games will be in a .rar or .zip format. Extract the files into a folder.

Alcohol 120%
If you're using Alcohol 120%, you need to click on "Image burning wizard" (located in the list at the top left corner). Hit the "Browse" button and locate the folder in which you've extracted your files. Then select the .cue, .iso, .mds, or .ccd, or whichever file Alcohol 120% automatically shows. If there are 2 different files like .ccd and .cue, just pick anyone you want. Click on "Next." Select your burner, speed, and whatever options are optimal for your computer (I leave the Datatype as "Customize." Then hit "Start" and pray your CD will come out okay.

Nero
If you're using Nero, select Nero SmartStart. Choose "Burn Image to Disc" under the Copy and Backup Heading. Locate the folder where you've extracted your game files to. Then select and open the .iso or .cue file (Nero doesn't support as many image files as Alcohol 120% which is why it won't acknowledge .ccd as a proper format). Choose your settings for your burner and hit "Next." Hopefully it burns right.


Q6) Great! I want to share my BL Games with everyone!... so... tell me... how do I create an image file of my game to upload? =D

A6) Let me give you lots of glomps and huggles. We appreciate everyone who tries to upload BL games to share. ^_^ Well, the only way I know how to make an image file is by using Alcohol 120%.

First, put in the game CD you want to share. Then, open up your Alcohol 120% program. On the left side, there is a menu. The first option says, "Image Making Wizard." Click on that. Select the CD drive your game CD is in. Click "Next." Select a folder through the directory on your left where you want your image file to be saved to. Then select one of the image file formats you want the image file to be. The .cue and .iso are pretty common, but sometimes .iso might not be available or might not work. It doesn't really matter which image file you choose because if people are using Alcohol, they can burn all those types of image files. ^^ Then you hit "Start" and wait for your image file to be completed. Voila! You created an image file! Now... all you have to do is upload it to ysi or megaupload or some place overnight. I say overnight because an upload time for a game can range anywhere from 1 hour to 7 hours per CD. X_x


Q7) The download has an .ecm file. What is it and how do I use it to burn the game onto a CD?
A7) An .ecm file is used for compressing CD image files. Follow these instructions if you have an .ecm file in your game download:



1) Extract all files from your .rar or .zip file into a folder.
2) Go to that folder and run the decode.bat file and wait for it to finish.
---2a) If you don't have a decode.bat file, just drag the largest-sized file that's in that folder onto the unecm.exe application and it will decode it.

(decoding the .ecm image file creates the full, uncompressed image file which is used when you burn the game onto a CD. You need the full, uncompressed file for your CD to burn properly--it will NOT work with the compressed .ecm file.)

3) Go to your burner program (I used Alcohol 120%) and go to the image burning wizard.
4) Browse to the folder where you've extracted all your files and select the image file.
5) Hit "Next"
---5a) If you have a DVD burner, Alcohol 120% might ask if you want to burn the image file onto a DVD media. I chose "No" and burned it onto a CD. ^_~
6) Select your write speed and whatever options that fit your burner, then click "Start."

If all goes well, you should have your game burned onto your CD. ^o^


Q8) That .ecm seems pretty handy--especially if it can compress that image file! How can I use it too?

A8) First of all, you need to go here: hxxp://www.neillcorlett.com/ecm/ and download the winzip containing the ecm and unecm programs. You can read his explanation on how to work it, but I had a hard time understanding. =P I can't understand all those... technical terms.. bleh. So here's a watered-down explanation. Just extract all the files from the zip into a folder (I call mine ECM), then copy and paste your game's image file into that folder. Drag the image file onto the ecm application and it will create another image file with the extension .ecm at the end (wasn't my explanation is so much easier? =D). This file will be about 100MB smaller than the first image file. That means it knocks off about 1 hour of uploading time. After that, deleted the first image file (the one you dragged onto the ecm application). Then use winrar to compress the file further. Don't forget to add any .cue or .sub or whatever files that was produced when you made the image file!


Q9) Why are there so many error alerts in Ritz games?
A9) Ah, those pesky little pop up alerts happen a lot unless you know how to set your computer to stop it from happening. So far, this is only if you have WinXP. Go to My Computer >> Change a Setting (or Control Panel) >> Regional and Language Options and change both the Regional Options tab AND the Advanced tab to Japanese from the drop down list, the game should work properly.


Q10) The game still isn't working right!
A10) Sometimes the game company has patches that they release on their website after the game has been released. These patches help fix any errors there may be in the game (I know Kannagi no Tori has a patch). These patches may be the solution to your problem.

[obsidianstars3]

BL Game FAQ Continued. ^^;


Q11) When will you reupload (insert game title here)? I didn't get it the first time! Plz plz plz reup for me!
A11) First of all, please reupload some games yourself. If you have enough time to download games, then you certainly have enough time to reupload them! Uploading games is NOT a 2-minute process! Depending on the size, it can easily take more than 5 or 6 hours. The smallest game can range anywhere between 45 minutes to 1.5 hours. With that in mind, why don't you reupload some games you already do have? You know, to keep the cycle going. I don't like wasting 5 or 6 hours of my time only to find the ysi link completely dried up and unusable because 25 people have downloaded the game and refuse to reupload it for others who are asking for it. If at least ONE person out of the 25 people could reup the link, that'll be another 25 people who can download. This is a cycle, okay? Please participate in the reuploads! And a many heart-warming than you's to those who actually ARE reuploading. *huggles* ^_^ Yes, you make the world go round!


Q12) I don't know what to do for these games! Where can I find walkthroughs?
A12) Places like:

- hxxp://mariaelga.easter.ne.jp/index2.html
- hxxp://www001.upp.so-net.ne.jp/jeteveux/game_menu.htm
- hxxp://www10.ocn.ne.jp/~akaebaku/g-index.html (Found by Setsuna)
- hxxp://souen.gooside.com/top.htm (Found by Middaystar ^_^)
- hxxp://yunasuki.fc2web.com/capture_main.html (Found by Middaystar *huggles*)

have walkthroughs. These, of course, are in Japanese and may be hard to understand... but for games like Gakuen Heaven or games by Marine Heart, I think it'd be better in Japanese--you are able to see the options to choose. If you really insist on reading in choppy English, you could always stick it in Alta Vista or something. =P It'd be hard if the guide was in choppy English while the game's choices are in Japanese though; You wouldn't know which to choose. ^^;

If you know of any other sites, you can PM me and I'll add it to this post. ^^

Q13) So.... no English walkthroughs?
A13) I'm... pretty certain there are some. Here's a couple:

Togainu no Chi:
hxxp://www.deathsvertigo.com/trueblood/main.html

Fanatica
I'm making currently in the process of making one. You can find updates in the Fanatica game thread.
Edit: The Fanatica Walkthrough is done!

But that's about all I know so far. ^^ Once again, if you know of any other sites, you can PM me and I'll add it to this post.


Q14) When I try to unzip the .rar file with winzip, I can't see any files inside!
A14) If the file has the extension ".rar" do NOT use winzip to open it. Use winrar. Apparently winzip will not work in decompressing .rar files.


Q15) What do I do with split archives?
A15) Some of us who have a hard time uploading may split the files so our connections won't time out. In order to work split archives (specifically with winrar), you need to first download all the files into the same folder. From there, make sure they're named the same with the extension .part1.rar, ..part2.rar, .part3.rar, etc. Or sometimes the archive may have .rar, .r00, .r01, etc.

Example:

Let's say there are 3 parts to the Apocripha Alex CD 1 archive. The three files would be:

Apocripha Alex CD 1.part1.rar
Apocripha Alex CD 1.part2.rar
Apocripha Alex CD 1.part3.rar

or

Apocripha Alex CD 1.rar
Apocripha Alex CD 1.r00
Apocripha Alex CD 1.r01

The blue section should be exactly the same for each file. If the lettering is off or there is an extra space somewhere, the file may not work. I don't think you need to worry though since I've never encountered a case where winrar renames them. ^^

The purple section is the part where the files vary slightly in which they will have the extension ".part1.rar" to ".part3.rar" or ".rar" to ".r01" <-- do not rename this part; leave this part alone.

Make sure you've downloaded all the split archive files into the same folder. Double click on any split archive file and it will open like a normal winrar file with the content(s) inside. Choose to extract the file(s) to a specified folder and voila!--you've now successfully extracted the split archive file. ^_^


Q16) Ah, so that's how split archives work. How can I make them?
A16) Simple~ Select the file or files you want to make into split archives and select "Add to archive..." Type in the name you want the .rar file to be (ex: Togainu no Chi [nitro+].rar) or you can just stick with the pre-determined name winrar sets up. Then in the drop down menu for "compression method" choose "best." Under that drop down menu is another drop down menu that says "Split to volumes, bytes" and that's where it gets a little confusing because it mentions that the numbers should be "bytes" meaning you should enter the amount of bytes you want your files to be. That can be a bit of a hassle if your file is big (as most image files are ^^). The second, better method is to type in a number and then "M" for "megabytes." For example, instead of writing "100,000,000" (bytes), you can write "100M" instead and each split archive should be about 100 MB. ^^ You can make the split archives as big or small as you want--though downloading 70 split archives of 10 MB each is a bit of a hassle in itself. So I usually just stick to ~100MB. After that, select "OK" and just wait for the file to finish archiving.


Q17) I've downloaded a game file (zip or rar) with several files inside but no image file. What do I do with it?
A17) If you've downloaded a zip or rar file that contains many files, some of which may be a readme.txt, start.exe, autorun.inf, data (folder), etc. you need to extract ALL of that into a folder. Let's pretend Silver Chaos had such files. First you would name a folder on your desktop (or wherever) Silver Chaos. Then extract all the files into that folder. Burn all those files onto a CD using the NORMAL method. Do not use the "burn image file to a CD" method. It won't work because there is no image file to burn. So just burn a normal "data CD."

Okay, here's where the explanation will diverge. If you see an autorun.inf file in the zip or rar file, read Part 1. If you do not see an autorun.inf (or something similar), then skip to Part 2.

Part 1
Select all the files, but do NOT include the Silver Chaos folder you made, so that all you're burning is the bunch of files that had originally been in your .rar or .zip file. Burn it that way. When it's finished burning and if you insert the game CD into your CD drive, the game will start automatically (either with the install procedure or it will just start the game).

Part 2
If your file didn't include an autorun.inf file or something similar to that, then you can burn the Silver Chaos folder onto the CD to manage it better. *shrugs* It doesn't matter. The autorun.inf is basically a neat little nifty creation that triggers an application to run when you insert the CD into your drive. But since there is none (I'm assuming since you're reading Part 2), then it won't autorun when you put the CD in; therefore it doesn't matter if you burn the Silver Chaos folder containing all the files onto the CD.

[Finiz]

This may be a completely idiotic question, the "noob" that I am (XD), but I didn't see an answer on the FAQ so...do I absolutely HAVE to burn the game on a CD for it to work? And do I HAVE to DL the Japanese support thing for the game to work, 'cause I can live with the gibberish. Unfortunately, my only computer got too old and gave in, so now I have to wait a while to scrounge up the money to buy a new one. Till then, I'm stuck with my school computer, and unfortunately, they felt the need to block my ability to DL the Japanese settings (and I'm too computer retarded to be able to figure out a loophole for these things. :P). I'm also note sure if I'd be able to burn anything onto a disk. XP
Thank you!

[Tweety]

@Finiz:
If you can't burn it on CD you can use something like Daemon Tools.
That is a program which creates a virtual driver on your computer which merges the files and "burns" it on CD.
Download it here: hxxp://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/download.php
But if you have to have the japanese language program I don't know...

[Leviathan]

OK, i still have no clue why Silver Chaos keeps crashing after the opening sequence. I went through the trouble of saving up for a legal copy of windows xp (which was downright painful, since now i have this second OS clogging up my computer) and getting the required language packs; I even went and downloaded a third party japanese language pack. AND IT STILL CRASHES. I'm in freaking Yaoi withdrawal, dammit!

[aphelion_orion]

No need to lose your temper.

I'd advise you to just look at the Silver Chaos help thread in this forum, but... anyway. Have you actually SET your system to Japanese, not just downloaded the language packs?

Because if you have not, then there's your problem. Silver Chaos will not, under any circumstances, run if your system does not run in Japanese.

Second, if you look at the help thread I just mentioned, you'll notice that Silver Chaos needs the Indeo Video Codec to run. I advise you just Google it... it can be downloaded on numerous PC websites without actually paying for it.

Now, if you do these things, Silver Chaos will work.

[henohito]

I am very sorry if this is out of place.
I was wondering if someone can tell me how to play dally dash.
I download the game and I get 4 files.
with extension of .IMG;.CCD;.CUE;.SUB

I was wondering what software should I download to play it.
Irfanview didn't work for the .IMG. I try it already.
Hope anyone can help me.

[dippedinebony]

My apologies for asking about question 1, I'm sure you get this a lot. But, what is a patch? I know the games are not in English. Does a patch for the game somehow make it into english?

[CuddleSatin]

k, i read the FAQ and unless i didn't see this on there, so if i missed it somehow, gomen nasai.

i dled kuro no tsuki and joined it and stuff. now the faq says for me to burn it. i have an english patch for the game so do i burn the game first, then install, then apply the patch?

thanks in advance ^_^

[Fay~]

k, i read the FAQ and unless i didn't see this on there, so if i missed it somehow, gomen nasai.

i dled kuro no tsuki and joined it and stuff. now the faq says for me to burn it. i have an english patch for the game so do i burn the game first, then install, then apply the patch?

thanks in advance ^_^

Patches always come after installation of the game. So you would burn, install, then patch.

My apologies for asking about question 1, I'm sure you get this a lot. But, what is a patch? I know the games are not in English. Does a patch for the game somehow make it into english?

A patch can do a number of things...some patches will remove the requirement that you have the game CD inserted in your drive to play (i.e. No CD patch), other patches will fix scripting errors and some patches are translation patches.

If you are looking to turn the game into English, you will want to find a translation patch. Unfortunately, there aren't many translation patches around because it takes a lot of work to translate a game and a lot of fans with the capability to do that are too busy to make a patch.

I am very sorry if this is out of place.
I was wondering if someone can tell me how to play dally dash.
I download the game and I get 4 files.
with extension of .IMG;.CCD;.CUE;.SUB

I was wondering what software should I download to play it.
Irfanview didn't work for the .IMG. I try it already.
Hope anyone can help me.

As mentioned in the FAQ, in order to deal with IMG, CCD, CUE, SUB files, you will either need Daemon Tools (http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/announcements.php) or Alcohol (http://www.alcohol-soft.com/) to either mount the file on a virtual drive or to burn it onto a CD so you can install the game to play.