Here's something I read in another forum I visit. Note that I haven't tested this (yet), so I can't confirm if it works.

[]s Badaro

"Originally posted by Jedwin
Hey, so, I've tracked down the problem with Chocobo races under NT/2000/XP. The problem looks to me like a NULL pointer dereference. Specifically, they are doing:

Code:

mov ecx, dword ptr [0e626d8h]
mov dx, word ptr [eax + ecx + 0186b8h]

There are no other accesses to the variable at 0e626d8h, which essentially, since it is in the uninitialized data segment, means that it is a NULL pointer. Under Windows 95/98, for no apparent reason, the pages corresponding to the addresses from 0x10000-0x20000 are mapped to something which looks to me like 16-bit code. So, since the offset puts it safely into that region, it doesn't crash. Now, it look like maybe this means that it has a bug under Windows 9x, but since I don't know how this value should be set, I couldn't fix it to correctly set this value. But, under the assumption that the values that are getting pulled in are just garbage (which again, appears to hold under Windows 9x), I did the next best thing. I changed the 0x186b8 to a value that puts it inside the FF7 executable itself, so that it still has some values there to read.

I'm not sure of the best way to distribute information on this patch, but if anybody cares to make this change on their own and try it out, the following instructions should suffice:

First off, copy ff7.exe to ff7.bak or whatever.
Now, I'm using an unpatched FF7 executable plucked from the Eidos Platinum Collection version of FF7. The file size is 5820416, crc32 is E79D5195, and md5 sum is e1a6875b37540d616d34f14102d9c2fc. If you have the same executable that I do, the change you need to make is at offset 3641e6, otherwise, you'll have to search for the right bytes to change. So, now, open up ff7.exe in your favorite hex editor, and find the bytes Code:
b8 86 01 00
. Again, if you have the same version of the executable that I do, you will find these bytes at 0x3641e6 from the beginning of the file. Change them to Code:
00 00 50 00
. That is sufficient to get the chocobo races working on my machine. (Note that there may be other difficulties associated with running FF7 under Windows NT/2K/XP, though many of those are solved by the Application Compatibility Toolkit from Microsoft.)"

Which forum?

The post I read about this (NGEmu.com):
http://www.ngemu.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19758

Original source of the information (Qhimm.com):
http://forums.qhimm.com/viewtopic.php?t=1245&highlight=

[]s Badaro

I see it but I don't believe it.

IT WORKS! IT REALLY WORKS!



If you grab the patch executable of that second link (which I did) it'll make the process a hell of a lot easier.

WOAH!!!!

It works! Thanks

This is probably the best development since sliced bread.

Thnx badaro ... I think alot of us owe you one!

i love people who can take the time to do this


he should send this to the developers of the game!

Actually, Eidos has been very forth-coming and, dare I say it, enthusiastic about the development of the chocobo patch. Probably because they're pretty tired from all the mails from angry gamers, too ^_^

And just for reference, the direct link to the latest chocobo patch: http://www.qhimm.com/ff7_chocobo_patch.zip

If nothing else, this shows that all hope is not lost just because the official sources can't help you. Only downside is that people who still can't get it to work started mailing me instead of Eidos about it... =(

Hehe, way to go

I read about this patch a little while ago on EidosGames.com.
Thank you for your effort in helping to make FFVII work on XP.

If soundfonts could work well for FFVII under XP, the game would be at 'perfect' level.

This game has never given me a problem in XP, after switching compatibility to Windows 98/Windows Me

123: You haven't made it to the Chochobo races yet. Or the minisub.

I'm gonna give this patch a whirl this weekend. I have the old 4 disk version of FF7, so I'll load up the Riva/Laptop patch, and hammer on it.

Kudos! to whoever has been sloughing through assembler code to find this null ref...

Hey Guys, i installed this patch and to my relief it worked..BUT when i go to the 3rd disc and wanted to start breeding, the same thing happened when i went to race! I hope this isn't to complicated to fix, i was so happy when it worked the first time.

FF7 on PC, Win XP - problem is that the game crashes in that point where Cloud first time visits Shinra mansions basement.recently i had a problem with chocobo races but patch fixed that.what should i do?

Whoever came up with that fix?

Knew their stuff pretty well, especially regarding the pointer references.

Why the folks who made the game do that for Win9x though (which he didn't get)?

Because that Operating System is a hybrid 16-bit/32-bit Operating System probably... for compatibility with it. They might have even done OS version checking back in the NT/95 days... but, what happens when higher versions (newer) come out?

NO GUARANTEE OF OS DETECTION PROPERLY ON OLDER STUFF is what!

(PLUS, The Win32 API itself? Has quite alot of calls in it that are Win9x specific, & probably largely on these grounds as well as their Device Driver Kits (DDK) being different in many areas... mousing is one I have run into over time! One Win32 API or not, there are 9x specifics in it you cannot use or won't fully work right in NT-based Operating Systems!)



* In any event? Hell of a job whoever came up with that fix-job!

APK


[Edited by Alec§taar on 2004-10-09 11:37:33]

Hi, I'm having a problem with FF7 when I'm loading the movie to see the tiny bronco crash after defeating palmer. The game crashes and the movie doesn't load. I don't know much about computers to an extend and I'm not sure how to perform the more complicated fixes. What do you guys recommend I do?

Thanks.

go to http://animevamp.proboards16.com/ and click ff7 xp patch they got tons of information on how to get ff7 working

Thanks a bunch man that will really help I hope.

I tried the XP patch and the Ultima version, neither work...

hi look i'm not good with comps i would just like to know how to install and play FFVII for the PC on my Comp which is windows XP i don't know what patches i would need to dl in order to play the game and in looking at the movies on the disc 1 they all seem to be upside down is that just b/c i don't have the game installed??? thank u in advance to anyone that can help me.

Hey guys. I've had this game for a couple of weeks and im really eager to go on, but i have a problem getting the game to run after minimizing it. The screen turns black and the games still running. Any way to fix the minimize problem O.o?

Well... i have windows 2k pro sp4 and... I just start the game, After the intro, you get the first enemy (2 marines) and when the round starts, ff7 just closes itself and i get back on my desktop.
I've tried installing the xp patch too, but same error and at the same point.

plz help me..