So today, I would like to set a little time aside to talk about regional protection of eroge game in general. Before Windows XP came along, the only way to “properly” run Japanese eroge games was to purchase a separate copy of Windows 95 or Windows 98 and install them into a separate partition in the main hard disk using an off the shelf MBR overlay software such as System Commander… that was how I used to run Windows based eroge game back in the early 90s. Windows XP changed all that, with the ability to install East Asian language pack and applocale basically took care of all the language compatibility issue for the past decade or so… However, the situation is starting to change again … quite possibly after a public outrage of having an eroge game called “Rapelay” released by Illusion being offered for sale in Amazon UK in early 2009, a string of Eroge game publishing companies have begun tightening the sale of their software outside of Japan, some companies have decided to ban all ip addresses except for those in Japan, some companies have implemented tough regional protection scheme, company such as Triangle.
I have have always been a fan of Triangle Soft’s game, their long line of Mahou Senshin games
has been a staple on my desktop for past 6-7 years. However, one of their most recent release Madou Souhei Kleinhasa 魔動装兵クラインハーゼ 
has implemented one of the toughest regional protection I have seen to-date, every conceivable parameters are checked against, including installation language, region, keyboard, time zone, everything! Until this date, I have not seen a patch against that yet, it’s quite possibly in the works already but I haven’t seen it yet. However, if you are running Windows 7 Professional or better, there might just be a way around it for now 
Why Windows 7 Professional or better you say? Well, because for every Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise or Ultimate, you can download a free copy of Windows XP mode in any language you desire! Including Japanese!
And here is the result! By running a copy of Japanese Windows XP (provided free by Microsoft) on top of the latest version of Virtual PC, I can set the guest environment into anything I wanted and it can be completely independent of the settings in the host system. I have a very unique situation where by the translation software I am using requires me to set non Unicode support to Chinese (PRC), so this actually work out better for me than to use a dual boot system.
The latest version of Virtual PC also support integration feature such as sharing the clip board with the host system, 
By enabling the Integration feature after the game is launched (I say after because the game will detect that it is trying to hook to a system that is not native Japan… yeah it’s that crazy, but once it’s running, it won’t check again lol), both the guest and host system share the same clipboard, so text can be seen 
so we can still use AGTH to hook onto the game and send the game text to Atlas or in my case J.Beijing for in-line translation.
It’s not a perfect solution by any stretch of imagination, but it’s one solution that will work for now until a more refined solution is available for general use~
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They’re using such tough protection now? Waw, last eroge I tried was “Inakoi” which is already quite some time ago and it ran fine on my Windows XP.
So you use a sort of overlay software that translates the Japanese original text to Chinese? Or did I misinterpret that?
It’s definitely tough regional protection, it checked against every thing. The one that topped it all was the fact that game won’t even run if it can detect the system is hooked onto a none native Japanese OS even when the game is installed on Virtual PC with pure Japanese Installation!
Ahh yes, I use a program call AGTH, Anime Game Text Hooker to send all the game text to the clipboard and I use a Japanese to Chinese Software call J.Beijing to do inline translation. The translation accuracy is very good because the sentence structure is similar between Japanese and Chinese. I get the gist of the game as I play it but I will glance at the translation if I didn’t get a certain part of it.
Ah daymn. My comment is gone cause I misclicked the captcha… in short cause I don’t want to write it again:
XP mode is crap cause it only supports 16bit graphics.
Virtual PC ftw, with 3D graphics acceleration and such.
hikky´s last blog ..Upgrades & a happy new year
I mean VirtualBox ftw of course. U need comment editing!
hikky´s last blog ..Upgrades & a happy new year
Thanks for pointing out Virtual Box, never heard of it, will take a look at that.
I mentioned Virtual PC because XP mode is free, most people don’t have a spare copy of Japanese OS laying around these days, especially after we have been spoiled for the last decade with virtually no language compatibility issues.
wuuuut Windows 7 pro offers free access to WinXP mode?! neat, does it cause a lot of strain on the CPU n such? im still using WinXP as i need it to run certain programs XD and not very up to date with the latest on Win7 to see a reason to update lol
There is very little reason to hold back on upgrading to Win7 because of compatibility issues, XP mode is just icing on the cake really~ I been on 7 for like a month now and didn’t miss XP at all. Same couldn’t be said for Vista when it first came out.
Virtualization didn’t strain CPU at all, if anything, it was more of a burden on the Memory end.
That’s sorta xenophobic. That’s also a shame since I liked the CGs in Kleinhasa; tentacles plus gun-packing mecha girls will always get my attention.
Tier´s last blog ..Yoko Ritona from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (Real Image Version)
I was a sad panda when I found out Triangle began implementing regional protection scheme against all Gaijin! Triangle make some of the best hardcore eroge out there… but the community of eroge gamers are strong, very strong! We help each other out in the time of need! As a matter of fact, I have already located the patch in a Chinese forum that can bypassed all these extra junk that I have been doing to get the game to work, but for whatever reason, the patch hasn’t been posted in any English forum yet, wonder why… I can’t be the only bilingual now can I?
Is there any way you can instll this game called Madou Souhei Kleinhasa?
A little late..
Actually Triangle’s sister brand Delta was *also* using a similar draconian region protection w/ their release Monster Park. Someone eventually made a patch thank goddess..
But it’s rather frustrating how a combination of political idiocy and draconian DRM (which I still say is completely pointless, rubbish and screws over the BUYER more than the pirate.. but thats a different topic =P) can make playing ADV’s such a pain these now a days =(