# [SOLVED] Any way to play After Dark Games (1998) on a Windows 7 PC?



## HUGED1 (Jul 26, 2008)

I installed Sierra After Dark Games on my wife's new Windows 7 laptop but it won't play. I tried the compatibility feature with XP to no avail.
Any & all suggestions appreciated as she really misses the Moo Shu game.
Thanks,
Ed.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: Any way to play After Dark Games (1998) on a Windows 7 PC?*

Hi unfortunately I think your out of luck unless you have win 7 ultimate,pro or enterprise 
in which case this could be used Download Windows XP Mode
Windows XP Mode - Windows 7 features - Microsoft Windows


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## HUGED1 (Jul 26, 2008)

*Re: Any way to play After Dark Games (1998) on a Windows 7 PC?*

I was afraid of that. I guess I'll have to give her some time on my XP machine (maybe when I sleep).
Thank you,
Ed.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: Any way to play After Dark Games (1998) on a Windows 7 PC?*

Your welcome


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## WinOutreach5 (Dec 13, 2011)

*Re: Any way to play After Dark Games (1998) on a Windows 7 PC?*

As another member stated, you may benefit from Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC. Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC, available on Windows 7 Professional and Windows 7 Ultimate, allow you to run multiple Windows environments, such as Windows XP Mode, from your Windows 7 desktop. For the “Sierra After Dark” application you mentioned, this may be an ideal solution for you. Typically speaking, when utilizing Windows XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC, one does not want to depend on the use of such tools for graphic intense applications because they do exist within a virtualized environment. 

Jessica 
Windows Outreach Team – IT Pro


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## john__1 (Nov 5, 2012)

*Re: Any way to play After Dark Games (1998) on a Windows 7 PC?*

Ooo yeah you can absolutely do this, I managed to install After Dark 4.0 and use every screensaver on Windows 7 Professional without the use of XP mode, so I suspect this would work on any version of Windows 7. 

As a bit of a warning - not all of the features work, After Dark integrated into the Windows Screen Saver display panel, which is no longer the same in Windows 7, so making modifications does involve a bit of registry edits, and setting the options on some screensavers does not seem to be easily done.

*Concise Version*
- Get an After Dark 4.0 CD
- Set the setup executable to run in Windows 95 compatibility mode
- Launch the installer and install to a folder you have full read/write access too
- Use the Registry Editor and Change the Value of this key to the .AD file you want to launch:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Berkeley Systems\After Dark\Folders\After Dark 4.0
- Use your screensaver manager to launch the screen saver like normal, disregard module load error

*Verbose Version:*

Using an After Dark 4.0 CD, open the CD to view the contents then right click on the setup installer and click properties. In here you can specify that you'd like to run the executable in compatibility mode - select Windows 95 then click apply.

Now make a folder on your hard drive where you'd like to install After Dark and ensure that you have read/write privileges. 

Launch the setup from the CD, click onto custom options and set the installation path to the folder you created. 

Open your screen saver options and you should see After Dark there, along with a message that the module could not be properly loaded; however if you click preview the screen saver should load the default and very nostalgic flying toasters.

Now to change screen savers you first need to navigate into the After Dark installation folder and have a look at the .AD files. All of those files are the actual screen-savers; take note of their names - they are all the screen savers you can play around with.

With a name in mind, like maybe "Bad Dog!", open up the Registry Editor and navigate to the folder:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Berkeley Systems\After Dark\Folders

In that directory you should see a key named:
After Dark 4.0

The value of the key is also "Flying Toasters!"

Change the value of this key to match the filename of any of those .AD files ( without the .AD ) and the next time you click preview in your screen-saver manager After Dark will load the screen saver of your choice.

I had a lot of fun going down memory lane with this one so I felt motivated to share this find with any few individuals actually trying to do this in 2012. I was very happy to see that I could still get all these screen savers in a native Windows 7 environment without too much hassle. All of it worked great too, the games, and even the editor in the Marbles! screensaver 

Enjoy!


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## HUGED1 (Jul 26, 2008)

*Re: Any way to play After Dark Games (1998) on a Windows 7 PC?*

Thanks. Not interested in screensavers. I finally got MOO SHU to play in XP mode. Wifes happy. Me too.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

*Re: Any way to play After Dark Games (1998) on a Windows 7 PC?*

Nice to hear it


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## Swooperz (Dec 6, 2012)

*Re: Any way to play After Dark Games (1998) on a Windows 7 PC?*



john__1 said:


> Ooo yeah you can absolutely do this, I managed to install After Dark 4.0 and use every screensaver on Windows 7 Professional without the use of XP mode, so I suspect this would work on any version of Windows 7.
> 
> As a bit of a warning - not all of the features work, After Dark integrated into the Windows Screen Saver display panel, which is no longer the same in Windows 7, so making modifications does involve a bit of registry edits, and setting the options on some screensavers does not seem to be easily done.
> 
> ...


Hi John, thanks for sharing how this is done. I was able to get it up and running in Windows 7, but it is stuck on (defaults to) the Starry Night screensaver .ad file and I have tried this change in the registry but cannot get it to use another .ad file at all. 

Did you run into this at all? I know when I install it I get a registry at line 32 error but it still completes the install. Also, the reg keys you mention are all there.

Let me know if you or anyone else have any ideas?

Thanks!
:thumb:


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## BadEndNight (Jul 23, 2013)

*Re: Any way to play After Dark Games (1998) on a Windows 7 PC?*



Swooperz said:


> Hi John, thanks for sharing how this is done. I was able to get it up and running in Windows 7, but it is stuck on (defaults to) the Starry Night screensaver .ad file and I have tried this change in the registry but cannot get it to use another .ad file at all.
> 
> Did you run into this at all? I know when I install it I get a registry at line 32 error but it still completes the install. Also, the reg keys you mention are all there.
> 
> ...


Being another guy amazed with After Dark 18 years ago and wanted to install this again I feel I should pull this one up again.

Currently using Win7 Home Premium; and when I install AD4.0, it shows the message 'Could not modify registry (#5, line 32)', and the screensave selection screen gives 'Unable to load selected module'.

When I preview the screensaver, it shows the (default) starry sky and doesn't change when I tried to replace the Starry sky.ad by other .ad in the C:/After Dark.


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## joeten (Dec 4, 2008)

Please go make a new thread of your own a year old thread is not going to get you help for your issue and possibly asking in the gaming section would be more fruitful.
This thread will now be closed.


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