Hey all! A....mmmm, 7 year lurker here who was just too lazy to register or post, but since I'm dusting off my LB2 for another round, I figured it was time.

It was never much of an issue before, even with XP, but with the upgrade to "7", the life of this game is now threatened, and I figured it was time for more of us to step up and help out. While I'm not a programer or developer, I make it somewhat of a hobby to get older games working on newer systems and wanted to share my "7" experiences with ya all. So here goes:

Let me start with system specs for those who are interested:

Mobo-Gigabyte Model EP45-UD3P
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz, 3000 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 2 Logical Processor(s)
Sound Card-Name-Creative X-Fi Audio Processor (WDM)
Video Card-Name NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS
Hard Drive-Model WDC WD1001FALS-00J7B0 ATA Device Size 931.51 GB (1,000,202,273,280 bytes)
Memory-Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

Most of us won't care about that info, but it could come in handy for others. Now, on to the install.

I started with a clean install of LB2 from the CD,
OBVIOUSLY it doesn't install correctly. It appeared to do fine until the DirectX, then it wasn't able to install DirectX5(chuckle), and that's where it stopped. I just clicked ok. The installation said it wasn't completed, but I knew that going in. What I found interesting, is it never asked for disk 2. If I remember correctly, it needed disk 2 before, but I'll eventually get back to that.


Next, I installed the LB2-WinVista-7-Fix file. Since that is named Jane's, and not Janes, this is a separate folder. That's a good thing. I didn't want it overriding the files. I tried that previously, and it was a disaster.

Now you have the Janes folder from the CDs, and the Jane's folder from the fix. I moved the LB2-WinVista-7-Fix folder(Jane's) to my desktop. I then opened up both folders. I then went through, file by file, and any file that was missing from the original LB2 folder(Janes), I copy/pasted that file from the Jane's(LB2-WinVista-7-Fix) folder.
Now this is somewhat time consuming, but I felt it was necessary. I had previously tried just copy/pasting every single file in the folder(Shift/click/drag box around) and just overwriting, but this did not work. When I was finished, I moved the LB2-WinVista-7-Fix(Jane's) to my documents folder so I could keep it, yet not confuse the two folders.

I then installed the voodoo 1.50 Glide Wrapper in the LB2 directory, and followed the setup directions posted earlier in this thread.

Ready to roll my first attempt at playing. Started game. Graphics sketchy on first screen, click past it, get to the menu screen. Choose the locker room, delete a pilot, create my own. So far, so good. Graphics good, no crash.
Head to training. Select basic flight training, start. Get all the way to the end, sound loop, freeze. Ok, well, I knew it wasn't going to be THAT easy.
Head back to forums. Flyboy mentions a duelcore problem. Ahhh, ok. Download Launch n Set, install, disable one of my cores.(At least I think so, it really doesn't tell ya what it's doing) fire up game. Start basic flight training again. No more sound looping, that indeed solved that problem, BUT......Freeze.
After a few more attempts, crashes, I decide the glide wrapper might be a problem. From reading the forums, more people have had success with an older version, 1.4. I manually delete every file from 1.5, install 1.4. Instead of loading up the flight training, I choose free flight gunnery practice so I can stress the setting more easily. A ton of talking in the training sessions. I gain altitude, speed, get going and freeze. Reload, freeze. Reload, freeze.

Ok. Remove that glide wrapper. Stumped. Decide to go without any glide wrappers. A noticeable difference in graphics, not nearly as good, HOWEVER, I finish basic flight training, then Longbow training, then advanced Longbow training. No freezes. A few glitches. A couple times I was asked to fire on a target, nothing happens, and the instructor says, "GREAT SHOT". Ummm, ok. Another problem, a bit more serious is any lack of communication with my wingman. He seems to do what I'm asking, but he doesn't respond, and you cannot use the mouse to select targets to send to your wingman.

To wrap things up, the game is running smooth on Windows 7, with a few minor glitches thus far, but it IS RUNNING without crashing or freezing on Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit. Patience is required. While you can read this post in minutes, this covers about 4-6 hours of testing. But if you're on these forums, my guess is you have patience aplenty.

P.S. I cannot end this post without mentioning the passing of Speicht. Obviously I'm a first time poster here, but I've been following this site so long, I was shocked to hear of his passing. RIP bro.
--Flyboy- gotta prop him for him tireless work keeping a 13 year old game alive without receiving a single dime. While it may seem not many people are paying attention, I'm betting there's a ton of people like myself who have lurked for years, but never posted. WE ALL NOTICE.
Also, the creator of the LB2-WinVista-7-Fix(Flyboy?) I don't know what you did, but it works, SHOCKINGLY! Getting this game to run on Windows 7 64 bit is one tall order, but I do believe were close to not only running it, but running it flawlessly. Props to everyone who's put in the work to make this happen!

I will shut up now. This post turned out way longer than expected haha. Talk to ya all soon!

P.S.digitality.comyr.com has been down at least the last few days. 3 that I know of. Is this site going to return? It's invaluable to anything Janes related!