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- Audio Problems: I don't hear sounds or music in my game.
- Backup/Recovery: Can I back up my savegame files and/or move them to another Windows computer?
- Backup/Recovery: Can I make a CD backup of the setup file for the game that I downloaded?
- Cauldron: My villager dropped the cauldron, and I can't find it anywhere. Can I get it back?
- Collectibles: Collectibles aren't producing tech points.
- Deleted game: Is it possible to recover a game that was accidentally deleted?
- Display Problems: All I see is a black (or white) screen when I launch the game.
- Display Problems: The game does not display properly on my computer.
- Display Problems: The game doesn't fit on my screen.
- Display Problems: When I try to run the game, my screen is gray.
- Elders: I can't get more than 50 Esteemed Elders/Totems.
- Error: The game crashes when I try to run it. Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
- Errors: Virtual Villagers - The Lost Children.exe is not a valid Win32 application. How do I fix this?
- Errors: "Error while unpacking program, code LP5. Please report to author." when attempting to run the game.
- Errors: "Program stopped working" in Windows Vista.
- Errors: "Update failed. Are you online?" message when attempting to update my game stats.
- Errors: "Virtual Villagers has stopped working" message in Windows Vista.
- Errors: Failed initializing DirectDraw. Only 16-bit and 32-bit displays are supported in windowed mode.
- Errors: I can't install the game, due to an NSIS error.
- Errors: I get an error message: Could not open display. Error code=0xc8660160 or 0xc8660110
- Errors: Missing export DDRAW.DLL:DirectDrawCreate.EX.
- Errors: This program has been damaged, possibly by a bad sector of the hard drive or a virus. Please reinstall it.
- Forums: I am having problems trying to access the game forums.
- Game Freezes: My game freezes when I try to refresh statistics.
- Game Freezes: My game is sluggish, jerky, or freezes up.
- Game won't run: My Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children (Windows) game quits before it completely loads.
- Game won't run: The game minimizes to the taskbar and can't be played. I hear the game running, but when I click it the game goes back to the taskbar.
- Gong: I can't get one of the gong pieces.
- Gong: I can't pick up one of the gong pieces.
- High Scores List/Leader board: Can I get on the leader board if I didn't buy my game directly from LDW?
- High Scores List/Leader board: Why don't my game scores appear on the leader board?
- Installation: How do I reinstall Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children for Windows or install it on a different computer that I own?
- Internet: Do LDW's games connect to the Internet during game play?
- Masters: My villagers aren't progressing beyond Adept skill level.
- Missing .exe file: When I try to launch the game, I get the message that Windows is searching for the .exe file. Where did my game go?
- Multiple players: How do I have multiple games going in Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children?
- Names changing: Why do the names of my villagers keep changing and duplicating?
- One gender left: There are only males (or females) left in my tribe. Is there any hope for this game?
- One villager left: There is only one villager left in my tribe. Is there any hope for this game?
- Pause: How do I pause (or unpause) the game?
- Pause: I paused my game overnight, but my villagers all died. Why did that happen?
- Pause: I paused my game, but when I started it again my villagers were all in different places. Why did that happen?
- Percentage completion: The game isn't displaying the percentage of completion on a project that my builders are working on.
- Population: What is the maximum population that I can have in my game?
- Saving game: My game isn't saving my progress, and it starts a new game every time I launch it.
- Stew: Why don't all of the stews that I make count in the stats?
- Time Change: Will Daylight Savings Time affect my games?
- Time: Time isn't passing properly in my game.
- Transferring characters: Can I transfer my characters, food, tech points, or anything from Virtual Villagers: A New Home to Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children?
- Virus/Spyware: My anti-virus software has notified me that there's a virus in the game and has removed it. How do I get my game back?
- White boxes: I edited some of the images in my game, and now they have white boxes around them. How do I fix them?
- Windows 7: Will LDW's games work with Windows 7?
- Windows Vista: Will LDW's games work with Windows Vista?
- ~~ My question is not listed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it possible to recover a game that was accidentally deleted?
If you accidentally deleted one of the tribes from the Change Tribe screen (please see the information below if you uninstalled the entire game), you should be able to recover that tribe from the backup savegame file. The following procedure explains how to recover your game from the backup file.
NOTE: This procedure assumes that you are familiar with manipulating files on your computer. If you are uncomfortable with such tasks, you should seek assistance from an experienced person in order to avoid the possibility of irreparable damage.
- Determine which tribe slot was deleted: the tribe at the top is in slot 1, and the tribe at the bottom of the list is in slot 5.
- Open My Documents, then open the folder named LDW
- Look for and open the Virtual Villagers folder (the actual name may vary, depending upon where you purchased the game). Do not attempt to open the savegame files, to prevent the possibility of corrupting any of them. The savegame files in that folder are named Isola21.ldw through Isola25.ldw, and correspond to each of the tribe slots. The backup savegame files are named Isola221.ldw through Isola225.ldw, also corresponding to each of the tribe slots.
- Verify that the savegame file for the deleted tribe is no longer present (e.g. if the tribe in the 3rd slot had been deleted, there should be no file named Isola23.ldw).
- Rename the backup file to make it the primary savegame file (in this example for the tribe in the 3rd slot, you would rename Isola223.ldw to Isola23.ldw).
- Launch Virtual Villagers to verify that the tribe has been restored. The game may not be as current as the one that was deleted, depending upon how recently the backup file was updated, but you won't lose all progress on the deleted tribe.
If you wish to back up your savegame file(s) periodically to prevent loss in the future, you can click the link below for a simple backup method.
If you deleted (uninstalled) the entire game, you can usually just reinstall it using the trial version from the same site where you originally purchased the game. It's very important that you don't download and install the game from a different site, since your activation code will no longer work. The activation codes issued by one game site will not work with any other site's version of the game.
How to back up Virtual Villagers: The Lost Children for Windows games.
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