Sycho

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May 9, 2018
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Despite what the provided FAQ PDF claims, this game doesn't run on Windows 7 Professional SP1--not really. I can make it to the title screen, where the animations either play or get stuck on one frame, which pixelates. This wouldn't bother me at all if the game didn't have such lag. I start the game and the program hiccups with a (Not Responding) message. Once this is over, I'm able to type in my name (still laggy, though), but after confirming it, the visual freezes on the start page and I can only assume the game itself is running behind it, as clicking around everywhere gives me the audio cue that I'm advancing through text. This happens in both full screen and windowed.

If anyone has any ideas as to how I can get this game to work on my old computer, then I would be very appreciative. I really want to give this game a go.
To add to what TheDevian said, there's little to go on as far as the specs of your computer in your post that we kinda need in order to get a better idea of what's going on and how we can help resolve the problem.

When I joined Faerin's team while MotH was in development, I was using Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and had zero issues with getting the game to play during testing. So yes, it does play on Win7 and quite well I might add.

So the issue you're having could be caused by many things:
  • The path to the game on your hard drive may be too long. Try moving the game's folder to C: (or D: depending on what drive letter it's on) so that the path is "C:\Man of the House v1.0.2c (extra)".
  • You're missing .
  • You're missing .
  • You're missing runtimes. Download from a mirror site closest to you then extract the files to a temporary folder (which you can delete later) and run the included "install_all.bat" file.
  • Your hardware may not be supported.
  • If you're using an Nvidia video card/GPU, try disabling G-Sync or V-Sync via the Nvidia Control Panel.
  • You may have two display adapters installed. Verify this by going into Control Panel >> Device Manager >> Display adapters. If you see two devices there, try disabling one or the other.
 

TaintedAardvark

New Member
Apr 26, 2020
4
2
Having an issue progressing with Veronica. I'm doing her date, but for the life of me I can't do anything but take a cab home. Looking at the walkthrough there's an option during the date that just...doesn't appear for me, so I assume that's my issue, and I just don't have a high enough romance to take her home because of the missing event (the blonde).
Any help with options just...not appearing during a date?
 

Sycho

Conversation Conqueror
Respected User
May 9, 2018
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Having an issue progressing with Veronica. I'm doing her date, but for the life of me I can't do anything but take a cab home. Looking at the walkthrough there's an option during the date that just...doesn't appear for me, so I assume that's my issue, and I just don't have a high enough romance to take her home because of the missing event (the blonde).
Any help with options just...not appearing during a date?
It sounds like you're missing the casino on your map. Use the public transportation and travel from place to place until you come across a flyer advertising the casino. Then ask Veronica out on another date over the weekend.
 

TaintedAardvark

New Member
Apr 26, 2020
4
2
It sounds like you're missing the casino on your map. Use the public transportation and travel from place to place until you come across a flyer advertising the casino. Then ask Veronica out on another date over the weekend.
Literally moments after I posted, I accidentally rode public transport and encountered the casino, and that fixed the issue! Thank you!
I hadn't even thought to use public transport, as the others are just better alternatives. Smart move, game devs.
 
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Sycho

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May 9, 2018
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Literally moments after I posted, I accidentally rode public transport and encountered the casino, and that fixed the issue! Thank you!
I hadn't even thought to use public transport, as the others are just better alternatives. Smart move, game devs.
You're welcome. :)

Most items you'll find by walking during the day or night (depending on what they are), others may require you to take transportation (as in the case of unlocking the casino, there's also a collectable you'll find using public transportation as well). The walkthrough may or may not help with a lot of things (with exception to the dates with the girls) due to it being outdated and obsolete. AFAIK, no new walkthroughs have been written since the few minor changes were made in the game prior to its release on Steam.
 
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Cartageno

Devoted Member
Dec 1, 2019
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Literally moments after I posted, I accidentally rode public transport and encountered the casino, and that fixed the issue! Thank you!
I hadn't even thought to use public transport, as the others are just better alternatives. Smart move, game devs.
Generally speaking I agree. Very often walking is worth it. However, given the way events trigger from xx:00 to xx:59, sometimes you can cram in an event with the bus arriving at :48 when the more expensive taxi at :24 won't give you an advantage. But yeah, I can see how you can do it without bussing too much.
 
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Nemo56

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Jan 7, 2018
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That's ... not much, even for a 13 year old system.

While Windows 7 basically only needs 2 GB to run, it is recommended to use at least 4GB (twice as much if you work with a 64Bit version of the operating system instead of 32 Bit).
The game does not need much RAM, but if you have drivers, an AV software and maybe some other tools running in the background, you run out of physical memory quite fast and that's when your laptop becomes very slow, because he tries to get more memory for your applications by cycling through them and writes/loads data to and from a file on the hard disk, using it basically as RAM emulation (so to say, I don't want to get into paging here).
Also, if your Laptop was a low price modela and uses shared video ram (the graphic card has no own RAM but uses the system RAM), a lot is already lost just for displaying something.

Check your RAM status in the task manager. If it's close to 100%, you need to find a way to reduce RAM usage - or install an expansion module.

Edit: Doh, checked the wrong game ^^
 
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Robwood

Member
Aug 3, 2021
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That's ... not much, even for a 13 year old system.

While Windows 7 basically only needs 2 GB to run, it is recommended to use at least 4GB, better 8GB (twice as much if you work with a 64Bit version of the operating system instead of 32 Bit).
Big Brother only requires about 400MB RAM itself, but if you have drivers, an AV software and maybe some other tools running in the background, you run out of physical memory quite fast and that's when your laptop becomes very slow, because he tries to get more memory for your applications by cycling through them and writes/loads data to and from a file on the hard disk, using it basically as RAM emulation (so to say, I don't want to get into paging here).
Also, if your Laptop was a low price modela and uses shared video ram (the graphic card has no own RAM but uses the system RAM), a lot is already lost just for displaying something.

Check your RAM status in the task manager. If it's close to 100%, you need to find a way to reduce RAM usage - or install an expansion module.
To answer some points: yes, the computer is cheap. When I bought it in 2009, it was only $500. The laptop is a Compaq Presario CQ50, which originally came with Windows Vista Home Premium (now upgraded to Windows 7 Professional, the latest it's able to run). My graphics card is an Intel Pentium Dual CPU T3200 @ 2.00 GHz on a 64-bit operating system. As for the RAM, you're right on the money:

RAM usage.png

It seems that I'm too poor now to be able to play games on it. :LOL:

Do external harddrives come with their own RAM or do they feed off of the computer? I'm just wondering if changing the game's storage area would improve performance. The answer to that is most likely no, but I'm asking anyway.
 

ZenGarden

Well-Known Member
Oct 1, 2017
1,698
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To answer some points: yes, the computer is cheap. When I bought it in 2009, it was only $500. The laptop is a Compaq Presario CQ50, which originally came with Windows Vista Home Premium (now upgraded to Windows 7 Professional, the latest it's able to run). My graphics card is an Intel Pentium Dual CPU T3200 @ 2.00 GHz on a 64-bit operating system. As for the RAM, you're right on the money:

View attachment 1942810

It seems that I'm too poor now to be able to play games on it. :LOL:

Do external harddrives come with their own RAM or do they feed off of the computer? I'm just wondering if changing the game's storage area would improve performance. The answer to that is most likely no, but I'm asking anyway.
Is it 32 or 64 bit Windows? Just because your CPU handles 64-bit doesn't mean your Win install matches that.

External hard drives do not come with RAM.
 

undefiniert

Active Member
Nov 7, 2018
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Do external harddrives come with their own RAM or do they feed off of the computer? I'm just wondering if changing the game's storage area would improve performance. The answer to that is most likely no, but I'm asking anyway.
They don't come with RAM, as they also don't need RAM in and itself. They use a small amount of system RAM due to drivers and stuff but that is something entirely different.

To your screenshot: Is the game running at that time? Or is that the "idle" state of your computer? If it's last, something is DEFINETLY wrong here. Configuration wise I mean!
 
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Nemo56

Forum Fanatic
Jan 7, 2018
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To answer some points: yes, the computer is cheap. When I bought it in 2009, it was only $500. The laptop is a Compaq Presario CQ50, which originally came with Windows Vista Home Premium (now upgraded to Windows 7 Professional, the latest it's able to run). My graphics card is an Intel Pentium Dual CPU T3200 @ 2.00 GHz on a 64-bit operating system. As for the RAM, you're right on the money:

It seems that I'm too poor now to be able to play games on it. :LOL:

Do external harddrives come with their own RAM or do they feed off of the computer? I'm just wondering if changing the game's storage area would improve performance. The answer to that is most likely no, but I'm asking anyway.
The above statement that external drives don't have RAM is not completely accurate, since they - as almost all external devices - have a small memory for caching data and for programming the motors and stuff. But it's usually not called "RAM", even if de facto it is. But no, they don't access the computer's main memory in any way.
Hard drives, USB sticks and stuff are 'external devices', they communicate with your computer through read/write commands and don't care at all who gives the command. They don't know zip about your machine.

What bothers me most, is that you have a 64 bit system running on a 3GB machine, that's quite suicidal. Usually I would recommend to switch to 32 Bit, but people now start to only release 64 Bit versions of their programs, so these would not run on your machine at all in that case.
Let's face it, your CPU is slow as well, but I think the biggest problem for your machine for low performance games and applications is the main memory. If you know someone who knows a little about Laptops and is aware that there are different types of memory modules, visit him and let him check if it's possible to put more RAM in your machine. If not, then visit a local store.
Since it's so old, the modules usually only to be found on the second hand market, many times you'll have to buy on Ebay from chinese sellers who make a living from buying old hardware and sell to people like you (or me, I put more RAM for page caching into my network printer, had to order it from China). They are not all too expensive however. Depending on the model (the memory module, not the laptop) it's possible to get 8GB for 40 to 50 bucks.
 

Robwood

Member
Aug 3, 2021
250
177
Is it 32 or 64 bit Windows?
If I'm interpreting your question correctly, then it's 64. The computer started off as 64-bit with the original OS.

To your screenshot: Is the game running at that time? Or is that the "idle" state of your computer? If it's last, something is DEFINETLY wrong here. Configuration wise I mean!
That is without the game running. My Firefox browser was open at the time, though, if that means anything. Here's what it looks like when the browser isn't running:

RAM usage 2.png

And to answer a probable question about to be asked, yes, my browser was running at the time that I tried to play the game. I leave my browser open, but minimized, throughout the entire day whenever I'm not using it.
 
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ZenGarden

Well-Known Member
Oct 1, 2017
1,698
3,218
If I'm interpreting your question correctly, then it's 64. The computer started off as 64-bit with the original OS.


That is without the game running. My Firefox browser was open at the time, though, if that means anything. Here's what it looks like when the browser isn't running:

View attachment 1943969

And to answer a probable question about to be asked, yes, my browser was running at the time that I tried to play the game. I leave my browser open, but minimized, throughout the entire day whenever I'm not using it.
If FireFox is killing ALL of your available RAM like that, I would consider adding some.

Also, again: Your upgrade to Win 7 may NOT have been 64-bit (it doesn't automatically match the architecture of the CPU OR the prior OS version). This is important because a 64-bit version of Windows can handle more RAM than the 32-bit counterpart.

If it truly is 64, you can add some more RAM and MIGHT be able to play the game. As stated before, it should be pretty cheap to find 2x4Gb SO-DIMMS if they are available.

If it's 32, you MAX at 4Gb RAM total, so you won't gain much.
 

TheDevian

Svengali Productions
Game Developer
Mar 8, 2018
14,246
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If I'm interpreting your question correctly, then it's 64. The computer started off as 64-bit with the original OS.


That is without the game running. My Firefox browser was open at the time, though, if that means anything. Here's what it looks like when the browser isn't running:

View attachment 1943969

And to answer a probable question about to be asked, yes, my browser was running at the time that I tried to play the game. I leave my browser open, but minimized, throughout the entire day whenever I'm not using it.
Firefox has a bit of a memory leak, I suggest restarting it before you play at minimum.
 
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