Moving from Windows to Linux - are all my saves worthless?

[Deleted member 3304924]

Hello and good day!

First off, an apology! I am NOT very tech savy, which is why I am making a new thred when there already are some touching somewhat on this topic - I simply don't know if those answers still work (as in, maybe there have been updates that makes them no longer work?).

My situation: I am moving from Windows (having used that solely my whole life) to Ubuntu, due to starting an education that only uses Linux. As in, 100% clean wipe of laptop and then Ubunto OS.

I have a lot of saved games from on here (Being a Dik, Treasure of Nadia, The Headmaster etc) - some of these games you make many choices in, and I would hate to start over. But, is it possible to even convert those saves? Is it even necessary (like I said, no knowledge of Linux what so ever ).

I had a slight hope a possible solution would be to have a virtual machine on Ubuntu, through which I could run windows and thus the games? IF that is a possibility, could I just copy my game folder, save it on Dropbox and then use them through VM? Or would that folder now direct to a location that no longer exists?
My brain hurts trying to figure out what would happen, so I thought I might ask you fine fellas

EDIT: Spelling mistakes

 

[Niv-Mizzet the Firemind]

For renpy games, this folder in windows C:\Users\<your_username>\Appdata\Roaming\Renpy should correspond to this folder in linux: ~/.renpy according to the

You must be registered to see the links

.
Even if it doesn't, each game has its saves in the game/saves subdirectory of the main game folder.

As for treasure of nadia, this post has the save location for linux.

In general (at least for renpy and ton), I think that the only think that changes is the save location and that's it, the saves themselves should be unaffected.

Edit: forgot to mention, if you absolutely need windows (ie not just for renpy games), you can have both operating systems installed. Ubuntu especially has a fairly well documented guide for dual booting. This will probably change with windows 11, but for the time being you can absolutely dual boot.

 

[Deleted member 3304924]

For renpy games, this folder in windows C:\Users\<your_username>\Appdata\Roaming\Renpy should correspond to this folder in linux: ~/.renpy according to the

You must be registered to see the links

.
Even if it doesn't, each game has its saves in the game/saves subdirectory of the main game folder.

As for treasure of nadia, this post has the save location for linux.

In general (at least for renpy and ton), I think that the only think that changes is the save location and that's it, the saves themselves should be unaffected.

Edit: forgot to mention, if you absolutely need windows (ie not just for renpy games), you can have both operating systems installed. Ubuntu especially has a fairly well documented guide for dual booting. This will probably change with windows 11, but for the time being you can absolutely dual boot.

Here comes a VERY stupid problem then So, when I first installed Windows on this pc... Ahem.. I misspelled my own name Assuming I don't want to do that again, could I just change the name to spell it correctly in the folder (it will then think 'what and where the fuck is he trying to point to?!', but it will match on the new system, since I will spell correctly this time? Or won't that work?

 

[Niv-Mizzet the Firemind]

Here comes a VERY stupid problem then So, when I first installed Windows on this pc... Ahem.. I misspelled my own name Assuming I don't want to do that again, could I just change the name to spell it correctly in the folder (it will then think 'what and where the fuck is he trying to point to?!', but it will match on the new system, since I will spell correctly this time? Or won't that work?

I got really confused.
So, just to make it clearer, instead of strangedanes87 you used normaldanes87 as your username in windows and you're wondering about the path?
If so, the path should be C:\Users\normaldanes87\Appdata\Roaming\Renpy or you could type %appdata%\RenPy in windows file explorer.

The linux installation won't care either way. If you wipe the drive and install Ubuntu, it won't matter because windows will be gone. If you keep windows, with a little exploration it will be in the normaldanes87 folder.

 

[Deleted member 3304924]

So sorry AND so thankful for your help!

Explanation: Let's say my name is Bob (obviously fake). When I made my user for my new pc, I wrote Bo, instead of Bob.

That leaves me wondering:
1) IF I chose to play these games on a virtual machine (having saved the save files on dropbox or something), how do I utilise those saves?
2) If I just forgo the vm, can those saves be made to work on Ubuntu, when they were originally made playing on Windows?

Or the nuclear option, I just say F it, and start all the games over, however that is a LOT of time, and a lot of those games have a great story where I made a lot of different choices I would like to keep. Starting over might just kill the interest..

Currently trying to find a safe way to change my user name on Windows, without ruining everything.

 

[Uthuriel]

If your education requires linux for some reason why not install a dual boot? (or better let someone install it)

If you aren't tech savvy and you only have windows experience, switching to linux is just plain stupid. Don't do it...

 

[Deleted member 3304924]

If your education requires linux for some reason why not install a dual boot? (or better let someone install it)

If you aren't tech savvy and you only have windows experience, switching to linux is just plain stupid. Don't do it...

Might as well become as good as possible with Linux - having Windows would be a crutch I feel. Long term hope is to work in the IT field, IT security perhaps. Everyone I talk to about it, including educators, tell me to become as proficient with Linux as possible

 

[Uthuriel]

Might as well become as good as possible with Linux - having Windows would be a crutch I feel. Long term hope is to work in the IT field, IT security perhaps. Everyone I talk to about it, including educators, tell me to become as proficient with Linux as possible

Then let me tell you, as someone that worked in that field, you can have both.
I'd have never deleted my windows just because some of my professors might have told me so.

Your professors are right though you should learn linux. Dual boot is IMHO still the best option.
Personally though I'd just put the linux distro in a VM and be done with it. Less complicated and it still works.

 

[Niv-Mizzet the Firemind]

So sorry AND so thankful for your help!

Explanation: Let's say my name is Bob (obviously fake). When I made my user for my new pc, I wrote Bo, instead of Bob.

That leaves me wondering:
1) IF I chose to play these games on a virtual machine (having saved the save files on dropbox or something), how do I utilise those saves?
2) If I just forgo the vm, can those saves be made to work on Ubuntu, when they were originally made playing on Windows?

Or the nuclear option, I just say F it, and start all the games over, however that is a LOT of time, and a lot of those games have a great story where I made a lot of different choices I would like to keep. Starting over might just kill the interest..

Currently trying to find a safe way to change my user name on Windows, without ruining everything.

Ok Bo, I got it a little better now.
The username (or the operating system) under which these saves were created doesn't matter at all as far as I can tell. What matters is that they are at the proper location when the game starts.

So, in your current machine, for renpy, you backup the folders in C:\Users\bo(the actual misspelled username)\Appdata\Roaming\Renpy. It should be a lot of subfolders.
For ton, backup the files in C:\Users\bo\AppData\Local\User Data

In the virtual machine, in which the username is Bob, you go to C:\users\bob\Appdata\roaming\renpy and paste the folders you backed up earlier. You do the same for the user data folder in C:\Users\bob\Appdata\Local\User Data.

If you skip the vm (and you probably should if your laptop is kinda weak) you take the renpy folders and paste them in ~/.renpy. It's an os shorthand for /home/username/.renpy.
For ton, the folder is ~/.config/KADOKAWA/RPGMV

Edit:

Might as well become as good as possible with Linux - having Windows would be a crutch I feel. Long term hope is to work in the IT field, IT security perhaps. Everyone I talk to about it, including educators, tell me to become as proficient with Linux as possible

Your educators are correct.

 

[Deleted member 3304924]

All the tips

You Sir, are a scholar and a gentleman!

 

[anne O'nymous]

If your education requires linux for some reason why not install a dual boot? (or better let someone install it)

Or since he's learning, why not virtualization ? He can mess as much as he want, at worse he delete the virtual host and create a new one. Better at first than taking the risk to mess with the boot table or install on the wrong partition.

 

[Uthuriel]

Or since he's learning, why not virtualization ? He can mess as much as he want, at worse he delete the virtual host and create a new one. Better at first than taking the risk to mess with the boot table or install on the wrong partition.

I told him that... Dual-boot or VM...
A VM would be smarter and more practical though you are right...

 

[Deleted member 3304924]

Who knows, might very well give those a shot too

Tomorrow my tech savy friend drops by, and we give my laptop a complete cleanse, install Ubuntu and then I take it from there. I REALLY need to familiarize myself with Linux as an OS, so as to make going back to school as smooth as possible. As I said I am not that good with IT, so the more time I spend now, getting better at it, the better I feel.

Thanks for all the help and input guys (and gals, I don't know or judge )