RPGLauncher

Builds of RPGLauncher can be downloaded from here.

What is RPGLauncher?

RPGLauncher is an easy way to run international (primarily Japanese) RPG Maker games without the use of software such as AppLocale. It has other advanced features, such as allowing you to choose where to store the game's save files, where the location of the RTP is, among others.

Quick Start Guide

You must have East-Asian language support installed to run Japanese games. Some versions of Windows require this, some do not. This is the first step.

The easiest way to use RPGLauncher is to copy RPGLauncher.exe into the same folder as the game's RPG_RT.exe and run it. This should work 99% of the time for English-language and Japanese-language games.

Note that the new version doesn't require you to have RPGLauncher.dll, so you can delete that if you were using an older version.

If you have problems, check out the troubleshooting section before asking. If you still have issues, submit a new issue on the tracker or contact me through my Tumblr account.

Advanced Features

RPGLauncher can read several command-line arguments to modify its behavior:

• --fullscreen
  • Start the game in fullscreen
• --show-logo
  • Show the game logo on startup
• --hide-title
  • Hide the title screen image
• --save-path
  • Change the folder in which the game saves games
• --rtp-path
  • Change the folder which the game looks for RTP files
• --codepage
  • Change the codepage of the game (defaults to 932, i.e. Japanese)

You may also add options to RPG_RT.ini that RPGLauncher will read when starting, like so:

[RPGLauncher]
logo=0
title=1
fullscreen=1
codepage=1252

This will start the game without the logo, with the title screen, in fullscreen mode, and with codepage 1252 (Western).

Troubleshooting

A file can't load/isn't found.

1. Make sure the RTP is installed, especially if you get a warning about the RTP not being installed.
2. The filenames might be corrupt, especially for a Japanese-language game, though RPGLauncher should mostly compensate for these. In any case...
   • Make sure that you have East-Asian language support installed.
   • Try redownloading the program, extracting the files with a quality file archiver such as 7-Zip.
   • If both steps fail, or the game comes in a self-extracting archive, you'll need to extract the game files while running in a Japanese locale. You can do this by using AppLocale on versions of Windows less than 10, Locale Emulator on Windows 10, or changing your system locale settings. The 64-bit version of 7-Zip does not seem to work properly with AppLocale in my experience.

The text is corrupt.

East-Asian language support must be installed. This should only affect Windows XP.

The game isn't fullscreen.

You can enter fullscreen at any time by pressing Alt+Enter. Alternatively, see the above instructions under Advanced Features.