It's very easy to back up the savegame files for Virtual Villagers: The Tree of Life. The savegame files can be backed up and/or copied to another computer that's running the same version of the game. To back up your games, follow the steps in the appropriate procedure for your computer:

For Windows:

NOTE: This procedure assumes that you are familiar with creating folders and copying 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 to your game or your computer files.

1. Pause each of the games in active player slots to prevent the passage of time in the game.
2. Quit the game
3. Open the folder that contains the savegame files. The savegame files for Virtual Villagers: The Tree of Life for Windows can be found in \My Documents\LDW\Virtual Villagers - The Tree of Life. The files are named Virtual Villagers - The Tree of Life*.ldw, where * is a number corresponding to the player slot. There is also a backup savegame file for each game slot, which are named Virtual Villagers - The Tree of Life21.ldw through Virtual Villagers - The Tree of Life25.ldw.
4. Select all of the savegame files in that folder. Do not attempt to open the actual savegame files to prevent the possibility of corrupting them.
5. Copy the files to another folder of your choosing.

If you want to use the savegame files on another computer that's running the same version of Virtual Villagers: The Tree of Life for Windows, you should copy the files to the appropriate location on the new computer.


For Mac:

Although the savegame files can be backed up and/or copied to another computer that's running the same version of the game, please note that savegame files created on a PowerPC-based Mac (G3, G4, G5) are not compatible with Intel-based Macs and vice versa, due to differences in the architecture of the systems.

The procedure for backing up the files is as follows:

NOTE: This procedure assumes that you are familiar with creating folders and copying 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 to your game or your computer files.

1. Pause each of the games in active player slots to prevent the passage of time in the game.
2. Quit the game
3. Open the folder that contains the savegame files. The savegame files for Virtual Villagers: The Tree of Life for Mac can be found in ~user\Library\Preferences\LDW\Virtual Villagers - The Tree of Life. The files are named Virtual Villagers - The Tree of Life*.ldw, where * is a number corresponding to the player slot. There is also a backup savegame file for each game slot, which are named Virtual Villagers - The Tree of Life21.ldw through Virtual Villagers - The Tree of Life25.ldw.
4. Select all of the savegame files in that folder. Do not attempt to open the actual savegame files to prevent the possibility of corrupting them.
5. Copy the files to another folder of your choosing.

If you want to use the savegame files on another computer that's running the same version of Virtual Villagers: The Tree of Life for Mac, you should copy the files to the appropriate location on the new computer.