Issues with Background Creation

I searched through the forums a bit to find an answer for this, since I'm mostly embarrassed I even have to ask as I remember being able to do this stuff about ten years ago when the game first came out, but I've been having serious issues with creating and editing custom backgrounds.

After finally finding an FAQ that suggested downloading and running the undat utility found on this site, I managed to get into the .mes files and all that to start writing the new background. Unfortunately, I've now run into a new problem. Whether I open gameback.mes with Notepad or Wordpad, for some reason I am not allowed to save the file. I get an error message that says "access denied" or something similar. Is there any way around this?

If it makes any difference, I'm on a fairly modern laptop with Windows 7 and I bought Arcanum from GOG.com, so it's downloaded.

 

Never had any problems with editing/creating backgrounds on Windows 7. Some questions that come to mind:

• Are you editing the files as an admin?
• Are you sure the files you're editing aren't for some reason marked as read-only?
• Have you extracted the .mes files from their .dat file(s) before editing?
• What location are you trying to save the files at?

 

1.) To my knowledge, I'm doing this as admin or owner. I don't have separate users on this laptop.

2.) I checked that but didn't see "read-only" anywhere. Usually you can see them on the face, but I've also never had it be possible for me to even edit without saving a read-only file, so I'm inclined to believe it's not.

3.) Yes. I went through the whole rigamarole with the dos command prompt and such, so the .mes files have been extracted. To give you an idea of the process I've been following, here's a link to the FAQ I found: http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/914155-arcanum-of-steamworks-and-magick-obscura/faqs/14388

4.) I'm trying to save it in the folder it was in when I opened it, which I believe is C:\Program files (x86)\GOG.com\Arcanum\data\mes

 

Does the problem persist if you try to save the file with a different filename and/or in a different location (your desktop, for example)?

 

Well that revealed something. I tried to save it by a different name in the same folder, and was told I did not have administrator permission to save to that location.

Doesn't really make sense. As I said, I don't have separate users on this laptop, and I've never had this issue with anything else before. Any idea how I can grant myself that admin permission?

 

Check: "Control panel" -> "Add or remove user accounts" (under "User Accounts and Family Safety") -> Your account -> "Change your account type". Are you an administrator?

 

It says I'm an administrator. There are only two accounts, Owner and Guest, and Guest isn't even activated. I'm Owner, and I'm listed as an admin.

 

So you don't have administrator permission to save in Arcanum's location even though you're an administrator.

Well, damn. I'm afraid I'm out of ideas. Anyone else has a clue what gives and what to do in this situation?

 

Reinstall arcanum in documents, or something like c:/games.
A friend of mine had this issue and that was the best working fix.

 

Werozzi, that worked like a charm. Thanks a bunch for your help, both of you.

 

That could explain why I didn't have any problems with editing Arcanum, seeing how I keep my games outside of program files.

Glad that the problem has been solved. Have fun with your backgrounds, Stoehr52.