Hey there, guys. I'm new around here, so I don't know if I'm posting this in the right section. Well, I'm having problems running Arcanum on Windows XP. When I try to run it, it starts but only until that "Loading Arcanum..." screen... then, the game quits. I'm running it on Windows XP SP2, with patch 1.0.7.4 installed. The unpatched version also doesn't work. It's worth noting that about 1 year ago, I tryed the game and it worked perfectly on the same machine, with the same drivers installed. Thanks in advance.
Did it refuse to work right after installation ? Have you tried reinstalling ? A bad installation can cause the game to do that. Also make sure you've all the arcanum#.dat files - the list is here: File locations in arcanum directory If it doesn't help, try deleting the proto and modules/arcanum/maps folders. They're generated every time the game starts, so you can erase them at will. If all else fails run arcanum in safe mode, try windows compatibility mode or turning down video acceleration.
Yes and yes. Also, all files from that list are there. I deleted the 'proto' folder, but there's no 'maps' folder, probably because the game doesn't work. And finally, I had already tried running the game in compatibility mode and turning video and sound acceleration down. But still... Any other idea?
Sadly, I'm out of ideas. ( at least directly game-related ) I've never had any problems running Arcanum on any of my computers - and through the years I've played it on an ancient 500MHz Celeron/win98, through pentium3 / Athlon processors, win 2k, winxp, each service at that, up to a pentium M laptop running winXP pro SP3 right now. There are people on this forum who play Arcanum on Vista. The point being, something must be wrong with your system, or, much less likely, your copy of Arcanum. Some ideas you've probably tried already: - run Arcanum as administrator - try the same in Arcanum safe mode - install/copy installed game to a different location - scan your disk for errors (go to start->run and type chkdsk in the dialog) - run dxdiag (like above, type dxdiag) - consider defragmeting - scan for viruses / disable virus protection / other background programs - try older video card drivers (the ones originally supplied with your gfx card are usually an ancient enough) - play around with arcanum command line parameters (you'll find some by looking through the forum) I listed these ideas as they came, so look through the list and try to pick the most rational and least work-intensive first. I'd start from running as admin, trying command line parameters to disable as much stuff as possible, checking the disk for errors (if there's a glitched file in your proto directory, the game may crash like that) and finally installing old drivers. At the very extreme end, you can consider reinstalling windows. Or installing Arcanum on another computer, for example an old laptop or something - sure it takes 1.5GHz to run smoothly in 1024*768 with much going on on the screen, but it's playable at around 700MHz, so if that's an option... In the end it depends on what lengths you are willing to go to in order to get Arcanum to work. I know this can be very frustrating, but for as long as your patience allows, the unofficial patch / rroyo's WIP are worth the trouble.
Aside of running Arcanum using command lines, I've already tryed all that. I'll try that, but I'm almost sure that it's something with my Windows installation, though it doesn't show any sign of being fucked up. I don't know if I'm spirited enough to reinstall my system right now. Well, thank you for the help!! :wink:
Delete Arcanum3.dat and then manually put it in place by copying and then pasting it from the disc. Can't explain it but when the game crashes like that for me its because something in that file is broken.
Deleting that file didn't work, neither did using command lines. Ok, I'll reinstall Windows now. Wrenck for me! Thanks for the shot.
