Playing Windows 98/2000/XP games in Windows 7

[Rath Darkblade]

Hmm... here's a strange thing - when I initially searched for it, this scummvm.ini file didn't seem to exist anywhere. However, when I searched the ScummVM website for help, I came across this:

http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/User_ ... re_ScummVM

Acting on a hunch that the scummvm.ini file should be in the same location under Win7 as it would be under Win Vista, I went to \Users\username\AppData\Roaming\ScummVM, and that's where I found it.

The file itself appears to be have the 'Read-Only' and 'Hidden' attributes ticked, so I thought "Maybe I should untick the 'Read-Only' attribute, add the game to ScummVM, then re-tick 'Read-Only'?" It was only a guess, but it seemed logical to me, so I gave it a try. It still didn't work, but then I tried unticking both 'Read-Only' and 'Hidden', adding the game to ScummVM, and then re-ticking 'Read-Only' and 'Hidden'.

This time, it worked! Thanks for your help.

[MusicallyInspired]

Just leave them both unticked or you won't be able to add anymore games or make any other changes to ScummVM game settings. There's no reason for them to be ticked.

[Rath Darkblade]

New game, new issue...

I installed Microsoft's "Rise of Nations" and its expansion, "Thrones and Patriots". This game worked fine on Windows 2000 and Windows XP, so I was hoping it would work also on Win7. It started up ok, so I thought "Fine" and left it at that (that was a while ago, though).

Now, when I try to play it, I get the game's starting little movie and a splash screen, but then it tells me "Can't create file state.dat. Please check disk space." and crashes back to desktop. I've googled for the answer, but can't find anything.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!

[MusicallyInspired]

Did you try running as administrator? It might be a problem with writing to the Program Files folder if that's where it's installed. You can try running as administrator or installing it in a director outside of Program Files.

[Collector]

Sounds like you are running afoul of UAC. This is exactly why my installers for legacy games default to an installation folder outside of the Programs Files folder or any other system folder. Start installing all of your pre Vista games inside of another folder, say "C:\OldGames" or whatever name you prefer.

[Rath Darkblade]

Did you try running as administrator? It might be a problem with writing to the Program Files folder if that's where it's installed. You can try running as administrator or installing it in a director outside of Program Files.

Yep, I installed as admin, but this still keeps cropping up. :-\

As for installing a program outside of Program Files - I'd simply gotten used to using defaults, I guess!

Sounds like you are running afoul of UAC. This is exactly why my installers for legacy games default to an installation folder outside of the Programs Files folder or any other system folder. Start installing all of your pre Vista games inside of another folder, say "C:\OldGames" or whatever name you prefer.

All right, I'll have to uninstall and re-install the game in another directory... hmm. I'd looked up UAC in Wikipedia to get an insight into what it is, but now that I've seen the wiki-article, I know exactly what it's referring to. This blasted thing has been bugging me for ages - I'd have to say it's the single most annoying feature in Micro$oft OSes since Clippy.

Isn't there a way to simply turn UAC off? I went to the Micro$oft website and tried following the procedure there to turn off UAC, but it seems that I cannot simply turn UAC on or off - I have to choose between four different 'degrees' of UAC protection (?), which seems overly prescriptive to me. I mean, I know what I'm doing online (I don't do dumb things like going to sites that have anything to do with illegal activities or gambling), I have an active firewall, and I update my anti-virus and anti-malware definitions each time I go online. In addition, whenever I install new programs/games, I make sure to go offline first. So what do I need UAC for? It's a bit like having my grandmother looking over my shoulder and saying "Are you sure?" every time I want to do something that's actually - I dunno - fun.

Any ideas?

[Collector]

Microsoft made UAC in Win7 far less annoying than in Vista because so many were simply turning it off. It is a good security measure. For most people I do not recommend turning it off. Malware will usually start as a child process of the user, which means that with UAC enabled, initially it will have restricted access, too. This gives you more time to catch it. As far as old games go, installing in a non-system folder fixes the UAC limited write access problems.

[dotkel50]

I found these posts at the Heaven Games site:
http://ron.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/foru ... =state.dat

[Rath Darkblade]

Microsoft made UAC in Win7 far less annoying than in Vista because so many were simply turning it off. It is a good security measure. For most people I do not recommend turning it off. Malware will usually start as a child process of the user, which means that with UAC enabled, initially it will have restricted access, too. This gives you more time to catch it. As far as old games go, installing in a non-system folder fixes the UAC limited write access problems.

Sigh... still no joy. I uninstalled Rise of Nations (and the expansion, Thrones and Patriots) and reinstalled them under C:\OldGames. The original game works, after I allowed it access to the C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Temp\ directory - if I didn't, it would give me this error on startup:

Error: CreateFile (C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Temp\~f1d...)

Access is denied.

So, I made the Temp directory read/write and unhidden. I made it hidden and read-only now, as it was before, but is there any reason why it should be? Is it dangerous to unhide it or make it read/write?

As for Thrones and Patriots... still no luck. I've turned off the Avast anti-virus shields because they interfered and caused the Protection Stub to fail (though I've turned them back on now) - they also did the same with Rise of Legends, Microsoft's other "Rise of..." game. I also made C:\Users\[Username]\AppData\Local\Temp\ read/write and unhidden, but I still get the same error - it can't create the file state.dat.

Incidentally, why does Microsoft make its error messages so hard to understand? It'd be different if I had a clue of where to look for this file or where it's supposed to be written to. As it is, I'm looking for a needle in a haystack. Any ideas?

I found these posts at the Heaven Games site:
http://ron.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/foru ... =state.dat

I looked at those last night before coming here, dot. Nothing there helped. Thanks though.

[Collector]

Have you tried setting the game to run with elevated rights on the compatibility tab?

[dotkel50]

Have you installed the patches?

[Rath Darkblade]

Have you tried setting the game to run with elevated rights on the compatibility tab?

No... the only thing that looks like elevated rights on the compatibility tab is a checkbox to "Run this game as administrator". Is this what you mean? If not, can you please explain what "elevated rights" are? *curious*

Have you installed the patches?

No, I can't find them. Where are they?

[Collector]

the only thing that looks like elevated rights on the compatibility tab is a checkbox to "Run this game as administrator". Is this what you mean? If not, can you please explain what "elevated rights" are? *curious*

Yes.

[dotkel50]

On the main menu of the game there should be a 'check for updates' button. If not, Heaven Games site has them in the downloads section.

[Rath Darkblade]

All right - I have now tried to run the game as administrator, but I still get the same error.

On the main menu of the game there should be a 'check for updates' button. If not, Heaven Games site has them in the downloads section.

The game doesn't even start for me, so I don't get to see the main menu. (This is the expansion I'm talking about, not the original game - the original game starts fine, but the expansion won't).

I've been to the Heaven Games site and looked all around their downloads section. They have 3 patches, but they're all for the original game (which I have no problems with). So... I'm still stuck.

What is it talking about when it says that it can't create the file state.dat? If I knew where that file was (or where it's supposed to be), that might give me a clue... any ideas?