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Strongbad Cool Game for Attractive People problems

mordauntmordaunt
edited December 2009 in Game Support
So this weekend, I bought the entire telltale collection off steam, but I've been unable to play SCGFAP: Episode 1. The game downloaded and installed off steam, but the game won't start up, it immediately exits without any splash screen or anything. Not sure what's going on.

I installed the directx v9 provided with the game, but that didn't change anything.


My system is Vista64 service pack 2 with 4Gigs of RAM and a 512MB Nvidia 9600M GT

Can someone help?



Is there a list of files and md5 hashes of what is supposed to be in the directory that I can use to compare against what is in the directory?

I've downloaded it multiple times, so I'm pretty sure it isn't a download error.

Comments

  • mordauntmordaunt
    edited December 2009
    hmm this seems to be the case for all the games in the pack

    tales of monkey island
    Sam and max
    Wallace and grommit

    Additionally:

    dxdiag shows the system has directx11 installed which is supposedly backwards compatible with directx9 the nvidia drivers are dated at 8/19/2009 8.16.0011.8681

    Any ideas mods?

    It seems like your entire package of steam apps is broken somehow.
  • CyphoxCyphox
    edited December 2009
    what about telltale versions of the games?

    does the wallace & grommit demo work flawlessly for example?

    http://www.telltalegames.com/wallaceandgromit

    or produces it the same "error"?
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited December 2009
    mordaunt wrote: »
    Is there a list of files and md5 hashes of what is supposed to be in the directory that I can use to compare against what is in the directory?

    Steam has a built in mechanism to Verify the Game Cache Files.
  • mordauntmordaunt
    edited December 2009
    Cyphox wrote: »
    what about telltale versions of the games?

    does the wallace & grommit demo work flawlessly for example?

    http://www.telltalegames.com/wallaceandgromit

    or produces it the same "error"?

    yep cyphox same error when i installed the demo from telltale

    I guess it has something to do with directx. so i tried updating directx with the Microsoft dxwebsetup.exe I found linked elsewhere on telltale. I had problems when i ran that update and vista suggested to run it in compatibility mode, so I did that and it went through and updated directx. It still doesn't work.

    The only thing i notice is that the d3dx9_27.dll that microsoft provides in that update is bigger than the one provided by telltale. telltale's version is 2.21MB, microsoft's version is 3.63MB

    I did the steam game integrity test. i was just wondering if the stuff included with the steam version of the game is broken somehow.
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited December 2009
    mordaunt wrote: »
    I guess it has something to do with directx. so i tried updating directx with the Microsoft dxwebsetup.exe I found linked elsewhere on telltale. I had problems when i ran that update and vista suggested to run it in compatibility mode, so I did that and it went through and updated directx. It still doesn't work.

    The only thing i notice is that the d3dx9_27.dll that microsoft provides in that update is bigger than the one provided by telltale. telltale's version is 2.21MB, microsoft's version is 3.63MB

    The first thing that is odd is that the DirectX update failed in normal mode. What error message did you get?

    Also telltales d3dx9_27.dll is correct with that size. I have the same in Vista's and XP's system32 folder.
    All three also have the same Checksums: 
    File: d3dx9_27.dll
 MD5: 852edc778a7a50077694f84d8e601234
 SHA-1: 14705b638e1af81ddda5dc52f68c61ebfce5e9e3

    Something seems to be wrong with your DirectX or maybe even Windows installation. You can try running the full DirectX installer.
  • beatlefreak9beatlefreak9
    edited December 2009
    Just a quick comment/question: I've never used Steam to buy Telltale's games, and I don't have Vista, but since YOU have Vista, shouldn't you be trying to update DirectX to 10 or 11, and not trying to [re?]install 9?
  • mordauntmordaunt
    edited December 2009
    @beatlefreak9 I started out with directx 11. that's what was already installed and working for all of my other valve/rockstar games. the telltale stuff wasn't working and it seemed like it needed directx9. so i ran the installer and tried running the game in windowsxp2 compatibility mode. no dice

    @djndb: yep that hash matches... so I'm out of ideas.. why isn't it working on vista? supposedly the game is vista compatible
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited December 2009
    mordaunt wrote: »
    @djndb: yep that hash matches... so I'm out of ideas.. why isn't it working on vista? supposedly the game is vista compatible

    Have you installed SP2 and other Vista updates?
    Is your Audio Driver up to date?
    I don't know if that matters for the steam versions as well, but is the latest Internet Explorer installed?
  • mordauntmordaunt
    edited December 2009
    yes on all 3

    In fact here is my dxdiag output

    http://pastebin.com/m1c22cdd7
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited December 2009 
    Description: Speakers and Dual Headphones (IDT High Definition Audio CODEC)
Date and Size: 8/5/2008 02:13:52, 459264 bytes
    I found a newer IDT HDA Driver you could try.

    So the version you downloaded from telltale, no error message or window at all?
    There's a thread about that with various things to try. I would start with the clean boot.
  • mordauntmordaunt
    edited December 2009
    tried updating the driver and all the suggesting in that thread

    clean boot, uninstall lua, installing the directx sdk

    the only non-normal computer stuff I have installed on my computer now are vmware and postgres

    I think I'm going to have to buckle down and figure out how to do windows debugging :\ unless you know of some simpler tool to run a program and give you a useable trace
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited December 2009
    I would love to have a system with that problem to look around, but i can't suggest you how to troubleshoot it. I would make it up as i go.
    I think most debugging tools would conflict with securom. You could try Sysinternals Process Monitor. It at least shows some stuff that might help before the securom message comes.

    Start Process Monitor and set a Filter (CTRL-L) to
    "Process Name - begins with - FILENAME - then - include"
    with FILENAME being the beginning of whatever .exe you want to monitor.
    Then start your episode. I would try the one you downloaded from telltale.

    You can also save a logfile in PML format, zip it, and upload it somewhere, so i can try to make sense of it.
  • mordauntmordaunt
    edited December 2009
    me: YEAA!!! it finally works!! YEAA!!! HOO YAAA!!
    dj: so what will you do now
    me: now we can get back to playing the game!! :D


    Anyway thanks for pointing me to that thread. Buried deep in that thread one guy talks about having problems with his tablet driver

    I checked control panel> Programs> turn windows features on and off> and there it is .. tablet friggin pc optional components.

    I removed it.. took several minutes

    rebooted with normal startup and booya! everything works

    I figure laptop companies are creating the vista images with the tablet option activated just in case ppl order the touch screen feature or maybe it's a new vista certification rec who knows. Anyway, whatever way telltale uses to query directx for input devices is not noticing that there is no tablet (wacom or tablet pc) style thing connected and is breaking on that feature. It's even possible the telltale stuff is written to be tablet friendly and breaking due to the red herring that this installed feature suggests may be available. Anyway, the majority of the unresolved problems on that thread are from people using laptops.

    If you or a mod can do so, please pin this as an optional fix for laptop users who don't use tablets.

    So to reiterate. For people with fully updated drivers on vista, this has nothing to do with directx/drivers update but everything to do with removing that piece of unnecessary functionality as a temp fix. And in the future telltale needs to patch their engine, because the problem is across the board on the whole pack

    So far the games run great

    Happy New year everybody :D
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited December 2009
    mordaunt wrote: »
    I checked control panel> Programs> turn windows features on and off> and there it is .. tablet friggin pc optional components.
    These components are installed in my Vista, which I installed myself, as well and the games work. I assume it's the default configuration.
    mordaunt wrote: »
    If you or a mod can do so, please pin this as an optional fix for laptop users who don't use tablets.

    That little Max head beside an italic nick stands for community mods.
    I suggest you post your solution in that thread. That way all people who subscribed to it get notified.

    P.S.
    I'm glad you solved it. Have fun with the games
  • mordauntmordaunt
    edited December 2009
    done.
    DjNDB wrote: »
    That little Max head beside an italic nick stands for community mods.
    I suggest you post your solution in that thread.



    Oh, I didn't know vbulletin did that. neat.
This discussion has been closed.