Just wanted to share my specs if that may help narrowing down the problem.
I don't often use that word, but my PC dastardly refused to get any further than the opening credits:
AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (Asus A7N8X-X MB)
1.75GB RAM, nVidia GeForce 6600GT (128MB RAM), ForceWare 84.21
DirectX v9.0c [4.09.0000.0904] (installed 11/26/06)
running on XP SP1
But I got the game working on my device for work (that ridiculously does make some sense) which is:
Intel Pentium M, 1500MHz (Acer TravelMate 290 MB)
1GB RAM, ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (64MB RAM), ATI Catalyst 4.4
DirectX v9.0c [4.09.0000.0904] (installed 04/28/06)
running on XP SP1
As you might have guessed, I'm not much of a gamer and thus do not frequently update drivers and such ("Never touch a running system", after all!). But it'd be kinda derisory to have a game like "Sam & Max" not to run on an average system.
Yet again it seems as if the problem might be connected with GeForce graphics cards...
As so many things have been tried already and failed, I tried a few other things to bypass this somehow. First off, I copied my prefs.prop file from my laptop (including the autosave) to my PC which at least enabled me to load a savegame and enjoy approximately 5 seconds of mind-boggling entertainment (Sam walking in some direction; doesn't really matter which way I let him go though).
But wait, here's a funny thing... so, I was tired, my twisted mind began throwing stupid ideas at me and I eventually started installing XP (bundled with SP1) in a virtual machine (VMware Player 1.0.3). Just a plain, boring XP-install (except for uninstalling all that needless junk that comes shipped with, e.g. Internet EXplorer, that MSN-thingy, etc. and installing the VMware drivers). And -surprise!- Sam & Max did run. The intro played rather smoothly, the game itself succumbed somehow to the limitations of an emulated environment, but at least didn't crash (admittedly I didn't "play" a long time). So, here are the specs:
[still an] AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (on an emulated Intel 440BX MB)
with 512 MB RAM donated by the host, the top-notch VMware SVGA II (32 MB shared [oh, really?] mem)
DirectX v8.1 [4.08.01.0810] (bundled with XP)
I'm aware of the fact that this might have been completely pointless, but it might still narrow it down to the apparent nVidia-problem. Or maybe it's a combination of both nVidia and SP1. Or whatever!
Why are they focusing on a bad link when the game you can download doesn't run correctly? I think it is more important to fix that and THAN fix the link
I totally agree. Sure, it's vital for the revenue of TellTale to have that link fixed, but as long as the product obviously lacks some serious debugging (reading through this Game Support forum astounded me) it casts a pretty sad shadow over the whole thing: Pushing sales of buggy and unstable software. Hold on, I think I know that scheme... does Microsoft ring a bell?
Well then, I'll be off playing on my laptop, crossing my fingers that none of the other bugs mentioned in this forum will keep me from enjoying the game. And it better be good!
I also tried all the mentioned solutions, but the game still crashes right after intro credits. Guess I've spend more time trying to fix the error than the actual gamplay time lasts -.-
Hey guys - give Kevin a break. He is working on the problem. We test our games thoroughly before releasing them, but unfortunately there is no way to account for every system and every configuration until the game is released. We wouldn't have released the game with this bug if we had known about it beforehand, but it has never come up in our testing.
Anyone who doesn't want to wait for a fix and would rather cancel your order and get a refund, that's fine. Send an email to support@telltalegames.com with your order info and say this is the reason and I'll take care of it for you.
We really do want people to be happy with the games they bought, but we're not miracle workers. Fixing issues like this takes time.
But I do want to play this game. I just want to be sure that you are working on a fix and don't just leave it with a "SP2 solves the problem for most people, no need to work on a fix". Episode 1 worked on my system and I don't see why Episode 2 should not. Please make a fix. I enjoyed Culture Shock so much, I don't want to miss the other episodes because of technical problems.
Im getting a fresh windows install today, see if it helps. It was long overdue anyway.
The SP2 and Omega fix didnst work for me, but maybe my system was unstable as it was, after all the computer crashed every time I tried to install the Omega drivers.
Thanks Kevin and Emily for the updates on this, its very nice to hear youre working on it. And in general im very happy with your business practice, talking with your custumers on your forum like this, and your quick and personal email support. Its rare, commendable and very sympathetic.
Thanks Kevin and Emily for the updates on this, its very nice to hear youre working on it. And in general im very happy with your business practice, talking with your custumers on your forum like this, and your quick and personal email support. Its rare, commendable and very sympathetic.
You're welcome! Thank you for helping us figure out what the problem is.
does anyone know if you can run it on Vista?
Episode 2 is Vista friendly. Episode 1 is not at the moment (but will be soon).
OK, agreed, you guys really have a nice way of treating your customers, with Kevin sending lots of PMs and giving kind of a "personal support" the day the game came out and all. Thanks for that.
Anyway, I am getting frustrated because the game still doesn't run on my system. I am running SP1 and I don't want to upgrade to SP2. Since I can't get the omega drivers to work, either, I need a patch badly. I have been waiting eagerly for a sequel to "Freelance Police" virtually for years now - I don't want my money back, I want to play the game!
So, Telltale: prettyprettyplease release a patch SOON!
I am running SP1 and I don't want to upgrade to SP2.
Why not? After you have installed it and (hopefully) played S+M you can simply uninstall it again. After all it may be a way to play the game before a patch is ready.
SP2 makes my computer crash at startup. I guess it's a hardware thing, and it may just be fixed since I bought a new power supply, but I'm not yet ready to risk reformatting my hardrive again for that...
Plus, for some people it didn't even fix the bug.
By the way, I was wondering if the same thing was going to happen with the next upcoming episodes?
I might have some possible insight to the problem. I was also getting an error along the lines of, "Access violation at 0xA0113F78 (tried to read from 0xA0113F78), Program terminated" (although the numbers may have been different, but they changed each time I tried to run the game).
PD805
7600 GT
XP SP2
DX9.0c
I tried running the game in a window, in full screen, the whole shebang. No dice. Upon reinstalling to see if that would help, I decided to try disabling my second screen (dual screen setup). It started up with fullscreen default, and it worked! I changed it to a window, and it didn't crash on me.
Now, when I tried to run the game again later (with the second screen on), same error again. When I disabled the second screen, it didn't help. When I tried running it in fullscreen with the second screen disabled, it still crashed. Mind you, this time it wasn't going through the credits because there was a saved game.
Anyway, I thought I'd throw out the possible dual screen messing up the program. Not sure if that helps or not, but I thought I'd throw it out there.
Needless to say, the game still does not work for me. If possible, I'd like to know if there is a status update on a patch or some sort of remedy.
Episode 1 ran fine for me without any problems (but I didn't have two screens then).
Just to throw my weight behind it too and see if I can help narrow it down. I'm having the same problem on
Win XP Professional
Geforce 6600
AMD Athlon XP 2500+
It runs the first time fine (or if you delete all of the save files), but refuses to load anything. Even if you try to load a game in the same session it just crashes to desktop.
I've gone back and checked Episode 1 and it still works fine and I've tried all sorts of things with the prefs.prop file.
Just to mention as well, often it doesn't even display the access violation error. Sometimes it does, but most of the time it just crashes quietly and puts me back at the desktop with no warning.
It always crashes just after the black screen with the white 'Loading...' message comes up if that is any help. You get the briefest flash and then it's gone.
The house computer gives out a notorious error.
Athlon 2500+(Gigabyte n-400)
gigabyte nvidia6600
XP Prof Sp2
And the computer on work - is not present.
Pentium 4 2.8
nvidia 5700
XP Prof SP2
There can be a source of a problem in processor Athlon?
I so love Sam&Max(and people who work above it), that never I shall demand refund!!!
Moreover, I have already finished 2 episode. Playing and on work and houses!
They are taking their time...
It has been two or three since Kevin asked me to send my system specs. I was hoping everything would work out in a couple of days but it didn't.
Great! That's good to hear. I don't mind waiting a while for some new Sam and Max. The wait between the first adventure and episode 1 was what, just a paltry 10+ years or so?
We are working on a new version of the game that may resolve this problem. It'll be ready within the next couple of weeks.
Thanks for your patience!
My patience was long gone but still I'm glad to hear this! And indeed, the wait had been ten years already, so another couple of weeks should be doable.
I thought you guys were going to suggest a refund but might I just say:
PHEW!
I'm looking forward to playing the game. Will we receive an e-mail when it's finished?
Hi, just purchased the game. same crash after credits. I had no problem with episode 1 though... as I read there will be a patch soon. anyway, just to let you know my specs:
AMD 3000+
Geforce 6600 GT
XP SP1
I might try SP2 out, but it looks like people in this forum did have the crash even with SP2...
if this problem is not going to be fixed, then I think that episode 1 was the last episode for me. there is no point in buying other episodes
I could cry... had a lot of fun with ep.1
I just wanted to report, that episode 3 also crashes
Yet with a little different symptoms:
I can see the intro video and right after the "The Mole, The Mob and the Meatball" text it crashes, with an access violation.
I have run all three episodes with a dual monitor setup, and no problems.
(well, except for this autosave problem). I play in a window though, not full screen.
Those of you having startup problems, you can assist in resolution of the problem by getting a stack dump of the game when the access violation happens.
It won't really help you work around the problem, but it will be nice to help get the problem fixed. See my instruction in the thread titled:
Episode 3 : Error access violation.
The developers may be able to suggest something based on what the program is trying to do at the time of the AV (viewable via the stack dumps), too.
I just wanted to report, that episode 3 also crashes
Yet with a little different symptoms:
I can see the intro video and right after the "The Mole, The Mob and the Meatball" text it crashes, with an access violation.
Kan
What version of XP are you using? I had the same problem and updating to SP2 fixed it.
I downloaded the Omega drivers for my NVIDIA 6800 (as suggested earlier in this posting) and I was able to finish the game without the Access error, PC lockup or reboot. It did say that the drivers were older than what I had and they were XP unverified but I said continue anyway and guess what it WORKED. I hope this helps out.
Hey, I've finally gotten Episode 2 to work. A couple days after the release of episode 3 I finally got around to downloading and playing it, and sure enough it had the same problem as 2 (the access violation error when changing scenes). Also returning was the extreme slowdown related to some kind of memory leak. Well, the next day I updated my firewall but things got messed up and I had to completely uninstall it and reinstall it. Naturally, all of my settings were gone. I tried to play episode 3 again (to see if I could just crawl my way through with perseverance) and to my surprise it worked! No crashing, no slowdown, it worked perfectly. I then went and tried Episode 2 and it worked great as well! Well, I was pretty happy at the point, and plowed through both games. Afterwards, though I tried to figure out what had changed. The firewall was the only thing different between the the attempts.
What I found was that my firewall was automatically blocking the activation software the opens in the beginning from accessing system resources. Odd, really, since the game worked despite it being blocked, but there you go. I unblocked it and got the crashing and memory issues again. Re-blocked it and everything was great.
I'm on an AMD 2300, with Win2k SP4. Radeon 9200SE. All drivers up to date. The firewall is Zone Alarm
Hi just wondering if you guys have been able to replicate the problem with the game crashing on Athlon/Nvidia systems.
I really would like to play Ep2 and 3 but sadly am unable to do to this.
Just wondering.
ATTENTION!
Probably I have solved a problem.
I have noticed, that I play without this mistake already long time.
HAVING analysed - I have ON a pictures and flash in Internet Explorer.
Usually I switch off them, because i have limited Internet traffic.
Comments
I don't often use that word, but my PC dastardly refused to get any further than the opening credits:
AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (Asus A7N8X-X MB)
1.75GB RAM, nVidia GeForce 6600GT (128MB RAM), ForceWare 84.21
DirectX v9.0c [4.09.0000.0904] (installed 11/26/06)
running on XP SP1
But I got the game working on my device for work (that ridiculously does make some sense) which is:
Intel Pentium M, 1500MHz (Acer TravelMate 290 MB)
1GB RAM, ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 (64MB RAM), ATI Catalyst 4.4
DirectX v9.0c [4.09.0000.0904] (installed 04/28/06)
running on XP SP1
As you might have guessed, I'm not much of a gamer and thus do not frequently update drivers and such ("Never touch a running system", after all!). But it'd be kinda derisory to have a game like "Sam & Max" not to run on an average system.
Yet again it seems as if the problem might be connected with GeForce graphics cards...
As so many things have been tried already and failed, I tried a few other things to bypass this somehow. First off, I copied my prefs.prop file from my laptop (including the autosave) to my PC which at least enabled me to load a savegame and enjoy approximately 5 seconds of mind-boggling entertainment (Sam walking in some direction; doesn't really matter which way I let him go though).
But wait, here's a funny thing... so, I was tired, my twisted mind began throwing stupid ideas at me and I eventually started installing XP (bundled with SP1) in a virtual machine (VMware Player 1.0.3). Just a plain, boring XP-install (except for uninstalling all that needless junk that comes shipped with, e.g. Internet EXplorer, that MSN-thingy, etc. and installing the VMware drivers). And -surprise!- Sam & Max did run. The intro played rather smoothly, the game itself succumbed somehow to the limitations of an emulated environment, but at least didn't crash (admittedly I didn't "play" a long time). So, here are the specs:
[still an] AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (on an emulated Intel 440BX MB)
with 512 MB RAM donated by the host, the top-notch VMware SVGA II (32 MB shared [oh, really?] mem)
DirectX v8.1 [4.08.01.0810] (bundled with XP)
I'm aware of the fact that this might have been completely pointless, but it might still narrow it down to the apparent nVidia-problem. Or maybe it's a combination of both nVidia and SP1. Or whatever!
I totally agree. Sure, it's vital for the revenue of TellTale to have that link fixed, but as long as the product obviously lacks some serious debugging (reading through this Game Support forum astounded me) it casts a pretty sad shadow over the whole thing: Pushing sales of buggy and unstable software. Hold on, I think I know that scheme... does Microsoft ring a bell?
Well then, I'll be off playing on my laptop, crossing my fingers that none of the other bugs mentioned in this forum will keep me from enjoying the game. And it better be good!
Anyone who doesn't want to wait for a fix and would rather cancel your order and get a refund, that's fine. Send an email to support@telltalegames.com with your order info and say this is the reason and I'll take care of it for you.
We really do want people to be happy with the games they bought, but we're not miracle workers. Fixing issues like this takes time.
But I do want to play this game. I just want to be sure that you are working on a fix and don't just leave it with a "SP2 solves the problem for most people, no need to work on a fix". Episode 1 worked on my system and I don't see why Episode 2 should not. Please make a fix. I enjoyed Culture Shock so much, I don't want to miss the other episodes because of technical problems.
The SP2 and Omega fix didnst work for me, but maybe my system was unstable as it was, after all the computer crashed every time I tried to install the Omega drivers.
Thanks Kevin and Emily for the updates on this, its very nice to hear youre working on it. And in general im very happy with your business practice, talking with your custumers on your forum like this, and your quick and personal email support. Its rare, commendable and very sympathetic.
does anyone know if you can run it on Vista?
You're welcome! Thank you for helping us figure out what the problem is.
Episode 2 is Vista friendly. Episode 1 is not at the moment (but will be soon).
Found the workaround, brilliant.
Anyway, I am getting frustrated because the game still doesn't run on my system. I am running SP1 and I don't want to upgrade to SP2. Since I can't get the omega drivers to work, either, I need a patch badly. I have been waiting eagerly for a sequel to "Freelance Police" virtually for years now - I don't want my money back, I want to play the game!
So, Telltale: prettyprettyplease release a patch SOON!
when i delete the savegames the game behaves properly again.
i can play it through in one session. but whenever i leave the game enter it again and try to load a savegame... it crashes
so for me theres just a problem with the savegames. by the way im using windows 2000 with sp4. venice 3000+, 1gb ddr, geforce 6800
does that make sence, anyhow?
Why not? After you have installed it and (hopefully) played S+M you can simply uninstall it again. After all it may be a way to play the game before a patch is ready.
Plus, for some people it didn't even fix the bug.
By the way, I was wondering if the same thing was going to happen with the next upcoming episodes?
That's something that's bugging me too.
PD805
7600 GT
XP SP2
DX9.0c
I tried running the game in a window, in full screen, the whole shebang. No dice. Upon reinstalling to see if that would help, I decided to try disabling my second screen (dual screen setup). It started up with fullscreen default, and it worked! I changed it to a window, and it didn't crash on me.
Now, when I tried to run the game again later (with the second screen on), same error again. When I disabled the second screen, it didn't help. When I tried running it in fullscreen with the second screen disabled, it still crashed. Mind you, this time it wasn't going through the credits because there was a saved game.
Anyway, I thought I'd throw out the possible dual screen messing up the program. Not sure if that helps or not, but I thought I'd throw it out there.
Needless to say, the game still does not work for me. If possible, I'd like to know if there is a status update on a patch or some sort of remedy.
Episode 1 ran fine for me without any problems (but I didn't have two screens then).
Win XP Professional
Geforce 6600
AMD Athlon XP 2500+
It runs the first time fine (or if you delete all of the save files), but refuses to load anything. Even if you try to load a game in the same session it just crashes to desktop.
I've gone back and checked Episode 1 and it still works fine and I've tried all sorts of things with the prefs.prop file.
Just to mention as well, often it doesn't even display the access violation error. Sometimes it does, but most of the time it just crashes quietly and puts me back at the desktop with no warning.
It always crashes just after the black screen with the white 'Loading...' message comes up if that is any help. You get the briefest flash and then it's gone.
Hope it helps!
The house computer gives out a notorious error.
Athlon 2500+(Gigabyte n-400)
gigabyte nvidia6600
XP Prof Sp2
And the computer on work - is not present.
Pentium 4 2.8
nvidia 5700
XP Prof SP2
There can be a source of a problem in processor Athlon?
I so love Sam&Max(and people who work above it), that never I shall demand refund!!!
Moreover, I have already finished 2 episode. Playing and on work and houses!
It has been two or three since Kevin asked me to send my system specs. I was hoping everything would work out in a couple of days but it didn't.
Is there any sign of a possible solution?
Thanks for your patience!
My patience was long gone but still I'm glad to hear this!
I thought you guys were going to suggest a refund but might I just say:
PHEW!
I'm looking forward to playing the game. Will we receive an e-mail when it's finished?
That's ok as well. I will check the site regularly.
AMD 3000+
Geforce 6600 GT
XP SP1
I might try SP2 out, but it looks like people in this forum did have the crash even with SP2...
if this problem is not going to be fixed, then I think that episode 1 was the last episode for me. there is no point in buying other episodes
I could cry... had a lot of fun with ep.1
cheers, brof
thanks,
George (brof)
I just wanted to report, that episode 3 also crashes
Yet with a little different symptoms:
I can see the intro video and right after the "The Mole, The Mob and the Meatball" text it crashes, with an access violation.
Kan
(well, except for this autosave problem). I play in a window though, not full screen.
It won't really help you work around the problem, but it will be nice to help get the problem fixed. See my instruction in the thread titled:
Episode 3 : Error access violation.
The developers may be able to suggest something based on what the program is trying to do at the time of the AV (viewable via the stack dumps), too.
What version of XP are you using? I had the same problem and updating to SP2 fixed it.
What I found was that my firewall was automatically blocking the activation software the opens in the beginning from accessing system resources. Odd, really, since the game worked despite it being blocked, but there you go. I unblocked it and got the crashing and memory issues again. Re-blocked it and everything was great.
I'm on an AMD 2300, with Win2k SP4. Radeon 9200SE. All drivers up to date. The firewall is Zone Alarm
I am using Korean Windows XP with SP2.
I really would like to play Ep2 and 3 but sadly am unable to do to this.
Just wondering.
Thanks.
Probably I have solved a problem.
I have noticed, that I play without this mistake already long time.
HAVING analysed - I have ON a pictures and flash in Internet Explorer.
Usually I switch off them, because i have limited Internet traffic.
Try it - this that can that will help you!