So, I've just played through (and completed) episode one of Season Two. The new "before you start" setup by the C.O.P.S. was entertaining Out of curiosity, is there any way of getting that setup to run again without uninstalling and reinstalling the game?
I also use XP, and it worked for me. Make sure you do the things stated in both posts, except running the game in step 5 of the first post, because if you run the game before renaming prefs.prop then you won't see the COPS screen even if you rename it afterwards and reload the game! (since the registry stuff is regenerated when loading the game). You have to do all the stuff mentioned in both posts before running the game.
In case there's any doubt, this would be the "complete guide" (combining both posts):
1. Open the Registry Editor by going to Start/Run, typing "regedit" (no quotes) and pressing Enter
2. Navigate through the tree until you get to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Telltale Games/Sam & Max Season 2
3. Right click on "Sam & Max Season 2" and select "Change name"
4. Change that name to whatever you want (for example "Sam & Max Season 2 copy")
5. Don't run the game yet! Rename the "prefs.prop" file found in the game folder to something else, like "prefs.copy"
6. Run the game. The COPS setup wizard should appear.
After running the game, a new "prefs.prop" file and a new "Sam & Max Season 2" registry entry will be generated with the default values. You can restore all your settings and car decals by deleting the newly generated "prefs.prop" file and "Sam & Max Season 2" entry in the registry, and renaming the previously renamed copies to their original names.
Anyway, I insist that it would be a better idea that Telltale added an easy to reach shortcut in the Start Menu to launch the COPS "setup wizard", so we don't have to tinker with registry and configuration files to get that screen again without reinstalling (apart from being fun to see, it might be needed to get to that screen if you have mistakenly chosen an unsupported resolution, which is possible, since the resolution autodetection is not flawless and some unsupported resolutions can be chosen, giving you a blank screen and no means of getting out, except hitting ALT+F4 to exit the game, and if you run the game again after that, you still get a blank screen, so without the "setup wizard" handy this can't be fixed except by reinstalling!).
1. Open the Registry Editor by going to Start/Run, typing "regedit" (no quotes) and pressing Enter
2. Navigate through the tree until you get to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Telltale Games/Sam & Max Season 2
3. Right click on "Sam & Max Season 2" and select "Change name"
4. Change that name to whatever you want (for example "Sam & Max Season 2 copy")
5. Don't run the game yet! Rename the "prefs.prop" file found in the game folder to something else, like "prefs.copy"
6. Run the game. The COPS setup wizard should appear.
You guys are freakin me out, meddling with the registry and stuff to see the COPS again. I'd like to make it user-launchable at least on the disc version of Season Two, but I don't know how feasible that is.
It will also give an easy way to reconfigure the game if something goes wrong with the current config (I know you can delete the .prop file and get default settings and reconfigure in-game, but that is just plain awkward)
You guys are freakin me out, meddling with the registry and stuff to see the COPS again. I'd like to make it user-launchable at least on the disc version of Season Two, but I don't know how feasible that is.
You're dealing with the ends of the bell curve of Sam & Max gamers.
Just FYI, if all of these conditions are met, then the registry settings are removed:
Run an uninstaller for a Sam & Max Season Two game.
Have no more Season Two games installed on that computer.
Tell the uninstaller to remove all saved games and preferences during the uninstall.
For extra credit, there's a command line parameters on the uninstallers for Season Two and any [re-]release of any downloaded Telltale game in the future.
/S
Silent mode for the uninstaller.
/KEEPSAVES=x
If set to 1, the uninstaller will leave all the settings.
If set to 0, the uninstaller will remove all of the settings.
[Default] If set to -1, the uninstaller will ask the user what to do.
Example:
The line will uninstall 201 and remove all of the settings (and season-wide if conditions are met) without prompting. Obviously you'll need to include the full path of the uninstaller for this to work.
"Uninstall Episode 201 - Ice Station Santa.exe" /S /KEEPSAVES=0
Thanks Seg....very useful (though I won't be using the word uninstall over Sam&Max for a long time)
Now, how about
"Episode 201 - Ice Station Santa.exe" /setup (or "Episode 202 - Moai Better Blues.exe" /setup )
To start the setup mode with default settings
Target folks: those who want to run over and over the COPS setup screen AND for those unlucky ones that after a hardware update or whatever are unable to launch the game and are instructed to delete the .prop file
Now, how about
"Episode 201 - Ice Station Santa.exe" /setup
Not my realm; Not to mention that I don't think a command line is the best place for triggering the setup wizard. Having something more publicly accessible would be much better for everyone.
Not my realm; Not to mention that I don't think a command line is the best place for triggering the setup wizard. Having something more publicly accessible would be much better for everyone.
Of course you are right, the command line is not very friendly (but beats the hell out of deleting by mistake the wrong file)
And you can hide the command line mumbo-jumbo inside a nice shortcut (usually besides a nice icon )
Hey Telltale team: My first encounter with the COPS ended in pure disaster as they happily changed me to a resolution my screen could not display. (I was hoping for some dual-monitor action)
The keyboard shortcut for switching from full to windowed mode (thanks google) was what saved me in the end, but it would of course have been a lot nicer if the COPS had reverted to the working video mode after say 15 seconds..
And i had to reinstall to watch the sequence again, this time avoiding silly stuff.
(IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!)
A friend of mine also had screen resolution issues. Curiously, a reinstall would not fix it. It would be nice to be able to 'reset' the COPS sequence. I just loved the dialog.
Out of curiosity, is there any way of getting that setup to run again without uninstalling and reinstalling the game? 
Comments
http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showpost.php?p=46021&postcount=15
http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showpost.php?p=47035&postcount=28
In case there's any doubt, this would be the "complete guide" (combining both posts):
1. Open the Registry Editor by going to Start/Run, typing "regedit" (no quotes) and pressing Enter
2. Navigate through the tree until you get to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Telltale Games/Sam & Max Season 2
3. Right click on "Sam & Max Season 2" and select "Change name"
4. Change that name to whatever you want (for example "Sam & Max Season 2 copy")
5. Don't run the game yet! Rename the "prefs.prop" file found in the game folder to something else, like "prefs.copy"
6. Run the game. The COPS setup wizard should appear.
After running the game, a new "prefs.prop" file and a new "Sam & Max Season 2" registry entry will be generated with the default values. You can restore all your settings and car decals by deleting the newly generated "prefs.prop" file and "Sam & Max Season 2" entry in the registry, and renaming the previously renamed copies to their original names.
Anyway, I insist that it would be a better idea that Telltale added an easy to reach shortcut in the Start Menu to launch the COPS "setup wizard", so we don't have to tinker with registry and configuration files to get that screen again without reinstalling (apart from being fun to see, it might be needed to get to that screen if you have mistakenly chosen an unsupported resolution, which is possible, since the resolution autodetection is not flawless and some unsupported resolutions can be chosen, giving you a blank screen and no means of getting out, except hitting ALT+F4 to exit the game, and if you run the game again after that, you still get a blank screen, so without the "setup wizard" handy this can't be fixed except by reinstalling!).
@Telltale team guys....
Maybe you should add a "/setup" startup option that launches the startup setup screen ??
The complete procedure:
So if possible please see to it! But if there's no way because of the way the game and/or the program is hard-coded, I'd understand.
You're dealing with the ends of the bell curve of Sam & Max gamers.
- Run an uninstaller for a Sam & Max Season Two game.
- Have no more Season Two games installed on that computer.
- Tell the uninstaller to remove all saved games and preferences during the uninstall.
For extra credit, there's a command line parameters on the uninstallers for Season Two and any [re-]release of any downloaded Telltale game in the future./S
Silent mode for the uninstaller.
/KEEPSAVES=x
If set to 1, the uninstaller will leave all the settings.
If set to 0, the uninstaller will remove all of the settings.
[Default] If set to -1, the uninstaller will ask the user what to do.
Example:
The line will uninstall 201 and remove all of the settings (and season-wide if conditions are met) without prompting. Obviously you'll need to include the full path of the uninstaller for this to work.
Now, how about
"Episode 201 - Ice Station Santa.exe" /setup (or "Episode 202 - Moai Better Blues.exe" /setup
To start the setup mode with default settings
Target folks: those who want to run over and over the COPS setup screen AND for those unlucky ones that after a hardware update or whatever are unable to launch the game and are instructed to delete the .prop file
Of course you are right, the command line is not very friendly (but beats the hell out of deleting by mistake the wrong file)
And you can hide the command line mumbo-jumbo inside a nice shortcut (usually besides a nice icon
The keyboard shortcut for switching from full to windowed mode (thanks google) was what saved me in the end, but it would of course have been a lot nicer if the COPS had reverted to the working video mode after say 15 seconds..
And i had to reinstall to watch the sequence again, this time avoiding silly stuff.
(IT WAS TOTALLY WORTH IT!!!)
No one is forcing you to read it. ¬¬