Sam & Max 201 starts only once
Hello Guys!
A couple of months ago, there was an offer to get a free episode just for signing up to the newsletter. I did and chose Sam & Max Episode 201 (Ice Station Santa). Unfortunately I just can't start the game more than once. I wrote an email to the support [issue-15889], but the answer must have been lost in the mail... I didn't care too much then, since the boxed version of season 2 was to be released just weeks later. It has since been delayed twice and I just don't want to wait any longer. Maybe you guys have an idea.
The first time I start the game after installing, it works just fine: No crashes here, the game seems to be fully playable.
Unfortunately, I can't get it to start a second time. It crashes right after starting, doesn't even get to the main menu. Only a Windows message appears, telling me the program doesn't react anymore...
De- and reinstalling enables me to start it once more, but again: just once.
This happens in the demo, as well as in the unlocked full version...
Curiously enough, every other episode of season two (at least the demos) and season one (JoWood's DVD-Version) work fine without any problems.
I use a
Intel Core2 Q6700
nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX
8 GB RAM
Windows Vista 64bit
I hope you can give me some hints on how to solve that issue, can't wait to kick Santa's butt!
A couple of months ago, there was an offer to get a free episode just for signing up to the newsletter. I did and chose Sam & Max Episode 201 (Ice Station Santa). Unfortunately I just can't start the game more than once. I wrote an email to the support [issue-15889], but the answer must have been lost in the mail... I didn't care too much then, since the boxed version of season 2 was to be released just weeks later. It has since been delayed twice and I just don't want to wait any longer. Maybe you guys have an idea.
The first time I start the game after installing, it works just fine: No crashes here, the game seems to be fully playable.
Unfortunately, I can't get it to start a second time. It crashes right after starting, doesn't even get to the main menu. Only a Windows message appears, telling me the program doesn't react anymore...
De- and reinstalling enables me to start it once more, but again: just once.
This happens in the demo, as well as in the unlocked full version...
Curiously enough, every other episode of season two (at least the demos) and season one (JoWood's DVD-Version) work fine without any problems.
I use a
Intel Core2 Q6700
nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX
8 GB RAM
Windows Vista 64bit
I hope you can give me some hints on how to solve that issue, can't wait to kick Santa's butt!
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
One main difference between the first launch and subsequent launches is that the first time you launch, you don't have any save games. On later launches, you do. I'm wondering if something about the saved games (even just the auto save) for Ice Station Santa is causing problems.
The fact that you're using Vista 64 makes me wonder if this is a user account issue - we've noticed some weirdness with Vista 64 administrator and limited user accounts not behaving the same way they do in other versions of Vista and XP.
A few things to try:
Go to My Documents / Telltale Games / Sam & Max - Ice Station Santa. In this folder, you should see files ending in .save, one of which is the auto save. Try moving this to a different directory and see if the game will start now.
Try disabling UAC in your control panel. I'm not a Vista user so I'm not exactly sure how to do this, but these instructions might help: http://www.vista4beginners.com/How-to-disable-UAC
Let me know if you have any success after trying these things..."
Anyway, I tried deleting the savegame, but that didn't resolve the problem. But deactivating the UAC actually did! The game runs without an error, no matter how often I start it.
Which makes me wonder: Why does it start the first time - it obviously does not care about the savegames (or the configuration file, I've tried). Why aren't the other episodes affected? And why does my email provider not want me to know about this?
Well, anyway: Thanks for the quick answer and for your help!
But great you got it working! Happy gaming
I run Vista 32-bit and have turned off UAC long ago. I get past the Gametap and Telltale splashes, but then it just crashes immediately when the third splash screen comes up. The Windows error message just says "SamMax104.exe has stopped working".
I tried moving the save files out of the way, but still couldn't start the game. Deactivating Daemon Tools gets the game started, but only if the save files are gone. Can't be arsed to play the game from start to finish in one sitting.
Any ideas?
quick specs: intel core2 quad q6600 @ 2,4 GHz / 3 GB ram / nvidia geforce 8800 GTX. All drivers updated yesterday (July 18th) and I reinstalled Windows last week, so it can't be OS clutter.
I think daemon tools is considered harmful by securom. However I would have expected a warning message like this and a graceful end of the program.
Did you install a new version of DirectX as well?
Is there any security software (antivirus/firewall) that could interfere with the game? It doesn't make much sense, but let's not rule it out. You never know.
Still nothing.
gonna try episode 105 and see if that works. Guess I'll have to play 104 all in one go later then ^_^
That would be interesting. Did the Episodes 1-3 work?
I have convenient instructions lying around for that:
Deleting temporary internet files:
Before downloading it again it is generally recommended that you
delete your browsers cache/temporary internet files so that it is not loaded from there:
In recent Firefox and Internet Explorer you can delete the cache/temporary internet files with CTRL-Shift-Del.
In Firefox you would only select "Cache".
In Internet Explorer only select "Temporary Internet Files".
Uncheck all other boxes in each case.
I'm going to try installing from the DVD when I get home, see if that helps. If not, I'll try the temp file thing.
Could you try if it works when you are disconnected from the internet?
It might be this bug I found.
That seems to have done the trick. Have tried it several times, and it works every time as long as I'm not connected to teh interwebs.
Thanks a million, I never would have thought of that.