GK3 problems with saving in ME

[tippex79]

Hey, hope someone can help me. I have just bought the xplosiv version of GK3 and although the game plays fine, whenever I try to save (either quicksave or from the options menu) I get the message:
'An error occurred while saving the game. Could not create save game file.'
I have tried reinstalling the game in typical and full installations but this has made no difference.
I am running windows ME with a 1Ghz AMD Athlon processor and 256 RAM. I am not sure why this is happening and so have no idea how to fix it. I would be grateful for any suggestions as I am getting just a little annoyed.
Thanks in advance.

[fov]

I wonder if for some reason the save game directory wasn't created during installation, so the game is trying to put files in a directory that doesn't exist
(and therefore is unable to create the files)?

Look in the GK3 directory - do you see anything that looks like a folder where the saves are supposed to go?

I do not have GK3 installed right now so I'm sorry I can't tell you exactly what this folder is called or where it would be. But I think GK3 has one called something real simple, like "Save".

-emily

ps Welcome to the AG forum!

[Wormsie]

The directory should be called Save Games

[tippex79]

Thanks for the replies.

I should have mentioned that I'd already checked for this and I do have a saved games folder in the GK3 directory so it should have somewhere to put them.

[MDMaster]

Don't know, I'm thinking that some files in your Gk3 installation could have been tagged as 'read only'? It's not really a serious thought, but I can't think of anything else.

[fov]

I uninstalled GK3 recently but it turns out I still have my Save Games folder. Would you like me to email a few to you? You can dump them in your folder and at least see if the game can access them.

I dunno, maybe if you put a bunch of my saves in your Save Games folder, your game will allow you to overwrite them with your own saves?

-emily

[tippex79]

I have now looked for read only files but, although there was one there, it seemed unrelated to saving and unchecking it made no difference in the game.

emily - it would be good if you could e-mail me a few save games as I think your idea is worth trying. I'll PM you with my e-mail address.

Thanks

[Wormsie]

Have you tried copying files from the CD to the hard drive?

Of course, this is a completely random suggestion and probably won't help at all. Can't see how it could.

[fov]

I am emailing you five saved games (hopefully the attachment isn't too huge, WinZip didn't compress them very much). Unzip them into your Save Games folder and see if the game will let you access them and/or write over them.

-emily

[timcclayton]

I presume that Windows ME is in the System Requirements for the game ?

Also, from bitter experience (on many occasions!) I have struggled to get ME to do many things that other operating systems can do perfectly.

The most stable MS OSes out there are without doubt Windows 98 SE and Windows XP - and the least stable is ME.

[fov]

Considering when this game came out (1999ish), I think WinME should be able to handle it. In theory, at least. :) I think it's more likely that the game being an Xplosiv rerelease is what's causing the problem, but that's just a hunch.

Tippex, the attachment I sent was apparently too big because hotmail bounced it back. Please see the PM I just sent you.

:D emily

[tippex79]

The game isn't certified as fully compatible with ME but I took a punt that it would probably work. I know what you mean about ME as I have had problems but the game runs perfectly in all other aspects, which is what is so frustrating. It seems such a simple thing that I can't understand what the problem is. Grr!

Emily, I won't be able to download the files today (work's 10th anniversary party) - will probably be sometime tomorrow but I'll PM you as soon as I've done it.

[timcclayton]

OK. I've checked on Amazon.co.uk and they show the Xplosiv version as only being compatible with 95/98 (although the original version of the game is listed as compatible with ME on Amazon.com).

I reckon your best bet is to install and try the game on a mate's PC (ideally running Windows 98 SE) to see if you can replicate the problem - if you can then we need to investigate further, if not, then it looks like ME wont run it for you.

Also worth asking, are you running any disk compression software as this may cause "saving to disk"-type problems ?

Looking forward I would really try to get your computer either back to Windows 98 SE or forward to Windows XP (if your hardware can handle it) - cheap versions of XP Home are available on eBay etc...

[fov]

I know that people have trouble with ME all the time, but I can't imagine it would be the cause of a problem like this. It's not *that* different from win98... at least, not in ways that I would expect to cause this error. (But this opinion is based on a very small amount of knowledge about ME and a lot of conjecture...)

-emily

[tippex79]

Well, I have now managed to fix the problem and actually get the game to save.

Interestingly the problem originates from how I start the game. If I let the CD autorun and then click play on the menu that comes up I am unable to save or access save games (as I found when I tried to load the games fov sent me). However, if I start the game from the GK3 icon in the GK3 folder on my hard drive I have no problems with saving or restoring. It appears the game was trying to save games to the CD which, surprisingly enough, it wasn't able to do.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for their useful suggestions and general help.

Now all I have to do is get used to Tim Curry's terrible accent.

[fov]

Glad you got it straightened out! I was wondering if it was trying to save to the CD, but didn't see how that could be since it was managing to access other files from the hard drive...

I'll keep this in mind next time someone else has this type of problem! I wonder if it's just an ME thing?

-emily

[gillyruless]

Glad you got it straightened out! I was wondering if it was trying to save to the CD, but didn't see how that could be since it was managing to access other files from the hard drive...

I'll keep this in mind next time someone else has this typee of problem! I wonder if it's just an ME thing?

-emily

I have played the game on Windows 98 and Windows XP (Home Edition) and didn't encounter any problems with saving and restoring.

I'm thinking that this is probably not an Windows ME thing. I've never heard of a game that doesn't run well on Windows ME but runs fine on Windows 98 and XP. It could be something crazy like remanents of Starforce somehow interfering with the saving routine in GK3's coding. It could be any number of things.