Running the game with Windows 7 error

[ImmortalDreams]

I have a windows 7 laptop and the AGS editor opens up fine but whenever I try to run the game I get this error:
'The game engine does not appear to have shut down properly. If the problem persists, post the problem on the Tech forum.'

The thing is, it never even started up! Every time I run it I get nothing but that message. I tried changing the compatibility settings,  the colour depth, default graphics settings, and the resolution. I've read many forum posts and have found nothing like my issue. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Monsieur OUXX]

Have you tried to run as Administrator?

[ImmortalDreams]

Have you tried to run as Administrator?

Yes. Like I said, I tried changing the compatibility settings.

[Khris]

I also started getting this although I'm using XP. It's really annoying and not consistently reproducible.

There are situations where it always happens but I've also experienced it happening seemingly at random. When I was writing some code with a lot of while loops, I had to go back several times to put in a "i++;" I forgot. While I did run the game in debug mode and the editor correctly told me what the problem was (150000 loops) and showed the line, the game engine didn't shut down properly and I had to kill the process in the task manager 4 out of 5 times.

I have the feeling that this bug was introduced in 3.2.

[ImmortalDreams]

I figured it out! Norton Sonar was blocking it!

[Xenos]

I just started playing with AGS again after a few years and my Norton Sonar is doing the same thing.

It says that the executable is performing a suspicious action and that it was removed. Sadly, it doesn't really get any more specific than that.

I can easily make it so this stops happening by just telling norton not to execute sonar on the folder I use to store my AGS projects, but when I move my files to another folder, they get deleted. Thus, I can't really distribute it because no one (at least I hope) would be silly enough to listen when I say, "No, really - trust me! It's fine!"

Seems to happen with 3.2.1 games. I downloaded 3.1 and created the demo game and it was fine. Tried that with 3.2.1 and poof! Norton went nuts on it.

So I guess the question is - what's new in 3.2.1 that could be causing this, and is there a way to fix it so that I can make a game with the latest version and not have to deal with supporting 1000 angry players who keep having it deleted because they use norton?

[Calin Leafshade]

Norton simply havent updated their database yet to reflect the new version. There should be an option to send the file to norton and, once its certified, they'll add it to the safe list.

[Xenos]

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

The file that gets deleted is the exe that AGS creates - the actual game file, not the editor executable. So, every time you recompile, it is a different file and their whitelist won't work.

It's not registering as a virus. The exe file created by AGS is doing something that norton considers to be dangerous/suspicious activity. So I don't see them being able to do much on their end.

It's a real bummer, that's for sure.

[Calin Leafshade]

No, norton is registering the AGS game executable as a trojan (because thats basically what a trojan is).

Whitelists don't work using the whole exe but a 'signature'. Norton need to register the sig of the new game engine exe (which is embedded into your game every time) and then they can whitelist it.

[monkey0506]

Also this is why you shouldn't be using Norton. It's one of those things (like Windows) that nobody with any real technical savvy has no idea why, but has regrettably become somewhat of a consumer standard for the general public. It's bloated, resource heavy, and overpriced.