I'm starting to get seriously worried here...all the games I started work on with AGS 2.71 are giving me problems now. I can load them in 2.72, but every time I try to save the game or test it, my program, then my computer, freezes. And if I try to open them with 2.71, it tells me Inconsistent Data Files (scm). Is this a backwards compatibility issue?
Whoops, just did a test...it looks like anything I made with 2.72 is also freezing and dying, as well...oh dear gods. Is there some way the AGS program went bad?
Well...according the the Laws of AGS...you should always back up your files before moving to a new version.
Also...have you tried re-installing AGS?
I do have backups of every game I've worked on, and I just tried deleting and reinstalling 2.72. It's the same result, with the main copies or the backups. Every time I try to save, test or do anything that doesn't involve just looking through the editor, it freezes and I have to reboot my computer. After I deleted 2.72, I tried using 2.71 to open a game made in 2.71, which it did, then it froze when I tried to test, too. This is so weird.
If you Save the game, then run it manually from the Compiled folder, does it work?
Did you install any other applications in between when it last worked, and when it stopped working?
Well, I can't re-save anything, but yes, the games still run if I just run them straight from the Compiled folder. I've installed new software on my computer (all the time, pretty much), plus I just transferred everything from my old computer onto a brand new one I just got. I'm certain I didn't forget any files, I just dragged and dropped my entire "Game Making" folder from one comp to the other, and that contains all of my AGS stuff. Hmmm...could this maybe be something deeper in the computer, like registry-key deep type stuff? (Do I even know what I'm talking about? :) ) It's weird, because even after I delete all the AGS 2.72 files out, when I reinstall from a freshly downloaded copy and boot up the Editor, it still asks if I want to run one of the Recently Edited Games. Shouldn't it have wiped that out with the new copy? Are there files somewhere else related to the editor I might not be deleting?
When you copied from one comp to another, was the the old comp's disk set to read-only or something like that? Try checking the file permissions...
So are you actually saying that AGS doesn't work on your new computer, rather than something has gone wrong in 2.72?
Well, none of the file properties are marked Read Only, so I don't think that's the problem...and I honestly don't know about the other question, Pumaman. I've got a new Dell XPS 410 desktop system, and the editor will open fine, let me change stuff and so forth, it's only when I try to save or test from inside the editor that it freezes up my computer. Another bizarre thing is, it even sometimes freezes if I just try to copy/move/delete folders from the AGS folders to other places. It doesn't happen with anything else on my computer, and I've run all kinds of virus scans and spyware searches. I'm all kerflummoxed by this. I've still got the stuff backed up on my old computer as well, maybe I'll try deleting everything from the new one and copying it over again?
(Also, now that I think of it, this was a slow downward trend...it worked just fine for a while when I was helping MashPotato make Common Cold on my new computer, then just slowly started freezing and dying. Now it does it all the time.)
Holy carp, I fixed it. I don't know exactly why this worked, but...this time I went through and deleted all my copies of AGS from 2.7 up through 2.72. Then I went into my computer's registry, searched for AGS and deleted the keys that came up. I then reinstalled a fresh copy of 2.72, et voila! Everything's working fine again! Consider this mystery solved, gang! :)
Glad it's solved ... strange, nevertheless...
*sigh* Well, forget that...it worked perfectly for one night, then today it started doing the same thing over again. Pumaman, is there anywhere else it installs itself besides the unzipped folder and the accomole.ags.etc files in the Registry? Because every time I delete it and re-unzip it, it automatically brings up a list of games I recently edited before I deleted it. It shouldn't be able to do that unless it's leaving some part of itself behind somewhere else, right?
Thanks for your help, I really hope I can get this sorted out.
The list of recently used games is stored in the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Adventure Game Studio\AGS Editor
and obviously this registry key doens't get deleted if you delete the AGS folder. However all the settings stored there are user layout and preferences, and I'd find it hard to see how any of them could cause a problem. Feel free to delete the key and retry though.
Whoops! Okay, possibly really solved this time! I think that my Invircible security program was stopping it from saving/testing...during the middle of a program freeze, I shut off Invircible, and all of a sudden it unfroze and ran the game test. But now AGS runs fine even when IV is on. So maybe Invircible and AGS aren't compatible, but I'm not sure. :) I also deleted those reg keys you told me about, which finally reset the recently edited game menu. Hope it stays fixed this time! Hooray, back to gaming!