problems with file extensions

[pizzelle]

I wasn't exactly sure where to put this question, but I'm pretty sure it fits here.

I downloaded the program, went to work by designing a background and following the tutorial simultaneously, but when I went to save and test the game I found that the background hadn't saved properly.  Then I noticed that the file extension is .CRM, and as I looked around I saw even more file extensions that I wasn't familiar with and neither was Windows XP.

Maybe it's XP?  Or my location somehow?  I get the feeling that this program was made and is used primarily by English folks, maybe that has something to do with it...  OR maybe the extensions are supposed to be specific to this program and these games?  I don't know, my head is going to explode from confusion.  I've searched the internet, I can't even find out what a .CRM is, what program you open it with.  I tried a bunch of different ones, I tried changing the extensions manually, I downloaded a program that is supposed to help you manipulate extensions yourself.  I'm also having problems with .WFN, .SPR, .SH and .DTA.  Maybe these are extensions that would be familiar to people who had experience with designing, or design in general, I don't know...  But I sure as heck have hit a dead end yet again.

I was just wondering if anyone else has had these problems with this program and its extensions?  Or if not, if anyone knows either what I'm doing wrong, or where I could learn what the hell is going on?

[Ishmael]

You can just nevermind the extensions for start. The .CMR files are the rooms you load in the AGS Editor's Rooms pane.

Can you explain better what you meant with

but when I went to save and test the game I found that the background hadn't saved properly

If you saved your image at 24 (or 16 or 32) bit, and your game palette is set to 256 color, you might experience some wierd effects. Can you provide a screenshot of this problem maybe?

[pizzelle]

Oh, well, I meant the room.  (I only got around to designing one, as per the tutorial)  I got an error message when I tried to test it saying that room01 hadn't saved properly and so the game might not run properly.  The game did not run at all.  So then I wondered why it might not have saved properly, and I assumed it was because the extension was foreign to Windows XP.

No screenshot, it didn't save.  

[Fuzzpilz]

XP does not have the ability to somehow magically render programs unable to read certain files simply because the extension is unknown to it. As TK pointed out, these extensions simply signify files used by AGS for certain purposes, and should not bother you at all.
Unless CJ has changed that at some point, however, AGS refers to rooms by number, not name. Your room files have to be named "room1.crm", "room57.crm" and so forth in order to work in-game. That might well be your problem.

[pizzelle]

Where have you been all my life...

Thank you for your sass and your help, it worked like MAGIC.

...but I still blame the extensions.