I'm rather tired of this game crashing all the time.

Gratuitous Forum Support
1

Back during the beta, I purchase GSB via positech web site. The game worked fine through the beta. At some point shortly after the official release the game stopped working. My computer would just go right into “GSB.exe has stopped working” instantly. No error messages, nothing written to the debug directory. Uninstalling, deleting directories, and redownloading did nothing.

This weekened I decided to buy a version off steam. It didn’t work on my main computer at all (Windows 7 64 bit with ATI5850 and 16 gigs of ram). So I tried it on my secondary computer. First it didn’t want to run either but after I created a custom short cut with run as administrator turned on, it finally started working. However now everytime I win, the game crashes
“failed to save high scores:…\src\SIM_HighScores.cpp 394”

Looking at other messages on this forum, Cliff talks about patches, which I haven’t installed, this is fresh off steam. or installing to specific directories, when the steam version doesn’t allow to pick.

Running Vista 32
4 gigs of ram
ATI 3850
microsoft security essentials (but I disabled it for both the install and running the game)

My frustration with the game is rather high. It shouldn’t be this hard to install and run a game.

----DEBUG FILE----
Windows Vista detected
GSB Debug File. App version Full 1.37
Desktop resolution is 1280 x 1024
Initialising Direct3D
Initialising global vertex buffer
creating render targets
success in initialising 3D
Initialising Direct Input
Finished Initialising Direct Input
Initialising Sound Engine
Initialised Sound System with 512 channels

Finished Initialising Sound Engine
Intersect code went wrong:…\src\SIM_BeamWeaponModule.cpp 524

Initialising 3D Engine
Driver : atiumdag.dll
Description : ATI Radeon HD 3850
DeviceName : \.\DISPLAY1
Checking For Shader Support
NumSimultaneousRTs:4
hal_caps.PixelShaderVersion >= D3DPS_VERSION(2, 0)
About to Create 3D Device with width: 1280 and height : 1024
Attempting hardware Vertex Processing
Finished initialising 3D Engine
Initialising Render target of 512 X 512 rt_ship
rt_ship
Initialising Render target of 2048 X 2048 rt_offscreen1
rt_offscreen1
Initialising Render target of 2048 X 2048 rt_offscreen2
rt_offscreen2
Initialising Render target of 2048 X 2048 rt_transition
rt_transition
titlescreen2048.bmp
cwfont20.dds
zekton16.dds
box_background.jpg
textbutton.dds
textbutton_h.dds
tooltip.dds
dialog_titlebar.dds
menu_backdrop.jpg
gui_scrollup.dds
gui_scrollup_h.dds
gui_scrolldown.dds
gui_scrolldown_h.dds
scenario_skirmish.dds
scenario_survival.dds
bg1_icon.jpg
achieve_empty.dds
border_depth.dds
debris.dds
contrails.dds
escapepod.dds
escapepodengines.dds
shield_impact.dds
client_interlace.dds
dialog_client.dds
19px_highlight.dds
19px_highlight_black.dds
smokeclouds.dds
runninglight.dds
shield_collapse.dds
order_backdrop2_icon.jpg
filterbuttons.dds
square_box.dds
square_box_h.dds
square_box_brown.dds
Order_Disciple_Fighter.dds
Order_Saviour_Frigate.dds
Order_Acolyte_Fighter.dds
Order_Trinity_Cruiser.dds
Order_Priest_Cruiser.dds
changeracebutton.dds
newshipbutton.dds
order_backdrop2.jpg
strip_fill.jpg
strip_fill_red.jpg
module_locked.dds
Order_Crusader_Cruiser.dds
Order_Redemption_Frigate.dds
Order_Salvation_Fighter.dds
Order_Spirit_Frigate.dds
order_turret_gun1.dds
module_powergen_v3.dds
module_engine_1.dds
gui_dragbutton.dds
gui_sliderbar.dds
deployment_range.dds
fillbar.dds
federation.jpg
rebels.jpg
alliance.jpg
empire.jpg
Federation Tiger Cruiser.dds
Federation Falcon Fighter.dds
Federation Fox Frigate.dds
Federation Buffalo Cruiser.dds
fed_turret_bull_v1.dds
module_powergen_v9.dds
federation_turret_pd_v1.dds
module_shield_v6.dds
module_crew2.dds
module_engine_3.dds
module_armour_v1.dds
module_powergen_v2.dds
module_engine_2.dds
module_armour_v7.dds
module_shield_v5.dds
fed_turret_las_v1.dds
plasma_turret_v3.dds
fed_turret_miss_v2.dds
module_powergen_v5.dds
federation_turret_pd_v2.dds
module_crew.dds
fed_turret_bull_v2.dds
module_shield_v3.dds
module_armour_v9.dds
progress_bar.jpg
loadscreen_puma.bmp
star.dds
armourglow.dds
radiation.dds
Federation Falcon Fighter_sprite.dds
federation_hulks.dds
beam_red_atlas.dds
beam_blue_atlas.dds
turrets_federation.dds
plasma.dds
shield_blast.dds
shield_scroll.dds
shield_blast2.dds
normal_shield.dds
Federation Tiger Cruiser_damaged.dds
particles.dds
engineglow.dds
engine_colors.dds
Federation Tiger Cruiser_hulk.dds
breakup_alpha.dds
turret_blast_yellow.dds
Federation Fox Frigate_damaged.dds
Federation Fox Frigate_hulk.dds
turret_blast_red.dds
target_painter_beam.dds
Federation Buffalo Cruiser_damaged.dds
Federation Buffalo Cruiser_hulk.dds
Order_Acolyte_Fighter_sprite.dds
order_hulks.dds
turrets_order.dds
lightning.dds
repairbots.dds
order_shield.dds
Order_Crusader_Cruiser_damaged.dds
order_engineglow.dds
structural_tractor_beam_alpha.dds
structural_tractor_beam_color.dds
Order_Crusader_Cruiser_order_glow.dds
Order_Crusader_Cruiser_hulk.dds
Order_Disciple_Fighter_sprite.dds
ecm_beam.dds
Order_Priest_Cruiser_damaged.dds
Order_Priest_Cruiser_order_glow.dds
Order_Priest_Cruiser_hulk.dds
turret_blast_purple.dds
Order_Redemption_Frigate_damaged.dds
Order_Redemption_Frigate_order_glow.dds
Order_Redemption_Frigate_hulk.dds
Order_Salvation_Fighter_sprite.dds
Order_Saviour_Frigate_damaged.dds
Order_Saviour_Frigate_order_glow.dds
Order_Saviour_Frigate_hulk.dds
Order_Spirit_Frigate_damaged.dds
Order_Spirit_Frigate_order_glow.dds
Order_Spirit_Frigate_hulk.dds
beam_green_atlas.dds
Order_Trinity_Cruiser_damaged.dds
Order_Trinity_Cruiser_order_glow.dds
Order_Trinity_Cruiser_hulk.dds
minimap.dds
battle_buttons.dds
fleet_overlay_icon.dds
green_score.dds
red_score.dds
asteroids.dds
missile_flare.dds
missile.dds
bullets.dds
target_overlay_line.dds
range_marker.dds
blastglare.dds
limpet_mine.dds
shockwave2.dds
ecmshock.dds

2

Hi. ‘Failed to save high scores’ sounds like the game is failing to write updated data to the \mydocuments folder on your PC (or specifically, the gsb scores data file). This is a permissions issue. If you have some security settings or security software installed that prevents the game writing that file, then the game cannot work properly. By default, windows allows apps to write there.
The game does run fine on windows 7, vista 64 and 32 bit, its tested on all those combinations.

3

Permissions are wide open for C:\Users\Rob\Documents\My Games\GratuitousSpaceBattles. Specifically every use has full control of every file in that directory. This also goes for c:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\GratuitousSpaceBattles. I even added “everyone” with full control just to be sure.
Also I’m running the program as administrator. I am sure it isn’t a permissions issue with those files.

Cliff, Does GSB write anything to the registry? Any other ideas?

4

GSB hardly uses the registry at all, certainly not for anything other than noting the install path, so that won’t be it.
I strongly suspect if we work out why that error shows up it will be the root cause of any problems.

to be very specific, the game is failing to create or open a text mode file at

\My Documents\My games\gratuitous space battles\sc.dat

However…

it might be that its somehow not getting the correct path for the user folder. if this was the case, the game would not have got around to writing any fiels inside:

\My Documents\My games\gratuitous space battles

But I presume it has done so?

if so, the reasons for the file write to fail are basically:

  1. Out of disk space
  2. No permissions
  3. Physical corruption on disk at that point
  4. A ‘Locked’ file. ie, the file exists but has been mistakenyl locked open by some other program, such as a dodgy text editor or even a windows explorer crash.
  5. Some malware or rootkit program that has hooked into file access and causing problems.

Does any of that help?