Game will not load on Win 7 -

[raidersporirua]

Where do I start?

I have paid money for a game that will not work. I have tried every fix I can find on these forums and anywhere else on the internet (numerous times with as many different configurations as can be tried in the last four hours). My computer easily meets all of the required specifications. The game gets past the initial loading screen and then crashes to desktop. Compatibility mode = no go. Changing graphics/sound drivers = no go. Adjusting everything from vertical sync to windowed mode to reducing color depth = no go.

I've been gaming since computer gaming was born and have NEVER come across a more annoying game than this. I like pinball. I want to pay pinball. I want to play Slamit Bigscore pinball. I doubt I ever will.

Will I get my money back? No. Do the delevopers care? I doubt it. The reaction or lack thereof to the numerous technical problems and bug reports has been pathetic and almost non-existant. Bugs reported over a year ago still have free reign.

Technetium: You are thieves. Stop taking peoples money. The LEAST you could do is stop advertising your game on this site, on Steam and on any other site or in any other format or medium until you have a game that works as was intended and works well.

Regards
Pissed off customer out of pocket $4.99. (It's the principal, not the amount!!!)

[Anamon]

I'm sorry that the game didn't work for you and that you were not able to find a fix for the problem (yet). The thing is though that I don't think you would find any digital games distribution that does refunds, as there is no way to make sure that a customer really destroys their copy of the game. In the case there is no demo version to try out, you will simply get the software as-is without any further warranties after payment, in any store. That is one of the reasons why I am very reluctant to pay more than $5-$10 (depending on the size of the game) for a download version. The simple truth is that for every game there will be systems on which they will not run for peculiar reasons, it's not something any developer can prevent.

I agree with you though that the developers could be more communicative. The new patch has been announced for more than half a year, and since then they have been pretty much missing in action. At least some presence on the forums would be most appreciated.

In their defence though, Technetium are not the thieves here, they have themselves been totally screwed over by a fraudulent publisher. The game was initially only sold on Steam, through that publisher, and I would guess that most copies of the game have been sold there. The publisher, however, never paid Technetium any money, and even refused to forward the sales numbers to them so they would have any idea on how much money they are owed. I can only guess how frustrating it must be to work hard on a project and then effectively having it stolen by a scamming company. It's understandable that they would not be inclined to further support a product that only some other company profits from. Of course it is no excuse if you bought the game here directly - did you try the support e-mail address, or only the forums?

For what it's worth, your problem seems to be a really isolated case - most people, including me, play it on Windows 7 32/64 no problem. You could post what kind of graphics card you are using, and the '$video' section from the settings_user_custom.cfg in the game's data subdirectory. Maybe I can see a problem there when I compare it to my file.

[rollergoalie16]

I am in the same boat. I bought this game on this site and it WILL NOT WORK. I too, have tried every remedy I have come across and done everything exactly as told by the VERY LIMITED help the developers/tech support have provided me all to no avail. I am using a new HP laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium that meets all specs to operate this game. The developers/tech support people eventually just stopped responding to me completely. Jesus Christ, all I want is to pay my five bucks and get a @#$%^& working copy of this damn pinball game. It shouldn't be that hard to do. I have since requested my five dollars back through PayPal (my original funding source) and have recieved no response for over a month. These guys are thieves as far as i'm concerned, i'm just glad I only lost five bucks in the process of finding this out.

[Anamon]

I would repeat my suggestion that you post the $video section of your settings_user_custom.cfg file. Crashing after the loading screens most likely indicates a problem with the initialisation of the 3D video mode. It's possible that some default setting there could conflict with certain system configurations, and have the game crash before you get the chance to change the settings in the menus.

I personally run Windows 7 Professional 64-bit with an ATI Radeon 4870 HD and official Catalyst drivers (version 9.12, probably severely outdated) and the game runs fine. I think it would be worth a try to adjust some of your settings in the $video configuration to mine (as these are guaranteed to work on at least one Win7 system ).

Code: Select all

$video {
video_mode 18
default_texture_quality HIGH
custom_texture_quality HIGH
geom_quality HIGH
antialiasing off
anisotropic off
resolution 1280 1024
color_depth 32
display_frequency 60
vsync 0
landscape_mode 0
fullscreen 1
}