I'm About Ready to Go Kung-fu on my computer...

ForgottenChilde · Post by **ForgottenChilde** » Tue Aug 02, 2005 9:36 pm

I started the game for the second time, and despite the fact that I've installed every patch I could find (which seemingly fixed the problem before) The game keeps crashing every time I try to re-enter downtown after doing what I needed to do on the Dane... it's very frustrating. I even tried deleting the loc files as someone earlier suggested... No such luck...

yrthwyndandfyre · Post by **yrthwyndandfyre** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 2:42 am

You know, I absolutely hate to say this out loud, but it's something I'm about to try out myself. Put any of your saved complete games out of harm's way, uninstall, and re-install, including all patches. Some of the bugs in this game seem to stack up over time, which tells me that, in the grand tradition of Windows 3.1 and the Sea Squirt, this game has a tendency to eat it's own brain. For example, for me, the first couple of times I never had the Waterwheel Room bug. After that, I've had to cheat-code myself through that door every single time, and I've tried EVERTHING I can think of. It's the only thing that makes any sense.

Having said that Awful Thing, you can save your SAVE folder elsewhere, restore it after the re-install, and preserve your game (hopefully). The only available down-side of that is that you might pull that bug or some other bug forward after the re-install, but the only way to know that is to give it a try. Fortunately, you're not far in, so you won't have lost much. I'm about to try to shelf a game where I've just finished the Museum, so if it's any consolation, I stand to lose a lot more time than you. Good Luck.

Now, if anybody would be so kind as to offer up the Last Rites, here I go...

ForgottenChilde · Post by **ForgottenChilde** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 3:06 am

Thanks... I was afraid I was going to have to do this... But it does seem to be the only way... I wish I could find an easier way... but I suppose not... *sigh* It's so hard to find good help these days! JK!

yrthwyndandfyre · Post by **yrthwyndandfyre** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 9:17 pm

OK, kids, the short and sweet. Inasmuch as they busted the game, they busted the uninstall, so I did the ritual thing: I gutted it like a fish.

That means that I did the following things, in sequence:
1) Manually remove all of the VTMB files in person. Everything below D:\Program Files\Activision
2) Try to re-install (it won't work - it still thinks you have it).
3) Prowl the registry and dike out all references to VTMB.
4) Try to re-install (it won't work - it still thinks you have it).
5) Clean my registry, check my disk drives for integrity, and defrag them.
6) Try to re-install (it won't work - it still thinks you have it).
7) Prowl the file-system looking for where that last lurking link is.
8) Find it at (on my system) C:\Windows\VTMB.ini
9) Delete that file.
10) Re-install the game from scratch.
11) Install the 1.2 patch
12) Re-register (it remembers you).
13) Copy back my most recently saved game which I had previously saved to a different folder.
14) Play.

I think you can safely skip steps 2 through 7, as I don't believe they are relevant. The integrity check of the Registry and disk drive, and the defrag can't possibly hurt on an install of this size, though, so I think step 5 is still worthwhile. Steps 8 and 9 are critical, because without them, you can't re-install.

Having done all of that, for reasons that surpass understanding, VTMB is suddenly being VERY POLITE to me. I have yet to reach the Waterwheel room to see if that works, but I will report on that the second I get there. Let me just say this. This game has NEVER played this smoothly. Ever. I'm playing like I have Celerity, but I don't, which is another way of saying I've been playing with one hand tied behind my back, and it's not tied anymore.

I will start to devote my time to a program that will do what I just did by hand - uninstall VTMB by Brute Force. When I have it ready and tested, I'll release it on this forum. Hopefully, that will solve almost all of the more difficult problems for everybody.

ForgottenChilde · Post by **ForgottenChilde** » Thu Aug 04, 2005 12:53 am

I'm glad that worked for you... because it didn't do the trick for me... However, I was just informed this evening that this computer has a faulty... thing... Whatever it is, it's causing a number of problems, and I assume that when it's fixed, so shall my problems be.

yrthwyndandfyre · Post by **yrthwyndandfyre** » Sun Aug 07, 2005 3:29 am

Hmmm. I just got to the waterwheel room, and the bar across the door is still stuck. Rats.

ForgottenChilde · Post by **ForgottenChilde** » Sun Aug 07, 2005 11:29 pm

Assuming I know where you are...

Go to the side of the door where the bar seems to have a handle... the push icon will appear, but don't press the action button... instead, simply move behind the handle and walk toward it, this will push it across... if that's not your problem, then I don't know what to tell you.