Installation was successful but when I try and launch the game, the main menu comes up to "Play", "Exit", etc. When I hit play, nothing happens, nothing starts. Icon on desktop launches nothing as well as directly running the .exe. Anyone else have this problem? Maybe I just have a lemon? No scratches or smudges on disk. Of course, I haven't heard back from tech support.

Windows XP - SP3
1 GB RAM
Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
Installed DirectX 9 when prompted.

Any help is appreciated,
bahl

This game took a long time to start up on my 3.2 GHz Pentium 4.
It would be even slower on a 2.4 GHz computer.

But since you have SP3, make sure the game installed into your My Documents folder and not into C:\Program Files. With XP SP2 and SP3 installing in Program Files can sometimes be a problem.

Thanks Jenny for your reply. I did uninstall and reinstall in My Documents as you suggested. Unfortunately, same thing. How long was a "long time" on your 3.2? I'm surprised at this because the recommendation for the game is 1.5 GHz. Ugh. Perhaps you or someone else might have other suggestions outside of buying a new disk ? I'm hoping because I've read some good reviews about this game.

Thanks again
Brenda

Hi Brenda, do you mean the game doesn't start at all, not even the the intro movies? There are no messages from XP? Once you've tried to start Outcry press Ctrl-Alt-Delete on your keyboard to check the task manager and select the first tab to see if it is running.

Yes I was surprised the load time was so long too. It probably didn't take more than a minute or two, though it certainly seems longer when you're sitting there waiting for some indication that the game is starting. The first time I played, I actually gave up on it and was about to double-click the shortcut again when it finally showed signs of starting up.

Hi Bernard,

If I click on the desktop shortcut, nothing happens. The only way I can get the menu to even show is if I eject the disk and re-insert. But when I hit "Play", nothing. No intro movies, no message, nothing. I did check task manager and it is not running.

Do you have an antivirus or antispyware application or software firewall running in the background when you try to install and play it? Sometimes those will interfere with a game installing or starting up.

Jenny is right, these kind of programs can interfere. Another possible problem can be the copy protection on the disk. Not all drives handle them well. I can't remember if there was copy protection on the European release, maybe someone else, who has the TAC version knows.

The US (Dreamcatcher) version of Outcry plays without the disc in the drive. If it were checking the disc during the installation and failing, I don't think it would install at all.

Most games with a copy protection will install without a glitch, the copy protection is only activated when the game starts. However, if the game starts without the disc being inserted, no protection is used.

(Warning to all the teenagers reading this. Always use protection! )

I stopped my virus scan, reinstalled, same thing...desktop flickers, then nothing. My virus scan detected no viruses on my pc. Lemonade anyone? What typically happens when TAC tech support reaches a lemon decision? Would they send me a new disk or do I have to eat it?

Thank you both for your help
Brenda

If you bought directly from TAC, they might replace it. If you bought from another shop, they'll probably tell you to go there for replacement -- or charge you for shipping for the replacement disc.

Make sure antispyware and software firewalls are also closed down when you install -- not just antivirus.

I can't remember if this was one of the two games I've played recently that seemed to have two installs -- you'd install from the disc, and then when you clicked the shortcut to play the game, it would install more files. If that's what it's doing, make sure you have the disc in the drive and leave it alone for more than only a minute.

The most likely problem here is a video card that does not support the 2.0 shaders used by the game. If your card is old enough, you may be in the Catch-22 situation of not reaching the settings screen so that you can select "simple shader".

What is your video card?

=========
Look in the game folder on your hard drive and see if there is a file sublustrum.cfg in the bin directory. Indicate if it is present, open it with any text file reader, and post the contents.

Sorry it took so long to get back to you, Robert. I sort of gave up but decided to check back today. I'm not sure how to tell what my video card is and there is NOT a file called sublustrum.cfg in the bin folder.

I do have a DXDiag file but I'm not sure where to look if that file even helps at all.

Thanks for the post
Brenda

The game does not seem to have installed correctly as sublustrum.cfg is missing.

DXDiag is a program you run to get a report on whether your DirectX system is functioning correctly.

Well that stinks. Anything else I can check for? Maybe that's all that's missing and I can manually create the .cfg file if I knew what it's supposed to contain.

I know, I know... "can't ya just"...

Robert, do you think the .cfg file from someone else's install would work?

Jenny100,
If the missing .cfg file were the problem, then a cut and paste from anyone's installation would help. I really don't think this is the problem but rather an indication that the installation did not work correctly.
Bahl, here is the contents of my Outcry directory tree. Do you see the same thing and if not, post what was installed on your system.


Eventually there will be entries in the Registry some of which are:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\DirectInput\OUTCRY.EXE481F6D74001CD000
example HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\GameUX\GamesToFindOnWindowsUpgrade\{198AD579-0434-4F49-AAA3-7EA36987434F}
this points to SubGDF.dll

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
an entry here for removing the game.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ND Games\9th Company
poiting to Outcry

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\The Adventure Company\Outcry\1.00

Hi Robert,

The only file missing in my directory structure is the sublustrum.cfg file. The only entries I have in my registry that you mention are the last two.

Thanks for your help
Brenda

Sounds like the game wasn't able to create the registry entries.
When you installed, did you do it from an account with administrator privileges? Did you have any software running in the background which might be preventing the game from changing the registry?

No, nothing. Administrator, yes. But I will say that although the registry entry for uninstalling wasn't there, I have uninstalled the game several times.

Bahl,
This is quite a puzzle. I can send you the missing cfg file if you supply a valid e-mail address. However, you have still not indicated whether your video card is shader 2.0 capable nor what card you have.

Hi Robert,

I'm not sure how to tell what video card I have. Can you give me some guidance with that? I would be more than happy to provide my email. Is there a way I can give this information privately to you?

Click the Start button in the lower left corner of your screen, then Run. Type
dxdiag
in the box and OK it. When the DirectX Diagnostic Tool opens, click the Display tab. On the left side of the tab it says Name:
What does it say for the Name of the card?
On the right side, what is the number and date of the Drivers: ?

Ok.
Name: NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200
Version: 6.14.0010.693
Date: 10/29/2004

I'm guessing the 2004 part of that isn't a good thing.