PLEASE HELP!! Runaway game on PC

[emma.russell197]

Hi, im totally new to this site and extremely un-technical! I have just bought Runaway for my PC and have installed it but when i try to play the game, the mouse won't respond! It just pops up every so ofetn but when you try to move it around the screen, it dissapears?? I have tried uninstalling it and reinstalling but same problem. Can anyone help?? why is this happenoing??

Thanks in advance, em.

[mjc]

We need more info...

Full specs on your computer...including type of mouse.

What are the minimum requirements for the game? Does your computer just meet them or does surpass them?

[emma.russell197]

Our system well surpasses the requirements??

[hockey man]

Emma, we need you to list your specs. Also, what OS are you running and what game are you trying?

[emma.russell197]

Im soooo sorry for being so thick but can you tell me exactly what specs i need to tell you? Im using XP and the game is Runaway but what else do you need? Like i said im not very technicl, my hubby just said " it surpasses the requirements" which doesnt help me, or you much.

[Rick]

I found two games with that title
Both require very little hardware

But we still need to know your computers
CPU type and speed.
operating system
Ram installed
video card
hard drive size and free space
Mouse type, make and driver version

[emma.russell197]

CPU Type and speed: AMD Athlon 3500+ 2.2ghz
operating sys: XP
Ram installed: 1024mb
Videocard: winfast px6200 tc
Hard drive size and free space: 75G spare: 6G
Mouse: trust MI-2500x optical mouse not sure about driver.

We have installed Runaway:the dream of the turtle which is the sequal and it works fine.Its Runaway:A road adventure that we are having problems with.

Thanks, Emma.

[Rick]

if the second works
I'd check the web site for updates or patches to the problem version first


Also if you have a 75G drive and ONLY 6G free.
You need to do some house cleaning and get rid of temp files and or other unneeded files.

Run disk cleanup and free up some space
XP can and will create and use a large swap file and if the drive space is very limited it will cause problems
Including slow down and or jerky operation of the system with some programs

[mjc]

You are using a dual core AMD processor...some games, especially, have problems with the AMD way of handling the splitting of tasks between the processor cores. So AMD has a 'fix'...http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/TechnicalResources/0,,30_182_871_9706,00.html

This game was originally released in 2001, so it may very well be one of the ones with problems in a dual core environment.

[emma.russell197]

Thats great i will try these things.One other question though, obviously i dont fully understand what it all means but i have gone to the linkk you have posted, which AMD thingy do i try first??

Sorry, Emma.

[mjc]

Dual Core Optimizer

[emma.russell197]

Just tried it but no luck :( never mind, i guess our comp just doesnt like the game.Seems odd when the 2nd one runs.

[mjc]

Did you reboot after installing the optimizer?

[emma.russell197]

no, will try now ta.

[emma.russell197]

I have restarted the computer. Still no joy??!!

Emma

[saphalline]

There's a patch v2.1 (http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/patches/runawayaroadadventure/patch.html) for the Spanish version of the game only. No other patches for the first one. (There's a patch v1.3 (http://www.strategyinformer.com/pc/patches/runaway2aroadadventure/patch.html) for the English version of the second game.)

3500+, 2.2 GHz. That's a single-core A64! AMD didn't go dual-core until the model numbers hit 3800+ and above. So now emma.russell197 has installed an OS patch that fixes a problem she didn't even have! :p Hopefully it doesn't affect anything else...

The WinFast PX6200 TC vid card from Leadtek is a PCIe x16 vid card, GeForce 6200 chipset, with TurboCache. I'm not able to pick a specific model without more info, but this vid card probably has 32MB-64MB onboard, augmenting itself with an additional 96MB-192MB from main system RAM for a total of 128MB-256MB of graphics memory. The important part here is that it's a PCIe model, giving us a better idea of the system as a whole. Mobo chipset, socket type, etc.

Wikipedia articles for Runaway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway:_A_Road_Adventure) and Runaway 2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_2:_The_Dream_of_The_Turtle). A second sequel is also in development, expected in 2009. If you look at the requirements for both games, they're a joke compared to what COD4 and Crysis list! :eek: No question that emma.russell197's system is more than enough to play these games! But...

Notice anything interesting about the article for the first game? Anyone?

"According to the developer, the game was developed using a mixture of external and internal produced tools to achieve the combined 2D and 3D graphical look of the game. Internally, the game engine utilised three dimensions to model the characters and objects, but then a special filter was used to render them two-dimensionally to the screen. This gives the effect of making it look like a traditional cartoon-like 2D adventure, while enabling real-time lighting and shading effects, camera changes, and panoramic shots."

A "special filter"? No doubt the visuals are outstanding for an adventure game, a genre that has been reduced to a cult following in the last decade. But this insight to the game's rendering engine gives an obvious clue as to what might be the root cause of the problem of the mysterious mouse cursor! I vote for an update to the graphics driver.


emma.russell197 - Go to NVidia's website (www.nvidia.com). Click on "Download drivers" at the top to go here (http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us). In the drop-down menus for "Option 1", choose:

Product Type: GeForce
Product Series: GeForce 6 Series
Operating System: Windows XP
Language: English (US)

Then click the "Search" button. That will bring you here (http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_175.19_whql.html), to the latest WHQL graphics driver for your vid card. Version 175.19, released July 9th, 2008. It's a 36.8MB download. Click the checkbox that says "I have read and agree to the terms and conditions of the NVIDIA Software License Agreement." then click the "Download Now" button. Save the file to your desktop or My Documents folder. Once downloaded, double-click on the file to install the driver, follow the prompts, and the driver will automatically restart Windows when you click the "Finish" button at the end. Once rebooted, try the game again.

If the graphics driver isn't the problem, the chipset driver may be, in which case we'll need to dig a little deeper into your system's specs.

[mjc]

I could have sworn it was a 3800 when I looked at it...but it does have an uninstaller, so go ahead and uninstall the Dual Core update...

[emma.russell197]

Saphalline i followed your instructions and it worked!!! Thank you so much! I cant believe how much you all know, i struggle to get microsoft word to work so thansk to you all that have replied to me i really appreciate it!

Emma x

[saphalline]

You are welcome. :)

And thanks for posting back with the solution and results. If we know which fixes have worked in the past, we become better at fixing problems in the future.