FIX: revamped startup script (should work for everyone)

[Pacholíček]

First of all, kudos to Marmeladimonni for trying to help and sharing his GameLauncher.bat.

However, that script (or suggestions scattered over this community) didn't help for me so I got a little♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥and began debugging. The result of my all-day effort is a rewritten version of the same script, with the additional benefit that it works for me (Windows 10 64-bit) and I daresay it will work for many more people who just weren't lucky up until now.

As a professional programmer (non-windows though), I think I can accurately say that the original (default) script is a bit messed up. It contains several problems that prevent the game from being launched on some machines (mine, at least). These unfortunate souls have a lot to thank for to the game's developers and to the creators of Batch. You see, Batch simply tends not to work as you would expect and an experienced programmer like me had to spend the entire day to get something as simple as this running - that alone says a lot. With some more thought put into it, I found out later that the script can also be made even simpler (and much more reliable).

Okay, no more rants and let's get to the point.

My version of the script

1. Should be compatible with both Steam installation and original CD installation.
   
2. Should hopefully support future Windows versions (due to its simplicity).
   
3. Is commented so fellow programmers can jump in if needed.

Windows XP is detected and handled specially (as in the original scripts). All other Windows systems should also be supported and are treated as Windows 7 (strangely, no problems should arise from that).

Installation

1. Install the game.
   
2. Optionally navigate to the game's installation directory and rename "GameLauncher.bat" to "GameLauncher.bat.old" (up to you).
   
3. Download my version[www.dropbox.com] and move it to the game's installation directory (in my case, it's C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Echelon Wind Warriors), possibly overwriting the original one.
   
4. Execute the script as administrator. Now... if, by any chance, you see an error saying that a registry key doesn't exist, try to execute the script without administrator privileges first. It will try to launch the game, and will fail, but the necessary registry keys should be created by the game. Afterwards, run the script as administrator again and hopefully, there will be no error.
   
5. Whether you had to deal with the error at step #4 or not, when the script finishes, you should receive a message like:
   --- Done! However, batch is unpredictable so please open RegEdit and verify that "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Madia\Echelon 1.5\InstallLocation" is set to "<PATH>".
   Here, it is critical that the registry key's value is set to <PATH>, ending with a backslash ("\") and without leading or trailing quotes. As much as I would like to save you the trouble of doing this, Batch simply can not be trusted to behave consistently on every system/version and in accordance with our expectations. Also, please finish reading before you start to play.

Step #2 is optional, the others are critical. Administrator privileges in step #4 are only needed ONCE (or twice...), to push the required entries into Windows registry. From then on, you should run the script (and the game) as YOU, not as an administrator. For example, use the desktop shortcut installed by Steam.

Notes

If the installation process fails (especially if the command prompt suddenly disappears and nothing happens), feel free to post replies to get help. I believe that with my version of the script, it'll be much simpler to point out any mistakes or machine-specific problems.

On a final note, Steam overlay (triggered with Shift+Tab) is not available in this game and there's nothing I can do about it (that I know of, anyway) :(.

P.S.: To a moderator: please consider making this thread a sticky.

[I'm a Raptor Now]

Thank you for this. Since I've been a bit busy (first with the conscription and then the university), I haven't really had that much time or motivation to try and help with the game. And now look what we have here! A script made by a professional instead of one made by two friends experimenting and hoping that it works :P. Here's hoping for a sticky. Meanwhile I'm going to put a link here in my post to make it easier to find this.

[joeybuddy96]

Thank you for putting your time and effort into this. Until now, everyone was getting ripped off. We're still kind of getting ripped off, but at least we can play the game now! Thanks man.

[SanderVB]

I still can't run the game, even after trying both this new fix and the old one.
I get the error that you can't run the game (0xc0000142), and that's about it :P
If anyone could help me out, that would be swell.

[Pacholíček]

So this error of yours pops up after step #4, when you try to launch the game? Is there anything abnormal in the command prompt (practically a log for GameLauncher.bat) prior to the error, or does the command prompt disappear prior to the error? Have you modified some of the game's files in any way? What system do you have?

[SanderVB]

It does pop up trying to launch the game both through steam (after closing the options window) and using the .exe itself, and after I've done all the steps in order. I actually tried it twice after deleting the keys from the registry and deleting all the game files.
I don't think there is anything abnormal in the command prompt, no real error it seems.

Fetching the script's parent directory...
Found... C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Echelon Wind Warriors\
Warning: Windows XP not found... triggering Windows 7 behaviour
Proceeding with setup...
Checking or creating the registry key required by the game...

The error is in dutch (since that's my system language), but loosely it translates to:
"Can't correctly start the application (0xc0000142). Click OK to close the application."
I think it's about the same error as others got, from what I gathered in the other posts.

No modifications, windows 10 (64 bit). Might be important to note that this is a gaming laptop, so there are 2 video cards. If there's any more info you need just say the word.
Thanks for your time.

[Pacholíček]

Yeah, this really seems to be an issue with the exe itself and its launch (not the script) - a simple Google search practically confirms it. According to https://superuser.com/a/610506 and some other quick findings, we could be able to fix the problem by:

1. Clearing the APPINIT_DLLS entries within the below registry keys.
2. Setting the LOADAPPINIT_DLLS entries within the below registry keys to 0 (in hex).

Registry keys to check/edit:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Windo­­ws
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows

I can confirm that all 4 entries exist on my machine, with exactly the advised values.

[SanderVB]

Originally posted by Pacholíček:

Yeah, this really seems to be an issue with the exe itself and its launch (not the script) - a simple Google search practically confirms it. According to https://superuser.com/a/610506 and some other quick findings, we could be able to fix the problem by:

1. Clearing the APPINIT_DLLS entries within the below registry keys.
2. Setting the LOADAPPINIT_DLLS entries within the below registry keys to 0 (in hex).

Registry keys to check/edit:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Windo­­ws
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows

I can confirm that all 4 entries exist on my machine, with exactly the advised values.

Well only this .exe is causing problems for me, I can use every other program just fine.
But I did check all four of them and the values are what they are supposed to be.
I tried deleting the APPINIT_DLLS in both of them and rebooting, but no luck sadly.
Again, thanks for your time and effort.

[Scorch]

I managed to fix (0xc0000142) error. After applying fixed .bat and getting the error, I opened Game.log in main directory and discovered, that the game.exe is trying to access GameData.dat at wrong location "E:\Steam\steamapps\common\Echelon Wind WarriorsData" instead "E:\Steam\steamapps\common\Echelon Wind Warriors\Data", because "\" was absent in the registry string "InstallLocation". So i've edited that value data and the game finaly launched.

[Pacholíček]

@Scorch, congratulations and thank you for reporting this. Do I assume correctly, that you had the 'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Madia\Echelon 1.5' registry key in mind? If so, I can honestly say I have no idea how that value got there, unless it's been there from the start and my script simply didn't correct it (because it checks for the entry's existence).

@SanderVB, can you please look at the mentioned registry entry and check that the value is right? In my case, it points to the game's installation directory (not the 'Data' subfolder).

[Scorch]

Originally posted by Pacholíček:

@Scorch, congratulations and thank you for reporting this. Do I assume correctly, that you had the 'HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Madia\Echelon 1.5' registry key in mind? If so, I can honestly say I have no idea how that value got there, unless it's been there from the start and my script simply didn't correct it.

@SanderVB, can you please look at the mentioned registry entry and check that the value is right? In my case, it points to the game's installation directory (not the 'Data' subfolder).

Yes, that key. The value should look like this "E:\Steam\SteamApps\common\Echelon Wind Warriors\" without "Data", but with the "\" at the end. When the game.exe attempts to access GameData.dat, it will add "Data" to that path location.

[SanderVB]

Originally posted by Scorch:

I managed to fix (0xc0000142) error. After applying fixed .bat and getting the error, I opened Game.log in main directory and discovered, that the game.exe is trying to access GameData.dat at wrong location "E:\Steam\steamapps\common\Echelon Wind WarriorsData" instead "E:\Steam\steamapps\common\Echelon Wind Warriors\Data", because "\" was absent in the registry string "InstallLocation". So i've edited that value data and the game finaly launched.

I can second this, fixed it myself as well but forgot to post it here. Cheers to you for doing so! :)

[Pacholíček]

Ok, I've updated the script then. It doesn't check for the entry's existence anymore and always pushes the correct value whenever it's being run as admin. Hopefully, we should see no more 0xc0000142.

[joeybuddy96]

I can at least fire up the game from the Game.exe file. Is there a way to launch it from within Steam now? I'm not one to let trading card drops go so easily. :)

Is there a way to change the resolution to 1920x1080? The highest I had to choose from in the Options.exe was 1280x960.

[Scorch]

To farm cards you need to add "pause" as the first line in the GameLauncher.bat. Then just leave started .bat for an hour or so, and you will get your cards. For the resolution, you need to edit registry keys here "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\MADia\Echelon 1.5\Video", just make sure, that the base set to "decimal".

[joeybuddy96]

Great, that worked! What does VideoME do anyway? I'm just curious.