Game won't even launch :: Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek General Discussions

Store Page

Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek

All Discussions Screenshots Artwork Broadcasts Videos News Guides Reviews

Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek > General Discussions > Topic Details

Penumbra

has Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek

Jan 5, 2019 @ 9:52pm

Game won't even launch

I bought this game a few months ago and just recently booted it up on my computer for the first time. It worked great, but then I saved and quit to go do something else. I restarted my computer before logging back in and it won't work at all!

First it said it had to install DirectX (again), but it got stuck on the installation screen. So I quit. Then I restarted and tried to launch it again, and kept getting the same "preparing to launch" popup over and over again! I uninstalled it and reinstalled, as well as checking the integrity of the files, but nothing worked. Other games in my library work fine.

Is it just me, or are other people having this issue? This was my favorite game when I was a kid and I just really wanted to play it again.

< >

Showing 1-9 of 9 comments

HalloweenSax Jan 7, 2019 @ 11:39pm

Have you tried disabling Steam Overlay in Steam settings? Try using the support option on Steam to get some official troubleshooting. :)

fripperydoodaa has Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek

Jan 13, 2019 @ 8:37pm

I've tried to disable steam overlay yet I'm having the same issue. Makes me sad. :(

HalloweenSax Jan 13, 2019 @ 10:23pm

Try checking out if any of the fixes in the other threads help you. Or launching the game in compatability mode (right-click on the game exe in the game directory and select "compatability - run in Windows 98 mode" or something like that).

Amiller Jul 13, 2019 @ 7:53am

I am also having the same problem. I click on play and it acts like it wants to open and then just doesn't. I also disabled the steam overlay.

76561199031115694 has Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek

Mar 21, 2021 @ 4:58pm

Okay, so I've had this problem with a few others and I found a solution on a discussion topic for one of them. What you do: go into your documents file on your computer and find the folder for the game, there will probably be only one type of document (a notepad file) within that folder. Open that, find the part that says something about windowmode and change the 0 to a 2. So far this has worked for each game I tried it on. Hope this helps!

Dukester93 has Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek

Sep 3, 2021 @ 5:55pm

I am taking someone else's suggestion and sharing as this worked for me:

"You have to find the .exe file where it is installed and go to its properties and click the compatibility tab and check the box to run in 640x480 mode. the resolution in these older games is too low for modern laptops and PC's" -Emintogames (Trying to give credit where it is due)

tracybishop has Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek

Mar 10, 2022 @ 4:05pm

Originally posted by rn.gjerstad:
Okay, so I've had this problem with a few others and I found a solution on a discussion topic for one of them. What you do: go into your documents file on your computer and find the folder for the game, there will probably be only one type of document (a notepad file) within that folder. Open that, find the part that says something about windowmode and change the 0 to a 2. So far this has worked for each game I tried it on. Hope this helps!

This fixed my problem! Thank you! I had tried a million different things but this actually worked. You are a life saver!

MacWeenie

Jul 26, 2022 @ 11:18am

Originally posted by tracybishop:
Originally posted by rn.gjerstad:
Okay, so I've had this problem with a few others and I found a solution on a discussion topic for one of them. What you do: go into your documents file on your computer and find the folder for the game, there will probably be only one type of document (a notepad file) within that folder. Open that, find the part that says something about windowmode and change the 0 to a 2. So far this has worked for each game I tried it on. Hope this helps!
This fixed my problem! Thank you! I had tried a million different things but this actually worked. You are a life saver!

This made it to where the game will play, but only in a smaller window and I cannot get it to go full screen. Any suggestions for this?

AbberKaddabber has Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek

Aug 2, 2022 @ 2:40pm

Originally posted by MacWeenie:
Originally posted by tracybishop:
This fixed my problem! Thank you! I had tried a million different things but this actually worked. You are a life saver!

This made it to where the game will play, but only in a smaller window and I cannot get it to go full screen. Any suggestions for this?

I too am having this issue. I changed the runinwindowedmode=2, and it runs, but it is too small to play. There is no option in game to make it full screen. As for the comments about compatability, that isn't an option under properties for the .exe file, at least not for me.