This is a great game, but do not buy it on Steam. It is just broken and will not get past the intro video. If you put the game into Windows 95 compatabilty, you will be able to play the demo, but to play the game you need the CD-ROM

Edit: Looks like the game just will not play well with Steam.

Originally posted by Saleck:

Here's an update from me:


I have requested numerous times to people to get this game down and we're getting there.

As for the fix, it's impossible right now and here's why.


Valve's system runs on a level that recognizes what architecture a machine is running on: 32 or 64-bit.

This gives me a unique problem for Deadlock. Deadlock seems to be a game where, if the user is on a 64-bit machine, it cannot find the registry entries that are put into the user's computer by Steam.

64-bit machines use a Wow6432Node directory in the registry and Steam on 64-bit machines writes to this place by default for everyone. The worse thing about this is that there is no way to get around this. I've discussed this with Valve and they say that there is no way to work around this behaviour. It's just the way it's built.

So since Deadlock 1 does not and cannot read from this Wow6432Node folder. It is technically impossible at this time for me to provide a fix for the game if you are on a 64-bit machine.

The thing that makes this worse is that it doesn't matter how many workarounds I try. Everything is run on a level where it will write to the Wow6432Node registry folder, its fullproof.


So whos fault is this?

Mine.

The week and month this game went out was very stressful. I was responsible for porting about 30+ games to Steam (double this if you include Mac versions and Triple this if you include Linux versions) over the course of 1 month or so and, in this case, I ended up missing something that was crucial to the functionality of the game. It shipped and it's all gone wrong. This I am sorry for.

So what is happening now?

I am trying to get things sorted out. I am going to see about getting your money back and am talking with Valve to see what I can do.

I apologize again for this, there isn't much more I can say but I am trying to get you your money back. Hopefully something will happen in the next week or so.

-Dan

Top three of my most favorite games from my childhood.

I wrote a guide on getting this game to work in Windows 8 and 10.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=742010979

Basically you'll need to copy the files in the included PATCH folder over the Deadlock folder, then create an ISO containing the contents of the Deadlock folder. Mounting the ISO lets you play and save properly.

This sometimes might not work on Windows 10, and I am looking into this.

The first time I played this game was in 1997, it's one of the first games I've ever played on PC. I've played this game for countless hours! I can tell you that at first I had no idea how to play this game properly, it took me a while to even realize how to end my turn! This game might be quite complex at first but you get the hang of it pretty fast. You can always check the ingame manual for help if needed.

Ok, to the review, keep in mind that to play this game properly on Windows 7 and Windows 10 (I've tested both), you have to delete the file "WAIL32.DLL" in the Deadlock Planetary Conquest folder which generally is in "Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common/Deadlock" (It can be different if you choose a different installation path, but the "/Steam/" path is the same). If you don't do this, after the intro, the game crashes.

I gotta tell you that for some reason, I don't have music ingame. At first I thought "Hey maybe it's my Windows 10 laptop, it's so new", so I tried it on an old 2006 Windows 7 laptop (Actually it's antique for today standards, but hey it still works pretty good xD), but no, still no music after the intro. Maybe it's because I tested it on laptops, they don't have dedicated sound cards, or older hardware is needed, I don't know.

The soundtrack is quite nostalgic, anyone here remember the song "Son, be a colonist"? xD

Anyway, in my opnion it's not game breaking. So yes, I recomend this game to every strategy fan out there.

Do not waste your time trying to get this game working on a modern operating system via steam. Buy it from gog.com with no problems (minus the multiplayer opertion). It's a con that steam would release this rubbish and then not even try to fix it.

Does not work. Crashes after into. Please fix or refund,

Works on Windows 11!
Delete WAIL32.DLL and it launches fine.

Pure nostalgia. Similar to Alpha Centauri, but slightly more city building. Still in the 4X camp, since there are multiple cities in tech and military conflict, but there is a bit of geometric optimization in the 3 to 10 cities you are managing.

This game does work for windows 10 if you follow instructions from one reviewer, which I will place here. No need for a bad review from folks who can't get it to work.

Ok, to the review, keep in mind that to play this game properly on Windows 7 and Windows 10 (I've tested both), you have to delete the file "WAIL32.DLL" in the Deadlock Planetary Conquest folder which generally is in "Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common/Deadlock" (It can be different if you choose a different installation path). If you don't do this, after the intro, the game crashes.

This game is from 96, so don't expect high graphics or super depth, your smart phone has higher capabilities then the computers of that era. I imagine many people giving this a try will do so out of nostalgia. I play it every so often for just that reason, but I can no longer load it from my image file, because of windows 10. So I looked here. Read a lot of reviews, found the one, it easily fixed the problem. I just saved the mentioned file in a new folder inside the same directory. Worked like a charm. Speaking of charm, this game has lots of it. You screen will be filled with threats, complaints and requests from all of the various races. It can get annoying, but listen to them, there are some laughs to be had. Each race has strengths and weaknesses. The units and tech are all the same, but some are slightly stronger or weaker based on race. If you're new to the game, keep the world small, with all the races, and set the number of city centers needed to 10, and hinder the ai. This will give you a chance to learn how to play the game. Once you have it figured out, increase the world size and set the ai to whatever your confidence allows. This game can present as much or as little challenge as your interested in.

The game is capable of multiplayer through a vpn, I haven't tried it yet, but I did play it on a lan on windows xp years ago, and it worked. Give this one a try for an afternoon of fun.

someone posted this before but i will post it again to clarify it. to get the game running you have to delete "WAIL32.DLL" in the Deadlock Planetary Conquest folder which is in "Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common/Deadlock". if you don´t delete it the game will not work. so if you done everything correct you can experience some nostalgic and credit and thanks for the dude who posted first the solution :)

It may be the nostalgia speaking, as it was one of my first PC games, but I love Deadlock! It's a great strategy game where you lead a race into building a colony in a new planet, where you gotta ally or battle other races for its conquer.

I got really happy to see this game here, I've been looking for this online for quite a while, but then I got disappointed as it doesn't run past the intro movie. There's a patch inside the game files, but it makes the game start asking for the CD and directs you to the demo version instead. I'll ask for a refund and drive to my mom's house to look for my old CD copy. I just wasted my time here.

Saddly, I CANNOT recommend this great game as the Steam version is broken somehow (it's not only me, you can see by the amount of complains). I hope they get it fixed because good old games cannot die like this!

ORIGINAL GAME 8/10
STEAM VERSION 0/10

So, unlike others, i am using windows 7 (32 bit) to run game. Still fails after cutscenes. I dont understand if the game states it works with win 7 32 bit why it fails the same way it does on win 8.1. Id like a refund or a fix for game ASAP.