What to do if the software won't launch

[CherryDT]

POSSIBLE CAUSE 1

It turns out that this version of RPG Maker 2003 doesn't play well with ASLR (a security feature) in some situations. The first thing to try in case the software seems to simply not launch at all is the following:

1. Open an elevated PowerShell prompt. You can do that by right-clicking the start menu button and selecting "Windows PowerShell (Administrator)".

2. Paste the following commands (for each line: copy it here, then focus the PowerShell window and press Ctrl+V and execute them with Enter):

Set-ProcessMitigation -Name rpg2003.exe -Disable ForceRelocateImages
Set-ProcessMitigation -Name rpg_rt.exe -Disable ForceRelocateImages

3. Try launching the software again.

POSSIBLE CAUSE 2

Unfortunately, the combination "RPG Maker 2003 + Steam + DEP", DEP (Data Execution Prevention) being a feature of Windows, doesn't work. It results in the situation where nothing will happen if you try to launch RPG Maker 2003.

The solution is to exempt RPG Maker 2003 from the DEP feature - this is now done automatically by our installer (since our last update).

However, for some users this problem still happened. The reason is that those users have DEP in an "always on" state (which will ignore our installer's attempts to add an exception), probably set by the PC vendor. If you are affected by this problem, you can use the following steps to change the DEP mode so that RPG Maker 2003 will work:

1. Open an elevated command prompt. This can be done by opening the start menu, entering "Command Prompt", right-clicking the item which comes up and choosing "Run as Administrator", or - on Windows 8+ only - right-clicking in the lower-left corner of your screen and selecting "Command Prompt (Administrator)". A black window will open.

2. Enter the following text (make sure to preserve spaces, etc. exactly as shown here):

bcdedit /set nx OptOut

Be careful! Make sure you enter the command exactly as shown here. You can also copy it, and then right-click the black window or its title bar and choose "Paste".

3. Press Enter

4. Reboot your computer

If this doesn't work, or if you have a reason to have DEP forced on, then please contact us - we'll provide you with a license for the Non-Steam version which is going to be released soon.

[ConeHeaded]

please help me im not very good with commands i dont feel comfortable doing these things and i would just like for a simple solution thank you.

[Soatok]

In addition to the command above, make sure if you use EMET to disable all the security features for rpg2003.exe.

[.]

Unfortunately this didn't seem to work for me.

Using Windows 10 PRO

No windows open, no error messages are shown. Game is shown as Launching in Steam and then nothing.

[CherryDT]

Hello, sorry to hear that you are having this problem. Can you please provide me with some debug information to help me understand what's going on?

Please follow these steps:

1. Download SimpleProgramDebugger in its 32-bit version from here[www.nirsoft.net] and run it as administrator.
2. Click File -> Start New Process
3. Select the RPG2003.exe executable file: Normally you can find it at the following path:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\RPG Maker 2003\rpg2003.exe

4. Wait 10 seconds to give the program time to execute
5. Click Edit -> Select All
6. Click File -> Save Selected Items and save the TXT file somewhere
7. Go to some file upload website, for example https://catbox.moe/, and upload the TXT file that you just saved
8. Copy the link to the uploaded file here

Thank you!

[Xerothe]

It's doesn't work yet :(, I can I have the game without steam??? this is my email: [e-mail] I have the receipt if you want to confirm if I bought.

[Xerothe]

https://files.catbox.moe/v9ai3s.txt

[CherryDT]

I sent you an email.

[CherryDT]

We figured it out. For the future, I added the mitigation in the opening post.