Will not launch.

[hilerm2]

I tried using the "testapp.exe" option without working. I tried right clicking on "GeometryWars.exe" and setting compatibility mode to Windows XP Service Package 3 AND set to run as Administrator. Now the game constantly throws a warning pop up "Failed to Find Steam"..... WHILE IN STEAM! Nothing is working. Please, I don't want to ask for a refund, I want to play this game!

[monster mango loco mindset]

You should verify the game's integrity through steam, usually this happens whenever you accidentally delete some steam related files/folders by accident while trying to mod. Maybe if nothing works just make a clean reinstall of the game and it should be good to go! If nothing helps out u can call me on steam or discord and I'd love to help :D (discord is the same username*)

[hilerm2]

Originally posted by Shardev:

You should verify the game's integrity through steam, usually this happens whenever you accidentally delete some steam related files/folders by accident while trying to mod. Maybe if nothing works just make a clean reinstall of the game and it should be good to go! If nothing helps out u can call me on steam or discord and I'd love to help :D (discord is the same username*):SonicManiaSonic:

Nope. Still "Failed to find Steam." I verified, reinstalled, re-verified, all to the same issue. I reeeeeeaaaly don't want to refund this game! I was so exited to see this was available! I'm on an i7 14700KF and 4070, if that makes a difference.

[monster mango loco mindset]

Originally posted by hilerm2:

Originally posted by Shardev:

You should verify the game's integrity through steam, usually this happens whenever you accidentally delete some steam related files/folders by accident while trying to mod. Maybe if nothing works just make a clean reinstall of the game and it should be good to go! If nothing helps out u can call me on steam or discord and I'd love to help :D (discord is the same username*)

Nope. Still "Failed to find Steam." I verified, reinstalled, re-verified, all to the same issue. I reeeeeeaaaly don't want to refund this game! I was so exited to see this was available! I'm on an i7 14700KF and 4070, if that makes a difference.

I don't think the specs really matter, since I managed to run it on my pentium 2 windows 7 machine and my current windows 10 rig ( i7 4790k and GTX 980)

You should try following these steps:
- Go to "my computer"
-Open your drive where steam is installed
-open program files x86
-open the steam folder
-On the steam folder try looking for the "steam.dll" file and copy it.
-Go to the "steamapps" folder and open the "common" folder
-Find the geometry wars folder and open it
-Paste the file "steam.dll" and run the game

After doing these steps you should be good to go!


*Edit* this is for the "failed to find steam" issue, I think you should run the game without any compatibility modes btw!

Hope this helps :D

[hilerm2]

Originally posted by Shardev:

Originally posted by hilerm2:

Nope. Still "Failed to find Steam." I verified, reinstalled, re-verified, all to the same issue. I reeeeeeaaaly don't want to refund this game! I was so exited to see this was available! I'm on an i7 14700KF and 4070, if that makes a difference.

I don't think the specs really matter, since I managed to run it on my pentium 2 windows 7 machine and my current windows 10 rig ( i7 4790k and GTX 980)

You should try following these steps:
- Go to "my computer"
-Open your drive where steam is installed
-open program files x86
-open the steam folder
-On the steam folder try looking for the "steam.dll" file and copy it.
-Go to the "steamapps" folder and open the "common" folder
-Find the geometry wars folder and open it
-Paste the file "steam.dll" and run the game

After doing these steps you should be good to go!


*Edit* this is for the "failed to find steam" issue, I think you should run the game without any compatibility modes btw!

Hope this helps :D

I'm telling you this is far more than frustrating. The "failed to find steam" issue is resolved. Now, with compatibility set Windows XP Service Package 3 AND without any compatibility, nothing happens. I press "Play" within Steam and it starts to run then goes right back to the green "Play" button. When I try to launch the exe by itself same issue. When I try the "testapp.exe" nothing happens. NOTHING IS HAPPENING! AAAAHHHH!

EDIT: I'm going to go try and install this to my Steam Deck to see if it works there. Wow. NEVER had this issue before. I'm on Windows 11 Pro btw

EDIT 2: Works flawlessly on the Deck, just not on my PC. Disappointing, but I guess playing on the Deck isn't that bad, though I wish I could play it on PC as well. Unless you got any other workarounds I guess this'll have to do. I'll take this great nostalgic game any way I can! Thanks a ton for your help, even though it didn't work!

[monster mango loco mindset]

Originally posted by hilerm2:

Originally posted by Shardev:

I don't think the specs really matter, since I managed to run it on my pentium 2 windows 7 machine and my current windows 10 rig ( i7 4790k and GTX 980)

You should try following these steps:
- Go to "my computer"
-Open your drive where steam is installed
-open program files x86
-open the steam folder
-On the steam folder try looking for the "steam.dll" file and copy it.
-Go to the "steamapps" folder and open the "common" folder
-Find the geometry wars folder and open it
-Paste the file "steam.dll" and run the game

After doing these steps you should be good to go!


*Edit* this is for the "failed to find steam" issue, I think you should run the game without any compatibility modes btw!

Hope this helps :D

I'm telling you this is far more than frustrating. The "failed to find steam" issue is resolved. Now, with compatibility set Windows XP Service Package 3 AND without any compatibility, nothing happens. I press "Play" within Steam and it starts to run then goes right back to the green "Play" button. When I try to launch the exe by itself same issue. When I try the "testapp.exe" nothing happens. NOTHING IS HAPPENING! AAAAHHHH!

EDIT: I'm going to go try and install this to my Steam Deck to see if it works there. Wow. NEVER had this issue before. I'm on Windows 11 Pro btw

EDIT 2: Works flawlessly on the Deck, just not on my PC. Disappointing, but I guess playing on the Deck isn't that bad, though I wish I could play it on PC as well. Unless you got any other workarounds I guess this'll have to do. I'll take this great nostalgic game any way I can! Thanks a ton for your help, even though it didn't work!

From memory I don't have any workarounds anymore lol, Good thing you managed to run it on your steam deck! I'm not at home rn, but when I arrive I'll take a look and try to help you run it on your PC! At least the "failed to find steam" issue has been solved now!
Unfortunately these older games have a lot of issues running on modern machines, I miss playing the Xbox arcade version of this game! But anyway hope you enjoy playing it on the steam deck and I'll take a look when I get home on how to fix your PC problems!

It's a pleasure to help btw :D

*Edit* I understand your frustrations, it sucks to not be able to play something you bought and especially something you enjoy.

[colour_thief]

I'm in the exact same situation except no Steam Deck so I can't play it at all. :(

[monster mango loco mindset]

Originally posted by colour_thief:

I'm in the exact same situation except no Steam Deck so I can't play it at all. :(

You should try out these steps
- Go to "my computer"
-Open your drive where steam is installed
-open program files x86
-open the steam folder
-On the steam folder try looking for the "steam.dll" file and copy it.
-Go to the "steamapps" folder and open the "common" folder
-Find the geometry wars folder and open it
-Paste the file "steam.dll" and run the game

After doing these steps you should be good to go!

Edit: if nothing works out you can add me on steam and I'll be glad to help :D

[VALIS]

Same problem here, won't launch on Win 11. Did all sorts of compatibility options, so I also copied steam.dll to the game folder to stop the "can't find steam" error from happening, still won't launch. 4K res, gsync (which I turned off at one point to make sure), HDR... not sure if any of those might be tripping this game up.

You ever find anything hilerm2?

[monster mango loco mindset]

Originally posted by VALIS:

Same problem here, won't launch on Win 11. Did all sorts of compatibility options, so I also copied steam.dll to the game folder to stop the "can't find steam" error from happening, still won't launch. 4K res, gsync (which I turned off at one point to make sure), HDR... not sure if any of those might be tripping this game up.

You ever find anything hilerm2?

ill try to find a fix for yall, maybe it's a straight up incompatibility with windows 11, which is a shame.

[VALIS]

Originally posted by Shardevoso:

ill try to find a fix for yall, maybe it's a straight up incompatibility with windows 11, which is a shame.

Thanks! Seems like there's a lot of games like this, DX9 not wanting to cooperate with W11, but I've only had a few minutes to tinker so far.

[monster mango loco mindset]

Originally posted by VALIS:

Originally posted by Shardevoso:

ill try to find a fix for yall, maybe it's a straight up incompatibility with windows 11, which is a shame.

Thanks! Seems like there's a lot of games like this, DX9 not wanting to cooperate with W11, but I've only had a few minutes to tinker so far.

yeah, win 11 brought a crap ton of instability with older renderers, I don't plan on upgrading my os soon, I'll try to take a look if there's a dx10 or 11 patch or something.... I don't have the programming knowledge to do that though lol! Tbh games from the xbla era without constant support or a fully fleshed out pc port usually have a rough time trying to run on modern hardware

edit: Update: Apparently for me there are no issues at all, I have tried this out with my current win10 rig (i7 4790k and gtx980) and honestly the game ran fine without any major issues, it was just pick up and play. Maybe it's a full on compatibility issue with win11. I don't have any fixes for that, unfortunately.... Maybe it would be interesting if you could run this on a VM, or if nothing works maybe just refund it, which is unfortunate, since this game made many of our childhoods.... Best of luck to yall, I hope i managed to help... :D

[Kacho]

Chiming in that I have the same issue and I've tried all the fixes listed above with compatibility modes, run as admin, steam.dll copy/paste, *nothin*. Geez, ya think it's time for them to remaster this thing?

[VALIS]

Originally posted by Kacho:

Chiming in that I have the same issue and I've tried all the fixes listed above with compatibility modes, run as admin, steam.dll copy/paste, *nothin*. Geez, ya think it's time for them to remaster this thing?

It's kinda crazy too considering I can make most Vista/7/8 era games run on W11 but this bugger just won't give.

[SOCRATIC]

Just contributing the same echo from everyone else. Tried all fixes, nothing works. Win11 Rig (i7-14700k + 3080). A true shame. I loved this game as a kid playing it at my cousins house. I'd be psyched beyond belief for a remaster.

[monster mango loco mindset]

Originally posted by SOCRATIC:

Just contributing the same echo from everyone else. Tried all fixes, nothing works. Win11 Rig (i7-14700k + 3080). A true shame. I loved this game as a kid playing it at my cousins house. I'd be psyched beyond belief for a remaster.

i'm pretty sure the compatibility issue is probably with win 11 only, on my win 10 rig it runs perfectly fine and smoothly, it's a shame that the game doesn't really work with modern hardware :(