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Knight of The Wind Oct 21, 2019 @ 12:32pm

Weird Launch games issue (happens with older games)

I have a really weird issue with Steam. It exclusively happens with old Windows XP era games. Namely Steam launches the game and it shows "running" but game launches only in Task Manager as an exe (with some really low memory usage) but it doesn't start so I have to kill the game's exe in Task Manager and start the game for the second time on Steam and then it starts normally every time until I reset my PC, then I have to do it again.

I have Win7 64bit and I didn't have this issue until about 2 months ago. In the meantime I reinstalled my Windows and Steam, and it changed some games to working normally and some still don't work right. The games I had this issue with are: Max Payne 1,2, Rogue Trooper, Gun, Return to CW, Call of Duty 2. I tried launching the games from their exe and if it is possible to launch without steam they will launch easily so I guess Steam is the culprit.

Again maybe I am barking at the wrong tree here but I think it's maybe connected with games being older. It doesn't happen with newer games. So if anyone has any ideas how to fix this annoying issue it would be great.

Last edited by Knight of The Wind; Oct 21, 2019 @ 12:58pm

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Showing 1-4 of 4 comments

Crazy Tiger Oct 21, 2019 @ 2:11pm

I have quite some older games, but none of them have that issue. Though I don't have the games you mention, or at least not on Steam.

Considering that you didn't have the issue before you reinstalled Windows and Steam, I'm going to guess that hose games take some modifications to get them to run through Steam (and with Steam functionality).
For example, I found this in regards to Max Payne 1 and 2: https://steemit.com/gaming/@cryptocitizen/max-payne-1-and-2-how-to-run-on-steam

Last edited by Crazy Tiger; Oct 21, 2019 @ 2:11pm

Knight of The Wind Oct 21, 2019 @ 2:19pm

no I use the fixes for both MP 1 and 2 so it's not it. Plus other games are affected. Again for example Return to CW works flawlessly if launched from the exe but doesn't when launched from Steam. I think it's some kind of Steam/Windows conflict but not sure what. I have UAC turned off, no compatibility settings forced so I am not sure what's going on.