SC1 - Won't Start

[FireBolt X13]

I bought SC1 today and it does not launch. It doesnt say game is not avalible, It just says im in it then it quits. The game does not even go to a black screen. Help me please i've wasted enough money on steam as it is and i dont want this game to go to waste.

[gtafan]

Run it in compatibility mode for Windowx XP.

[Slayer2.0]

Originally Posted by FireBolt X13

I bought SC1 today and it does not launch. It doesnt say game is not avalible, It just says im in it then it quits. The game does not even go to a black screen. Help me please i've wasted enough money on steam as it is and i dont want this game to go to waste.

Same thing is happening to me, I'm running it on windows 7

[PurpleTurf]

2 possible fixes.

Try this one first thanks to gp2.exe

Originally Posted by gp2.eXe

Go to your hard drive ("C:" usually) then navigate to the folder "program files(x86)/Steam/SteamApps/common/supreme commander/bin".
Inside that bin folder is the executable for the game "SupremeCommander" listed as an application. Right click it.

Now choose Properties from the menu, and on the window that pops up choose the "Compatibility" tab. Now you will see the first option called Compatibility Mode. What you want to do is choose an operating system that was compatible with SC. I chose Windows XP (service pack 3) only because that is the minimum system requirement for the game, but it may work with Vista too.

Click Accept, go back to Steam and try running the game again.

Then try this one if still doesnt work.

Originally Posted by PurpleTurf

The fix I found was in the game preferences, I realized that it opened in "windowed" video mode and then I could change the resolution in the game afterwards. To open the game as "windowed" follow below instructions:

1. Find the game.prefs file. Mine is located in C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\Gas Powered Games\Supreme Commander 2 or 1
2. open it in notepad or wordpad
3. scroll down to the group of lines that say "joystick_camera_rotation = true,
primary_adapter = '1680,1050,60',"
Should be towards the very bottom of the file.
4. change the line to say primary_adapter = 'windowed',

That should open the game in windowed mode, and fix some known issues that SupCom 1 and 2 have with certain video settings. Then from within the game you can test out other video options and resolutions.

[save1bullet]

Originally Posted by PurpleTurf

2 possible fixes.

Try this one first thanks to gp2.exe



Then try this one if still doesnt work.

The first option fixed my SC1 which kept getting "failed to started" errors. I use Vista 64-bit but changing it to windows XP service pack 2 worked anyway (I also ran the .exe file as administrator don't know if it mattered though).

[jacket13]

bump for useful information

[Leomann32]

Apologies for digging up a relatively old thread, but this is precisely the same problem I am having and the fixes mentioned above have not worked. There is no pref file to tinker with in my case, as the game doesn't even get past the steam startup box before crashing, so the file doesn't even exist (sup com forged alliance's file on the other hand does exist, as that game for some reason works just fine).

Also, as far as I know steam doesn't even support compatibility mode, and in my case right clicking the exe does not bring up the compatibility options.

I'm running win 7, and as I mentioned forged alliance works just fine so my pc can clearly handle the game. I'd appreciate any tips on what might be causing this. Perhaps a very specific driver issue?

[Ronnyroy]

Originally Posted by Leomann32

Apologies for digging up a relatively old thread, but this is precisely the same problem I am having and the fixes mentioned above have not worked. There is no pref file to tinker with in my case, as the game doesn't even get past the steam startup box before crashing, so the file doesn't even exist (sup com forged alliance's file on the other hand does exist, as that game for some reason works just fine).

Also, as far as I know steam doesn't even support compatibility mode, and in my case right clicking the exe does not bring up the compatibility options.

I'm running win 7, and as I mentioned forged alliance works just fine so my pc can clearly handle the game. I'd appreciate any tips on what might be causing this. Perhaps a very specific driver issue?

Got the same problem! Just installed the steam version the other day but it just wont start. Tried all solutions i could find online.. The retail DVD version works fine, just tried to reinstall it. So the problem must somehow relate to steam, or the steam version.

[Leomann32]

Originally Posted by Ronnyroy

Got the same problem! Just installed the steam version the other day but it just wont start. Tried all solutions i could find online.. The retail DVD version works fine, just tried to reinstall it. So the problem must somehow relate to steam, or the steam version.

Well that's kind of discouraging. I'm not as torn up about this as I could have been given that forged alliance is basically a stand alone expansion, so the only thing I'm really missing out on is the first games campaign, but still. its the principle of the thing and plus, I've got a bit of nostalgia tied to it.

I've solved issues like this before with some driver tinkering, but I'm hesitant to do so for fear of breaking a completely unrelated game. Given that I couldn't get any of the total war games after empire to even start until I changed the audio driver, I don't think that's an exaggerated fear.

Hopefully someone around here will have a useful tip for the two of us .

[xlxSmokeyxlx]

It's a long shot but...

I had a similar problem with the game not starting.

My problem came about when I played using 2 monitors; I exited the game and the next time I came to play, I had removed one monitor and the game wouldn't start until I tried with 2 monitors again.

Make sure it says the secondary adaptor is Disabled in the PREFS file.

[Leomann32]

Originally Posted by xlxSmokeyxlx

It's a long shot but...

I had a similar problem with the game not starting.

My problem came about when I played using 2 monitors; I exited the game and the next time I came to play, I had removed one monitor and the game wouldn't start until I tried with 2 monitors again.

Make sure it says the secondary adapter is Disabled in the PREFS file.

Thanks for the idea, but unfortunately this is not really applicable in my case, I don't use two monitors and as I mentioned above, the game refuses to even get past the steam startup box, and as a result it doesn't seen to have generated a .pref file at all.

I appreciate the idea though

[Trollslayer]

Other people including myself have found it to be a compatibility issue. Use either the compatibility troubleshooter, or manually set it to compatibility mode for windows XP. It then works fine.

[Ronnyroy]

Sadly that isn't enough to make it work.

[cato4962]

I'm running Vista 64 bit and I can confirm PurpleTurf's first fix (there is no XP SP3 choice, only SP2, but it works just the same). I do, however, have to check the "run as administrator" box EACH time I run the game.

[ServBear]

Well I just went through them after my issue. Turned out that Compat mode Vista. Run as admin worked for me.