First, let me say that I am really excited to have a little bit of my childhood back with this game. I remember when it first came out more than 20 years ago and I had so much fun with it. Thanks to all who made this new release possible.

I downloaded the demo version yesterday and played it for a while. Then I tried to start it again today and got an error message indicating that it was "Unable to create a new DC3 Pref file."

Can someone help on that, please?

Have you tried again? Does that happen every time you launch, or just once?

It happens every time I try to launch it. I re-downloaded and tried again and got the same result. In case it matters, I am running Tiger on a Mac Mini (Intel Core Duo).

The DC3 prefs file (I've mentioned this somewhere else on the forum) is stored as

~/Library/Preferences/DC3 Prefs.plist

Make sure that file exists and you can write to it. Another user found the file had accidentally been written to ~/Library/DC3 Prefs.plist instead.

You can also try deleting the file (it might have become corrupted)

`~' btw is unix-speak for your home directory.

Edit - original problem as suffered by `mtpalms' and my similar answer were here

The best solution, of course, is to just buy the game!

hehe indeed - but that may not solve this problem - they use the same prefs file.

I fully intend to purchase the game. I just wanted to make sure it worked. I unfortunately have had to purchase new software upgrades after getting my new Intel-Mac. Nothing feels better than spending thousands of dollars just to get back the same functionality I had with my old G4...

I was pretty sure all I need to do is trash the prefs file and let DC3 recreate it. Thanks for giving me the file path.

Once again, my sincere thanks to all who have kept this game alive. It is such a treat to let my kids play the same games I played back in the 80s. $30 is a real bargain!

Regards,
Paul Stoessel
Sugar Land, TX

One follow up to this -- deleting the prefs file works, but I have to delete it every time I want to start RDC. I did check to make sure the file is not locked. This is a minor issue, but I thought I'd bring it up.

Regards,
Paul Stoessel

can you run `stat' on the command line on both the file and its parents directory?

In the terminal:

stat ~/Library/Preferences

and

stat ~/Library/Preferences/DC3\ Prefs.plist

Here's the reply I got:

Last login: Wed May 21 08:29:48 on console
Welcome to Darwin!
Macintosh:~ prstoessel$ stat ~/Library/Preferences
234881026 528792 drwx------ 80 prstoessel prstoessel 0 2720 "May 19 13:32:35 2008" "May 21 10:27:40 2008" "May 21 10:27:40 2008" 4096 0 0 /Users/prstoessel/Library/Preferences

Macintosh:~ prstoessel$ stat ~/Library/Preferences/DC3\ Prefs.plist
stat: /Users/prstoessel/Library/Preferences/DC3 Prefs.plist: stat: No such file or directory
Macintosh:~ prstoessel$

In order to get to the file, I was not able to navigate to it with the file path given above. Instead, I used Spotlight to find it and delete it.

Regards,
Paul Stoessel

curious, and it not being in that location is quite likely to be the problem

Another one for you:

Find the file in spotlight, Reveal in finder

Then drag the file onto a terminal window. The terminal will echo out the exact path that it thinks the file is at

try stat-ing that path, but also, if you can let me know what the path is?

As a hint for the above, you can type `stat ' (note the trailing space) but without a return at the end, then drag the file to the terminal, then hit return (in the terminal).

Here's the result:

Last login: Wed May 21 13:29:47 on ttyp1
Welcome to Darwin!
Macintosh:~ prstoessel$ stat /Users/prstoessel/Library/DC3\ Prefs.plist
234881026 932493 -rw-r--r-- 1 prstoessel prstoessel 0 1298 "May 21 08:36:13 2008" "May 20 17:52:19 2008" "May 20 17:52:19 2008" 4096 16 0 /Users/prstoessel/Library/DC3 Prefs.plist
Macintosh:~ prstoessel$

So it is a similar problem to what the other guy was having - the file is getting created in the wrong location. (~/Library rather than ~/Library/Preferences)

I suspect there is a bug in the game somewhere. You are using the Demo, rather than the full game presumably?

One thing to try doing would be to move the file into ~/Library/Preferences yourself and seeing what happens with that.

(Does the file get re-created in the wrong location, or does it get used, or do things even work?)

Another thing to try might be to symlink from the wrong to the correct location (or vice versa) and see what that does...

I guess this thread is worth emailing Zack about - but you might as well try a few more things beforehand. It could be that this was fixed between demo and release too... But it's a little tricky to verify that without you buying the release :(

I tried copying the file over as you specified. I also kept the file in both places. I made sure they weren't locked. Still no difference. I have to trash the prefs file before restarting the game.

I appreciate your time and interest in solving this issue. I will purchase the software anyway. I imagine I could still play it on my G4 if I can't get it to work on my Mini.

Regards,
Paul

OK, well, I just bought the game, and am attempting to run the full version and I am experiencing exactly the same issues as you are reporting on this thread. I am running a Power Mac Dual 2GHz G5 with 3.5 GB of RAM and Mac OS 10.5.2. To say that I am disappointed would be putting it mildly. Doesn't anyone have a solution to this problem? I have tried everything that has been suggested in the forum, and still cannot even launch the game.

tdunst - Did it work just the once when you deleted the mentioned preferences files? (Both from the Library and the Preferences directories?)

I'd suggest the following to finally narrow down whether it was a file permissions error or something broken inside RtDC (most likely)

on the terminal

Try and do that when the prefs files do exist (try copying one over to the other if it isn't there) and then running again.

This will make sure that the program very definitely has write privs both to the file(s) itself and to the parent directories

To reset the permissions afterwards, you want:

Assuming the above doesn't work, I'll mail Zack and let him know. The other `problem' is that the preferences files use resources forks, so if you have your startup disk in a non-standard format (case sensitive or non HFS+) - it could be falling over due to that.

I did my best to do what you asked. Here's the result:

Last login: Thu May 22 08:12:11 on ttyp1
Welcome to Darwin!
Macintosh:~ prstoessel$ chmod o+rwx ~ ~/Library ~/Library/Preferences ~/Library/Preferences/DC3\ Prefs.plist ~/Library/DC3\ Prefs.pli
chmod: /Users/prstoessel/Library/Preferences/DC3 Prefs.plist: No such file or directory
chmod: /Users/prstoessel/Library/DC3 Prefs.pli: No such file or directory
Macintosh:~ prstoessel$ chmod o+rwx ~ ~/Library ~/Library/Preferences ~/Library/Preferences/DC3\ Prefs.plist ~/Library/DC3\ Prefs.pli
chmod: /Users/prstoessel/Library/Preferences/DC3 Prefs.plist: No such file or directory
chmod: /Users/prstoessel/Library/DC3 Prefs.pli: No such file or directory
Macintosh:~ prstoessel$ chmod o-w ~
Macintosh:~ prstoessel$ chmod o-rwx ~/Library ~/Library/Preferences
Macintosh:~ prstoessel$ chmod o-wx ~/Library/DC3\ Prefs.plist ~/Library/Preferences/DC3\ Prefs.plist
chmod: /Users/prstoessel/Library/DC3 Prefs.plist: No such file or directory
chmod: /Users/prstoessel/Library/Preferences/DC3 Prefs.plist: No such file or directory
Macintosh:~ prstoessel$
Macintosh:~ prstoessel$

ah, Um... I should have been more specific

• Run RtDC - get it to try and run, give it's error and exit
• *Copy* the prefs file from ~/Library into the ~/Library/Preferences folder
• Run the chmod `+' commands
• Load RtDC, see if it works
• regardless, clean up with the chmod `-' commands

If RtDC still gives the error there, it proves the problem is not permissions related.

Also I think you mis-copied the `+' commands in your output - you have

chmod: /Users/prstoessel/Library/DC3 Prefs.pli: No such file or directory

- the missing `st' off the end (and on your copied command) shows I guess that you had a copy+paste error.

Richard - thanks for your suggestions. I tried them all, and still cannot launch v1.3 of RtDC. What's really weird is that I can launch version 1.2, but my activation code does not work with this version. After trying your CHMOD commands as well as one of my own (chmod 777), my DC3 Prefs.plist file has the following permissions:

-rwxrwxrwx@ 1 tdunst staff 0 May 22 22:14 DC3 Prefs.plist

I have tried launching the game with no files, with a file only in the library directory, and a file only in the preferences directory, and one file in both directories. I have also trued repairing the permissions on my computer, as well as rebooting. Nothing has worked. I think we can rule out any sort of permission problem at this point. This definitely appears to be a bug in the game itself. It's a special kind of torture to have waited this long for RtDC and STILL not be able to play it.... PLEASE HELP.

Richard - One more item of note, I checked and all of my drives are formatted as 'Max OS Extended (Journaled)'. This is just another name for HFS+ as I understand it, so the the formatting of my drives should not be an issue either.

tdunst, have you tried getting in contact with Super Happy Fun Fun? It might be worth it to see what they say.

http://www.superhappyfunfun.com/support.html

Hmm, I have a suspicion it is wherever the thing is trying to write its software licensing preferences to - which I bet isn't actually the prefs file. I'll maybe run a d/ktrace through it at some point and try and see what it is doing...

gruz - I have contacted tech support... so far I have received no reply. I have provided them all of the information that I have provided here. I will also be calling them today to voice my concern over having paid $30 for a game that I can't run on my computer.

Richard - RtDC v 1.3 never actually launches on my machine... it simply pops up the error message and quits. So I never get a chance to enter my licensing details into the application. RtDC v1.2 does actually get far enough to prompt me for my licensing details, but then refuses to start and complains that I have an invalid activation code. My guess is that my activation code is somehow associated with version 1.3 of RtDC and that this is what is preventing me from launching RtDC V 1.2. To be honest, I would be happy to launch ANY version of this game... although I suppose I would prefer to run the latest version.

How do you have version 1.3? It isn't out yet, as far as I knew...

I purchased a license to run the full version of the game. The link provided to me in the download instructions was pointed to version 1.3 of the game.

Obviously they added a stunning new feature to it that warranted the silent version upgrade from our revision. Perhaps it is SHFF's "Increase copy protection by making the game dsyfunctional" feature? <_<

Right... It is time for battle, and not with Nietono no Shana but instead, I haves me a dtrace script, a terminal window, and perl...



And what actually goes on in my copy of RtDC during load is interesting; in the Chinese sense of the word... Really, it isn't pretty at all.

I think most of the problem is our friend `eSellerate' and `EWSMac.framework' which I had pointed out earlier lurks tar-gzip'd inside our application (<app>/Contents/Resources/EWSMacCompress.tar.gz). This little bundle of fun gets dutifully opened thrice during every startup. It also gets installed into

~/Library/Application Support/eSellerate/<some-number>/EWSMac.framework - and most stuff in there gets cmod'd by some tar imp. Reasons for this are a mystery, other than to waste CPU time

In fact, the stack looks something like

I'm very tempted just to NULL-out CheckEWS() and eSellerValidate() since I don't think they are doing me much good... But, I suspect I might be voiding my license agreement if I do.

And we're not done yet! not content with lurking in my Application Support folder (and [WTF?!] constantly getting re-created) we also feel the need to have a load of junk in my root Frameworks folder!

So I see /Library/Frameworks/EWSMac.framework. Why is it needed here? Did I ask for it? At least this one does not appear to be being constantly `updated' More to the point, why do I need a second copy here since

shows they are byte-for-byte identical!

Please someone, tell me why I need yet another copy of `EWSMacCompress.tar.gz' lurking in ~/Library/Application Support/eSellerate/3294440553/EWSMacCompress.tar.gz as well as the one stored in RtDC itself. Why does it need to be untarred again every single time I run RtDC into my `Application Support' folder. And why do I need yet another copy of the contents of it in /Library/Frameworks?

But wait, there's more! WTF is:

/Library/Frameworks/TempEWSFile

[?!?] that you are chmod'ing no less than three times? In short WTF are you doing creating - i.e. writing a temp file not only not in /tmp or $TMPDIR which, by the way, is where they *should* go (the directory name is a clue), but somewhere that should only be world *readable*? So you ar presuming you can write somewhere that only an admin should be writing! eSellerValidate() -> InstallEWSEngine() [But it's already installed!] -> eWeb_InstallEngineFromPath() -> GetInstallDirectory() is at fault here.

And it goes on! WTF are

/Library/Frameworks/.dat48bb.000
/Library/Frameworks/.dat48bb.008
/Library/Frameworks/.dat48bb.009

All accessed by mktmp called from eSellerValidation() -> eWeb_ValidateActivation() -> ...

This eSeller stuff has been written by someone truly clueless, or someone who is used to the old totally broken Windows paradigm of store your data next to your application (or dll, or in this case, Framework)

Just to round it off, not content with all those temp files, we somehow feel the need also for:

~/Library/Application Support/eSellerate/.de48bb.007
~/Library/Application Support/eSellerate/3294440342/.de48bb.006
~/Library/Application Support/eSellerate/3294440342/EWSMac.framework/.de48bb.005
~/Library/Application Support/eSellerate/3294440342/EWSMac.framework/Versions/.de48bb.004
~/Library/Application Support/eSellerate/3294440342/EWSMac.framework/Versions/A/.de48bb.003
~/Library/Application Support/eSellerate/3294440342/EWSMac.framework/Versions/A/Resources/.de48bb.001
~/Library/Application Support/eSellerate/3294440342/EWSMac.framework/Versions/A/Resources/.de48bb.002

So whilst those are likely a by-product of pointless tar/chmod stuff, I thought I would throw them in for good measure

---

So (pant pant) Suggestions for getting this stupid thing to work is to make sure your account has admin rights on your computer and/or that you can write in/to `/Library/Frameworks' (which any self respecting user should *not* be able to do). Indeed NOT doing any of this is a major part of general computer security 101. Creating something that requires it is a major part of general computer stupidity 101...

Also make sure that every file in the framework lurking in Application support is writeable since the thing insists on overwriting itself every launch

A final note is that the `DC3 Prefs.plist' file is often access through a /.vol/ path e.g. /.vol/234881026/689954/DC3 Prefs.plist. If the system can't access it through there, there may be something broken with your OS-X installation such that volfs isn't working.

Enough. Off to find some melon bread, and go to sleep.

I just want to say that I am really disappointed that this bug has not been squashed. I was really looking forward to many hours of happy gaming with this game because it reminds me of a lot of the games I played way back when. I even got out my CH fighterstick out to use with the game, downloaded and installed the additional software for that and fired her up. I tried the demo several times and getting the error every time just doesn't work for me. I hope there will be a fix for this issue some day. I think the price is a bargain, but not if the game doesn't work right.

Rich B)

Hi and welcome to the forum, my namesake :)

Sorry your first view was one of my interminable (it was 3:40am in the morning for me) rants :(

Anyway, if you are having issues with the demo (cam't write prefs file), it is unlikely to be related to the above stuff, since the eSellerate stuff is only in the full release.

I would suggest (if you are technical) playing with dtrace yourself and seeing whether you can pinpoint where it is writing when the call fails. If not, we'll just have to wait for the bug to be squashed...

I just did a little more digging...

Look what SHFF have bought into - I was quite right, it is a Windows-weeny (a.k.a. clueless, windows-centric coders) software product designed to screw the average corporation like SHFF out of a stonking 10% of their revenue.

Check out the marketing BS! - http://www.esellerate.net

And the pricing, terms & conditions etc...

http://www.esellerate.net/pricing.asp

SHFF--

MSP no baka.

I am having a similar problem but instead of "unable to create a new DC3 Prefs file" I get "The file DC3 Prefs could not be opened".

I have tried deleting it and moving it to the correct subfolder as suggested in this thread but with no success.

Is it the same problem or a different one?

Thanks

This is the same problem. That message is what you get after the file was created, but when it can't be read. Don't try to make sense out of it, it is not possible. I still haven't heard word-one from tech support on this issue... The next step for me will be to open a complaint with my credit card company and let them get my money back for me.

Richard and everyone else:

I want to thank you again for all that you have tried with respect to troubleshooting this issue. I do not think I will purchase the software without some guarantee that I can get my money back if it doesn't work properly. Although I can get it to work by deleting the prefs file, it gets rather annoying after a while.

I will keep my ear to the ground for a fix to this issue, but I will not be purchasing the software right now.

Regards,
Paul Stoessel

Alright, it's time I chimed in.

1. You can have a fix right now, although crude, I think you could use applescript to make a thing that you double click and it deletes the prefs without you having to manually do it.

2. It sounds like, when the update finally comes out, it will have the fix for this.

Thank you. I'll look into that.

Regards,
Paul Stoessel

So did we get this one figured out yet? Because I am home visiting my family, and that is the error that happens, "The file DC3 Prefs could not be opened".

Here is some info that might help solve it. On the computer, there are several different user accounts, but only one administrator account. The game was installed on the administrator account. When the game is tried to be run on any of the other accounts, the game wants the serial code. On most of the accounts, I can copy the preference file from the admin account and put it in the user accounts, and then the game opens and runs. But on one user account, the game won't open with this error "The file DC3 Prefs could not be opened". The user account does have all the possible read/write permissions of all the files in the Library.

I'm having this same problem. I just purchased the game and I am getting the following error:

Error: The file "DC3 Prefs" could not be opened.

-999


This is very annoying. I tried reading through this forum and did not find a solution.
Has anybody found a solution?

I suspect I have a solution, though I can't post it. I'm 99% certain the problem is caused by esellerate's copy protection and trying to do many things it should not.

edit - although to clarify - presumably you don't have any weird formatting on your disk like e.g. case-sensitivity or non HFS?

I'm going to add a "me too" to this.

I downloaded the demo on my powerbook g4 at work, tried it, bought the game, played it some more. Loved it.

Came home and figured I'd fire it up on my iMac. Downloaded, copied to apps folder, run and get the cannot open the prefs file error (-999). Tried the demo, same thing. There is a prefs file in my ~/Library/Preferences directory.

Tried the chmod stuff mentioned earlier in the thread - no go.

The stuff is not getting written to the frameworks directory, however I am a user with admin rights.

Both machines are running Leopard 10.5.4. The hard drives are "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". The powerbook is well, a power pc, and the iMac is a first generation Intel iMac.

I think I tried everything stated in this thread.

Please help!

Chris

Edit :
* Neither machine appears to have the case-sensitivity turned on.
* The powerbook has the EWSMac garbage in the /Library/Frameworks directory. On the iMac, I can manually create the EWSMac.framework directory via the finder without doing anything special, but the game still will not run.
* The prefs file is 0 bytes long on the iMac. On the powerbook it is 1300.
* On the powerbook there is a file com.zsculpt.darkcastle3.plist that is not on the iMac. Copying these over doesn't help.