Runtime Error!

[Cannon Cocker]

I've had Gary Grigsby’s World at War GGWaW then upgraded to A Word Divided AWD. Old computer ran both GGWaW & AWD on Visa OK. Now I own a new Toshiba that runs Windows 7. AWD ver 1.40 starts OK but can’t save game. I have loved playing this game for years. Is there a fix?

[Wargamer74]

You have to create a save folder in Matrix Games/Gary Gribsy's World At War A World Divided/dat. For some reason newer copies of the game are missing the save folder.

[Cannon Cocker]

No joy. I created the missing save folder as indicated but I still get the “Runtime Error!” as before when saving PBEM games, not normal solitaire games. AWD version 1.40 runs fine on my desktop running Vista but not on my new 2011 Toshiba laptop running Windows 7. The Toshiba is more capable than my 2007 HP.

[Cannon Cocker]

Eureka! I figured it out. I reread the string under the post “Help! Game won't save ("ERROR unable to save into slot")” and found another step at this link from WanderingHead tm.asp?m=1879393
It reveals that “A common problem is that old saves in an incompatible format (i.e. generated before some kind of file format change took place in a patch) cause the game to crash.

This can happen even without you opening the file, because the game tries to open it to display the map image and dates in the file interface screen. It can also happen even if you've never saved a game, because the basic game actually ships with a very old (development timeframe) save file included! (that is, of course, an "oops!")

What to do?

If you have crashes that look like this, then go to the dat/save directory and delete all save files (*.psv, *.sav). Try again and see if it works better now.”

Deleting all old saved games was the answer. Now I’m off again. Thanks