Duke 3D Won't Work

[Raktajino]

I bought the anthology and played Duke 3D the first night. It worked.
The next day I go to play and Duke 3D won't load. It goes through the two DOS boxes then kicks out back to Windows. Manhattan Project won't load either but most of the other games do load. (I haven't checked them all but I can load other games.) Any ideas why Duke doesn't load anymore? It's pretty much the #1 reason why I bought this set.

[Frederik Schreiber]

Try and set the compatibility mode for Duke3D.exe to "Windows XP SP3", and "Run as administrator".

Sometimes windows overwrite those settings.
That should fix it for you!

[Raktajino]

Originally Posted by Frederik Schreiber

Try and set the compatibility mode for Duke3D.exe to "Windows XP SP3", and "Run as administrator".

Sometimes windows overwrite those settings.
That should fix it for you!

Great....how do I do that? How do I modify the anthology launcher to do this?

[The Dukenator]

For Duke3D, you could try 3 things:

1. Backwards compatiblity mode as suggested above
2. Download the actual Dosbox program
3. Use a source port like EDuke32.

[Frederik Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Raktajino

Great....how do I do that? How do I modify the anthology launcher to do this?

The Anthology will automatically launch it with the settings you give it.
Go to the folder (usually 3D Realms/Duke Nukem 3D), find Duke3d.exe, and change the compatibility settings, but right clicking on the file, select the compatibility tab, set compatibility to "Windows XP SP3" and check "Run as Administrator".

[Qbix]

Try installing it not in Program files.

[Rapture_Rising]

I have a solution, make the Anthology run EDuke32 by copying the code below into the Duke Nukem 3D-DOS.bat file. It makes the Anthology launcher run EDuke32 instead of the DOS version which should fix your issue without having to edit any compatibility files or running it as an admin.

@echo off
cd "Duke Nukem 3D"
start eduke32.exe
exit

[Raktajino]

Thanks all. Running the Anthology in admin mode did the trick.

[Nukkus]

With the new patch Duke 3D won't work at all, with or without administrator mode. Tried a fresh install to, no luck. the cmd window pops up and then quits immediately

[scorpeeon]

Originally Posted by Nukkus

With the new patch Duke 3D won't work at all, with or without administrator mode. Tried a fresh install to, no luck. the cmd window pops up and then quits immediately

Same here. A brief error message appears when trying to start the game:
"This tool is for Windows Vista and above only."

Trying to run it on Win7. (Would be nice to see Linux support soon )
What's strange that the standalone Duke3D starts just fine, just not the one in the Anthology. Also eduke works fine (both standalone and in Anthology).

[Alyxx]

I just play the Megaton Edition in Steam personally...

[Hendricks266]

Originally Posted by Alyxx

I just play the Megaton Edition in Steam personally...

I just updated EDuke32 so that it reads the registry entries for 3DR's Duke 3D package and the Anthology (in addition to Megaton and the GOG.com package), meaning you can unzip the exe and run it from anywhere.

http://dukeworld.duke4.net/eduke32/synthesis/

[Xantheous]

Originally Posted by Nukkus

With the new patch Duke 3D won't work at all, with or without administrator mode. Tried a fresh install to, no luck. the cmd window pops up and then quits immediately

I'm having the same problem ever since I upgraded to v1.1 of the Anthology. I've narrowed down the problem in the "Duke Nukem 3D - DOS.bat" in your Anthology folder, if you remove the "set __COMPAT_LAYER=WINXPSP2" lines, it seems to work for me. But then it won't be running in WinXP SP2 compatibility mode (which this line intends to do), and I don't know if that will matter in playing the game or not, but at least this gets the game running.

A official fix for this would be appreciated from 3D Realms.

EDIT: I'm running Vista SP2 64-bit

[Xantheous]

I did some more fiddling, based on what Frederik Schreiber mentioned about Duke 3D needing WinXP SP3 compatibility mode so I changed the "set __COMPAT_LAYER=WINXPSP2" lines in the "Duke Nukem 3D - DOS.bat" in the Anthology folder to "set __COMPAT_LAYER=WINXPSP3" and the game seems to work now. As I mentioned above, it also works for me without these "set" variables lines.

Hope this helps

[Joe Siegler]

There is another option. Uninstall, delete the temp files from the VirtualStore directory I mentioned elsewhere. However, on installing, DON'T ACCEPT DEFAULT.

These problems are coming from the fact that it is in Program Files. Try installing to something like c:\3dr and I bet all of this goes away.

(C:\Users\Joe\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\3DRealms‏)

[scorpeeon]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

There is another option. Uninstall, delete the temp files from the VirtualStore directory I mentioned elsewhere. However, on installing, DON'T ACCEPT DEFAULT.

These problems are coming from the fact that it is in Program Files. Try installing to something like c:\3dr and I bet all of this goes away.

(C:\Users\Joe\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\3DRealms‏)

Thanks, installed it in a custom folder and it worked!
But if this is the case, I would suggest changing the default install path, because now it's "Program Files (x86)" which seems to be the cause of these issues.

[Joe Siegler]

That's a Win 7/8/10 issue. Unless it's a 64bit program, it's getting installed in x86.

[scorpeeon]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

That's a Win 7/8/10 issue. Unless it's a 64bit program, it's getting installed in x86.

Yeah I know, Program Files or Program Files (x86) doesn't really matter, it's not an issue, what I really meant is that when installing in either one of these, the VirtualStore-related issues are there so it shouldn't install by default in either one of them (IMHO).

[Hendricks266]

Originally Posted by scorpeeon

Yeah I know, Program Files or Program Files (x86) doesn't really matter, it's not an issue, what I really meant is that when installing in either one of these, the VirtualStore-related issues are there so it shouldn't install by default in either one of them (IMHO).

It's really not proper for a program to install outside of Program Files by default unless it has a very good reason. If possible, an alternate solution should be found. Does Xantheous' "set __COMPAT_LAYER=WINXPSP3" suggestion fix your issue?

[Clint Flicker]

Was this also the case for installing and running Duke Nukem Manhattan Project?