Problem with civ2map.exe and civ2scen.exe

[kurtas]

When i try to open these files i get a window coming up with the error message:

"Error "-8" in module "4" data: 0 0
File open failed: MODULES.DB
most recent DOS error: 2"

What does this mean?
Have i killed my favourite game again?

 

[starlifter]

The errors you are getting are concerning the MGE to FW downgrade patch which Cedric Greene made. His patch is good, and those are the filenames he chose:

by Cedric Greene:
You now have a copy of all versions of Civ2, the FW downgrade includes the CiC and Classic .exe (Civ2scen.exe and Civ2orig.exe respectively)

The Civ2scen.exe is version 2.62 (CiC).

Your error looks like it reflects a partial (or damaged) patch install, which is missing a library or text file. I could be coused by copying/installing something new over the existing files. Good to back up a working installation, before installing anything new.

I no longer have Cedric's downgrade patch to use for comparison, nor can I find a working link to it. His AOL website is no longer up.

 

[kurtas]

Your error looks like it reflects a partial (or damaged) patch install, which is missing a library or text file. I could be coused by copying/installing something new over the existing files. Good to back up a working installation, before installing anything new.

Yea, i broke it by downloading to much stuff and wouldnt run so i reinstalled it .
I suppose it isnt anything ot bad, just means i cant make any more maps or scenarios

 

[Mercator]

The errors you are getting are concerning the MGE to FW downgrade patch which Cedric Greene made. His patch is good, and those are the filenames he chose:

While that error may occur more often with Cedric Greene's patch, there is no way you can say it is caused by that. I take it you only have MGE? Cedric Greene did not choose these filenames. These are the filenames you get if you buy classic Civ2 as well as the CiC and FW add-ons. The CiC add-on renames the original to civ2orig.exe, the FW add-on renames the CiC executable to civ2scen.exe.

@kurtas: The error you're seeing indicates that Civ2 can't find the Labels.txt file (nor can it find the Errors.db and Modules.db files). This can have several reasons. Maybe you really don't have these (perhaps you accidentally deleted them). Or the Civ2 executable is not in the same folder as these files, or Civ2 is called from a different folder.

What you can do to fix it is this:
- Make sure you have all of these files (labels.txt, modules.db and errors.db, most importantly labels.txt)
- Make sure they are all in the main Civ2 folder, along with all the other files (including civ2scen.exe, civmap.exe and civ2.exe)

If both of these are the case already, are you using shortcuts to run Civ2?
If so, right-click the shortcut and set the "Start in" line to the Civ2 folder.

 

[starlifter]

by Mercator:
While that error may occur more often with Cedric Greene's patch, there is no way you can say it is caused by that. I take it you only have MGE? Cedric Greene did not choose these filenames. These are the filenames you get if you buy classic Civ2 as well as the CiC and FW add-ons. The CiC add-on renames the original to civ2orig.exe, the FW add-on renames the CiC executable to civ2scen.exe.

I completely agree that Cedric's patch did not cause it. I used his patch 4 years ago, and it worked flawlessly. However, I no longer have that file, so I can't look at it. I went back and read some of Cedric's old posts, and evidently wrongly inferred that he made those names, based on the post content. However, I did go install 2.42, and sure enough, civ2scen.exe is right there. I don't have CiC, but the naming you explain makes sense.

As I said originally, it was definitely not Cedric's patch. What usually happens is people have nonstandard files and patch, or apply something new, then a TXT file cannot parse, and an error like that (though I have not seen that exact one beofe) happens. So I'm glad you pinned that error down for him, and it helps the rest of us to learn it too!

by kurtas:
Yea, i broke it by downloading to much stuff and wouldnt run so i reinstalled it .
I suppose it isnt anything ot bad, just means i cant make any more maps or scenarios

?? You should be able to make your own shortcut, worst case. I just tried directly navigating to the directory of 2.42, and double-clicking the civ2map.exe file, and at least it seems to run the map editor just fine on a fresh install.

 

[Mercator]

"Error "-8" in module "4" data: 0 0
File open failed: MODULES.DB
most recent DOS error: 2"

For future reference, the first number "-8" (or really just 8) refers to the line number in errors.db, the second number "4" refers to the line number in modules.db. Not all versions of Civ2 seem to have these files, though. At least my ToT doesn't.

Errors
1 = Unknown
2 = HeapRequestFailed
3 = NoMoreHeap
4 = CivKeyNotFound (Bad RULES.TXT)
5 = CivKeyNotFound(City) (Bad RULES.TXT)
6 = CivKeyNotFound(Units) (Bad RULES.TXT)
7 = TerrainKeyNotFound (Bad RULES.TXT)
8 = FileOpen
9 = MemoryRequestFailed
10 = MemoryLockFailed
11 = BadCity
12 = BadKing
13 = PopupLarger640x480
14 = PopupTooManyItems
15 = NewAllocFailed(xalloc)
16 = UnrecoverableMapRead

Modules
1 = <Unknown>
2 = <Strings>
3 = <Startup>
4 = <Label>
5 = <Map>
6 = <City>
7 = <King>
8 = <Build>
9 = <Popup>
10 = <CityWin>
11 = <Menu>

The first of the two zeroes refers to the zero-based line number of the relevant file section.

For example, error 4 (CivKeyNotFound) refers to the civilization advances, so 0 there refers to the first advance (Advanced Flight), 1 refers to the second advance etc.

I'm not entirely sure what that second number means.

 

[starlifter]

Wow, Mercator, that is really good! I don't play FW or 2.42, and have not actually examined all the files in MGE either. It looks like the 2.42 file contents are the same as your FW, but in case I'm overlooking something, I'll post them from 2.42 for future reference...

Civ 2.42 (Civ Classic) errors.db content:

Unknown
HeapRequestFailed
NoMoreHeap
CivKeyNotFound (Bad RULES.TXT)
CivKeyNotFound(City) (Bad RULES.TXT)
CivKeyNotFound(Units) (Bad RULES.TXT)
TerrainKeyNotFound (Bad RULES.TXT)
FileOpen
MemoryRequestFailed
MemoryLockFailed
BadCity
BadKing
PopupLarger640x480
PopupTooManyItems
NewAllocFailed(xalloc)
UnrecoverableMapRead

Civ 2.42 (Civ Classic) modules.db content:

<Unknown>
<Strings>
<Startup>
<Label>
<Map>
<City>
<King>
<Build>
<Popup>
<CityWin>
<Menu>

Civ 2 4.5.0f ("Patch 3", 26 March 1999):
[ The errors.db & modules.db files do not exist in MGE, evidently. ]

I did not find these files in MGE. I assume the analogous error info is in the MGE EXEs or DLLs .

I'm not entirely sure what that second number means.

The second number is returned by the DOS shell. I'm in Europe, and I don't have my old reference material with me, but it refers to the last exception generated by the error handling. I cannot recall what #2 means. However, it is not necessarily generated by the Civ 2 code. "Normally", the programmer can pass an error code, and it can be examined and displayed, as it was done here.



KEYWORDS: The information after this line is just for helping people search to find this thread....
"Error "-0" in module
"Error "-1" in module
"Error "-2" in module
"Error "-3" in module
"Error "-3" in module
"Error "-4" in module
"Error "-5" in module
"Error "-6" in module
"Error "-7" in module
"Error "-8" in module
"Error "-9" in module
"Error "-10" in module
"Error "-11" in module
"Error "-12" in module
"Error "-13" in module
"Error "-14" in module
"Error "-15" in module

 

[Mercator]

Wow, Mercator, that is really good!

This isn't something spectacularly new or fancy, though. I'm sure some more people know about this; Wobbegong at least. I just sort of put it together figuring out what exactly caused kurtas' error.

I did not find these files in MGE. I assume the analogous error info is in the MGE EXEs or DLLs .

Nope. It will be just like in ToT and just show the numbers rather than the text. While classic Civ2 gives this white debugging window with the error info, ToT just shows a dialog box with the numbers in it, like the first line of the error message kuntas posted.

The second number is returned by the DOS shell.

I was referring to the second zero. The final zero on the first line of that error message.

 

[starlifter]

I was referring to the second zero. The final zero on the first line of that error message.

Oh, hmmm. Sorry, I don't know about that.

 

[civdood]

I play with Civ 2.42, and I never knew about that. Thanks for posting the detail, Mercator and Starlifter. The keyword thingy allows me to find page!