Crashes in Vista

[Rack]

I've had this working fine in XP and have to say it's a great bit of updating. Unfortunately it's not working in Vista. Now at the moment it's actually running the XP installation which is far from ideal, but from what I can tell the installation process I had to do wouldn't work in Vista, the application compatibility toolkit would be XP specific software.

At the moment then, I can load it up fine but when either I or the computer plays a card there's a chance it will crash. So far I haven't been able to detect much of a pattern. Playing around these crashes are less frequent when I set compatibility to XP.

Is this a known error that can't be easily fixed, or is it just XP is the version more people have played and more people put effort into fixing? Or am I just being silly and the installation should work fine in Vista if I do a proper one from scratch?

The error message I'm getting incidentally is...

Magic:The Gathering - Manalink v2.00 alpha has stopped working

A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available.

Thanks for any help.

[Taistoturri]

I'm getting same kind of crash too.
And it seems to happen specifically with Legendary cards.
They used to work, but then on one evening the game started to crash every time
a legend card was put to table...
It's pretty annoying =/

[discoransom]

I am running Vista and here is an incomplete list of cards which just crash the program.

Non-land
All Elder Dragon Legends
Nicol Bolas, PW
Hondens (most of the time)
Isamaru, H.O.K.
Grand Arbiter
Rofellos
Path to Exile
Dragonstorm
Bitterblossom (often, but not always, during upkeep)
Signets
Draco

Land
Sulfur Vent and other lands of that type
Rakdos Carnarium and " "
Tolarian Academy
Tabernacle/PV
Kjeldoran Outpost
Dark Depths
several others

Not terrible, but there really is no reasonable replacement for Dragonstorm or Bitterblossom, or Tolarian Academy & Tabernacle.

And as cool as the challenges are, the "you're shit out of luck" stance toward Vista users regarding the locked cards kind of pisses me off. The challenges usually just crash, and when you attempt number 1 well over 100 times and finally get around all bugs, and the damn thing crashes anyway and you don't unlock a card...infuriating.

On the other hand, the developers have created something free and fantastic and spend a huge amount of time doing so. They've earned whatever right they choose to hold regarding the game. But for Vista users (especially those of us who are unable to run a virtual machine or "downgrade" to XP) it sucks to be left out.

[Squee]

Hi everyone
I know very well how frustrating it is to be unable finishing a single game...
The bad news is that nothing can be made to help.
Manalink is a wonderful game but also a very old one : it was release under Windows 95. While Windows XP can still run this game rather good (the crashes are still present but far less frequent), Windows Vista doesn't seems to be able doing the same, whatever configuration you made (like Rack said, XP compatibility help a little). And as far as I know, unless someone rewrite the entire code, no improvement can be made (it's Vista's "fault" in fact :p ).
All you can try is (like discoransom said) :
-) downgrade your system to XP (don't think it's the better option)
-) run a virtual machine with Xp or even better with Win98 (@discoransom : I don't really understand why you can't run a virtual machine. I know this subject very well, so I may be able to help you)
-) make a dual boot with XP or Win98 (not an easy task for a beginner, and I don't think it's worth the trouble...)
-) just by personal experience, I found that Windows 7 (especially the 64 bits version) run the game pretty good (perhaps even better than XP...) : you can take a look at this option
Sorry for that bad news, but if you still have questions : just ask

PS : @Rack : Manalink doesn't really need an installation and you can run it without problem from your "XP installation folder". Unfortunately, you did the right thing but this is "a known error that can't be easily fixed".

[Fracturedorb]

Running xp isn't really an option for people who don't own XP.

Also running it with XP compatability mode for me causes the game to lock when it's supposed to show the coin flip animation.

[Squee]

@Fracturedorb :
I've never said that I was giving "good" option but as far as I know, they are the only option
(Maybe WINE under Linux can make the job too, I haven't tried this option yet...)
And for your problem with the coin toss animation, just go in the duel (or gauntlet) option to disable it

[aarona68]

I am getting the same crash, but it is not when I use specific cards, it is entirely random. I have noticed it happens more when I use a card to search my deck, like Civic Wayfinder. However, it is basically random... Any fix?

Thanks,
Aaron