Cant Find My Decks (c:/magic/program/playdeck)

[korynael]

I am not sure what version of the game I have at this point, but its the Microprose version; and I've installed both "Spells of the Ancients" and "Duel of the Plainswalkers"... I also installed ManaLink 132, and then upgraded to 201 I beleive... I can play online with a friend, build decks in the Deck Builder, and play AI without a problem... Shandalar doesnt work but thats fine as I'm uninterested...

Anyways, I cannot find any of my decks... The Deck Builder says its saving them under the proper directory (it shows you the directory if you try and leave without saving first), but when I look there, in that actual directory (the path of which is in the title), the decks arent there... I can coninue to play them though (newly created decks, freshly modified decks, etc), so they exist somewhere, but I don't see them when I look.

Where are they?

I dont know if it matters but I run Windows 7 (64-bit)...

[Salbei]

The "Playdeck" folder should be directly at your magic folder.
-> c:\magic\Playdeck\newdeckname.dec

When your decks get saved just "search" your computer for the "newdeckname.dec" (newdeckname = your new deck name) and you should find the exact location.+

You also might want to check the recent updates (just check "SCV" at my signature) what the game evolved into.You´ll be surprised how far we could improve this old game.

[korynael]

No, I see the names of all the "STOCK" decks but none of the names of any newly created decks that I personally made listed... And also, all the decks in this folder have the .dck extension, whereas your post above mentioned the .dec extenstion... Am I looking in the wrong folder maybe?

UPDATE: Out of curiosity, I removed one of the .dck files from that folder to see if they disappeared from the game, and sure enough, they did... So that does appear to be the the deck folder... Just seems that since none of my newly created decks are showing, that the game (in whatever version it happens to be in right now) is saving new decks elsewhere... And they aren't hidden or anything silly like that, as I've been viewing HIDDEN FILES/FOLDERS while I've been trying to troubleshoot this... So odd, just doesn't make sense...

Hasn't anyone written about this or heard of such a thing; through all this development?

SECOND UPDATE: Again, Out of curiosity, I loaded a "STOCK" deck, dumped in 5 Back Lotuses (yes I know a deck would never have 5), saved the deck (same name of course) and then went in the /PLAYDECK directory and opened that deck with notepad to see if the changes saved, and they DID NOT SAVE, yet the game saved the deck in that condition so.... This clearly tells me the game is saving NEW and MODIFIED decks SOMEWHERE ELSE... Where would that be? Surely all the developers would know this...

Please answer quickly so I can solve this MYSTERY and I bet half the community isnt even aware of this...

[a1z2s3x4]

If you can't find the decks on your hard drive, then this won't help. Like Salbei said, search your "C" drive for "*.dck" (not .dec). They should appear somewhere on your computer, hopefully in the \playdeck\ folder. They can show up in the \playdeck\ folder in WIndows Explorer, but NOT appear in the game, if there are some common text errors in the ".dck" file.

Assuming you've found your decks on your hard drive, open one of them in a text editor like Notepad. The filename for the deck must match EXACTLY the text listed in the first line of the deck file (minus the .dck extension. FOr example, if you have a deck that has a filename of "cheese.dck", the first line of the deck file when viewed by a text editor MUST be ";cheese" (note that the .dck extension is NOT there and SHOULDN'T be there). If the names don't match, change it to match the filename (minus the ".dck" or change the filename to match what is there. THey have to match.

A common problem that causes this is when you rename a deck file in WIndows explorer, but forget to change the name inside the .dck file.

Hope this helps,
Chris

[korynael]

I will repeat my findings:

Newly created decks and modified decks (STOCK or my own creations) are not appearing in the PLAYDECK FOLDER... They appear and play fine in the game, with any changes made intact, but again, I repeat, they do NOT appear in the PLAYDECK FOLDER...

This finding clearly shows that the decks (NEWLY CREATED OR MODIFIED) are saving ELSEWHERE...

Can anyone please help?

[CirothUngol]

Hmmm... most interesting.
First of all, did you say you've loaded the original Microprose MtG, Spells of the Ancients and Duels of the Planeswalkers on Windows 7 64bit? All three? If not, which ones? ...and after that did you apply both the Manalink 1.3.2 and 2.01 Update? (only 2.01 is necessary, but loading 1.3.2 first shouldn't harm anything) I don't use Win7 (or Vista), but I was under the impression that the old original MtG games wouldn't load/work on Win7, hence the need for the CCGHQ Custom ISO.

If the Playdecks aren't in ".\Magic\Program\Playdeck" (the original install directory), but it's obviously saving them somewhere, then try making a new deck with an original name and run a file search on your entire system. If you've installed the original discs on Win7, there's a chance that the OS decided to place some of the files elsewhere... Windoze is like that.

In the 15+ years I've been playing this game, I've never seen or heard of this happening... you're just lucky I guess. ^_^
I've very keen to know how this pans out, so even if you find the solution please share it with us here on the CCGHQ forums.

[Salbei]

This is most likely related to a "wrong" installation.
The ManaLink 2.0 forum supports 2 installation routes - WIKI or SCV.
The patches posted here WILL NOT WORK for other versions unless you install compatibility things that should not be needed in the first place.

If you are using a "random" torrent Version or the CUSTOM ISO please report your issues over there, we don´t know what is in there - its is not our "job" to know.

[a1z2s3x4]

The only other thing I can think of is if you were using magiccustom.exe version (instead of the normal magic.exe) then the decks wouldn't be in the "playdeck" folder. THey would instead be in the \magic\custDeck\ folder. This doesn't make any sense.

So, you have searched your drives for "*.dck" and the new decks don't show up in the search results?

Chris

[stassy]

Sometimes the deck get renamed as nameofmydeck.dck.old if you use the DeckEditor so be careful to the filename

[korynael]

Real Fast Update: Thank you all for assisting but, i ended up removing everything and reinstalling from scratch, and everything is working fine... I took the time to rebuild my decks after re-installation and now decks are saving as they should be and where they should be and all is well... The rest must remain a mystery for now...

On a side not, if anyone was worrying about installing SP1 for Windows 7 64-bit, everything "still" worked fine afterwards (though I did have to re-apply the registery setting) and it should be noted i havent installed anything but the original disks and the basic 2 manalink patches. Thanks again...

[CirothUngol]

So, the original discs can be installed on Win7? Neat.
By "original discs", which ones do you mean exactly, and in what order? Which 2 Manalink patches (1.3.2, Mok's original 2.0, 2.01)?

Glad to see it's working again... you still should give the Custom ISO a try.

[jwallstone]

I had this same problem, and did a Windows search for the files. Turns out they are in your user's AppData folder, located here:

C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\Manalink 3.0\Program\PlayDeck

Where {username} is the name of your login account.

[stassy]

I think this happen if you don't installed or played without admin rights