Can't load saves: "Failed to uncompress game data"

[TimPfeiffer]

Has anyone seen this error? I see it every time we try to load a saved game on my son's computer. His CPU is a P3-800, but otherwise plays the game without trouble.

We have the latest 1.52 patch now.

[TimPfeiffer]

No ideas? The save files are fine - they load on other computers we've tried.

Is anyone running Civ4 on a P3? That seems like the only likely suspect, but would be a shame if there is something strictly in loading saves that prevents P3 support.

[Enigma_Nova]

What is this ... P ... 3 ... of which you speak? Is it some form of reverse-engineered playstation 3 that can run all the latest Windows-based games?

[Jonny]

P3 = pentium III

You said that you updated Civ4 to version 1.52. Were the saves that you're trying to load on that computer created before you applied the 1.52 patch? 1.52 may not be compatible with saved games from earlier versions. (I'm not sure on this though, someone will have to back me up... but I suspect that this could be a problem.)

[TimPfeiffer]

No, we have actually tried saves across the updates, and (on other computers) they work for us. But on the Pentium 3, they don't even work within the same patch version. We have retested with each patch, starting up a quick single player game, saving, then trying to load it. It fails with the same error every time, even though another computer (P4) can load the save file created.

Good guess I think, but versioning is unfortunately not our problem.

[Enigma_Nova]

Pentium 3? Good god, you're trying to run Civ 4 on a pentium 3?
Didn't you notice all the animations present in Civ 4? The game was clearly designed with a "U needz teh latets PC 2 play this gaem or else ur n00b and cant play lolz" philosophy, and it saddens me to say that your Pentium 3 is not teh latets PC, and the game thus detects that ur n00b and thus cant play lolz.

[TimPfeiffer]

Yes, the game does detect that this is not the latest PC, with a startup message indicating it is changing many settings - you did notice that most of the animations are optional? It actually runs the game very acceptably except for this error.

Obviously there are performance compromises, but optimizations that require P4 instructions are very rare in commercial software. I even tried replacing zlib1.dll with a version I compiled to ensure it didn't require P4, but the error remains.

But the game is very playable on our P3 - 1 gig of ram and I believe an nVidia 64 MB GeForce4 MX.

It also plays fine on our P4s of course, but the P3 is my son's and he's the one the game is really for. We still have another P3 and P4 to try it on, and will try to get to the P3 today to see if it has the same problem.