Crash on startup

[sushi_cw]

In the beginning...
After first downloading the game, I was able to start it up and play without problems. After a very lengthy initial session (fun game + vacation meant I blew most of the afternoon getting to St. Katherine's Star and then blowing up), I exited the game normally.

The problem
Since then, every time I try to start the game, I get a crash with a Windows error dialog that says
"Transcendence has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience."
It's the Windows dialog that optionally allows you to send an error report to Microsoft. Sometimes (but not always) the game also starts up (under the dialog, which stays in the front of the screen) but without sound.

Windows error report details
Since it will do Microsoft no good to send it to them, I'll post as many of the error report details as I can here:
------------
"AppName: transcendence.exe AppVer: 1.1.400.0 ModName: mpeg4system.dll
ModVer: 1.0.3.0 Offset: 0005a4f0"
------------
File "included with the error report": http://paste.neurohack.com/view/Y4BDD/
------------
There was also a core dump that to my great annoyance Windows wouldn't let me copy to the clipboard.

Game debug.log (with /debug /debugvideo)
06/05/2013 19:00:21 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
06/05/2013 19:00:21 Start logging session
06/05/2013 19:00:21 Transcendence 1.1
06/05/2013 19:00:21 Small typeface: Tahoma
06/05/2013 19:00:21 Medium typeface: Arial
06/05/2013 19:00:21 Large typeface: Convection
06/05/2013 19:00:21 Console typeface: Lucida Console

Things I've tried without any success:
Reinstalling
Logging in and out of the Windows user account
Using all of the command line flags listed in the wiki
Willing the software into submission

EDIT: What does work, sort of...
If I reboot the system, the first time I run Transcendence it works fine. As soon as I exit and try to play again, however, the error comes back. So I guess I have an awkward workaround of rebooting every time I want to play.

My system:
Windows XP
Geforce 8400M GS (Driver version: 258.96)

Next?
Let me know if there are any other details that would be helpful or things that I could try. It's downright cruel of the game to only work long enough for me to get a taste for it.

[digdug]

mpeg4system.dll is part of some sort of MPEG-4 SDK package. Maybe did you install FFmpeg ?
In any case, I don't see why a MPEG-4 SDK should give such troubles with Transcendence.

I don't know if it's asking too much, but, you might try to remove the package that installed that dll and try again Transcendence ?

[TVR]

That would be the case, unless that MPEG SDK also overwrote some DLLs used by Transcendence.exe to play .MP3s, thereby causing the classic state of DLL Hell.

For what it's worth, try Transcendence 1.2 Alpha 1. George may have compiled with a newer and more compatible version of the MPEG libraries.

[sushi_cw]

mpeg4system.dll is part of some sort of MPEG-4 SDK package. Maybe did you install FFmpeg ?
In any case, I don't see why a MPEG-4 SDK should give such troubles with Transcendence.

I don't know if it's asking too much, but, you might try to remove the package that installed that dll and try again Transcendence ?

I couldn't figure out what installed the DLL, but renaming it to "mpeg4system.dll.bak" does seem to solve the problem. No idea what else I've maybe broken in the process, but in any case this is an easier workaround than rebooting the whole computer.

[george moromisato]

Very interesting. It is probably a problem with the MP3 player. Transcendence uses the Windows Media decoder to play MP3s. It is likely that this is having problems.

Sounds like you solved the problem; I think Transcendence can deal with this by trying to catch the error.

Thanks for posting about it.