Help! I cannot load a game

[RockerGirl4Eva]

Hello! I'm reletivley new to Minetest, I've been looking into it and everything and yesterday decided to join up with it. But I've been having problems...I've downloaded Minetest several times, I can play the main game, (the mintest (mintest) not the Minimal devolopment test [minimal]) for as long as I don't shut down the whole program. If I shut down the whole program the game is gone when I load it again, and it wont let me start a new Mintest [Mintest] game, it will say something along the lines of 'fail to load and run'. But it WILL let me start and play and run a Minimal Devolopment Test [Minimal] game. I've uninstalled the game over and over but nothing will help!

Someone please help me?

[InfinityProject]

'fail to load and run'

There is probably an issue with a mod you are using in that game. What does it say after failed to load and run?

[RockerGirl4Eva]

After it says 'failed to load and run' it said 'C:\Users\Grace\EppData\Local\Temp\Rar$EXa0.401\minetest-0.4.3-win32\bin\..\minetest' and then a button below that that says 'Proceed' and if I click that it takes me back to the start menu. And the only mods I have are Venessas Home Decor mod and another one for stairs i believe....I've only got to mods.

[Mito551]

it looks like you haven't properly unpacked the game.

could you please describe the process of installing, playing and getting this error as throughly as you can? as detailed as possible

[RockerGirl4Eva]

Okay....

When I went to download the game I went to minetest.net, clicked on Downloads, and then chose the 0.4.3 version of the games. (I have a Dell laptop that runs on Windows 7) I clicked on 'save files' and then opened them using WinRar, I clicked on the Minetest folder, then went to 'bin' clicked on 'minetest.exe' and it extracted the files, then up popped Minetest to the log in/Singleplayer screen. I got on and started clearing land for a huge house, then went and got Venessas 'homedecor' mod, (yes I do believe I installed the mod right, I watched several videos of how to do it, and the mod worked find). I finished the house, then I went back to the Minetest menu, I could go back into my game from the Minetest menu, untill I shut down the whole Minetest. When I went to pull up Minetest again ready to finish the house the game was gone. I tried to start a new game but it said "failed to load and run: C:\Users\Grace\EppData\Local\Temp\Rar$EXa0.401\minetest-0.4.3-win32\bin\..\minetest'' and thats where I'm stuck at.....

[VanessaE]

It sounds like you launched the game the wrong way. No big deal, it's an easy mistake.

What you did was to download the game and try to run it from inside the archive file - this will not work with most programs (including Minetest).

What you must do instead is to download and save the archive file somewhere, then open it with WinRAR and extract it to a folder on your computer, let's say on your desktop. Then close WinRAR, double-click on the folder you extracted it to, then go into bin, then run the .exe file from there.

You can create a shortcut to the .exe if you want to.

You will probably need to re-install your downloaded mods - they probably ended up inside that now missing "Temp" folder.

[RockerGirl4Eva]

"extract it to a folder on your computer, let's say on your desktop"

How exactly do you do that? My dad is a computer tech but he is away from home at the moment so he cannot help me....

[VanessaE]

I can't speak for WinRAR since I actually use Linux, but in all such archiver programs there will be a menu option or a button that says "extract" (either visibly or as a tooltip that pops up when you hover the mouse over it). When clicked, it will ask you where you want the files to be saved.

[RockerGirl4Eva]

Thank you VanessaE! It's fixed and I'm relieved! You're such a help! Thank you thank you thank you! :D off to build a mansion! hehe