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Elisha Riedlinger edited this page Oct 13, 2023 · 5 revisions

SimCity Classic

Status

Supported on Windows 10/11

I am using the retail CD version of SimCity Classic.

Patch updated: October 13th, 2023

Problem

The problem I had with SimCity Classic was that it would crash (or close without warning) each time I tried to save or load a game on Windows 10/11. Basically each time it tried to use a comdlg32.dll API it would crash and I would lose all my work.

Initial Solution

I tested the handle exceptions option from DxWnd and it solved the issue, however the Terrain Editor would still crash when saving or loading any file. So I opened up Process Monitor to see which dlls it tried to loaded locally. I found out that CLASSIC.EXE and TERRAIN.EXE both try and load the dwmapi.dll file locally.

The solution was simple:

  • Port the handle exceptions option into DxWrapper.
  • Create a dwmapi.dll wrapper.

Current Solution

This still uses handle exceptions option from DxWnd, however, it now uses the winmm.dll and winspool.drv wrappers. Also, the dxwrapper-CLASSIC.ini file includes memory changes that fixes the code in SimCity to prevent the crash.

Installation

In order to install the Windows 10/11 patch for SimCity Classic you can follow these steps:

  1. Download the fix below.
  2. Unzip the files to your SimCity Classic installation folder (where the CLASSIC.EXE file exists).
  3. Start the game and enjoy!

If you run into issues check the compatibility settings. I am running with the all the compatibility settings disabled.

Compatibility Settings

Download

Here is the Download for the patch to fix SimCity Classic on Windows 10/11.

This download contains 5 files:

  • dxwrapper.dll
  • dxwrapper.ini
  • dxwrapper-CLASSIC.ini
  • winmm.dll
  • winspool.drv
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