Warcraft II remastered ACCESS_VIOLATION crash with AI player

Warcraft I & II General Discussion
1

When we try to play a Warcraft 2 game with two human players against two computer players, the game always crashes before we have a chance to play with an access violation:

<Exception.Summary:>
ACCESS_VIOLATION (Failed to read address 0x74696E55 at instruction 0x00D586BD) DBG-OPTIONS<FunctionsOnly SingleLine> DBG-ADDR<00D586BD>("Warcraft II.exe") <- DBG-ADDR<00D5908B>("Warcraft II.exe") <- DBG-ADDR<00D5922C>("Warcraft II.exe")  DBG-OPTIONS<>
<:Exception.Summary>

It always happens to the person not hosting (so to the guest). Both of us have Windows 10.

Version: 1.0.1.2242. (I didn’t see any references to this in recent patch notes of newer versions).

The line Failed to read address 0x74696E55 at instruction 0x00D586BD is always the same, so it doesn’t seem to be random heap corruption.

I have memory dumps available for Blizzard staff, if required.

It’s described elsewhere in the forum too, but there was no useful answer or solution. I can’t link because I’m not allowed to.

2

The crash is likely due to compatibility issues with Windows 10 or a networking-related bug in version 1.0.1.2242. Try these fixes:

  1. Run in Compatibility Mode – Set [Warcraft II.exe] to Windows XP (SP3) compatibility mode.
  2. Run as Administrator – Ensure both players run the game as admin.
  3. Use DirectPlay – Enable DirectPlay via Control Panel > Programs > Turn Windows features on or off.
  4. Check Firewall/Antivirus – Allow Warcraft II through both.
  5. Try a Different Version – Consider upgrading to a newer, patched version.

If the issue persists, a memory dump analysis might be needed.

3

We can give that a try, but I doubt that’s the problem. If a program is killed because it’s trying to access memory outside of its virtual address space, seems like a bug to me, despite the environment it runs in.

I have memory dumps available, but I can’t upload files or place links. Is there another way?

Edit: I hadn’t yet had a chance to test the new version until now. Version 1.0.2.2429 fixes it :+1: