RPG Maker 2003 backwards compatibility

[zuhane]

Hey chaps!

Been a while since I posted here. Hope everyone's doing well in this quarantine. I know I'm not. I've decided to pick up where I left off on one of my old crappy games.
I picked up RPG Maker 2003 on Steam, but it won't open up my project properly. Does anyone know if there's a way to convert to a later version, or is my progress lost forever?

I only ask because I have one last crappy game that needs finishing before I wrap up with RPG Maker forever. Been working on it for 5+ years, then stopped for 3 years. I'd like to wrap
it up and send it out to the world.

Anyway, help would be appreciated! Cheers

[Fisherson]

Your progress is lost forever. This is exactly how I lost the Misadventures of Jet and David. You can possibly recover it using the pirated "Tsukuru". I never tried a it's not updated anymore I don't think and well it was always a buggy mess back in them days so that's one reason I wept for weeks straight and just started over. See what it does it is the Steam re-names all our stock assets by just one letter or number and then tries to copy them over your current RTP ones. If you use even one Bolt - 01 from Tsukuru it will now break as the program will look for Bolt -001 and the system will say "File Missing" AS you run it in that one fatal flaw leftover from the pirated model: no in-game debug. One reason I switched to MV for serious project: I can run a debug mode FROM THE EDITOR XD Should be that way on all modern makers.

[Prpl_Mage]

Shouldn't the maker give you the option to update the project to the new version?

[A Forgotten Legend]

I was able to transfer mine fine.  Maybe take the .exe from a blank new project?

[Fisherson]

Shouldn't the maker give you the option to update the project to the new version?

It does but if you don't say yes it won't run old files in the editor menu if I remember right

[zuhane]

Thanks for recommending swapping out the .exe! It seems to work now! I think they must have updated the Steam version to allow for backwards compatibility or something. There's still the odd error or
missing resource that needs fixing, but I reckon I can have the kinks ironed out in a day.

Fisherson, try that and also check out the latest update on Steam. You might still be able to salvage your project seems a shame to let it go to waste!

[Prpl_Mage]

Awesome, I kinda want to see what that game is like.

[Fisherson]

Thanks for recommending swapping out the .exe! It seems to work now! I think they must have updated the Steam version to allow for backwards compatibility or something. There's still the odd error or
missing resource that needs fixing, but I reckon I can have the kinks ironed out in a day.

Fisherson, try that and also check out the latest update on Steam. You might still be able to salvage your project seems a shame to let it go to waste!

Transfer the .exe? That works?? o-o; Huh might have to try it if I still have a version of the old game that works. Thanks!

[Momeka]

Oh man, I'm excited to see what you will do!

[A Forgotten Legend]

Transfer the .exe? That works?? o-o; Huh might have to try it if I still have a version of the old game that works. Thanks!

The rpg_rt one.  That might get you started.  Also, you may want to see if the unofficial rm2k3 you were using was the most up to date.  If not, that could also be a problem.

[Fisherson]

The rpg_rt one.  That might get you started.  Also, you may want to see if the unofficial rm2k3 you were using was the most up to date.  If not, that could also be a problem.

Oh I don't have the old buggy Tsukuru. I got rid of that ...geeze I think with my last desktop or my first laptop when Steam made us pay for it and I realized it'd never get another patch and honestly other than running RM2000 games I couldn't move without breaking it really had no purpose. Did I need the .exe to be from that? If so it's screwed not that I've seen a working copy. Gonna look in my old USBs. I know one had a non-modfied demo version I accidently saved during a mission I was editing and didn't link back to the title loop but I forget if I broke it and ended up deleting it in anguish or just put the drive somewhere and went to cry in corner that something I spent like five or six years on was gone XD

[A Forgotten Legend]

Swap the rpg_rt with a new project from the steam edition.  Once you get the project opened, you can add Dynrpg and other mods.  For the Dynrpg to work you need to get a fresh unofficial rpg_rt and mod it, and then put it in the new folder.

I think that a fresh file is probably somewhere on the internet without having to download the old rm

[zuhane]

It's weird switching back to rm2k3. Feels like a trip down memory lane

Been using Unity and XNA for the last 5-6 years now.

[Prpl_Mage]

It's weird switching back to rm2k3. Feels like a trip down memory lane

Been using Unity and XNA for the last 5-6 years now.

Stop teasing us and post some pictures already

[zuhane]

Ooofty! I will do, Purple