How to troubleshoot dedicated server startup error 'Lead and Gold Gangs of the Wild'

[CaptainSlow]

I know this is completely off-topic, but since this forum has a lot of developers that are great at reverse engineering old game engines, I'm giving this a shot :)

I'm trying to setup a dedicated game server for an old game called 'Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West'. The dedicated game server files were hard to find, as the links to the original files are all dead, but in the end I managed to find them here (https://rzumer.tebako.net/lag.7z). However, when trying to start the server using the included .bat file (or direct from the command prompt using the same variables), it instantly crashes with the following error:



Crash in application: C++ exception
[string "data\lib\managers\ServerManager.lua"]:851: attempt to concatenate local 'name' (a boolean value)



SCRIPT STACK



-------------------------------

Callstack:

application.cpp (2358) Application::exec_program
application.cpp (2472) Application::run
main.cpp (808) app_run
main.cpp (1193) app_entry_filtered
main.cpp (851) app_entry
main.cpp (609) WinMain
crt0.c (263) __tmainCRTStartup
KERNEL32 (???) BaseThreadInitThunk
ntdll (???) RtlGetAppContainerNamedObjectPath
ntdll (???) RtlGetAppContainerNamedObjectPath


-------------------------------

Current thread: Main


I've already installed PhysX and vcredist_x86 from the Install folder, as well as DirectX. I also tried compatibility mode, but that didn't solve it either. I even tried spinning up a 32-bit Windows 10 VM to check if it was due to my 64-bit OS, but sadly the issue remains the same... I cannot imagine that the binaries itself are broken as everyone would have had this issue setting up their gameserver back then. However, I have no idea how to approach this issue...

All help is appreciated :)

Thank you!

[kung foo man]

I would just try to understand/fix that LUA error

[CaptainSlow]

I would just try to understand/fix that LUA error

I'm not sure how to approach this. I do not have the source code, I only have the compiled binaries. I tried decompiling them using IDA and then searching for the mentioned LUA file, but I didn't succeed. I've never used IDA before and watched some YouTube tutorials but I didn't get very far...

I also tried minimizing the config file, as I thought perhaps some special characters or strings that were too long caused the issue, but even with a barebone/skeleton config, the error popsup...

How would you approach this?

Thanks!

[kung foo man]

Your link is dead, maybe you can upload the files? Either the .lua files are in the binary, or simply missing (and that might be the reason for the crash itself)

[CaptainSlow]

Your link is dead, maybe you can upload the files? Either the .lua files are in the binary, or simply missing (and that might be the reason for the crash itself)

Apologies for the delayed reply.

I managed to track down the uploader of the files and contacted him regarding this issue. He replied by stating the default/included server_config.xml contained several errors. He has now reuploaded the files with a working server_config.xml: https://rzumer.tebako.net/lag.zip

The server now starts on my desktop, but ideally I would like to run it on my server, where it refuses to start. I did some experimenting and also spun op a Virtual Machine, but it looks like it requires a dedicated graphics card in order to start. I.e. onboard graphics are not sufficient and the server will be stuck on this screen:
https://i.imgur.com/MAlXZvO.png

At least I got one step closer, but now I have to troubleshoot this issue. Let’s see if ProcMon can give me some insight of what’s happening behind the scenes.