I launched Unreal Gold for the first time since reinstalling it (I did uninstall it because I needed some disc space), and now it does not find its save games. They are still there in the "Save" directory.
Does anybody have a clue what could be the problem?
I am running Windows 7 64 bit, but I install my games to a seperate partition and not to c:\program files, so UAC and Windows folder protection stuff should not be the problem.

If it helps, I think the Unreal Gold install that created the save games came from an v1 GOG installer, but I moved everything that the uninstaller left from the GOG.com folder to the GOG Games folder where the game is installed now.

Let me see if I understand.
1. you reinstalled Unreal Gold.
2. you have this directory: UnrealGold/Save
3. you had your old saves backed up with names like: Save0.usa, Save1.usa, etc. and you copied them into that folder
4. you run Unreal Gold and try to manually load a save from the menu, but they're not appearing.

Is that right?

Yes, that's how it is.

Here's what I would try next. Move the save files to another folder. Associate the .usa files with the Unreal.exe file. Then when you click on the save file, it will run Unreal and load the save. You can then save your game again (which will create a new save in the default save directory).

If that doesn't work, the saves may be incompatible with the version you're running.

If all else fails, you can open the console and use the command: open X
where X is the map name. Here are the map names:

Vortex2
Nyleve
Dig
Dug
Passage
Chizra
Ceremony
Dark
Harobed
Terralift
Terrainiux
Noork
Ruins
Trench
Isvkran4
Isvkran32
Isvdeck1
SpireVillage
TheSunspire
Skycaves
Skytown
Skybase
VeloraEnd
Bluff
DASAPass
DASACellars
Naliboat
Nalic
Nalilord
DCrater
ExtremeBeg
ExtremeLab
ExtremeCore
Extremegen
Extremedgen
ExtremeDark
ExtremeEnd
QueenEnd
EndGame

Multiplayer Deathmatch Maps:
DmAriza
DmCurse
DmDeathFan
DmDeck16
DmElSinore
DmFith
DmHealPod
DmMorbias
DmRadikus
DmTundra
DkNightOp


To get your weapons back, you can use these console commands:
Gives Amplifier summon amplifier
Gives Anti-grav Boots summon jumpboot
Gives Armor summon armor
Gives Bio Rifle summon gesbiorifle
Gives Flak Cannon summon flakcannon
Gives Flashlight summon flashlight
Gives Health Keg summon superhealth
Gives Health Pack summon health
Gives Minigun summon minigun
Gives Pistol summon dispersionpistol
Gives Razorjack summon razorjack
Gives Rocket Launcher summon eightball
Gives Scuba Gear summon scubagear
Gives Shield summon shieldbelt
Gives Shock Rifle summon asmd
Gives Sniper Rifle summon rifle

Thank you I will try that an post back if it worked, It would be strange if the problem was some version mismatch, I only played that saves on GOG Unreal Gold on Windows.

Yeah ok, opening the saves directly with the Unreal.exe worked, thanks for the idea.
Now I only have to deal with some other stuff like pretty terrible sound quality, but I think I'll manage that.

For the sound problems, there are a couple options to try:

open unreal.ini.
Find [Galaxy.GalaxyAudioSubsystem]
change "UseFilter" to False

Or

During flyby opening sequence, open console with ~ and type: preferences

Then you can tweak various options there.

You can also install the oldunreal community patch 227i
http://oldunreal.com/oldunrealpatches.html

Old saves are incompatible with that patch.

There's also a directx10 patch for Unreal which may help if you're not using Windows XP.
http://www.kentie.net/article/d3d10drv/

That version does NOT work with the community patch.

Thank you, but I fixed it right away after posting here by installing the community patch. It just did not seem important enough for me to post about here. Thanks again for your help.

I had exactly the same trouble after uninstalling / reinstalling the game.

The save game .usa files were all in the Unreal Gold/Saves folder, definately all in the right place.

Yet the menu list of save games was empty. However when I pressed F7 to load the last known quicksave - it worked! The quicksave files are still detected by the game..... just don't accidentally quicksave over the old one you''ll want restored by accident first!

Hey, I know it's been a WHILE since you made this comment, but hey if you see this, I just wanna say *THANK YOU* for it. It's saved me a BUTTLOAD of trouble in trying to get my saves actually recognized. And I didn't know that about the Unreal.ini and User.ini files, either, so thanks for adding that little bit.

Cheers!

Adding my discoveries today. All of these observatiosn are of the version of the game shipped by GOG as of the date of this post - no community patches or mods applied.

The default Unreal installation stores saves themselves in the (game install dir)\Saves directory, as we know.
However, the strings of text you see in the UI's Load and Save game menus are actually just text written as a part of your user profile - like any other config. The text showing for a particular slot is updated when a save is created in the game - not when files are updated.

You can see and manipulate the strings shown in the save UI by opening (game install dir)\System\User.ini. You're looking for the "UMenu.UMenuSlotClientWindow" section, attributes SaveGame[0] thru SaveGame[12].

This means that if you were to remove all of the actual save games out of the Saves directory, the UI still appears to know about your old saves. However, if you tell the game to actually load one, it will fail - because the file doesn't actually exist.

Likewise, if you were to dump backed-up save games into the Saves directory of a fresh game install, the UI will still show the string "..Empty.." in the load game UI - because the save game process is what updates those fields, not the files themselves. If you double click one of the "empty" saves in the UI (or press quickload, as in the case of a quicksave), the saves will load.

bruh..