tangier_: Attempting to launch Darklords Rising prompts DirectPlay to install which inevitably fails with Error code: 0x80070057. Research of this points to registry errors and other nonsense that from what I can tell can not be fixed outside of completely reinstalling windows10. Does anyone know of any sort of solution or work around that doesn't involve me having to start from square one for a single game?
I'm on a 6-year old Windows 10 Pro box. Here's what I did to get it going. When I first installed the game, I got the same response as you and many others received. I found through some Google searching that this program (DirectPlay) is found in a little window called "Windows Features." But where is that located?
1. Go to Start Menu, click on Settings
2. In the search box at top, type in Turn Windows features on and off
3. You'll get that little window I described above, see my attached image below
4. Scroll down to "Legacy Components"
5. Open that folder, directly underneath will be a folder called "DirectPlay" - this is the program you tried to install when you first installed Warlords III
6. Uncheck the box next to DirectPlay; this will un-install it.
7. Reboot Windows
8. Start up Warlords III once more; again it will advise you to install a necessary component called DirectPlay.
9. Install it
10. Voila: Warlords III immediately started.
I think the difference was that after I rebooted when the prompt to install was automatically set to "Run as administrator" ... that did the trick.
Good luck!
Smecty
