Monday, July 2, 2018
MLB 2K12 Freezing Heres the Workaround Updated with Batch File
MLB 2K12 Freezing Heres the Workaround Updated with Batch File
Read on if youre stuck on MLB 2K12s title screen.
* This post has been updated. Click here to skip to the new stuff. *
* Update #2: Click here to check out another workaround. *
2K Sports makes me a little sad.
This is likely the end of the line for the MLB 2K series since Take-Twos agreement with MLBPA expires this year. Post-release support for MLB 2K12 has been pretty awful, with the PC version left completely untouched and consoles last seeing a patch in June. This years title isnt terrible, but the game isnt without its bugs and shortcomings.
One such bug that first cropped up during the actual All-Star Break in July seems to have returned. After opening MLB 2K12 and watching the game load all of the sliders, profiles, and roster files, the game freezes. This likely has to do with the "MLB Today" feature and the fact that there werent any games on the real-life MLB schedule on July 9, 11-12, and October 4-5.
Thankfully, theres a relatively easy workaround that involves changing your system date. In Windows 7, right-click the system clock on the taskbar and select "Adjust date/time". Click "Change date and time..." and change the date to a day on which MLB games were played - Tuesday October 2nd works.
After changing the system date you should be able to play MLB 2K12 normally.
Unfortunately, theres a very real possibility that you may need to keep adjusting your system date until 2K releases a permanent fix. Hopefully they address the issue before too long, because this is pretty ridiculous.
UPDATE: Automatic Date Adjustment and Game Launching via Batch File
Its pretty annoying to need to manually update your system date every time you start MLB 2K12, so after slumming it for a couple of days I began to search for a better method. Thanks to Google and a crash course in batch file creation, I figured out how to automate the entire process.
Note: A user suggested an alternative batch script in the comments below, and Ive tweaked the code and incorporated it into my own batch file. To view the original batch file and step-by-step creation guide, click on the button below.
Note: Im using Windows 7. This method works perfectly on my PC, but theres no guarantee itll work on yours without some tinkering.
First, open up Notepad - you can use the Start menu to open the program, or you can create a text file by right-clicking on your desktop and choosing "New > Text Document." Next, paste the following into the blank Notepad window:
@echo off
:: Save month, day, and year from current date in MM/DD/YYYY format
For /F "tokens=2,3,4 delims=/ " %%A in (Date /t) do @(
Set Month=%%A
Set Day=%%B
Set Year=%%C
)
:: Set tomorrows date to todays date plus one
set /A Tomorrow=%Day%+1
:: Save pre-run hour from time variable
set hh1=%time:~-11,2%
set /a hh1=%hh1%+100
set hh1=%hh1:~1%
:: Display current date and time
echo Current date is: %date% %time%
:: Set date to October 2nd
date 10/02/2012
echo Date changed to October 2nd.
:: Start MLB2K12 and wait for exit
cd /d "E:2K SportsMajor League Baseball 2K12"
echo Starting MLB 2K12...
Start /WAIT mlb2k12.exe
pause
:: Save post-run hour
set hh2=%time:~-11,2%
set /a hh2=%hh2%+100
set hh2=%hh2:~1%
:: If hh2 is less than hh1 increment day, else keep same
echo Syncing date...
if /i %hh2% LSS %hh1% (
date %Month%/%Tomorrow%/%Year%
) else (
date %Month%/%Day%/%Year%
)
echo Current date is:
date /t
pause
exit
Im in the US, so Windows is configured to display dates in MM/DD/YYYY format. You may need to change the lines in purple above if things arent working for your localized version of Windows - more on that in a bit.
The value in quotes (red) needs to be changed to your MLB 2K12 installation directory. Mine is "E:2K SportsMajor League Baseball 2K12" while yours is probably "C:Program Files (x86)2K SportsMajor League Baseball 2K12" or "C:Program Files (x86)Steamsteamappscommonmlb 2k12". If youre unsure of where your game is installed, right-click the shortcut you use to open the game and look at the "shortcut" tab; you should be able to find the installation path next to the "Start in:" label. Make sure to enclose the path in quotes.
Heres the important part: youll need to save this file as a batch (.bat) file. First, click on "File > Save As." Next, change the "Save as type:" option from "Text Documents (*.txt)" to "All Files." Name the file whatever you like, but make sure to add ".bat" to the end of the filename so that it reads "whatever.bat". It should look like the following:
 |
| You absolutely need to save the file as a .bat. Thats pretty much the whole point of this exercise. |
You should be left with a file that has an icon with a white box and a couple of gears inside.
To execute the script and run the game, simply double-click the file.
This batch script does a number of things. First, the current time and date are stored. The system date is then changed to October 2nd (which I find safer than October 3rd in case midnight rolls around while youre playing). After changing the date, the script runs mlb2k12.exe, which is the executable file that launches MLB 2K12.
After you exit the game, the script compares the current time (after playing) to the previously recorded time (before playing) and sets the system back to the correct date. Lets say that today is the 22nd. If you started playing at 10pm and finished at 11pm, its still the 22nd, so nothing exciting happens. However, if instead you started at 11:30pm (23:30) on the 22nd and finished at 12:30am (00:30) on the 23rd, the original date needs to be adjusted. The "hours" value of the ending time (00) is less than the "hours" value of the starting time (23), meaning midnight has passed (or youve gone back in time) and we need to increment the originally stored date by one.
tl;dr - double-click the file and magic happens. Hit the spacebar a few times once youre done playing MLB2K12 and your system date should be back to normal.
Date and Time Formatting Issues
Again, the main thing you need to double check when using this script is the date format of your copy of Windows. Open up a command prompt and test out the following command (without quotes):
- "date /t" - My system returns something along the lines of "Tue 10/23/2012"
Lets say your system uses a European date format of DD/MM/YYYY; in other words, October 23rd 2012 is 23/10/2012. Youd want to change lines 2-7 above to the following:
:: Save month, day, and year from current date in MM/DD/YYYY format
For /F "tokens=2,3,4 delims=/ " %%A in (Date /t) do @(
Set Day=%%A
Set Month=%%B
Set Year=%%C
)
Here "Day" comes before "Month" in the default formatting, so you need to flip-flop those two lines. In addition, youd need to change line 17 ("date 10/02/2012") to "date 02/10/2012". Youd also need to change the formatting of the "if/else" statement near the end of the file: "%Month%/%Tomorrow%/%Year%" becomes "%Tomorrow%/%Month%/%Year%" and "%Month%/%Day%/%Year%" becomes "%Day%/%Month%/%Year%" (6 and 8 lines from the end).
If for some reason your copy of Windows is configured to show dates without a slash "/" character, youll need to change another value. In the third line of code, "delims=/" corresponds to the date delimiter (the slashes in MM/DD/YYYY). If your system displays dates as MM.DD.YYYY for example, try changing "delims=/" to "delims=.". Youd also need to change the date formatting throughout the rest of the script.
All of this was cobbled together via Google searches and I dont claim to be anything close to a batch file or Windows localization expert. With that being said, the script works perfectly on my US Windows 7 install and should work in other locales with minimal tweaking.
UPDATE #2: An Alternative Workaround
Kccitystar, a prominent modder over at MVPMods.com, has come up with a potentially permanent fix. He posted the details over at the 2K Sports forums.
I havent tried the fix yet myself, but it basically involves rolling your system date back, connecting to 2K Share to download a roster, and resetting your system date. Everything should update on its own from there on out, with the daily match-up featuring last years World Series teams (Cardinals and Rangers).
The things we do to be able to play baseball on the PC...
