Windows 10: Cannot open .alm video files with Windows Media Player

I have just bought a new laptop with pre-installed Windows 11. The default video player is the new Windows Media Player version 11.2210.33.0.My problem is the following: I tried playing a very old game which has some cutscenes recorded in the .alm format. Whenever these videos are supposed to play, the screen goes black and I can hear only the music. This should be a tipical problem of codec missing: if I manage to install the appropriate codec then the videos should play normally. But I really do not know how to do this. The usual procedure is to either add an appropriate plug-in manually o

:)

 

Cannot open .alm video files with Windows Media Player

I have just bought a new laptop with pre-installed Windows 11. The default video player is the new Windows Media Player (version 11.2210.33.0).

My problem is the following: I tried playing a very old game which has some cutscenes recorded in the .alm format. Whenever these videos are supposed to play, the screen goes black and I can hear only the music.

This should be a tipical problem of codec missing: if I manage to install the appropriate codec then the videos should play normally. But I really do not know how to do this. The usual procedure is to either add an appropriate plug-in manually or to try running the video file separately and a message asking to install the missing codec should pop-up.

I tried to open Media Player and look at the setting menu, but I could not find the option of installing new plug-ins or codec packs.

Thus I tried running a .alm file directly with the Media Player: the procedure should be the usual right-click->open with and selecting Media Player from the list of suggested apps. But Media Player is not among the recommended apps, thus my only option is the choice of selecting the app manually and specify its localtion. I could not find the location of the files of Windows Media Player: do you know the path?

In the end I tried running the video files with Windows Media Player Legacy (which is the usual Windows Media Player of Windows 7,8 and 10 from what I understand): this program was included among the suggested apps no problem and when I tried to run the first .alm file I was prompted to the Microsoft Store to install the plug-in "Video extension MPEG-2". After doing that the Legacy Player ran the .alm format flawlessly.

Therefore, I changed the default app to run all possible video and audio extensions recognized by my pc to be the Legacy Player. However, this did not fix the problem: each time I play the game the cutscenes are not rendered just like before. It is as if the default video player is hard coded to be Media Player and until I can make it recognize the .alm format I cannot play the videos.

Do you have any idea how to fix the issue?

 

Cannot open .alm video files with Windows Media Player

Hello Caio G.,

I have tried installing QuickTime 7.7.9 and run one of the video files: it did not recognize the format at all.

I ran the video with VLC media player: it has a function to decode the coded used and here is what it shows:





It seems the file is just a mpgv video, and indeed this extension is covered by the MPEG-2 plug-in I mentioned. But still, installing this plug-in seems to have made the file readable only for the Legacy player and not Windows Media Player. Is there a way to install the plug-in for Media Player?

 

Cannot open .alm video files with Windows Media Player

Hi, Bellumat!

My name is Caio and I'll be happy to help you today =)

This file extension (.alm) seems to be an exclusive format used by the developer in order to ofuscate source code. It actually might be another format of video, but it's encrypted.

In this case, could you please tell me which game is this? Some games uses Apple's QuickTime to run their cutscenes, it might be the case of this one.

Best regards,



Independent Advisor