Problem converting VS C# 2005 to 2008

Question

I have some projects from XNA 1.0 that I wanted to debug but when I try to convert them to VS 2008 the conversion errors out and only converts the .csproj and .sln file, all other project and resource files remain unconverted with no explanation as to why. Then I went back and tried to convert just regular C# 2005 projects and get the same error. Why is this happening?

Also, none of my previous games running XNA 1.0 are working on my computer even though I have the latest .NET framework, DirectX 9.0c, and XNA refresh redistributable. Anyone know of any problems running old XNA games with 3.1 installed?

Edit: Here is one of the projects I am trying to convert http://adamsepanski.com/personal/gamedev/goodefender/GooDefenderSource.zip . Also, if someone wants to download the game and let me know if they are having problems playing it I would be obliged, it was working before XNA 3.1 came out but I also reformatted my computer since then and not sure if that is what broke it on my comp or the latest version of XNA. Link to game is here: http://adamsepanski.com/personal/gamedev/goodefender/GooDefender.exe .My Goal was to reopen the project in VS 2008 and add debugging info to a logging file so I could see where the error was.

Edit2: Ok sounds like I'll wait till 4.0 comes out. A good lesson to always use error logging....

Answer 1

There were a number of breaking changes implemented in XNA GSE 4.0. See here for details.

A good article about converting xna 1.0 projects to 2.0 is here (some of the details work for converting to 4.0 - I had to make some modifications to the older release of BulletX and its demos before I realized that there's a new version out for 4.0).

Answer 2

To play an XNA 1.0 game you will need the XNA 1.0 runtime (the 3.1 runtime won't do it). All the runtimes can be installed side-by-side (as can Visual Studio and XNA Game Studio, if you want to not bother with the conversion at all).

I don't think you can convert a project directly from 1.0 to 3.1 - but I am not sure because I have never tried.

If this happened to me, I would simply create a new 3.1 project and bring all my source and content files in. In any case you will probably need to make modifications to your source files - there were quite a few changes in XNA 2.0.

Also, if you can hold off a little bit longer, or use the CTP, XNA 4.0 is coming soon with many more breaking changes.