BlackIce,
we'll muddle through. Your English is much better than my German.

I think all of your problems are due to some requirements of VB for certain uses. I assume you are writing this as a VB application? If so, and if you are declaring this in your Form code, the problem is that you can't make it public there since it can't be shared from a Form. If your application source code is just the Form, make it "Private Declare".

Here's how I declare the function and the flags. I use names that are somewhat "friendlier" to non-coders:

<pre><font size=1 face=Courier>
Private Declare Function flcodec Lib "flcodec" _
(ByVal codecFlag As Long, ByVal sourcePath As String, _
ByVal targetPath As String) As Long

' flcodec flags
Private Const FLCODEC_DECODE = &H1
Private Const FLCODEC_ENCODE = &H2
</font></pre>

Note also that I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT use an explicit complete path to flcodec.dll - i just say "flcodec". If it is in the same folder as your application or in your system search path, the application will have no problem finding the file. Specifying the full path is an invitation to breakage.

OK, now that I've said that... here's how I use it. You can paste the following function into your form code and then call the function with the original savegame path and the new path as arguments. If the file is decoded successfully, it returns True. If it fails, it returns False. If flcodec wasn't found, it spits an error message out.


<pre><font size=1 face=Courier>
Private Function EncodeSaveGame(ByVal sourcePath As String, _
ByVal targetPath As String) As Boolean
On Error GoTo CodecError:
Dim MyLastCodecError As Boolean
MyLastCodecError = flcodec(FLCODEC_ENCODE, sourcePath, targetPath)
On Error GoTo 0
If MyLastCodecError = 0 Then
EncodeSaveGame = True
Else
EncodeSaveGame = False
End If
Exit Function
CodecError:
Err.Raise Err.Number, TypeName(Me), _
"Error calling flcodec.dll. Make certain it is available in your path or the current working directory."
End Function
</font></pre>