I managed to start the game on windows 2000 but it crashed after a few seconds (in the space ship coming close scene)

Google tells me there are programs developed specifically for your situation. :) For example http://www.vb-decompiler.org/

The free download of that one decompiled your program fine, albeit only to ASM in the free version so I can't say how pretty the VB code will look.

How did it come to be that you didn't have any copies of your own code, and a friend was responsible for preserving it?

Too late now but for next time, get yourself a Dropbox (etc) account

DropBox? You can get free SVN/Git/Hg hosting!

Also, WTF is the OP on about?

But who is Casper, and what's his mom got to do with it?

Casper is a where, not a who. As for where it is, it's a small town in Wyoming. Apparently the OP's friend got out (and is now in Portland, Oregan), but the OP is still stuck there.

He's right about one thing: Casper does suck. ;) The wind blows there almost non-stop, and it's down in the part of Wyoming that... well, let's just say you don't really want to live in any part of Wyoming south of about Thermopolis, unless you like to have the wind blow snow up your ass-crack 9 months out of the year.

I think it was a mistake making marijuana legal in Colorado.

Whats wrong with that ?, maybe that they have to pay taxes now on the marijuana ?

Anyways it not wrong to start programming all over again, with the experience and knowledge you have now.

You not keeping backups is your friends fault?

Okay..

Hi!

I have a request regarding the loss of my code. My code used to be lost by who i USED to refer to as an "unnamed idiot" in my posts, but I'm telling the truth, and robbing him of any online recognition.

His name is Bill Eckerson and to be honest I hope he reads this. I completely blame him for the loss of my code! He probably won't get around to read this, because he is on a run from his Casper life, and I at least don't blame him for that. But to be honest, I hope he does read this. Casper sucks, and due to an accident (that was entirely my fault) I am stuck here for a little bit longer. My friendship with Bill during the time I was located in this wanna-be cowboy municipality is just another dis-satisfactory element of my memory of this suburb.

If you want to know, he kept the entire collection of my games. Why am I complaining, you wonder? Because like an idiot, he only kept the executables that won't even run in Windows anymore! He threw away the code, and he can't even live up to what he's done! Like a sissy-pants, he blames my mom!

No.

The loss of YOUR code is YOUR problem. Man up and take some responsibility.

Ordinarily I'd feel bad for you that you lost your code. It's happened to us all and it's the great learning experience that teaches you to always have backups and preferably offsite. These days, that is trivially easy with github or dropbox.

But your attitude is just awful.

Moral of the story: make regular backups.

I once changed my answer to the above in an interview when the question was "what is the thing you have learnt most during software development?"

Moral of the story: make regular backups.

Or don't, and pay 1000 bucks for data rescue cause your HDD had a physical defect like a week before finishing your graduation paper & game project that took you 6 months to get this far. Thought I'd throw this stupid story of mine in the ring, just to show what can happen in one of the probably worst cases if you don't take backups. Not that losing a personal hobby-project isn't tragic, but if you were to fail your studies or lose your job due to something like this... just do backups, lots of them!