That sounds much like a local problem with your C64 unfortunately. Can you give me a little bit of information? Can you see the disk contents with LOAD"$",8 and LIST afterwards? What C64 are you using? Did you modify it? Do you use a Fastloader and if so have you tried to disable it? Which hardware are you using to load the disk image (eg. 1541 Ultimate, SD2IEC and so on)? Rabenstein has been loaded on hundreds of C64 machines without issues. I could imagine a broken disk. But if it is not working on both your disk AND the disk image, it is highly likely this is your local configuration somehow.
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I can see the directory and it begins to load. After running the programm, its continus to load and after some time, my disc drive gives an error (indicated by a blinking led).
I probably got an C64 II in a breadbox case. It's hard to figure out which revision exactly. My disk drive is an OC-118N clone produced by Westfalia Technika and for the disk image I use a SD2IEC.
Everything is unmodified. I tried both, the floppy and the image, without a fast loader and with the final cartridge III.
I am really confused by this. The disk could be a faulty disk, which actually has to be cleared with my publisher, and they will replace it. On the other hand I am not sure if the game ever has been tested on that particular OC-118N clone. The original Oceanic is very compatible, almost 100 percent they say. You don't have the option to try with a 1541 or 1541-II?
Regarding the disk image that's the most confusing part. The game has been loaded thousands of times on C64 machines from an SD2IEC without any issues at all. I load it from an SD2IEC myself, at least on the Plus/4. Did you download the disk image from here? Or are you using the one that came on the SD card supplied with the game? Still this must have something to do with your hardware. I don't have any other explanation as the game runs perfectly on pretty much any C64. Is the SD2IEC from "The Future was 8-bit" or is it a different manufacturer?
One more thing to add... did you load that particular disk image in an emulator to verify it works?
Yes, it works fine on an emulator.
I somehow think, that my C64 is something of an oddball. It seems to be manufactured, when they threw together parts from different revisions to meet the demand.
I was gifted it on christmas '87 and it has the dark grey-brownish case of the old C64 with the light-grey keys of the C64 II. IIRC, my parents bought it from Data Becker.
The SD2IEC seems to be from ncsystems.eu.