I've never played this game before.. I just installed it for the first time, and could not log in with steam...so tried making a new account here and logging in with that instead. Each time i get the message "You cannot create any more free accounts from this computer." although no free account was ever created prior to these events
And just so everyone knows...
I DO have the newest version of Java
and have the newest video card drivers
and have windows firewall disabled...
and have the necessary ports forwarded..
and even though i doubt it is related, here are my comps specs:
AMD Athlon 64 FX-57 2.8 ghz
2.00 GB of Ram
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GTX w/256mb of mem
Windows XP sp3
edit: Same problem occurs whether I use the downloaded steam copy, or launch from the web browser.
Somehow the system got ID'd as having existing accounts (might had happened when the Steam login had issues). The only way to clear that is to contact support at https://www.spiralknights.com/support/#mail or email support@spiralknights.com and let explain whats happening. They should be able to see the account associations and clear them out if needed.
As for the issues with Steam, if you have a WRT54 series Linksys router, theres a known issue that prevents people from logging in. You can check the link for instructions on how to remedy that. http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Performance_issues_FAQ#WRT54G_Series_Route...
The game doesn't require ports to be forwarded, just that the firewall allow outbound traffic for either the javaw.exe process, or the ports be allowed on an external firewall (very rare unless your hanging off a large network like a dorm or apartment provided internet connection).
If you still have problems with Steam after that, describe the error in detail (or get a screen shot), and locate the launcher.log and projectx.log in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\spiral knights\
From there we can try to figure out whats wrong.