Lua script can't find files on new Windows 10 device

Question

I've been trying to set up a co-op emulator experience with some friends (emu-coop and bizhawk-co-op are two different ones that both exhibit the same symptoms). On my old computer, the download and run worked just fine. However, I built a new computer and moved from Windows 7 to Windows 10 (not sure if this is relevant).

Now, when I try to run the scripts that use Lua, I get exceptions saying it can't find my modules:

NLua.Exceptions.LuaScriptException: [string "main"]:35: module 'bizhawk-co-op\sync' not found:
    no field package.preload['bizhawk-co-op\sync']
    no file 'C:\Users\Kevin\Desktop\Randomizer Stuff\Snes 9x COOP\coop-full-1key14-1\coop'
    no file 'C:\Users\Kevin\Desktop\Randomizer Stuff\Snes 9x COOP\coop-full-1key14-1\coop\modes'
    no file 'C:\Users\Kevin\Desktop\Randomizer Stuff\Snes 9x COOP\coop-full-1key14-1\coop\pl'
    no file 'C:\Users\Kevin\Desktop\Randomizer Stuff\Snes 9x COOP\coop-full-1key14-1\coop\socket'
    no file '.\bizhawk-co-op\sync.dll'
    no file 'C:\Users\Kevin\Desktop\BizHawk-2.3\bizhawk-co-op\sync.dll'
    no file 'C:\Users\Kevin\Desktop\BizHawk-2.3\loadall.dll'

The sync.lua files seem to exist, but it seems to specifically be looking for a DLL file instead. I've exhausted internet searches and can't seem to find any similar issues.

Worth noting I'm having the same issue with a standalone Lua installation that I just built:

C:\Users\Kevin\Desktop\Randomizer Stuff\Snes 9x COOP\coop-full-1key14-1>lua coop\coop.lua
lua: coop\coop.lua:1: module 'pl.class' not found:
        no field package.preload['pl.class']
        no file 'C:\Users\Kevin\Desktop\Randomizer Stuff\Snes 9x COOP\coop-full-1key14-1\coop'
        no file 'C:\Users\Kevin\Desktop\Randomizer Stuff\Snes 9x COOP\coop-full-1key14-1\coop\modes'
        no file 'C:\Users\Kevin\Desktop\Randomizer Stuff\Snes 9x COOP\coop-full-1key14-1\coop\pl'
        no file 'C:\Users\Kevin\Desktop\Randomizer Stuff\Snes 9x COOP\coop-full-1key14-1\coop\socket'
        no file 'C:\Users\Kevin\Desktop\lua-5.3.5.tar\lua\bin\pl\class.dll'
        no file 'C:\Users\Kevin\Desktop\lua-5.3.5.tar\lua\bin\..\lib\lua\5.3\pl\class.dll'
        no file 'C:\Users\Kevin\Desktop\lua-5.3.5.tar\lua\bin\loadall.dll'
        no file '.\pl\class.dll'
        no file 'C:\Users\Kevin\Desktop\lua-5.3.5.tar\lua\bin\pl.dll'
        no file 'C:\Users\Kevin\Desktop\lua-5.3.5.tar\lua\bin\..\lib\lua\5.3\pl.dll'
        no file 'C:\Users\Kevin\Desktop\lua-5.3.5.tar\lua\bin\loadall.dll'
        no file '.\pl.dll'
stack traceback:
        [C]: in function 'require'
        coop\coop.lua:1: in main chunk
        [C]: in ?

Answer 1

Apparently this is a really terrible way of showing that your PATH is messed up. In particular, having an environment variable called LUA_PATH seemed to override something it was trying to do. Yikes.