Have you tried the same version in your current desktop? (there's a newer one now, 258.96, for all OSes) The 2xx.xx for XP fixes several issues regarding older games.

I'm using 257.21 on my XP machine too.

BTW - what are these "issues" that it fixes? There are a handful of older games I recall having problems that newer nVidia drivers introduce - Grand Theft Auto and Grim Fandango had much graphical corruption (but GF works fine in windowed mode), Quake II engine games crash if the extension limit is off, and MechWarrior 3 has problems when 3D acceleration is enabled. I tried GTA UK just now to see what would happen, but it isn't any better than before.

GTA has been fixed since one of the 19x.xx. Rename their .exes to "Grand Theft Auto.exe" and GTA, London 69 and 61 will work. The issues fixed by new drivers are mainly low fps on DX 5 and 6 games, but they also solve some crashing.

Heretic 2 stopped working for me not sure when (even with the extension limit)
luckily the 1.06 patch creates a backup of the files it replaced and putting those back makes it work.

That's odd, mine still works and I'm using nvidia drivers version 258.96.

Hi guys, hoping people still look at this forum. As per other posts: Wizardry 8 has suddenly stopped working completely. I've played it off & on over many years on this PC, with the same installation, most recently some time this year (2016). After <can't remember> months of not playing, I went back to fire it up again recently, and the game completely failed to load. Like, no black screen, no attempt to change the display, simply about a half-second of the blue spinning circle around the cursor after double-clicking the .exe, and then nothing. Event Viewer doesn't even log an event upon attempting to run the programme, let alone an error to try to unpick. I'm using Windows 7 64 bit with a Geforce GTX 570 GPU. Not sure about sound card (or if I have one apart from onboard sound) but Device Manager shows Nvidia HIgh Definition Audio, Realtek High Definition Audio and NVidia Virtual Audio Device (Wave Extensible) (WDM).

Non-exhaustive list of things I've tried, all of which have the same result:

Running in admin mode

Running directly from the .exe file in the installation path

Uninstalling and re-installing directly from the CDs

Moving the entire Wiz 8 directory to the root C:\ drive (apparently this helped with some Steam installations)

Experimenting with every combination of 3D/sound config in 3DSetup.exe, and compatibility modes in the Wiz8.exe file itself

Turning off antivirus, firewalls, Software Protection service, User Account Control

Running the .exe from the (admin mode) command prompt

Going back to a GPU driver that I know worked last time I played it

A bunch of other fixes suggested on various forums such as disabling XYZ file (renaming to .old) etc

None of these can get even the slightest twinge out of the programme. This is with a fresh install straight off the CDs, to a machine I've played it on for years, with no hardware changes, using exactly the same combination of 3D/sound config and compatibility modes that I've successfully played it on for years. The only thing which got the slightest reaction was ticking some of the settings in compatibility mode: run in 256 colours, run in 640 x 480 screen resolution etc (I never used these when it was working previously). That earned me a black screen as it tried to at least change the display upon launch, sometimes with a change back to the desktop with the reduced resolution settings, before it failed and went back to normal display. What this tells me at the very least is that the PC is registering that you have tried to execute the programme - the first process that must run is changing the display, but beyond whatever the second is, it's not happening.

The only thing I can possibly think of is that there has been a Windows update which is somehow screwing with it - unless something on the CDs has spontaneously corrupted, it's the only reason a completely fresh install suddenly won't work on a machine that has worked previously (and even then, that wouldn't explain why the files already installed on the PC suddenly also failed). But without knowing which update (I can't remember exactly how long ago I played it so it could be any time in the past 4-5 months), I don't want to go peeling back every Windows update until the game works (which may still not fix it).

Any thoughts?

Cheers

Hey, sorry I couldn't help you with your problem, but you need to delete this post and repost it in a new thread. Don't post in six-year-old threads, it's pretty much against the rules and you'll have the moderators after you 😀

Edit: Welcome to the forums!

http://www.howtogeek.com/230773/how-to-play-p … -8-7-and-vista/

Wizardry 8 SafeDisc 2.40.010

http://forum.daemon-tools.cc/gamedb.php?letter=W

BTW, if that's really the issue, you could have found out by checking the event log.

Like, no black screen, no attempt to change the display, simply about a half-second of the blue spinning circle around the cursor after double-clicking the .exe, and then nothing.

I had an similar issue but with other game and on Windows 10, I fixed it by installing the Securom driver

http://windowsreport.com/cd-games-windows-10/

Download Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider tool from here. Download SECDRV.SYS file or copy it from any older version of Wi […]
Show full quote

Download Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider tool from here.
Download SECDRV.SYS file or copy it from any older version of Windows. In older versions of Windows this file can be located in C:\windows\system32\drivers folder.
Move SECDRV.SYS file to C:\windows\system32\drivers folder on your Windows 10 computer.
Right click Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider and choose Run as administrator.
Choose Enable Test Mode and click Next.
Select Sign a System File, navigate to C:\windows\system32\drivers and select SECDRV.SYS file.
Click OK and restart your computer.
When your computer restarts, start Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider again and turn on Test Mode. After you’ve done that, you should be able to run old games once again on Windows 10.

nvidia drivers 369.00
windows 10
wiz 8 works fine (im using a nocd)