Have you tried playing it in 256 colors?

Yes, both GKCD.BAT & SIERRAW.EXE have the compatibility mode set to run in 256 colors.

Thanks

Can you post a screenshot?

err, I tried using (alt +) Print Screen to get a screen shot but all I get when pasting it is a black box. I will have to ask for help on doing this as well!

Thanks

Managed a screen shot which is attached (colours are poorer in the attached but quality the same)

Thanks

The colour palette is totally messed up.

The graphics are really bad have you tried changing the colour bit or changing the screen resoloution. If none of those ideas work try not putting the colour to 256.

I remembered, that some of the old Sierra games didn't accept the Compatibility Settings directly. Create a batch file inside the GK directory with only the following lines:

SIERRAW
PAUSE

and apply the Compatibility Settings on this batch file and use the batch file to start the game.

(GKCD.BAT should be for the DOS Version - I guess)

Why not just run the DOS version in DOSBox?

Thanks for all your replies. My screenshot is a bit misleading, as I mentioned the colors are much worse in this than reality - its the best screenshot I could get. It's the real poor definition - big blurry pixels - that the problem e.g Grace's face. I have tried running 256 colour in compatibility and main mode and using the windows installer and in DOS, using some old instructions I found, all the same. I read somewhere about using a VGA driver but not sure how to do that.

I repeat, why not just run the DOS version in DOSBox? You can use the VGA drive by selecting it in the RESOURCE.CFG or running the INSTALL. It won't make much difference over the VESA driver, though.

Thanks, but I have tried through DOSBox, set cycles to 6440 as recommended but it looks exactly the same as the Windows version. May be just the way it comes, though I don't remember it being like this when I first played it but it was a long time ago!

Apart from the screwed up palette, it looks fine to me. Remember, these old games were designed with a low resolution of 320x200 pixels on a small screen. That tends to look quite a bit blockier/blurrier on modern 1280x1024 (or higher) LCD screens.

Proper screenshot @ wikipedia