I run a Windows XP SP2 machine with a GeForce 3 video card and DirectX 9.0c. When I run Rogue Squadron 3D, large portions of the menu screen "go black". The game is still running, and I can "un-blacken" these portions of the screen by moving my mouse around those areas. The mouse cursor unblackens the affected areas of the screen when moved. However, after a minute or so, most of the whole screen blackens up again, until you start moving the mouse again, etc. This only happens in the menu screen of Rogue Squadron 3D, not during actual 3D gameplay.

This problem also afflicts Starfleet Academy. The symptoms are identical to those found in Rogue Squadron. The menu screen also flickers between "blacked out" and non-blacked out. However, in this game, the gameplay is also affected as the 2d elements of the playing screen (like the starship bridge) start blacking out and you can't read the station readouts for tactical, helm etc. This makes the game almost unplayable because it is tedious to keep moving the mouse to these affected areas of the screen to clear them up, only for those same areas to black out again after a minute or so.

I hope this description makes sense--please ask if you need further clarifications on the symptoms. I run many other games like Neverwinter Nights, Wing Commander, etc just fine with none of these problems. I have only encountered them in Starfleet Academy and Rogue Squadron 3D. I also know that it is not a Windows XP compatibility issue. I ran Starfleet Academy on a Windows XP laptop just fine. Please let me know if you have any suggestions to get Starfleet Academy and Rogue Squadron working properly on my desktop computer. Thanks.