Download "Autoruns" from Microsoft. Uncheck everything in startup.

Test your games. If they work fine they you will need to identify what program in your startup is corrupting your palette.

The fallout games have their own issue with 2000+ with the pallete. Go here: http://timeslip.chorrol.com/sfall.html

Starcraft seems to have a similar issue in Windows 7. There have been some weird workarounds suggested, but none worked for me.

I haven't tried Starcraft in Windows 7 yet, have you tried using the XP or Vista drivers for your card instead of the Windows 7 drivers?

Hell no. Not interested in compromising the stability/features of newer games and my system by trying to do weird driver-level hacks like that.

I did try running in various compatibility modes though with no luck.

Well your only other options would be going through the ACT or running it in a VM.

or possibly change the color depth of the desktop? I think all of those games are 256 colors.

I'll see about testing Starcraft in Windows 7 sometime. I've been waiting till RTM which is why I haven't really bothered.

Maybe I didn't try all the voodoo dancing tricks at the same time: http://medo64.blogspot.com/2009/02/starcraft- … or-problem.html

do any of those old d3d games have a glide mode ?

I'm not sure if any of the games mentioned in this thread are 3D games at all.

What's sad is that MS doesn't seem to be updating the ACT database (included with Windows) as much. It would be nice if they accept user submission of fixes into their database.

One of the many things on my list of things to do is to create a custom App compat database for each version of Windows for all of the ACT fixes that are needed. I already have the list of which games need compatibility mode and which games need fixes I just need to put that in an App compat database so all person would have to do is double-click on the .sdb and they'd have a working game.

I've had to use a custom .sdb I made for Missionforce Cyberstorm all the way back in Windows 2000 up until Vista just to get damn game to work and MS never included it in their database. Of course since 64bi OS's came out the game doesn't work there so you have to run it in a VM.

You should maintain a DosFreak's Compat Database on VOGONS :p

At one point I had successfully used custom ACT settings to make Baldur's Gate work on modern nVidia hardware, but the community has since come out with a better fix.

What's funny is Wine is more compatible.

Autoruns didn't help at all....

What does ACT stand for?

I could try VM, but I'll have to find my W98 copy first! I hope I still have it! 😜

Off topic; I tried playing Baldur's Gate(II /w addons) for the first time recently, as I had the urge to play an RPG, but I ended up deleting it, as the game play involves spending your time fighting the interface, not playing an RPG. Anyone with other RPG suggestions?

Wow, that IS off topic... why didnT' you just create your own thread instead of dragging this thread off topic?

Try reading the thread, it will give you the answer.

First I did read the thread and yeah, I noticed that Baldur's Gate wws mentioned (not even the second one). But your post is like if I'd asked totally unrelated stuff on dosfreaks compatibilty list, or "i read the book xyz, didn't like it, can you suggest another one?", because you mentioned reading...

Starting from one the games mentioned and asking for a suggestion of a good game of the same type to play in thread about getting old games to play isn't the non sequitur you're trying to make it out to be. For that matter, very easy to make it on topic: Anyone know of a good old RPG that doesn't have any directx issues?

Oh yeah, to get Baldur's Gate to run on this little laptop I'm using I had to turn off hardware acceleration, the catch being the setup insisted on running a screen test utility that freezes up and makes the mouse disappear. Key navigating to select the utility and killing the process, the setup thinks it still ran and asks if it did so successfully, which I just responded yes, which it happily accepted and ran. It even seemed to use the wide screen format and not screen stretching, too bad the game interface sucked(I'm surprised so many people like Baldur's Gate.)

Well, the whole forum is mostly about getting old games to run 😀
And I could give you at least a hundred rpg as a reply to your new question, but then you would be really pissed off at me 😀 (because I'm sure you only meant directx rpgs but didn't write it)
As for bg I was one of the few that was disappointed as well and stopped playing two hours in the game...
But isn't this all fully inappropiate for this thread?

The best way to run the old games nowadays is to put together an old cheap pc from the online auction sites, install win98se with dos on that pc and play the games over there. problem solved. 😀