Help, can't even get Arcanum to start!

I'm getting very frustrated and would really appreciate any help that anyone out there could give me.

I'm running Windows Vista and I have the latest patch and for some reason it still wasn't working with the cd's. So I went out and got the no-cd patch which I installed and tried using. It's getting me a little farther, I'd say I can sometimes get about 2 seconds in before it just vanishes. It doesn't say error, it doesn't give me any message at all, it just vanishes. I know this is probably a problem that other people have had and I've looked to try and fix it myself. I'm running it in compatibility mode with Windows XP and I'm running as the administrator but nothing is helping.

Is there anything I'm missing here? Do I need to change my screen resolution or something crazy like that? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance,

 

Hmmm, I do not have Windows Vista, and I do not know what you need to do exactly but I am prety sure it can be done. One thing that I have found out (for Windows XP) is that if you turn your screen resolution down to 800x600 and to 16 bit, also turn off Anti-aliasing (the game dose not support it) that can help a lot. Good Luck! I know what it is like not to have the game working.

:x

 

This is a pretty old game, and that patch was made with windows xp in mind. Given the lack of tech support that Arcanum receives, and all the bugs Vista has, there might not be anything out there to help you. Good luck though, post if you get it working.

 

Not happening...

I'm afraid that arcanum is not in my future. I tried turning down the resolution and turning off anti-aliasing but to no avail. If anyone has any other advice it would be appreciated but thank you for your help the people that did post.

 

Have you seen this thread? -
http://terra-arcanum.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=14183

I don't know if it'll help you, but there are a few listed you could try.

 

Thanks for trying!

I really appreciate helping me find that post. Unfortunately it's still not working. It's ok, I've accepted that because of the game being old and vista being new it just wasn't meant to be. I'll try it again later and maybe god will favor me then.

 

I'm having the same problem with Vista.
For me it'll load up correctly and get to the "Loading Arcanum" screen and once it finishes loading, at the point where the intro movie would play it crashes. I've tried every fix I could find and nothing works, it's really frustrating because I look around and see some people saying it runs perfectly for them on Vista, yet they don't have any fixes.
I've found sites that say the fix is simple (switching resolution and running in compatibility for XP, which doesn't seem to work for most people) and sites that say it runs perfectly without any fixes, then some that say it works perfectly with a fix but don't state what the fix is.
I could just play it on my old computer, where I know it runs fine because it's XP, but I try not to use that computer because it runs very slowly and I wouldn't have the portability I want with my laptop.

If someone can find a real fix, or a real cause for the problem that won't let the video play (I'm seriously assuming that the intro video is the problem for me), then let me know because I love this game and I really want to play it again, but not have to sit crouched in front of desk.

Edit: Okay guys I just decided to try reinstalling the game and not patching it one last time before giving up and it's working so far without even running in compatibility or anything. I haven't tried starting a new game yet because I was excited and had to put this out:
Do NOT patch the game for Vista. That seems to be the problem, if anyone can figure out why the patch has this problem or come up with a fix so the game still loads properly after patching that would be great.

 

u sjould nevet by a windos they suk get a mac or atlesta ps3

 

:lol:

An old friend of yours?

 

Is he Asrudin/BadBuckBigShot?

I noticed that this guy has the same avatar.

 

Lol, and I thought that banned people only get the "Banished to the Void" rank or however you call it.

Nevertheless, he really is an idiot.

 

He even A/S/L'ed in his sig. The ban was well justified before his first post was ever made.

@OP: If you're running a dual core processor, that might give you issues. Finding a way to turn one off might help. Why would that help run a 8-year-old 2D game? I don't know. It's what they're telling everyone over at the Bioware forums to do to get NWN running on Vista machines.

Do any of the Fallout games work on your computer?