I have a couple of questions that will hopefully get closer to figuring out this problem!

- What operating system are you using?
- Did you install the game under My Documents or Program Files?
- This is an issue with Creatures 3, but can you open Docking Station?
- Have you installed anything, or is this the vanilla version from GOG?

C3/DS does require 16-bit colors in order to run. Another thing I can think of is that the game won't actually start right away: If I have a few worlds and/or a lot of add-ons, the game tends to hang when it first starts up. I get the "Not Responding" message, yet if I let it go for a little bit, it catches up and works fine.

Fullscreen can be a little odd, if I remember correctly. I use windowed mode, which seems to run without any problems. Hopefully you'll be able to work through everything and get the game working soon!

-Win7 x64 Ultimate
-Tried both actually, with same result
- Can play DS just fine, just not the base game
- Vanilla

I know of some issues that have been reported on the 64-bit version of Windows 7, although this one sounds pretty new. One last question: Can you play a docked world in DS, or is it just a DS world that you can create? I'm trying to figure out if it's something with C3 itself, or just when trying to start up C3. Hopefully someone else will chime in with some thoughts! Let me take a look around some old topics and resources to see if I might be able to find something that can help.

Often C3 will "break" if you install a DS-only download in its files, but that's clearly not the case here. And you just get a black screen without an error message, correct?

Not sure what you mean. Correct. And it closes (as in, whole game) once I press ESC. Just for something to test: Where C3 does keep all its data, including "generated" images that it does make when first start up? Maybe clearing those would help? I've already deleted My Documents/Creatures 3 but to no avail.

You mentioned that Docking Station works. When you create a new world, there is a button to switch between a docked and undocked world. A docked world includes Creatures 3 and Docking Station. I'm wondering if you can create and load a docked world, or if you're only able to play in a DS undocked world.

Why are you deleting the files? That could be why it's not starting up: All of the assets aren't generated on the fly when it first starts up, at least as far as I know. Clearing anything out of the folders will likely remove necessary assets required to start the game. You can delete worlds from within the startup screen, but the only files I've ever deleted are those that I install myself (i.e. new agents, breeds, etc.)

If you installed everything in My Documents, there should be a folder for Creatures\Creatures Exodus\Creatures 3 with all of the files.

I've been hoping someone else will pop along with more technical knowledge, so apologies for the late reply! You might want to try one of the community forums, like the Discover Albia Forum or Creatures Caves. These are where Creatures players check in pretty regularly, and you might have some more luck in getting more responses. Sorry I'm not being of too much help, but good luck!

As I said I've tried everything. And yes, I can play both docked and undocked worlds, it's just C3 that acts up. By deleting files, I've meant deleting savedata/config/cache, not actual game files.

I wish I had some other ideas, but it seems like I'm just taking you in circles since I'm stumped. Apologies for that! I was hoping someone with some more knowledge might come along, yet this section of the forum is only occasionally checked by active Creatures players. You might consider checking out the other active forums in the Creatures community: The Discover Albia Forum and/or Creatures Caves. I'm sure someone will have some better help if they see your question. Again, sorry I couldn't be of any help. I hope you can get things working again soon!

This actually sounds like a very familiar problem, and one I ran into at one point. I believe I had some DS catalogue files in the C3 directory, among other things. Trouble is I can't remember exactly how I fixed this, short of uninstalling, making sure every directory was truly gone, and reinstalling.