guys, are you running this method in xp? I tried to launch it in Win 7 x64 and it didn't work. perhaps I am doing something wrong...

Oh, f*ck the bonus. Getting it to work in the first place was the real prize, and you've already given me plenty of support .:)

I can't help wonder why GOG decided to ship it like that in the first place though....

This works for me but it plays in a pretty small window in Windows 7.
It IS playable in D3D now though,so thanks for that.

Are you sure it's Moto Racer, and not Moto Racer 2 you are talking about? The problem you describe sounds very much what I experience when attempting to run Moto Racer 2 in D3D.
(That same problem is as yet unsolved btw.)
Well, we won't know until you define "didn't work" in quite a bit more detail I'm afraid.

didn't work = i copied the Bitdepth.exe into data directory, made a cmd file with the commands you mentioned, i checked the "run as administrator" checkbox in bitdepth's properties. i launched the .cmd file, the game seems to launch (it appears in the taskbar, moto racer (c) 1997 etc.) but shuts down after a few seconds. it seems that the palette doesn't change to 16 bit, since the aero interface doesn't switch itself off.

am i doing something wrong? :)

That helped, thank you.
Start by running my Bitdepth.exe from a command line prompt. Try both "Bitdepth 16" and "Bitdepth 32" and then let me know what it told you. (If it does not tell you anything, then please redownload the new version I put up about 10 hours ago.)

well it seems that I missed something.

when i launch the command line ("cmd") and use it to launch the bitdepth.exe app, it actually changes the palette to 16 bit, given the right parameter (bitdepth 16) of course. but when i made myself a .cmd file using the notepad and copy-pasted this:

data\Bitdepth
data\Bitdepth 16
game -D3D -CorrectRatioTextures -ZBuffer -FrameRateMax0 -nodither -TextureVideoMem268435456
data\Bitdepth 32

it didn't work (the symptoms i described in a post before this one). From what i've seen it returns "syntax: bitdepth 8|16|32", as if I wasn't using the parameter correctly.

thanks for the support :) i owe you a beer :)

Mmmmmm. Beer. :)

Could you please start by downloading http://81red.dk/mr.cmd to your Moto Racer root folder and double-click it?
That will at least reveal whether your .cmd is mangled somehow or not.

EDIT: You may want to download and extract http://81red.dk/mr.zip to the game folder instead (browsers insist on just displaying the contents of the previous link)

well, it's strange, because I made a .cmd file almost identical to yours. it works :) thanks a lot :)

udpate: while the game launches with d3d et al. the framerate is pretty slow :) the -TextureVideoMem268435456 doesn't seem to fix it actually :) did anyone encounter the same problem?

You can fix the framerate issue by adding the -alpha switch. Also, for anyone using the -zbuffer switch, note that it creates a weird artifact/shadow underneath the bike for the snow/dirt levels, so I keep it off for that reason.

The TextureVideoMem switch has nothing to do with framerate, it only fixes the "Not enough video memory" problem experienced on newer cards with lots of memory.
(I think lots of these problems are because of the amount of memory.)

Apart from what is already suggested above, you may also want to try -FrameRateMax0 and see if that makes any difference.

well, i added -alpha parameter to the command line. and it works like a charm. thanks a lot guys :) you rock!

81RED already posted the link: http://81red.dk/mr.zip so just extract the contents into your "c:\program files\gog.com\moto racer" directory.
Also, you should edit the mr.cmd (right click on the file and click edit) according to your needs. Just look through this thread for which switches you should have enabled. Personally, I use this line in the .cmd:
game.exe -us -CorrectRatioTextures -alpha -FrameRateMax0 -TextureVideoMem268435456
Hope that helps.

Thanks a lot, udongein! I downloaded and installed the files... but it didn't work. The game shows in software rendering, and in the "options" menu, it says that Direct3D is unavailable. Dammit...

-Gragzo