The screen turns black.. a little blue swirl is in the middle of the screen and then it crashes. I get this error message:

OK :Game text loaded.Sun Oct 06
------------------------------------------------------------
15:26:30 Debug and status report on
15:26:30 OK :Active.
15:26:30 OK :DD SetCooperative Level.
15:26:39 ERR:DD SetMode failed err :
15:26:39 ERR:GFX DirectDraw not enabled.
15:26:39 ERR:gfxBegin failed.
15:26:39 ERR:Exited Pharaoh, couldn't start direct draw.

I tried it in compatibility mode and running it as administrator which is what the GOG people suggested.
When I run dxdiag it says directdraw acceleration is enabled?

Any ideas?

You may want to consider installing an older DX version (DX 9.0c for example) and see if that helps. Other than that, you'll have to wait a long time and just hope that someone who uses Windows 8 can assist.

I had a similar problem. To solve this I right clicked the icon and selected "Troubleshoot Compatibility". It worked well for me.
Good luck

Had this same problem--none of the above suggestions have worked for me.

Considering returning it with that new 30day back guarantee. Which will be sad, because I loved this game and got it for a great price--normally GoG and these forums meet all compatibility needs, even when I got the game through Steam I look up its thread here for help.

Have you tried setting compatibility to Windows 7 ? Frankly, Win8 is a terrible OS and has more problems than any other OS so far, so maybe setting up a VM with Windows 7 (legal copy) on it would work ?

Hmmm. Can't say I'm thrilled by the idea of all that extra work, but I have VirtualBox installed for various other reasons at the moment anyway, so maybe I'll give it a go--Win7 compatability mode didn't work out.

Does it maybe have something to do with the fact that my laptop's aspect ratio is a widescreen, 16:9 aspect ratio and 1300 something across?

Lots of older game issues seem to be based around this issue for me, like Thief 3, GTA: SA, and iiRC even Vampire: the Masquerade, although that may've been something else--it's all lumped under the community patch anyway, I've never played w/out it.

I would like to purchase nd give a try on my Surface Pro running Windows 8.1 x64 bit OS.
Yet I am not sure if I will get a money back if it does not run properly :-(

Update on my installation

gog.com/forum/pharaoh_cleopatra/pharaoh_on_windows_81_os_microsoft_surface_pro

You can check out if WINDOWS BOOT GENIUS works of solving your won't load problem.

Same for me, and same for Zeus...
Still no idea how to get these to work?
When I ctrl+alt+del to get out of the black screen, I see a notification in windows telling me the NVIDIA driver crashed and has to be restored...

Caesar III can't load of Windows 8.1 (x64). Please help me for the solution.

Make your own thread in the Caesar 3 board: this section is for issues for Pharaoh Gold.

So, I found a solution that works for me.. I followed this a video on youtube.. in case you want to find it look for runtime error caesar 4 fix.. its in polish/english so this may be easier anyways here it is.


1. goto windows start and type in msconfig
2. goto tools
3. click Change user account control settings.. aka Change UAC Settings then hit launch.
4. set it to as low as it will go.
5. goto the directory that has the game in .. wherever it's saved
6. find a file called registerDLL.bat right click and run as administrator
7. try to open the caesarIV.exe.
8.. if it works, great if not try restarting and repeat step 7

Worked for me hope it works for everyone.