I just purchased this game and it installed properly. I was able to watch / play through the cut scene introduction. Right after Maniac and Mark Hamill take off on their ships, however, I get the black screen of doom.

I can hear sound, and when I use the arrow keys, I can hear a sound effect, but otherwise, the screen is completely black.

I was able to see the cut scenes; so I'm thinking this is the game interface itself that I'm unable to see. Can anybody help me out here?

I cannot even start over on the game; every time i launch it, it begins in this exact same spot again.

Bump?

Download a codec to sort the graphics out, that's what Gog.com support told me when I had a similar problem.

I just got finished with WC4 and although I did not have the "screen of doom", initially there was no sound with the videos. I had to download the codec pack that gog recommends. This solved the problem. I would try to download this codec pack and see if the problems continue.

Overall, I found WC4 to be very stable. I did not have even one crash with the entire play-through. Load times were essentially instantaneous and there were no performance issues whatsoever.

I downloaded the codec that Gog recommended, it turned the videos in my game upside down, but they had full sound.

Last time I checked, I'm not Australian, so I don't like things "down under".

This thread had the same issue:

http://www.gog.com/forum/wing_commander_series/downloaded_a_codec_to_sort_sound_out_now_videos_upside_down

Worse case scenario you can just turn your monitor upside down! :)

I know about that thread, cos it was me that wrote it.

In that case, I presume my response did not help you....

Are you runninga 32 bit or 64 bit version of windows. I downloaded one of the the 32 bit codec packs and that seemed to work.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was the 64 bit that's giving you the problem. Maybe you can try playing with the "compatibility mode" settings. I have had success with that in the past with some DOS games. Good luck!

Just a bump and an addition:
Same problem here on Vista Home edition, the shortcut has all the recommended boxes ticked. Tried win95 compatibility as well, no difference. I do get a warning in the righthand taskbar about the graphics device having stopped working, 'but is working again now.' I don't see that every time, but once WC4 is black, it stays black. It only happens on ground/carrier and as stated, the game still works; hitting tab and enter randomly still gets me to other places and I've have even seen the Blair do his little corridor stroll, before the screen goes black again.
Now running it on a bare WinXP through VMware on my MacBookAir. Where, ironically, this Windows game so far has functioned flawlessly. And frustrates me to no end, but that's another thread.