As soon as I launch I get a couple of errors starting with Direct Draw Init Failed

I have tried running in compatibility mode and as administrator.
I have tried launching in windowed mode with -w
I have tried to change the resolution

I have the latest version of directx and have even followed gog's links for downloading directx

I couldn't find how to email support instead it just had lots of support pages for various issues.

I am using windows 7 UAC is turned off

Let me know if there are more details that could help.

The second error is something about DDraw error DDer unsupported.

I'm guessing it is a resolution issue but my display can handle a large variety of resolutions including all the standard ones and 640:480 which is one of launch options when right clicking of course and I tried that one.

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: Cultures.exe
Application Version: 2.0.2.0
Application Timestamp: 3b31bece
Fault Module Name: Cultures.exe
Fault Module Version: 2.0.2.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 3b31bece
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00093cc8
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 59fc
Additional Information 2: 59fc34518bcf23895c873f786a9ded33
Additional Information 3: 3884
Additional Information 4: 38849c0da4dbc82adb832cbbf9d39753

Well i don't know how win 7 acts but i had windows 10,once it was crashing at the start because i didn't have direct play installed.On windows 10 i could install the direct play when i downloaded stranded 2 game and it asked me to install that and then cultures 1 worked,also lots of people have problems with win 7 on this game.But this probably isn't the solution i think.Well is it possible to turn the monitor resolution to 800x600 and 16 bit? Try that.
Now on windows xp i couldn't launch the game at all and had to delete winmm.dll in the cultures folder but that is only something incompatible with win xp something about playing the cd audio on xp.

You're probalby missing the older DirectDraw components on your system, since they're no longer included in newer DirectX versions.

Download and install DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010) from the following link to complete your system. Your newer DirectX won't be affected or changed.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109

Run the file and extract the content to a separate folder, because there are many files inside.
Then run dxsetup to install the components.

Hopefully this will solve your issue.

Switching to an older monitor got it to work, but one day I will figure out how to make it work on my better monitor. It appears to have something to do with resolutions and refresh rate.

Good to hear, thanks for the feedback. It's not uncommon for older games not working with very high resolutions, like for FullHD displays.

Although you could try running the game in windowed mode, which at least could get it running.

Im not sure if I did it correctly but I did try running it with -w added into a shortcuts path idk I guess that was suppose to start windowed mode but it didn't work. Thanks for the ideas though.

I part sharing what has worked or didnt work for those who might have a similar issue and stumble accross this.

According to Judas' the attribute is "-window ".

You have to change the shortcut's target not the path to something like:
"C:\GOG Games\Cultures and Cultures 2\Cultures\Cultures.exe -window"

The above is GOG's default installation folder, but it could be different on your system. Just keep what's already there and add -window inside the quotation marks. Note that this only works with Cultures 1, but not with Cultures 2.

Thanks for this. I got it going using the -window switch, 16 bit and Win XP SP3 settings on compatibility. I had also downloaded the ddraw fix from GitHub but I don't think this played any part.

You're welcome and thanks for telling what actually worked on your side! Glad to see some posts are still helpful :-)

Just wanted to say i got Cultures 1 to work with this. But not Cultures 2, 3 and 4.

Got another problem with Cultures 1. How do i make the windowed mode bigger than a tiny window in the upper left corner?

I solved this problem with a little cute program called DxWnd.

Works also for Cultures 2 - 4! :)

Thanks for the tip, but I got a problem with that: which program do I have to import in DxWnd in order to run Cultures? Because when I search for it in the Cultures download maps, there are no programs.

I have an Dell XPS 2016 model and this tip worked fine for me. I also tested out not installing the DirectX End-User Runtimes but set the compatibility of the game to Win XP SP3 and 16 bit color - which worked as well. I'm on a 4K monitor and it kinda shits itself when it changes to that ratio as it says it should be set to 3840x2160, but it runs fine. Once I exit the game it goes back to 4K resolution and everything works fine.

One tip, when you get into the game for the first time, go to graphics settings and change it to 1024x768 otherwise when you play your first game it will be set to a 4K resolution or the highest on your PC/latpop and its hard to see lmao.

One other tip, if windows keeps showing a pop-up that its not using the optimal screen ratio, don't click it, wait till it closes itself, otherwise the game will keep minimizing and switching between your highest screen resolution and the games resolution.

Really wish GOG could have done a better job at fixing the resolution issue, but either way its ok as it works fine.

im still getting this error. os is w10 fresh install on dx12. has there been a solution found for this ?

I'm getting the same error and I've tried finding solutions