I am having problems with a 1998 UbiSoft title Speed Busters (non-GOG CD).

The game launches fine, intro displays OK (and is AWESOME!), then allows me to browse through menus with no problems. However, when I pick any of the race modes (either Arcade or Championship) and try to launch the race, it hangs with black screen.

I tried to apply the small (1.1? Says SpeedBusters Patch release 1 - around 2 megs) UbiSoft patch, but it also hangs in the same circumstances (black screen instead of race), but this time also with repeating sound in the background. BTW I found out I have the US version of Speed Busters (after installing the EURO patch I got the 'wrong version' message after launch). It is kind of strange as my copy is a cover CD release from Polish video games magazine.

Installation of the later add-on patch (~25 megs, with additional cars and tracks) causes the game to:
detect my original CD as a pirated disk ('please insert the original CD' error)
(after applying some counter-protection measures) crash with Windows 'program tried illegal operation' error message when I try to launch the race (same situation as above).

I used the default GFX settings in the configuration menu which appears before game launches (only changed the resolution to 1280x1024, though had to switch desktop color pallete to 16 bit):

http://i.stack.imgur.com/LCwaL.png

I tried the largest, Full (~330 megs) installation. Activating the Win 98/Me compatibility mode on game's executable has no effects.

I was trying to launch it on a Pentium Dual-Core E5200 (2x2.5GHz), 2x1 GB RAM DDR2, Radeon HD 4650 1 GB DDR3 rig. It uses the recent 11.12 Catalyst drivers and a 32-bit Windows XP SP3.

Did any of you have any success launching this game in non-GOG version on a Windows XP system?

Should I use older GFX drivers?

I also read on a certain forum that the game works if CPU is clocked at no more than 2GHz. Could this possibly be true?

Thank you in advance!

Well, why don't you get the GOG version and try to replace the exe of your CD version with that?

Unfortunately I don't own a GOG version and wanted to try out my retail copy. I don't know if I would like the game - if it's good, then I would probably get a GOGged version to save me from hassle when launching it in future.

They don't offer that part of the package without buying it. The reason being that the main thing they're selling is the compatibility fixes.Most of the games available here can still be had for a price, a few that price is ridiculous elsewhere, but most of the time it's a matter of games that are a pain to get working.

EDIT: If it's a dos game, then dosbox is what they usually use and you could probably set that up on your own.