I recently got the itch to replay JA2 1.13, so I fired up the installer and got to it.

Unfortunately, I'm experiencing a very odd failure mode: the game will appear to start, and Windows 7 will revert to the Basic color scheme, as normal. The screen will flash, and then I will be returned to the desktop, the game having crashed before it even starts.

I am running Windows 7 64-bit, which oughtn't be a problem as the game is compatible with 64-bit OSes. I am running NVidia driver version 365.19.

The problem is not solved by launching the game through the shortcut, directly through the EXE, through the Galaxy UI, or the 1.13 INI editor.

Launching JA2 using SimpleProgramDebugger shows that the last DLL loaded was nvapi.dll, and the last major notation was

Event Time: 00:00:04.780
Event Type: Exception
Thread ID: 7864
Memory Address: 0x00000007
More Information: Exception Code: 0xc0000005, Parameters: , 0x00000008, 0x00000007

Thread ID 7864 appears to be the main execution thread for JA2, as this thread ID appeared when the process was created.

Anybody got any ideas?

Sorry have no idea :( For what's it's worth, the listed steps are what I followed when I recently successfully got 1.13 going on my 64 vit win 7 laptop (amd though) :
http://ja-strongpoint.com/mods_113.php

:( I appreciate the effort, and at first I thought the zPatch file would work, but it failed in the same manner.

GOG team, anything you can offer from your end?

I should note as well:

This occurs on the vanilla un-modified game as well as the 1.13 mod.

Addendum:

Instantiating a brand-new Windows 7 virtual machine caused it to work flawlessly. This tells me that it's something with my installation that's causing it to foul up.

Any smart guys out there have any ideas? Anybody know what information I need to give you?

I wonder where JMich is. He often has a very good technical understanding of JA2 it seems.

A bit curious here. So you used a virtual machine on the pc you're trying to run the game on? Can't you just play it through the virtual machine then? Or perhaps copy the whole installation from the virtual machine?

Another very long shot: try expanding the game yet again to include Arulco Revisited, which also overwrites a couple of files I think, and try running that. That's what I'm playing at the moment, and it's pretty damn awesome.

You're absolutely right, I could play the game through the virtual machine, and that's what I've decided is the best option (for a couple reasons, not the least of which is that it stops my monitors from spazzing out as Windows tries to invoke the game). At this point, I'm simply very curious as to what's causing it to fail on the host. It's no longer "Help, I can't play the game anymore," but "Help, I want to understand what could be causing it to fail." Not to mention, for people who don't have the luxury of tossing up a VM, a "proper" resolution might be helpful.

also: Arulco Revisited looks pretty sweet judging from the PDF, so I'll probably tack that on.

Cool, glad you at least get to play it then :)
By the way, be sure to check the pdfs that accompany the arulco revisited download, specifically the sections: 'notes on gameplay' and 'notes on settings and INI-customization'. I didn't, and made the mistake of playing with 'drop all' enabled, which kinda ruins the mod's balance.