Okay, been trying forever to get Outcast running to no avail - hope someone can enlighten? I've gone through all relevant posts here as well.
My system - regular old WinXP SP3 w/ Geforce 8800GT on Athlon XP 6000+. Logged in as default administrator account.
My problem:-
- Game refuses to start up no matter what. After intro movie launch, into the setting panels - click 'New Game', game starts on black screen - then NOTHING, no joy. Have to ALT-TAB to quit.
I've Tried:-
- Launching through Loader.exe directly
- Setting all OC1 - 3.exes to run on Win98 compatibility
- Trying to start game with all default settings minus 640x480 patches
- Trying to start game with the various 640x480 patches.
- Running OC1 -3.exe directly (I get the credits screen oddly, then program exits).
Any help please? Wonder if GOG has a refund policy :)

Made sure your nvidia control panel doesn't have anti aliasing or anything like that set in the global settings?
Also try messing with your sound hardware acceleration. Can get to this from the start menu, run and then type dxdiag and go to the sound tab. Just change the slider so its lowered and if that doesn't work try with it off.

Thanks - tried both your suggestions. I basically just get a blank screen upon load - no sound, nothing.
No issue with my other games, 2d /3d or otherwise.
Just curious if it's just something with my particular setup - or have anyone else experienced this as a result of something not covered here?

Try deleting the three outcast exe files, the OUTCAST.ini and running the installer again.
it should replace those files, might work, did for me.

Thanks a bunch!
I had the same problem and changing sound hardware acceleration to minimum solved it!

I'm having the same problem.
No sound acceleration, and the AA thing too

I'm having the same problem when trying to run this on my XP netbook. Game doesn't launch from any of the .exe files, tried re-downloading and reinstalling, still no dice. Turned down the sound acceleration in dxdiag, no luck either.

Is this an XP-specific problem? I mihgt try installing it on my Vista laptop a little later ...

Some other users reported problems related to having their taskbar set to the top or sides of their screen. If they moved it to the bottom, the game would work. Might be worth a shot.

Okay first of all, You don't need any compatiblity mode for Outcast.
neither for XP, nor Vista or 7.
And it doesn't take effect of the nvidia settings except Vertical Sync.

starting problems are mostly when:

- virus scans which blocks processes from calling other processes. (for example, loader.exe calls oc1,oc2 or oc3 exe)
- you have a second DVD drive with a different disk inside or a virtual drive with an mounted ISO.
- you don't have any disks inserted or a bad copy of the outcast CD/DVD
- you're using a crack that doesn't work
- you're using a faulty resolution patch

Try different loaders.

Link (scroll up)

direct download (save as)

it helped me