Hello forumites,

I skimmed the first few pages and didn't see this specific problem:

I've installed the DVD version of Overseer that I downloaded from GOG on my home desktop which is a Windows XP SP 3 machine, P4 3.2Ghz 2 CPUs, 2.5 GB RAM, DirectX 9.0c, NVIDIA GeForce 6200 256Mb video card. According to the autodetect feature on the NVIDIA official website, I have the latest video drivers.

Bottom line is when I double-click OVERSEER.EXE it crashes.

I've toggled between 95 and 98 compatibility and I've added overseer.exe to exclusion from DEP. It didn't help.

I don't *think* I have any conflicting codecs on my machine but I could be wrong - I've uninstalled DivX, DVDExpress, EAX, RSX etc., *then* I ran the installer.

Obviously on this machine I had the DVD version working from the actual DVD (was working until I upgraded to SP3), then I had the GOG non-DVD version (which works but I have a different problem that I'll post in a different thread), now this.

Suggestions will be appreciated!

DTXCF

Aside from the fact that you are *4 Windows versions out of date,* and next month Microsoft is dropping any further XP feature and update support...ahem....;)....have you tried the latest version of ffdshow, as per this thread:

http://www.gog.com/forum/tex_murphy_series/mpeg2_error_with_new_dvd_version/page1

Follow the link in the thread to the newer version of ffdshow and check it out. Good luck!

4)XP
3)Vista
2)Win7
1)Win8

Strangely, I ran it once and told it *not* to use ffdshow (I hadn't tried that option before), and aside from the flickery grahics in tex's office referred to in the other thread, it seems to be working. Can't explain it.

It's using XIng or XPIng or whatever that is to decode the video - I'd always used DVDExpress before obviously.

With response to being 4 windows versions out of date, the game's page only specifies compatibility with XP and Vista.

EDIT: I must be getting senile, *now* it only runs (albeit with flickery graphics in-game) if I *do* choose ffdshow. I must have been wrong before. Who knows. I don't understand this, I chose ffdshow before and it was crashing, but now it works. I don't know what I did differently.

Between the first time I installed the GOG DVD version and this last time, I *did* try installing from the actual DVD. Maybe it installed something the GOG version needs? Who knows. Not me.

Is Xing or whatever that is the right decoder to choose in the game if I'm running the GOG DVD version with ffdshow? The picture doesn't look that great, so while it's working and I'm happy, if I could make it even better I'm interested in that.

this version does not use dvd express, use zing.

I don't know if the new version of ffdshow runs in XP, but you should try it anyway--*not* the old version that ships with the game. Link to the new version is in the link I supplied for you earlier, so you could try it.

Also, ffdshow, Xing only affect the running of the FMV game sequences. The regular game play (Tex in his office, etc.) is strictly the province of D3d (direct 3d) and if having problems there you need to update your gpu drivers--which is one of the drawbacks to using a prehistoric OS...;) The latest ATi/AMD Catalysts, for instance, don't support XP at all. Same is true for nVidia drivers.

Seriously, hanging on to XP will henceforth give you many more problems you could avoid simply by moving to a modern OS. I have no problems with 8.1x64, but for you Win7x64 (if your hardware can support it) will serve just as well as Win8--and be more familiar to you as well. I've seen many an XP system that runs as slow as molasses so that even a newer OS is of scant help. You'd have to decide that issue for yourself, though.

Luck!