[theseus75]

I just upgraded my wife's computer to a mobo with a PCI-E port on which I put a Sapphire 850XT vid card. Now, however, when we try to play the original Empire Earth, it moves too quickly. The sound in the beginning plays like a record on the wrong speed. The game play is impossible to manage, as the view zips from one end of the screen to another.

I've heard of similar issues when trying to play DOS games on modern systems, and the fix is a DOS box, but in this situation, I don't know what to do.

The game is fully updated as is Direct X, the vid card drivers, etc. Would it help to revert to an older version of Direct X? Can that even be done?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[rhysduk]

What OS are you running on at the moment?
Also, can you run the game in "Compatibility Mode" for an earlier version of windows?

For reverting to earlier direct x versions:

Have a look at this: http://www.dxbuster.de/index_e.html
And these;
http://www.xpnet.info/treiber.php?op=detail&id=258
http://www.tweakfiles.com/misc/directxuninstaller.html
http://www.ebrink.com/dxun/Direct.htm
http://www.geocities.com/firecat182/dxe108.zip

BE WARNED: I havent tried these so can not guarantee they are safe solutions!

[Couriant]

With DOSBOX you can slow down the gameplay.

[theseus75]

Sorry I didn't respond to this sooner: the folder icon showed as having no responses for some reason.

I thought that DOS box was only for DOS games, but if it will indeed help in this case, I will give it a shot and post back my results. I don't think EE has a "compatibility mode" but I will check on that, as well.

Thanks!

[Couriant]

DOSBOX is for dos based games... I can play Command and Conquer in both Windows and in DOSBOX.

As for compatibility mode, find the game .exe file and right click it > go to properties. Under Compatibility Tab, check the box and choose Windows 98/ME compatibility in the drop box.

[theseus75]

Okay, so I tried running it in compatibility mode for all types, and - despite a slew of odd reactions - the game wouldn't run in any such mode.

Then I tried DosBox and - while this could certainly be because I don't know how to use it - when I mounted the directory containing Empire Earth and then ran the exe, it gave me the message: "This program cannot be run in DOS mode." I'm pretty sure EE is a DOS game, though.

Any ideas? Thanks.

[theseus75]

I just checked DosBox compatibility list, and Empire Earth isn't on it. Then I tried Mo'Slo (the free version) and it tried to open the game, but it just crashed.

Perhaps I need to use a different slowdown application. I'd be willing to buy one, if anyone knows of one that's reliable.

Thanks.

[Couriant]

are you sure it's not Windows 95, but looks like it's DOS?

[shihni]

Empire Earth was actually released around the same time as Windows XP, so seeing this type of problem is rather odd.

I would suggest first reinstalling the game. If there's no change, try a program like ATI Tray Tools to specify lower graphics settings while running it in XP mode. You can find it here: http://downloads.guru3d.com/ATI-Tray...nload-733.html

[theseus75]

I just tried the ATI Tray Tools, and they are pretty neat, but altering the clock and memory speed didn't do anything.

Alas, I think I'm throwing in the towel on this one. Thanks for everyone's help.