Dungeon Keeper incompatible with Vista?

I am at the end of my tether!

I go to install Dungeon Keeper or Dungeon Keeper Gold on my new Vista PC and
it gets to the title screen with Horny and then closes into a blackbox at the
top left of my screen, minimizes then closes.

I am not the only one who cannot get it running on Vista either as you can
see there are among hundreds of people with this problem:

Is there any patch to get it running on vista? Changing the compatibility
options don't work either!

Will Microsoft actually do anything for this?

Please let me know. Regards.

Found this on VRG
Hi there. Believe it or not, I just finished the entire game again
(for the nth time), but this time on Vista! I was having the exact
same issues as you, crashing, freezing... then I went into the Windows
DEP (Window key+pause - Advanced System Settings - Performace tab,
Settings - Data Execution Prevention tab - Add) then add the
Keeper95.exe to the list. Then go into the program file Keeper95.exe,
right click it and choose compatibility - Windows XP SP2. Now after
all this, if I run the game from the shortcut it won't work! You have
to go into the program files\bullfrog\keeper\ and run the game by
directly clicking on keeper95.exe. Weird, but worked every time!
--

Anybody else managed to discover anything which may make DK1 work on vista
without having to use Dosbox which really limits what you can do. i.e :
Editor, Direct 3D, plays in a small window, lags etc.

I tried that windows DEP trick too, didn't work for me either. Now it
just does nothing at all.
Anyone has some different ideas? I've checked practically every forum
there is on this subject and noone seems to have a solution that works
for me! It's always 'just change your compatibillity settings', but
that also doesn't work.

How does DOSbox work? Maybe after all, I'll have to try that...

[alfalfa_89]

DOSBox is a GREAT program, it's basically an emulator that emulates an old
DOS system running with old ISA (dos friendly) sound cards like the SB16 and
Gravis UltraSound.

If you have old DOS games, more than likely DOSBox can run them.

It is an emulator though, so you need a fairly robust system to get good
performance out of it, and setup is a little tricky, but once it's working
it should run DK. Best thing to do is Google something like "Dungeon Keeper
DOSBox How-TO."

ok, i have a different problem with vista, cant seem to find many others with this complaint. I've installed the patch, compatible XPsp2, all that stuff... but when i go to open a campain or skirmish or pet dungeon, the game screen is blank. i can pick up imps, if i float my hand over an area it'll tell me if its the dungeon heart or walls or whatever, i can select where to dig, but i cant see a thing!
Anyone know what to do?

Hi all. I have been trying to get Dungeon Keeper working with Vista for
a couple of days.
I think I'm onto something but am not really sure what yet so just bare
with me...

On my desktop (Vista Ultimate x64) I get the problem of DK crashing
after the splash screen with a black 640*480 box and no error messages.
I installed it in a 98SE virtual machine using VMWare and it runs well
except the cursor randowly snaps to edges and renders the game pretty
unplayable as selecting anything becomes a very tedious chore.
I also installed it on Microsoft Virtual PC and as on Vista it would
crash after the splash screen.
I was going to install it on an old system running Windows 98SE
natively but while doing so decided to try one last thing...
I installed DK on my laptop (also running Vista Ultimate x64) and voila
it worked! Unfortunately the Direct3d won't work but for some reason it
works on there.
Now for the weird part...
I brought my laptop home from my girlfriend's place and tried playing
on my desktop's monitor but got the same error of crash at splash.
Puzzled I realised that the only change was the resolution, i turned it
back down to the laptop's 1440*900 from 1680*1050 and it worked.
Excitedly I tried this on my desktop but unfortunately it did not work
:(

Now the only thing I can think of being different between these two
machines other than the hardware would be Service Pack 1. However, this
problem, as I understand, has been occurring to others since before it
was released.

If anyone can get it running, what are their system specs?

My laptop is:
Dell Inspiron 6400
Core 2 Duo processor 2Ghz
2GB RAM
NVidia 7300Go
1440*900 resolution

Desktop:
Gigabyte EX38-DS4
Intel E6600
4GB generic RAM
NVidia 8800GTS G92
1680*1050 resolution

DK is extremely difficult to get running under Vista. I would suggest
setting the compatibility tab to Windows 95. Disable Desktop
Composition, and visual themes. Do a little prayer, and try again.

I've heard people will run DK in DOS mode with DOSBox.

Here's another possiblity, I recall trying this and could not get it to
work, but your milage may vary...

(-quote-)
I went into the Windows
DEP (Window key+pause - Advanced System Settings - Performace tab,
Settings - Data Execution Prevention tab - Add) then add the
Keeper95.exe to the list. Then go into the program file Keeper95.exe,
right click it and choose compatibility - Windows XP SP2. Now after
all this, if I run the game from the shortcut it won't work! You have
to go into the program files\bullfrog\keeper\ and run the game by
directly clicking on keeper95.exe. Weird, but worked every time!
(-end-quote-)

Here is how I got Dungeon Keeper 1 working through my Vista 64bit PC:

-Note: You need a decent PC to create a virtual machine on and an
unused windows XP CD and product key.-

*1).* I Installed the windows virtual machine software.

*2).* I created a virtual machine and installed Windows XP Home
Edition SP2 on it.

*3).* I Inserted the Dungeon Keeper disk into my computer and, (on my
virtual machine) right clicked on the D: drive --> open. I then right
clicked on KEEPER95.exe, went to properties, went to the compatibility
tab and then changed it to run in compatibility mode for windows 95.

*4).* I then installed Dungeon Keeper on my virtual PC.

*5).* To make Keeper work on XP:

- Click Start, click Run, type c:\windows\repair, and then click
OK.
- Right-click Autoexec.nt, and then click Copy.
- Click Start, click Run, type c:\windows\system32, and then click
OK.
- Right-click anywhere in that folder, and then click Paste.
- If asked to overwrite the file, answer Yes.
- Right-click the Autoexec.nt file that you just copied, and then
click Properties.
- Click to select Read-Only, and then click OK.

- -Repeat steps 1 through 7 to copy the Config.nt file.-

I hope this will assist some people in being able to play this
excellent game. :)

its possible but I don't think that will help, Directx checks to make sure
it doesn't downgrade during install.

sorry, i missed the first part of this, have you downloaded the Directx9
runtimes from microsoft.com? Vista only comes with Directx10 and a lot of
the older stuff is missing. To get it you have to install Directx9 (it won't
downgrade, only fill in the old pieces) go to
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...DisplayLang=en

as an alternative to a virtual pc, as a last resort, the Microsoft
Application Compatibility Toolkit has an entry for Dungeon Keeper 1. Looking
at it, there are a bunch of post-win95 fixes. make sure you try running the
game in compatibility mode for Windows95 (right-click on keeper.exe icon in
folder, not in games-explorer. select properties, select compatibility tab,
check run in 256 colors, run in 640x480 and run in compatibility mode for
win95) .

The MACT is fairly tricky to work with but can get just about anything to
work. You might download it (free from
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en) -
the compability administrator is the piece you need.

[gillyhead]

i have the exact same problem ne solutions?

i have found a rele simple solution download the directx 9 and turn graphic acceleration off!

Amazing how many posts I see every day about this game. Makes me wonder
why someone doesn't port it to iPhone or something. (Oh, right, EA owns
the license)

Easiest solution, install DOSBox (Google it).

You might need to tweak DOSBox a little, but if you read some of the
docs that come with DOSBox or the stuff online you'll see it's fairly
easy to setup.

Once setup install DK per the instructions that come with the game for
DOS Mode installation.

Game graphics should return. Since it's an emulator a slower system may
not run the game so stellarly.

If you want to fix the game in Windows, try updating your graphic card
drivers, and run DXWebSetup.EXE again (make sure all DirectX files are
installed).

Good luck, old game + new computer = good luck.

I did not succeed in running Keeper95. Instead, I opened DOSBox,
mounted my dungeon keeper CD, and installed the dos version, all inside
the emulator. This allowed me to run the dos version, under DOSBox, and
it works fine.

If you don't have DOSBox, and you like your old games, consider getting
it because it resolves pretty much all of these kinds of compatability
issues by just generating the dos environment from scratch.

[LostIsMyFaith]

after Stealing some ideas from this thread and comparing to laptops that are slightly different for anyone using 32bit Vista u'll be happy to no ....


I HAVE CRACKED HOW TO GET IT TO WORK !!!!!!! :o:O

"for anyone with a dedicated graphics card that is :P:P"

Basically I updated everything all of vista up to sp2

then I was noticing that the only thing stopping it from working was the rendering of the stupid file format, soo

I installed it on my dads laptop ran it in admin mode and it worked Completely fine, but was trying to play the intro in an external program " which was alittle, weird haha"

then installing it on my and the intro wasn't happening .... only difference between the 2 laptops was a graphics card in my and his with onboard.

SOOO I disabled my Graphics card Restarted my Pc, Ran the game in admin Mode and LOW AND BE HOLD IT WORKS !!!!!! the intro just can't deal with proper graphics cards I take it.... Hope this works for as many people as poss cause When it finally worked, 6 hours later I ran round the front room skanking my tits off

I also downloaded all the direct xs going back years and a basic bundle of codecs " for the intro "

hope this helps guys :)xx

[faultyD]

I've been trying it works but the Graphic fails after about ten mins, quikish solution, save exit to map, select stage, and load work and I don't mind as long as I can play!
We should have all seen or tried that 1. Shot and the dungeon must always survive!!

I think it might be an issues with some graphics card or drivers, I got the 9800GT XFX and using win7 32bit with quad core processor. The only way it worked for me was to disable the card in device manager, restart and it works, the 3d file doesn't even wana play when I do that tho but thats obvious.

lewisstevens1 try this and see if it will work for you, dosbox doesn't work so nice for me this worked better. Just remember when the colours spaz out just save and load the stage again it will come back.

My solution was not running it in compatability mode at all, i dont know
why but it works, no problems at all, but it may not work for everybody.
Now im trying to get 3d to work :P

im also having the same problem, ive tried that dosbox but it doesnt
work, as its like not able to run in dos mode, ive tried dungeon keeper
1 and 2, none work, i tried all the put in admin mode ect, its not
working, ive tried copying onto the desktop ect... when i run the
program it just appears and is blank, nothing i can do... it sort of
freezes, i tried the run in like whateva colours checkbox also.