AGS games are not working on my computer

[EsmeAmelia]

I'm not sure if this should go under Hints and Tips or Technical Questions, but anyway, I recently brought a new computer and I can't play AGS games on it. Every time I try to play them I get a blank screen which doesn't disappear until I bring up the Start menu, then I can see the main menu with a frozen cursor, but I can't move the cursor at all. I can't use ALT-F4 to close it either - I have to force it to close with the Task Manager.

I have Windows 7 (64-bit). I would really appreciate some help!

[Khris]

Try running them in Compatibility mode. Right-click the exe, click on Properties, then go to the Compatibility mode tab and try XP.

[poc301]

Might possibly also want to check the video resolution, and make sure you're running it in a window and not full screen.

-Bill

[EsmeAmelia]

I tried both, neither worked. And choosing to run in a window gave me a window that was so teeny tiny that I couldn't see anything. 

[Igor Hardy]

I tried both, neither worked. And choosing to run in a window gave me a window that was so teeny tiny that I couldn't see anything. 

You can double or even triple the size of the window in each game's setup settings. Just run winsetup.exe and set it there.

[EsmeAmelia]

I know it's been a while, but my computer recently got wiped clean and I thought I'd give AGS games another go. So I redownloaded A Tale of Two Kingdoms and I'm still having the same problem - frozen cursor on the main menu.

[m0ds]

Some previous recommendations.

1. One possible problem is display driver. Try updating your graphics card's driver and/or DirectX9 (NOT DX10 or DX11 or whatever, as DX9 is installed together with DX10/11 in Vista/7 you may need to update DX9 separately).

2. Run the games' setup and try to use the D3D9 rendering engine instead of DX5 (or vice versa) and try out different window settings too.

3. If there are some weird settings with nonsense names such as "Entertainment Mode" in your system, try to change it.

Next one applies specifically to the developer of A Tale Of Two Kingdoms:

I know for sure that Radiant (who made Indiana Rodent) prefers using an older version of AGS (2.7 or something). Could that cause the problems? Have you tried running a game made with a recent
version of AGS (3.x onwards)- if I remember correctly they have better "driver support".

The problem seems to be with directdraw and new laptops with intel integrated graphics.  I ended up getting the games to work using virtualbox.  I will outline the steps I went through for others who are having this problem.  Try this if changing battery settings, installing directx9, and changing your graphics settings doesn't work.  I am including as much detail as I can remember to try to make it easy for anyone to do.

- Download and install virtualbox.  It is a free program, you can get it here: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

- You then need to install a copy of windows xp in virtualbox.  You need a valid product key and either a physical xp installation cd or an iso.  You can try using the product key found on the sticker on the back of your old xp computer if you have one and your old installation cd.

- If your old xp cd isn't service pack 3 you will need to update it.  The automatic update feature from xp service pack 1 isn't supported anymore, so you need to download it here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=24 and install it.

- You then need to make sure you have directx9 installed on your virtual xp.  Download and run the directx web installer found here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=35

My brother had that problem and all we had to do is simply right click the exe and click run as admin, because of win7 security garbage.

I also had problems on running AGS games on my win7,but I have found another method that seems to work for me,just right click on the AGS games and go to properties,then go to the "compatibility" and Run in 256 color.Well it work for me and a fast method too if you don't want to download Virtualbox and go install win XP.Hope this help.

P.S:Running as admin didn't work for me.

A couple more at the bottom of http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=45097.0

Good luck!