display problem - flashing background and wrong color

[zynesthesia]

hi everybody,

first of all sorry if this question has been asked. i search and could not find anything.

i'm just starting to make my first game (really just running through the tutorial).  i made a simple background in paint and imported it into my first room. it is a 320 x 200 bitmap. i haven't changed any settings. when i run the game, the background is the wrong colors, stretched incorrectly, and flashing every half second or so.

is there a setting i need to adjust? i tried changing the graphic driver to direct3d, and this causes no background to be displayed at all. color depth is set to 16bit but i get the same problem with every option.

thanks for your help!