My Game seems to install fine, but when it checks the disc for copy protection the progress bar goes about halfway, the screen flashes grey and goes to desktop. Have emailed tech-support, but thought I would post here to see if anyone has had the same problem....and if so, how did you fix it? Thanx...

Bert -- this sounds very similar to a problem I've been having. There's a FAQ thread on the Revolution tech support forum that you can check out here . Most of these tweaks are easy to do, though I have hesitated at the idea of using old video card drivers -- this strikes me as having to go to far just to get a game to play.

There's also another thread in this forum where people are having a similar problem .

I'm hoping that Revolution figures out what's going on soon and issues a patch. It is really frustrating not to be able to play this game!

Thanx for the links Becky, There where a couple solutions I had'nt tried, But no such luck they did'nt work either. I'll just have to wait for tech-support to reply. If they come up with something that works, I'll post on this thread.
Thanx again.....

If the progress bar on the copy "protection" isn't getting all the way across, it sounds more like a copy "protection" problem incompatibility than anything else.

Now if the progress bar got all the way across and THEN you got a black screen or some other problem, then I'd suspect it could be due to another cause.

Jenny100 -- someone on the Revolution tech support board with this same problem has just discovered that in the registry entry for BS3, the refresh rate is set to 0. (Wasn't there another game recently with this problem? Journey to the Center of the Earth maybe?)

Anyway, he has posted steps to edit the registry to set the refresh rate at 60. I've never edited the registry before. Do you think I should try this, or wait for the patch?

Yes it was Journey to the Center of the Earth that had the refresh rate wrong. But with Journey, the game started and played fine other than the videos. And it wasn't that you'd get a black screen or anything on the videos. They'd play, but they'd be all jerky and spastic. The problem wasn't with the copy "protection" preventing the game from starting (I don't know what type of copy "protection" Journey uses).

Are you talking about this thread , Becky?

That guy had a slightly different symptom from Bert's problem. Dagor said the game froze with a blank window on his desktop, not that "when it checks the disc for copy protection the progress bar goes about halfway, the screen flashes grey and goes to desktop."

If you're having a problem similar to Dagor's, it might be a good idea to check your registry. But if the game isn't even getting past the copy "protection," you'd need a crack.

Jenny100 -- I should read more carefully! Yes, as far as I can tell, the game on my computer DOES get past copy protection.

What is your opinion of a rank amateur editing the registry? I've never done it before and it scares me to death.

Well I heard back from adventure companies tech-support, And they said I need to update my video and possibly my audio card. I thought I had a 64meg video card, but I dragged out the paperwork on my puter and its 32megs. I guess I'll just save the game for another month or year....bummer...

Becky, you can back up your registry first if you're going to make changes.

You may also just want to look and see what's there.
If you can't figure out what needs changing, it would be best to just leave it.

Jenny100 -- is regedit the only way to look at the registry? Or is there a way to look at it that doesn't give you the option of also editing (so you can't accidentally change anything)?.

There may be some utilities that allow you to look at it, but I don't know of them.

Regedit is not so bad. Just don't change or delete anything.

Just an update...., I ended up updating my video driver through windows update, and the game works!!! now...shame on tech support for trying to get me to buy a new video card..They must have stock in the companies that produce them...

It will be interesting to see if you're able to play the game all the way through with a 32 MB video card. I can't blame Dreamcatcher for suggesting you get a 64 MB card when Revolution, the company that created the game, said it needed a 64 MB card.

Good luck.

Gee, Thanx for that optomistic spirit there jenny.... Hope you have a merry christmas....