Fixing old DirectX 2D Games in Windows 7 like StarCraft

Problem:
StarCraft on Windows 7 causes a complete lockup of the keyboard, mouse and video, usually around 20 minutes into the game.  Background programs (such as Skype and MSN) still work, but a hard reset is required to recover.

Workaround:
Start StarCraft with a batch file that kills Explorer before launching the game.  The contents below are for an x64 installation of Windows 7.

rem First kill Explorer.exe, which messes up our colors in StarCraft
taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe

rem Change to the StarCraft directory to make sure we run normally!
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\Starcraft"

rem Please note that /affinity 1 makes sure we only use our first core
rem Using all cores for StarCraft.exe can lead to crashes in Windows 7
cmd.exe /C start /affinity 1 "C:\Program Files (x86)\Starcraft\StarCraft.exe"

rem Wait for the game to quit, press Enter to continue
pause

rem Restart Explorer.exe and WallRotate, that's it!
start explorer.exe
exit

 

Details/Source:
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=100847055&mpage=1&key=&#100928703
http://www.evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=100797014&mpage=1&key=?
http://benjaminnitschke.com/2009/06/25/FixingOldDirectX2DGamesInWindows7LikeStarCraft.aspx

Posted on September 25, 2009 17:43 by administrator tagged , categories blog
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Comments (7) -

November 18. 2009 08:10

" This was fixed in Windows 7 RTM."


No, it wasn't.


Still happens for many people.


February 25. 2010 03:43

Thanks! this worked for Fighters Anthology on windows 7 64bit. The colors were messed up, and with your method, it comes up perfectly !!!


SmileSmile amazing !


March 23. 2010 02:46

Hey buddy! This also worked for Jane's Fighters Anthology in Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit. I also put Windows XP SP2 compatibility mode, and running at 1024x768 resolution, it works perfectly!


However I changed the affinity 1, I removed it, and still works, so the problem is the explorer.exe in windows7.


I'm trying to get Jane's F15 to work but no luck yet. I will keep trying different things. Thank you very much for correcting this error, bug or mistake with old DirectX games.


April 12. 2010 01:49

While I see this is an old article, I want to comment:


I copy-pasted the command-script you have there, but all it happens is it closes explorer.exe and opens another CMD window (not executing the game). If I close it (or just click on the first one) I see the press-any-key-to-continue and the explorer starts back like nornal.


I'm using Windows 7 x64 (on a laptop), any idea what's going on? I cant even see the intro cinematic >.< (I undertand a lot about computers and I tried almost everything imaginable to play it)


May 16. 2010 16:30

can someone explain in more detail, how do I create batch command?


what all that rem command?


I also want to play FA on 7 64 bit...


November 19. 2010 03:51

DonLduk

For Fighters Anthology fix, create a batch that executes your FA.exe file.



(to create a batch, open note pad, and put "save as", then type the extension mybatch.bat yourself, or activate "view extensions" in your windows explorer, and manually change the extension of a text file .txt to a batch file .bat)

then insert this into the batch file



************************
rem First kill Explorer.exe, which messes up our colors
taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe

rem Change to the FA directory to make sure we run normally!
cd "D:\Games\fa"

rem Please note that makes sure we only use our first core
rem Using all cores for FA.exe can lead to crashes in Windows 7
cmd.exe /C start D:\Games\fa\Fa.exe

rem Wait for the game to quit, press Enter to continue
pause

rem Restart Explorer.exe and WallRotate, that's it!
start explorer.exe
exit


************************

DonLduk

December 30. 2010 07:42

Scyfox

I've tried this and worked like wonder:

***
taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
cd C:\Progra~1\Starcraft\
cmd.exe /C start /affinity 1 C:\Progra~1\Starcraft\StarCraft.exe
pause
start explorer.exe
exit
***

I changed "cd C:\Program Files (x86)\StarCraft" to "cd C:\Progra~1\Starcraft\" because win 7 was getting a NOT FOUND error. I figured it was because cmd.exe can't read the "space" character. So i turned to the old progra~1 witch is the 8char long version of the same folder.

Then I made a Desktop Shortcut pointing at my batch file wich I called "SCLauncher.bat" and placed it on a RocketBar Tong  Works like wonder.

Using Win7 64b. No issues at all.

Scyfox

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