Any Way to Get GCII Ultimate to work in Windows 7?

Help!

from Stardock Forums

I have Windows 7 64 Bit, and Gal Civ II Ultimate Edition.

Whenever I try to run the game, it doesn't start. The screen goes black as if to go to the cinematics, but then it crashes and goes back to windows with the message "Galactic Civilizations II has stopped working". I used to be able to get the cinematics before it crashed, but then I downloaded the 2.03 update and now I don't even get the cinematics!

 

Is there any way to get it to work? I see on the Windows website it's listed as incompatible, but everyone here seems to be running it fine.

 

10,022 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

HAHA, I solved it!!

 

I'm so happy right now.

 

Installing the update fixed the problem, but I had accidentally introduced a new problem to make it look like it was still broken.

 

All I had to do was unplug my second monitor!

 

 

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

You can also run the game in windowed mode at the resolution of your primary. It'll look fullscreen but shouldn't have any issue.

The Political Machine 2024
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

What does this mean? 

I am unfamiliar with Stardock but GalCiv looks very interesting. I haven't used a Windows machine in a dozen yers but finally got a W7/64 bit machine to try games other than WoW or EVE.  

I looked and the system requirements say Vista. Some software vendors are cool; and some have pre-sales people who say sure it works on X but then when you contact support, they say X is not supported.

 

Are there many W7 users for GalCiv? I am not looking for a debugging/configuration/crashing/driver nightmare.

 

TIA

 

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I use GalCiv 2 on Windows 7 without any significant problems. I do have a crash occasionally (not often), but with the autosave it's not a big deal. Two things I would recommend:

1. Update DirectX after installing GC2.

2. Run as an administrator

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I've been playing the demo in win 7 64 bit. Make sure you run as administrator (right click desktop icon).

Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

What's "Ultimate"?  Does it have all the GC2 expansions, and is it itself a further expansion?

 

What does it cost to upgrade from vanilla DL to Ultimate, or do I not want to go that route?

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Obz3hL33t, reply 6
What's "Ultimate"?  Does it have all the GC2 expansions, and is it itself a further expansion?

 

What does it cost to upgrade from vanilla DL to Ultimate, or do I not want to go that route?

Yes. Ultimate is GCII plus all expansions.

You can upgrade your vanilla with the expansion bundle for $29.95 USD here As far as I know you wouldn't be able to "upgrade" to ultimate without just buying it. But if you get the expansions you will have everything ultimate has anyway.

Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I play GCII on Windows 7 64 bit. I installed my version of the game via Impulse. The only issue I had was that I had to enable the hardware mouse as the in-game software one did not work well. I'm sure that is just my hardware though. As heft posted above, just make sure your DX is updated, and that your device drivers are updated and working.

Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

I am using both Windowed Mode and Hardware Mouse and yet it's not working on my machine.  :waaaa: .  :'(  

Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Impulse doesn't handle GC anymore.  That's the new Game Stop software that they have.  And, there's no updates for it which will enable the game to work on my machine.  I don't know what's wrong.  It used to work on my older PC, but I hadn't played it in a very LOOONG time and suddenly it's broken on my new machine!   

Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top

Please open your debug.err file in notepad, and copy/paste the contents into a post here. This will give us some technical information that can help troubleshoot your problem. The location you'll find the debug.err in varies depending on which game you're playing:

Dread Lords: My Documents\My Games\GalCiv2
Dark Avatar: My Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar
Twilight of the Arnor: My Documents\My Games\GC2TwilightArnor

Older versions may store the debug directly in the location the game is installed at.

Be sure to copy the debug immediately after the error occurs; if you start the game again, the debug will be erased and recreated for the new session.