Strange colors and Windows 7 problems solution
Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 11:18 am
Found a solution for the 'strange colors' problem on a Russian site:
http://shura.luberetsky.ru/2009/12/29/w ... arye-igry/
(check the link if you can read Russian )
In a glance, the strange colors appear due to incompatibility between MoO2 (windows version) and recent versions of DirectDraw. To make DirectDraw run in a compatible mode for MoO, you need to make these steps:
1. Run regedit.exe
2. Open the HKLM/Software/Microsoft/DirectDraw/Compatibility folder
3. Create a folder named MoO2 (or whatever)
4. Create two binary keys, named ID and Flags, and a string key named Name
5. In the Name key, fill the name of MoO executable, usually Orion95.exe
6. In the Flags key, fill 00 08 00 00
7. In the ID key, fill the DirectDraw ID of the game. For my MoO2 v1.31, it was cb 82 39 33. If you have other version, do these steps to determine the ID:
a. Run Orion95.exe with administrator rights, look at the strange colors and close it.
b. Look the ID up in HKLM/Software/Microsoft/DirectDraw/MostRecentApplication
c. Reverse the byte order of the ID. In my case, it was 0x333982cb, drop the 0x part, then separate the 8 characters into 4 two-character groups - 33 39 82 cb. Then just reverse their order to get cb 82 39 33 or whatever you get.
8. You should have the parameters filled like this:
Flags 00 08 00 00
ID cb 82 39 33
Name Orion95.exe
9. Run the Orion95.exe executable and see the colors all right.
You don't need to shutdown explorer.exe or tweak compatibility settings for the executable.
By the way, the method also works for other old games - there are Starcraft and Diablo examples in the Compatibility folder already, I have also tweaked the Diablo: Hellfire and Starcraft: Brood war add-ons, both worked fine.
This worked on both my PCs running Windows 7.
http://shura.luberetsky.ru/2009/12/29/w ... arye-igry/
(check the link if you can read Russian )
In a glance, the strange colors appear due to incompatibility between MoO2 (windows version) and recent versions of DirectDraw. To make DirectDraw run in a compatible mode for MoO, you need to make these steps:
1. Run regedit.exe
2. Open the HKLM/Software/Microsoft/DirectDraw/Compatibility folder
3. Create a folder named MoO2 (or whatever)
4. Create two binary keys, named ID and Flags, and a string key named Name
5. In the Name key, fill the name of MoO executable, usually Orion95.exe
6. In the Flags key, fill 00 08 00 00
7. In the ID key, fill the DirectDraw ID of the game. For my MoO2 v1.31, it was cb 82 39 33. If you have other version, do these steps to determine the ID:
a. Run Orion95.exe with administrator rights, look at the strange colors and close it.
b. Look the ID up in HKLM/Software/Microsoft/DirectDraw/MostRecentApplication
c. Reverse the byte order of the ID. In my case, it was 0x333982cb, drop the 0x part, then separate the 8 characters into 4 two-character groups - 33 39 82 cb. Then just reverse their order to get cb 82 39 33 or whatever you get.
8. You should have the parameters filled like this:
Flags 00 08 00 00
ID cb 82 39 33
Name Orion95.exe
9. Run the Orion95.exe executable and see the colors all right.
You don't need to shutdown explorer.exe or tweak compatibility settings for the executable.
By the way, the method also works for other old games - there are Starcraft and Diablo examples in the Compatibility folder already, I have also tweaked the Diablo: Hellfire and Starcraft: Brood war add-ons, both worked fine.
This worked on both my PCs running Windows 7.