So I've been trying to get Warlords 3 to run on Win 7 for the last week or so. I ended up installing it via Windows XP Mode Virtual PC but it wouldn't run on that, error initializing direct draw. After searching for a solution and getting nowhere, I transferred it from the Virtual PC to my Windows 7. At first it would give me an error along the lines of 'low disk space, may cause problems' but I ran it anyways. Clicking 'New Campaign' or 'New Scenario' would result in the game crashing within a few seconds, however going into the Tutorial would not. I could play the tutorial just fine until I got right click happy to see what all the buttons are and my interface started to mess up until it eventually froze completely and I had to task manager my way out of it. I changed a couple compatibility settings and it stopped giving me the low disk space messages but otherwise nothing else changed. I have applied the 1.02 patches.
Anybody out there have this working on windows 7?

I have Warlords III: Darklords Rising on CD. I'll see whether I can get it running or not.
I favorited this topic so I (hopefully) won't forget.

Just a bit of an update, I tried again tonight to try and find anything and I can't seem to get anything to work. I loaded the game up again and got Random Map to work beyond the setup but only for a short while and it froze again. Curse you windows, why do you have to be such a pain in the ass!

Edit: Another update; I exported the registry from the virtual PC over to windows 7 and adjusted the values properly so now it knows the game and cd are where they should be which let me get into the campaign/skirmish without it crashing. The last problem I seem to be having is the error when I initially run the game that says I'm low on disk space and it eventually freezes after a few minutes of playing. So close to getting this to work flawlessly.

EditEdit: Well I did finally get it to run on VPC, had to turn off integrated features for it to support full screen directdraw. Sadly it's also freezing up after a few minutes of play just like it is if I run it from Win7. So I guess I no longer need VPC since it's functioning the same as in Win7. I hope there's some kind of fix for this sort of thing, that or I hope GoG releases Warlords 3 sometime soon. If you happen to figure anything out that would be fantastic otherwise I think I'm done trying to get this to work. Sad face indeed. Such a great game from my childhood, even though all I ever had was a demo of it I played the shit out of that demo!


Game is now working perfectly, turns out all I had to do after transferring the installed game to windows 7 and exporting/editing a proper registry for the game was set the compatibility to windows 95 and add -wincurs to the shortcut command line. Now I can finally enjoy this awesome game! Hopefully anybody else reading this can now get this game to run!

I didn't notice your edits and that you got the game to run. I installed the game to an XP virtual machine and moved it to Windows 7, but now "Single Player" and "Red Orb Zone" are disabled on the startup screen (I don't care so much about "Red Orb Zone").

Did you experience this, too? If so, what did you do to fix it? I found the 1.02 patches and applied them as well.

EDIT:
Never mind. I guess it disables those options when the CD is not in.

EDIT 2:
I have mine working now.
Updated to 1.02.
Applied no-cd patch.
Created a shortcut for darklord.exe
Added -wincursor command line argument to the shortcut.
Did not need to set any compatibility modes and if I used Win 95 or 98, it would crash when starting a campaign.

EDIT 3:
OK, got the color bug fixed by setting these compatibility options on the shortcut:
- Check "Run in 256 colors"
- Check "Disable desktop composition"

Then add Aqrit's ddwrapper with "ColorFix = 1" in aqrit.cfg

Hi!
The game on my Windows 7 PC does not work if I change compatibility settings. Any idea why?
That /WINCURSOR at the end of the target path in the shortcut properties do not work either. Maybe I'm placing it wrong, I don't know. It says it's not a valid target (destination) this:
"C:\Program Files\Red Orb Entertainment\Warlords III - Darklords Rising\Darklord.exe-wincursor"

The game only starts when I dont set any compatibility changes but it crashes after a minute playing.

Thanks for your help!

You are setting it wrong. It should be "C:\Program Files\Red Orb Entertainment\Warlords III - Darklords Rising\Darklord.exe" -wincursor
The quotes signify the file to run, and after the quotes you pass any arguments.

THANKS EVERYONE! I got it to work. *phew*

With my setup, I had to click "Change settings for all users" and change the Compatibility settings in that popup. I think it's because I run my games off flash drives. Everything worked fine in the staging area on my hard drive but broke once I moved the files to the flash drive. Thanks, everyone, for the help in getting this to work.