**FIGURED IT OUT, DETAILS AT BOTTOM**

Gog's version of Age of Wonders (the first) crashes immediately after getting to the menu. This is strange, as I have the original game on cd and it starts up without any problems on the same system, although I remember there being some minor graphical issues in-game.

Computer is running Win7 X64 with an AMD HD4870 1GB video card. My current video drivers are Catalyst 11.6

Things tried so far:
-disabling all background programs (I have a seperate user account just for this)
-disabling windows aero (see above)
-running the executables in every single compatibility mode available
-setting sound to 41000 khz 16bit
-trying all of the above with directsound off/intro video off and windowed mode enabled.
Edit: also tried running as admin

I would really appreciate any help!

Edit the second: Previewing a map through the editor does work. Still won't let me play though. Yarrr




Turns out I needed to add an exception for AoW in Data Execution Prevention. Quote from the very helpful poster Riaktion below:

you might need to disable Data Execution Prevention (DEP) when running Age of Wonders, well at least it worked for me.... always seems to cause issues on these older games when running 64 bit Vista in particular.
Don't worry, you aren't disabling this for all things everywhere if you are concerned your turning off something vital, it will only be turned off while playing AoW... or indeed anything else you decide to turn it off for!
Do the following:
1. Go to the control panel
2. Click on "Classic view" on the left of the control panel window (if you don't already have it set to this)
3. Double click on "System"
4. Click on "Advanced system settings" on the left
5. Click the "Advanced tab" (it might open up on this)
6. Under "Performance" click the "Settings" button
7. Click the "Data Execution Prevention" tab
8. Make sure the "Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select" dot selection thing is ticked/dotted.
9. Click "Add" at the bottom, and navigate to your AoW installation... and add "AoW.exe"
10. Do the same for "AoWCompat.exe" also
11. Click OK and close the windows etc!
And it should work fine! If it doesn't, my compatibility settings for AoW are on:
Windows NT 4.0 (Service pack 5)
And I have the "Disable desktop composition" ticked.
Hope that helps!

I don't crash on startup, but every hour or so, the game crashes. The culprit is one of the following each time:

* AoWCompat.exe
* "Exception during MapViewer.ShowScene"

Random crash, never caused by the same thing twice. Takes about an hour each time. Self-replenishing error message until I close with Task Manager.

I haven't found the same error on the board, but it's similar enough that I might try the same fix as what's listed here.

I have a Windows 7 desktop and a Windows 8 (Surface Pro), and both machines get the same errors.

Oh, if you've already tried compatibility mode, try changing your resolution or colours.

Assuming you are running as administrator, which you should be doing anyway.

I did this and it works perfectly fine.

Thanks, game runs flawless now!

I've updated PCGamingWiki's page on the game, with you as a reference, of course.