Yeah I was talking about MS.

Hmm, I think I prefer playing in a higher resolution, the game looks alright in software mode :)

I use the following .bat file to temporarily kill explorer:

REM -[ScriptName].bat
taskkill /F /IM Explorer.exe
mageslay.exe
start explorer.exe

Doing this gets rid of the rainbow colors.

This allows you to play in the 16-bit modes? I never really tried to get those modes to work, but maybe I should dig further. I personally dislike the "kill explorer" approach, but of course, whatever works works. :)

EDIT:
With the taskkill method, I get a "Cannot set D3D mode" message when trying to change modes in the game video options screen..

anyone had any luck with an old game Return Fire? I used to play it on win95

The game starts and runs fine using win compatibility mode set at win95 and 256 colours, but the colour pallet is all out. I've exhausted all avenues i can find to get the colours to appear properly.

I've tried:

ddhack10.zip
DirectDrawFix
PalettesealerSuspender
w7ddpatcher
ddwrapper
dxwnd
reg edits and task killers

i'm stumped!! i just want it to work without having to use things like virtualbox

i'm running win 8.1 64bit dx11 geforce drivers

any help would be awesome. i really want to play this game from my youth!!

I see there's a demo for it. I'll grab it sometime and see.

EDIT:
This game, right?

After checking "Run in 256 colors", I started the demo and it ran. The vehicle selection screen looked like the one on mobygames. I didn't notice any weird colors, except for Windows itself running in 256 color mode.

I'm running Windows 7 x64.

Anyone know if this is the same with windows 10?

Run it in Win xp sp2 mode it Works

Wow 702 days later...

I'm a bit late. I'm having same problems with Return Fire, colors broke af and no programs can fix it, I vaguely remember getting it to work before so there must be a way to do it...right?