Ok so... I can use hardware mode but I'm getting a lot of stuttering and a few graphical errors on moving 3D objects. I have an onboard Nvidia Ion chipset on my netbook which is 256mb with a 1.8ghz processor and 3gb of RAM, surely that should be enough to get a decent framerate? I've tried altering the resolution down from 1280x720 to 800x600 but it's still juddering along.

Using software mode is not a valid solution.... I could have played my original copy like that in a virtual OS without buying GOG's copy. I bought this one specifically to enjoy on my netbook.

I found on the original cd following in the readme.txt

DIRECT3D AMMENDMENTS
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Problem: The game freezes ramdomly, but always when I'm using the mouse.

There is a potential conflict with the drivers of your 3D Hardware Card and the framerate independant mouse used in Populous: The Beginning. To solve this problem, you can disable the mouse by adding the following commandline option -frameratemouse.

To do this, click on the Start button and select Run. Type the following into the box (depending on where you installed Populous):

e.g. c:\program files\bullfrog\populous\populous.exe -frameratemouse

or add the -frameratemouse option to a shortcut if you've already created one.

Hi thanks but it's not just when I'm using the mouse, it happens on the intros too which is weird because the map screen is fine. I will try that though and see if it works.