No matter if I run it on my Win7 box or in my WinXP VM it seems to run at a very low bit-depth. There is a significant amount of dithering and it's very difficult to see any differences in the terrain.

Is there any way you can force a different bit-depth in the ini?

The game was made for 8-bit color (in its own palette), so the best you can do is set Directdraw=0, but that won't help if you actually want to see the Secret Project movies. :(

I can see them just fine. But it may be this 3rd party patch I'm using (and using that directdraw line):

http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=56203&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

It's hilarious watching the VM window go from 1280x1024 to like 800x600 when it plays those movies.

But take a look at the screenshots that guy posted a few down that page. Those look WAY better then anything I can see in game. Dunno if that's due to him running a different bit of art or what.

The pictures on that page are how the game is meant to look

Right. My colors seem off for some reason and I can't figure it out.

The game is still fun at least.

Can you post a screenshot?

I had a color issue as well. Please change the properties of your SMAC game launcher icon. Underneath the "compatibility" tab please check the "Run in 640 x 480 screen resolution" box, then hit the "OK" button. Try launching the game now.

Did that fix your problem?

Yes, but afterwards you'll be back to the 8-bit color palette rather than the 24-bit/32-bit one on your desktop.