I bought both Tie-Fighter ans X-Wing recently and while the original and the collector's edition work fine for both games, I can't get the 1998 special edition to launch.

C++
Error R6030
CRT not Initialized

I get this error for both games.
Did anybody manage to work around this problem ?

I'm using a 32-bit XP SP3 laptop.

Have you heard from anyome? I'm having the same issue

Did you try installing vcredist?

Same problem on my PC running XP SP3 32-bit.
Even (re-)installing all of the several MS VC++ redist packages
(2005, 2008 SP1, 2010 SP1, 2012 Upd4, 2013 and 2015) did not solve the problem.
Could any one make it run under XP 32-bit? And how?

On the same PC, I've got another partition running Win 7 Ultimate 32-bit.
There, X-Wing 1998 starts and runs without any error messages or problems!
I don't know why.

So if it's an option for you to replace XP by Win 7 (or install it in parallel),
there's probably a good chance to play the game this way :-)

I wish I could help, but I am having the same problem. I've tried on two different Windows XP SP3 PCs, both with fresh OS installs. One PC had a VIA chipset, the other had an Intel chipset. They both have nvidia graphics cards with the latest drivers. I tried Visual C++ 2005 and 2012. I've tried installing the optional .NET 4. No luck.

Windows 7 is not an option for me. I specifically have a retro PC with Windows XP that I use for GOG games. So far this is the only one that is not working.

I checked GOG's system requirements:
Minimum system requirements - Windows: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10, 1.8 GHz Processor, 1 GB RAM, 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended), Mouse, Keyboard, Controller/Joystick (only the 1998 version)

and I have everything on there.

Did you ever get this working?

I don't have any XP, but if there is a ddraw.dll in the game folder I'd try moving or renaming it.
Just in case it's not compatible with XP, after all it is a wrapper intended for newer systems (hopefully XP will not need it).

Well, son-of-a-gun! That fixed it. Thanks, Reimar!

Renaming ddraw.dll to bad_ddraw.dll is indeed enough to get it going. Thanks a million, Reimar, and all the other people who discarded, it seems, all the other possibilities!

Holy crap it works... well sorta.
I can get Tie-Fighter 1998 running but X-Wing 1998 gives me a new error message "XWing95.exe has run into a problem and must close"

Oh well... win some lose some

I am having exactly the same issue.

Renaming the ddraw.dll will start the game but I lose the cursor, making this solution useless.

I uninstalled the game then reinstalled it and changed the ddraw file and now everything works.
It's like a reset, you don't need to know WHY it works, you just need it to work.

:)

Running the exe with -softwarecursor or turning it on from the launcher's Advanced Options should restore the cursor.