Windows 10

[DankWestern]

Hi, game just opens a black screen then closes, any suggestions?

[HiFive]

Some things to try:

6/13/2020 posted by HiFive

If you've been playing the game recently and suddenly the game stops loading for you, it's possible that the file for your most recently played character got corrupted. This happened to me (The game got stuck on the font loading screen. I couldn't exit out of the loading screen and had to reboot my computer.). I went into the game files and deleted my newest character save and the game loaded fine. I lost my character but at least, after about 5 attempts at different fixes, I was finally able to start the game. I'll be keeping two different saves of my characters from now on, e.g., Elf 1, Elf 2.

Originally posted by HiFive:

Update 8/11/2021:

The game didn't load again today. I went through all the usual steps, and restarted my computer at least 4 times, again. Then I deleted my most recent save and still had to restart my computer. I deleted the save prior to that one and that also didn't work. I finally decided that maybe the game (or Steam?) doesn't like me having so many saved characters in the save file, so I deleted all of them. Success! The game finally loaded!

I then decided to exit the game and restore my exported characters that have completed the story and are ready to replay on higher difficulties or use for the Underworld Campaign. The game still loaded! Since I don't really need the old characters that have completed the Ancaria Campaign, I decided not to restore those saved games and just keep their exported versions.

What bothers me is that I played this game for a number of years before I joined Steam, and I leveled every single class and played each one multiple times on different difficulties and on the Underworld Campaign, and I don't recall ever having this issue. Maybe I deleted the unnecessary saves more often back then (?), but I don't think I ever had a problem loading the game in those days.

Final thoughts: Delete the save for your character after you have exported it and completed the Ancaria Campaign. Don't let a lot of unnecessary saves build up in the game's Save folder.

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If you are brand new to the game:

From your Steam Library, right click on Sacred Gold. Choose "Properties". Now click on the "Local Files" tab. Choose "Browse Local Files", then double-click on "Config.exe". Now check the 32-bit box.

For some people, they keep trying different combinations of checked boxes in the config.exe file until the game finally runs properly.

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If that doesn't work, there are a few other steps you can add to the routine (per someone else):

Right-click the game button in the library and select Properties.
Go to Local Files.
Check the integrity of the game files.
Browse Local Files.
Open Config.exe.
Change the ticks so that only 32 Bit Color Depth,Filter Active ,Filter (Anti-aliasing), and Video Compatibility Mode are.
Right-click Sacred.exe and select Properties.
Go to Compatibility and check Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows XP (Service Pack 2).
It should work now.

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Another person:

Here's how I got Sacred Gold running on Windows 10 64bit w/ a Nvidia GTX 670. I am running the retail copy which was already patched to 2.28 though.

1) Went to Sacred Gold installation folder and clicked on Config.exe

2) Set color mode to 32Bit.

3) Turned OFF all compatibility modes.

4) Disabled run as Administrator.

Booted up in full screen/widescreen no problem in like 5 seconds. Previously it would freeze on the loading screen when it got to "Fonts" with XP SP2/3 compatibility mode.

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Another person:

Disabling full screen got it to work for me.

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Another person with a more complete guide about additional fixes:

Shaidon has Sacred Gold 16 hours ago
Got the game running nicelly on Windows 10
I checked some guides here and did some testing, and this is what is working for now:

1. go to http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/dgVoodoo2.html and download the last stable dgVoodoo. What was version 2.61.
2. copy dgVoodooCpl.exe and dgVoodoo.conf to the game installation folder. I think the folder doesn't matter, but why not?
3. copy all dll from the MS\x86 folder to your game installation folder (D3D8.dll, D3D9.dll, D3DImm.dll, DDraw.dll).
4. I overwriten the D3D9.dll with the one from the x64 folder as well, not sure is if better or not.
5. go to the Sacred Gold installation folder and execute Config.exe. Only have Fullscreen, Play Movies, 32 Bit Color Depth, Sound Activated toggled. Filter Active (AA) will create some blue lines in a few areas, and VCM will black screen videos.
6. execute dgVoodooCpl.exe that you set in the installation folder. At the top click Add and select the Sacred Gold Installation folder.
7a. at the general tab I selected my video card (Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti), and at Full Screen Output, DISPLAY1.
7b. Appearance: Fullscreen, although Windowed would make no difference. Scaling Mode at Stretched 4:3 Aspect Ratio. Other options will make the visuals look darker or too small and stretched.
8a. at DirectX tab keep dgVoodoo Virtual 3D Accelerated Card, change the VRAM if you want, I set mine to 2048 Mb.
8b. Texture: Filtering set to App driven, Resolution Unforced, Antialiasing (MSAA) Off. Any of these 3 options will break the textures of the game by creating some grid lines. I used the Nvidia Control Panel to toggle the filtering options, although didn't noticed any huge difference.
Remember to click on apply/OK after all the changes.
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another person

5/11/2020
Mr.Krant has Sacred Gold
Add a new line with "WAITRETRACE : 0" without the quotes to your Settings.cfg and STEAM_Settings.cfg files inside the Sacred Gold folder.

[DankWestern]

Wow, that's quite the wall of text there, thank you. I'm by no means new to this game, just trying to revisit a classic from my childhood.

[HiFive]

Originally posted by DankWestern:

Wow, that's quite the wall of text there, thank you. I'm by no means new to this game, just trying to revisit a classic from my childhood.

Yes, I collect solutions to problems for my favorite games. I have a good size library of stuff now.

[madgamer2]

I have many hours ingame but stopped playing it because for me it just had to many errors. I think it just does not work well with latter OS's. Of the two games the second one works better

[HiFive]

There are many, many people who have no problem getting the game to run on Windows 10, using one of the methods listed above.

[fester1]

Colour mode set to 32bit fixed the issue for me.