Unable to start?

[Cool Robot (RIP)]

I bought this earlier, and i cant start the game, it crashes on start, and im using win 10. any help?

[Jakub Majewski (Quarto)]

Hi!

I have yet to try the game on Windows 10 myself, and I don't think anyone else has mentioned problems with Windows 10 either. However, I wouldn't be surprised if there was indeed a problem. The game was, after all, made not only before Windows 10, but even before Windows 8 - and was designed for an earlier version of DirectX than what is used in the new Windowses.

These issues may be solvable, by using compatibility mode. Find the executable for Dogfight 1942, and try running it in compatibility mode - you can let Windows autodetect which settings are best, but probably if you set it to XP SP3, that should work. Most likely. If it doesn't, that would mean either that the problem is something else entirely, or it would mean that the problem is too deep to resolve this way.

Unfortunately, if there are any deeper compatibility issues, that's the way it will remain, because the publisher no longer supports this product in any way, and really hasn't supported it for years. As far as I know, none of us who worked on the game are still employed there.

Oh, and one other thing while on the subject. If you do get the game running, I very, very strongly recommend that you exit immediately, set the date back to 2012, and only then go back in to play the game. Don't forget to then restore the date to 2016 after you finish playing. The reason you need to do this is because of a very, very embarrassing bug - apparently, our programmers left the SpeedTree middleware in the game running on a temporary license rather than the final license that should have been in there. Since the temporary license was set to run out at the end of 2012, if the date of your PC is later than 2012, you will not see any trees in the game. It's such an embarrassing thing, I still can't believe it's true :P.

[hagakuremoi]

I have the same problem, The game worked in windows 8.1 64x, now I have a new laptop with Win 10 and the game stops at the loading screen, compatibility mode doesn't work in any version win 7, win 8, win xp

[Firetripper]

Lucky, I cant even get passed the epic stupid intro.

[Axe]

Just reinstalled on what is to the game a new install on win10 and it works fine.

As no one has said much pertinent to what they have tried then can I just add some basic advice like have you verified your game files and installed all the things in the 'Win32Libs' folder?

My PC specs:

Manufacturer: System manufacturer
Model: System Product Name
Form Factor: Desktop
No Touch Input Detected

Processor Information:
CPU Vendor: GenuineIntel
CPU Brand: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz
CPU Family: 0x6
CPU Model: 0x5e
CPU Stepping: 0x3
CPU Type: 0x0
Speed: 4008 Mhz
8 logical processors
4 physical processors
HyperThreading: Supported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Supported
SSE4a: Unsupported
SSE41: Supported
SSE42: Supported
AES: Supported
AVX: Supported
CMPXCHG16B: Supported
LAHF/SAHF: Supported
PrefetchW: Unsupported

Operating System Version:
Windows 10 (64 bit)
NTFS: Supported
Crypto Provider Codes: Supported 311 0x0 0x0 0x0

Video Card:
Driver: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080
DirectX Driver Name: nvldumd.dll
Driver Version: 24.21.13.9882
DirectX Driver Version: 24.21.13.9882
Driver Date: 7 30 2018
OpenGL Version: 4.6
Desktop Color Depth: 32 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 59 Hz
DirectX Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080
VendorID: 0x10de
DeviceID: 0x1b80
Revision: 0xa1
Number of Monitors: 2
Number of Logical Video Cards: 2
No SLI or Crossfire Detected
Primary Display Resolution: 2560 x 1440
Desktop Resolution: 4480 x 1440
Primary Display Size: 23.50" x 13.23" (26.97" diag)
59.7cm x 33.6cm (68.5cm diag)
Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
Primary VRAM: 8191 MB
Supported MSAA Modes: 2x 4x 8x

Sound card:
Audio device: Speakers (Realtek High Definitition)

Memory:
RAM: 16317 Mb

Miscellaneous:
UI Language: English
Media Type: DVD
Game Controller: None detected
VR Headset: None detected

-------------------

I'm doing some new installs of some older games on my new win10 PC at the moment and am passing on some info that might help others on other game threads at present.

[hagakuremoi]

I forgot to post it but maybe a week later the game worked for no reason

[Axe]

Great. All this may help others in the future :-)

[SpiritFire]

doesnt load up for me either

[BC100Dev]

Check your PC / Laptop Stats and Game Stats to your PC / Laptop. If does not work either, then see on YouTube or Google / Bing

[Axe]

My god a 3 year necro!

[Smeagler Deagler]

The game will not start with an external monitor attached. Buggy garbage

[TrashPanda]

Writing from 2025 :P
Just bought the game and was bumping into the same issue as you guys: game would simply crash on startup.
Solution was to run it window mode!

Then, to make it full screen, I simply ran Windowed Borderless Gaming!

[[250.ª] Taget]

Originally posted by TrashPanda:

Writing from 2025 :P
Just bought the game and was bumping into the same issue as you guys: game would simply crash on startup.
Solution was to run it window mode!

Then, to make it full screen, I simply ran Windowed Borderless Gaming!

worked for me, thank you

Windows 11 user.

[jonathan]

Originally posted by TrashPanda:

Writing from 2025 :P
Just bought the game and was bumping into the same issue as you guys: game would simply crash on startup.
Solution was to run it window mode!

Then, to make it full screen, I simply ran Windowed Borderless Gaming!

This worked 1st try. Good advice Thanks