Black-Screen on startup

[grody_antagonic]

Sadly I can't get the game to start at all.
All I get is a black-screen. I can see the ingame-cursor for a second, before it vanishes into the black abyss.^^
I tried running it in compatibility mode for Win 7 and XP + Admin Mode with no success. I also tried turning off steam-overlay and switching off movies and joystick in the config. No luck. I refunded for now, but would be great if this is gonna be fixed.

[Drake]

Sort of the same problem for me too. Intro videos play OK, but afterwards when auto-optimising video settings the game just went to a small black screen, with the message: "Unable to restore video mode"

Have manually run the Config exe file located at:

\Steam\steamapps\common\Operation Thunderstorm\

In order to set an initial lower resolution (1920x1440 x 32). Loading the game afterwards now shows the in-game menu. So far, so good.

Edit: this also occurred for The Royal Marines Commando game.

I'd love to see all the other older CI games on here: Armed Forces Corp., SAS Secure Tomorrow, etc.! :^)

(I think I spy The Hell In Vietnam screenshots on the store page - hint, hint?!)

[G66]

@weirdopuss

I purchased the game from Gamergate a couple of years ago. I also had the black screen. But I fixed it by re-installing it to a internal drive. Now it is fine.

I'm not sure if it will work for you but just stating what worked for me.

Good luck. It's one of those "It's so bad it's good" games. I played through it about 4 times in a row when I got it running. It's short, stupid, ugly, yet FUN.

@Drake

I also purchased the games you mentioned from Gamersgate and noticed that they DO NOT have to be run from a internal drive, they run from anywhere.

@Both

I'm not sure what operating system you're running but I have all these games on Windows 8.1 64bit. I have windows 10 also but never had a desire to put any games on it ... or use it ... for anything.

[Drake]

@Gergorian

I've only got the one SSD in my machine now that I use to install/run OS and games from. Haven't tried running from a secondary/backup drive. Good to know you still managed to get it working though. :)

I'm runnning: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit. The last OS I had before that was Win 7, which if I had a choice I'd go back to using as I never had any problems with it running most games. Win 10 is easy to use enough, just being forced to update is a bit of a pain but it's understandable.

I have a soft spot for obscure or less known FPS games. My favourite of the CI 'classic' line is Armed Forces Corp., but I like the Lithtech engine, so any games that are powered by it get my attention! (Besides, there are a lot worse games out there...)

[G66]

I'm not associated with Gamersgate in any way, but keep your eyes on them because that is where I got all the CI games mentioned as well as quite a few more for only 99 cents apiece. They have a repeat of the sale all the time. But the versions they have of these games do not include a Steam key and must be downloaded via their site. No DRM.

The other games I purchased there include all 3 of the Code of Honor games. Well, there is where I had a problem with the black screen yet audio problem. I was only able to get Code of Honor 3 : Desperate Measures to run out of the 3.

I check the game sites all the time. When the sale hits again I'll post it here. It's nice to see another CI games fan. Not the greatest games ever, but they sure can be alot of fun.

[grody_antagonic]

Originally posted by Gergorian:

It's one of those "It's so bad it's good" games. I played through it about 4 times in a row when I got it running. It's short, stupid, ugly, yet FUN.

Yea, I know.^^
Played a bunch of their low-budget shooters back when they came out. SAS Secure Tomorrow was probably my favourite among them. Best was, even though they just released back in the days, they were already low-budget for 5 to 10€ retail. Was pretty nice and a quick grab for me. Sure they were pretty bad, but fun for a while and super cheap, even at release date. I never regretted buying them. lol

[obsidian_whiskers]

Another possible solution regarding this black screen bug. I recently bought Operation Thunderstorm as a download from Gamersgate and experienced the same black screen directly on startup. The game wouldn’t even show the intros, no matter what I did, and kind of hung up / froze. The Config options were no help either. I’ve read a lot around, and got to the conclusion that probably in my case the intro videos couldn’t be played because of a wrong or missing codec, thus preventing the game start. So I did a bit of experimenting, and after some while I found the culprit: I still had a small codec pack installed from playing Never Alone (it also installs a pack called ‘LAV Filters’ for the documentary videos). After I uninstalled this codec pack, suddenly Operation Thunderstorm started completely flawlessly.

By the way, PCGamingwiki advises you to install the K-Lite codec pack to solve such black screen problems in these cases, but a word of caution, meanwhile K-Lite also seems to install Web Companion along with it without telling you or giving you a chance to opt-out, even in its Basic version. Also, too many codecs can mess up other games. So I’d say instead chances are better to first look for disruptive codec packs in your installs in this case.(e.g. by running one of the videos in the game directory separately in a Media Player, checking the file properties and see if any uncommon codec name pops up).

[grody_antagonic]

I tried it again with the other game (Royal Marines Commando). I searched for codecs I had installed, but I don't have much codecs installed, besides DivX Codecs, which I uninstalled and tried to run it again, with no luck. Still black-screen.
Also tried to install it on my other internal harddrive, also no luck. Seems I'm stuck with a black-screen here...

[obsidian_whiskers]

Sorry to hear I couldn’t help. You know, I initially got the idea that something was wrong on my computer when I compared my desktop PC with my laptop. On my laptop the game was running, and on my desktop it wasn’t. I then generally checked the list of diverse codecs in Windows Media Player (start it, press the ‘Alt’-key, then help – info- technical support). I myself found my ‘bad’ LAV-Filter codec in the section ‘MPEG / DVD codecs” (other ‘good’ codecs I have listed in that section are the Microsoft DTV Video/Audio Decoder Codecs and 4 Cyberlink Audio/Video Decoder codecs). In contrast to that my laptop only had the Microsoft ones. As a next step I started one of the MPEG intro videos from the Operation Thunderstorm game files - ‘game’ – ‘videos’ directory directly with the Windows Media Player, checked the specific file properties (‘Alt’ – file – properties). And directly in the audio codec section there it was again, the ‘LAV-Filter’ codec, whereas my laptop had nothing. That pretty much made me suspicious. So I uninstalled the pack directly from the software list, restarted my computer and suddenly it worked. Definitely was the ‘LAV-Filter’ pack in my case, as I haven`t done anything other in-between my first tries and the solution. Forgot to say, I’m using Win7 64bit, and Royal Marines Commando also works for me now.

Codecs sometimes come with other programs, too, like Cyberlink, but maybe in your case the problem is something other altogether. Anyway, like I said, sorry it didn’t work for you.

[G66]

I just remembered one other thing that worked for me on a different CI game (the name fails me now) but it worked. Worth a shot. Try renaming the videos file inside the game directory temporarily to something else ( until you see if it's solved). I did this for one or two of their games now that I think about it and it worked. Operation Thunderstorm/Game/videos . Changed it to something like videos.old so it gets bypassed. If it don't work change it back to the original name.

BUT, this I do remember.... on one of the games I had to go into the video folder and rename everything to a different name except for the LOGO videos. If that is the case, I would just delete everything in the videos folder except the LOGO videos. Then just run "verify" to get everything back again.

Also, sanmar is quite correct about the codecs. I've dealt with that before myself. What sucks about deleting codecs (as he stated) if you're like me and keep every single game on your computer, then the other games that needed them won't run. Catch 22

[G66]

Hey Guys, It is August 23 and as I said Gamersgate has the CI titles on sale for $1 or less. Not sure how long the sale will last. Probably a week. Just wanted to let you all know.

Not all of the titles are $1 or less though. Operation Thunderstorm is $2.50 for instance.

[RANGER52]

I just downloaded game on Steam and all works well. Running Windows 10 Pro, 64 bit with resolution at 3840X2160, using 3X8 GB Nvidia 1080 GC's. 64GB Ram, Alienware Area 51. I think your systems make all the difference in how these game play. I just played the game to try out and it old school but fun. Wish I could help with your issues, but I can't. Hope it all get better. For less than $5 this game is AOK.

[ReiKaz]

pcgwiki says install K-Lite Codec Pack

P.S. for now at Operation Thunderstorm 0.40eu at Gamersgate

[HarryZock]

Auch ich habe den Black Screen beim starten des Spiels. Nutze Win10 Pro 64 Bit. Bisher hat nichts geholfen, also Spiel wieder deinstalliert. Schade, aber bei einem Preis von 3,99 € noch zu verkraften.

[G66]

Originally posted by HarryZockt:

Auch ich habe den Black Screen beim starten des Spiels. Nutze Win10 Pro 64 Bit. Bisher hat nichts geholfen, also Spiel wieder deinstalliert. Schade, aber bei einem Preis von 3,99 € noch zu verkraften.

https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Operation_Thunderstorm

[Sakre]

I was looking to solve the problem of black screen in SAS Secure Tomorrow. Was trying everything, searched google and I am here, installing K-Lite Codec Pack solved problem. I bet it work in other CI games like Operation Thunderstorm or Code of Honor.