Civilization 3 Complete from steam on netbook

IntoxicatedPuma

Chieftain
Joined
Feb 27, 2009
Messages
5
I got a Samsung NC10 and am trying to run Civ 3. Sid Meier's Pirates! (the new one) runs fine and I'm guessing it's more than capable of running Civ 3, however I can't get it to run. I shared my CD drive from my desktop to install it but I was having trouble making an image file with my disks so I decided to just spend 5 bucks and get it on steam. Well now that I have it installed from steam, it still won't run, it won't even load it just pulls up the steam message "preparing to launch game" and then it closes and nothing comes up.

I've been searching all over for why this won't work, apparently it's some sort of incompatibility problem. I was reading that someone contacted support and was told to run it in compatibility mode with windows 98, however Steam won't allow me to launch the program in compatibility mode. Anybody have any ideas?
 
1024x600, but i can run on 1024x768, i just have to scroll around. however even at that resolution it wont load the game.

I read somewhere else that Civ 3's native resolution is 800x600, is that incorrect? it's an awefully old game to run at that high of a resolution.
 
it's XP. Even if I change it to 1024x768 resolution, the game still won't load so I think their is something else preventing it from loading.
 
Try to set these in the ini:

KeepRes=1
Can be 0 or 1. If 1, your screen resolution is used for the game instead of the default 1024x768.

Video Mode=1280
Can be 1024, 1152, 1280, 1600, 1792. Changes the game's resolution to the value specified (instead of the default 1024x768).

If you run you r desktop at something other than 1024.
 
i got it to work, but since the screen runs at 1024x600 it of course cuts off the bottom of the screen. I can run my screen at 1024x768, but it must scroll around. I should be able to run this on a regular monitor though :)
 
How did you get it to work Puma? I have the same error on my Acer One netbook.

Thanks!
 
you'll need to set the resolution to 1024x768 to do this. In order to get this to appear to select it, you'll want to go to Control Panel / Display, then under the Settings Tab, click on Advanced. Next you'll want to select the Monitor tab. Under the Screen Refresh Rate drop-down box is a check box that says "Hide modes that this monitor cannot display." You'll want to make sure this is blank.

Close this box and go back to the Display, and it should allow you to select 1024x768. Once you select it, you'll probably notice that the desktop is larger than the screen and you scroll the screen around. Unfortunately this is the lowest resolution that Civ 3 will run in (kind of odd for a 10 year old game) and when you play in game you'll have to scroll the screen around. The only other option is to plug your laptop into a regular monitor (defeats the purpose of a laptop!).

Hope this helps you, it seems their is no way to play Civ 3 on 1024x600 or 800x600 resolution, so I may stick with Alpha Centauri or Civ 2.
 
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