Now, I know this isn't a GOG game, but I figured this would be one of the best places to ask for help. I just picked up the Arsenal edition at Goodwill and installed it. However, it crashes before it ever gets to the menu. All of the troubleshooting stuff I've found on the net seems to be for people who have the menu load before having problems. Anyone know how to get this to work. I'm running XP, have a 1.8 GHz processor, 1.2 GBs of ram, and an AMD integrated video card. I've tried compatibility mode and disabling sound acceleration.

Very often it's because of the game needing a specific feature that was only in earlier windows releases. Compatibility mode I've seen doesnt usually work, it wasnt made by microsoft as a way to enable compatibility for older games on XP or later. I dont think it works for anything except some older biz application, but not for games. And it's nice to have a virtual sandbox envirornment to play your older games. : )

Really no issues whatsoever, have you played thru the game?
I got i76 gold running in XP sp3. Had a run in with glitches/crashes in the game. In particular during scene 6 you need to hit up the gas 4 cash for fuel, and need to take a detour jumping several ramps with strips of land inbetween. After reaching the other side the game switches to a cutscene with Iggy (yellow car) firing at the gas 4 cash. After returning control to the player and driving a little past the gas4cash pumps, the game crashes.
Anyone experiencing this? Is there a fix? I've tried pretty much everything in this thread, including turning down sound acceleration, trying various different graphics modes, skipping the cutscene immediately, etc.
Nothing seems to do the trick.
Furthermore, my brother installed i76 gold on his machine, and he has the same issues. From what it seems like, others here have successfully installed and finished the game to completion, so it seems like we're the only ones having issues.

Hi snappy.
No, i'm sorry, i didn't played the game. When i said it worked fine for me, i was just adressing the crash before the menu loads mentioned by the OP.
It seems your best bet is to set up a virtual machine. If you can get a hold of a copy of Windows 98 you can grab Microsoft's Virtual PC 2007 (it's free) and give it a try.

Oh man... Interstate '76. Got this for free with a (get this, I'm not lying) kids magazine.
Aha! A kids magazine!
Spent many hours playing this when I was what... 5? Ohhh memories.
This doesn't help anything, but y'know how it is.

no expert, but directx/direct3d support isn't usually very good in virtual machines.
Someone needs to write some kind of "wrapper" that goes between old games and new operating systems...
Speaking of which, did you try a glide wrapper? i76 Arsenal had a 3dfx version, right?
just a crazy idea, but you might actually have more luck with Wine.
YOu could dual boot a linux distribution, or try wined3d.
Its messed up when the best way to play windows games is to avoid windows... ;-)