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.

Did you install it using compatibility mode or are you just trying to run it using compatibility mode?

Did you tried lowering the sound acceleration on DXDiag to basic or none, and running it in w95 compatibility mode with 256 colors ?

Kind of off-topic, but what is Goodwill? Some digital distribution store? If so, you might want to make sure your download wasn't corrupted.

Goodwill is a place people donate things like old clothes, toys and anything else to, kind of like the Salvation Army. They sell their donated goods in Goodwill stores to raise money for their other assistance projects.

Oh, okay! That's actually better than any digital distribution center. I'll have to find one nearby and donate some of my older titles, but only ones that I'm sure will work on any computer. If I could find a way to give them a GOG, I would, but that would require breaking the rules, and I can't do that.

Goodwill is great, you can find the awesomest things ever there, or the lamest.

It installed fine, and I am now trying to run it in compatability mode. I have tried running in 256 colors and with sound acceleration off, and even with video acceleration off. Also, honorbuddy, you are completely correct. In fact, in the same run I found Pro Pinball: Fantastic Journey, NetStorm( a cool old rts), and Hellbender (the sequel to the spiritual sequel of Terminal Velocity), as well as some books. They even had a bunch of NES and Atari games, unfortunately, I don't have the systems.

Even though it seems to have installed fine, using compatibility mode to install old games, then also running them in compatibility mode can fix a lot of issues. I'm not saying this will fix your problem, but it might help.
One question, is your processor a multi-core processor? If so, you might try setting the game to run on a single core. A lot of older games have real issues dealing with multi-core systems that can be resolved by running on a single core.

Well, i downloaded the Interstate 76 Arsenal Demo just to see what sorts of problems i would have to troubleshoot but, surprise, surprise, the damn thing worked like a charm with absolutely no fiddling of any kind. I'm stumped.
XP sp3, PIV 3.4 HT, 2GB Ram, ATI 1950 XT (AGP), 24'' LCD.
Is there something special about the demo that would explain this ?

maybe you should find an old directx installer like 7.0 or something and try to install it. couple of times installing actual(for the game release) drivers can solve the problem.

You can't install an old DirectX over a newer one. Besides, DX is backwards compatible.

there is a very fine line...

Yeah, I'm just going to have to install it in a virtual machine. After I uninstalled it, when I went to install it again, the eetup program won't launch. I just think there's something on my machine that doesn't get along with this particular game.