Can YOU make "Sanitarium" run on my PC?

The Game Room
#1

I was downtown this evening, and I wound up buying a used PC game to sort of cheer myself up a little bit.

Alas, when I got it home and eagerly installed it, I found that it crashes as soon as the game starts. Apparently it’s an issue with my specific video card. (Radeon)

I have tried installing it and running it in compatibility mode for both win95 and win 98. (I have XP. The game disk I have says “copyright 1997.”)

I have tried disabling write combining, and disabling direct draw & direct 3d.

Same thing happens every time. Dang it! Does anyone have the definitive workaround? Thanks so much!

#2

First, make sure you have the latest graphics drivers from ati.com. There was apparently a patch for this game, do a google search for it and patch the game (although it’s possible that a copy of that classic game comes pre-patched).

#3

Need some more information here.

  • What model is your Radeon card?
  • What OS are you running?
#4

I also have had this experience with the same game, some years ago on Windows XP.

I was never able to fix it and my problem was identical to the OP.

#5

I have a radeon 9600 XT. I am running windows XPSP2.

I saw on one forum that someone got it to work using microsoft virtual pc – they had a virtual machine running win95. So I got the program, but I’m not sure how to work it. Do I have to install win95 on the virtual machine once it’s in place? (I do have a disc.)

#6

Yes. It’s pretty much like installing on a real PC, once you get past the wizard, where you decide how much memory and how big a hard drive you want for your virtual PC. (Check the specs on the game. Use at least the recommended requirements, or the minimum + 50%, if you can.)

#7

You also need to make sure you have the serial for Win95. I had a friend that kept every single OS install disk(s) that he ever bought including PC Recovery disks from MS Dos 6 to Windows XP SP1, in this real nice binder. Unfortunetly, he lost/threw away/misplaced the serial keys. So outside of getting serials off the net, they were useless.

#8

Do you have onboard video as well as the Radeon? Might want to try disabling the card and running the game off the onboard unit.

#9

Have you checked the Wikipedia page?

There are two links at the bottom specifically for problems running the game under XP.

Let us know if you manage to run it…this adventure game is one of my all-time favourites.