OK, to be exact I have a PC running Windows XP Pro. When I play Civ 3, it doesn’t play in a window so I can’t minimize it and do something else. Yes, I can move around the computer using Task Manager if I have to, but it’s very awkward and slow. I played the same game with Windows XP (not Pro) and it went into a window there , so is there anything I can do?
No, I’m not playing it at work and yes, I’ve been to some sites that have patches and all and none of them seem to cover the problem. Thanks!
Oh yeah, something I forgot to add to the OP: When I start the game, the screen goes black for a sec, then flashes the normal desktop, then goes black again and starts up the game.
I don’t have a laptop or anything so I have to play the game on this machine; any suggestions that I not try to play the game at all are insane troll logic and will be ignored. 
It’s the same for me. Not having played it on XP (non pro); I really have no other suggestion than: “It’s supposed to be that way.” Quite a few game still do what they did back in the old DOS days, take over the whole computer. CIV I+II did this. Myst, Riven, Myst III did this. So I can only assume this is normal gameplay.
Considering it eats about 110MB of your ram, why would you try to do anything else?
I use alt+tab to go to other programs.
oh, another thing. I beleive one reason for this, and that ‘going black, then flashing’ thing, is that CIV works with another screen resolution. If you have your screen set to 1024x768, it will change that, since I think CIVIII plays at 800x600.
Thanks for the answer. There is an option for setting the game to your OS, but since it’s a couple of years old Win2000 is the latest option.
Oh well. Glad to know it isn’t just me. And you’re right, other programs probably wouldn’t work very well with it.
/slight hijack
Is Civ III worth buying? It looks like a rehash of the second one, but with better graphics. Thanks
/slight hijack
Rent it first, if you have broadband. Yahoo’s Games on Demand service has Civ3.
[answering hijack]
The problem with CIVIII, while a great game, is that it didn’t become outstanding until they released the expansion pack. I don’t care for the multiplayer feature, but troop movements and the general interface is so much better with the expansion pack. It’s annoying, because I think thoose things (which were slightly buggish in the original release), should’ve been made available as a patch. Now it’s €15.95.
And don’t even think about downloading a cracked version it from some P2P. Patches, upgrades and whatnot won’t work.
Even so, it’s very well worth it. I’ve been playing it of and on for a year now and don’t get tired or board. If you enjoyed CIVII, you’re gonna like this. And it’s not only the same game with better graphics.
[/answering hijack]
I can’t speak for the expansion, but while an update was needed, they screwed the game up. They had a lot of good ideas and really messed up the implementation. Now, the tech tree was always a bit oddball; it couldn’t hardly be anything else. Honever, now, many of histories greatest projects, works, or inventions are utterly useless except that they allow you to reach something else. Most of the technologies and social ideas discovered or developed from 1850-1950 now have exactly zero effect on your civilization.
The combat model went back to the Civ 1 model. Which is really, really bad. I’m not going to go into it. Its too painful.
The culture system is very fun, and I enjoy using it, although I think it takes much too long to accomplish anything using it.
The AI is dumb as a rock and cheats to maintain itself.
I haven’t ever been able to get much more advanced than what I would be now in the modern era. Corruption is excrutiatingly high. The game is still much too much based around cities; I always wondered why they never took into account the power of civilizations that never used cities much. For example, the Zulus, the Mongols, or the… hey, they screwed those guys up!
No, it was high. That was a bug and it’s been fixed.
A lot of the things that were annoying was fixed with the expansion pack. With that, there are air-bases, radar towers ASF. Diplomacy/Spying is just through interface - there is no need to send a guy across the map. Same thing with trade. No stupid trucks.
But it’s extremely annoying that espionage only gets available from the industrial era. What, they didn’t have spies in ancient Rome or Greece?