Hadn’t noticed this thead earlier and started my own on strategy and tactics for the game. Haven’t gotten around to reading this whole thread yet but thought I’d tackle this one.
Indeed putting more RAM in your system will help. I’m running the game fine with 1 gig of RAM and 256mb on my video card. All my equipment is rather dated yet the game runs fine usually. I have some problems in the end game sometimes if I don’t go with the Spaceship as a victory condition and the game devolved into a high tech slug match. The game tends to slow down at that point and I’ve had a few instances where the game blew out to desktop reporting it was out of virtual memory. I suspect that if I added a second gig of RAM (and put in a more modern video card) the game would run just fine even then.
Tristan, I seemed to have resolved the issue. At Post #32 in this thread, Peter Wiggen suggests a site that will tell you if your computer will run the game. I tried that, my computer failed, but it did suggest a site to download the latest drivers for your video card. I did this (it took me a while to find out what sort of video card I had!) and it seems to work fine now- although the computer still fails the test.
I also only have 512 of RAM, but can play at the highest graphic level. Mind you, I haven’t tested it with a huge map yet.
As things turned out, my CD/DVD Drive died the same day I wrote that message. I got it replaced and at the same time upped the RAM to a gig, and upgraded the video card. It is unbelievable the difference it has made. Couldn’t go back to the way it was now.