In-game resolution too small

[Adze]

I installed a game a while ago and it started giving me hassles. It's a game from 1998 so my computer wasn't accustomed to it I guess.

The in-game colour was a little glitchy so I tried altering my overall resolution through Control Panel to 800 x 600. When that didn't work I set it back to 1200 x 800, but when I started the game up again, the in-game resolution was still tiny.

This has happened to every non-windowed game I have and I don't know how to revert it.

My computer runs Windows 7 and is approx. 6 years old with original drivers (don't know if that helps).

I have a feeling the solution is in the Display section of Control Panel but I can't work it out.

 

[jamz4]

What game? Fallout 2 by any chance?

 

[Adze]

Nope, Heart of Darkness.

 

[jamz4]

Try right clicking the .exe, go to properties, in compatibility select run in 256 colours and 640x480

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

Have you tried to run it at 640x480 or in compatibility mode for Windows XP? From what I've read, either of these can be likely problems. Disabling Windows Aero also seems to be another fix, so give that a go.

 

[Adze]

Nope, disabling Aero doesn't seem to help, and running it in XP Compatibility Mode makes it crash.

 

[James Mason]

Check this out? especially step 3.
http://www.play-old-pc-games.com/2012/06/03/heart-of-darkness/

And this from the bottom of that page:
64 bit Windows users

To run Heart of Darkness on 64 bit versions of Windows, you will need to disable Data Execution Prevention for the game. You can find a tutorial on how to disable DEP for a program by clicking here.

 

[Adze]

The thing is it's happening to all of my fullscreen games , not just that one. But I'll take a look at that link

 

[bicycle_repair_man]

The thing is it's happening to all of my fullscreen games , not just that one. But I'll take a look at that link

If that's the case and you're still rocking the original drivers then I'd look at updating them, particularly the graphics card. Windows 7 is only four years old so presumably you upgraded from Windows Vista? Generally, drivers for Vista and 7 are much the same but there would have been plenty of revisions over the past six years.

If you did upgrade from Windows Vista, the upgrade process would have obtained drivers from Windows Update. Usually they're fine, but it's always better to get them directly from the manufacturer.