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I just found an old copy of Diablo (the first game) in a box and whacked it into my laptop I purchased just yesterday.

After the quick install I hit play and found that the screen remained black (nothing was rendering). There was however sound.

I downloaded the patch but still nothing.

With it being a new laptop, I figure I might be missing some required software like Direct X maybe? I'm not really sure.

If anyone has any suggestions or knows how to fix this issue, that would be really helpful.

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3 Answers

up vote 3 down vote accepted

Notorious problem I'm afraid. Not so much missing software but you'll have a version of DirectX so advanced it's incompatible with early games. Some users have had luck running Diablo using Compatability Modes for Windows XP or earlier, or even Virtual Machines/DosBOX or equivalent, so you could try those first?

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Cheers, I tried compatibility mode which didn't work for any version (for some reason 95/98 said there was no CD). I'm trying dosbox but I'm having trouble working out how to use it. – Marty Wallace Nov 12 '11 at 2:16
1  
If you're using Win7 Pro or Ultimate, install the XP VM and give that a try. Otherwise, you might try using VMWare or VirtualBox and an XP install. – MBraedley Nov 12 '11 at 13:08
up vote 5 down vote

This may sound weird (and I have actually done this to play Diablo on my Win 7 laptop), but right click on your desktop and click on Screen Resolution. Leave that open and then run Diablo.

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I haven't tried running Diablo under Windows 7, but I recall this working for me in Windows 2000. Definitely worth a shot. – Ben Blank Dec 16 '11 at 15:32
I had to do the same thing for Diablo 2, it was really weird. – Wipqozn Jan 17 '12 at 20:43
up vote 0 down vote

All you need is MS-DOS. Dosbox is best if you want to play old school games requiring MS-DOS.

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Diablo 1 was way after DOS days, wasn't it? – sync Nov 6 '12 at 12:51

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