Empire Earth Freezing in menu

I bought Empire Earth - Gold Edition on GOG last night, assuming that it would work on Windows 8. Every time I load in, I get maybe 30 seconds in the various menu screens, before the whole thing locks up for reasons I can't understand.

I've made sure I'm using my nVidia graphics card, not the integrated Intel one. I've installed the NeoEE patch, tried changing the rasterizer, setting it to not wait for vsync, tried compatibility settings, restarted my machine, uninstalled and reinstalled, tried running it using the 3D-Analyser, but it still just freezes on the menu screen. I tried deleting the DirectX dll files, but then it just causes the entire thing to crash when AOC is launched. Every other problem I see when searching is about graphics issues, or the game just crashing as soon as it is launched.

Please tell me there is a solution for this menu freezing. As it stands, I can't even start a game without the entire thing locking up.

Best Answer

I have the same problem but I wanted to add to the accepted answer under point 1 because it isn't 100% clear for anyone else facing this problem:

from e10hs @ee.heavengames.com:

you need to edit a registry value (winkey+r, type 'regedit' and press enter): change: "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SSSI\Empire Earth\Wait for VSync" From 1 to 0. Also, change "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SSSI\Empire Earth\Rasterizer Name" to: "Direct3D Hardware TnL" - copy the exact text wihout the "

I was unable to install the patches you linked though. An error came up both times, saying that it couldn't find something, and the installation quit.