[craigcody9]

I installed FS1 on a 64bit, windows 7 laptop, but when i try to play it i get message saying," FreeSpace has detected that you only have -1285MB of free memory. FreeSpace requires at least 32MB of memory to run". My laptop has 2.74GB of usable RAM. Can anyone help me?

[LHN91]

FS1, being a Windows 95 era game, doesn't know what to do with that much RAM. Not sure, exactly, if you can do much about it without resorting to messy hacks. Though someone else might have a better answer, my answer is more or less "Get FS2, install FSOpen, install FSPort". Plus, that way you get all of the graphical updates of the FSO as well.

[The E]

You can try running it in compatibility mode for Windows XP 32 bit. However, that is not guaranteed to work; your best option might be to install FS2, and use FreeSpace Open to play the FSPort (which converts all of FS1 into an FS2-compatible campaign).

Not sure, exactly, if you can do much about it without resorting to messy hacks.

Without access to the source code, this is pretty hard. The problem is that the original FS1 code (as well as the FS2 code, before we upgraded it) used a signed integer to store the amount of RAM reported by the OS on startup. On modern machines, this overflows and leads to the observed results.

[Parias]

your best option might be to install FS2, and use FreeSpace Open to play the FSPort (which converts all of FS1 into an FS2-compatible campaign).

This is the correct option.

[mobcdmoc3]

You could also run the game in compatibility mode if you really wanted, but you'd be much better off getting FSO and all that other good stuff.

[jr2]

IIRC you can force limit the amount of RAM reported.  Google it.  IIRC you need 2GB or less TOTAL available RAM (incl. GFX card).

[LHN91]

IIRC you can force limit the amount of RAM reported.  Google it.  IIRC you need 2GB or less TOTAL available RAM (incl. GFX card).

This will work, but IIRC requires registry editing and qualifies pretty easily as a "messy hack".

[jr2]

I googled a program to limit the amount of memory that a program will see Windows reporting, and I could only find this, which may work, but I'm not certain. (It's a utility for editing certain parameters in programs, they were using it to remove a 2GB cap from a program, not limit the program to 2GB, but honestly I don't know if you can fix it using that, but regardless, if you don't know what you are doing, or even if you do, make a backup of the FS1 file before you edit it!!)

EDIT: I should point out, FSPort is the most logical choice.    Oh, and, the GOG version should work just fine, so if you can find whatever they tweaked on that, it should work.