DescentBB

Can anyone explain
http://img29.imageshack.us/i/weirdj.jpg/
to me?

I've got nothing like 'smartdrive' running.

you have too much memory.

I think there is a more modern version that makes use of freespace resources.

Yep, it's essentially a bug in the way Freespace calculates free memory when you have a whole lot of RAM. I've had it happen before, myself.

Weird as it sounds, I've found that running other programs which use up memory sometimes helps.

Minus three megabytes.

Yeah, system memory probably ought to be stored in an unsigned integer.

I got that on my system too. I never bothered finding a solution though since, after seeing what my monitor did to FS2 at 1024x768, I didn't even want to think about what FS1 at 640x480 would like like. In the end I just installed FS2_Open and the FSPort. It's not the same but it's about as close as you can get on modern systems

Hm.
Interesting, Vista's backwards compatibility mode actually solved the problem perfectly.

That's an issue that I have not run into playing FS1 on an XP machine with 1GB of RAM. I have played FS1 fine on my machine without using 3D acceleration and it runs fine. Somehow that ancient engine could run on a 2.0+ GHz machine of mine without any problems; HOWEVER, some other programs I have had that problem with, and even compatibility mode doesn't do it.

If compatibility mode doesn't get FS1 to work, getting Freespace 2 Open would be a much better solution, plus you get all the awesome graphics. Get FS2 from GOG.com or if you have it, install it, and then get the Freespace Open Installer and download FSO and get it working. There's a readme and all, so I don't think it will be easy to get lost. This topic on Hard Light will provide newb-friendly installation instructions for installing FSO. If you have trouble getting any particular mod or campaign to work, or getting the high detail graphics to work, just give any of us a shout.