Installed MM9 tonight, went and got the 1.0 to 1.2 patch, the 1.3 patch from Telp, the 1.3a patch from Telp, set all to 'run as administrator', and compatibility mode set to Windows XP (Service Pack 2) on all .exe files.

The program launches fine to the 'initial' screen. Then hitting 'Play' launches a second screen, and I hit the 'Launch' button and.....

nothing.

no sound, nothing loads, no game, silent emptiness.

I went back and changed all the compatibility settings to 'Windows 98.... same behavior. initial screen opens, second screen opens, hitting 'launch' does nothing.

saw a post about a replacement cshell.dll. did that too.

still nothing.

using the 'Find' feature here brings up alot of posts saying 'check the older posts', or 'why are you running Vista'....

and alot of talking about the loading screens when you start a new game or load a saved game (or I assume, cross regions/towns).... seen them before when this game worked on a Windows XP machine.

but... not even getting that far. the game just won't start up. frustration level is high enough to punt on MM9 forever, but SOMEONE must have encountered this before, right?