Star Trek: New Worlds, compatibility pack for modern Windows

This life support package is the result of a lengthy and very frustrating journey of getting ST New Worlds to run properly (and stable!) on modern versions of Windows. It took way too much experimentation, trial & error, going through multiple wrappers, compatibility flags and etc. In the end, I was able to play through all three campaigns without the game crashing one time too many... remember, there is no save system in NW and many missions last for 45 min or more. I've had people recommend WineD3D and that seemed to work for the first couple missions but wasn't stable enough.

In the end, this is the configuration that worked for me on my system:

[*] Unofficial Patch 1.1
[*] Unofficial Bonus Mission Pack
[*] dgVoodoo2 as the wrapper
[*] DXWnd as the compatibility layer. And trust me, it took hours to find the numerous correct flags!
[*] Locking the framerate at 30 fps. Anything faster appeared to make the game unstable and/or behave oddly.

Step-by-step instructions:

[1] Install the retail release of the game. Considering the obsolete installer, I used a WinXP VM and moved over the folder.
[2] Copy the files into the game folder, overriding all files when prompted.
[3] Open "Registry CD check.reg" with Notepad and set the correct drive letter for the CD-ROM image or your physical drive.
[4] Open regedit.exe as an administrator and import the file you've just modified.
[5] Open <game folder>\DXwnd\dxwnd.exe, right-click on the "New Worlds" profile and select "Modify". There, change the target from "C:\Games\New Worlds\STNW.exe" to whatever is appropriate. Save the settings.

Run New Worlds through DXWnd only!

Then you should be able to play the game with decent stability. It will still crash once in a while, yet it shouldn't be any worse compared to running it on Windows 98... it's just a buggy piece of temperamental software. The main menu and the actual 3D engine run in different windows and at different resolutions; it's awkward but normal.

Once more successfully tested with two different Win11 24H2 machines before uploading.