I didn't download Red Faction from here, I have an original of it that I bought used for $2 a while ago. I'm asking here because I'm hoping someone might have encountered this problem before and will know how to solve it. I've asked on other sites and even emailed the company, but nobody has any clue why this happens.
I installed the game under Windows 98SE. I've tried it with and without the latest official patch and the same thing happens with both. The game starts up fine, the main menu appears with the background animated under it. Within 1-2 minutes of loading the game, it stops responding to the keyboard and to the mouse buttons. It doesn't crash and it still responds to mouse movement, but not the buttons or the keyboard.
If I start a game, it works for a few seconds, then goes off into limbo. I can still pan the view with the mouse, but I can't move or shoot. Also, if I was pressing a key at the instant it went into limbo, it continues to think that key is still pressed. In other words, if I was moving forward, I will continue to move forward forever. The only way out is to hit the reset button on my system.
I installed this same copy on someone else's XP system and it plays perfectly fine. I'd blame the OS, except that 98 is listed as the minimum required OS, and while searching the net, I came across a forum where an XP owner was having the same problem. Nobody had any answers for him either.
My system: 1.8Ghz CPU, Windows 98SE, GeForce4 MX440 video card, onboard Intel sound, 512MB RAM.