So, you're getting that DirectDraw error, and you've browsed every forum known to man telling you to do everything from turning off your graphics card to running in compatibility mode.

HERE IS THE SOLUTION.

ITS YOUR DISPLAY. The game has some issues with HDMI displays. If your are connected to an HDMI display, your game will get that error. Use VGA. That's it.

*Not all HDMI displays will fail, but if you've tried everything else, that's the reason.

BONUS: The reason the in-game music won't play during games, but the other music will, is because the in-game music was designed to play off the game disc. SO, if you have a CD with a music track on it, while playing the game, it may play that instead.

GOG version has functional in-game music.
No need for audio CD or anything, it just works.

Thanks man, this worked I love you for it. Popped the game on last night and it didn't work so I was super bummed, but now I can play it again. Thanks again!!!!

How is that even an acceptable solution (assuming it's 100% the actual problem). I'm seriously expected to change my entire setup just to play this game?

If this is the reason why it doesn't work, then I'm completely screwed because I don't have a monitor and my PC (and consoles) are connected to a HDTV that has no VGA port..

Guess I can't blame the devs for this.

I had this issue before also, so I tried what was suggested above. He's right.

I went upstairs into my attic and hooked up my old VGA monitor via my free DCMI port on my current setup. I made the VGA monitor my main screen, booted up Galactic Battlegrounds perfectly fine, didn't even hiccup.

So he's right. You need an older monitor, you can't use an HD TV hooked up with an HDMI connection to play galactic battlegrounds (which is my normal monitor).

"Seriously, this is the solution, you can stop looking" = Awesome subject. I've killed hours searching, patching, applying registry settings, upgrading/downgrading DirectX and nothing worked. I run a dual monitor config. My primary monitor runs on an HDMI and crap monitor off the DVI of the video card.

I'm running Windows 8.1 x64 and pressed Win+P to select the screen setup. I initially tried it with the primary display only and had the same results. I then attempted with secondary screen only (only the DVI) and the launcher launched me to the game start for the first time.

It's certainly not the solution I would have preferred, but as of now I'm pretty confident that it's the only solution available for an HDMI display.

One other note - I did install the Widescreen patch while troubleshooting. My working solution (in addition to the DVI display) involves running the native game as deployed by GOG. Widescreen and other patched versions failed for me with various graphic glitches as well as Windows errors.

I certainly hope my nostalgia for the game lives up to the efforts expended to get it working to this point.

LegoNinjaCereal, you rock sir!

I have a laptop and i dont have the ability to change display also I have this game installed on my desktop gaming pc connected through HDMI to my TV and it works without a problem. there has to be another solution

You can always try to run these old DirectX games with the help of wrappers, like dgVoodoo:
http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2.html

1. Download the latest version (right now it is 2.53)
2. Open the zip file and extract dgVoodooSetup.exe to your game directory, where the exe file is
3. Extract all three .dll files that you can find in the MS folder to your game directory, to the same place, that you put dgVoodoo
4. open up dgVoodoo and make the configuration as you want it
5. try to open up/run the game

Dude...Thank You!

I owe you a beer!

Nothing anyone else suggested worked on Windows 10. I was about to throw a rock at my monitor.

This worked for me too! Windows 7 64bit :) thanks! HoMM3 in this case

People are working on an open source port that will support SW:GB as well. We just gotta have some patients for it to become playable.

https://github.com/SFTtech/openage