Depending on what operating system you have, it might legitimately be a compatibility problem with the OS. For example, if it's a 64 bit game and you're running it on a 32 bit platform (unlikely), or if the game was made for XP and you're playing it on Vista or 7.
One of the possible solutions (for the XP and Vista/7 problem, or basically any problem similar) is to right click on the .exe for the game and change it to compatibility mode. Go to My Computer>C:>Program Files (or Program Files (x86) in Vista/7)>Midway>Rise & Fall etc etc...It might not exactly be that directory, so in order to find it you can find its entry in the Start menu and right click on it, and go to properties. In the resulting menu you should see "Shortcut Target" or something to that effect that tells you the directory in which the game is located.
Open that directory and find the executable for the game. It should have a little mini picture of the game and should be named the same as the title of the game. Right click on it and go to Properties, then go to Compatibility. Check the box "Run this program in compatibility mode" and select the operating system in the drop down box for which the game was designed (You can find it on the back of the box). Now try running the game, and it should work in theory.
Unfortunately, I've had no luck with compatibility mode. Another option that might or might not work (depending on the requirements of the game) is to run it on a virtual machine. You can download
VirtualBox as a virtual machine emulator, then create a virtual machine with the desired operating system. You have to have access to a licensed copy of the target OS, however, so if you don't have one this probably won't be the best solution for you. Also, virtual machines have a bad habit of not being compatible with certain graphics engines, etc, so it might not work anyway...Just a thought.
Though I've never used it, Windows 7 (if that is your operating system) users can download something called
"Windows XP Mode" which lets you run programs which were designed with XP on your windows 7 platform. I believe it's some form of virtualization that's done, but as I've never used it, unfortunately I can't give you any helpful advice as to how to install, set up, and run it. You can most likely find anything/everything you need online. If you have any specific questions let me know and I can do some research and see what I can find out. Best of luck!
Tj
