Damn it Intel

It ought to work on pretty much anything fairly recent without too much difficulty. I haven't heard about it not working on any distro.

It will run on both Mint and Arch for sure.
What issues is it giving you in Windows, and what's your netbook model?

LT4009u is the netbook. ZC/Q will "run" if I drag them out of the screen's bounds a tiny bit. but otherwise the window never fills with any graphics and on occasion I get a BSoD.

Ubuntu seems to be recommended by the internet as a good netbook OS so I will give that a spin and see how it goes.

For Windows, you'll probably need to run it in full screen for large mode or use small mode. The problem is that ZQuest (and possibly ZC for you as well) are too big for the typical netbook resolution (1024x600). This can have it blow up. It's just a theory, but I've had problems with that.

You might check out Linux Mint, too. It's like Ubuntu minus the last two years of Canonical trying to reinvent the desktop.

Well Linux Mint is an Option, But I would recommend Lubuntu. Its much lighter on hardware then Linux Mint and Ubuntu.

I was going to suggest XP Pro over Windows 7 Starter, but there don't seem to be any drivers for it.
If ZC won't run in XP, then there's got to be a hardware issue! 😃

I kind of wanted to try TinyXP but I doubt that would end well

Does it run better at all if you fudge around with some settings? ;xp compat mode/fullscreen/"double_buffer=1"/ ...something;

It's all the same really. The audio drivers, either due to the graphics ones being a troll, or just on their own also suffer. For example, if I start ZC windowed, nothing appears in the window (but the Windows frame does) and I hear the AGN fire sound all slow and synth-y/echo-y/distorted. In fact, I will record a video later. Say, 5-10 minutes of fiddling with settings and trying to run ZC.

My graphics drivers also broke the other day when I tried fullscreen, rofl. The screen went completely white, and I tried to reboot and had to hard-reboot (hold power button) but the screen stayed white after the reboot. Thankfully, starting in safe mode fixed it. It really is hilarious. Intel is baaaaaaaaaad.

Also, I might've been high (hyperbole) one day but I could've sworn ZC worked if I hooked up my netbook to my TV. But like I said, video incoming in a day or so.

What happens if you add these to the 'graphics' portion of the config?

[graphics]
gfx_cardw = 3
disable_direct_updating = 1

(maybe set vsync = 1 ..?)
...and also what does allegro.log say?

well holy crap. it worked! ZC now runs perfectly, barring dipping 1-2 FPS occasionally because *cough*netbook*cough* and ZC being a little chunky. Fullscreen is still a mess though, but that's no big deal.

Allegro.log would usually end at "initializing sound driver" after all the "allocating memory" lines.

You can add that option for fullscreen too.

[graphics]
gfx_card = 3
gfx_cardw = 3
disable_direct_updating = 1

There are some sound driver options (have to check)if there is a problem there also.

uploading a short vid as I type. in the meantime and on an unrelated note, linux refuses to boot from a USB drive so I can't even try it out or anything, rofl EDIT: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nxfjgizu0atoipr/M2U00005.MPG

god I hate linux. You wouldn't use windows as a serious server OS, by the same token one does not simply use linux as a serious desktop OS. :I

but yeah ZC/Q windowed work perfectly now. http://craigblaylock.com/thumb/1343358694790s.jpg

Does it make a difference if you set the resolution to match the screen's? That's resx and resy in ag.cfg.

setting ZC to 1024x600 and to run in full screen via ag.cfg made the screen die and require a hard reboot. XD but I will fiddle around with resolutions a bit more.

EDIT: Scratch that. I thought I needed a reboot while typing but never actually rebooted. then the netbook went into idle mode and when I went to fiddle with it the login screen came on. so I lgged in and could alt-tab out of ZC. well doing that enough (alt-tabbing in and out of ZC) made the graphics drivers ANGRY so I got a BSoD. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/10691609/PC180191.JPG

Zelda Classic v2.50 Beta (Build 23)Allocating quest path buffers (4.00k/4.00k)...OK
Allocating map buffer (1008.84k/1012.84k)... OK
Allocating combo buffer (5.98k/1018.82k)... OK
Allocating string buffer (680.00k/1.66M)... OK
Allocating door combo buffer (159.50k/1.81M)... OK
Allocating dmap buffer (234.00k/2.04M)... OK
Allocating combo buffer (1.62M/3.66M)... OK
Allocating color data buffer (314.11k/3.97M)... OK
Allocating tile buffer (8.50M/12.47M)... OK
Allocating trash buffer (97.66k/12.56M)... OK
Allocating item buffer (31.12k/12.59M)... OK
Allocating weapon buffer (2.50k/12.59M)... OK
Allocating guy buffer (70.00k/12.66M)... OK
Allocating combo class buffer (33.30k/12.70M)... OK
Initializing Allegro... OK
Checking Files... OK
Allocating bitmap buffers... OK
Loading data files:
Zelda.Dat...OK
Fonts.Dat...OK
SFX.Dat...OK
Initializing sound driver... OK
Used switch: -fullscreen
set gfx mode succsessful at -1 8bpp 1024 x 600 
Triplebuffer not available
Loading saved games... OK
Loading Quest...
Decrypting...okay.
Opening...okay.
Trying to load zelda.nsf
Loading Quest...
Decrypting...okay.
Opening...okay.
Loading Quest...
Decrypting...okay.
Opening...okay.
Loading Quest...
Decrypting...okay.
Opening...okay.
Trying to load zelda.nsf
Trying to load zelda.nsf

hmmm yeah no. That's no good. :\ Do you have updated (..fallback) drivers?

...I would probably refrain from fullscreen for a while. Just curious if any other games/emulators/older apps have troubles also, or it just allegro..

It's just allegro it looks like. I've played emulated games fullscreen with no problem (besides uncharacteristic lag). I don't mind not using full screen, I just find it funny and sad that intel's drivers are so bad.

EDIT: Is there any easy (programmer/C++ ) way to make ZC/Q not have the windows frame? I try running big mode windowed (which is 800x600 I believe) but it crashes. My screen's resolution is 1024x600.