Now I Play It, Now I Don't!

Okay, here's my problem...(yet another one!)

I have a game called Tropico 2 - Pirate Cove that I got months and months ago. I installed it on my PC and have played it many times with no problems. A week ago I tried to play it and the icon/name showed up in the toolbar, but then it went back to my desktop. It was running according to task manager, without problems, but I couldn't see it.

I bought a cheapo game for fun a few days ago called Seven Kingdoms II. I installed it and then tried to play it. It brought up the splash screen, it went through the graphic scene, and then it closed.

I'm stumped. Did I possibly remove something a while ago that these two games need?

We play Age of Mythology and have no problems, so I don't know what to do. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

What OS are you running?

 

XP...and after doing a bit of research, some people are saying that all the new XP patches have to be in place for the game (at least Seven Kingdoms) to work.

I haven't done the security patch yet, because I want to back up my system in case I have problems. I guess I just don't understand how something could work and then not when no updates have occurred.

Last night, on a whim I attempted to start Seven Kingdoms through the start menu, and actually got to a different screen. When I tried to duplicate it, I couldn't and the same old situation happened.