If it was any graphics card other than a Geforce mobile version, it would be a missing Dx9 function, a corrupt graphics driver, or a simple mismatch between the display's native screen capabilities and the setting that the game is trying to run with. While the Windows OS can create a letterbox for you on an old 4:3 display, so you get by with a wide screen setting, the game cannot. If you mix it up that way, you get a symptom such as yours.
When it's an "Optimus" mobile card from nVIDIA, the potential problems along this line are expanded a great deal, and arriving at a fix is far more difficult.
Thanks for the concise, legitimate response. Was this aimed at the PC version, or the Mac port? (For instance: How would I address a missing Dx9 function from the MacOS, since I'm trying to run the Mac Cider port. I'm serious: I could address that on the Windows side, but I wouldn't think I could do something from the Mac side on that issue.)
It seems odd (but I accept my ineptitude on this matter) that the problem is with the card itself, since I just ran the Windows version under a VM. It seems like it's more of a problem on the game side, where it's not detecting *something* and so autoquits, and I'd need a workaround to get to the game.
[I hear that the Mac cider port runs about as well as it does as running the PC version in VMWare Fusion. It'll take me some days to get my Windows key so I could just bootcamp or Parallels it instead, and I'm honestly curious about getting the Mac version running.]
Given the minimal differences any more between the PC hardware, I imagine some things will be more or less universal, but I have always considered almost anything branded "Apple" past the ][-E to be most exorbitantly overpriced, and therefore a rip-off.
I have very little respect for nVIDIA's "Optimus" mobile hardware.
