Forge of Freedom Freeze On Launch

[johnwillo]

Running Windows 7, 64-bit. Running as administrator in XP, SP3 compatibility mode, latest flash and shockwave plugins installed. The Forge of Freedom launcher comes up correctly. If I launch the interface tutorial, it fails and says that there is a problem with the Macromedia app (presumably shockwave), and the game launcher is stuck with an infinitely animating busy cursor. If I skip the tutorial and click Play, the game tries to launch, setting my monitor to 1024x768 and then fails silently, leaving the launcher with a busy cursor animating indefinitely.

What's up? Can this be made to run? Am I a victim of incompatible OS advancement? I've seen reports of the game running correctly on Vista, and Win7 isn't that different, but I'm worried that the 64-bit aspect may have ruined my chances.

[EDIT]
OK, some progress. My antivirus program (Avast) has added a feature in the latest release which blocks the launch of executables it doesn't like. Turning that off allowed the Macromedia tutorial to run, and allowed the game to try to launch. It showed me a quotation from the era then the game crashed, vanishing my screen. The launcher remained visible. Still unable to play the game.

[FURTHER EDIT]
The Flash.ocx fix from the official tech support got the game running for me. Oh, and I also installed the latest patch. Kind of odd that a patch from 4.5 years ago hasn't already been included in the game I downloaded yesterday, but that's the way it goes.