This is the subject by Porchlight Silhouette, all credits are due to him, go thank him on the forums :
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/app/260730/discussions/0/540737262306815107/

After many attempts and much disappointment I've finally managed to get Desperados working on my laptop and in full screen display.
It's not a perfect solution by any means as occasional crashes persist and there are slight slow downs when the enemy field of view is activated but it's playable and I would highly recommend that others give the following workaround a try if the game is currently unplayable for you.
I have not tested this workaround on Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, just Windows 8 but I have a feeling it will work on all these three versions of Windows.

All credit go to steam users MegalomaniacNG, Draregbr and NafanYa for providing the original instructions, which I've only compiled into one list to try and make things easier for the average gamer to follow...


1) Download the following... http://188.138.113.72/SHARE/rpollice/DSWin8.zip
1.1) Unrar the downloaded file (DSWin8.zip) and you should have two files in the extracted folder (ddraw.dll and aqrit.cfg).
1.2) Place these two files into your "Steam\SteamApps\Common\Desperados Wanted Dead or Alive" directory (in with the game.exe).

2) Download V2_02_90_build.rar of DxWnd from... http://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/files/Latest%20build/
(I've been advised by other users that the newer versions don't work for the purpose of running this game.)

3) Unrar and inside the extracted foler and run "dxwnd.exe" as administrator. Go to "Edit->Add", in parameter "Name" set the name as Desperados.
4) In parameter "Path" choose the .exe file of the game (in my case it looks like Steam\SteamApps\common\Desperados Wanted Dead or Alive\game.exe).
5) In the "Main" tab, under "Generic" untick "Run in Window".
5.1) Also in "Main" tab, under "Position" set "Window initial position & size" to X=0 and Y=0. Set "W" and "H" to your native resolution (in my case that's W=1920 and H=1080) or 1024x768 if you don't want the game to be upscaled.
6) In the "Video" tab, under "Windows handling" tick "Modal Style" and under "Color management" tick "Set 16BPP RGB565 encoding".
7) Next in "Input" tab tick "Hide Cursor". If the cursor flickers on the main screen of the game don't worry, it works fine in-game.
8) Lastly click "OK" in dxwnd, if all is good it will show a green circle before the name of the game in DxWnd. Launch the game in Steam (Not in DxWnd itself, DxWnd runs in the backround!). You may get an error/alert that says something like "SetHook: proc=GetAvailableVidMem(D) oldhook=26b3e0". If this happens just press the Return key on your keyboard. If you can't select the error/alert window use Alt+Tab keys to cycle through the open windows. This part is just a bit of a trial and error, I don't know why it happens but you can get past it.
9) You will need to start DxWnd every time before you launch the game. When you close dxwnd, answer "Yes" to save the options that you changed. That's it...

Finally I would just ask Nordic Games to please make a make proper fix for the game, if possible, as it it unacceptable to release a game that is basically unplayable. Thank you.