In that post i made earlier i was linking this thread:
http://www.arokhslair.net/forum/viewtop ... =12&t=2922
Possible solutions for win 7 64bit, should work for Win-8 as well.
Usually to get BoD to work, you need to download the rOpenGL raster, this fixes black menus but causes a fog bug that gets annoying on certain maps, but there is a fix for that as well, the "FogFix" mod.
And yeah the graphics dont feel the same as they used to back in the days, could have to do with the nostalgia memory but it could also be cause of 3Dfx was being in use at that time, i think 3Dfx completely died around 2002 or 2003.
But there are 3Dfx emulators that you can use to get more color out of the game, downside is that the resolution is usually locked to a maximum of 800x600 since that was the standard resolution at the time, so there are ups and downs to it, think the one I used was nGlide.
Personally i want to fill as much of the screen as possible, so the 3Dfx stuff isnt nessesary, i just play with the rOpenGL raster and set the resolution to 1280x1024 (this is an old game, so use only 4:3 aspect ratio resolution or the game engine with squeeze everything and making everyone and everything look like they added 500 pounds)
Well at least i hope you have a smart monitor that doesnt fill the entire screen no matter the resolution, but maintain the aspect ratio.
Not sure if anything i just wrote will help you, but there you have it.
you can find downloads for all but 3Dfx here:
http://blade-of-darkness.bigtruck-canada.ca/index.htm
nGlide:
http://www.zeus-software.com/downloads/nglide