Tried installing the 1.2 patch from both Fileplanet and Patches Scrolls & neither of them let you bypass the Starforce internet check on launch. The patch was extracted to the proper folder with the game files & game .exe.
Topic on Talk:Area 51 (2005)
I just tested it and it works for me. I downloaded the free version from Fileplanet and installed it, it didn't want to start, said something about "required Internet connection". Then I downloaded the 1.2 patch from Patches Scrolls, extracted it, then I launched the "a51_us_patch_1_2.exe" and UnZip-ed it to the game install directory where the original "A51.exe" is.
i'll try again through fileplanet; used the moddb dl when i first tried
So uh, turns out the default filepath the 1.2 patch extracts to starts at "program files" instead of "program files(x86)", but looks correct because it's scrolled past that & the rest of the filepath is right. It tricked me & i was able to get the game to run after setting the correct filepath.
Getting black textures I can't find any info on though. when looking in most directions at the start of the game everything except lights goes full black.
What GPU and OS are you using ? I played the game with an AMD card (R9 270x) and yesterday when I was testing it I was using an integrated Intel card on Windows 7 and had no issues.
Game uses DirectX 9, so make sure you have installed the latest DirectX 9 version. Even if you have newest Windows this is not included, unless it was installed with some other game. Before you download, be sure to uncheck anything else Microsoft recommends to install.
It seems I can't post direct links here, so search for "DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010)", it is on Microsoft.com website.
If that doesn't fix it, you could try using WineD3D for Windows. The game uses DirectX 9, so you will have to copy d3d9.dll and two other dll files into the game directory where the Area51.exe is. Read the included README file for instructions.
Search for "WineD3D For Windows", the website is fdossena.com.