When I play PA, I can't see the planet, or anything on the planet. I can tell it's all there, because I see lots of green dots on what I presume is the planet's surface, but I can't actually see the planet. It's like lighting isn't working, and everything is shrouded in darkness. This hypothesis is supported thusly: if I let the game sit long enough for the AI to attack me, I can see some of the planet's surface in the flashes of light from the explosions. I'm running Windows 7 x64, ATI Radeon 5650 (1GB card, latest drivers installed), 8GB RAM, ATI Phenom II quad-core processor. (Apologies for the photograph, Print Screen wasn't cooperating)
Can you please upload your dxdiag.txt? The printscreen issue is a known bug that's in the bug tracker. Put the game into window mode and maximize the window then you can hit print screen. Issue number FS#2503 if you would like you could also comment and vote on it.
Your graphics driver are date. http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/mobile?os=Windows 7 - 64 That is exactly what I thought it was 95% of issues are outdated drivers. I am surprised that the game even ran until that point. Remember kids always game safely. Have the most up-to-date drivers.
Hmmm, it seems when I run the installer for the latest AMD drivers (I'd previously installed the same drivers that tool points me to), dxdiag doesn't actually recognize that I've updated anything. I'll see if I can figure out why.
Here is big how-to on updating AMD mobile drivers: http://steamcommunity.com/app/233250/discussions/2/558749190925676183/ I personally recommend to check "Non-official methods" remove all old drivers, restart, then download and install latest beta drivers using my link.