For whatever reason my brain has decided to think about this.
VLC will record the Desktop and Space Rangers but not Transformers: Devastation Though the game screen it captures for is a different size than what is captured with the Desktop while either game is running. Seeing what happens when Transformers runs results in a white screen being recorded while the game window is in focus.
My ancient Radeon graphics card and Windows 7 operating system (don't at me Linux folks, I know I know) has some screen recording stuff build into it. Will record the Desktop just fine, records only a black screen while the game is running and its window is focused for one game but records the other game just fine and at an appropriate size.
For curiosity's sake what would I be looking for as reasons or solutions to this?
Edit:
Running everything as Administrator seems to help in OBS. Who knew? 
OBS seems to play nice with Transformers: Devastation now, lets me draw the bounding box in the Game Source instead of trying to use the Display source.
Still haven't figured out why OBS is being wonky with Space Rangers not recording in "Game Source" but did get a lead on why the size is wonky in the recording of "Display Source". The max resolution for the CD version (the one I've got) is 1024x768 and my monitor is 1920x1080. (Unsure why there's a difference between what I see playing the game and what the software is recording.) And the only resolution patch I've found doesn't work on the CD version... :whomp-whomp:
You could try this older version of OBS maybe?
https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/obs-windows-7.159078/
I have seen references to OBS in a large chunk of the :help: posts I've skimmed through when seeing what could be found.
You have any experience with the software yourself?
I only set it up one time to stream, and it was on the latest version, but it wasn't difficult. I would look for a guide like "how to set up OBS for desktop recording" and things should be similar on that older version I would bet. Question is whether the machine is fast enough to play the game and record at good speeds - if not your best bet would be using a 2nd machine to capture like the other commentor mentioned.
So far it hasn't been too bad. Few bits of wonkyness that I haven't been able to figure out a direct solution for but a workaround was found.
Then I stumble onto issues that I had not thought about. The mouse cursor being locked to the game screen for a game where it seems that borderless window mode isn't a thing and then trying to figure out if theres a way in Windows 7 (doesn't seem like there is) to keep the game window from losing focus while switching to OBS to work on the scene composition.
Lots of little fiddly things that are both frustrating aaaannnddd a bit fun to figure out.