MechVM does not work on Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit

Post up issues you are encountering with MechWarrior 2 here, this includes Netmech.
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Blanchflower
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MechVM does not work on Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit

Post by Blanchflower »

OK, I am having a problem here. I have Windows 8.1 OS Professional 64-bit edition. I have the Mechwarrior 2 Titanium edition. It comes with 3 discs, Mechwarrior 2, Ghost Bear Legacy and Mercenaries. It is a Windows 95 edition.

When I use MechVM, the game is able to play the intro screen. However, when I attempt to start a mission, the game freezes. To make it worse, pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del does not exit the game. It freezes up the whole OS! So the only option for me is to manually switch off my PC.

Anyone else using Windows 8.1 64-bit Professional edition and are having this problem? Please advise! I really love this game!

Any comments would be appreciated.

:(
Blanchflower
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Re: MechVM does not work on Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit

Post by Blanchflower »

The lack of any response has been most discouraging. I should have sticked to Windows 7 when I bought my new laptop. At least I know that MechVM works with Windows 7 64-bit.

:cry:
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Sir MMPD Radick
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Re: MechVM does not work on Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit

Post by Sir MMPD Radick »

sorry. I do not have the OS to test it otherwise I would have chimed in. :|
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Blanchflower
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Re: MechVM does not work on Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit

Post by Blanchflower »

Sir MMPD Radick wrote:sorry. I do not have the OS to test it otherwise I would have chimed in. :|
Thank you for your kind reply. At least you replied! Anyway, I guess that I have to wait for it to be fixed then.......

;)
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Re: MechVM does not work on Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit

Post by solgae »

The mw2shell.dll has to be patched to work with Windows 8/8.1 - currently the patched mw2shell.dll file only works on XP/7. Unfortunately, AFAIK, no one has done so to this date. Your best bet would be VMware/VirtualBox VM with Direct3D support that runs Windows 7.
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Re: MechVM does not work on Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit

Post by Blanchflower »

solgae wrote:The mw2shell.dll has to be patched to work with Windows 8/8.1 - currently the patched mw2shell.dll file only works on XP/7. Unfortunately, AFAIK, no one has done so to this date. Your best bet would be VMware/VirtualBox VM with Direct3D support that runs Windows 7.
Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, I am not sure how to go about doing this. Anyway, Windows 8 has been out in the market for more than a year and it is slowly becoming popular. I feel it is time for someone to make this compatible as well. I am sure it won't remain incompatible for Windows 8 or 8.1 forever!

:shock:
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Sir MMPD Radick
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Re: MechVM does not work on Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit

Post by Sir MMPD Radick »

it might. We have no one working on it since the DOS versions work properly in dosbox.

For time being i'd suggest what he suggested and use vmware or virtualbox with Windows 98.
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Blanchflower
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Re: MechVM does not work on Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit

Post by Blanchflower »

Sir MMPD Radick wrote:it might. We have no one working on it since the DOS versions work properly in dosbox.

For time being i'd suggest what he suggested and use vmware or virtualbox with Windows 98.
OK, I decided to bite the bullet and tried using VMware player. with Windows 98 SE All went well, but I am not sure how to install my Titanium disc into my virtual Windows 98 SE OS.

It prompts me to choose the software into which to open Mechwarrior 2 and I am not sure what to do. Please advise. Thanks!

:?:
Blanchflower
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Re: MechVM does not work on Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit

Post by Blanchflower »

Well, I finally got it and installed Mechwarrior 2 Titanium edition through VMware player using a Windows 98 SE OS. The game loaded but sad to say whenever I enter into a mission, the game hangs.

So VMware player does not work. Just to let you guys know.

As Windows 10 is coming out into the market soon and Windows 7 would be obsolete in a few years time, I just hope that you guys could make MechVM work with Windows 8.1 and future later versions. I really love this game and it is a shame that MechVM does not work with Windows 8 or future later versions of the OS.

I will thus be waiting patiently for a fix to this issue.

Thanks!

:oops:
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Re: MechVM does not work on Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit

Post by LordNova2 »

The problem is that Titanium is 16-bit, and you need to either patch the game to run under the newer 64-bit environment, or emulate the environment on modern days systems using an installation of 95 on a VM.
32-bit is starting to be phased out already, there are allot of major name-brand software out there that no longer support 32-bit.

I too am optimistic about future support of MW2 (along with its different versions), but I also know it will not always be practical. And your best bet is to get a DOS version of the games to run in dosBox for the smoothest operation and best experience.


It almost sounds like a Direct3D problem, did you get Direct3D enabled and set up? Direct3D relay has nothing to do with the video card, D3D was a CPU extension that allowed for the CPU to render 3D graphics. Try installing the guest software in your VM to set up D3D: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rg57ERNDMws
By the way which VM software are you using? The brand the kid is using in the video is by Oracle "Oracle VM VirtualBox" (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/serve ... .html#vbox)
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