Missing Music in DOS version

[Makeshiftmonkey]

Howdy!
I swear, I'm probably the only female in the universe that is obsessed with Mechwarrior 2. I need to marry it.

However, one of the main reasons I love this epic game so much is the soundtrack, which for some reason is not playing for any of the missions. I run MW2 in Windows XP with DOS and all the patches and such. Am I missing something? I do have the CD, and it does have the music on it, and I do run it from drive D:.

I could just be stupid. I appreciate any enlightenment!

Thank you so much.

[John Doe117]

I had the exact same problem as you did, although I do not know the exact answer, first I recommend on setting your disk to D: (but you already did, for anyone who doesn't, I recommend you have it set to D:, google it if you need to).

The second part is a little complicated, but not much. Copy the MECH2DOS file and name it anything. On the copy "MECH2DOS" batch file, right click and hit edit. You should see 4 lines of text (not in this order)

Mouse2KV.exe 1024 1200 8 8 MECH2.2exe (launches mech2 with mouse fix)
Sapucdex.exe ( I can't remember what this does)
NOLFB.COM (Fixes crash entering the clan halls)
@ECHO OFF (I have not idea what this does)

Remove All lines except Mouse2kv

Try playing a single mission in instant action, (if you don't hear any music, try again with the lines Sapucdex.exe and mouse 2kv ).

P.S. you're probably not stupid, this seems to happen based on certain chipsets (just a pure guess, if it was OS related I'm sure it would come up more often)

If you do hear music try using the original MECH2DOS and see if it still works (I know, the original shouldn't work...right?)

If you still don't have any music...I don't what to do, this worked for me when I had the same problem. If it does work however, it now shouldn't matter what leter drive your CD is set to.

[Col.Kell]

hehe you're not the only female out there who is a Mechwarrior fan. We did have one; Sugar Pryde

Anyway, to help with your problem. I was about to say the same thing John Doe said, except do you have more than one disk drive other than "D:"? If so, you will probably need to run the disk on the lowest lettered drive. And are you using DOSBox right?

And one more question, do you play any other MW2 games, like Mercenaries or Ghost Bears Legacy? How long have you been a Mech2 fan?

[Sir MMPD Radick]

A. D is always the lowest CD drive so it is not a drive issue.
B. What version of mech2 are you using MakeshiftMonkey? Is it softkey by chance?
C. Have you tried the dosbox solution?

[John Doe117]

By default Drive D: is the lowest Col.Kell. A: and B: are reserved for old floppy disk drives, C: by default is the primary harddisk, next comes other internal HDD, then internal CD/DVD drives, finally external devices.

Old PCs during the 7th guest DOS era and after normally had just an A: C: and D: drive, which is why some DOS games run/install only with the CD in D:

You do NOT need dos box on a DOS copy of MW2, and I highly recommend avoiding it (due to the MASSIVE performance hit and needing a nocd fix) If your OS doesn't support Fullscreen DOS (Vista, 7) I highly recommend Microsoft Virtual PC instead. with Vista as the main I was able to run 98SE with MW2 at its highest without any slowdown.

[Sir MMPD Radick]

btw Sapucdex is the cdrom fix

of course you do not 'need' DOSBOX, but it works better than dos by itself in XP even with the performance hit. (I fully grant that if the machine is old that running it directly is the prudent choice)
If the system has been made in the last few years there is a significant advantage to using DOSBOX especially with regards to the jumpjets.
The more lag introduced into mech2 the better because mech2 does not recharge the jets well on modern systems.
CPUGRAB and the like can fix this granted, but sometimes a simple emulator is all that is needed to solve the issue.

Your suggestion about a virtual machine is a good one and is valid, but it is not easier to setup.
That is why I never suggest a virtual machine unless it is the only option available because it takes time and patience which most people do not have.
Since we are making pitches for virtual pc software now though, my advice is to use vmware over microsoft virtiual pc for two reasons. Compatibility and Speed.
I have tried both and vmware has always given the better result.

Finally, with regards to the need for a NO CD fixed exe... this is simply not true.
It used to be a year ago, but since then someone found a solution to the problem.
It is quite simple, download clone cd make a copy of it to the hard drive and mount the .cue file in DOSBOX.
It is that simple... no tricks no hacks just a simple clone.

[John Doe117]

My personal experence would disagree with you on that with my moderately new machines but I know it depends from machine to machine on what works best. I don't know how you came up with "spend many hours configuring the virtual pc", but the install of an OS (assuming there is a disk laying around) under it is hands down much longer than simply starting dosbox especially if you are familar with it.
Granted I have not tried VMware, but have recently heard good things about it.

[Makeshiftmonkey]

Thank you so much. That fix saved my life. The best part of Mech2 is BACK!!

It's good to hear I'm not the only X-chromosome out there. I just play Mech2, I haven't played any of the other expansion packs. But I've played 3 and 4 as well. I just prefer 2 of course. I'm partial.

[Sir MMPD Radick]

I take it the batch file worked that john posted up? awesome good to hear!

[Makeshiftmonkey]

Absolutely! Who would have thought the fix would be so simple? You guys are great. Thanks for answering my question so quickly. What a loving, caring MW2 community! I feel loved.