MechWarrior 2: Resource Forum

Hello all, great forum.

I'm having some trouble getting my mech2:merc game to work.
First, I'm using Windows 7 64bit, I'm sure that doesn't help.
I'm using the 3dfx version of the game (yes I know its in the rip off section of the versions, but its what I have). According to that it says it's version 1.08.

I'm trying to use MechVM to play it. I got it installed successfully. I'm having two issues, depending on how I try to run it.

If I run it in 95 compatibility mode or not in any compatibility mode, 95 native it will run the mission, but I can't bring up the menu screens with ESC, so I can't save my game. I have to minimize it and use task manager to force close it. Process ended with code -805306369 I can use esc during the actual mission to flee to windows, but not save the game. Process ended with code 255

If I run it in 95 compatibility mode, Dos the sound will be all messed up and it will crash when I try to play a mission. Process ended with code 0.
If I run it with no compatibility mode, Dos, the sound is actually fine, but it still crashes when I try to play a mission. Process ended with code 0.

I looked into some of the other methods on the install list, but they all require being able to install the game normally first, and I can't get it to do that. If I run setup normal, it says it won't work on NT machines, if I run setup in compatibility mode it says it can't run on 64 bit machines.

Anyone have any ideas? I feel like I'm so close, I'd hate to have to give up at this point.

Hey,

Sorry for the delay in response. I wanted to test out the version you mentioned before I responded since I know in the past I had a ton of trouble with it.
Ok, first off just as i remember in the past the DOS on this version is flawed except on the lowest possible settings. So If you want to play it in DOS just install it manually through dosbox and it will work out of the box as long as you do not mess with the settings inside of the game. (this is without mechvm as i cannot even launch in mechvm)

Now for me the 95 worked out of the box with mechvm the only minor issue i had is the flickering.
Are you launching directly or through mechvm?

I honestly do not know where to look to solve ya issue because the 95 versions are hit or miss and usually its the DOS that works...
The opposite like you have is one of the odd ball versions.

Sorry man personally no clue on this one. All I can suggest is a vanilla version of the game that the DOS works...

Ok.

First of all Hitting ESC During a mission will not allow you to save your game. The only time that you can save your progress is between missions at the mission breifing screen. 1.08 Version is the rough equivelant of the 1.08 Patch which is for the windows only version of the game. Then comes 1.081 Patch which patches the game to a d3d version of the game.
you will probably have to move your curser to the top lefthand corner of your screen to bring up the dropdown menu and select your options.

The last Patch that will work for the Dos version of the game is version 1.06 which requires version 1.05 to be installed beforhand.

Most Modern versions of windows will probably not properly run any versions of MW2. This means that you will probably have to visit ebay and purchase another disc with version 1.05 or older in order to get a version that mechvm can close to flawlessly install to playable working order. Sorry this is the best advice I can give you.

You have two possible choices:
A. Patch it to 1.1, yes, this does have issues, Directx5 3D mode has issues with rendering the sky, satellite, and some 3d meshes on my computer. Software rendering has issues with crashing on the ice cube level, and the water tank level (my work around was to play on directx5 mode for those two levels, thus allowing me to continue the campaign, but even with the graphics bugs it grew on me and now I'm just playing hardware rending for all the levels(Note: You can make it drastically LESS stable if you increase the resolution past 640x480 in the enhanced graphics version, in general 1024x768 flat out crashes for me, and 800x600 seems to cause weapons to hit me randomly and I exploded at random once as well)).
B. If you have a windows 95 or 98 disc, install windows virtual pc and create a 95/98 virtual machine, then run mech warrior on that. The issue with this is that there seems to be some lag with the UI controls which is annoying, but you can get used to it. As long as you don't want dynamic salvage this solution can work for you, but if you do patch to 1.1 you'll run into the issue of the unplayable levels mentioned earlier (you can only run software rending on the virtual pc).