Getting MechWarrior to run on XP

[Kane]

I've got a few Mechwarrior games around, and I like them a lot, but they won't run on my (fairly) new computer. I know they work, but when installed, they ask for more 'virtual memory', and when loaded, seem to be a combination of all the menu scenes with half of it randomly cut out.

Needless to say, it's annoying, and I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with getting old Microsoft games to work?

[Kizara]

I had a similar problem.

With Mechwarrior 3, IIRC, the main menu loads alright but then the game crashes when you try to actually launch. Never found a solution, but didnt really try that hard to look.

[Haruspex]

Strange. My copy of MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries worked fine on my three-year old laptop, which runs on XP. I did get that virtual memory notice from time to time, but it stopped once I removed all my games. No experience with the older MechWarrior games though.

[Kane]

Yah, I've got MechWarrior 4 Vengeance, Black knight, and Mercenaries. And none of them work, and all have the same problems.

[Winterwind]

Don't have MechWarrior IV, and never had trouble with getting MechWarrior III to run, but as for MechWarrior II, one can make it run by using DosBox and mounting the image of the CD (strangely, DosBox doesn't regularly recognize the CD itself, necessitating the use of an image).

Not sure if you need advise for an installment of the series this old though. :smallwink:

[Breltar]

I believe you can click on the properties of the program itself and set it to run on a simulated older version of windows? That might let you play it at least.

Mechwarrior is a good line of games, my favorites though were Mercenaries and the 'Ice Bear Clan' (sp? name?) expansion.

[Super_mad09]

Well i've got both mechwarrior3 and 2 my mechwarrior2 didn't work but the mechwarrior3 worked well before but now it dosen't seem to be working well:smallfrown:.

[Winterwind]

Mechwarrior is a good line of games, my favorites though were Mercenaries and the 'Ice Bear Clan' (sp? name?) expansion.Clan Ghost Bear. The expansion is called Ghost Bear's Legacy.
And I agree, Mech Warrior II and its expansions were the best of the lot.


Well i've got both mechwarrior3 and 2 my mechwarrior2 didn't work but the mechwarrior3 worked well before but now it dosen't seem to be working well:smallfrown:.To get Mech Warrior II running, do the following:
1. Get DosBox (http://www.dosbox.com/). Set it up as described on their site.
2. Make an image of the MechWarrior II CD and mount it in DosBox (usually DosBox supports CDs just fine, but there's something about the MW2 CD in particular that interfers with DosBox)
3. Start MechWarrior II in DosBox. It should be running just fine.

[Super_mad09]

Clan Ghost Bear. The expansion is called Ghost Bear's Legacy.
And I agree, Mech Warrior II and its expansions were the best of the lot.

To get Mech Warrior II running, do the following:
1. Get DosBox (http://www.dosbox.com/). Set it up as described on their site.
2. Make an image of the MechWarrior II CD and mount it in DosBox (usually DosBox supports CDs just fine, but there's something about the MW2 CD in particular that interfers with DosBox)
3. Start MechWarrior II in DosBox. It should be running just fine.

Hmmm.I've never heard of "Dosbox" :confused:

[Winterwind]

It's an open-source emulator of an x86 computer, downloadable at the official page, which I linked to in my previous post (and which should also include a more complete explanation). It allows to run all the programs of the pre-Windows 95 era (of which MechWarrior II is one of the last examples) on modern computers.

[TheThan]

Odd, I've played mechwarrior III and mechwarrior IV mercenaries and I've never had trouble with it.