I knew I wasn't crazy!
https://archive.vn/jDJ2a
I will try to track this stuff down... none of the links work on that archive of course and searching for the mention zip file has not worked. maybe.. just maybe I downloaded it 13 years ago.
Otherwise I will get the game for 5€ and try that out..
OK, now I've installed the game, but once I'm in, I can't move.
DirectInput uses natural language strings to identify keys, and the game's list of keys in the file 'bindings.def' is in English. If you have a foreign OS, or run on an English OS but with a foreign keyboard, none of the keys will match. The best thing is to buy a localized copy of the game, if one is available.
You can download a zipfile containing 'bindings.def' files for French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portugese and Swedish here. (For some languages, Win95 and Win98 have different key names. Both are included.) Grab the 'bindings.def' from the folder in the zipfile named after the appropriate language and OS, and drop it into your HG2 directory. Note that the Portugese bindings file was user-contributed and may contain errors; I don't have the official one for that language.
If you're patient, you can use the game's reconfiguration screen to reconfigure each key.
If you're brave, you can also try editing the file 'bindings.def' (see how-to for French, how-to for German).
Astute users have noticed that the earlier HG2 demo (released in late 1998) creates a file "controls.usr" the first time it runs. This contains the names you'll need when you edit bindings.def.
This won't work properly for key names that use funny chars, so Chinese users will have to wait for the localized version of the game, or somehow play with an English DirectX.
Christer Carlsson (cc@sics.se) contributed the Swedish bindings. Here are his notes:
Only the right hand shift, alt (alt gr) and ctrl buttons works. The left hand buttons won't do anything. If anyone can solve it, please mail me. It might have something to do with that the swedish character "�" as used in "v�nster" (left) is to weird for HG2. On the other hand, "�" as in "h�ger" (right) works fine (but this character is used in german too).
The free camera movement key left arrow don't work, but you can always go around the full 360 degrees with right arrow. The reason might be the same as Note 1.
If you go into the control configuration screen in the game, it will reset some of the mappings in the file back to english. It will change back the alt, shift and control mappings and also reset the Esc-key. Edit your keyboard mappings in the bindings.def file instead. Please send me a mail if you have a solution.