Ooh, getting closer. I found a setsound.exe in the SND directory which allows me to configure the sound (it's scratchy in Windows but VDMsound plays it fine).

Found another problem though. The game crashes after the first mission if you run it normally, and if you run it through VDMsound, it crashes right after giving you the mission report.

I am going to disable the sound and see when that does with the crashing. Any other ideas (especially how to get this working in DosBox) would be apprieci... appreic... wossname.

IIRC, you may need to run NOLFB depending on your graphics card to fix the game exiting out of the mission and going back to the game menu. You may also need to try different patch versions. Loading the latest patch for me made the game freeze upon loading a level....or perhaps I was impatient. 😉

As for Dosbox, current'y it's CD support isn't complete enough for some games. So for the Mechwarrior 2/Mercs games you'll need to use a CD crack to be able to play until CD support is fixed.

When I ran MERCS back in my DOS days it ran just fine so I highly doubt that it's a label issue. I was theorizing on some kind of old copy protection but I've never heard of copy protection with the Mechwarrior games except for the CD check.

The Windows version of Mercs can be played under Microsoft Virtual PC/Vmware, do not install the D3D update tho.

dosbox mounting didn't always grasp labels that were long

Fixed that recently.

I've tried all the different patched versions and I can't get it to run

I've tried DosBox CVS 0213 (2005) and it still can't see the CD-ROM. I've also tried VDM sound again and now it can't find the CD-ROM either. I was using 2.0.4 and now I am using 2.1.0.

Hi,

i tried mounting the cd-rom in dosbox and couldn't get it to work. my cd drive is drive f. i first mounted it using "mount f f:\ -t cdrom -label MERCENARIES -ioctl" then i tried mounting it using "mount d f:\ -t cdrom -label MERCENARIES -ioctl" and also using drive b and drive a in case the game was looking for the cd in those drives but it always said it couldn't find the cd. when it does the mount my cd drive starts up and i can here the cd spinning so it has obviously found the right drive ( f: ) and mounted it properly. is this a problem with mercs or with dosbox?

any hints?

p.s. i have the latest version of dosbox

DosBox does not work with Mech2 Mercenaries. It's a DosBox problem not Mercs. We cannot discuss VDMSound in this forum since it's the DosBox forum so if you wish to use VDMSound then you'll need to discuss this in the VDMSound forum.

Tried Mercs with the latest CVS today and it works!

1. Must create a CUE image.
2. Mount CUE file under dosbox using Imgmount
Ex: imgmount d c:\mercs.cue -t iso
3. Install and play Mercs!

Mercs won't work using just "mount" or any of it's switches so imgmount is your only choice.

It looks like the audio tracks are what was making Mercs crash since when you use only mount with all of the switches, and you try to enter a mission, the game drops back to the Mercs GUI.

Also I remember back in the day Mercs being quite playable on a friends 486/66 @ 640x480??? on an ATI card so It should be quite playable on today's computers with DosBox. I only tested it out on this POS 400mhz PC so I was getting about 1-3fps. 😉

Does the music work using the imgmount method if the audio tracks are part of the CD image?

Yup, CD audio works great.

CD image file

.BIN=745,488,384 bytes

FILE "MERCENARIES.BIN" BINARY TRACK 01 MODE1/2352 INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 02 AUDIO PREGAP 00:02:00 INDEX 01 25:2 […]
Show full quote

FILE "MERCENARIES.BIN" BINARY
TRACK 01 MODE1/2352
INDEX 01 00:00:00
TRACK 02 AUDIO
PREGAP 00:02:00
INDEX 01 25:27:24
TRACK 03 AUDIO
INDEX 01 27:33:70
TRACK 04 AUDIO
INDEX 01 29:37:46
TRACK 05 AUDIO
INDEX 01 31:41:15
TRACK 06 AUDIO
INDEX 01 33:51:35
TRACK 07 AUDIO
INDEX 01 36:01:19
TRACK 08 AUDIO
INDEX 01 38:11:36
TRACK 09 AUDIO
INDEX 01 40:12:51
TRACK 10 AUDIO
INDEX 01 42:16:21
TRACK 11 AUDIO
INDEX 01 44:28:08
TRACK 12 AUDIO
INDEX 01 46:31:64
TRACK 13 AUDIO
INDEX 01 48:35:42
TRACK 14 AUDIO
INDEX 01 50:39:54
TRACK 15 AUDIO
INDEX 01 52:49:55
TRACK 16 AUDIO
INDEX 01 54:57:50
TRACK 17 AUDIO
INDEX 01 57:00:27
TRACK 18 AUDIO
INDEX 01 59:02:69
TRACK 19 AUDIO
INDEX 01 61:00:18
TRACK 20 AUDIO
INDEX 01 63:06:27
TRACK 21 AUDIO
INDEX 01 67:23:13
TRACK 22 AUDIO
INDEX 01 68:48:23

Alright, I've been trying to get the latest CVS build, but this CVS stuff, to be honest, kinda evades me, especially since theres different kinds, and one of them was just a 'patch' to a build from AEP's site (from where I could not find said build, partially due to language limitations). I'd like to know which build got mercs running. And, I also would like to know if a NRG image (which is what I got) would also work; the build I got working got through the intro fine, but crashed on mission load, saying it couldnt find the CD. Sorry if that sounds noobish, but I'd like some guidance on this matter.

If the NRG image is the issue, how does one convert an NRG image to CUE?

Dunno about conversion of .NRG to .CUE, but Alcohol/CDRWIN support creation of .CUE directly. So assuming that .NRG has all of the Audio/Data info, you could simply use Daemon Tools to mount the .NRG and then use either tools to create the .CUE image.

Well, I converted it to CUE properly. Game loaded, but crashed again when loading an actual mission. Says MW2.exe cant find the CD, even though it loads the title screen and FMVs properly. So, sounds like its the battlescape EXE thats not detecting. You say it worked... must have the wrong CVS build. Could you link to the right build that you used?

Which CVS did you use and from where?
How did you mount the image?

Hopefully this is a PBKAC problem and not a DosBox problem. 😀

It shouldn't matter which CVS was used but try this one: http://ykhwong.x-y.net/page.htm

The one you linked to is the one I used, the 9/11 build. I mounted the image with the 'imgmount d c:\soandso\mercs.cue -t iso' method...

Odd, I'll check it again tonight. I didn't install the patch either or do anything else which.

Just mounted the image, mounted the C: drive, installed, ran setup, and played.

Tested Instant Action and the Missions.

It ran to the title screen and the FMVs, but crashed at missions. My build didnt need to mount the C drive, it was premounted as such. I am using no frontends for this build.

Hmmm,

I do remember performing a Minimal install. Also IIRC, I used SB16. Tho I doubt the game needs sound support to start....although it does check the audio tracks when starting the mission.

I would test it right now but my Mercs image is on my external HD which is connected via USB1 to a 400mhz machine.....which means that dosbox access is extremly slow for file transfers and the USB processing eats up this 400mhz cycles like crazy. (Ie...I can't surf and test Mercs at the same time, 😉 )

Still no dice.

MW2.EXE - fatal error #53: SYSERROR_CDNOTFOUND: CD-ROM not mounted

Happens when I try going into a mission, again. I tried disabling sound, so not an audio thing. Reinstalled with minimal install too. Still not working! Something seems to be making MW2.EXE specifically fail to see the disc, even if MERCS.EXE does see it.

My executables are size/dates:

MERCS.EXE = 31,989 Date: 9-11-96
MW2.EXE = 944,149 Date: 9-16-96
MW2SHELL.EXE = 962,175 Date: 9-16-96

Oh yeah, make sure the contents of your .CUE match mine above. Dunno if different MERCS CD's have different Audio tracks.