VOGONS

Common searches


First post, by Carrera

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Hi Folks,
I was fairly active here 13 years ago and now I am back.

I searched here and on the interwebs but because the name of game (see what I did here?) is made up of such common words and because I need the sequel i.e. "2" or "II" I am not getting very reliable results.

I have found videos but most of them are using warez which I don't condone plus I simply don't get all the acronyms etc that are being thrown around.

The target system is an HP laptop.

The same issue I had under WinXP is that the game would install but if the OS and the game were two different languages the Gear would not move (I had an American game running on German XP Home at the time): The keyboard mapping just did not work.

I swear there was info about copying files from the language version of the game that matched the OS to get the Gear to move.

Does any of this ring a bell...?

Thanks for your patience...

Last edited by Carrera on 2019-04-11, 09:39. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 2 of 10, by mrpenguinb

User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

If you want the music to play, you can install the HG2Launcher application which will automatically play the music for you.
This article should be helpful: Heavy Gear 2 CD Audio help needed

Reply 3 of 10, by Carrera

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Hi There,
Thanks for the tips. The graphics seem to run in D3D (I am assuming as it is the onboard Intel graphic card) and if I really miss the music I will try that launcher.

As you can see I changed the title of the thread because the same problem occurred as it did under XP:
You can install the game (IN installed DirctXMedia but NOT DirectX 6.1) and it will run after setting all the .EXE files to Windows 98/ME but when you launch a training mission the Gear will not move.

Certain key work (A for turning on active radar, P for mission briefing, I for infrared) but nothing else works.

I haven't had a chance to try it yet but if memory serves remapping the controls in the control menu didn't help.

The version of Windows 10 I have I can change the language to English but I still have a German keyboard which may still cause issues.

I am pretty sure I read somewhere that there are binding files that you can copy from the language the keyboard is in to get it to work but am I having no luck finding that.

HG2 is pretty cheap to get in German so I am not worried about that...
Thanks...

Reply 4 of 10, by Carrera

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

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.

Reply 5 of 10, by Carrera

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Well I have not been successful in finding this binding.def file... I was about to buy the game in German when I realized getting a demo of the game ought to suffice.
Unfortunately a google search only turned up English versions of the demo.
Does anyone have one I could get my hands on?
Thanks

Reply 6 of 10, by Carrera

User metadata
Rank Member
Rank
Member

Being a hoarder (of data) has paid off!
I have found the file on some old backups. So much for the Internet never forgetting anything...
I installed it and at least the first instruction of the training video (external view the Gear) worked.

The graphics were a little glitchy: I think this is the "culling effect". I know there is a patch for this and I do want to try dgVoodoo at some point.

I have set all executables to Windows 98/ME compatibility mode.

The next problem was the standard key layout is based on a full keyboard most importantly the number pad so I have to dig out an old keayboard to test that out.

When I went into the options menu the game freaked out turning all purple and being illegible.

the "shell.dll" patch I have seen mentioned seems to me to be a no-CD patch (which I don't need because I have the CD) and besides I cannot find a page that let's me download it where the file isn't shown to contain a virus...

I will keep checking things out.-.--

Reply 7 of 10, by akula65

User metadata
Rank Oldbie
Rank
Oldbie

At one point Infogrames released a compilation of four games called Battle Pack which included the following:

Barrage
Total Air War
Heavy Gear II
Fighter Squadron: The Screamin' Demons over Europe

There was an issue with Heavy Gear II in this particular compilation which prompted the release of the "fix" shell.zip which contains shell.dll. I am attaching a copy of shell.zip which I downloaded in 2003. I don't recall exactly what the issue was, but you might be able to figure it out using the Wayback Machine.

Attachments

  • Filename
    shell.zip
    File size
    751.09 KiB
    Downloads
    142 downloads
    File comment
    Infogrames Battle Pack Heavy Gear II Fix
    File license
    Fair use/fair dealing exception