Hi,

Which version of HoMM2 are you trying to run? (IIRC the versions were 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3)
These patches contains some graphics related fixes, so they might be helpful.
Unfortunately all on-line sites that I have been able to find hosting the patches seems to be a bit suspicious. This Hungarian site seems to contain the patch from 1.0 to 1.3 amongst others:
http://hommm.hu/component/jdownloads/category/5-heroes-22
However, even as a Hungarian, I cannot vouch for how safe and legit this site is so be careful, but this seemed to be the least suspicious for me.

MagefromAntares wrote on 2026-05-11, 09:36:

Hi, […]
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Hi,

Which version of HoMM2 are you trying to run? (IIRC the versions were 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3)
These patches contains some graphics related fixes, so they might be helpful.
Unfortunately all on-line sites that I have been able to find hosting the patches seems to be a bit suspicious. This Hungarian site seems to contain the patch from 1.0 to 1.3 amongst others:
http://hommm.hu/component/jdownloads/category/5-heroes-22
However, even as a Hungarian, I cannot vouch for how safe and legit this site is so be careful, but this seemed to be the least suspicious for me.

Thank you for the tip! However, I'm already running Price of Loyalty version 2.1. I should have mentioned that...

Got the patch from here:
https://www.moddb.com/games/heroes-of-might-a … y-v21-dos-patch

Okay that is the last official version for the expansion as far as I know, can you post what kind of video card do you have installed? Or is it the one which have an inbuilt Cirrus Logic?

MagefromAntares wrote on 2026-05-11, 10:41:

Okay that is the last official version for the expansion as far as I know, can you post what kind of video card do you have installed? Or is it the one which have an inbuilt Cirrus Logic?

Yes, exactly. Built-in Cirrus Logic 5430.

Found some specs here:
http://ps-2.kev009.com/pcpartnerinfo/ctstips/4486.htm

As I remember the Cirrus Logic 5430 didn't had the same VESA compatibility issues as the older Cirrus Logic chips, so I think it should work fine. But still maybe a run with UniVBE worth a try?

MagefromAntares wrote on 2026-05-11, 11:17:

As I remember the Cirrus Logic 5430 didn't had the same VESA compatibility issues as the older Cirrus Logic chips, so I think it should work fine. But still maybe a run with UniVBE worth a try?

I was unfamiliar with that piece of software, but acquired version 6.53 and gave it a try. Unfortunately it didn't have an effect.

And I take it back that I can reliably make it work by deleting the CFG file. Rather it intermittently works regardless of CFG file or whatever. Most of the time it starts with a black screen. Sometimes, rarely it starts the way it should. Very strange.

InterClaw wrote on 2026-05-11, 16:50:

MagefromAntares wrote on 2026-05-11, 11:17:

As I remember the Cirrus Logic 5430 didn't had the same VESA compatibility issues as the older Cirrus Logic chips, so I think it should work fine. But still maybe a run with UniVBE worth a try?

I was unfamiliar with that piece of software, but acquired version 6.53 and gave it a try. Unfortunately it didn't have an effect.

And I take it back that I can reliably make it work by deleting the CFG file. Rather it intermittently works regardless of CFG file or whatever. Most of the time it starts with a black screen. Sometimes, rarely it starts the way it should. Very strange.

If it happens randomly can you install and try it with a different VESA supporting game? This would let us knows if it is a HoMM2 specific issue or a general issue.

MagefromAntares wrote on 2026-05-11, 18:42:

If it happens randomly can you install and try it with a different VESA supporting game? This would let us knows if it is a HoMM2 specific issue or a general issue.

I'm not sure I know exactly what is meant by VESA support, but if it's resolutions of like 640x480 and above, then the system does support this and runs with this in several games I have installed. It doesn't run well, mind you, but it does run. 😀

I tried a few now again just to confirm:
Blood
Descent
SimCity 2000
Transport Tycoon Deluxe

... but I have more installed I can try, if you think there's some particular game that would be good to check with.

Anyway, no issues like that in general. It's just this game that is acting up unfortunately.

I think all of these games by default either use the standard 320x200 VGA mode or the 320x240 Mode-X neither of them are VESA, ideally you would check with a game using the same VESA resolution, I think HoMM2 uses 640x480 with 256 colours, so a game configured to run with that resolution would be the ideal test.

EDIT:

InterClaw wrote on Yesterday, 12:07:

Blood

Actually that game supports the exact resolution we are trying, unfortunately I think some of the online retail releases are missing the configuration utility, so you might have to edit the config file manually.

MagefromAntares wrote on Yesterday, 17:41:

640x480 with 256 colours

Right, this is what I at least thought I was testing. Not quite sure what SC2000 and TTDLX runs at, but Descent definitely has a VGA mode. Anyway, retested with Blood. I'm able to set the resolution from SETUP.EXE or in-game and it works like it should. It's a slideshow, but works. 😀

SC2000 and TTDeluxe are definitely both 640x480 games that require VESA. Warcraft 2 is another one. However they are all bundled with UNIVBE (either internally or externally) to support cards without a VESA BIOS. Descent only uses 640x480 if you pass the -640x480 command line switch, and relies on the card's native BIOS supporting VESA.

jmarsh wrote on Today, 00:48:

SC2000 and TTDeluxe are definitely both 640x480 games that require VESA. Warcraft 2 is another one. However they are all bundled with UNIVBE (either internally or externally) to support cards without a VESA BIOS. Descent only uses 640x480 if you pass the -640x480 command line switch, and relies on the card's native BIOS supporting VESA.

You are definitely right, thanks for correcting my information, TTDeluxe uses VESA and in the right mode, I don't know how I forgot that, sorry. SC2000 is a mixed bag, I don't have it currently installed but if I remember correctly it either uses VESA or if it detects certain cards it uses those cards Super VGA functionality to handle the card directly bypassing the BIOS to get faster speed.

Anyway with having both Blood and Transport Tycoon Deluxe runs correctly with that it basically proves that the 640x480 256 colour VESA mode works correctly, and the issue might be somewhere else, it might be LFB(Linear Frame Buffer) support issue, however there is a program, having a topic right on this forum that might be able to check that: [Release] X-VESA 2.0 Public Beta – Deep VESA diagnostics for real DOS hardware It is currently in beta by the developer but it seems to be a very powerful program for debugging already.

EDIT: Possible helpful information, one of my friends who is a fan of Heroes 2 was online recently and I asked him about this issue, and he said that HoMM2 has a hidden CLI parameter

1/i0

that skips the intro, and that might help if intro playback is the problem.