Make sure config.sys doesn't have STACKS=0,0.

9,256 is what I'm using.

Perhaps you have a serial mouse you could try instead?

I had the exact same experience when trying to use WSS for sound in that game. Using SBPro got rid of the freezes.

I'm guessing there's something wrong with the way the WSS driver was implemented in WarCraft 2. For reference, my sound card was an OPTi 82C930.

WSS wasn't the issue but definitely something that came to mind - I'd tested with no audio and SB Pro. The issue appears to be the PS/2 mouse - switching to a serial mouse as suggested by @Jorpho seems to have done the trick.

I did consider that but I'm using a KVM setup so having a serial mouse for one machine and a PS2 mouse for the other did not appeal and lazyness got the better of me. But it does mean I get to use both of my favourite mice, and using a serial mouse fixed another issue I was having - Strip Poker 3 behaving strangely. Having that game playable seals the deal 🐱‍🏍

Thank-you all for your help 👍

could it be the mouse driver?
I've had bad luck with some systems and CTMOUSE
using MSMOUSE cured things for me like freezing Monkey Island SE editions and Space Quest 4 games with the systems that had issues

This may also be worth consideration: Re: Warcraft 2

Thanks and yes my googling had turned that up - it's always mentioned in the context of running the game in NT but I tried it anyway, no change. Given switching to serial fixed 2 games I guess the PS/2 support on this motherboard is a little wonky, at least at the speed I'm running it.

There's always something with these old rigs, which is what makes them so fun.

badmojo wrote on 2021-05-10, 07:49:

using a serial mouse fixed another issue I was having - Strip Poker 3

you could have simply left it at another game. Love the honesty!
Funny thing is I couldn't help myself and googled it and recognised those girls even though I forgot I even had this game back in the 90's!

😂 yeah I have no idea where I got it, probably my dodgy friend Luke he had all of the good stuff. I worked out that you could rename some files and reverse the strip order - some would consider that cheating I suppose.

Sorry @keropi I missed your post - I did consider the mouse driver so tried a few, including the MS one. I know I've had issues with cutemouse on other systems - Links386 maybe? - but it seems not to be the culprit in this case.

All good I can still use the KVM for monitor / keyboard and have 2 mice plugged in; I've been missing my trusty old serial Logitech anyway.

Perhaps it is some kind of IRQ problem? I'm not sure how you would go about diagnosing it, though.

Jorpho wrote on 2021-05-10, 14:23:

Perhaps it is some kind of IRQ problem? I'm not sure how you would go about diagnosing it, though.

Yeah not sure - there's nothing in the BIOS which mentions resources for the PS2 port. You can of course select IRQ, etc for the serial ports but I've just left it on 'auto' and it seems to work OK - although I haven't booted into Windows98 yet so that's something to check.

badmojo wrote on 2021-05-10, 20:52:

Yeah not sure - there's nothing in the BIOS which mentions resources for the PS2 port.

I'm pretty sure the various IRQ-listing programs (MSD is the first thing that comes to mind) usually have a line for the PS/2 mouse, though I can't recall hearing about any means of changing it.

Windows 98 recognised the serial mouse fine so just for fun I decided to install the 'MouseWare' that came with my Logitech Pilot mouse and now of course the whole thing's gone to hell in a hand-basket - '98 is crawling along and looks to have hung.

Damn old rigs.

EDIT: OK got that issue sorted (just had to do the Win9X driver install boogie) and switching to the serial mouse has resolved another annoyance with this machine too - Win98 would become unresponsive for ~20 seconds after booting. I just put that down to normal Win98 behaviour but apparently it was the PS/2 mouse also.

For future reference the motherboard in question is a GA-586T2, using the latest BIOS.

Happy days.

Hi there, I just reinstalled Warcraft II on my Socket 7 retro machine last week and encountered similar problems: if I keep playing without saving then all is well, but saving a game would result either froze up the computer (most of the times) or the save file became corrupted and unusable i.e. farms fill half the map. My system spec:

- Asus TXP4 (430TX chipset)
- Intel Pentium-MMX 233 MHz
- 64 MB SDRAM x1
- S3 Savage4 Pro PCI w/ 16 MB VRAM
- Sound Blaster Pro 2.0
- Realtek RTL8139D Ethernet adapter
- 512 MB CF card via CF-IDE converter
- Asus CD-S520 CD-ROM drive
- Logitech PS/2 keyboard
- Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse v2.0 w/ USB-PS/2 converter
- MS-DOS 6.20

First I thought the problem might come from the CF card but the surface test detected no problem. Then I talked to myself "why not look up VOGONS and see if other vintage gamers have encountered similar problem(s)?" and voila!

The problem is that I don't have a working serial mouse lying around; I'll patch the game to 1.40 and see if that can solve the problem on my machine.

Something a bit unclear to me:
* Are we talking about "Tides of darkness" or "Beyond the dark portal" or both ?

badmojo wrote on 2021-05-10, 01:19:

- replacing DOS4G inside the WAR2.EXE with DOS32A

Did you try:
1. not replacing, but running it like this "dos32a war2.exe" ?
2.running a memtest, just to make sure the memory is ok ?
3. upgrade with expansion set to 1.5 ?
4. not running cdaudio, but midi ?
5. just in case its a cd-issue, make sure its clean before copying ?

Edit:
6. Try a minimal boot disk ?

I might have found a solution: use ONLY the keyboard and keep the mouse complete stationary while saving.

If the mouse has been moved just one pixel between clicking the "Save" button and writing completes (takes about 1-2 seconds), the game freezes and/or the save file becomes corrupted. I have no idea why but that's the result.

i'm surprised that the battle.net edition for win95 hasn't been suggested; it has the add-on already built in, runs pretty solid in my experience and has the speed sensitivity issues fixed.