Use the latest ver of DOSBox.
Read the DOSBox README specifically for the "freesize" switch.
Look into a CD imaging program like UltraISO and create a cue/bin image of your Mechwarrior 2 CD.
Mount the image you created using the "imgmount" command, refer to DOSBox README.
Search forum for Mechwarrior 2 posts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFwSgKEMIGM

Oh great, installing a game using the XP VDM (="outside" of DOSBox), what a great technique.

EDIT: oh dear, the person doing the tut obviously doesn't have the slightest idea how to use DOSBox properly.

EDIT 2: i can't understand why anyone would "recommend" (=link to) this crappy "tutorial" to anyone having problems running the game.

OP: didn't try this particular game yet, but just install it in DOSBox (_not_ via the XP VDM) and run it using the exact same mountings you've used while installing it. And of course what DosFreak said.

You don't necessarily need Alc or Daemon Tools because DOSBox can mount BIN/CUE images with the "imgmount" command. You could just mount your original CD but using an image is actually more convenient. All you need is a tool - any tool - that can create a proper BIN/CUE image (not an ISO image, because ISO won't containt the audio tracks). CloneCD will be fine, ImgBurn is a free alternative AFAIK.

Thank you very much everyone. I thought I'd be a little more thorough. I'm running dosbox .73 now and have mech2 mercs version 1.05
I mount the c drive no problem with -freesize 400
I mount d "/volumes/MERCENARIES" -t cdrom -label MERCENARIES
it installs without complaint of limited space for full installation
i try to run it in the c:\mercs> mode but when I enter "mercs2" it says no cd detected. So I used the patch located here
http://www.jaylittle.com/jaylittle/downloads/ … 2_1.1_crack.zip
and then it allowed me to load the game with the "mech2" command in the "c:\mercs>" line and the sound and videos are perfect but when I try to run a mission it reverts to dos mode for a second, reports "this program must be run from "MECH2.EXE" then jumps back and tells me my mission failed. I've tried every combination of renaming files (mw2, mercs.exe, mech2.exe (both the old files and the new patch files located at the web address I posted).
What can I do to gather more helpful information about my problem? From here on out I don't know what information is useful or superfluous. Thank you very much; I appreciate the help

create a cue/bin
then you don't need a crack
Maybe the works then. Who knows what the crack breaks,

Hey everyone, thank you very much for your help. I got firestarter fx for mac and was able to copy files onto my desktop as bin/cue images. I also copied them as toc/bin images and burned a bin/cue disk. I still can't get it to work, although through imgmounting the bin files I can get to the neurohelmet interface screen before it stops and says no cdrom detected. I have copied and pasted details of my attempts to run mercs involving variations on the cue/bin images, mounting them as cdroms, iso, -fs iso, with cracks, etc. I have also checked the mechwarrior 2 forums and while it has provided some potential solutions and gotten me farther, I am still at a deadlock and no one seems to have a problem after they mount cue images (something I can't do...). If anyone has some spare time I'd really appreciate some help in this matter. Thank you and let me know if there's anything I need to clarify about this process.

failed mechwarrior solutions

mounted c like usual:
mount c "/users/jon/documents/dbstuff/mercs/mercs" -freesize 400
then imgmounted
imgmount d "/users/jon/dbstuff/mercs/mercscopyimage.bin" -t cdrom

failed; got to initializing neurohelmet interface, then:
mw2.exe fatal error 53 syserr cd not found: cd-rom not mounted

mounted e "/volumes/mercenaries"
tried to mount volume as f-failed
failed, mounted e again without unmounting
mount e "/volumes/mercenaries" -t cdrom -label MERCENARIES
failed again with same message
___________________
mounted c like normal
tried imgmounting d with bin files as cdrom and -label but label never worked
finally i just did cdrom and it worked
mounted e volumes mercenaries -t cdrom -label MERCENARIES
c:
mercs
cdrom not found

_______________
mounted c as usual
tried to mount (not imagemount) mercscopyimage.bin as cdrom but "it isn't a directory"
tried to imgmount mercscopyimage.bin with -t cdrom -label mercscopyimage.bin but it failed
imgmounted mercscopyimage -t iso and succeeded, but when I ran "mercs.exe" -I received the same error as above

____________________

c as usual

imgmounted d as mercsimage.bin (btw I changed the name of the file from mercscopyimage.bin to mercsimage.bin just to make it shorter) -t iso -t cdrom (which went over the edge of one line btw). that failed to mount
i took away the cdrom part and it mounted
mount e "/volumes/mercenaries" -t cdrom -label MERCENARIES
mounted successfully
failed at neurohelmet interface
_____________
deleted everything
mounted c as normal
imgmounted mercsimage.bin -t iso
cd/dos
install
ran it and got the same error

______________
mounted c as usual
tried imgmounting mercscb.cue -t iso
failed: path not valid
tried again with -t iso -sf iso
failed: path not valid
tried mercsimage.toc (I also burned a toc file btw) -t iso
failed: path not valid

_____________
mounted c as usual
imgmount d "/users/jon/documents/dbstuff/mercs/mercsimage.bin" -t iso -fs iso
tried to launch mission but failed at neurohelmet interface
added the crack
mercs.exe
when I tried to launch a mission it did not get to neurohelmet interface, but gave me a different error line:
fatal error error opening dos bwd file mis1stp0w.*
*after repeated attempts to launch, varios permutations of this error pop up and not for long enough for me to record them. mis5 tsp was another, and beyond that it's hard to tell what they were.

so I exited to dos and ran the game with mech2.exe

when I tried to launch mission it goes black and says "this game must be accessed from mech2.exe"

_____________________
Also, I can never imgmount a cue file or a to file or a to file renamed as a cue file. it just always says path not valid. I've tried -t iso and -t iso -sf iso but it never works.

______________________________
well that's most of what I've tried. I've also checked all the mechwarrior forums but apparently everyone else's cue files mount perfectly or something. Any suggestions? Thank you very much for your time everyone I really do appreciate it.

have you red carefully and followed this guide?
60 seconds guide to getting your game to run in DOSBox

There's no point in mounting the .bin. (Unless you plan on just installing the game and using a crack)

Also after you create a CUE/BIN. DO NOT RENAME THE .BIN.

As for why the crack doesn't work it's possible it's dependant upon a specific version of the game.

The Mechwarrior 2 games REQUIRE the subchannel data from the CD, the only way you are going to get that is by mounting the .cue file. So forget about mounting a .bin since as far as DOSBox or ANY program is concerned the .BIN will just contain DATA not AUDIO which is what you need to get Mechwarrior to work.

Open your .cue file and verify that it is setup correctly. Search for "Mechwarrior + CUE" using the forum search feature.

I have no idea what a good program is on the MAC to create cue/bin images. Best bet would be to use Wine/Parellels/Vmware/Boot into Windows and use a CUE/BIN programs that works. (Search the forum for mechwarrior posts to find what imaging programs were used)

RE:
have you red carefully and followed this guide?
60 seconds guide to getting your game to run in DOSBox

-yes i did, in the initial stages and found it very helpful. I also reviewed it again just now to make sure I did everything, and indeed I have. Thank you though.
_____________________________
RE:
There's no point in mounting the .bin. (Unless you plan on just installing the game and using a crack)

Also after you create a CUE/BIN. DO NOT RENAME THE .BIN.

As for why the crack doesn't work it's possible it's dependant upon a specific version of the game.

The Mechwarrior 2 games REQUIRE the subchannel data from the CD, the only way you are going to get that is by mounting the .cue file. So forget about mounting a .bin since as far as DOSBox or ANY program is concerned the .BIN will just contain DATA not AUDIO which is what you need to get Mechwarrior to work.

Open your .cue file and verify that it is setup correctly. Search for "Mechwarrior + CUE" using the forum search feature.

I have no idea what a good program is on the MAC to create cue/bin images. Best bet would be to use Wine/Parellels/Vmware/Boot into Windows and use a CUE/BIN programs that works. (Search the forum for mechwarrior posts to find what imaging programs were used)

-good information; thank you. For the record, I tried everything without renaming the file first, then said screw it and tried it post renaming, but now I won't; thank you. And the sound worked for everything that played; I mean, I never got to play a mission so I don't know if it would have cut out, but up till then all the sound was working. Does that change your conclusion? Also, others have reported the that game runs perfectly with the bin image except it has no sound. then they use the cue image to get the sound and everything is complete. When I imgmount the bin image it gets me as far as the neurohelmet interface but does not actaully play the missions. I've never gotten that far.
And my mechwarrior 2 mercs version is 1.05, my dosbox version is .73 and I'm running mac 10.6.2 btw
-great info on the imaging programs; thank you. I don't have a windows though, and firestarter is capable of looking at the mercenaries cd and saving image as cue/bin. Which is what I've been doing but without luck mounting or known alternatives.

So things of note:
no cue image has ever mounted, only bin (imgmount as cdrom, and -t iso; both with the same result). When i did this, the game ran until helmet interface, then said no cdrom detected.
Also, I've tried all combinations of mounting the cd in volumes with various label/usecd 0/iotcl combos

Questions:
How do I verify that the cue image is set up correctly? What's is iit supposed to look like? Every time I try to open it it just brings me to the Burn app or firestarterfx. It seems to be treating the cue image as only a cue to burn onto a cd; not as a file to be used as is. I can't find info on vogons about how to treat this situation when I'm using a mac; all solutions involve exclusively windows programs/code...

i opened the cue image with textedit and it says

FILE "Mercscb.bin"
BINARY
TRACK 0
MODE1/2048
INDEX 01 00:00:00

and that's it.

it still didn't mount as an image. or as a cdrom (I tried just for the heck of it); path is invalid.

Also, btw, I've tried to get onto the mechwarrior forums but it won't let me subscribe. I mention this to let you know that I'm trying that path, but it's just not sending me confirmation emails or anything which is weird but nevertheless a roadblock. So sorry about that but yeah I'm trying that route too.

your .cue not only doesn't have info about audio tracks, but also looks very strange,
so it is possible your img will be very strange too and that is why it doesn't work

verify whether your cd has audio tracks with a cd player or something,
and if it does,
try to make image with a different program/different options in that program so that you will get audio tracks in it

yeah i may have not opened it in a way that shows what's really inside. I opened it with textedit... Otherwise every time I click on it it brings me to the burn app for burning images. I'll search for more mac apps that convert to bin/cue tonight but all I've found is firestarterfx. btw I burned a bin cue image to cd but it just acts like the original cd rom. anyway thanks for the headsup and I'll check for other apps tonight.

hey so whenever my burned cue/bin cd is inserted itunes opens up and asks if i want to import the tracks. So I take it the audio data is there. I've fiddled with firestarterfx and I don't think there's any way to have cue/bin images that are not scheduled to be burned. I don't know how this affects things if it does, but it's worth noting. wtf?
I need me some cue/bin images and don't know where to go. I've looked online for mac programs but can't find anything free for mac. Rough.

so ask your windows friends/neighbours/whatever
and would be good if you actually tried to play the audio tracks, not just think they are there...

fair enough, my apologies. I didn't check not because I am lazy, but because it had opened itunes before and since the problem was never with sound, I blew past it thinking i was all set (because even mounting the bin file as an image did not result in playing the game-with or without sound). But you're right; it may be telling of the problem.
So whenever I inserted the original cd into the drive, two cds popped up- MERCENARIES and Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries (the latter contained the audio). I created a bin cue image that would only burn to cd (the cue never mounted in dosbox-path invalid), so I burned it to a cd and fiddled with that for a while. I could have sworn that two cds popped up on my desktop whenever I inserted the new burned cd, but now there is only one... So you might be on to something.
The bottom line seems to be that I need to obtain a cue/bin image and I can't seem to do that correctly with my mac and freeware. So...
I know zero people with pcs, but if I were to find one, what would be the most complete course of action? Download clone cd, extract a cue/bin image from my mechwarrior 2 mercenaries cd, put that on a flashdisk and run back to my mac? My concern is needing to go back to a pc multiple times. That's all I need from a pc to test theories right?
Thank you; I appreciate your time

Hey I got it to run on a windows and then I just transferred all the files including the cue bin pair to my mac (btw no free bin cue extracting programs for mac worked successfully) and it worked with video problems with dosbox .73, but when I used the latest version of boxer, all video and everything was perfect. so yay and thank you everyone very much for your help. The only other thing I could want is the patches... I tried to install them and even thought I did until I realized all the salvage was still scripted. I can't find a good tutorial for installing patches with DB but if anyone knows how or where I could find one then that would be grand. Thank you. I beat the game so fast it pains me to lose my money.

>I tried to install them and even thought I did until I realized all the salvage was still scripted.
do you actually understand what you said?

and get the latest dosbox version

Alright man I know I don't know this stuff as well as you do. Will you please lay off telling me I'm an idiot? If you don't have anything helpful to say, please let some poor sap waste their time with me and don't waste yours.

I used the latest version of dosbox and every time the screen changed (full screen/window, thermal/no thermal, office/mech lab, starport/mission control etc.), the video would get funky and certain lines wouldn't clear when the view was supposed to change. I used boxer (which has version .73 in it) and it was perfect. So I'm sticking with that.

I've messed with many mac dosbox problems trying to get mechwarrior mercs to work on my mac, and while I've had many successes, I don't always understand why they happened, so it's not easy yet for me to come up with more solutions. Hence my progress and yet lack of knowledge. Sorry; I'm learning.

I thought the patch modified the files that are written after installing the game, but running it after installation isn't yielding any modifications (even on new games), but I've read that the game should be reinstalled after the patch. Which I've also done without success. I must be missing something elementary; will someone please point it out to me? Do I need to remove anything from the mercs directory?

I only wanted to say that i don't understand this sentence:
>I tried to install them and even thought I did until I realized all the salvage was still scripted.

latest dosbox is 0.74
you should be able to compare boxer's dosbox configuration file and dosbox's configuration file to find differences and try to get the game working properly in plain 0.73 and 0.74, as using boxer may be a source of your patching problem.

Also I guess you made a new cue/bin in windows? Does it have info about audio tracks now and does it look differently? Try installing the game on mac using the new cue/bin. Transferring game from one computer to another may also be a source of problems.