Mechwarrior 2 Pentium Edition

[BEEN_Nath_58]

The game always had issues on the period correct systems and has even more issues on Windows NT. There were multiple version of the game made for DOS, Windows, Mac, and the following are some useful history and knowledge material:
http ://www. geocities. ws/mechwarrior2_3d/index.htm
http ://www. geocities. ws/mechwarrior2_3d/versions.htm
http ://www. geocities. ws/mechwarrior2_3d/versions.htm

The edition of the game I use is the Pentium Edition (or the general Windows 95 version). Many sites have suggested the Netmech Edition and Pentium Edition were released separately, but I have never seen a Pentium Edition without Netmech included. There are Windows XP/2000 patches made for the 'Pentium Edition' as well as 'Netmech Edition' and I have no idea how they differ. And meanwhile the patches don't work on Windows 10 so we may need a different plan.

The game has issues with WinMM, DirectDraw, DirectSound, DirectInput, and if I include more, needs customised Advapi42.dll, GDI42,dll as well as Kernel42.dll. So its a long process to go ahead.

The game "DOES RUN" on Windows 10 natively, but the method I used isn't desirable by any user out there, neither for me, and there is no sound, as seen here:
https ://youtu. be/dOekzK1IEGc

FYI the Titanium Edition even works on Windows 10 with similar problems: http s://youtu. be/VD44uNky2So

[gho]

... needs customised Advapi42.dll, GDI42,dll as well as Kernel42.dll

Oh, my! Where could I find a 42 bits operating system? ;)

I got the CD and tried to install it, but the setup doesn't work. Here's the story:
The autorun procedure starts START.EXE that, in turn, starts _MINST.EXE
This second program is not a Win32 program, it seems a Win16 and can be managed by otvdmw, but after some initialization it pops the following message (see screenshot). How to go on?

[BEEN_Nath_58]

my bad, i explained in a hurry. Basically the only way the game runs is to use modified code, by modifying MW2SHELL.DLL? (somewhere I read it an issue because of the shell being in 8-bits)

The game would read the ....32.DLL of the file as you have already understood and crash. So modders edited code to make it work. The first issue is, I don't know what they edited to make it work on XP, secondly I don't know what (if any) changes are made to the game and last issue is the music playback, crashing the game in a mission launch. With a modifed DLL in the "SYSWOW64" directory the game would launch and play, and that's not a desirable way to play. Perhaps I will look for winmm.dll in the .dlls and .exe and rename it something else so that it doesn't read from Windows directory. But the music would still be missing. Secondly the input is sticky type, like I need to press Ctrl for smooth gameplay or it would stutter.

So that's a long way to go. The issue is similar with Titanium Version

[BEEN_Nath_58]

So I fixed the game to at let launch:

You could install the game by just copying the CD files and rename MECH2.EX_ to MECH2.EXE. And I uploaded the following files which would allow you to run the game, this is just a start and if possible we may look into the original files (this files were edited by someone, further edited by me, and I patched the WINMM, good luck):

Edit: Most importantly, game crashes on DxWnd

[BEEN_Nath_58]

Even Titanium Version works (just letting you know if you are interested to look into it too, but they need different patched files) :)

It even displays the issue we have (WINMM):

[MrPepka]

Enable Windows 98 compatibility mode in otvdm itself and run the installer through that otvdm

[gho]

Ok, but exactly how? I ask because I tried with no success. As far as I could understand, I should edit otvdm.ini to set Win95 or Win98 as emulated OS, and that should require editing the following section

; dos version
;VDMDOSVER=x.x
; windows version (default: 3.95)

;WINVER=3.1

but adding this line changes nothing:

WINVER=4.1

Could you write down how exactly make it?

[BEEN_Nath_58]

I never managed to make that functionality work, so I suggest you, for now to use the copying technique I mentioned in the reply to the main post.

[MrPepka]

Enable this compatibility mode in the exe file properties in the Compatibility tab

[gho]

I did, but it didn't work. Did you try it? Did it work?

[BEEN_Nath_58]

Not for me, at least

[MrPepka]

I don't have this game, but I checked with others that have a 16 bit installer and it worked. Still, you can turn on Win98 compatibility mode in the installer exe properties, maybe it will help

[BEEN_Nath_58]

very interesting, it doesn't work either. As far as I remember there is a command line parameter to disable OS check but I am not sure how to inject that parameter, from OTVDM.

[gho]

@BEEN_Nath_58: I tried your method and the initial bigger problem is in the SMACKW32.DLL lib, if you rename that file the game starts, though it crashes at any further action.
The hackers intervention is pretty clear: the game loads MW2SHELL.DLL that should load WINMM.DLL and SMACKW32.DLL. Because of the portability problems, the hackers replaced SMACKW32.DLL with a custom version but they couldn't replace WINMM.DLL because this is a system lib, so they edited the import table and renamed the reference to WINMM with MW2CC. Looking at MW2CC.DLL, that seems an older release of WINMM.DLL version 5.1.2600.5512 while the current version on my Win10 is 10.0.19041.546, I would say a pretty different one!

[BEEN_Nath_58]

Actually, I am the one who replaced WINMM with MW2CC. You won't find this anywhere soon. I modified too much for too little, the proper modification should only modify the MW2SHELL.DLL and WAIL32.DLL. Also I edited SMACKW32.DLL for no reason.

In short WAIL32.DLL has to be fixed. And the MW2CC.DLL is the Windows XP WINMM.DLL

[BEEN_Nath_58]

I fixed a lot of things all of a sudden, use this:

[gho]

Starting from CD files, MECH2_EX_ renamed, your files replaced (only 2 files overlapping), the game hangs. Deleting SMACKW32.DLL it starts (no intro movie, of course) and crashes probably at the first attempt to load some new SMK file (there are plenty of them!).
I still see in your Mech2v11.rar archive files that should perhaps not be there like MW2MM.DLL, have you made a clean test starting from scratch? Maybe better backup all your files before ....

[BEEN_Nath_58]

i made the change to make MW2MM.dll the old MW2CC. dll so that I remember WINMM. DLL. Don't delete any file for now. That was a clean test because I edited too much in last installation. This one will play the music but not the effects

i missed the main part here, use compatibility settings of Windows 95 :(

[gho]

Gorgeous!
I got better results restoring the original WAIL.DLL that links WINMM.DLL, but I don't know ... In any case, the Win95 compatibility shims made the miracle, but completely cuts DxWnd off the program, so it becomes completely useless. I'll see if I can learn some lessons from Microsoft shims.
The game works perfectly, SMK animations included, up to the first mission launch, then it crashes. Well, Rome wasn't made in one day (old Italian proverb, I wonder if you know it in India), isn't it?

[BEEN_Nath_58]

Yes that proverb is like the 2nd one you would see im textbooks.

Ok so the game crashes because you restored the original WAIL.DLL so MW2MM. DLL doesn't get usdd anymore. Until and unless the game doesn't use the Windows 10 winmm, its going to crash. This has been same since 2006.

So you are going to need the MW2MM. DLL anyways. And you cannot use DxWnd with it too, atleast until we disvover something else.

as an icing on the cake, use DDrawCompat to use full screen mode of the game

[gho]

DxWnd can make a complete wrapping over winmm.dll, so if we could guess what's wrong with the official winmm.dll I think that I could wrap the offending methods and try to patch it through DxWnd. Any hint?

[BEEN_Nath_58]

I am away from my PC but as far as I understand, some function linked with the new file redirects to something not supported and the game crashes. And the old file supports both of the functions but Windows doesn't understand it so it runs the game and the sound effect is missing hence

[gho]

Starting from scratch again, the renamed MECH2.EX_ has an initial crash. Tracing the stack backwards I meed the following:

winmmbase.midiOutOpen
wail32._AIL_midiOutOpen@12+0A2
wail32._AIL_midiOutOpen@12 to MW2SHELL.02C04DC7
MW2SHELL.02C04D50 to MW2SHELL.ShellMain+156
MECH2.004014E6

So, it seems that MECH2 calls the ShellMain function in MW2SHELL.DLL which in turn calls wail32 to initialize the midi interface with midiOutOpen, but this is no longer supported and here is the crash. Or maybe this happens because the midi interface is supposed to be initialized by the setup procedure and we bypassed it?

[BEEN_Nath_58]

But did you manage to run the game, the game will run with the modified WAIL32. DLL and MW2MM. DLL

At least if you can enter the game you may get more information

[BEEN_Nath_58]

Dramatic stuffs:

Jade Faction Action Halls Ready Room music works but Cadet Training speech doesn't work.

Wolf Clan Hall Ready Room music works but Cadet Training speech doesn't work.

Trials of Grievance mission music and menu music both work

In short, there is no speech