MechWarrior 2: Resource Forum

Hey everyone. Ive been ive been killing myslef for the past 4 months thrying to get mechwarrior 2 and 3 to work. Ive now purchased an older computer and a copy of windows 98(original) and its seems Ive come down to being a driver away from playing all the mech I could ever need. Alas I still cant get it running. I talked to a guy from a PC repair shop and he said the driver I need for the original windows 98 doesnt exist since it is DOS based. He also said that since these games wont work on XP they will also fail to run on 98 SE as it is also windows based instead of DOS based, which I dont belive is true. Will obtaining a copy of Windows 98 SE solve my issue or help solving it? Ive really spent a large sum of money to get a coupkle really old games working here and I dont want to spend much more. I dont know enough about computers to figure it out on my own and doing research online can only get me so far. Any suggestions would be very much appreciated!!!

Welcome Spencer!

Please consult The Guide. It may answer your questions. If it doesn't, please let us know which version of MW2 you are talking about.

I have the windows 95 versions of Mech2 and the expansions. I can double check tonight when I get home and write back tomorow. I do not have internet access with my windows 98machine so anything that must be downloaded must be done on a seperate computer and burned to a cd. All the games installed and all seems well except my computer can only run in 16 color mode. A videocard driver should fix this and then the games should work... right? Im trying to run Mech3 also but Direct X refuses to run until I have a 256 color capabilities. This driver seems to be the main issue since nothing will work until I at least have that for sure.

In many cases, MW2 will run on modern PCs, but the Win95 versions are unreliable. Just download MechVM and see if it detects your CD. If so, try installing it using MechVM. What driver is reported to be missing on Win98?

I need to install a videocard driver. I dont have a driver disc with my copy of windows 98(acquired last weekend) so the only thing windows knows is that there is a video adapter. I was really hopeing someone else may have one. Im running a NVidia TNT2 AGP card. I downloaded the driver from NVidia.com and burned it to a cd(using a computer with internet access) but when I put the cd in my win98 computer no file appears on the disc. It is definitely on the disc but the darned thing cant see it to install. I guess my problem is half with windows and and the mechwarrior side is simply: will it work with the original windows 98 or will I save time and frustration by spending the 10$ ona copy of win98 SE and reinstalling everything?

I don't suppose you used a CD-RW and forgot to close the disc by chance?

nope, even took the cd out and put it back in after burning it so I was sure the file was on there. Thats one thing I dont get is why cant the win98 computer see the file even exists?

no, i mean closed the track on the disc after burning it.
If you do not close the disc with whatever app such as Nero 98 usually will not see the disc contents.
(Not physically opening and closing the drive)

Im no computer wiz here but would the computer that burned it then be unable to see the file as well? I wrote the file with windows vista and it was a kinda weird burn process. I dropped the file on the empty disc and the drive revved up as though it was burning and stopped after a couple minutes, it didnt eject the cd or give me any notice but when I ejected the cd it popped up a message saying it was closing the cd, revved up again and in another minute it popped out the disc. I put it back in and opened the disc and the file was there, I didnt click on it to make sure it ran but it was definitely on the disc. My only guess is that windows 98 doesnt like the way it was burned or my cd drive isnt working right because I dont have a driver for it either. 98SE comes with a bunch of drivers on it already right? If itll save me another 2 weeks of trouble Ill just spend the $10 and get a copy of SE instead. The games will work with SE correct? Thanks for being patient with me guys, I am a noob and lack patience. Especially when Ive been trying to get this to work since July and have spent way more money then I ever would have dreamed on it

Vista may not be closing the disc.. if it lets you write to the disc again then you know the track is not closed..
98 and below have issues reading discs that are created in such a manner as the default vista/xp burning process..
I would highly suggest that you try Nero Burning Rom's demo and burn it with that.

As for drivers on 98 SE... yes and no. You still will need to gather drivers for video card, network card and several other components.

As mentioned previously in this thread you can play mech2 on vista and on XP.
Just follow the guide and you will be up and running depending upon the version you own of MechWarrior 2.