Need help installing Civ2:MGE on Win8.1 pro x64.

I've been looking through the posts, but most of the links are dead and I almost have it working the way I want.

I have it working and running, but I need the CD drive in order to play (i have no CD Drive, but use my friends USB Blu-Ray external drive). All of the n0CD file links seem dead. I even found a link with Civ2.exe patched for x64 and nocd and more. but links are dead.

I also got an error on the Intel video drivers during install (16-bit error). I found a link, and of course link was dead as well.

I do NOT own ToT, but see some patches are with ToT, so I don't know if that make a difference for being compatible with my Gold edition.

So if anyone can help me, I would be forever grateful.
-=Mark=-

Hi, Mark! I'm new to posting here, but this site's been so helpful getting my CivII running, I thought I'd show my gratitude by trying to contribute a little myself.

I have found that CivII Gold works fine with the CD mounted virtually. I use Elaborate Bytes VirtualCloneDrive (freeware). You can keep the ISO of the CD permanently mounted with it, if you want.

If you don't have an ISO creator, LCISOCreator is a very easy-to-use, fast app that doesn't require installation.

I'm pretty sure I have the Intel codecs to install under Win 8.1, so if you still need those, I will try to find where I downloaded them from or upload them somewhere for you. I found that with Win 7 64-bit, I still had to run the civ executable in Win XP compatibility mode in order to see the videos.

I hope this was helpful! Post again if you still need the Intel drivers.

I tried to use those clone disk things that make vitual cd, but they always seem to interfere with some of my programs. So I just stopped using them.

Currently, I tried the nocd patch from here, but it says it doesn't work with 64-bit and I have no 32-bit system.

I seen some post that had a patched civ2.exe with nocd and 1.3 already installed for x64, but the link was dead.

Yeah, I hadn't been able to find a working nocd link, either, which is why I went with mounting a virtual drive. You could always just create the drive each time you want to run Civ. The program gives you an option of no virtual drives, one, or multiple. So you could just create the virtual drive and mount the image when you play, then get rid of the virtual drive afterwards. I actually have three virtual drives, one of which always has Civ2 mounted, and two others that I load iso images to when I need them. So far, the Elaborate Bytes software hasn't caused any problems with any of my programs, even having a few virtual drives going at once.

I hope you're able to find the nocd patch or another solution. I think that external cd drives are pretty cheap these days, cheaper than they were, anyway, even if they're awkward to use.

You can find a working link to the MGE v1.3 no-CD patch in the old Downloads section, under Civilization II: Utility Programs. Then you'll need to run MastermindX's 64-bit compatibility patch (sticky thread, above) on Civ2.exe to prevent the game from crashing when you use an edit box, eg, to name a city.

Cool! Thanks, Catfish!