Getting MoO2 to work on WinXP

[NonPrayinMantis]

I have Win XP and I DLed a copy of MoO2, a game I played A LOT of during the 90's on my old PC.

I have the win95 version and when I try to get it to run it takes up all of my processing power (on my current PC!) and the cursor is practically unmoveable. My mouse works fine unless it's inside the game and then it is so sticky that most of the time I can't move it.

Do you have any ideas?

NPM

 

[vmxa]

Yes that is an issue with XP and others, but may just be a processor speed. I had Mo'slo that made the cursor work fine. I have been told you can disable DirectDraw while running Moo2.

 

[NonPrayinMantis]

Yes that is an issue with XP and others, but may just be a processor speed. I had Mo'slo that made the cursor work fine. I have been told you can disable DirectDraw while running Moo2.

Ok, how do you do that for XP, or how does Moslo work for XP? I DL'ed Moslo but I couldn't get it to work on MoO2 properly.

Thanks for the help, anyway!

NPM

 

[vmxa]

The version I have is not the free one. You start it an dit runs Orion95. It can be setup to start Orion95 for you. I ran at 50% and that let the mouse behave as it should.

IIRC you can go to Run and enter MSCONFIG. One of the tabs has the interface for DirectDraw and other things like DirectX. You turn it off or on. I used to have a note on that, but so far cannot find it. Here is a script someone posted years ago for Vista.

var WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell");

WshShell.RegWrite("HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\DirectDraw\\EmulationOnly", 1, "REG_DWORD");
WshShell.Run("orion95", 1, true)
WshShell.RegWrite("HKLM\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\DirectDraw\\EmulationOnly", 0, "REG_DWORD");

 

[vmxa]

I should mention that I have been forced to use DosBox on Win7. I could not get Orion95 to run, so now running the dos version. It is actually better as I can now run full screen or in a window. That is an option for you, if all efforts fail.

DosBox is free, so you can't beat that. Just be sure to get one of the shells that let you automate and can the startup process for any game running under DosBox. I have only Moo1,
Moo2, Alien Legacy and Ascendancy right now.

 

[NonPrayinMantis]

I should mention that I have been forced to use DosBox on Win7. I could not get Orion95 to run, so now running the dos version. It is actually better as I can now run full screen or in a window. That is an option for you, if all efforts fail.

So which file in the orion2 directory is the dos command? I haven't been able to identify it.

NPM

 

[vmxa]

Orion2.exe is the one. The scrip looks like it just changes the Register directly, so Regedit should work, if you want a test it.

 

[NonPrayinMantis]

Orion2.exe is the one.

I apparently don't have that file.

NPM

 

[vmxa]

I have heard that Atari down load does not include the Dos version, what crap. I wonder what they charged for it? I checked it is 9.99 and says it runs on Dos 5.0. I doubt Orion95.exe will run on Dos. You need Orion2.exe for that I would bet.

 

[Induktio]

It seems you are still running the 1.31 version? Oh well, then you are missing a lot of features and bugfixes.

There's a 1.40 patch available for the Dos version which also adds some new command line switches, see the patch faq and the Dosbox guide The Moo2 Dos version runs nicely under Dosbox, it shouldn't be too hard to set up.

 

[vmxa]

He does not even have the Dos version. It is missing from the package that he got form Atrai.

 

[barseer]

http://masteroforion2.blogspot.com/2006/05/dosbox-guide.html

FAQ there, take the 1.31 offered there:

B) I have installed the Windows version orion95.exe. Why should I read this guide?

First, most MOO2 CDs contain both versions, i.e. orion95.exe and orion2.exe. Second, even if you own just a "Windows only" release (e.g. the Atari Download version), you should take into account that there are just minor differences between Windows and DOS version. It is patchable with the last official 1.31. Proceed with step 1B in this case.

 

[vmxa]

Not sure what this does for him. He does not have Orion2.exe and is having issues with the Windows version, the mouse sticking problem.

 

[barseer]

Apply the 1.31 offered in the guide and he will have the DOS version.

 

[vmxa]

That is cool, it comes with an executable for DOS. That can be useful to those that got Moo2 from Atari DL.

 

[Induktio]

Interesting, I didn't even remember it was possible to patch the Win version to Dos.

Anyway, I'd recommend these starting switches to balance out the gameplay:

ORION2~1.EXE /skipintro /richstart /nobh /nowh /planets=4 /nosplint

Before the patch I always reloaded when gotting a black hole because the animation is just so annoying.

If you want to eliminate the 1 pop housing trick, just use /nohousing. I've found out it has helped the AI also but beware, the Sakkras will grow like no tomorrow then.