MOO2: Graphics weird on Windows 7

[bp01442]

okay I got the game to work on windows 7 and using my brothers laptop that has vista. It's really a pain to install but here's how i did it...(using the CD not dos box).

windows 7 :
note: i also got the 1.3 update i think idk if that effects it or not.
1)install the game on your computer.
2) you'll get the error "missing dxplay.dll or something close to that.
3) open the cd and explore it. go into "DIRECTX"
4) click "type" and go to the dll files "DPLAY.dll" and "DPLAYX.dll"
5) click start > computer > local disk> windows > SysWOW64
6) paste DPLAY.dll and DPLAYX.dll into this directory.
7)copy the entire disk to your desktop
8)go into computer>microprose> orion2
9)open orioncd.configuration settings and make sure it says whatever drive your disk is in. (mine was drive f:\)
10)run the game.... should play(if you get another error like missing smackw32.dll take whatever you are missing and put the files into your local disk program files microprose file.
11) to fix the color run the game. control+alt+del go into processes right click explorer.exe and end process. this turns off your desktop.
12) to turn it back on control alt del... file run process explorer.exe
13) okay that's how i got mine to work any questions tell me lol.

 

[supernerd2000]

I found a solution on another site that doesn't involve closing explorer.exe but it does require modifying the registry. It enable a Direct Draw compatibility setting for the game.

1. Find the id of Orion95.exe. To do this run the program with administrator rights and then close it. Look up the id in the registry in HKLM/Software/Microsoft/DirectDraw/MostRecentApplication. Then reverse the byte order of this ID. (33 39 82 cb -> cb 82 39 33)
2. Add a MOO2 folder in HKLM/Software/Microsoft/DirectDraw/Compatibility
3. Create a string key called Name and fill in Orion95.exe
4. Create a binary key called Flages and enter 00 08 00 00 for the value
5. Create a binary key called ID and fill in the reversed ID found in step 1.

The person claimed this would work on some other games too like Diablo 1: hellfire.

 

[vmxa]

I tried the bp01442 solution and it did not work for me. Not sure I want to go to all the effort on either of the proposed methods, when DosBox works just fine and I can run in full screen or a smaller window.

 

[Cyb]

The solution posted by supernerd2000 worked for me, and I no longer need ANY compatibility modes set under Windows7 - 64 bit. The game runs natively on W7-64 better than ever.

Supernerd2000 did get a key name wrong though, its "Flags" not "Flages" and I found that I also needed to duplicate the keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\DirectDraw\Compatibility\Orion2

Here is my exported registry entry. You can cut-and-paste this into a notepad file and save it with a .reg extension. Then double-click the .reg file to add it to your registry. NOTE: you may or may not need to change your ID value, use supernerd2000s lookup method. Don't include [begin file] and [end file].


[begin file]

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\DirectDraw\Compatibility\Orion2]
"Name"="Orion95.exe"
"Flags"=hex:00,08,00,00
"ID"=dword:333982cb

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\DirectDraw\Compatibility\Orion2]
"Name"="Orion95.exe"
"Flags"=hex:00,08,00,00
"ID"=dword:333982cb

[end file]

NOTE: There should be no spaces in the HKey key names AT ALL. Remove them before doing this, looks like the forum is tweaking the long key names.