Music in game MGE with XP?

[nemt]

I've been playing Civ 2 since it first came out, and have MGE on my current Windows XP machine. It works fine except for one thing, there is no in-game music. Is this a known problem? How can it be fixed?

 

[ElephantU]

Did you install the No-CD patch?

 

[nemt]

Nope, I always play with the CD in the drive and the game won't start without it.


EDIT: I've installed the latest official patch from MicroProse (1.3?), but I don't assume it's the same thing.

 

[Ace]

I am running civ2 in XP, with the latest upgrades from mircosoft and it works just fine. You do have the music block checked under game options, right?

 

[nemt]

Yes, I have the music box checked. When I go to "Pick Music" I get the error "This option is not available unless the...cd is in the cdrom drive."

 

[mikeb33]

get windows media player v10
put civ2 cd in the drive, close out of the autorun
then open windows mediaplayer v10
on the left panel of the player, it says "copy from cd"
click that, then check all the songs on the cd, and then click "copy music", that will save it to your harddrive, so you can play it in the background atleast.
Could someone(anyone) do this for me and zip the music and send it to my email: michaelbecker7@hotmail.com
My cd got cracked on the inside of it. It sucks, I had to buy origional civ2 cd and now don't have the sweet MGE music anymore
thanks for anyone who takes the time to help a fellow civ fanatic....

keep civin!
Michael Becker

 

[nemt]

Can anyone help with this problem?

 

[starlifter]

Your CD drive is probably not the first drive. You may have a virtual drive installed, like Alcohol 120%'s or various others. Reletter your drive order in XP

Control Panel - Admin Tools - Computer Management - Disk Management


This could affect where other installed programs look, though... but you can try it and change the letters back it it does not work.

 

[nemt]

The CD drive I'm playing the game from is drive E, drive D is an internal zip drive. I know it's reading everything besides music just fine from the CD, as the game will not start at all if the disc isn't in there. I don't have any mounting software on this pc like Alcohol 120%.

 

[starlifter]

drive D is an internal zip drive.

Bingo, that would be it. The Zip is the first removable drive after C:\, and that is where the 1996 programming of Brian Reynolds is looking for the music score. I can't test with a Zip since I don't have one, but just use XP's drive letter rename to put the Zip drive to F:\ or G:\ or whatever. You need not reletter your CD drive. You may need to reboot to ensure 100% that certain things in the registry are set a certain way, but you won't get a screen asking for a reboot. Be sure to post back, with results either way, since this is sure to be a problem with a few other people out there .

 

[nemt]

Why wouldn't the game look for the music on the drive the disc is in, though? I installed it from the E drive, and it found the CD in the E drive when I started the game up (like I said, if it's not in there - it won't start). The programming is such that it ONLY checks the D drive for music?

 

[mikeb33]

Since civ2 cd doubles as an audio disc and plays the music in any stand cd player, I got Nempt to try to play it in his stereo, it failed to play, but did say there was a 46 minute track.
Perhaps someone can email the music to him? Since you know he has the CD? I would, but i lost mine.
If someone could follow these steps to rip the music from their own MGE cd and send it to Nempt, I'm sure he would appreciate it.
1. get windows media player v10
2. put civ2 cd in the drive, close out of the autorun
3. then open windows mediaplayer v10
4. on the left panel of the player, it says "copy from cd"
5. click that, then check all the songs on the cd, and then click "copy music", that will save it to your harddrive

HE NEEDS YOUR HELP! SAVE THIS MAN!

 

[starlifter]

just use XP's drive letter rename

Again, simply reletter your Zip drive (its very easy, and you can change it back anytime). In XP:

Control Panel - Admin Tools - Computer Management - Disk Management, then right click on the Zip Drive (D:\, in your case), and choose the "change disk letter" option to select whatever drive letter you want to use (like maybe 'Z' as a memory aid for Zip)

Personally, I use 'V' for my Virtual drive.


If you just want to have Civ 2 music, then you can also do something totally different. Just rip (extract) the music from the CD, and save it as a .WAV file or even an .MP3 (to save space on your hard drive). Then play it outside the game (turn the ingame music option off) .

 

[mikeb33]

uhh...you didn't read my post did you starlifter...his cd doesn't play in cd players, and he tried ripping it and it didn't work. The music on the cd is damaged
He needs someone(you prefeably) to send him the music by ripping and zipping it. thx for your help starlifter, I'm sure he appreciates it

mike

 

[starlifter]

uhh...you didn't read my post did you starlifter...

uhh... yes I actually I did.

his cd doesn't play in cd players, and he tried ripping it and it didn't work. The music on the cd is damaged

Maybe its damaged, but much more likely he does not know how a CD is constructed (few do, or need to). Civ 2 is a mixed-mode CD. That means most CD players will never look past the program data track. In mixed mode, the ISO specification says the music must come after. Ergo... assumption of "no music and the CD is damaged!"

He needs someone(you prefeably) to send him the music by ripping and zipping it.

I don't do that, since don't know the copywrite status. Besides being large (22 MB even when MP3s), it would not help others in general.

Note: However, if it is OK with Thunderfall (since its his board), I will upload the music with his permission. Ask and point him here, and if he posts that its OK, I will.

thx for your help starlifter

My help will follow in terms of a general HOWTO post of how to extract the music from one's CD. Give a person a fish, and feed them for a day. Teach them to fish, and feed them for a lifetime.

 

[starlifter]

I've created a thread explaining how to extract the music, complete with song titles, from your Civ 2 CD. It is here.

 

[nemt]

Before I try that, let's just verify the music is actually on my disc. Were any copies of Civ2:MGE created without music, maybe to fit all the game data? The size of the disc is ~400MB, is this the correct size with music (I would assume so, as nothing in the game seems too large other than video data)?

 

[nemt]

I just installed audiograbber, it only sees the data track.

 

[starlifter]

Were any copies of Civ2:MGE created without music, maybe to fit all the game data? The size of the disc is ~400MB, is this the correct size with music (I would assume so, as nothing in the game seems too large other than video data)?

It sounds like that is the data track only. Is it an original CD, or is it one that is burned (someone might have removed it)? To my knowledge, if its a US-language MGE (and I presume others too), all have music; there would be no apparant reason I can think of that Microprose woud master a non-music MGE, but who knows for sure.

It might be OK to post the music. PM Thunderfall and ask. The audio tracks themselves are too big, but in MP3, it might be OK (~11 MB for 64, ~21 for 128).

I'll take Mercator's suggestion and post a howto for burning an audio disk from MP3 source, this weekend, using freeware burner.

 

[nemt]

I bought Civ 2, Scenarios, and FW when they all first came out. When I bought a new PC in 1999, though, it came bundled with a copy of MGE, so I think I gave my original Civ 2 disc to one of my friends, and have used MGE ever since. Come to think of it - I can't remember the music ever working right, even in Windows 98.