How to run Civ 2 "Vanilla" on 64 Bit Computers (Win 7/Vista/XP):
Hello forums! I've noticed that people's only question in here in Civ2 Tech Support forum has been; How in the earth they can play Civ 2 on Windows 64 bit?? Well there are many, many, many quides to do this but here is my attempt to make this so easy that even an idiot can do this. If you failed to do this, please tell me what is the problem and let's see if I can help. I used Andu Indorin's post to solve the problem, most of the quotes are from him. However I try to make the post to quide form and add some details on it. I did write this quide at the same time when I managed to make this work in the 1st time in my life!
Let's
fail start!
#1:
This part is easy. Just put the Civ2 disc to CD-drive (E:/), and check the contents of your E:/ drive. Do this by opening the windows menu from down-left corner of the screen and press "Computer" and go to your E:/ drive.
You see a couple of directories in your E:/ drive. There is "CIV2", "Extras", "VFW_INST" and "WING" directories and Program called "Setup". You have to copy the directory which is called "CIV2".
Now go to your C: drive from the windows menu on down-left corner of the screen and press "Computer". Create directory called "MPS" to your C: drive. Fill your new directory by pasteing the CIV2 directory there (the one you just copied). Now you should have your CIV2 directory in C:/MPS and C:/MPS/CIV2 should be filled of files from your CD.
#2:
This is the part where I failed in the first times. So, follow
this link and get Cedric's five parts file-arsenal to convert your Civ 2 "vanilla" to Civ 2 Multiplayer Gold Edition. Otherwise you cannot play Civ 2 on 64bit programs. CIV 2 VANILLA MUST BE CONVERTED TO CIV 2 MGE TO MAKE IT WORK ON 64BIT COMPUTERS!!
Its easy, download the five zip. files from there and check your downloads. Double click the 1st part of Cedric's zip. arsenal. Double click the directory what is inside the zip. You find a file or many files there. Copypaste the files into C:/MPS/CIV2 folder. Repeat this to all 5 zip. files. If windows asks if you want to replace a file that already exists, just say yes to all. Then we are ready with this step. If you try to launch Civ 2 exe now, windows won't deny your access to it but the game still won't work. We have to do something more!
Just to be clear: DO NOT PUT ANY NEW FOLDERS INTO CIV2 DIRECTORY, JUST THE FILES WHICH ARE ON THE DIRECTORIES WHICH ARE ON THE ZIP-FILES!!
#3:
Now we should have Civ2 Multiplayer Gold Edition on our /CIV2 directory. Then we need Mastermind's patch which allows us to get our game really working. Get it here:
Mastermind's Patch vol 2.0!!
Once you get it downloaded, follow these instructions, this part is all my text:
Now you're done with Mastermind's program. Next I tell you how to start your Civ 2 MGE. This part must be done probably every time when starting Civ 2 in future. Me again:
Now you should have working Civ 2 game on your computer. WOOHOO!! Have fun! After this it worked for me. However some people have to do step 4 too, so read it for being sure that your Civ2 works.
#4: For some people who weren't able to load saves after getting the game working:
Done. Now you should have working Civ 2 MGE in your 64 bit Computer
!!! (You have Win 7/Vista/XP most likely.)
Let's think what we did: First we had 16bit program which won't work in 64bit machines. We transformed it to 32bit program with Cedric's zip files. Then we patched it to work with Mastermind's patcher. That's All!
If you have problems, post to this thread and we'll try to help.
As reward I don't ask anything but possible sticky rating so everyone who needs this could find it much easier way.
At last, I'd like to thank all people who made this possible. If your name isn't in the list and you feel like you deserved it, just call me and I'll fix that. Millions of thanks to these people who made my quide possible:
Prof. Garfield, for help me getting started with the issue,
Cedric Greene, for making Civ 2 MGE- upgrade zip. files and telling us how to use 'em,
MastermindX, for programming MGE patcher to us and for helping me to use his program,
Andu Indorin, for the amazing post what I did quote the most in this quide,
goofydink, for solving save loading issue,
You, for reading this quide,
Everyone I forgot to mention.
Written by:
Robert FIN
Thanks for reading
!!