Mechwarrior 2 Installation Guide

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  1. How do I get Mechwarrior 2 to run in Windows 10?
  2. How do I get Mechwarrior 2 to run in Windows XP?

How do I play Mechwarrior 2?

How do I get Mechwarrior 2 to run in Windows 10?

Since there are about a million versions of Mechwarrior 2 (actually, there are only 36...), it'll depend on what you're working with.

Generally speaking, there are three main categories of Mechwarrior 2: DOS, Windows, and Titanium. The Titanium games use the Mercenaries engine, which has an alternative 3D-accelerated look (arguably worse), a sligthly different HUD, and has some extra bugs. If you are purely focused on playing the game, use the DOS version. It will most likely be the easiest to install and have the fewest bugs. I'd only install the Windows version if you plan on converting it to 3Dfx version for upgraded graphics or need it for joystick support, as it's typically more finicky and has more bugs. If Titanium is all you have, shake what ya got.

Personally, I'm using the Windows 95 1.1 version, which also includes the DOS version and Netmech, so that's what this guide is based on. Mileage may vary on other versions.

Installing Mechwarrior 2 DOS on Windows 10

So, you want to go old school and run the DOS version of Mechwarrior 2? Good choice. It seems to be one of the least buggiest versions. In general, you'll need to use DOSBox and maybe make a couple of tweaks.

A note before beginning: For whatever reason, DOSBox has issues with the "DRM" of Mechwarrior 2. Basically, a CD has to be in the drive to detect a hidden folder on the disk. You can install just fine, but the game will not start as it doesn't detect the CD. However, a bin/cue rip of the disc can be mounted in DOSBox and it will work fine. Because of this, you may want to use your favorite CD extraction software (Imgburn and PowerISO are classics) and rip the data first.

  1. Install DOSBox. Download DOSBox here and follow the instructions.

  2. Create a folder on your hard disk where the game will installed. In DOSBox, mount this folder to a drive. In the example below, the C:\games folder on your harddrive will be mounted as C:\ inside of dosbox. 
    mount c c:\games
  3. You'll also need to mount the CD drive to install from it. If you're CD drive is D:\, here's how to map it to the D:\ drive in DOSBox:
    4. mount d d:\ -t cdrom

    Alternative option: If you wish to install from a bin/cue file, mount the cue file like this, with the correct folder and name for your image. Also, be sure to mount the cue file and not the bin. Otherwise, you'll get no music later!

    imgmount e c:\games\mw2discimage\mech2.cue -t iso

  4. After the game installs, you'll be prompted to run the setup program. Set the MIDI sound to use MPU 401. Set the digital audio to Soundblaster 16.

  5. Once completed, type "mech2" into the command prompt to launch the game (verify). If you've already installed from a bin/cue, the game will start. If not, read on...

If you are installing from the CD, DOSBox can't detect the disc in the drive due to MW2's copy protection. Here are some solutions:

  1. Create a bin/cue from the disk and mount it in DOSBOX. This'll take up about 750MB of space as it includes all game data as well as the full uncompressed Redbook Audio for the music tracks.

  2. Now, it's possible to create a "mini" bin that contains just enough data for the game to load. You can do that by modifying the bin and emptying the files from all folders except for KEATING and LAUNCH, as well as leaving the OLD_HERC.DRV file in there. If you skip the music tracks (How DARE you?), this file is about 12MB.

    Or, download the Mechwarrior 2 Disc Fix without music here.

  3. Another approach: Create a mini bin/cue with the music tracks. Uncompressed CD audio is pretty big. Fortunately, DOSBox supports lossless ogg playback via the cue file. So, you can rip the audio from the disk, convert it to ogg, modify the cue file as needed, and only take up about 67MB.

    Even better: I've already done this: Download the Mechwarrior 2 DOSBox Disc Fix with music here.

    If you've download the CD fixes, unzip them to a folder, such as c:\mw2discimage.

    Once you've got your bin/cue file of choice, mount it in dosbox with the following command:

    imgmount d c:\mw2discimage\mech2.cue -t iso

At this point, you should be able to start the game. Enter "mech2" in the DOSBox command prompt and see what happens

c:\mech2\mech2

Essential tweaks

Screen resolution

It's 2025 (or later), let's crank this thing up to its full 1024x768 glory! After you enter MW2 and the shell (the clan hall), press Esc to bring up the options. Head to "Configure Video" VERIFY and set the resolution to 1024x768. If you're running in a window or don't mind a small game screen, this may be enough. For fullscreen mode, you'll need to make a few tweaks in DOSBox.

DOSBox Conf files

There are lots of ways to manage these. Just me, but I like to put the file in the game install folder. Head to the Windows Start menu and load DOSBox options. That'll open the main conf file that's used for all programs. It's just a text file, so using your program of choice (Notepad, Notepad++, etc.), save it to your MW2 install folder. Here are some items that will likely need tweaking:

Screen size and resolution:

These are the key items you may need to change: Setting the first line to fullscreen will load Mechwarrior 2 fullscreen instead of in windows mode. Fullresolution as desktop should use your monitors native resolution for fullscreen. Window resolution is probably not necessary for fullscreen use, but I set it to 1024x768 to match the game. Output by default is set to "surface," but may leave a small game screen with black borders while in a full screen mode. Any other settings (overlay, opengl, openglnb, ddraw) will likely work better. Openglnb is for "no bilinear filtering," which may not really have an impact in MW2, but I'm using it anyway. Here's a sample of my config:

fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=desktop
windowresolution=1024x768
output=openglnb

Remembering mounted folders

By default, you'll need to mount your game folders and cue files in DOSBox every time you want to play. That gets old fast. So, you'll want to add a few lines to the [autoexec] area of your Conf file. In addition, we can tell it to start Mechwarrior 2 and exit DOSBox when we exit Mechwarrior 2. Swap the example folder locations for yours and you should be good to go.

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.
# You can put your MOUNT lines here.

mount c c:\games
imgmount e c:\games\mw2discimage\mech2.cue -t iso
c:\
cd mech2
mech2
exit

Final touches

To get everything together in an easy to use icon, you can create a shortcut to DOSBox and point it to the correct conf files.

Here's an example shortcut path:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\DOSBox-0.74-3\DOSBox.exe" -conf "C:\games\mech2\mech2.conf"

Control Options

If you're using a joystick, you'll need to configure it as best you can in Mechwarrior 2 itself. If you hit the limits there, you can modify both the gamekey.map and input.map files with a text editor.

I wanted to use a joystick, but it wasn't working for me like it was in 1994 (rotating the stick to torso twist is not as comfortable as I recall...), so I decided use a layout similar to Mechwarrior Online. The only issue I had here was setting zoom to be used the mouse scroll wheel. DOS and Mech2 had no scrollwheel support, so standard DOSBox doesn't support mapping the mousewheel. Some DOSBox variations do. I ended up adding a simple autohotkey script to map the scroll wheel to zoom in and zoom out. Here are some notes on my personal settings. If you'd like to try them out, you can download them here.

Other Fixes

Missing MIDI music in the clan halls?

You'll need to run the setsound program again. For a default DOSBox install, make sure the MIDI sound source is set to MPU 401. General sounds can work with SoundBlaster 16.

Jumpjets don't recharge.

The jumpjet recharge rate is tied to the games framerate. On modern systems, things may run way too fast. The frame rate needs to be around 50fps to work correctly. You can use <ctrl>+F11 and <ctrl>+F12

Game is not fullscreen

Joysticks?

Be sure to set up autoexec bat to mount your games drive, bin/cue files, and start Mechwarrior 2.

Does mouse movement seem too choppy?

Try mouse2kv (verify first)

Installing Mechwarrior 2 Windows/Pentium Edition

Personally, I basically followed the guide on VOGONS here: https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=86716

This method is corroborated on PC Gaming Wiki's Mechwarrior 2 Page.

Stepping through the process:

  1. Download winevdm for 16-bit install support.
  2. Unzip to afolder, then install.
  3. Restart?
  4. Make sure you're using an administrator account. (signing in with UAE prompt screens didn't work).
  5. Install.
    6. Don't apply compatability to mech2.exe after install.
  6. Use DXWND

How do I run Mechwarrior 2 in Windows XP?

The answer depends on which version of Mechwarrior 2 you're trying to run.

If it's the original DOS version, head this way.

If it's the Titanium version, there's a couple of patches available. Take your pick: Kontza or Warp 13.

Last updated: 2/13/25
1/31/09