[davelogan69]

I bought Heavy Gear 2 a week ago. On the back of the Xplosiv case it says it's compatible w/ XP, but not Windows 2000. I found the thread on getting the game running and got the game to run with the Application Compatibility Tool 3.0. But in the campaign the game frequently crashes to the desktop and a popup appears asking if you want to sent an error report to Activision(clicking OK or Cancel does nothing) and also after you beat the 4th mission - a blank screen - that's it. I've bought many games that haven't worked w/ Xp, but from the taste I've gotten from the instant action part of Heavy Gear 2 I can see how good this game really is. So I call upon all you who are in the know - get this game up and running in a stable state! Thanks.
-Dave

P.S. Maybe someone should harass Activision about this one.

[DosFreak]

What's Xplosiv? A repackaging of Heavy Gear 2?

I really don't see how HG2 could be declared compatible with Windows XP since it came out in May of 1999.
Windows 2000 went RTM in Dec 1999.

Activision couldn't care less about an almost 6 year old game..except it appears to package it in new boxes and declare it compatible.

I guess you could try the standard stuff:

Reduce Video/Sound acceleration
Switch out drivers.
Try different patch versions.
Not sure what happens in Campaign 4, been about 5-6 years since I played HG2 but it may use Smacker/Bink/Miles so you might want to replace those files. (I'll check my CD and see if it uses 'em).

[davelogan69]

Some things:
1. When I say got working, I mean it in the barest sense. The game is very unstable and one doesn't know when it will crash. And other issues abound such as the ESC key not getting you out of missions.
2. To my knowledge there isn't a patch. (Do you know of one?)
3. You were the author of the post on how to get HG2 running with ACT 3.0. Can you walk me through any other possible solutions?
Thanks.
-Dave

[DosFreak]

I've been meaning to play around with HG2, I'll take a look at it tonight.

[davelogan69]

These are the random error messages one gets after a CTD:

Abnornal Termination:

Your game terminated abruptly.
Report Problem to Activision?

CRC: AA63-52FC
Comments:

Ok Cancel

- the CRC code is not always the same.

[DosFreak]

If it isn't too big could you email the savegame to me? d0sfreak@yahoo.com

[davelogan69]

Done. Well I think I sent the right files (those in the C:\Program\Xplosiv\Heavy Gear 2\SAVE\00000000\00000000 folder).

[DosFreak]

Sweet. Figured out how to up the resolution.

Heavy Gear 2\Shell\texts\options.cfg

Only tried 1600x1200 (In game menu limited to 1024) so far but it works fine.

[DosFreak]

Weird, looks like appying Win95 mode to Heavy Gear 2 causes Instant Action to crash but not a campaign. Weird.

[davelogan69]

If one plays the campaign w/ just Win95 Compatibility( i.e.no ACT modifications to the reg.) on, the game still CTD after the 4th mission. You're right, I can't play Instant action w/o using ACT either.

[DosFreak]

still working on it. I noticed that if I die before I enter the base that I drop back to the menu just fine but if I enter the base and die the game goes black and hangs up. What is really annoying is that you cannot save in the mission so I have to replay, good thing the base isn't that far away! Going to do this a couple of times with different options/configurations and see what happens.

[davelogan69]

Hi.
I'm trying to get HG2 on a computer running windows 98se and I can't get anything to work. I get into the program fine, then nothing works- it all leads to a black screen - instant action, campaign, historical. Any advice??? The two 'patches' don't help either (they're for specific components - a modem and a dvd drive).
-DAve

[DosFreak]

Well that's great. I intend to load up 98 (Using Acronis True Image makes this alot easier) and test out HG2. Hopefully I don't have the same problem that your having.

Can't recommend much except to upgrade DX/Drivers. HG2 is a DX6 game....it works in 2000/XP with DX9 just fine except for the crashing problem so I doubt your problem is DX related.

Check the activision support site and see if they have black screen problems with HG2. You might also want to force your refresh rate to 60hz using DXDiag, could be a refresh rate problem.

[davelogan69]

What is Acronis True Image

[DosFreak]

Acronis True Image is like Ghost. It backs up your HD onto other media such as Internet HD/External HD/CD/USB/Firewire/Tape so it can be easily restored.

If you have an XP Image already created and a 98SE Image already created it's only a matter of how long it takes to restore from the media. Probly 5-10 Minutes depending on amount of data.

Of course you could do a dual-boot with 98SE/XP but I prefer to have a single OS and do much of my testing using VPC/Vmware. Unfortunately there's no D3D support in VPC/Vmware so in D3D testing where a game doesn't work under 2K/XP, you have to use a dual-boot or a secondary computer.

[davelogan69]

Hi. I bought a used computer with Win ME. HG2 ran fine with directx 6.0, but since I upgraded to 9.0 it gives me a blank screen after clicking on launch. can one switch back to an earlier version of directx

[DosFreak]

That's good info, interesting....

Instead of switching back to DX6 (other games will require DX9) you might be better off sticking the DX6 files in the Heavy Gear 2 directory. It's hard to say what's making it black screen but I'd start with an DX6 file that has to do with D3D.

So try any DX6 file that begins with

D3D

and placing them in your HG2 directory.

[DosFreak]

Found this: http://www.dp9.com/Funhouse/HG2fix.htm

Haven't tried out anything in there yet but it does explain some of the CRC errors.

[davelogan69]

bold textFIXED!!!bold text
I copied the dx6 files that began with dxd and MSVCRT.DLL from the hg2 cd rom and windows system folders respectively to the HG2 directory. Then I went into the program, changed the controls (I use a swedish keyboard) went out and erased the 2nd joystick like the website said and then saved the bindings file. Now the game works.

[DosFreak]

Is this in win98? and by works do you mean it doesn't crash in Campaign 4?