Windows 7: Master of Orion II - Anyone got it to work correctly?

I'm hoping someone has tried installing it and had full success with it.

I've installed it and patched it up to version 1.31. Compability is set at win95 and 640x480 for resolution. Works great except it look like the color pallete is all messed up. I decreased color depth to 16bit and still nothing.

I could work this on Vista but I remember having a similar issue at the beginning. It was a few years ago so I don't remember what I did to get it to work.

Anyone?

I was never able to get it to work correctly in Vista, but maybe I didn't try very hard.

This is how I ran it in DOSBox, just change the paths to make it match up with your PC. From the Z:\ prompt...

mount c c:\dos
mount d h:\ -t cdrom

Those steps are done every time. If your installing everything to a flash drive and using the portable version of dosbox, copy the CD into a directory, then point to that directory when specifying the cdrom location.

To install:
d:
install

To play:
c:
cd orion2
orion2

Thanks for the tip. Unfortunatly, I do not have the DOS version but the Win95 version. It's silly because everything else works great except for the colors which points to a graphic issue.

Sad...I woke up this morning with a few other possible solutions

Well I think I found a solution although there are still some tweaks to do.

Referring to another thread regarding a graphic issue on AoE:II, a user posted this information:

1) Open the task manager up (right-click on taskbar, and start task manager)
2) Disable "explorer.exe" (yes this will make everything disappear but you can get it back from starting "explorer.exe" again)
3) Start the game by using the task manager (File, New Task (Run))

This combined with setting the compatibility tab to Win95 and set 640x480 as well as lowering the color depth to 16bits seems to make it work.

There are still some issues though but I think I'm on something:

Issue #1
You can tell the graphics are a tiny bit off.....not by much but its still a little bit noticable. If it would be just that, I could deal with it. Its not enough to take off your enjoyment of the game.

Issue #2
The game sometimes will crash when you are changing your labor distribution from Farms to Industrial or Research....why that is I don't know.

I think though that both issues are related so perhaps some extra compatibility parameters might help. Anyways, as I need to head off soon, I'll try them either tonight or early tomorrow morning.

If anyone cares to put more imput into this please do

I fixed my instructions after finding my cd >< I didn't have it pointing to the right install file.

Check your disk though, afaik both versions were always released togeather:

Windows uses orion95.exe to launch the game, and setup.exe to install.
Dos uses orion2.exe to launch the game, and install.exe to install.

Thanks Kain. I'll definitly keep this as an alternative. The latest tweak seem to have fixed issue #2. Although I can't say for sure.
Compatibility set on WinXp(SP2), 256 colors, 640x480. You do the task manager procedure as explained.

I played MoO2 for a little over an hour with no crashing (maybe I got lucky). I'll see tonight when I continue my game. The small graphic issue is still there. It's so minor though that it really doesn't affect your gameplay at all and you simply don't notice it after a while.

I hope as more people have Windows 7 and play around with settings for this game that a solution with doing a simple "slide in cd and play" will be found. For the meantime, I think this will do just fine.

Well it's been 3 days and no crashing. Hence the procedure given + the settings on the compatibility mode are working. Almost done wiping out the Klackons

Hello,
Excellent guide for getting this working in Windows 7! Thanks! I have automated your process in a .bat file. Just create a text file using notepad and save that file with the following information below (this is using the default install path for Moo2). Be sure to save your file as "moo2.bat"

TASKKILL /F /IM "explorer.exe"
cd C:\"Program Files"\Microprose\Orion2
start /w C:\"Program Files"\Microprose\Orion2\Orion95.exe
start C:\Windows\explorer.exe

Just double click the bat file and it will kill the explorer.exe, start moo2 and then restart explorer when you quit moo2. I hope someone finds this useful!

thank you so much everyone...all advice was helpful...I just got a 64-bit Windows 7, and when I installed MOO2 it automatically went into "Program Files (x86)" \Microprose etc.... so I had to make a small adjustment to your bat file for my computer....thanks to you and kuliddar!
I dont even know why my computer has "Program Files" AND "Program Files (x86)"
I suppose I should look that up....
happy gaming everyone

Regarding this, hopefully it sends to someone for help, but i cannot even get it to Install.

does anyone have any ideas?

I need the trill of killing the Silicoids!!!!

Go psilons!