Summary

As with Mechwarrior 2, Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries will run on windows XP (possibly 2000 and NT 4.0 as well, but this is untested), but it MUST be the dos version, not a windows version.

To install it, you have to run Install.exe in the DOS directory on your Mercenaries CD. You will recieve error messages, but they can all be bypassed, at which point your installation will succeed.

If you do not see a DOS directory, you probably don't have a dos version anywhere on the disk. You won't find a dos version on the Titanium version of the game. In which case, you'll need a different copy of the game.

The game works, and has issues, but pretty much all of them are fixable. The issues may include:

CD Music doesn't play or plays only once (use sapucdex.exe to fix)

Game sound is choppy or distorted (use VDMSound to fix)

Mouse is stuck in a corner, or is sluggish (use mouse2kv to fix)

Jump Jets do not recharge, and/or your own weapons damage you when fired. (use a CPU Killer program to fix)

1024x768 mode doesn't work (use "vgafix" to fix)

All of these programs are available in the VDMSound download on the Vorgon Zetafleet site. I'm not sure if linking is allowed here, so just search for it in google.

Dos box appears to be unnecessary.

The Mercnet dos program also works.

One major problem... certain editions of the game which contain the DOS version will install and launch properly, but will crash if you attempt to launch into the sim (or will crash after a few seconds of play in the sim). If this is the case, you will need another dos version of the game, or at least a file transplant from another version of the game. The "MW2.PRJ" file seems to be the culprit of this problem. If your MW2.PRJ file size is larger than 39.5 mb, then you've got the problem.

So far, only the "3DFX Interactive Edition" has been confirmed to have this problem.

Just one thing I forgot to add:

The game has a strong tendency to crash on the training missions upon completion. This is not due to the "PRJ glitch" described above. In order to avoid the crash, your mech must come to a complete stop before the mission exits (use of the autopilot function can help with this). Of course, you can also avoid this by not doing the training missions.

It appears to only affect the training missions, but just to be sure, always come to a complete stop at the end of each mission, before it exits. Also be sure to save your game before and after each mission.