So there has been a long-standing argument between console aficionados and PC gamers, that boils down to this: PCs are more configurable, and they evolve in such a way that games can get better as hardware improves while consoles are stuck with what they’ve got. The console guys respond that the console is always the same, so everyone knows exactly what they’re going to get, and barring some odd manufacturer shenanigans, when you buy a game it will always play on that console. PC games, on the other hand, may become obsolete abandon-ware.<\/p>\n
This brings us back around to this weekend, when I realized I had completely missed the launch of Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries <\/em><\/a> this past December. I did my usual digging through the reviews and such, and then the minimum recommended hardware list and discovered the mid-grade gaming PCs I built for the wife and I 2 years ago end up at the very bottom of the list, and one particular reviewer’s performance grid would grade them at just below playable with medium graphics settings.<\/p>\n Crappity.<\/p>\n Even better, I’d be looking at about $575 in parts to upgrade one to play a $50 game. They work just fine for playing things like Civilizations VI, Stellaris, <\/em>and Diablo III<\/em>, but apparently the Big Stompy Robot itch needs more hardware. Too bad Mech 4<\/em> can’t be played on Win10, it was still a good game especially after the MekTek guys got done with it.<\/p>\n Or can’t it?<\/p>\n Queue another round of Googling, and I found a number of useful things. Like someplace to download a complete copy of the MekTek version<\/a> of MW4Mercs plus the patches<\/a>. And a Reddit post<\/a> with a ton of info about his quest to get this working. And most importantly, a YouTube video<\/a> about a tool that converts old graphics codecs and drivers with the instructions for modern graphics. Seamlessly. On-the-fly.<\/p>\n (All credit to VolkarTheDestroyer, Ostego Lectric, dgVoodoo2, and MyAbandonware.com)<\/p>\n If you wish to follow in the footsteps of the greats that left the trail for me to find, here ya go.<\/p>\n Extract your files and patch<\/strong><\/p>\n Create a shortcut<\/strong><\/p>\n (That \/gosnojoystick command is a real bummer, because that was my favorite way to play this. Unfortunately, the joystick drivers cause the game to crash on launch and I haven’t found a way around it yet.)<\/li>\n Now if the Robot Gods have smiled upon you (did I mention the chicken sacrifice?) clicking that shortcut will launch a playable game. Go stomp an enemy lance or three!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So there has been a long-standing argument between console aficionados and PC gamers, that boils down to this: PCs are more configurable, and they evolve in such a way that Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geekery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecyberwolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecyberwolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecyberwolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecyberwolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecyberwolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1193"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thecyberwolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1198,"href":"https:\/\/thecyberwolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193\/revisions\/1198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecyberwolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecyberwolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecyberwolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n<\/strong>Windows will now install the Direct Play Windows Component<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n
\nThis website is false flagged on some browsers as a harmful site do to dgVoodoo2 being mistaken for a computer virus, this site is 100% safe to use. On top of that, when I extracted the MekTek files my local antivirus threw a fit over one of the files and I had to manually release-and-restore it. YMMV.<\/li>\n\n
\n