The following technique is intended only for those who wish to play a legally purchased game and for some reason wish to play without using the CD-ROM.

How It Works

Update:

• The crack doesn't work on the pirated CD-ROM version which is floating around.
• Most people report no problems except for losing the voice of the trainer in the training missions, and of course, no music.
• Does not work with the 1.1 patch or Windows 95 version!
• Reports are that this works with Ghost Bear's Legacy -- edit gbl.exe instead.
• Conflicting reports:
• That it works with the CD-ROM drivers loaded only, that it works without them loaded only. The first seems to prevail, so try that first.
• That it works only if you change the first instances of strings to modify, that it works only if you change all instances. Again, the first seems to prevail, so try that first.

1) erase any trace of mechwarrior from your system (save any custom mechs from the /mek directory and any saved missions in mw2reg.cfg, as well as any custom joystick or keyboard layouts.)

2) Download, borrow, steal any hex editor

No, I don't know where he got ZZ.com, but you can try out UltraEdit-32, a text and hex editor available for Windows 3.1, 95 and NT. For straight text editing under Windows (all versions), I like Multiedit for Windows -- it simply ROCKS -- but it doesn't hex edit very cleanly.

3) create a directory called mech2

4) xcopy /s the entire mechwarrior cd into that directory (see, you DO need the CD)

5) from the cd, install the cd into that same /mech2 directory (do a minimal install, it'll save time).

6) copy any saved custom mechs you had into the /mek directory and the mw2reg.cfg file

7) remember that hex editor I said to get? It's time to use it.

8) load the file mech2.exe into the hex editor.

9) search for the string B9 01 00 00 00 E8 0D FF FF FF 83 C0 (It usually only shows up once. If it's in there more than once, change the first one, but some people report no success unless they change all instances.)

10) edit the B9 01 so that it says B9 00 and save the changes to that cluster

11) load the file mw2.exe and search for the string B9 01 00 00 00 E8 (Again, it's usually only in there once. Same treatment as above.)

12) edit the B9 01 to B9 00 and save the changes.

13) restart your computer and make sure that any drivers are NOT loaded, except for the CD-ROM driver which should be loaded. NOTE: We have a report that it works w/o the CD-ROM drivers loaded but not with them loaded from a couple users.

14) put any data (non-audio, non-MW2) CD into the CD-ROM drive.


16) go into the mech2 directory and kill things.

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