Hey guys

So I have windows 7 x64 on my tower, and I decided that I wanted to play Warcraft 2... yes warcraft 2!!! the other day. I figured it wasn't going to install cause its so old, but to my suprise, it installed. (it is BNE battle net edition) And it runs fine, the thing is when I start playing it freezes and locks up the entire computer to the point where I have to do a reboot.

First time I played it went 30 mins then froze
second time I played it went 5 mins then froze
third time I did Windows XP SP2 compadibility mode and it lasted 10 minutes then froze.

Any idea what could be causing this? Or have any Idea how to fix this

I have tried searching google but all I get are WOW issues or issues where people say they had no issue installing on 7 x64....

Specs...

Windows 7 x64
Quad Core processor 2.4 Ghz
2 gig of Ram (still have not put the other 2 gig in... though I doubt that would help)
2.2 TB of hard drive space
GeForce 9800 GT wtih 1 gig of memory

I wouldn't call "Warcraft 2" a "random old game" -- it's a classic.

Anyhow, can you try to run it with just one core?

64bit win7 with 2 gigs of ram? stop being lazy and install your other ram. I know this wont fix the problem though (or will it).

I know i've been super lazy about that....

but its not running slow its actually runs pretty good... my laptop on the other hand with Vista and 4 gigs of ram runs like crap



I am glad someone else appreciates this game I grew up playing this and JK

I was thinking about the one core thing. To do that you right click on the icon and set it so it runs on one core right?

It's probably already running on just 1 core, run the game and open up performance tab on task manager.

For gods sakes why are you running Windows 7 on 2 gigs.
I want to lie and say putting the other 2 in will magically make the game work.

Like I said I've been lazy, it used to have XP on it before and when I got 7 I got 2 more gigs for it, but since it runs fine on 7 with 2 gigs I just never got around to putting the other 2 gigs in...

The way I understand it is a 64 bit OS is not going to give you better performance over 32bit. Apparently apps running in a 64bit OS environment use more memory, and only having 2gb might be hurting a little bit. But hopefully someone else can elaborate a little more.

And Tibby, why is 2 gigs a problem? Win7 operates just fine and better than vista with only 1 gig of ram.

The difference is not large enough that you would ever notice it.

Of course with 32-bit Windows 7, if you put those extra 2 gigs in your computer, you'd only have around 3 gigs total addressable (a little less than 3 gigs actually) since your video memory would be eating up 1 gig of the addressable space, plus other tiny amounts used by other hardware.

So putting 64-bit Windows 7 in it was definitely the right choice to make.

Anyway, back to the topic, you're probably best off just running WC2 in DOSBox.

The DOSBox site says that Warcraft II is fully supported. I recommend using DOSBox with D-Fend Reloaded, which is reasonably user friendly frontend to DOSBox. The installer includes DOSBox, just install that and go.

This is the battle.net edition, I don't think its dos based anymore.. I do have the old dos based ones on CD somewhere :\

Yeah, I was going to say...

There is an official patch but I don't know when it was released or if it will help with your stability issues.

Install Windows 98 in a VM

looks like im SOL

Just tried the patch and ran it on one processor and it locked up almost instantly

Do this, you are not SOL

If he's planning on using more than 3 gigs RAM, definitely. I'm on 32-bit with 3 gigs precisely because of that and because, from what I understand, a lot of things simply refuse to run on the 64-bit version (snicker snicker snicker).

Not really "a lot of things." It's only really a problem with old devices that don't have 64-bit drivers and any 16-bit apps like old DOS or Windows apps. For those things you just use DOSBox or a VM.

Sorry to hear it didn't get fixed.

I've looked a bit around the internets, and it seems that same happens when people try to run StarCraft on Win 7.

Judging by that thread it's apparently a DirectDraw issue. There's no guarantee that it is the issue in your case, but the symptoms seem similar.

Something that looks like it might work (from that thread) is the DDhack (you can skim through the thread for more detaiils). Link is http://sol.gfxile.net/ddhack/

Best of luck.

I used to have a HUGE video game collection of old, old games (Windows and DOS), and while I did use DOSBox for the MS-DOS ones, I really didn't feel like messing about in VM after upgrading to 7.

My next build I am planning on using more RAM and the 64 version of Win 7... My current one's almost 5 years old (and still runs games like Mass Effect 2 on high quality settings without any lag whatsoever). That is, of course, assuming that I don't decide on choosing to invest in a TV and a 360 instead...

Also, Merry Christmas, Emon.

You too Koobie!

Thanks, I have starcraft as well.. but I ususally use my laptop when playing it for LAN games. I should try it out as well see if I get the same issues

I will check that link out when I get home maybe that will fix it.

If not I still have the other computer Tris sent me with XP on it, I guess I could install on that was using it as a server of sorts but oh well it's not like War2 takes up that much space anyway

I have win7 64-bit here, Starcraft Broodwar runs in-game ok, but the menu's are all blotchy. Warcraft 2 DOS opens fine in Dosbox.

If you're really lucky with War2 BNE, they might have included a dos executable on the cd (a la MW2: Mercs), but it's probably unlikely.

You could try searching vogons.zetafleet.com, I rummage through there whenever old games don't work.