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[Flipper405]

Originally Posted by Flipper405

Nice work, I haven't even actually beat it on easy yet, much less impossible.

anyway, my question is about the saves.
I can't get either save games or the saved castle layouts to work right under dosbox. The thing is, they are saving fine - the files are showing up in the directory AND if I try to save something with the same name, it says overwrite? cause it exists with that name already.

However, I can't load anything - the game doesn't recognize them at all. The weird thing is if I try to run the game without dosbox, it works fine...although I don't get any sound at that point. I guess I could just go get VDMsound but I was wondering if anyone knew a way to get them to work in dosbox. I'm using d-fend as well if that makes any difference. thanks.

Ok, just figured it out... the directory name was castles_2, which of course is not recognized very well in DOS. Changed it to castles2 and it's working :laugh:


WHAT A GREAT GAME!! :amused:

[Renegade246]

Originally Posted by revgb

The game doesnt work for me in dos box too well, it works fine in win 2k but whenever i try to quit it crashes, despite that i jsut finished it the other day. i had alredy downloaded the game. U guys might have a better version tho.

Is the copyright bypassed in this version?? in mine u need to answer questions from the manual.

This is a relly great game, shame its not multiplayer ;p

Ya I tottaly agree with you the copyright sucks i play for about 6 turns and then "A messanger comes refusing to leave unless you answer this 1 question"
I get it wrong and then it shows a picture of a torture master killing me or something and i cant find extras on the download list

[Taskr36]

Can anyone here explain exactly what they did to get this game to work? I've tried DOSBox so many times and I'm getting nothing. It installs, but just crashes when I try to run the game. Everything else works fine in DOSBox. I've tried Windows XP with compatibility mode for Windows 98 and 95 with no luck. I've also tried using Virtual PC to run a virtual machine with Windows 98 and work from there. That worked for one day and now it won't work anymore there either. I have my original Castles 2 CD and not some downloaded copy. Can anyone tell me the secret to making this work?

[The Fifth Horseman]

Which version of DOSBox? What is your mount configuration? What did you enter in the sound config?

[Taskr36]

Wow, thanks for such a fast response. I'm using DOSBox 0.72 (latest version). I have my actual CD drive mounted as D: in dosbox as a cdrom. After installing the game when I attempt to run it I get the message "Couldn't find CD-ROM!! Make sure your drive is turned on and your CD-ROM driver is loaded. press any key to return to dos.

The CD-ROM is properly mounted since there is no problem installing the game from the CD-ROM in DOSbox. I also tried just copying the CD into a folder and mounting that folder as the CD ROM, but after installing from there attempting to run the game just turns the screen black.

Either way, the options to config the sound never actually come up since the game never really starts.

[The Fifth Horseman]

I have my actual CD drive mounted as D: in dosbox as a cdrom. After installing the game when I attempt to run it I get the message "Couldn't find CD-ROM!! Make sure your drive is turned on and your CD-ROM driver is loaded. press any key to return to dos.

Exact syntax of MOUNT commands used for your C and D mounts, please.

Either way, the options to config the sound never actually come up since the game never really starts.

Is there another EXE, COM or BAT file in the game directory? Run it.

The CD-ROM is properly mounted since there is no problem installing the game from the CD-ROM in DOSbox. I also tried just copying the CD into a folder and mounting that folder as the CD ROM, but after installing from there attempting to run the game just turns the screen black.

That it installs fine is one thing. That it doesn't recognize the CD-ROM drive is another, which is why I want to know how did you mount it.

[Taskr36]

This is so bizzare but the game is actually working now *crosses fingers*. My last attempt was when I mounted a folder as the cd rom and before replying I remounted it as the actual cd drive again to copy the syntax for you. Perhaps I'd done something wrong in the original attempt to mount since it is now working. Either way thank you very much for the help and now I can get back to playing my ancient game. Yay!

[Taskr36]

Just curious, does anyone have any special tips or tricks to give? I've scoured the web and found only one FAQ which really didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. I can occasionally win the game in easy, but one guy here beat it on impossible. Since easy is a struggle for me there must be some tactics used to win it that I don't know.

[kd]

Does anybody out there know where to download a quick reference card for castles II??? Lucky for me I gave this and the rest of my 10 year collection of mac software and macs from the 80s and 90s to my brother (who then managed to throw it all away-- doh!).

Believe it or not, from what I remember, not all the info on the card is in the manual (btw, the manual is pretty easily found on the net, sounds like some folks here need to read it

Thanks for posting the game-- it's great. Brushing the rust off my nearly two decade old mad castles skills.

Someone asked about general strategy tips. Here you go:

1. Don't be afraid to say no. When papal/rival diplomats come, don't take the first offer. That being said, giving up only 1 gold for improved relations is *nearly always* a good thing. If you get a relations rating of 7 with the pope you are 'blessed'-- rivals may think twice about attacking you.

2. Scout the territories around you in the very beginning of the game to find out who your neighbors are. Try to shore up relations with your immediate neighbors quickly, if possible, and always try to spend 1 gold or less to improve those relations. This buys you time to build your forces before you later betray your neighbors

3. Find gold as fast as possible and start refining. There are plenty of the other resources for the first year or so, but gold goes fast. If I'm not spawned on gold, I scout the neighboring territories while adding an archer unit to start the game. As soon as I find gold I attack that territory and, if possible, make that the center of my territories. This way my first castle can be a 100 hundred point castle which serves to both double production and keep the surrounding territories fro revolting (50 pts to double production/100 to 'police' the immediately surrounding territories).

4. Before building my first castle, I try to have:
a). decent relations with my neighbors (5+).
b). 5 archers/5 infantry
c). Enough resources to pay the soldiers (food/gold) after paying for the
castle.

5. If you have military/diplomatic points you don't know what to do with, put a couple of them into an administrative task. For example, you have 6 military points but are full up on soldiers, aren't attacking, and aren't policing. Assign a couple of those points to harvesting resources. Military points aren't optimized the same way they would be if used for a military task, however, they do help your potential in that category grow -- and it beats leaving them idle. Just be sure to leave enough points for important tasks that may arise (though you can always cancel the administrative task to get all your potential back).

So, does anyone have a quick reference card????

[rozp89]

Where'd the download link gone??

Roz