ADG Filler #66 - EarthSiege 2

[@SpiffingNZ]

Oh man, that soundtrack still holds up to this day,

[@pk.002]

I listen to the soundtrack to this day, absolutely amazing stuff. Someone remastered it and released the tracks here on KZbin and it sounds even better. There's a download link in the description for it too.

[@Nergalsama01]

Awww yeah, this was one of the first PC games I ever played. Some amazing nostalgia value here for me. :)

[@DomeCandyGames]

Wow, I had no idea these games were bought out and now distributed freely. I was a big fan of this back in the day. Can't wait to get back in to it! Thanks for the detailed breakdown of how to get it up and running too!

[@SeekerLancer]

Even though the MechWarrior 2 games were my main jam I absolutely adored the Earthsiege games. They were pretty simplistic but really satisfying.

[@seanhornibrook]

I played this game so so much back in the day...

[@pk.002]

Same here. It was my go to mech sim when I was a kid and I love it just as much to this day. Starsiege felt like a massive departure and I didn't like it as much, but that's only my opinion.

[@binho1140]

Great review! Both Earthsiege and Earthsiege 2 reviews were really well done! I remember playing this game as a kid, I was 6. It was a Demo version that came with other demo games in a CD-ROM from a games magazine! I loved it, but couldn't speak English at that time (I'm not a native English speaker), so i didn't understand much what was going on. I still have great memories from playing it though! I managed to get it running on a Windows 10 PC. As it is now free to download, I can send a link to a rar file from my google drive with all you need to get it running on a modern computer, if there is anyone still interested. Just follow the install guide txt file.

[@White_Tiger93]

send it to me!

[@dml09]

Thanks for the DXWnd guide, it's so much more convenient having a large window rather than having to run 640x480 fullscreen. I had to make a few tweaks though, the first being the removal of the launch path in DXWnd - initially the launch path works, but on subsequent game loads it tends to crash when starting missions. So I simply load ES.EXE directly from the game's folder, and it works fine. I also set "limit available resources" in the "compat" tab of DXWnd whilst trying to trouble-shoot those crashes - it might not actually be necessary, though I did hear that it solved memory error issues some people were having. The second tweak was to the window settings in DXWnd. "Desktop center" would always default to a smaller 16:9 window, perhaps because I'm trying to run a 1920x1440 window on a 2560x1440 display. Anyway, on the main tab I set "X,Y coordinates" and set the window style to "modal" on the video tab, which now gives me a nice 1920x1440 borderless window. I still had two somewhat bothersome issues that I couldn't find a fix for whilst playing around in DXWnd. The first being that the game simply wouldn't recognise that I had a joystick, the second being the annoyance of having the game lose focus each time it switches executables. The latter isn't a deal breaker, but it's annoying having to click the mouse on the window every time I enter or leave a mission, to regain control. So, back to the Compatibility Administrator toolkit I went, and set "EmulateJoystick" and "ForceApplicationFocus" compatibility fixes for ES.EXE, VSHELL.EXE and DBSIM.EXE. This solved both problems, as it used to when I didn't run the game through DXWnd. However, I hear that some people can't even run the Compatibility Administrator on Windows 10 anymore, so I wonder if there is a way to solve these problems through DXWnd.

[@roguerifter9724]

I loved the Earthsiege games when I was a kid. I had tons of Mech sims from that era but I think the first Earthsiege was among the ones I replayed the most. I've always loved the Post apoc Machine war concept in stories and games. Throwing in mecha only made it more fun IMO.

[@crowsbridge]

starseige is one of my favorite games, I remember seeing this on the shelf, though. I think it's cool that the Tribes series is in the same universe as these.

[@binho2224]

EDIT: I found out an easier way. Search for the Metaltech series on The Collection Chamber website. They have installers for both ES 1 and ES 2. ES 2 comes with a pre-installed win 95 in DosBox with the game already installed and ready to run. Nice review! Love this game. It is alot easier to set up and play by now. Just dowload the game from the tribesuniverse.com and then download the Metaltech: Earthsiege II 32-bit installer from www.sierrahelp.com/Patches-Updates/NewSierraInstallers.html#M and install the game from it. The directory you choose to install to can not have any spacing on the text. I also needed to download the _inmm.dll to get the music playing during missions.

[@ADarkandStormyNight]

I love it when I get home from work, and there is a new ADG video waiting. I would love to see a filler episode about some non-Dos games you like, as you can get away with that in a filler episode. Like board or card games, arcade games...that kind of thing.

[@Pixelmusement]

+doug stuffly Every once in awhile I do indeed show non-DOS games! Some of the more recent ones were Ziggurat, Cube World and Slime Rancher! :)

[@ADarkandStormyNight]

oh I have seen every video you have posted, I recall, I guess I misspoke. I was more really thinking about the whole board/card game kinda thing. Just seemed like a fun tangent to go on :)

[@Pixelmusement]

+doug stuffly I've thought about it. I couldn't do it justice before because I didn't have a decent camera, but now I DO have a decent camera. Only trouble is all my non-digital games are in storage and I don't have easy access to them. Something to consider for the future for sure, but it won't be anytime soon. :/

[@ADarkandStormyNight]

Well I think I can safely say we are all looking forward to it.

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

Nice. I miss my mech games, and never played this, so I'll have to check it out!

[@FezTheSpaceBiker]

I'd love to see a video covering Jazz Jackrabbit 2 in this filler series, especially with the recent GOG re-releases.

[@jessm229]

holy shiiit the childhood memories this just activated

[@dml09]

One final thing to note is that with the updated installer from sierrahelp.com at least, the training missions will not work without the game disc, despite the instructor's voice files being installed in the SIMVOICE folder. The missions will simply crash as soon as the instructor's voice is supposed to start. If you have a game disc still, you can solve this by going into your game's installation folder, then the "DATA" folder, then open "DRIVE.CFG" file with wordpad / notepad (if you copied the game files from the disc rather than used the installer, you'll have to create DRIVE.CFG yourself using wordpad / notepad by renaming the .txt to .cfg). You'll see two lines, both being the main directory of your Earthsiege 2 installation folder (for example, E:\EarthSiege2 ). Change the first line to your disc drive letter (for example A:\ ). The training missions should now run correctly, though note that once you change to your disc drive letter, you'll need the disc inserted into your drive to load the game at all. If you're done with the training missions and don't want to have your disc inserted all the time, simply open DRIVE.CFG again and reverse the processing, changing the first line back to your game installation directory. If you don't have a disc but still want to play the training missions, it might be possible to burn the Earthsiege2.iso from www.tribesuniverse.com/ to a disc, then use that, but I've not tried it personally because I have an original game disc. You can tell this game is a tricky one to get running when I've written essays in the comments for tweaks on top of the video author's already excellent and in-depth guide!

[@BruceRKF]

Best mech game of all time, imo. The combination of gameplay and atmosphere is just fantastic. I replayed the campaign about half a year ago on hardest settings and it was a blast!

[@Pixelmusement]

ES2 is probably one of the last consumer-level mecha games to really give a sense of being in a simulation with lots of elements to adjust and deal with in your walking death machine. Well... except maybe Steel Battalion if you had that massive controller to go with it. The Battletech Tesla Pod stuff trounces ALL of that though if you ever get a chance to try them out! (Pretty sure it's relegated to private collectors only at this point though.)

[@BruceRKF]

@@Pixelmusement I had to google the Battletech Tesla Pod, but sounds amazing indeed! Completely agree regarding ES2. The immersion and complexity is ahead of any other game in the genre and it's so sad that no one has made anything that comes close since. With so many old games getting reworks in recent years, the thought of getting a modern ES and ES2 gets me dreaming. I fear the whole mech genre is too niche nowadays though, so I don't hold much hope. Of course, I can still keep dreaming - and play ES2 ;)

[@Pixelmusement]

@@BruceRKF To be fair, the modern mecha games at least have the immersion down-pat, they're just more action-focused and less simulation than they used to be. MechWarrior 5 is really immersive in terms of feel, though the difficulty is kinda insane and again, not much in the way of sim aspects. I've also had a number of rounds in the Tesla Pods myself a couple decades back; It gets pretty intense when you have to manage so many things at a time in the older versions of the software, though the last versions released use Mech4 mechanics and thus the simulation aspect is watered down considerably. :P

[@BruceRKF]

@@Pixelmusement Well, for me the simulation aspect is a large part of the immersion, far more so than for example graphics. When I'm sitting in hulking metal coloss, I expect to have lots of things to think of and do to make it work. The watered-down, more action-oriented and fast paced gameplay of most modern games is just not that. Often, they feel almost like regular foot-soldier first person shooters.

[@dml09]

Also a note to people using the updated installer from www.sierrahelp.com/Patches-Updates/NewSierraInstallers.html#M - you will need to install _inmm or the game will bring up an error / crash when loading missions, *even* if you selected CD audio when running the installer. If you did select CD audio, I would recommend reinstalling with the MP3 music selected, and click yes when prompted to download the music, else the game won't install the _inmm.ini. Anyway, I downloaded and then installed _inmm from here community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/107-patched-_inmmdll/ and the crashes were fixed. However, you will still get error messages because the installer doesn't actually download the MP3 music. I solved this by ripping the music off my disc, renaming the tracks track02.mp3 through to track06.mp3 (as listed in the _inmm.ini in the game's installation folder), and copying them into the main directory of my Earthsiege 2 installation. I suspect you can find the music online easily enough if you don't have the CD.

[@executivebexley252]

Sorry 3 years late to comment!! I like this windows sequel idea

[@tuxutat]

Actually, you can still set weapon charge limits in this game. I specifically remember doing that for plasma cannons.

[@Pixelmusement]

+tuxutat Are you sure you're not thinking of the original game? I mean, how do you set the energy levels for anything when the sliders to do so no longer exist? :|

[@tuxutat]

@@Pixelmusement I've never played Earthsiege 1, so I'm 100% sure. It's been more than 15 years now since I played ES2, so I don't remember the hotkeys, but it worked something like this: When inside the HERC, select the weapon you want to change. Energy weapons have this charge bar, and with the right hotkeys you could increase or decrease the target charge. What I did sometimes was to set plasma cannons to about 30% max charge, which was especially useful when using them in the Razor. So you could try to replicate this by selecting a plasma cannon and then trying out all keys on the keyboard until you find the one that decreases the charge bar. Another thing to note: I used a joystick + keyboard, so maybe the relevant keys are blocked when playing with a keyboard only.

[@Pixelmusement]

+tuxutat Hmm... I'll have to keep this in mind next time I play the game. It wouldn't surprise me if the hotkeys to adjust energy allocation to the weapons still work even though the mouse-control sliders didn't transition over from the first game to the second one.

[@tuxutat]

The ES1 manual says that the Hotkeys to change the energy setpoint are [+] and [-], though it's likely that only the ones besides backspace work in ES2 since the numpad ones are used for Razor throttle control according to the ES2 quick reference manual. There's no mention of the weapon charge hotkeys in the ES2 quick reference, as expected. Funnily enough this means that back then I never even knew that this was "hidden" functionality. I must have found it by trying all keys because I was too lazy to read the manual.

[@shioriharu]

Best mech game ever

[@StephanS]

I remember when i bought Gold Games 2 back in 1997 with this game. It was the only game (besides King's Quest 7) that i got running on Win 3.11

[@XanthinZarda]

I never played these, but I did play the sister series Cyberstorm.

[@JoeyJoJoJoestarJuniorShabadoo]

Nothing beats the mid-90's mech craze.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Joey JoJo Joestar Junior Shabadoo Unfortunately. Still waiting for a modern mech game which isn't meh... MechWarrior Online was a valiant attempt, but you just can't have much fun with it anymore without being both insanely good and sinking lots of real cash into it. BUT, they are making a proper single-player game using the MWO engine so hopes are high! :D

[@MaximilienNoal]

I have the Euro (more precisely : French) release of EarthSiege 2, and it runs perfectly inside DOSBox 0.74, with Windows 3.11, Win32s, and WinG, in 640x480x8. There's also a Windows95/DirectX version on the CD. According to the mobygames forums, It seems the US release lacks this feature, and only works with DirectX. Or at least, it doesn't work with the DOSBox + Windows 3.11 combo.

[@White_Tiger93]

Also, can you configure the control keybinding in this game? I looked up, and all the option are grey out. would love to switch the mech movement to WASD etc etc

[@Pixelmusement]

You cannot. This game plays a LOT better with a good joystick which DOES allow some degree of remapping through the mid-game pause menu, keeping in mind there's separate control sets for when you're in a typical HERC versus flying the Razor. :B

[@Meta_Mage]

Man, I just realized I never played this despite having loved the first Earthsiege and Missionforce:Cyberstorm.

[@White_Tiger93]

I tried to install the game on my win 10 through the link you gave me in the desc but it won't work.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Gunslinger SyayoRPG/CRPG The download is an ISO file so you may need to actually burn it to a CD first; mounting it as a drive may not work. Also, at least on my system, it took FIVE MINUTES for the installer to actually show up once I launched it. Failing that, you should be able to find instructions online for manually installing it. Once installed, just follow the DXWnd config steps I gave and you should be good! :)

[@ChozoSR388]

You think it'd be possible to run this on an emulated copy of Windows for Workgroups 3.11 in DOSBox? I bought a copy of Byron Preiss Multimedia's Robot City that had it working like that. The copy of The Journeyman Project that I got from the same seller on eBay got it working like that, too. It uses the SVN Daum build, but I'm curious if it'd be possible with mainline DOSBox.

[@Pixelmusement]

+ChozoSR388 Probably doable, but there's absolutely no way it's gonna run as good as using DXWnd. Save for the slowdown in certain menus between missions I had the game running flawlessly. Joystick support is also likely better in Win9x than in Win 3.1 just due to the different interfaces. ;)

[@ChozoSR388]

In that case, think it'd run alright under Win98? I'm in the process of building a retro rig, and it's gonna have 98 on it. MS-DOS 7.1 4evr lol

[@Pixelmusement]

+ChozoSR388 Oh yeah, so long as you're using a 4:3 standard aspect screen you should have zero issues! Also, don't forget that DOSBox runs perfectly fine on Windows 98! (Although you may not be able to run much with it unless you have a more powerful CPU than would be typical for a Win98 rig.)

[@ChozoSR388]

Sweeeeeeeeeet! Yeah, going with a 17" hp VX74 CRT. The processor I'm using is a P4 2.4 on an ASUS P4SD-LA (I already had it, just waiting to get an FX 5500 and a good sound card.).

[@Pixelmusement]

+ChozoSR388 Not bad, not bad. Be aware that the FX series cards aren't nearly as powerful as they claim to be (expect performance similar to the GeForce 3 and 4 series) and you should be able to run ANY game in DOSBox with that much CPU power! Also, look into KernelEx if you want to run anything newer than WinXP on this rig. :B

[@White_Tiger93]

Ok I managed to get this working, after asking you 5 years ago LOL but yah, I mean like damn, every win 95 to 98 have serious compatibility problem and no wonder GOG couldn't get them, if not half of its working.

[@Imgema]

First time i hear about DXWnd. Do Windows other 95/98 games play well with it? I need something to run Dungeon Keeper and Episode 1 Racing. I know Dungeon Keeper has a GOG version but that's using DosBox and it doesn't run very well.

[@Pixelmusement]

+Imgema I did an episode on Dungeon Keeper. There's a source-port out there called KeeperFX which is really good for running the original game on a modern system! As for any other old Win9x games, DXWnd is extremely useful and will work for quite a lot of them, though setting it up can be intimidating due to the extremely large number of settings, many of which are only really needed for one or two games each, the rest of which will sound like gibberish if you don't understand how DirectX or Windows in general works. :P

[@Imgema]

Thanks for the info :)

[@psychoticgiraffe]

is there a way to render the game natively at a higher res like with dgvoodoo or something?

[@Pixelmusement]

Nope, as the game is not hardware accelerated. You would need to hack the executable to do this and it would likely have to be quite the hack in order for the UI elements and the cockpit to still look right. :P

[@DoCKathos]

I fucking loved this game, it was a really good alternative to Mechwarrior 2 (Which I also loved). Heavy Gear 2 was another good one, but I think all I ever had was a demo disc of it.

[@taskanawa9604]

heavy gear next?

[@JohnDoe-ip3oq]

Afaik, you CAN change the weapon charge rate. Might be + -. Also, there was a patch not listed on the internet only through Sierra update, no longer available, but second release CD seems to have it integrated, much less compatibility issues. Also, there are some unofficial patches on Sierra forums.

[@Pixelmusement]

+John Doe Someone else brought this up in the comments too. The mouse slider controls are clearly missing and unusable, but it wouldn't surprise me if the keyboard controls to adjust setpoints still function despite that. :B

[@rytramprophet843]

i fucking LOVED this game as a teenager. it was one of the first PC games i ever owned. unfortunately, i never beat the last level as it failed immediately.

[@Pixelmusement]

Thinking back, I believe there was a patch which specifically addresses problems with the final few missions... unless I'm thinking of something else. :P

[@IllidanS4]

Please upscale the dialog images when showing dxwnd configuration. On my 5:4 display they are far too small.

[@Pixelmusement]

+IllidanS4 I was a bit scared to at first because I didn't think they would resize very well... I kinda forgot how good my graphics software is at doing it though, so... consider any more DXWnd or other configurations upsized going forward! :D

[@RocketJockey]

I'm 37 years old and have never heard of this game. On the surface it sounds a lot like Starsiege.

[@Pixelmusement]

I mean... StarSiege is TECHNICALLY EarthSiege 3 so... that kinda makes sense! :B

[@sicsempertyrannis4613]

How do you get this to work on windows 10

[@Pixelmusement]

I use an advanced program called DXWnd. I discuss the specific settings I use with it to make this game work at the end of this video, but DXWnd is a VERY complex and intimidating tool and requires a little bit of computing know-how to really make it do its job right. :P

[@gpgp01]

Nice game review and the explanation how to run the game on modern windows. Thanks!

[@wacotablet1055]

Are you fucking kidding me? The Razor aircraft in Earthsiege 2 was absolutely game breaking. You were practically invincible and could just fly around the map one shotting enemy HERC's with your plasma cannons. I had to scrap mine just because it made the game so fucking boring.

[@Spacemutiny]

I wonder if DXWin could help me run Mechwarrior 3...that was one of my favorites but I’ve had no luck getting it to run on a modern system :(

[@Pixelmusement]

+Anthony Micari Maybe... but then Mech 3 has issues on even SLIGHTLY newer systems than period-correct, like Windows XP, so I haven't made the attempt yet. :P

[@Koaldan86]

I managed to make it run alright on win 7, but you need dgvoodoo and cap your FPS at 60.

[@Spacemutiny]

Koaldan86 Happy to report I got Mechwarrior 3 running pretty flawlessly on my Windows 10 system using dgvoodoo. Thanks for the tip!

[@SeriusSim]

Hirez also brought us Tribes:Ascend, I love this game but it's kinda on life support now :/

[@jeremygregorio7472]

What dx win?

[@jeremygregorio7472]

Nvmd, found it. Very cool

[@Pixelmusement]

+Jeremy Gregorio DXWnd is a 3rd-party program I talked about in the last filler video I did on Descent 3. It's used to help get older software working on modern Windows by hooking into the DLLs, intercepting various calls, and then altering the results. It was originally made to get various full-screen only games to run in a window, hence the name. ;)

[@windrunner75]

Based on that description, I'm betting next week is Freelancer 2 (the Butchering)

[@thermallance7947]

Installed this via the 32-bit installer with the version that was made available for free. No music. :( And for some reasons the whole screen turns pink during the briefing and the video is ... for lack of other words... scrambled. Quite distracting. But, once the video is over everything goes back to normal. The music at the very least I do not mind but I wish I could fix that video issue. Makes the second game infuriating to play.

[@Pixelmusement]

+LanceTheInvader What the heck happened with the comment button on your side?! KZbin registered not one, not two, but TEN duplicates of your comment! (I removed them all for obvious reasons.) Anyways, for this game you probably want to get your hands on a real physical copy as the digital release is very much inferior. Prices are all over the place but loose it only goes for about $4 USD and fully boxed can be found for as cheap as $12. :B

[@thermallance7947]

@@Pixelmusement Yeah, I dont know what is going on with this. I think it might be an issue with my navigator.Only happens onces in a while when I post first but never on replies... Also I noticed that if I run the game in a window during briefing. The colors dont get messed up. Better than nothing. :) I'm more of a mechwarrior guy so I didn't wanted to bother with buying off copies from ebay. Now at least I can play without that graphic glitch. Still got my Mektek MW release somewhere so it really is just curiosity. ;) So yeah, if anybody asks. Just run the briefing part in a window and switch when youre ingame.

[@Pixelmusement]

+LanceTheInvader Actually, now that I think about it, the colour issue is likely due to a lack of lower than 32-bit colour support on your graphics card, as going fullscreen with this game would attempt to set the game into 256 colour mode, but if your GPU doesn't support this then you would get funky colours. :P

[@thermallance7947]

@@Pixelmusement Works alright in game. Just some weird cyan artefacts at long range but nothing too distracting. Still a solid game. But, I can easily tell why this never became as popular as mechwarrior. It is very slow paced. To the point where tactics is greatly overshadowed by firepower. In mechwarrior a very light mech could very well destroy an assault mech with solid piloting and given the time. Guess Starsiege really tried to get over that issue and propose a true alternative to mechwarrior. But given that there is no new Starsiege game I guess it is safe to assume it was too little too late.

[@Pixelmusement]

+LanceTheInvader Actually, what ended up happening was a little thing called Starsiege Tribes... ;)

[@Chaos-Goat]

Heretic 2 is my guess.

[@dxanatos2]

Doubt it. While it was a different game than Heretic 1 i wouldn't say that the sequel had barely anything to do with the first one (The biggest change was 3rd person instead of first). Also it wasn't a bad game. (At least i really liked it) while the game in question seems to be a bit crappy.

[@darodism]

Hi rez studio??? People who made Smite and Paladins? WTF????

[@knf74.84]

Hast du das spiel immer noch ... Ein tip von mir ,. 1.. aktiviere passive radar aktivieren 2. Taste T drücken um die automatisch zielVerfassung zu aktivieren 3 ..sobal wen ein gegner kommt ..drücke ENTER taste Las dich überraschen 😉

[@sylzysylzerz7887]

dude do something about your lip smack please