The Orion Nebula

Apologies if this has already been asked, but I searched the terms copy contents hard drive on the forums/Google, and turned up nothing except DOS-related results.

It would be more convenient to put the MOO2 CD away and run its contents from one of my hard drives. Lord Brazen's Game Setup guide for XP covers installation for MOO2's DOS version but not its Win95 version. To cut to the point, this is the part I'm wondering about:

Step 2: Copy the entire CD onto the hard drive (optional step)

In order to speed up the game, I recommend you now copy the entire contents of the CD into the C:\MPS\ORION2 folder. When you are copying you can feel free to say 'Yes to All' when it asks to overwrite the files. Once all the files are copied you will need to edit the 'ORIONCD.INI' file within the C:\MPS\ORION2 folder. Change the top line in the file to C:\MPS\ORION2\

Would step 2 also apply to a Win95 installation? More specifically, has anyone (that we know of) ever encountered problems after running the Win95 version completely off a hard drive?

Btw, in this situation, my CD/DVD drive works almost as fast as my hard drives. The speed difference is negligible. In fact, some portions of the game run faster than I'd prefer (such as my Human research/breakthrough screen starring Sean Connery).

I've only ever played the 95 ver. of the game off the hard drive. It works fine if you set the compatibility mode in the .exe properties. It doesn't work well for MP though. I've tried a couple times over the years and I can usually get ~20turns into a game (LAN) before it gets WAY WAY to laggy.

Thanks for the feedback. Great timing too. One of my brothers recently rediscovered his original box and game and gave it to me for a birthday present, so I've been asking myself when I'd sit down to start my annual MOO2 game. (I just upgraded my whole PC so there are a couple of previously unplayable games that are threatening to get in the way.)

I can confirm that your multiplayer issue is common. I don't have much online play experience, but I once met some MOO2 community regulars on the Kali network and they all confirmed that the Win95 version's networking code had problems. They all use DOX Box now, from what I've heard. If you Google "Master of Orion 2 Online", you'll find a Web site that tells all about getting into online play. (It's hosted on Blog*spot I think, and has a greenish tint in the header.) As I understand it, this game still gets a lot of action on the Intarwebs.

I still wish I could get the research advance screen to slow down to normal.