I've been attempting to get Lords of the Realm 2 working in DOSBOX specifically for use on a tablet. I've actually had some levels of success: By copying l2d.exe into the GOG Lords of the Realm 2 folder, I can start it up in DOS. If I use just a plain Lords of the Realm 2 install, I can even get the game working in Lords 2 v. 1.00. However, on 1.00, it seems there was a bug where if you pressed and held an arrow button while purchasing something, it wouldn't automatically increase. For example, if you desired to buy ale, you'd have to click a couple hundred times to get +5 happiness. Obviously, that's not really ideal.

The Siege Pack, alas, was never released for DOS, so simply installing that over it doesn't fix it. And while there is a DOS 1.03 patch for l2d, it then requires a CD to play, which on a tablet doesn't seem feasible. I cannot find a patched, cracked, version of 1.03 in order to play the game on a tablet.

Is there any way I can pull off a fully playable Lords of the Realm 2 on my tablet? Is anyone out there capable of simply cracking the l2d 1.03 (DOS) exe? Any thoughts on the matter would be appreciated.

So you copied a DOS version of the game's executable into GOG's Windows version? You're lucky, this works at all ;-)
The arrows issue was indeed fixed in 1.03.

There's a way to pass the CD check in DOSBox. Just alter the CD path in LOTR's ini file. [url=http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/GAMES:Lords_of_the_Realm_II]http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/GAMES:Lords_of_the_Realm_II[/url]

The problem is, that GOG's version doesn't contain the original folder structure of the CD and maybe it's also missing some files of this FILES folder. You might be out of luck doing this with only GOG's version at hand.

Sierrahelp.com offers a new installer for the game that sets up a DOSBox installation without CD check, but you still need the original DOS CD for installation.
http://www.sierrahelp.com/Patches-Updates/NewSierraInstallers.html#L

This is extremely helpful, and I appreciate everything thus far. I used the Sierra Installer for CD to set up Lords2 onto my desktop, and then copied the entire thing onto my tablet. I modified the INI to point to the CD as cdpath=C:\Lords2\FILES, which seems correct. I copied all the SMK_HIGH to the SMK_LOW.

I am currently at a point where it skips the intro video entirely, which strikes me as odd. Dunno why, but, figured I'd toss that out there. When I attempt a single player game, it still asks me for a CD. After checking the FILES folder on the actual CD, I saw there was a lot more there, so I copied the whole thing over instead of letting the installer do its thing. (And copied the SMK_HIGH to the SMK_LOW again.) No luck.

Currently, I'm skipping the intro video, and being asked for a CD. Really not entirely certain as to why. DOSBox Turbo automatically mounts: /storage/emulated/0/Download/ as C:\, and my file setup is: (root)\sdcard\download\Lords2\Files. I have cdpath=C:\Lords2\Files. (While it seems like the two are entirely different directories, it appears to me that it is some weird tablet thing, and they're one in the same.)

Also, as one last thought, on the Sierra page, it states:

"added compatibility with the Lords of the Realm Siege Pack installer below - This installer will setup the game to run in DOSBox. Installs entire game to the hard drive for CD-less play. For the Windows version you can use the StC Lords of the Realm 2 installer by jafa. This new XP/Vista installer will setup the Windows version of the game to run on Windows XP/Vista (Note: the CD will still be required to play)."

Does that mean there's a way to get the Siege Pack working in DOSBox? It seemed like it did, but I couldn't figure out how.

If you're still using the Windows version as base for your DOSBox setup, then it's a problem with video codecs. LOTR2's in-game videos and intro are Smacker videos and the Windows version comes with the Windows version of the Smacker decoder (smackw32.dll). It doesn't run in DOS. The DOS version has somehow Smacker's Player for DOS(smackply.exe) embedded, but I don't know how. Maybe just by copying it in the game's directory and giving it the right file name. The DOS Player should still be part of RAD Tools, but as I said, I don't know how to embed it in LOTR2's DOS version. You won't get the videos running with GOG's Smacker DLLs.

I had it working (if memory serves) with the Lo-Res videos, but that's a lesser concern. Any ideas on the "Insert CD" issue it's throwing at me? Again, I do appreciate your time and assistance.

Both directories are probably the same and the cdpath variable seems to be correct. Still, your filesystem could be case-sensitive, so set path variable exactly like your actual folder names. You can also try mounting (root)\sdcard\download\ as DOSBox's C:\ to be sure to point to the same directory.

No luck oddly enough. I even tried copying the old l2 exe and eng files from the Sierra installer back into my Lords2 folder, and it's still spitting back no CD. I feel like a 1.03 DOS NoCD crack would have to be made, because at this point I'm well and truly stumped.

As much as i enjoy downloaded games not needing disks, i always have that feeling in the back of my mind that all these games are still secretly desiring the disk, and then there are the occasional 'blips' of legitimately downloaded games still doing so just to reinforce my paranoia.

The need for the disk is like water in a damn, it is always there, secretly looking for a way to break out.... so naturally if your trying to make geographical changes - run in tablets etc, this will give that little sucker its opportunity to break free, ... YEEHAW "Please insert Disk"

Powderhorn, here's how I got LOTR2 to work and pass the CD check (also the intro videos work):

Initial info - I did the same as you, loading LOTR2 from my CD rom to my PC using the LOTR2 loader from Sierra. It worked fine on my PC with Dosbox 0.74.

I copied the entire LOTR2 folder to my android device (I use a Samsung Galaxy Note tablet). My Dosbox turbo mounted C: drive is /storage/extSdCard/Download/dosbox/CDrive so the next folder down is LOTR2 with all its files.

I also use Dosbox Turbo Manager (DTM) on my tablet. I used DTM to create a profile for LOTR2:
1) edit the LOTR2 Profile config by long-pressing the profile to get the menu in DTM, select edit config, then tap DOSBOX SETTINGS (Advanced Dosbox config), scroll down and enable 3DFX Glide Support and check Manual Mode to allow you to edit your dosbox.conf file for LOTR2
2) Press Edit Config File and scroll all the way to the bottom.
3) Next you are going to mount your C: drive and then your D: drive as a virtual CD ROM drive on your tablet. Here's how I did it:

mount c: /storage/extSdCard/Download/dosbox/CDrive
mount d /storage/extSdCard/Download/dosbox/CDrive/LOTR2 -t cdrom
c:
cd\lotr2
l2d

In the above, you can see I mounted my C drive for Dosbox just as I described above
To mount the D drive as a CD rom, I simply pointed to the LOTR2 folder itself and then added -t cdrom to create the virtual CD ROM drive for Dosbox.

The last 3 lines change the Dosbox drive to the C: drive (/storage/extSdCard/Download/dosbox/CDrive), change the directory to the LOTR2 folder, then start the game (l2d.exe)

Save the new dosbox.conf, then back out of the DTM profile.

4) One more fix then we are ready to play! We need to make that minor change to the lords2.ini file It's a text file so you can find it using your android explorer (I prefer FileManager HD), and edit it using your text editor, or you can edit it on your PC and save it over the existing lords2.ini file on your android device. When you open your lords2.ini file in your text editor, look at the first line:

cdpath=C:\FILES

Remember that we mounted storage/extSdCard/Download/dosbox/CDrive/LOTR2 as the D Drive virtual CDROM? That means all we need to do is to change that 1st line in lords2.ini to read:

cdpath=D:\FILES

and then save lords2.ini (if you did the edit on your pc, you'll need to copy this edited ini file to your LOTR2 folder on your Android device)

That's it! Ready to play! See, now Dosbox Turbo Manager will load Dosbox turbo with a proper c drive AND a virtual CD ROM Drive that is now properly pointed to by the lords2.ini file

Crank up the game using DTM and have fun! No CD check required and all the intro videos will work as well.
Happy Lording!
R/
TC2