Good, now its at least not a problem of wrong executable. Then it was unable to autodetect anything?
Method 1: Using the 1.50.8 Launcher
Things get simpler if you have version 1.50.8 of the unofficial fan patch. You don't need to edit any files then.

For all players, run the Launcher GUI and select:

network -> client
connect to -> moo2.thedopefish.com

then click launch.

One of the players has to create server. In main menu click MULTI PLAYER, select NETWORK GAME, click START NEW GAME (or LOAD GAME if you are resuming an old game), choose game settings and server name (default MOX-0 might be already taken) and click accept. Tell server name to the client(s) and wait until they join.

On client(s) in main menu click MULTI PLAYER, select NETWORK GAME, click JOIN NEW GAME and select your server from the list.

When all clients have joined click START NET GAME on server

Im not sure what you mean by " chose "single player" (as stated in various forum posts we've been through),", can you explain what you call this way?

Yes. Have to do it manually.

This is the path:

Master Of Orion 2 (in my application folder) -> show package content -> open the folder "content" ->open the folder "resources" -> open the folder "game" -> show package content of "Master of Orion 2" -> open the folder "contents" -> open the folder "resources" -> show package content of "Master of Orion 2.boxer" -> open folder "C.harddisk" -> here is "Orion2.EXE

So I chose the folder "C.harddisk" as my MOO2 directory. Launcher recognises it. All is well.

.....but before I move forward now, what should I use as my "DosBox Executable", since my Mac GOG version of the game is not running through dosbox, but rather through boxer?

I now chose "Boxer standalone" as my DosBox executable, and then the game wouldn't launch. So it seems I need to chose "GOG launcher" for it to work at all. But I still get "comm failure" when trying to host or join multiplayer game.


Why can't this game just run multiplayer as it is sold from GOG, or at least through GOG galaxy??

manmoth: Still can't find other player, and besides now I'm the one with the "comm error".

DarzaR: Beside trying to proper install (above), please answer about this too:
"What server you are joining? " For all players, run the Launcher GUI and select:
network -> client
connect to -> moo2.thedopefish.com" < is it what you 2 are doing?"
manmoth: Yes. We've both done that.

Now im trying to get how you been able to do that, that is essentially moving forward, if you didnt picked dosbox yet.
If you didnt picked it indeed - what do you run then, and why? If you did picked something and launcher let you chose network options - what is "single player" then?

The launcher lets me chose "GOG launcher" as my DosBox executable. The launcher then launches GOGlauncher which again launches MOO2. Here I'm first given the option "single player" or "multiplayer".

As stated in the first link you provided me:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=882018286 (under "non steam versions")

...I chose "single player".

As far i can get here is some problem. But let ensure first you actually see 1.50 in a right bottom of main menu screen after you run a game this way.

It stated there under "Manual", while we're about launcher now.


Obviously we dont need a gog stuff there, Boxer is a some mac wrapper for dosbox, at least videos about it show it actually create a window called "dosbox-0.7x', so dosbox exe is somewhere inside it. I hope macs have some search files capabilites, so you can find it there too, as you did with orion.exe.

As far i can get here is some problem. But let ensure first you actually see 1.50 in a right bottom of main menu screen after you run a game this way.

Yes, you're right. It still says 1.40b23

There is no DosBox executable with the GOG release for Mac though, as far as I can tell.


It stated there under "Manual", while we're about launcher now.

Ok. I thought that was for both. But I can't do the manual solution either, since I have no relevant .conf files anywhere as I can tell.

Its slightly not easy with those edits when it jump to new page, so ill copy here.

Obviously we dont need a gog stuff there, Boxer is a some mac wrapper for dosbox, at least videos about it show it actually create a window called "dosbox-0.7x', so dosbox exe is somewhere inside it. I hope macs have some search files capabilites, so you can find it there too, as you did with orion.exe.

https://www.gog.com/forum/theme_park/how_to_run_in_boxer_on_osx

I think i got the problem we did encountered, launcher will let you put non-dosbox exes as if they are dosbox. That misleading, sorry. You really need to find a proper dosbox.exe inside boxer instead (use reinstall option for it).
Upd - maybe its dosbox.app there/

First of all: Thank you for all your patience and help.

Unfortunately, due to their fantastic "user friendliness", Macs have very limited native search capabilities. So I downloaded a program called "Find Any File":

http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/

Set it to search inside my applications folder, and to include package content. It found no DosBox executables, which seems to be consistent with that is written in this thread:

https://www.gog.com/forum/ultima_series/mac_user_guide_to_ultima

"Boxer is a nice tool for emulating your private game collection, but it is not a practical solution for selling games to work out of the box; that's why Boxer Standalone was created. A Boxer Standalone game looks like any OS X app, but within it are both the game and the emulator, no additional software needed. This is what you get when you download the Mac version of a DOS game from GoG. "

Inside my MOO2 package I do find the Boxer Standalone, and it's just a single executable that I can't open and search further.

Here are files containing "dosbox" which Find Any File managed to find inside the MOO2 package:

DOSBox Preferences.conf

dosbox-150.conf

dosbox.conf

DOSBox.strings

As you can see, no dosbox executables.

Thank you, actually, not me. Nobody from us have a mac here, so its of great help to improve compatibility.

That boxer application - could it be choosed as dosbox.exe there? What will happen then?

If this will fail - youll have to try manual install and editing DOSBox Preferences.conf then. You will need to find a lines:

[ipx]
# ipx -- Enable ipx over UDP/IP emulation.

and set it to:
ipx=true
if its already not set, and

[autoexec]
# Lines in this section will be run at startup.

mount some\mac-way\\MOO2
....
and add there a line
ipxnet connect moo2.thedopefish.com

Your friend could do any way, just ensure you both run same version (so maybe you will need to install 1.5 manually, or he will need to edit config same way too, and not use launcher).

Already tried choosing the boxer standalone as dosbox.exe. What happens then is that I get this screen:

https://ibb.co/mRwzXm

Twice! :D

And it just remains like that. Closing one of them doesn't help either.


I'll try manually editing the file you suggested, and then we'll try again tomorrow. Will report back how it goes.

Thanks again!

Ok fine, and i hope we'll get some updates about it too, as its looks pretty close.
Thanks again again.

Here is what the inside of DOSBox Preferences.conf looks like when I open it with TextEdit:

# This configuration file was created by Boxer. In here you can specify
# any additional DOSBox settings or startup commands needed for this game.
# You can find a list of supported settings in Boxer's built-in help,
# under "DOSBox configuration file parameters".
#
# Note that you can tweak CPU speed and other common settings directly
# from Boxer’s Inspector panel (Cmd-I while playing).

[cpu]
core=auto
cycles=65000

[gus]
gus=false

[dosbox]
memsize=16
machine=svga_s3

[midi]
mpu401=intelligent

[speaker]
disney=true
pcspeaker=true
tandy=auto

[sblaster]
hdma=5
dma=1
irq=5
sbtype=sb16
sbbase=220
oplmode=auto

[dos]
ems=true
xms=true
umb=true

[autoexec]
# This configuration file was created by Boxer. In here you can specify
# any additional DOSBox settings or startup commands needed for this game.
# You can find a list of supported settings in Boxer's built-in help,
# under "DOSBox configuration file parameters".
#
# Note that you can tweak CPU speed and other common settings directly
# from Boxer’s Inspector panel (Cmd-I while playing).

So no reference to [ipx] or [autoexec] anywhere...

Edit: Oops! There was indeed an autoexec at the bottom there.

A. gog way (might not work if boxer is incompatible with dosbox over network)

1. resolve moo2.thedopefish.com ip (ping it in console)
2. run gog launcher and specify this ip as remote server (for some reason gog launcher doesn't understand symbolic names)

B. alternatively, launcher way (should work, but more hassle)

1. install dosbox, then find the executable (should be called DOSBox I believe).
2. Then install patch using launcher and specify game folder (which you found already) and dosbox executable (which ought to be found on step 1).

C. notes

What you did by now is you specified gog launcher instead of dosbox exe, so patch launcher runs:
gog-launcher -conf 150/dosbox150.conf -conf 150/dosbox.conf
where -conf is a dosbox switch, GOG launcher happily ignores it and does its usual thing.

It's probable that boxer can be used as a dosbox substitute somehow, but it's unlikely i can figure it out without having working mac at hand. You can try to locate boxer configuration (you cited something legit looking) and specify ipx server address manually there, network multiplayer might work (although patch launcher still won't).