Hey man, can u repost this fix somewere?! I'm looking everywhere on the net and never found it!

For anyone having the same issues on the windows version on Win 10 (color cursor not showing and cd music not working), this is what I did to solve:

- For the color cursor : updated windows 10 to 1903 version and also updated Radeon drivers.
- For the no cd music: the game NEEDS the system to HAVE a CD/DVD drive installed in order for it to work! So, as mine doesn't have one it never worked properly on windows 10. Plugged a USB one to install some software and BOOM HoMM2 working perfeclty!!!

Hope this can help !

Is there anyone who has copies of these fix files still? All the old links no longer work. Thanks!

Install this patch:

https://verokster.blogspot.com/2018/10/heroes-of-might-and-magic-i-iv-gl.html

Fixed graphics and music, for me it's the perfect patch.

Regards!

There is no need any fixing. Everything work. But Verok mod make it better (but this is exactly a mod, than just compatibility wrapper).

It is important that we stop saying this. GOG version still has audio problems, we still need a winmm.dll that resumes ALL music on screen change (map and town) and perhaps allows playing of .flac so we aren't stuck playing low quality ogg.

Maybe this problem doesn't exist for old CD versions but we are here to discuss GOG Heroes 2, either DOS or Windows variant to help people who bought this game from GOG to play it properly! It is great if people still have their old CD version but I think we should separate the discussion for those!

Deleting winmm.dll and inserting CD image is not a good solution at all, because first you must make sure the fake CD drive is first cd drive in your system and insert custom CD image, and maybe you want to keep first drive for actual physical drive. Second, it is a problem if you want to create custom soundtrack, it is much easier to change SW and PoL music tracks around when they are in the Audio folder and not create custom audio CD image every time.

Verok's GL patch great for graphics but I am not sure how it interacts, if at all, with the music.

So our only good solution is a modified winmm.dll at the moment!

Old CD version have problem with Microsoft "security updates" that broke music loop play in some old games on WinVista\+higher. If OGG not looping...
Are you sure it is not how old Windows version always work? Maybe only DOS was looped? .cda will not play properly on current Windows without compatibility wrapping fixes (custom dll, yes). But OGG already use some Win7+ compatible one dll... hm...
I can be wrong here... Not sure how it actually should be for CD and for GOG. Can you double check everything?

If this is compatibility issue fix dll file (not heroes2 specific, but general one) - it not needed normally for OGG (and so for GOG Win buidl), but only for playing music from CD disk or image file. Did that needed for some things? If you mean LOSSLESS quality - it is .cda, not flac. Especially not flac that can be founded online (mp3->flac converts, usually happened for GOG's soundtracks too, did they do that or found existed flac on music torrents). be careful with any "LOSSLESS" downloads. best variant - make it by yourself.

Maybe there is a way to grab it and put to the game as WAV tracks...? Shuld be another dll solution than...
In general, OGG is enough quality to listen in game. IMO... But sometimes GOG indeed can do very_\poor quality releases sometimes, especially if Win version is actually a "bonus_content" and never be updated\fixed since build created. Something was changed\wrapped. At least choose between original\remade (addon or windows gold cd version) soundtracks - same as music changer exe file from GOG do.
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Also i cant say for sure for poor quality Windows 10 and 11 updates. They can broke even more things, so even current OS way to play music can be stopped working.
Again, it shouldnt not look like compatibility issue (exactly for compatibility issue). So mentioned winmm.dll file should be Heroes2 specific fix for something initially broken in GOG release. If it is really something broken. Or it just mod to the game to work as it never work for Windows version. If there is a differences in music between DOS and Windows (something was changed along with Windows CD Gold edition).

The problems I am talking about are not related to Windows version differences. Those problems exist ofc.

The normal behavior should be DOS version resuming the map songs only, not the town songs.
Old Windows CD versions, if you put CD in drive, should also resume map song.

GOG made DOS Heroes 2 play the OGG music from MUSIC folder instead of CD. Inside install folder you will find homm2.gog (image file of the homm2 disk without music) and homm2.ins (basically a txt file that tells game where MUSIC folder is). The DOSBox that comes with this version mounts the image and ins file. This version can't use winmm.dll.

winmm.dll is GOG's fix for the Windows Heroes 2 version for the same problem, they needed to make the game work without using real CD and without DOSBox mounting the disk image.

Many people have trouble with DOS version, for instance there is a big problem when moving heroes, they will stutter and stop for half a second, although my PC is powerful enough to run DOSBox with best settings. This is a problem with the final 2.1 patch of Heroes 2 Price of Loyalty. Others have audio skips and pops due to DOSBox.

Also with DOS version we cannot use Verok's amazing wrapper and the extra features like scalers and easy window mode. Windows version also has great performance without tweaks needed. The patch 2.1 hero movement stutter doesn't happen almost at all with Verok's wrapper!

With a better winmm.dll we could probably make the game play flac files. You could even use other songs this way, easily replacing the files in the folder.

Town music resuming is not normal Heroes 2 behavior. It is in Heroes 3 however! I think we can agree it is much better if we could make the winmm.dll resume town music, increase game atmosphere!

Ofc I made my own custom soundtrack from disk audio into flac properly, because I prefer some SW music and some POL music for the towns.

where exactly do you find the windows version download? try as I might I can't find it, and google hasn't given me a satisfactory answer, I've seen people ask then figure it out on their own before anyone explained it and not say how, that's it. I need the explanation please.

Are they not under Extras? Where the manuals and everything else is located.

In GOG Galaxy at Download Extras when you pick game. Or at account page in normal browser (where it a little bit easier to navigate)

I'm late to the party and I need some wisdom from earlier comers.

1. Is there a way to get the game to play Succession Wars soundtrack in the menu instead of the Price of Loyalty one? The DOS version lets me do that.

2. Why are the installers so different in size? The DOS version of Heroes 2 weighs 466 MB while the Windows one is 253 MB. What is the Windows version lacking? Is it the Succession Wars soundtrack?

3. Are there any standard mods aside from the GL wrapper I should know about?
- I remember reading somewhere that the music is worse quality than what we're used to; is there some standard high quality/lossless replacement (link please if so)?
- Also, I saw links to a file that fixes some sort of music-restarting problem, but the links don't seem to work anymore. Can anyone please share the fix again?

You do not need any fixes. Heroes(*)GL is great, but still optional. No any else needed even as optional.
There is music switcher for tracks that been changed. For DOS version. It have two soundtracks.
GOG provide 3 version: GOG Galaxy build DosBox_74_CS, offline DosBox_74_CS and Windows. two DosBox builds have music_switcher exe. Not sure about Windows build.

I guess it possible to combine DosBox and Windows versions... And yes, this game is initially both DOS+Win9x. Localisations made for Windows (Pol one is only for Windows?), while GOG put them all to DosBox.
So better to install-repacked both. GOG always mess with initially dos+win games.

For size: two soundtracks (1,5 actually) and DosBox = increased size.
Oh yeah, and DosBox build come with disc image - homm2.ins(+homm2.gog)

Probably there is more useful (or probably not) info here
[url=http://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Series:Might_and_Magic]http://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Series:Might_and_Magic[/url]

I just bought HoMM 2, but was struggling with different issues. I found recreation of Heroes II engine - maybe it helps you solve some issues. I just tried it and after 5minutes play it works like a charm to me - cannot paste github link but look for fheroes2

All - every - such projects brings more issues. it is can be a good alternative. But not replacement.
So ofc deffinetly try this one. But first - try Heroes(2)GL wrapper mod.
Before it, try as is DOSBOX version from GOG - but configure it by yourself (default link\play lead to dosbox+conf launch file, but there is also seaprate GOGDOSBOX launcher which one if better way to start the game as well as basic re-configs for bundled DOS machine).
Before this try Windows native version that GOG provide and which one this thread describe (English only).

Windows version is better than DOS, and so than standard GOG and GOGGalaxy (in Galaxy client) builds. HeroesGL also require Win version. This one mod is huge enough to be called mod, bot enough to fix-imrove if there is something gameplay related needed to fix-improve. For this you need completely overhaul project. But they always bring new features and new issues (for old features too), fixed time-to-time.
Not mater fan-made or official remakes. It is jsut a thing - not possible to recreate 100% accurate. Every mods (HeroesGL too).

i hope you understand want i want to say... you described it most proper as possible: 'alternative reacreation', 'maybe solve', 'some issues'. Basically i just repeat what you say already. Its just some clarification for other ppl - they have 4 way to play Heroes 2 - and all have own pros... Or 5 - GOG provide 3 differ version builds. GL and fheores is another two. Not counted many retail cd's (localisation from GOG is only DOS, so fpr someones owned CD can be useful too).
GOG builds can be combined DOS+Win as original Heroes2 release.