Anonymous edits have been disabled on the wiki. If you want to contribute please login or create an account.

Warning for game developers: PCGamingWiki staff members will only ever reach out to you using the official press@pcgamingwiki.com mail address.
Be aware of scammers claiming to be representatives or affiliates of PCGamingWiki who promise a PCGW page for a game key.

MechCommander

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
MechCommander
MechCommander cover
Developers
FASA Interactive
Publishers
MicroProse
Release dates
Windows March 31, 1998
MechCommander guide on StrategyWiki
MechCommander on Wikipedia
Icon overlay.png
MechCommander
Subseries of BattleTech
MechCommander 1998
MechCommander 2 2001

Key points

Installer is 16-bit only, but a workaround is available. See Running the game on 64 bit Windows

General information

BattleTech Wiki - A massive wiki for everything BattleTech related
MechCommander Gold Wiki - A small wiki for the game

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Amazon.com
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
 MechCommander Gold. Contains the base game and expansion.
Windows

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
MechCommander: Desperate Measures Included with MechCommander Gold.
Windows

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

Template:Game data/row
System Location

Save game data location

Template:Game data/row
System Location

Video settings

Template:Video settings

Input settings

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
6 IPX, TCP/IP, Serial/Modem.
Online play
6 Required MPlayer or MSN Zone.

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Issues fixed

Running the game on 64 bit Windows

Although the game installer is 16-bit, the actual game is 32-bit. The only way to play it is to do a manual install:

Manually install the game

Instructions

Use Higher Resolutions in game

Note, menus are fixed to 640x480. In game resolution can be increased, but menus will not stretch to fill the screen.

  1. Open the PREFS.CFG file
  2. Add the following line to the bottom (without quotation marks: "l Resolution=X"
  3. Replace X with: 0 for 640x480 (default), 1 for 800x600, 2 for 1024x768, 3 for 1280x1024.
  4. With the game running in higher resolution, you can use the zoom in feature (press '+') to play in highest detail with slightly more battlefield visibility that the game offers by default in the unzoomed state.


Rainbow color problem

When running on fullscreen in Windows Vista or later may trigger the rainbow color problem. Installing DirectPlay may also help with this issue. In Windows 10:

  1. Press Windows key & X together
  2. Select 'Programs & Features'
  3. Click 'Turn Windows features on and off'
  4. Tick 'DirectPlay' under the 'Legacy Components' item.
  5. Click OK to close the window then reboot.

See Rainbow color problems in older games for more ideas to fix this problem.

Other information

API

Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 95 98
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 133 MHz
System memory (RAM) 32 MB 64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 200 MB 600 MB
Video card (GPU) SVGA compatible
2 MB of VRAM

References