How to play Lemmings 2 in DOSBox

[Simon]

"Illegal command: l2-fix."

Put the attached L2-FIX.COM into the Lemmings 2 folder (that also contains L2.EXE).

-- Simon

[chrisleec728]

The folder appears to already contain a file (MS-DOS application) called "L2-FIX.COM".

[chrisleec728]

Also, ericderkovits, Lemmings 2 & 3 are the only ones I'm concerned about because conversions of all of the other games can easily be downloaded directly from the NeoLemmix website (and then of course there's Lemmings Redux). I don't know whether Lemmings 2 & 3 will somehow eventually be converted to NeoLemmix in the probably distant future.

[Simon]

The folder appears to already contain a file (MS-DOS application) called "L2-FIX.COM".

That's good. Now we need more information:

• Does Dosbox print any errors before "illegal command"? E.g., did the mount fail?
  
• Where exactly does L2 sit on your harddisk?
• What folder is mounted when Dosbox starts? If you followed Kieran's instructions, you can show what you wrote into the options text file.

-- Simon

[chrisleec728]

Well first of all I think I've gotten this to work before (except the sound wasn't working for whatever reason) but unfortunately I can't remember how. Anyways, assuming I understand your questions correctly:

1. It doesn't look like it.
2. Well I keep it in my "Downloads" folder (which I think is where it was last time as well).
3. Well I mounted it as drive C. I don't know if this helps but the bottom of the text file looks like this (with a single space before it):

mount c C:\Users\Chris\Downloads\lemmings_2_dos
c:
l2-fix

[namida]

Also, ericderkovits, Lemmings 2 & 3 are the only ones I'm concerned about because conversions of all of the other games can easily be downloaded directly from the NeoLemmix website (and then of course there's Lemmings Redux). I don't know whether Lemmings 2 & 3 will somehow eventually be converted to NeoLemmix in the probably distant future.

There's also Lemmings 3D, don't forget.

Anyway - no, L2, L3 and L3D will never be ported (at least, not without significant differences) to NL, because there's no intention of supporting L2's skills or L3's unique mechanics (or L3D's 3D-ness, but that one was obvious).

[Simon]

1. It doesn't look like it.

I assume the mount succeeds, then, and Dosbox prints something like:
Drive C is mounted as local directory C:\Users\Chris\Downloads\lemmings_2_dos

3. Well I mounted it as drive C. I don't know if this helps but the bottom of the text file looks like this (with a single space before it):

mount c C:\Users\Chris\Downloads\lemmings_2_dos
c:
l2-fix

This looks fine.

2. Well I keep it in my "Downloads" folder (which I think is where it was last time as well).

Does lemmings_2_dos not contain L2.EXE and L2-FIX.COM, but instead contains another folder that contains L2.EXE and L2-FIX.COM? Then edit the mount line in the Dosbox config and add the inner folder.

Or does lemmings_2_dos directly contain L2.EXE and L2-FIX.COM? Then it's possible that Downloads, a special Windows folder, messes with Dosbox's path resolution. Move the Lemmings 2 folder out of any special folder. For example, create a new folder C:\dosgames\, move the Lemmings 2 folder inside, and change the Dosbox config to:
mount c C:\dosgames\lemmings_2_dos

-- Simon

[chrisleec728]

It was the former; it contained another folder named "Lemm2". I then did what you said accordingly and that did the trick (though oddly I don't remember having to do either that or pressing Enter to get the game to actually start before). Then after that my sound wasn't working (same as before) so I followed the earlier instructions to fix that and it looks like it's all good now. Thanks!

[Simon]

All right, cool, thanks for the feedback!

I've clarified Kieran's original post to avoid the problem with the extra inner directory.

-- Simon

[theorclair]

I've done all this and while the game runs just fine and I can get to all the levels, I can't save at all. I've tried going to menu after a level and saving from there, but when I try to load a game I just start from the beginning again. I've also tried pressing F12, as some guides say that works, and that doesn't do anything either! What am I doing wrong?

[Simon]

Welcome to the forums! Some guesses:

I forgot what L2-FIX.COM fixes (over the vanilla L2.EXE). It might well have been a saving bug. Are you running L2-FIX.COM (and not the vanilla L2.EXE)?

When you try to save in L2's save menu, you must enter a nonempty name for the save slot, then hit enter.

The Lemmings 2 directory should not be write-protected in the host system. Assuming you're on Windows: In Windows explorer, right-click the directory -> properties, then disable write protection for the directory and for all files in it.

Contemporary Windows systems don't necessarily allow write access everywhere. Instead of having C:\dosgames, have the Dos games somewhere under your user directory (websearch for where that is depending on what kind of Windows you have). Move the entire dosgames directory into your user directory, then tell Dosbox that new location to mount. (E.g., if you followed Kieran's tutorial and added mount instructions to autoexec, edit the mount line in Dosbox's autoexec.)

-- Simon

[theorclair]

Running l2-fix worked. Can you change its name so it's l2? I presume you'd have to rename the other file as well.

[Simon]

Thanks for the feedback that L2-FIX.COM already allows you to save.

About renaming, I have no idea. Experiment and see what happens: If Lemmings 2 runs after the renaming and still saves properly, you should be fine.

-- Simon

[CrystalCore]

See also: Playing Lemmings 2 WITHOUT the L2-Fix File

Edit Simon: Link to the standalone topic instead of duplicating the post.

[jkapp76]

Here's a link to my portable Lemmings 2. This includes a fanmade levelpack option and will run automatically with DOSBox Staging out of the folder. Just unzip. The exe is already edited too.

https://u.pcloud.link/publink/show?code=XZAHhOVZqUmQzmyvPnRJqtcULY4T5L8sNvkX