Hi guys!

I recently bought a new laptop, well not totally new, but new for me. I'm running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit and have moved up a few generations in hardware and technology. I've been reinstalling games but have only within the last week or so been playing around with a few helo sims. Apart from Comanche Gold, nothing has really satisfied. I've tried Apache Air Assault (remake) and graphically it's pretty lush, with an exceptional feeling of low-level flight. But, it's flight model and avionics simplicity is lacking for me. So, I'm going to reinstall LB2 and see how it runs (if at all) on my newer hardware. Just watching some videos of the sim on YouTube has gotten me really nostalgic. Nothing will ever beat the feeling that LB2 gave me and the hours I put into playing it and fixing/testing it on more modern computers.

I hope you guys are doing well. It's been too long... way too long.

Glad to see you back Flyboy. Would love to give Longbow 2 a shot but I never really get it to work 100% right, so i never bothered and played different flight sims.

Just recently I dusted off an old classic - Gunship 2000. It doesn't play too well nowadays, but the nostalgia is strong with this one for me, so I don't mind archaic gameplay. It still is immersive though. And you know Jane's Longbow series is spiritual successor to Gunship 2000, right?

Hi damson, I know exactly what you mean about LB2. I believe the last time I dabbled with it I couldn't get it to run satisfactory. Just yesterday I came across a program called DXWnd which is a compatibility toolkit for older games that one guy on YouTube has used to get his game running on Windows 10 with apparently no other workarounds. So I'm hoping that will come to my rescue if my Windows 7 fix doesn't provide the desired stability. It looks promising.

I have Gunship 2000 as well, that I downloaded years ago. I never got into it myself but when I first saw a mate play it on his Amiga when I was a kid, I thought it was the best game ever! It's a pity that Gunship! was such a flop. Yes I did know about the LB series being the spiritual successor to GS2K.

Hey!! Good to see you back around these parts!!

I have LB2 running fairly well on my Win7 machine (THANKS TO YOU).

@Damson: I posted over in the other GS2K thread... I played on PC rather than AMIGA.. All time great favorite sim of mine. Despite LB2 allowing you to train up AI wingmen, it wasn't nearly as immersive as GS2K where I think their development was far more evident AND you got to confer decorations and promotions.

Hi Recluse, it was partly talking to you via e-mail that lured me back to looking into simming again. I've really got the urge to look into LB2 once more after however many years. I've pretty much been at work since I decided to give it another go a few days ago, but hope to get to it tomorrow. When I last played on Windows 7 I remember running into issues that my fix wouldn't cure. If I find myself in that situation again, I'm really counting in that DXWnd program to be my last stand.

It's funny...using your LB2 For Win7, it worked perfectly. I had NONE of the issues you had in the past (slow yaw rate etc..).

As far as DXWND, I don't know if anyone came up with an LB2 config file. It helped with Janes F-15, but the config file purported to work with Janes F/A-18 not only did nothing, but F/A-18 didn't even launch. Luckily it works fine for me on Win7 without it, but Windows 10 is apparently a lost cause.

Good luck!!

Has anyone tried running LB2 in a WinXP or Win98 virtual machine?

I am guessing that almost everything could be emulated these days, and with hardware as powerful as it is now, it shouldn't be a problem to emulate even something like virtual graphics cards such as the voodoo.

OK so today I setup LB2 again on my newest laptop. In short, the game runs but I still have the same issues as I did before.

I installed the game as per the instructions with my Windows 7 Fix package, and I got a freeze in-game during an Instant Action therefore I installed the GUI/sound looping crash fix. I was then able to complete a random-generated mission with no crash. However, I got the black screen crash at the end of the mission where the debrief screen should be. I am currently using the nGlide 2.00 glide wrapper. As a side-note I still get the distorted colors at the base menu upon first entering the game, and the slow yaw issue. These are only minor annoyances though. One thing that's making my life easier this time round is that this laptop has a separate, full-sized numeric keypad, so I've got a full keyboard of commands to use without the need for remapping... the way LB2 was meant to be played!

I tried the aforementioned DXWnd program, but it appears to be a later version to what the guy on YouTube was using, as most of the settings specific to getting LB2 to run that he mentions aren't even present. I couldn't get the game to run at all through DXWnd. So far, using this program is a no-go.

So in summary not much has changed from the last time I played LB2, ran into these issues, and ultimately gave up on it. However, many years have passed and I'm just happy to be able to play the game at all. For now I'll just have to put up with not being able to do multiple missions one after another and have any sort of pilot progression.

VF9_Longbow - I did run LB2 through, I believe a Windows 98 VM years ago. From what I remember it could only be played in Software mode and in a window. I'm sure much has improved since then, not to mention an increase in my computer performance that should allow for better options. I'm refraining from going the virtual machine route just yet.