This game is notoriously incompatible with WindowsXP. I actually got it to run with the 1.6 patch, but on systems with the 1.7 patch I get the same symptoms you get.
 
My advice: don't let this take over your life. The game with the 1.7 patch is not compatible and never will be since no one will support the game. You're going to be tearing your hair out for no reason since no company is going to spend the money to make it work. Sorry.
 
My other advice: good grief man, get yourself some RAM. I never, ever allow XP to be installed on anything less than 256mb of RAM and I try to avoid installing it on systems with less than 512mb. I know the minimum system requirements state that 128mb is okie, but you are definitely not seeing the performance you should be seeing.

thank you
 
But please tell me where can i get the 1.6 Patch ? I search for it but i find only english versions and i need the german, cause my Dungeon Keeper 2 is in German. Or does the english work with the german ?
 
and if it not, cann you say me some games who are similar to DK2 ? Even Startopia or some games like this, i dont know

Sorry, I don't know where to get the German 1.6 patch. I also don't know of any games like DK2... I love DK2 as much as you and yep, it got me down when the compatibility issues cropped up. They started way back around Win2000.

OK, thank you
 
if some Modeator or adminitrator want to, he can close this Thread
 
P.S: :-( , I cant play DK 2 :-((((

Hi There,
 
If you like to play a lot of older games on Windows XP...
You can also try to play the games in a virtual machine (VMWare ( www.vmware.com) or Microsoft Virtual PC). But then you definitly
need some extra RAM. You can also make a dual boot system...
 
Greetz SubZeRo :x

hello dungeon keeper 1 & 2 work fine under windows xp
 
remember 2 set it in 16bit mode desktop
 
and set it to windows98 mode under setting on the shortcut
and deactivate visual and langues
 
thats it it work with many game this setting
 
 
a rare thing
+ recommend then install it set same option on the install/setup.exe file
 
 
good luck

If mantakno's suggestions get the game to run but it crashes moments into a level, make sure to turn off hardware accel. in the games options screen. This solved my problem with patch 1.7. on XP home SP2

HI
I am having a problem with DK2. I have windows XP profesional edition and I cannot even install the game. The only way I can play it is by running it directly off of the cd. Whenever I try to install the game from any directory I get the message "16 bit sub system: unsuitable to run ms-dos and/or windows, must be shut down now" and there is no way around it from what I've tried. I'd really like some help. I also have the first game, and I have the same problem with it. Except I can't play it off the cd. My friend says that the games won't run at all because they are trying to use a 16 bit system and with XP there is no 16 bit system, the lowest is 32. I don't know how that could be, the booklet with the game specifically says that the game is 32 bit and that it SHOULD NOT be run with 16 bit progreams. Unless I am reading it wrong. Anyhow, I need help. If anyone could be of assistance. Thank you.

well my older msg was to SP1 and it was a xp home-edition
 
and there is some xp patch fixer outthere incluce with gl or was it D3D or both cant remember
 
well just get those files
 
well i have a server but atm. i play on it but you can maybe get the files if i'm online.. will move CHANGE ISP after new year and maybe get a REAL SERVER for patch's
 
http://patch.homepage.dk
 
stardard crap warning ....download things from other can harm your pc and #"!¤!#¤% QEGEFDG"¤
yeah what new in that

to Valleyguy8519
 
xp is a 32bit system
 
16bit system was win95 and some win98 but the later version win98sr2 was 32bit system
so as i understand it this, is it could be other problem its because maybe the gfx-card
another tip try a lesser gfx resolution 800x600 or lesser
that is my lowest setting doing the new SVGA card today "AGP card" i can change it to 640x480 but that is a window setting not a selected setting from the card as a choise
 
dont EVER forget to turn desktop-gfx to that requiment of the game many forget that and cant "Run" the game..reson to this is older games look at what is my desktop setting the launch the game...
another thing to try is dos emulator try them at my link in other problem
 
and i have not tryed the new sp2 setting im playing other game now and have compleated d1 and d2 i just fallover my old msg and if i could help and tell it was to sp1 it work back then...
well good luck
best regards
mantakno
 
 

Hi Guys ( HELP MEEEE
)
I have another question, hope someone can answer it!
I recently got Dungeon Keeper 1, from a friend who lives on the other side of the world
I live in a poor Asian country where u hardly can buy any game, so getting DK1 here in a store was kinda impossible.
 
This friend downloaded DK1 from Bitorrent and put it on CD and tested it on a XP / Gforce2 / P3 500 machine without any problems..
 
He has sent it to me for quite alot of $$ and FINALLY i got DK1, was soo thrilled to have it again!
 
I installed it, i started it and everything went allright, i saw the intro movies and stuff..so far so good...
untill the game started
 
Screen went total black, sound was there and i even could click on the walls and make the imps chop it...but..i couldnt seeeee anything!!! ;(
 
Now, what do i do to make it work so i can see the game and feed my desire to play this addictive game again?
 
thx in advance
 
Knurft

well .... heh heh now you are on deep water my friemd...hehe
use the newest game patch and gfx-drivers
----------------------------------------------------------
THIS information is only for people that know what they are doing
if you have and doubt that it aient the right correct "driver/bios/firmware" to the unit you have DONT DO IT, it can harm the system and IT'S ON OWN RISK
 
try update your system with latest driver to
motherboard bios / driver's and
sound drivers and
grafix bios / driver's
and update - windows system
 
and cd-rom firmware
dont forget netcard "nic"
or other weird hardware that you have pluged to the system
in rare case i seen a nic card stop everything doing the game access the netcard.. even the game itself aient a multiplayer game but the game update function do it
 
all this information is for all games in general
------------------------------------------
and if that dosent help try a dos-emulator
it work for many people look it up on the net...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
This is how you install Dungeon Keeper 2 under Windows XP SP2:
 
1. Full install Dungeon Keeper 2.
 
2. Apply patch 1.7.
 
(if you during installation get an error message saying "Can't run 16-bit Windows Program. Cannot find file..."
then go to Start - Run... and type regedit. Make sure the following key is disabled (set to 0):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem\NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation=0)
 
3. Install Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit 3.0 (use Google to find it - it's free from Microsoft).
 
4. Run the program and create a new database.
 
5. Click Fix.
 
6. Name of the program to be fixed: Dungeon Keeper 2 - Name of the vendor for this program: Bullfrog Productions.
 
7. Program file location: Browse for the location of Dkii.exe in gamedir.
 
8. Operating System Modes: None - Click Next.
 
9. Compatibility Fixes: select EmulateSlowCPU - Click Next.
 
10. Click Finish.
 
11. Choose File and Install and then exit the program.
 
12. Create a shortcut for Dkii.exe, choose properties and add -32biteverything in the Target commandline
(it should look something like this: "C:\Games\Dungeon Keeper 2\Dkii.exe" -32biteverything).
 
13. Run the shortcut to start the game.
 
 

Hi im new but in a earlier post someone was wondering how to turn it into the english version in the data files under text there should be 2 files ones default text and the other default english simply switch the files in each folder hope this works for you it did me .
 
 
P.S. i also have problems with dk2 in windows xp my game freezes and the sound continues to skip i wish they would just come out with a patch that would fix the problem to bad people who start something dont know how to finish it and abandon it im also thinking of abandoning it too bad its such a classic x) x)

I found that DK2 worked almost perfectly on XP, provided you set the compatibility to 95. It ocaasionally crashes after a couple of hours of play, but that may be my ancient PC.

I followed the steps given by LPH exactly. I haven't even had a chance to start a level because right in the begining all my options are freaking invisable(menus, buttons, everything)! Having never played this game before I can't even guess where to click on the screen to get the game started. This is very weird. Another issue I'm having with it is I get a warning saying that I'm low on hardrive space which is not true because I have 23+ GB of free space and I already checked to make sure that I didn't need to defrag my hard drive too so I don't know why it's saying that.

I followed LPH's steps and it worked on the first try. Nice! I have badly missed playing DK2.
 
TragedyAnne: I always see the bogus low disk space warning when running version 1.7 under Windows 2K. The game runs slowly there, but works fine. The low space warning seems to be an artifact. I do not see the warning on my XP system.
 
-= Bill =-
 
 

Well deleting the -32biteverything off of the target solved the invisable menu problem and checking off everything in the compatibility section (except for run in compatibility mode for __, which will cause the game to not even start up on my comp) took care of the low memory message. The game still crashed however after about an hour(possibly less) of playing, which wouldn't be too bad if I could just 'end task' and start it up again but it actually cause my whole computer to lock up and I'm forced to turn it off.

I got dungeon keeper 2 for xmas. i fell in love with it the first 10 min of play. then it stopped and went back to my desktop.
I was told by Gateway i needed more ram so i did this, it played for 30 min and stopped.
I then was told to get a new disk drive, so i did this and it played 30 min and stopped.
That left getting a new video card, i did this and it played 15 min and returned to desk top.
I was told i must have corrupt softwear so i go new xp and dumped my hard drive put in new patitions and reinstalled , then reinstalled the game and downloaded its patches.
This time the game had small black segmented lines through it and it shut my computer off.
I have done everything possible, what is left? Another thing i found funny was the way the company that produces this game hides no tech support number nothing.

Originally posted by blades:

Quote:I got dungeon keeper 2 for xmas. i fell in love with it the first 10 min of play. then it stopped and went back to my desktop.I was told by Gateway i needed more ram so i did this, it played for 30 min and stopped.
I then was told to get a new disk drive, so i did this and it played 30 min and stopped.
That left getting a new video card, i did this and it played 15 min and returned to desk top.
I was told i must have corrupt softwear so i go new xp and dumped my hard drive put in new patitions and reinstalled , then reinstalled the game and downloaded its patches.
This time the game had small black segmented lines through it and it shut my computer off.
I have done everything possible, what is left? Another thing i found funny was the way the company that produces this game hides no tech support number nothing.
 
Well, it seems you're willing to do everything to make this game run.
 
Instead of upgrading everything, try downgrading your windows to 98 or 95 - that'll work for sure since the game was designed for these systems - and it's a lot cheaper ;-). But at a cost offcause - now you can't run all the newer programs!!. This can however be solved with a dual boot.
 
Remember to have the latest drivers for your video card too, and NOT to upgrade the game (at least not with the latest patches)
 
And... DO NOT criticize Bullfrog!! That's blasphemy!! Besides, Bullfrog has been taken over by EA, so if you want any support contact them!
 
By the way, because DK2 is an older game now, it may turn out that your old hardware was more compatible with the game and it was Win XP causing problems all the time. My advise to you is to sue the bastards that gave you such bad advise. Besides, isnt it a little lousy to recieve an almost 6 year old game as a xmas gift? Hope they got it cheap ;-)