Here is my guide for getting a very nearly usable installation of War2 Combat Edition running on a new Mac Mini / M1 Silicon / 8 GB.
There's a bunch of steps here so pay attention. And if you have achieved success a simpler way, I'd like to keep this up to date.
MAKE WAR2 PORTABLE
1. Using a Windows computer, install War2 Combat, including CPU saver extension for game and chat room
2. Using a USB stick, move the C:/war2combat files to the Mac. Lol, you'll need an adapter
3. Name the folder as war2 on your Desktop
4. In terminal use this command to make an ISO CD ROM image: cd ~/Desktop; hdiutil makehybrid -o war2 war2 -iso -joliet
SET UP WINDOWS
5. Install UTM (update if you have a version earlier than 2.0.25, we just fixed specific war2 issues there)
6. In UTM go to Browse UTM Gallery, and see the instructions for installing Windows XP on an ARM Mac
7. Go get MicroXP v0.82 from archive.org and substitute this into the instructions for UTM in the last step
8. Run the machine, you are now running Windows XP, access Browsar and load yahoo.com or some other website that allows ancient browsers, to confirm internet works
REUNITE THE CLANS
9. In UTM on the top-right toolbar "insert the CD" you created above
10. Copy the War2Combat folder to desktop
11. Run the launcher
12. Click the full screen button (next to green button) on toolbar
13. Mouse to top of screen and click the "capture mouse" button (cursor with star)
AVOID ROOKIE MISTAKES
14. For the love of god do not even think of using a bluetooth mouse or a trackpad (a "2.4 GHz mouse is NOT bluetooth")
15. You are probably muscle memory configured to play War2 using a Windows keyboard, so go get one
16. You will need to play with the settings of the mouse speed in macOS versus the mouse speed inside Windows
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Result, I can get into a War2Ru game. And I can play decently in the single player campaign. There is a very slight adjustment with the mouse. I don't know if the acceleration curves are different or something but the result is I'm pussyfooting when I'm trying to select a unit. Not sure if anybody else will notice this.
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Anyway I hope this helps you. And for me it means I can almost get rid of my dedicated War2/HOMM3 Windows box in the man cave.
