Mechcommander Gold open PAK files

Mechcommander data files are compressed using a customized PAK format. This tutorial is based off of CMunsta’s command line extraction tool. Some PAK files have been fully extracted in the MCGExtracted GitHub project. You can read more about the project in the Mechcommander Gold extracted post.

Download the PAK file extraction tool pakextract.exe
Download link 1 <– Cmunsta
Download link 2 <– GitHub mirror
Place your pakextract.exe file into the directory containing the .PAK file.
Open up cmd and navigate to the directory containing the .PAK and pakextract.exe
Extract the file at the index in the .PAK file you would like to. Data in .PAK files is ordered by indices which you’ll have to look up if you want to extract a specific file. For example if you’d like to extract the data for the Atlas mech, into a file called atlas.txt you would execute:
pakextract.exe OBJECT2.PAK 51 atlas.txt

Once again, if you need the fully extracted source for a specific PAK file, some PAK files have been fully extracted in the MCGExtracted GitHub project. There are also scripts you can run yourself located in the extraction_tools directory of the MCGExtracted project. For more information about extracting specific PAK files see the sections below.

OBJECT2.PAK
There are 1189 indices in the OBJECT2.PAK file. Mech data is located at the indices listed in this spreadsheet.

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Mechcommander Gold freeware download

Mechcommander Gold has been released as freeware. You can download it from the any one of the following links:
+ Download link 1 <– Gamestand
+ ~~Download link 2 <– Shacknews~~
+ Download link 3 <– AtomicGamer
+ ~~Download link 4 <– Mechcommander.org~~
+ Download link 5 <– MyAbandonware

In Mechcommander Gold you play as a commander of a small squad of mechwarriors. Set immediately after the liberation of Port Arthur, you embark on a campaign to liberate the desolate planet Cermak in the Periphery, taken by a renegade Smoke Jaguar, Star Colonel Marcus Kotare.

Your mechwarriors gain experience and increase in skill and your arsenal of weapons and mechs grows each mission as you defeat stronger and stronger foes and salvage their mechs and equipment. Mechcommander Gold contains both the expansion campaign and the original Mechcommander campaign as well as three new mechs for each side and several new vehicles.

Depending on what you’re going to be doing with the game there are few additional posts on this site you may want to check out:

Running Mechcommander on Windows 7 – Mechcommander Gold has a few issues running on newer operating systems. For steps to get the game running on 32 and 64 bit Windows 7 see this post.
Running Mechcommander on Linux – If you want to get the game running on a Linux distribution see this post.
Mechcommander Mission Extender – The vanilla mission editor that comes with the game lacks a few key features that included in the Mission Editor Extender. You can download and read about the mission extender in this post.
Mechcommander Gold High resolution – For the best visual experience for the game follow the instructions on how to get you game running in high resolution in this post.

You can read a review of the game on imbacore’s blog.

If you’ve followed the above steps and are still having issues with the Mechcommander Gold freeware download, please post in the comments below. To increase your chances of a solution being found include as much detail as possible (which version of the game you’re running, what operating system you have, what video card you have and steps to reproduce the issue). Screenshots are also very useful!

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Mechcommander Gold on Linux

Tested: mandriva 2008.1, ubuntu 10.10

There are three basic steps to running Mechcommander Gold on Linux:

Install the latest version of wine – Open your Ubuntu Software Center (Ubuntu), or Install & Remove Software window (KDE) search for wine, and install your desired package. For other linux distributions see: http://www.winehq.org/download/
Install the game – You have two options here. You can either copy the contents of your game installation on a windows machine or the contents of the MCG disk or you can install from an ISO. If you are installing from an ISO start by opening up a root terminal. After entering your password create a directory where you will be mounting the disc using:
mkdir name_of_your_dir
Then run:
mount -o loop your_disk.iso /name_of_your_dir
replacing , “name_of_your_dir”with the directory name you wish to use for your mount folder, and “your_disk.iso” for the name of your iso file. If this works you will see the disk contents in your mount folder. In this folder run:
wine AUTORUN.EXE
(make sure to set this file as executable by right clicking on it -> properties -> compatibility tab) and install as you would on a windows machine. For more info on mounting see http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/how-to-mount-iso-image-under-linux.html
Start the game – Navigate to your MCX directory and run MCX.EXE (make sure to set this file as executable by right clicking on it -> properties -> compatibility tab). If you get MechCommander Closing “MechCommander Expansion or Editor already Running”, you can try running the game from terminal by navigating to your MCX directory and entering the command:
wine MCX.exe

For more info see: http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=7039

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Mechcommander Gold on Windows 7

Tested: windows 7 32 bit, windows 7 64 bit, windows vista 32 bit, windows vista 64 bit

Mechcommander Gold can be run on Windows 7 but you’ll likely have to follow a few steps to ensure it works on your machine. The first issue is installation, as the game uses a 16bit installer which is unsupported on 64 bit operating systems.

Freeware installation – Before you start, know that Mechcommander Gold has been released as freeware, so you can freely download ISOs for the game from the web. You can find freeware download links in the Mechcommander Gold freeware download post.

Installation from disc/ISO – Note you’ll still have to have the disc inserted or have the ISO mounted to run the game, unless you find a no-cd executable for the game:

Windows 7/Vista 32 bit – If simply running setup from the disc/ISO doesn’t work right away, right click on your cd/iso and select explore. Then set the following files to run in Windows 95 compatibility mode and attempt the installation again:
_ISDL.exe CPUID.exe SETUP.exe
Windows 7/Vista 64 bit – 64 bit Windows does not support 16 bit installers such as the one for Mechcommander gold. There is a workaround though – create a directory named MCG (name is unimportant) and then manually copy the entire contents of your MCG disc/iso into this folder and start the game using MCX.EXE in your new directory.

Compatibility – To ensure that you don’t run into some common crashes and bugs associated with the game on Windows 7 you’ll want to follow these additional steps:

Create a shortcut to MCX.exe (if you don’t have one already).
Add the following compatibility tab settings to your MCX.exe shortcut:
- Run this program in compatibility mode Windows 95
- Run in 256 colors.
- Disable desktop composition (to get around the corrupted textures glitch)
- Run this program as an administrator
Run the game from the shortcut

If you’ve followed the above steps and are still having issues running Mechcommander Gold on Windows 7, please post in the comments below. To increase your chances of a solution being found include as much detail as possible (which version of the game you’re running, what operating system you have, what video card you have and steps to reproduce the issue). Screenshots are also very useful!

Sources: link 1

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Mechcommander Gold windowed mode

To play Mechcommander in windowed mode, once the game has loaded simply press:
alt+enter
To revert back to full screen press alt+enter again. This combination works for a wide variety of games especially those made by Microsoft.

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