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Support for Gangsters 2

Please read this Support information carefully before contacting us for further help

FAQs

Troubleshooting

Downloads

FAQs

Q: When I start the game, I receive an message to insert the Gangsters 2 disk. Though it is already in the drive.

Q: Why doesn't the AutoPlay feature come up when I insert the Gangsters 2 CD into the CD-ROM drive?

Q: When I start the game, I receive an message to insert the Gangsters 2 disk. Though it is already in the drive.

A: Some CD-ROM drives will have difficulty reading the disk. There is a patch available which should solve the problem.

Q: Why doesn't the AutoPlay feature come up when I insert the Gangsters 2 CD into the CD-ROM drive?

A: This is usually a configuration issue. There are many different ways to enable the AutoPlay functions of Windows. The standard method is described below:

Enter the Control Panel from the desktop by clicking on the Start button, followed by Settings, and then Control Panel.

Double-click the icon labelled System, usually located alphabetically towards the bottom of the Control Panel window, to bring up the System Properties panel.

Click on the tab at the top labelled Device Manager and when the new panel appears, locate the section labelled CD-ROM and click the Plus (+) sign in front of it. (If there is a minus sign in front, don't click it.)

Now double-click the CD-ROM drive revealed and the CD-ROM Properties panel will appear.
Click on the Settings tab at the top.

Towards the middle of the panel, you should see a few check boxes within the Options section. At the bottom of that section, you should see a check box labelled Auto insert notification. Make sure there is a check mark in the box provided and click on the OK button to complete the process.

Troubleshooting

Gameplay Issues

The following are gameplay notes that are not in the manual.

The Business Specialist
All business specialists are paid $100 per hour. Distillers and brewers with higher skill ratings increase the income of stills and breweries at the site itself by selling liquor and beer direct to the public (a five star specialist will be able to offset the running costs of the site completely).

Multiplayer Gameplay
Once you have started a Multiplayer game, you will want to open the "Recruiting and Equipping" menu by clicking on the button (with a picture of a pistol) in the lower-left part of the screen. Once you have clicked on the "Recruiting and Equipping" button, you will see three sub-menus - Hire Gangster, Gangster Details, and Resources.

Hiring Gangsters
To hire a Gangster, use the sub-menu on the far-left with the heading "Hire Gangster". You can select from an Assassin, Bomber, Getaway Driver, or Gangster.
You have the option of hiring each type of Gangster with little experience (1 star), medium experience (3 star), or a full-fledged thug (5 star). The more experience, the more money it will cost you. Don't worry about the numbers, you will never run out of Gangsters to hire, just cash to pay them with.
Once you have made your choice, you will see details about the new hire in the Gangster Details sub-menu. If you ever need to get rid of a Gangster, use the "Sack" button in this menu.

Equipping your Gangsters
To equip your Gangsters with Muscle, Guns, and Vehicles, select the appropriate Gangster by left-clicking in the Gangster's window at the top of the screen. In the Resources sub-menu to the far-right, you will see three tabs - Hire Muscle, Buy Weapons, and Buy Vehicles.
To hire Muscle, click the Hire Muscle tab, then click on the button with a picture of a gun in hand. Each Muscle will cost you $100. To the right of this button you will see a gold button with "x 4" on it. Clicking on this button will buy you 4 Muscle all at once.
To buy Weapons, click the Buy Weapons tab and pick your poison. All Gangsters come equipped with a pistol, but you'll want to buy them some better fire-power like a Tommy Gun for $700. You'll have an endless supply of weapons, but not money to buy them with so choose wisely. The Gold "x 5" buttons will buy you 5 of that weapon all at once.
To buy a Vehicle, click on the Buy Vehicles tab, then select from (top to bottom in the menu) a Sedan, Truck, Roadster, or Bullet-proof Car. Don't forget that when Getaway Drivers are behind the wheel, you'll get your Gangsters there quicker.
One last thing - If you are in a pinch and running low on cash, you can always sell back any of the items you bought for each Gangster by using the silver buttons in the Gangster Details sub-menu. These buttons appear next to each item associated with the selected Gangster.

Known Video Issues:
Video memory reporting - System checker
The Gangsters 2 system checker may misreport your graphic cards available memory status where DirectX considers Video Ram & Texture Ram separately, however this will not stop the user installing and playing the game normally as long as the card is within the minimum specification required and the hardware drivers are compatible with the version of DirectX (R) installed on the system.

Sound Issues:
The speech is choppy during the tutorials.
This problem has been seen on the Creative Audio PCI sound card. The solution is to reduce the sound hardware accelertation to none. To do this run Dxdiag.exe and click on the sound tab. (You can run Dxdiag from the Start Menu>Run). This will solve the problem and is recommended for any sound card that the game exhibits this type of problem.

Multiplayer Issues:

The following are the known issues relating to multiplayer Gangsters(tm) 2

Setting up Gangsters 2 for a firewall
The readme file has detailed information about configuring your firewall for use with Gangsters(tm) 2. Please refer to this information by clicking our Start>Eidos Interactive>Hothouse Creations> ReadMe file. Please note: Our support department cannot assist you with configuration of firewalls or networks.

Gangsters 2 and ZoneAlarm:
With the advent of broadband internet and personal protection from `hackers` software such as ZoneAlarm is becoming very popular. If user is running ZoneAlarm (or any other firewall software) when first launching Gangsters(tm) 2 they may experience the game `appearing` to stop on the loading screen for a very long time with no disk access, this is caused by ZoneAlarm requesting that Gangsters(tm) 2 be `authorized` with it in the background. Simply pressing the acknowledge key (Y in the case of ZoneAlarm) will continue the game. Users will be asked for authorization every time they launch the game, unless they go into the configuration for ZoneAlarm and set Gangsters(tm) 2 permissions to be permanent.
If the user wishes to play internet games and uses ZoneAlarm, they must set permissions within ZoneAlarm for Gangsters(tm) 2 to `Allow Connect/Server`(see ZoneAlarm help for details on how to do this).
User may also be requested to `authorize` Microsoft DirectPlay Server via ZoneAlarm. This is also to enable internet play for Gangsters(tm) 2. If you have a firewall application provided by another vendor, please consult the documentation for that product for information about configuration settings.

Gangsters 2 and GameSpy
GameSpy doesn't set the IP flag in dial up networking, so if auto-disconnect is not switched off then the phone line will drop after 10 minutes.

Driver Problems

The vast majority of problems that you are likely to encounter are probably related to drivers that allow the game to make optimum use of your systems resources. In particular, video games are most influenced by Microsoft's DirectX drivers, which are responsible for various aspects of your system including: video, sound, controller input, 3D graphic functions, CD ROM access and other functions. If you do experience problems, always ensure that you are using the latest drivers for these devices, and that your DirectX installation shows these devices as being certified (with DXDIAG).

CD ROM Problems

Make sure that the CD ROM disk is in the correct drive, with the label facing upwards. The CD ROM disk must be in the drive to install or run the game. If you have two CD-ROM drives, the CD must be placed in the drive whose drive letter comes alphabetically first for the game to work. Ensure that the CD ROM disk is free from any markings or scratches which may interfere with normal operation. If the disk requires cleaning, gently wipe the surface with a dry, non-abrasive cloth.

Sound Problems

Make sure that your speakers or headphones are plugged into the correct socket, and that the volume control is at an appropriate level. If you are using powered speakers, ensure that the power is on. If you continue to experience problems, ensure that the Volume Control taskbar icon (depicted by a small yellow speaker) is present. Double-clicking this icon will open the Volume Control window. Make sure that the Wave and Master Volume controls are set at an appropriate level and that the Mute feature is not enabled.

Support Downloads

Game Update (4.03Mb)

This patch fixes the following:

Problems loading saved games:
Games saved on a computer with a system time before May 2000 will now load.

Games saved when an advisor message with options was on screen now do not crash when they are loaded and one of the options is selected.

Switch to disable sound added:
To disable sound use /nosound on the command line,

e.g.

Gansgters2.exe /nosound

To use this option with a shortcut, right-click it and select Properties.

In the Target box, after Gangsters2.exe add /nosound to the end, e.g.

"C:\Program Files\Eidos Interactive\Hothouse Creations\Gangsters 2\Gangsters2.exe" /nosound

Support for new multiplayer maps added:
New .map files produced by the multiplayer map editor can be used by copying them into the "Gangsters 2/Levels/Multiplayer/" directory.

Contact Technical Support

If you can’t find the answer to your problem in the information above, please get in touch with our Technical Support team – they’ll do everything they can to help

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