So, which Heroes 2 is the best version for newer systems?

[Yasagani]

So, after buying and trying out the GOG version of Heroes 2 Gold (on both XP 32 and 7 64) I became frustrated with the sluggish gameplay, the low quality music and some artifacts (obelisks showing a bugged map full of junk gfx, Town Portal, portals and Dimension Door having a very annoying static sound), I decided to try some other versions.

I found a "Complete" edition of Heroes 2and went about installing that. Immediately I ran into the no-cd-audio problem so I switched my drive letters around, and the CD music worked. Problem is, this version had some Heroes 3 tracks plus the 3rd Sorceress music track and some tracks were missing completely or would not play at all. Sluggish gameplay also persisted.

In this forum's experience, which Heroes 2 Gold edition should I be looking for that would provide me with clean and contiguous gameplay without stutters and slowdowns, and all music tracks working normally?

[berntie]

I found a "Complete" edition of Heroes 2and went about installing that. Immediately I ran into the no-cd-audio problem so I switched my drive letters around, and the CD music worked. Problem is, this version had some Heroes 3 tracks plus the 3rd Sorceress music track and some tracks were missing completely or would not play at all. Sluggish gameplay also persisted.

It sounds like you tried a bootleg. I never had any problems with Heroes II under Win2k (WinXP shouldn't be much different), except for some sound choppiness which I fixes with using the compatibility toolkit as described in the FAQ. And I've tried the original Heroes II + Pol as well as HII Gold from the platinum edition and the heroes compendium.

[GreatEmerald]

I believe that you're looking for this topic:
viewtopic.php?t=11323

And, as it was said, it can't be a bootleg version or else they had the source files for HoMM3 music, which is absolutely impossible to get unless you're working with the composer.

[Yasagani]

Speaking of which, is it safe to assume that all compilations of H2 + PoL, contain the same quality CD music (apart from the one with the h3 tracks)?

I'm interested in doing a real high quality rip of the soundtrack and would love to know which version I can make use of in lieu of a master CD.

And would it be safe to assume that H3 tracks used in some newer H2 releases are of super high CD quality as well? As I understand it, no H3 release contains CD quality music. I'd also ask the same for H4.

edit: after going through the compatibility kit steps posted in the FAQ on the "complete" edition (the one with the h3 music) I still got unwanted results, and there was no sound chopping prior to the process. Might have been that I used version 5.3 instead 3.0 of the toolkit, but its as if it didn't have any effect. What I experienced was:

1. Music will continue several seconds when it is supposed to switch (like from a plains theme to a battle theme).
2. Several music tracks are still missing as well as several sound effects (mostly overworld sound like visiting a windmill).
3. Gameplay, while somewhat improved, is still sluggish and choppy, like the game gets stunned everyone 5 seconds for 0.2 seconds

I'll try another version. Still hoping for some other fixes though, as I suspect these issues are OS related and not version related.


edit 2: I tried the Compendium version of Heroes 2 and apart from it having the correct tracks for everything it still has all of the above issues.

A note on issue 2: I don't think it's missing tracks or sound effects, what really happens is that due to the sluggishness in movement and interaction as well as the game having to play CD music all this time, it simply skips some sounds.