Heroes of Might and Magic II
fheroes2 · originally by New World Computing
A from-scratch recreation of the Heroes of Might and Magic II engine with high-resolution graphics, better AI and hundreds of fixes, fed by your own copy or the free demo.
- Source
- ihhub/fheroes2
- Site
- ihhub.github.io
- License
- GPL-2.0
- Stars
- 3.5k
About
fheroes2 is a recreation of the Heroes of Might and Magic II game engine, written from scratch. It reproduces the original game with significant improvements in gameplay, graphics and logic: high-resolution graphics, improved AI, numerous fixes and user interface improvements. Releases are frequent and the project keeps a detailed list of every change.
No game content is included. All rights to the original game and its resources belong to Ubisoft, and the project advises buying it on GOG or the Ubisoft Store. A bundled script extracts the resources from your copy. If you do not own the game, another bundled script downloads the free English demo and extracts its resources instead.
- High-resolution graphics and widescreen
- Improved AI and countless gameplay fixes
- Bundled scripts extract resources from your copy or the free demo
- Windows installer and portable builds, macOS, Linux, Android, Vita and Switch
What you need
The port contains none of the game. These come from your own copy and stay on your machine.
Heroes of Might and Magic II (full game or free demo)
The full game from GOG or the Ubisoft Store, or the free English demo. fheroes2 needs the ANIM, DATA, MAPS and MUSIC folders from the original game (some may be missing depending on your version). The Windows installer offers to extract them during setup; the ZIP builds ship an extract_homm2_resources script that searches for your installation, and a download_demo_version script that fetches the demo for you.
Setup
- 1
On Windows run the installer and, when prompted, choose to extract resources from your installed copy of the game or to download the demo. Or extract the ZIP archive and run extract_homm2_resources.bat (or download_demo_version.bat) from it.
- 2
On macOS or Linux, extract the ZIP archive and run script/homm2/extract_homm2_resources.sh with your game folder, or script/demo/download_demo_version.sh; GOG's installer can be unpacked with innoextract first. The macOS build also needs the SDL libraries from script/macos (brew bundle).
- 3
Alternatively copy the ANIM, DATA, MAPS and MUSIC folders from the original game into the fheroes2 folder (or ~/.fheroes2 on macOS and Linux) by hand.
- 4
Run fheroes2.
Questions people ask
- Is the fheroes2 download safe?
- Yes, as far as provenance and integrity can be proven. The download on this page is fheroes2's own GitHub release (1.1.17), pinned to a SHA-256 in Recompiled's public lockfile, so you can confirm the file you received is byte for byte what the project published. fheroes2 is open source, so anyone can read what the program does. Hash the file on the Verify page before you run it.
- Is fheroes2 legal?
- Yes. fheroes2 is an open-source reimplementation of the game's engine, and the download contains none of Heroes of Might and Magic II: it reads the game from a copy you already own. What is not legal is obtaining a ROM or disc image you do not own, and Recompiled never hosts or links to one.
- Do I need the original game to play Heroes of Might and Magic II with fheroes2?
- Yes. fheroes2 contains none of Heroes of Might and Magic II, so you need a copy you already own: Heroes of Might and Magic II (full game or free demo). The What you need section says exactly what to supply. Nothing you supply leaves your machine.