Looks like the Yamagi 5.23 binary files package doesn't come with openal32.dll. So if you don't have OpenAL installed system-wide, it won't work.

You can get the DLL from here: http://kcat.strangesoft.net/openal.html and more specifically what you want is the zipfile of "Win32 and Win64 binaries". Get the soft_aol.dll file out of the Win32 folder in there, rename it to openal32.dll, and plop that into the Quake 2 folder. 

Okay, it didn't work. I installed OpenAL in my system, and also put the required DLL in the Quake 2 directory, but the application still fails to start. 

Fellow Q2 player here also. I have a Win7 x64 system (Lenovo laptop) but honestly, I've always been put off by the seemingly complicated steps needed to get Yamagi Quake 2 running. Q2PRO just works, although it is geared more towards online play than SP. That being said, I'm curious now to see if I can get Yamagi running so I'll definitely have a look. Unfortunately no time today, but tomorrow is free so I'll see what happens and let you know. 

I went through it another time, writing down the steps I'm taking. This time instead of starting with a "normal" Q2 install and deleting files and whatnot, I started with a blank slate, just to remove confusion.

- Make sure that my Documents\YamagiQ2 folder is empty.
- Download the "Prebuild Windows binaries" for Yamagi Q2 (quake2-5.23.zip).
- Extract the "quake2" folder from in there to my desktop.
- Put openal32.dll (DLed and renamed as per above) into that quake2 folder.
- Copy the following files/folders from my usual Quake 2 baseq2 folder into the new quake2/baseq2 folder: video, pak0.pak, pak1.pak
- I'm ignoring ctf, rogue, and xatrix for now (they need pak files too).
- Run quake2.exe.

That works OK for me.

If you still can't get it to launch, one possible source of info:

First, launch quake2.exe using the command line arguments: +set logfile 2

Then look in your Documents\YamagiQ2 folder. There should be stderr.txt and stdout.txt files there. Also maybe baseq2\qconsole.log.

For example if I try to launch it without openal32.dll, then the stderr.txt and stdout.txt files are empty, but there's a baseq2\qconsole.log file that ends right after printing the "Current OpenAL device". 

(The qconsole.log file I'm talking about above is the one in Documents\YamagiQ2\baseq2; it's not in quake2\baseq2 on my desktop.) 

Okay, I did exactly that, but the game doesn't launch.

The logfile prints the following, tho:

Couldn't init SDL video: windib not available.
Input shut down. 

Okay, went to the environment variables of the system and deleted the sdl_videodriver variable, which for some reason was set to "windib".

It runs perfectly now! 

Huzzah! I was about to ask about that... I don't think SDL2 uses the "windib" name for a video driver anymore. :-) Just "windows" these days. 

And this is exactly why I prefer to use Q2PRO. Download from their site, copy over pak files and play. No mess and no fuss. It just works. But great you got it working hfc2x. 

The only thing Q2pro is missing is cinematics :\

Can i watch them with a program outside of the game ? :D 

and music in OGG file support or w/e to have music to work :(

all the ports i tried where a no go, q2pro is smooth and has a good interface. would just need cinematic support and music support in any way be it pk3 files music or ogg files ! 

I just use this version of the engine. Adds some basic features but runs nicely in any windows.
http://www.markshan.com/knightmare/ 

http://leray.proboards.com/thread/3258/quake2-24-unofficial-patch-released

It hath both the OGG and the movie-support! :3 

Is there something like Chocolate Doom for Quake 2 these days? 

The point of chocolate doom is to make something that looks similar to the original game on release.
Quake 2 is a 3d accelerated game and generally the source ports available are pretty accurate. 

http://www.jacqueskrige.com/resources/downloads/games 

The point of Chocolate Doom is to make something that works just like the original Doom.exe except running on modern systems. Not only looks, but also behavior, quirks, bugs, etc. 

Yeah I hear the flaws are still there too. I think Q2 has improved over time in many ways. I'm still not sold on the tenebrae/darkplaces style of improvements but stuff like particle effects and blood decals are fine IMO. 

There's ot really a Chocolate Doom equivalent out there I think... the original Quake 2 is still pretty solid?

The same guy who works on KMQuake II does also provide an "unofficial 3.24 patch" that does some bugfixes and QoL stuff. You can get it from the downloads section at http://www.markshan.com/knightmare/ . I think that's the usual go-to recommendation for people who just want "Quake 2 but with <this thing> fixed".

There's also Yamagi Quake 2 which is another project mostly about fixes/compatibility/QoL: https://www.yamagi.org/quake2/

KMQuake II is of course about tweaking Quake 2 in other ways.

For multiplayer I think it's generally Q2PRO that is used? Cf. http://q2s.tastyspleen.net/ 

Hah and I guess the OP already knew that stuff... been a while since I read the OP.

FWIW, Yamagi Q2 worked fine for me on Win 7 and Win 10. IIRC, I had to go get openal32.dll separately though (see https://github.com/yquake2/yquake2/issues/47 ). 

(and NOW just realizing this is a necro'ed thread that I already responded to wayyyyy back then... going to take away my func posting privileges for a while) 

I wonder if people are still having issues with Yamagi. I had some similar problems as the OP getting it to run on a very basic pc at work but that's because it didn't have opengl properly installed. Once that was reinstalled it worked perfectly.

I use Yamagi for MP and SP on my gaming PC (win 7, 64 bit). The only downside to MP is it doesn't have httpd downloading. Other than that it is the perfect port for me. I haven't followed their lengthy install instructions since about 4 releases back; I simply unzip and move the 2 .PAK files to baseq2 folder. Works every time without issues =) 

http://quetoo.org 

jackass