Ok all you Mac users! I've decided to make a FAQ just for this forum! The next two posts will list the post number that the question is on.


Macintosh Civ3 Support (http://www.macsoftgames.com/products/civ3goty/support/MacSoft-Civ3-Support.html)

-- Macintosh Civ3 FAQ Index --

-- Macintosh Tech Support FAQ --

Post #7 - How to fix corrupted saves
Post #9 - How to upload SAV.zip, jpg, etc.
Post#12 - Inverted colors

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!
:worshp:

Um, just a little thing, but it will probably bother people - there is only one h in Macintosh.

Oh, almost forgot to register a "thank you" as well.

Chieftess - Ditto on the thank you's!!!

Offered by DiamondzAndGunz ---

1. First, launch ResEdit (no-brainer)
2. Go to the file menu, and go down to 'Get File/Folder info...'
3. Locate and open the save file.
4. In the 'Type' field, enter 'GAMs' (case sensitive!) (without quotes, of course.)
5. In the 'Creater' field, enter 'Civ3' (same as above, case sensitive, no quotes)
6. Go to the file menu, and go down to Save
7. Go to the file menu, and go down to Quit.

Offered by tao ---

for MacOS 9.x:
use the "More File Info CMM Plug-in" by Hide Itoh to set type and creator in one easy step

for MacOS X:
ctrl-click on the fiile and set "open with..." to Civilization III

This worked for me all the times.

PS: If you are interested in the how and why, read "Type and Creator Codes" in Chapter 4 of David Pogue's "MacOS X - The Missing Manual".

Offered by Nixnutz ---

After I decompressed GOTM8, I double-clicked on it. My browser opened and it was blank.

I dragged the decompressed file into my Civ3 SAVES folder, (it decompressed as a SimpleText file) started Civ3 and opened the file with the LOAD GAME button. It started up with no problem.

One of the first things I was taught, whether its Mac or darkside, was that if the double-click doesn't work, open the file from within the application. Many programs are able to repair some of the problems through the format change process.

Originally posted by Beamup
Um, just a little thing, but it will probably bother people - there is only one h in Macintosh.

"Machintosh"? The "Mach" part, right? Maybe she's posting with a really fast Mac. Or maybe it's an homage to the Mach kernal...

Any file larger than 102 kb must be uploaded to the uploads3 page, using the Upload feature found at the bottom of most pages (right-hand side).


1st - click 'Upload'

2nd - browse and attach file, then upload

3rd - Using the [http://] feature available on the post-reply page, type in first the word or phrase you wish to identify the uploaded file. Example = Saved game. Then, you'll be given a window to type in the web address for the uploads3 page (http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads3/). Be sure to type in the name of your saved file following uploads3/. Note = if there are spaces in the name, _ are automatically inserted.

4th - post reply.

So where do we ask about things that we think the answers to should be here somewhere? For example, one of the questions I think should be answered here is what things on this mostly PC site will work for us. I asked a while back about whether graphic modpacks, scenarios, custom units, etc. would work for me and did not receive an answer that I understood, nor have I found (of course maybe I haven't looked hard enough yet) any instructions or pointers for how to use them and/or how to tell what will work with the Mac version and what won't. Thanks. Heike

Graphics packs will work. In fact, most of us seem to be running Snoopy's terrain. Rules/scenarios will work if they were created with 1.21 or earlier - 1.29 was released on July 18, 2002, so anything dated prior to that should work. Custom units, AFAIK, cannot be used by us since they require the editor to add them into the game - possibly the Windows editor under VPC may be able to do this, or when ours gets released it may have the capability.

During a pre-work round of C3, my monitor colors inverted! It's like looking at an color x-ray. That was cool for about 3 seconds, but now I need my regular colors back. Any ideas?

Originally posted by Thulsa Doom
During a pre-work round of C3, my monitor colors inverted! It's like looking at an color x-ray. That was cool for about 3 seconds, but now I need my regular colors back. Any ideas?

Just a couple of questions. Is it like that all the time, or only in Civ? Have you tried restarting (mebbe a stupid question, but, ya kno...)? Maybe you could try fiddling around with the colors/resolutions, maybe the monitor will reset or something. Just some ideas.

I run VPC 5/Win 98 on my TiBook, but am not really familiar with working with scenarios, modpacks, etc. If someone would like me to give the Win editor a shot I'd be happy to. Just to see if Mac files modded that way will work.

I could use some guidance. Do I need to go pick up a Windows version of Civ? Or will the editor stand alone under VPC? Has anyone out there done this?

Ok, let's see here.

1. Yes, files modded with the editor in VPC will work (been there, done that). You can download the 1.21 pc editor... somewhere around here.

2. Nope, you don't need the Windows version. You just need to direct it over to your civ 3 folder, and it'll sort out all the art n all. It'll tell you when you start up the program that it can't find Civ 3.exe or something of that sort, but just click ignore. Doesn't really effect anything...

3. Yes, I do it all the time, the only thing is it is EXTREMELY slow. Useless for editing maps, rules are fine to edit, though.

Note: The following is copied from a post I printed up about a year ago. If you authored it, please PM me, and I'll edit in credit.

*****

<Command-Shift-3> places a full screenshot in a TIFF file called 'Picture 1' (or some other number) on your statup disk under classic OS and on your desktop under OS X.

Press <Command-Shift-4> to drag a specific area to capture.

To attach a file in a post, it must be no larger than 102 kb. If your pic is larger than 102 kb, then it must be uploaded using the 'Upload File" option found at the bottom of the page, right-hand side.

Well, I guess this is as good a place as any to post this.....

How about a complete listing of key shortcuts? I don't mean the basic key commands like I for Irrigate- I mean the stuff that isn't in the manual like Ctrl-Shift-click in the Foreign Advisor screen to add a civ that isn't pictured.

That's got to be around here someplace!

What other shortcuts are you referring to, besides Ctrl-Shift-click etc? Things mentioned in this guide, perhaps?
http://www.civfanatics.com/doc/civ3/civ3keys.txt

Oh, you mean the ones right in front of my face? Duh.

Thanx, D&G

Discussion here.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=42126

Ok, I've been playing Mac Civ 3, and while it's been a somewhat bumpy road as far as problems are concerned, I've been able to work around and/or through them. Not any more.

I'm currently playing a game as the Russians on Regent. Whenever I open up the game and select the current save (1390AD), as soon as it loads - pow! the game "unexpectedly quits," due to a type I error. Every time!

WTF is up with this? Re-starting had no effect. I've de-fragged, rebuilt my directory, and made sure nothing else but Finder is running, still to no avail. To be honest, it's done this sort of thing before, but never to this degree. I obviously need some help.

I'm running a Power PC G4 with a 256kb processor, 2gb of memory, on OS 9.2.2. Any help or suggestions will be GREATLY appreciated.

I'm sure you've heard this before, but have you tried just reinstalling CivIII itself?

I"m curious what the "bumpy road" is- I never had any problems other than game speed under 9.2.2 or Jaguar..... what kind of problems were you having?

You could also try uploading the save file, and see if anyone else has the same problem with it. Might not be your game, just the save. Or, it could be your game... Try reinstalling, as mentioned.

Originally posted by Raijer
Ok, I've been playing Mac Civ 3, and while it's been a somewhat bumpy road as far as problems are concerned, I've been able to work around and/or through them. Not any more.


Raijer, I recommend doing as DnG suggests. Upload the save file and give us a look at it. I'll PM my email address to you also, just attach it to me.

Make sure you're up to date on the patch, that usually fixes most crash problems..

It should be around here somewhere...

Thanks to everyone for your timely response. This is to give you an update, and a bit more info:

I did indeed have the latest patch (1.21 I presume), and have performed the recommended re-install (w/patch of course).

Unfortunately, a turn or two in, the game still crashes on that 1390 save. I even tried the next earlier auto save, and still: crashville! Grrrrr!:mad:

I sent the game to Dojoboy, and eagerly await his prognosis.

Again, thanks to dcaint, DiamondzAndGunz, senecasax, and dojoboy for your expertise!

Raijer, it opened okay for me. I guess you'll have to do the reinstall. Keep us posted.

Thanks again dojoboy... just out of curiosity, did you play a few turns into the game. The reason I ask: sometimes it wouldn't crash until one or two turns into the game.

Nevertheless... yeah did the re-install, and still having the same problem.

hmm.. if you were on OS X, i would suggest examining the crash log. If you happen to have 10, its under ~/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Civilization III.crash.log

This'll give you the crash info, again, if you have OS X.

Thank you! I am new to CIV and new to the forum, and already I have found wonderful help! Thanks so much!

Quick question: do i need to download the 1.17g patch before i download the 1.21g patch? I wanna get 1.21 before I download the editor, otherwise i might spend time fixing stuff the way i want to that might be fixed by the patch.

Nope. 1.21 includes all previous fixes.

Nice!! Thanks, D&G :)

Originally posted by Raijer
the game "unexpectedly quits," due to a type I error. Every time!

*snip*

I'm running a Power PC G4 with a 256kb processor, 2gb of memory, on OS 9.2.2. Any help or suggestions will be GREATLY appreciated.

Uh, Type 1 errors are memory errors, you need to allocate more memory to the program. its been a while since I've used 9, but just click on the Civ3 icon, hit apple-i and in the memory preferences, up the prefered and minimium memories to 400 or so? If you've got 2 gigs of it and won't be doing video editing in the background while you play the game, you should be okay.

I'm running a Power PC G4 with a 256kb processor, 2gb of memory, on OS 9.2.2. Any help or suggestions will be GREATLY appreciated.
You've got to be mistaken.
2 GB of memory? What do you do for a living?
That would have to cost as much as the computer to buy (Four 512 MB RAM chips... sheesh)!

...Unless you're confusing it with hard DISK SPACE, which is ENTIRELY DIFFERENT.

...and what the hell is a 256kb processor??? Are you talking about L2 cache or what? :confused:
(Or do you really have 256 MB RAM...
yeah, I bet you do.)

Pay a visit to your "Apple System Profiler" - located in the Apple menu by default. Do it.


Make sure you have all the extensions on you need, and no more. Graphics (ATi extensions, etc.), sound (Sound Manager, etc.), CarbonLib... and download the latest patch.

Originally posted by ancestral

You've got to be mistaken.
2 GB of memory? What do you do for a living?
That would have to cost as much as the computer to buy (Four 512 MB RAM chips... sheesh)!


No need to flame...
:rocket:

Some people aren't the best with computer jargon, give the person a break.

Preface: I do have an original Civ III license and CD. I just don't want to have my drive spinning all the time.

It is very easy to run Civ III without having the cd in the drive. [list=1] create a disc image (any size will do) using Apple's "Disk Copy" and name it "Civilization III.img" (MacOS 9) resp. "Civilization III.dmg" (MacOS X)
mount the image by double-clicking it, either before starting Civ III, or when you are asked to mount the cd
[/list=1] Since the Civ III application only checks for the presence of a volume named "Civilization III", you do not need any (meaningful) data on the disk image. At least for versions 1.21g and 1.29b2 this is sufficient.

Edit: include "Disk Copy" reference, explanation.
Edit 2: make it even more clear, I hope.
Edit 3: include 1.29b2

Originally posted by tao

It is very easy to run Civ III without having the cd in the drive. [list=1] create a disc image (any size will do) and name it "Civilization III"
mount the image, either before starting Civ III, or when you are asked to mount the cd
[/list=1] This works in both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X.

How do you create a disk image? I have both duplicated the CD and created an alias. I am still asked to insert the CD or quit.

Interesting note, up to this last update, 1.21g, I was able to run Civ III without the CD or any disk image. Having to carry the CD around in my labtop sucks!

Originally posted by msosa01
How do you create a disk image? see my edited post

[QUOTE]Originally posted by tao
see my edited post [/QUOTE

Ok, when you refer to "any size" do you mean that I don't actually need to have the entire CD copied disk image? Will an empty disk image work?

Also, how do you "mount" the disk image? I have created disk images and I still cannot play without the CD, as I am asked to install it.

I have expanded my post again (I want to make it as complete as possible). If you have any more questions, please ask.

Thanks Tao, I finally figured it out. I had never used the Disk Copy application before. I dragged a folder with a copy of the game to it, called it Civlization III.dmg, and placed it on the desktop. Double clicking on this "mounted" the file so that it turned into the familiar external floppy drive graphic. That did the trick.

What I had been doing was copying the Civ III CD, which creates disk image on my desktop. Even double-clicking on this image would not fool the program.

Okay - I'm supposed to be looking for a graphics 'kluge'
hmmmm.
(pinches bridge of nose tightly.... smoke escapes gently from ears)

1) If I can find this kluge and set up GOTM18 downloads correctly on my Desktop G3, OS 9.0(which isn't connected to the modern inter-ma-web > I'll transfer everything via zip from wifes iMac;) am I going to have to leave comp. on full time until game is finished?

2) Anyone set up already to play the GOTM? and what problems have you had to sort?

thanks for all the info I've gleaned so far from your threads. Its good to find a site with so much +attitude towards Mac Civvers.

During a pre-work round of C3, my monitor colors inverted! It's like looking at an color x-ray. That was cool for about 3 seconds, but now I need my regular colors back. Any ideas?
To invert the colors (or deinvert them) on your screen, try this keystroke:
Command+Option+Control+8 (the "8" must NOT be in the keypad).
It's a rather cool effect, and a great scare tactic too.

There should [also] be a place to do [the same thing] in the System Preferences, under Universal Access, for 10.2 [anyway].

Proud

Originally posted by ancestral
To invert the colors (or deinvert them) on your screen, try this keystroke:
Command+Option+Control+8 (the "8" must NOT be in the keypad).
It's a rather cool effect, and a great scare tactic too.

Proud

Woah. That is cool. Really, really cool. And I mean really cool. :eek: :D

I think this goes in this thread...

Fellow Beige G3 owners, check out the Sonnet Technology website...they just (April 15) announced a 1gig Zif upgrade card.
No date for the release, but it looks like they might be taking orders.

Maybe this is a feature of the 1.29b patch, but I just recently noticed that I had been playing for a while w/out the CD in the drive. Kind of suprised me..

Also, that's a great key command! I never knew macs had that feature.

Tao, does 1.29 prevent play without a disk? I thought I followed your instructions, but get an "unexpectedly quit" message whenever I try to play.

Here are the steps I followed:

1. Copied the original app icon with the copy-and-paste function in the Finder.
2. Put it in a folder.
3. Put the folder in the DiskCopy app.
4. Clicked on the .dmg, producing an Civ3 icon.
5. Ejected the disk.
6. Clicked on the new Civ3 desktop icon.
7. ...and got the "quit" message."

Thanks.

Originally posted by Txurce
[B]Tao, does 1.29 prevent play without a disk?Txurce: For me, 1.29 works just like 1.21 (without CD). Note that the icon doesn't matter. The image has to be named "Civilization III.dmg". It may be empty; the one I use is.

Thanks a lot, tao. Instead of generating an image some other way, I created an empty image with the DiskCopy app's menu bar, then dragged that onto the DiskCopy box. The resulting .dmg works perfectly.

Out of curiousity, what's the ratio of the cost of a unit and the number of shields that are recycled when the unit is disbanded in a city. I thought it was 1/5 of the original cost, but that doesn't seem to be the case with all the units.

Originally posted by elpadrino87
I thought it was 1/5 of the original cost, but that doesn't seem to be the case with all the units. It is 1/4 gold pieces of the shields.

thanx tao.

Is there any trick to make a .sav-file from Mac 1.21g playable on a PC 1.29f? :confused:

When will Infogrames come out with an editor for the mac version?

Originally posted by priceawolowitz
When will Infogrames come out with an editor for the mac version?

Never. MacSoft published the Mac version, and the Mac editor has been released. It is for version 1.21g and can be found right here in this forum. If you're running the 1.29f beta patch by Brad Oliver, don't bother using the 1.21g editor. It won't work.

Take care. :)

Since the question keeps popping up in other threads:

There is no known way to run Civ III in a window instead of full screen.

JMapStat version 2.1 works with 1.29 .sav files including gotm files (needs OS X and Java 1.4.1)
CivReplay Viewer works under Virtual PC

I have been away most of this month and hence decided to use my new PowerBook G4 12" running OS X 10.2.6 with 640 MB RAM. I patched the Civ3 to 1.29b and the test games of gotm 18 and 21 passed. But the save gave of GOTM22 caused the gave to quit. The saved game would load, for an instant you would see the settler, then it would quit.

Is there anything obvious I am missing? Your help would be most appreciated.

thanks a lot in advance

Originally posted by Balton
I have been away most of this month and hence decided to use my new PowerBook G4 12" running OS X 10.2.6 with 640 MB RAM. I patched the Civ3 to 1.29b and the test games of gotm 18 and 21 passed. But the save gave of GOTM22 caused the gave to quit. The saved game would load, for an instant you would see the settler, then it would quit.

Is there anything obvious I am missing? Your help would be most appreciated.

thanks a lot in advance

The most likely problem would be that you are missing a file from the GOTM22 game pack.

First, when will a Civ3 MacFAQ page get put up?

With that out of the way, a couple of questions for the MacFAQ.

1. Can you provide a list of Civ3 downloads (any type) on your downloads page that are Mac compatible?

2. What changes are necessary to make a download usable on the Mac?

I'm new, and I'm on dial-up (but after the latest example of my ISP's idea of customer support I'm seriously considering cable.)

Alan

Originally posted by mythusmage
First, when will a Civ3 MacFAQ page get put up?

You're looking at it. :)

Originally posted by mythusmage
1. Can you provide a list of Civ3 downloads (any type) on your downloads page that are Mac compatible?

I believe all graphics and maps that are compatible w/ the PC version of Civ3 (v1.29) should work fine.

Originally posted by mythusmage
2. What changes are necessary to make a download usable on the Mac?

Depends. What are you downloading?

Originally posted by mythusmage
I'm new, and I'm on dial-up (but after the latest example of my ISP's idea of customer support I'm seriously considering cable.)


Welcome! :goodjob:

Cable = [dance]

Update on Tao's previous list of available Mac-compatible utilities:

My signature contains a set of links to some utilities that work on Macs - mostly OS X.

The older CivReplayViewer products work with VirtualPC.

How can I make one jpg out of 4 jpgs? I can take a screenshot of all four, but it looks like crap.

Also, how do you place more than one jpg attachment in your post?

Thanks.

Originally posted by dojoboy
How can I make one jpg out of 4 jpgs? I can take a screenshot of all four, but it looks like crap.

It all depends (as ever :) ). What applications do you have or are you prepared to get?

I decided to invest in Photoshop Elements, which is like the $600 Photoshop but costs about 15% of its price. Photoshop Elements can open multiple screenshots and you can copy paste from them into a new collage. It has a *lot* of functionality, and you need to devote a bit of time to getting to grips with the way it handles images and layers. So for casual use I would actually recommend GraphicConverter (http://www.lemkesoft.com).

GC is available for download and you can run the demo to do the job. The demo has a 30 second delay during its launch. It's $35 to register and does a cracking job for what you want.

Its learning curve is also pretty short compared with Photoshop. Here's one I just threw together in GC by copying a couple of bits from a screenshot and saving the result as a .jpg. You can scale the images, copy/paste/crop/distort/recolor .....

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/AlanH_test1.jpg


Also, how do you place more than one jpg attachment in your post?
The one above was placed by uploading the file using the "Upload File" button at the bottom of every forum page. You get a dialog sequence like this (here's another one!):

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/AlanH_test2.jpg

The above sequence was, again, created as a montage in Graphic Converter using three screenshots. I had to convert the .png that command-shift-3 produced into .jpg before I could open them in GC. I did that by opening the screenshots in Preview and Exporting as JPEG. That may just be a problem with my copy of GC.

When you have copied a URL you can paste it into the text of your message in the format: <IMG>http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/your_filename.jpg</IMG>, but use square brackets in place of the angle ones I put here. You can see the entries in this post if you click its "Quote" button and look at the text I put in to link in the pictures.

HTH

Currently I can't play any completed mod I've tried to download:

- Teturkhan TOT
- Thamis' Ancient Mediterranean mod
- Yoda Power's Medieval Europe

[mostly interessant mods...]

Sometimes I got an .exe, some others a .bix file: I did know that a .bix is only avaible to PTW owners, and ya know, I'm a mac user...:cry:

thx to all for answers
nini1972

Of those three, as far as I can tell, Teturkhan TOT and Yoda Power's Medieval Europe look like they are PTW-only. They both mention BIX files and one explicitly specifies PTW. Thamis does publish a non-PTW version of his mod as a .EXE file, which is a Windows installer.

I've downloaded the non-PTW Thamis mod to see if there's any way to extract the data files from it. No luck so far. I can find the individual file images in the installer, but I haven't found a way to decompress them yet. If I could get over that step I could probably create an application that would "run" the installer on a Mac.

You could try contacting Thamis and ask if he can let you have the files as a zipped set without the installer, but he would have to find a way to get them to you. The compressed Thamis set is over 20 MBytes, way over the local upload limit, and most email systems don't like that sort of load. You'll probably need to find a mutually accessible FTP server somewhere if he's prepared to do it at all.

Alternatively, if you have a PC or VirtualPC you should be able to install it there and then grab the files it creates and copy them via network or desktop or CD-R to your Mac. You would then have to put them all in the right locations in your CivIII application folder. I can extract a list of the file names and locations if that would help. The list is visible in the installer.

Thx Alanh,
I choiched to drop my mod greed, and I turned to GOTM...

I tried to download GOTM 21 [Minoian Melee];

I tought I understood all of the instructions but... ... finally I came out with one of those creepy .exe docs, into the pack [the whole GOTM modifications from GOTM 16 till 21 - 5,61 Mb] as in the queue of 6 different downloaded files - the last was an .exe doc...:cry: ... and I can't open it.

Please all of you Mac-civers lighthoused and enlighted people, tell me how to install GOTM 21 materials...

thanks a lot
nini1972

Originally posted by nini1972
Please all of you Mac-civers lighthoused and enlighted people, tell me how to install GOTM 21 materials...
Follow the link in this thread. (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=62490)

If you already have installed everything you find linked in the middle of this (http://gotm.civfanatics.net/games/gotm21_start_v1_29.shtml) page, then you only need the final gotm21_mac setup files you'll find here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?postid=1073091#post1073091) .

thanks a lot, tao.

thanks a bit more,
trixter

Originally posted by nini1972
I tried to download GOTM 21 [Minoian Melee];

I tought I understood all of the instructions but... ... finally I came out with one of those creepy .exe docs, into the pack [the whole GOTM modifications from GOTM 16 till 21 - 5,61 Mb] as in the queue of 6 different downloaded files - the last was an .exe doc...:cry: ... and I can't open it.

Please all of you Mac-civers lighthoused and enlighted people, tell me how to install GOTM 21 materials...

thanks a lot
nini1972
What's wrong with just using my 10.2 GOTM installer? This is exactly why I produced it. Or are you running OS9 or OS 10.1.x?

What's wrong with just using my 10.2 GOTM installer? This is exactly why I produced it. Or are you running OS9 or OS 10.1.x?

I'm running Civ III under OS10.2, but - sorry - I'm new to GOTM, so I completely missed your Installer.
Just referring to Tao's and Trixer's clues, I hope those are enough: I'm not at home so I can't test it. Didn't know about other stuff.

thanks
nini1972

If you follow the GOTM Installer link in my signature you'll find a post in the Mac Tournament forum with a link to the full installer for GOTM 23. If you download that and run it, it will fix whatever is wrong with your current installation and you should be able to play GOTM 21, 22 and 23.

It's a standard Mac installer that puts ALL the files right where they need to be, and it really is MUCH easier than trying to work out where all the files go. The standard downloads also contain some errors which are repaired in my installer, so you don't have to find and fix those either.

All being well I shall produce a small add-on installer for GOTM 24 as soon as the GOTM team release the extra files, and that will update your GOTM 23 installation to GOTM 24. I'll update my installer post with a new link as soon as that happens.

Sorry, AlanH. Wasn't sure if the correction of errors (like the Galloglass->Cataphract folder name change) in the standard d/l left previous GOTMs playable and don't have the time to test it at the moment. Will send future GOTM-newcomers your way... ^^

thanks a lot alanh

Originally posted by Trixter
Sorry, AlanH. Wasn't sure if the correction of errors (like the Galloglass->Cataphract folder name change) in the standard d/l left previous GOTMs playable and don't have the time to test it at the moment. Will send future GOTM-newcomers your way... ^^
As far as I am aware my full installer will set any Civ3 v.1.29 installation up correctly to play GOTM #21 through #23. It is fairly brutal - it just copies all of the GOTM-specials into your installation, so as long as you haven't corrupted or over-written any of the standard files it should fix everything else.

All of the add-ons for the GOTM are backwards compatible to earlier games, except the resources.pcx and resources_shadows.pcx files. You need to swap those two files to play previous GOTMs (#20 needs a special pair, previous games use the factory-standard files).

I updated my AppleScripts to switch in and out GOTM configurations. You find them in this thread. (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=65400)

Few n00bie questions, played the PC version and finally bought Mac copy after switching in July:

1. How can you get to the Startup Dialog Box after selecting "don't ask again"?

2. Where can I download 1.29b?

Welcome to Macintosh!

1. Hold down the Option key, AKA Alt when you launch Civ3 to get the initial options dialog up again.

2. The 1.29b2 updater is here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=53107)

Originally posted by AlanH
Welcome to Macintosh!

1. Hold down the Option key, AKA Alt when you launch Civ3 to get the initial options dialog up again.

2. The 1.29b2 updater is here (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=53107)

Thankee :D!

Okay, once again, I'm stumped. How do you change which countries are represented in the Foreign Advisor screen?

Originally posted by Toasty
Okay, once again, I'm stumped. How do you change which countries are represented in the Foreign Advisor screen?

Right-click [control-click] on one of the rival civs and you'll get a drop down list of the civs currently not in view.

Originally posted by dojoboy


Right-click [control-click] on one of the rival civs and you'll get a drop down list of the civs currently not in view.

Brings up the civlopedia for me :confused:. Do I need to change something in the preferences?

Whoops! Shift right click or shift-control-click.

I've been playing CivIII with patch 1.29f since this summer with (almost) no problems.
Since a few days it's become hugely slow when starting program (minutes!), loading saved game and also when updating turn.
I've recently updated to Mac OS 10.2.8. Is this the catch?
Thx and ciao

Hi Startaff

No, I don't believe 10.2.8 has that effect. If anything I would say my Mac became a little sprightlier when I updated to it, both the real life and Civ3 performance.

I suggest you reinstall Civ3 and see if it makes a difference. I have seen reports of this sort of thing. I went through a spate of crashes a while back, pre-10.2.8, and a reinstall completely cured it. That was the experience that prompted me to produce the gotm installers.

I tried to see what files were different after the reinstall - different dates or whatever, but with no luck. Throw your prefs away when you do the fresh install, just in case it's a gremlin in there - that's the only file Civ3 *should* write to, other than the autosaves.

Well, yesterday eve I reloaded my ongoing game and *ZAP!* everything's going fast as usual! Without any reinstall at all!
Now, there are two possible explanations:

1) the CivFanatics forum reputation for hardcore problem-solving is SO strong that my iBook was scared to death by my posted request and he simply fixed himself.

2) having my wife messed around with Classic and rebooted a few times, this was enough to unstick something.

And that's for the "tech stuff"...

Ciao

ever since I have put that big jag on my hard drive I have been having trouble with civ 3, for example when i tried to finish off a civ by taking theyre last city the pop up for raise the city or take it popped up but then it unex. quit every time I tried it so I just left the city but then when the aztecs took it, it crashed anyways.

Hi jmansbong

It's got to be specific to your system. I don't have any special woofle dust in my system, but Civ3 is solid as a rock here. I would suggest the items I mentioned - delete your Civ3 preferences in ~/Library/Preferences. Reinstall Civ3 clean to a new directory and upgrade it to 1.29b2. If you are using any mods then check they are the correct and latest versions before you reinstall them. If it still crashes then you probably have a corrupt save file. Either go back to an earlier save or soldier on through the crashes or admit defeat on that game and start a new one.

Thanks for your help Alan I will try out what you mentioned

Alan, in playing 6-4, why would the Aztecs be represented by only a question mark on the diplomacy screen? As you know, I reinstalled both the game and all the GOTM files with your utilities.

Thanks.

Originally posted by Txurce
Alan, in playing 6-4, why would the Aztecs be represented by only a question mark on the diplomacy screen? As you know, I reinstalled both the game and all the GOTM files with your utilities.

Thanks.

6-4 plays using the GOTM 23 setup. If you are trying to play it using the GOTM25/26 setup then I suspect that's your problem.

If so then make a copy of your GOTM Civ3 folder and rename it Civ3-GOTM23 or something, then apply the GOTM23 installer to it to reinstate the older copies of the text files. I think that will work, but in case of trouble here's (www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/Text.zip) a copy of the Text folder I'm using successfully to play 6-4 (technical success, that it - I'm getting hammered in the game :eek: ). Use this in place of the Text folder in your GOTM23 installation and restart that copy of Civ3.

I'd like to try my first crack at a Mac GOTM, so I'll need a a noOb question answered.

1) Am I correct in thinking that in order to install and play GOTM 25 that AlanH has so kindly provided, that I'll need to install the previous two GOTMs before hand?

Correct. If you are running OS X 10.2. or 10.3 then go to the link in my signature and you'll find the full GOTM23 installer. Download and apply that to a copy of version 1.29b2. Then apply the GOTM24 and GOTM25 add-on installers.

If you are running Panther, then please let me know how you get on. I've had reports that the installers don't run for some people, but it's not reproduceable here, and each time I try to pin it down the complainers disappear into the wooddwork.

If you are running OS X 10.1.x then the installers are apparently not compatible. The only options are then to follow the trail to my drag and drop installer and use the GOTM23 file set with it, then add the GOTM24 nd 25 file sets supplied by Cracker, then copy some sound files as specified in Cracker's script supplied with the GOTM25 files.

If you are running OS 9 or earlier then you'll have to install the file sets by hand.

There! Clear as mud :confused: !!?

Originally posted by AlanH
There! Clear as mud!!?

Only if mud=chrystal in these parts. :D

Thank you so much, AlanH, for ALL your help. Your above-and-beyond performance as exemplary-Mac(Civ)-guru is to be congratulated loudly and often.

Another question, if you don't mind: your first installer for GOTM 23 has "difficulty level" options that references a thread in the GOTM forum. Just out of a slacker's curiousity (coupled with the lack of a search function), do you know of a link that will take me directly to the specific download/info threads? I've waded through a few pages of that foum once, and didn't find it. I don't know which level I should chose (I'd like something in the regent/monarch region). Or better yet, does the level option even matter when using the installer for 23 as a mere stepping stone to GOTM 25?

Edited: I found what I was looking for... had no idea that GOTM has its own web page! Once I found that, the question above was answered!
Thanks again, AlanH!

Hey all!

I'm a 100% Mac newb. I got a Mac for my wife because she's a Graphic Design major and needed it for her schooling. Unfortunately, neither of us know too much the system as we were both raised on PCs. My problem is not a Civ III problem, but it is keeping me from playing Civ III, so I hope that someone can feel pity on me and help me out.

My problem is this: This morning, I turn on the computer and nothing is acting funny. I launch Civ III (1.29b) and much to my dismay, everything on the screen has horizontal lines through it. I can see everything and there's no problem with game play. It's just like I'm looking at the game through open window blinds. What's worse is, it's doing this to all games that I load (Ghostmaster, Tropico MM, & Civ III). It's done this once before (seemingly changing the refresh rate on its own) and it went away just as mysteriously as it appeared.

I've tried adjusting resolution on both the computer and the individual games to no avail. I've tried rebooting the computer numerous times with no change whatsoever. Since yesterday, we have downloaded no new programs nor installed or deleted any additional software. My wife is constantly running Photoshop and Quark, but I don't know what affect those have on the graphics setup of the computer.

We have a G4 with 768 MB RAM. The video card is 32 MB, I believe, but I'm not certain. I know that it is 3D capable, though. The monitor's display settings are at 1280 x 960 at a 60 MHz refresh rate on a flat-panel, LCD display. Civ III's settings are at 1024 x 768 at Auto refresh rate.

I don't know what other info I can offer (or if anyone here can even help). I just thought I'd start here first. If I'm out of bounds with my question, I apologize.

Thanks,

JT

Hello again!

I don't know if anyone even read my post, but I found the solution to the problem. I'm curious if anyone else has ever had this happen. It only took me about 4 hours of diggin <ugh!>, but I did finally clear up the issue - I think.

My wife uses Quark, however, she is forced to use an antiquated version (4.1 instead of 6.1) because her school is still living in the Stone Age. Version 4.1 runs in OS 9, not OSX. We have the dual-boot system, and apparently OS 9 didn't shut down properly the last time she was on it. That, or she never actually shut it down. I'm not entirely certain. Whatever the case, OS 9 was still running in the background even though we had rebooted at least 3 times since she last used it. I found that it was using up 100 MB of RAM even though it wasn't in use! I had to do a "Force Quit," which I guess is akin to PC's "End Task" function. Once OS 9 was shut, voila! Everything worked fine again.

Two things I learned from this little episode. First, I didn't realize that 100 MB of RAM could so greatly impact a computer with 768 MB RAM, but I guess Civ III might be a bit of a RAM hog. Second, I learned how to tell OS 9 to shut down automatically. Hopefully, this won't occur again in the future since I have set it to close if it's not in use after a certain amount of time.

I hope this helps anyone who might have the same issue.

-JT

AVATAR/IMAGE HELP PLEASE!

Seriously, I'm a bit puzzled so hopefully someone far more computer savvy than I can straighten me out. The problem I'm having is an apparent "weight gain" in file size that my avatars suffer when I upload them here to CFC.

For example, here is the information screen on a avatar file sitting on my desktop. Note that the file size is 4k. So far so good, yes?

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/screen1.gif

Next, I upload the file, link it up, and then that file is displayed here on CFC. Since I've gotten a few complaints that my files have been too large for avatar use, I decided to test things out. So I simply clicked on the image I uploaded and dragged it back onto my desktop. I then opened another information screen on that file and this is what I get:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/screen2.gif

Now my file size is 32k!!! Where the heck did the other 28k come from? This happens to every file I drag off the site. For example, here's Lyonesse's avatar:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/screen3.gif

I KNOW that the file size is not 32k, and yet....

I'm sure the answer's simple, and there's something basic that I'm not understanding. Can anyone help?

I'm on a Power PC G4, 866mhz dual processors, OS 9.5, with 512 ram.

I suppose this is caused by the resource part. Macintosh files have 2 components: data and resource. The resource part is the icon MacOS displays in the various resolutions. IIRC from my MacOS 9 times, there are special utilities stripping the resource from files you want to use e.g. on websites. Once you download the file, MacOS generates resouce part anew.

tao, thanks so very much for your quick response. :goodjob: If what you say is the case, that's pretty amazing! 28k for an icon resource! Wow!:eek:

Anyway, thanks again for the information!

Performance is extremely slow on my machine. We're talking literally minutes in between turns! I saw the previous post with a similar problem, but this is after numerous re-installs to no avail. This has been going on for a long time. Perhaps 10.2.8 *does* have something to do with it?

Atari Tech Support was useless. I love the game, but the slow speed makes it unbearable. Help!

Originally posted by tao
I suppose this is caused by the resource part. Macintosh files have 2 components: data and resource. The resource part is the icon MacOS displays in the various resolutions. IIRC from my MacOS 9 times, there are special utilities stripping the resource from files you want to use e.g. on websites. Once you download the file, MacOS generates resouce part anew.
There should be no icon resources in the documents you create. The document icons are only stored once, in the applications that those documents are associated with, which is why unknown file types are given a generic "dog-eared page" icon

Incidentally, your original file was only 1,295 bytes, not 4K. 4K is the smallest space your Mac knows how to allocate on disk.

I don't know why your file gains weigh in the transfer. In Mac OS X Safari I can right click my avatar and select "Save Image as" and I get the same file size as I originally uploaded, at about 2.8K. Maybe your drag to desktop does something different? :confused:

BTW. Why are you running OS 9 on a dual G4 that I would kill for? Sounds like running a Ferrari on cooking oil ;)

Originally posted by biscuit
Performance is extremely slow on my machine. We're talking literally minutes in between turns! I saw the previous post with a similar problem, but this is after numerous re-installs to no avail. This has been going on for a long time. Perhaps 10.2.8 *does* have something to do with it?

Atari Tech Support was useless. I love the game, but the slow speed makes it unbearable. Help!
I never suffered any speed problems in 10.2.8. I'm now on 10.3.2 with a 3d graphics card, and it's a bit faster, but not a lot. I used to get major slowdowns in 1.21g on earlier OS X versions, and I very occasionally suffer slowdowns now, but a save/quit/relaunch normally fixes that.

What size games are you playing, and on what hardware? If you are using huge maps then that's life. Playing standard or even large maps I have never seen minutes between turns since upgrading to 1.29b2.

Originally posted by AlanH

There should be no icon resources in the documents you create. The document icons are only stored once, in the applications that those documents are associated with, which is why unknown file types are given a generic "dog-eared page" icon

Incidentally, your original file was only 1,295 bytes, not 4K. 4K is the smallest space your Mac knows how to allocate on disk.

I don't know why your file gains weigh in the transfer. In Mac OS X Safari I can right click my avatar and select "Save Image as" and I get the same file size as I originally uploaded, at about 2.8K. Maybe your drag to desktop does something different? :confused:

BTW. Why are you running OS 9 on a dual G4 that I would kill for? Sounds like running a Ferrari on cooking oil ;)

I agree w/ Alan, which is unusual. :rolleyes: ;)

Even back when I was playing Civ3 on a G3 / 333 MHz / 512 RAM, I wouldn't get many delays unless I was on a large to huge map. So, I played standard size maps. Now, on a G4 / 1GHz / 384 RAM, Civ3 runs quite well to the point I'll play a large map at times. But, huge maps still cause delays between turns. Actually, unless I'm playing the GOTM, most of my personal games are on small maps, for time's sake.

biscuit, have you tried turning off unit animations?

What size games are you playing, and on what hardware?

Huge maps. 933mz/1GB RAM/GeForce4 MX and yes, 1.29b2.

Yes, turned off almost everything.

Originally posted by biscuit
What size games are you playing, and on what hardware?

Huge maps. 933mz/1GB RAM/GeForce4 MX and yes, 1.29b2.
I've never played huge maps. so I can't comment, but I know Dojoboy says huge maps will do that to you, which is why I've never even bothered. Life's too short, and what can you learn from a huge map that you can't on a smaller one?

Originally posted by AlanH
[...] and what can you learn from a huge map that you can't on a smaller one?
Patience.

[Edit:] OK, don't actually want to start spamming.
I like huge maps and even changed my bic to make the huge-sized ones even bigger.
I'm on a 733/512/GF2MX and yes, in later parts of the game you learn just what I stated above. Maintaining a few hundred cities, you also learn what that build-queue is for. :D
Nevertheless, ever since I started changing and testing lots of unit stats and other game rules I've come to like smaller map sizes.

Hey I am new to this forum and to civ III (civ II is an old friend) I am having a problem with 1.29 where the game crashes when I build SETI. I don't really care for purposes of this game but naturally would like this to work. I can not seem to figure out how to turn off the little "video" for the wonders or make it so it doesn't crash. Any advice.

Hello and welcome :wavey:

It sounds as if you have a corrupt installation, which may be fixed by reinstalling the game.

OR

Are you running version 1.29b1? See this post (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=1759660#post1759660) for a comment by Brad Oliver, teh engineer who ported Civ3 to the Mac

Well, it may be trouble with quicktime, I'm not sure. Anyway, I had Civ III (newest release) working when I was using mac OS 9.1. Since then I've played another game for a while and done some minor upgrades to the system. At least, I thought they were minor. I upgraded to OS 9.2.2 (with OS9 helper) and installed iTunes which installed Quicktime 6.0.

Now Civ III won't run. I get a message saying the Civ III needs quicktime 4.1 or newer, which is missing (or some componate is missing). I've tried everything I can think of (reinstalling Civ III, going back to quicktime 4.1, turning all but the base extensions off) to no avail.

Any ideas? :sad:

I doubt if the Quicktime version is the problem. All the OS X users will be running much more recent versions than 4.1. Do you have OpenGL? I seem to recall Dojoboy saying you needed to install that, and CarbonLib. CarbonLib should be installed automatically by OS 9.2.2, but I've no idea whether that's true of OpenGL.

Of course, you *could* move on up to the current century, and upgrade to OS X :p

...Do you have OpenGL? I seem to recall Dojoboy saying you needed to install that, and CarbonLib. CarbonLib should be installed automatically by OS 9.2.2, but I've no idea whether that's true of OpenGL.

Of course, you *could* move on up to the current century, and upgrade to OS X :p

Thanks, I'll check if OpenGL and CarbonLib are installed. I would suspect they are, but one never knows...

BTW, I'd love to move to OS X, but we just bought a new Powerbook for my wife and I'm not allowed to touch it (I just can't resist tweaking things. :mischief: ). So, for now, I'm stuck using my Powerbase with its G3 upgrade. Just couldn't get OS X to load (even with XPostFacto). Probably overtax the machine anyway.

I doubt if the Quicktime version is the problem. All the OS X users will be running much more recent versions than 4.1. Do you have OpenGL? I seem to recall Dojoboy saying you needed to install that, and CarbonLib. CarbonLib should be installed automatically by OS 9.2.2, but I've no idea whether that's true of OpenGL.

Of course, you *could* move on up to the current century, and upgrade to OS X :p

Actually, I've had to run Civ III on OS 8.6 :ack: for the time being (I have 8.6 on a separate partition). Talk about working in the dark ages. I don't even have the proper video drivers for 8.6 (if they even exist).

Question. :wavey:

How do I change the human civ in a scenario file to another nationality? Oh and while Im at it, why is the scenario index post only half full? Are the rest of the files stored somewhere else?

Question. :wavey: Hello :wavey:

How do I change the human civ in a scenario file to another nationality?If the scenario has been created with a specific starting civ then I think you'll have to use a 1.29-compatible editor to alter it, and since there's no such editor for the Mac I guess that means running the PC version. I do know where the index is in the scenario file that defines which race the human player is, but I don't know if changing that using a hex editor is enough to do what you want.

Oh and while Im at it, why is the scenario index post only half full? Are the rest of the files stored somewhere else?Which post? How do you know when a post is 'half full'? :confused:

Ha, sorry, I meant the list of completed scenarios that's linked to from the Downloads page. It's got a full listing but only the first half or so are linked to, the rest are blank.

Apologies for being thick, but I still don't know which page you are talking about. It's much easier if you can quote a url for the page - just copy/paste it from the browser address field into your post.

How can I edit an image to remove the backgorund color, say for an avatar? I've looked all over graphic converter but can't seem to locate the right command. Thanks.

Send me the image and I'll investigate. I use Photoshop Elements, but I guess the options in GC are similar.

How can I edit an image to remove the backgorund color, say for an avatar? I've looked all over graphic converter but can't seem to locate the right command. Thanks.

Hi dojoboy, try the free Transparency (http://www.lunaloca.com/tutorials/antialiasing/mactrans.html) application (it's OS9, but runs fine in Classic on my Mac).

Launch it, open a GIF file, and click on the colour you want to make transparent. Then save as a GIF 89 type file - but with lowercase gif suffix (you can't upload '.GIF' type to this site, only '.gif').

Simple but v. effective app.!

If it messes up some pixels, you can always retouch in GKON.

Hi dojoboy, try the free Transparency (http://www.lunaloca.com/tutorials/antialiasing/mactrans.html) application (it's OS9, but runs fine in Classic on my Mac).

Launch it, open a GIF file, and click on the colour you want to make transparent. Then save as a GIF 89 type file - but with lowercase gif suffix (you can't upload '.GIF' type to this site, only '.gif').

Simple but v. effective app.!

If it messes up some pixels, you can always retouch in GKON.

Thanks fruno!

Just bought the game second hand. No manual.

How do I activate fortified units inside cities using the Mac version of Civ III?

Thanks for your help.

Hi

Control click the city and select the unit from the drop down list.

Thank you, Alan. Now I can get my leader out of a city that's about to fall.

I tried to install the GOTM Mod w/Installer. Opened Civ and opened the scenario file. I got a message that Civ 3 could not open the file and it may be corrupt.

Any tips?

The "corrupt file" message normally happens if you try to open a version 1.29 file using an earlier version of CivIII - 1.14 or 1.21.

Which installer did you use? The Drag and Drop Mod Installer or the all-in-one GOTM Full Installer? The GOTM Full Installer shouldn't allow you to install into an earlier version, but there's an option in the Mod Installer that allows you to install any mod into any version of CivIII.

I used the all-in-one, and I've been running 1.29b2 for a while now--the main screen even says Civ 3 1.29b2 -- GOTM Mod.

Then I'm at a loss. The installer will refuse to install on earlier versions*.

I can't find a way to reproduce that problem here. When does the message come up? When you select "Open Scenario" and select the gotm mod scenario? Or later, after you try to start the game? Can you zip up a copy of the installed scenario file you are trying to run and attach it to a post here? Maybe it's getting corrupted in the installation process :hmm: If you don't have a zip facility, just change its name to gotm_mod_1.1.zip and attach it. The file attachment option here will accept xxx.sav or xxx.zip, but not xxx.bic as far as I know.

* (Actually the main screen in a modded version will always say "Civ 3 1.29b2 -- GOTM Mod.". That string comes out of the /Text/version.txt file, and the all-in-one installer just replaces the old one. I'm being lazy - I should really script it to edit the existing file to append " -- GOTM Mod" to the existing version string, in case users are installing on 1.29b1).

The message comes up after clicking "Load Scenario" and opening the gotm_mod_1.1.bic file.

I've attached a zipped copy of the .bic file for you.

Loads up OK in my copy of the installed system, and a hex comparison of my copy with yours says they are identical.

Even if I try to run the scenario file with an unmodified copy of CivIII I don't get your result. It complains of missing files, which is not surprising. Does your modded copy open GOTM start files?

One option is to install a fresh copy of CivIII and patch it to 1.29b2, then to run the GOTM installer on it. At the end of the GOTM installation and before you quit the Installer, go to the "File/Show Log" menu item to open the Installer log window, and select "Show everything" in the pop-up menu at the bottom of the window. Use Select All and copy/paste all the text in that window to a post here, and I'll see if there are any clues in the installer log. Of course, you should then check that the freshly created and modified copy also fails.

Installing a fresh copy solved the problem. I'm still curious as to why it arose, though. :hmm:

It's good to hear that you are operational.

It had to be the copy of CivIII in the previous folder. I can only surmise that it was not actually version 1.29. If you still have that file, check the version in Finder/Get Info. As I said, the version data that the installer uses is not tightly bound to the software. It's just a text file and it can be wrong. The Get Info version is embedded in the software has to be hacked explicitly to change it. If it really was 1.29 then I guess it must be corrupt. Did it run a GOTM start file?

Huge problem... and no one else seems to be able to help me.
I recently installed the Game of the Year version of Civilization 3 and no matter what I do I can not get the game to start. All I get is: "The application Civilization III has unexpectedly quit"

very annoying seeing as I just bought this game and was so happy to play it I got off work early to play it and I was hit in the face with this...

I've contacted support of Apple and they are no help just the basics that I have already tried, such as disk repair and installing it under a different user.

My specs are all good for the game and I'm running on the latest version Mac OS 10.3.6 with 1.25 GHz enough RAM.

This is very frustrating and I need to play!!! This game is addicting and I'm ready top waste my time...

Any help would be very nice, Thank You! :D

Hi! Welcome to MacCivFanatics :wavey:

When it unexpectedly quits, do you get an option to "Send report .."? If so, click yes and you will see a crash report. Don't send it to Apple, as they won't help. But if you copy and paste it here - just the first 50 lines or so - we may be able to get a clue as to what's causing the crash. It's worth a try.

Thank you here it is:

Date/Time: 2004-11-22 21:34:27 -0800
OS Version: 10.3.6 (Build 7R28)
Report Version: 2

Command: Civilization III
Path: /Applications/Civilization III/Civilization III
Version: ??? (???)
PID: 863
Thread: 0

Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE (0x0002) at 0x0000000c

Thread 0 Crashed:
0 Civilization III 0x004d00d8 get__4TextFv + 0x18
1 Civilization III 0x004f1504 loadLabels__8CitizensFv + 0x54
2 Civilization III 0x004f1ef8 _sinit_citizen_cpp + 0x98
3 Civilization III 0x00408eec _ct__8CGameAppFv + 0xfffffe3c

PPC Thread State:
srr0: 0x004d00d8 srr1: 0x0200f030 vrsave: 0x00000000
cr: 0x28002222 xer: 0x20000000 lr: 0x004f1504 ctr: 0x90288ca8
r0: 0x004f1504 r1: 0xbffff7c0 r2: 0x01010000 r3: 0xbffff93c
r4: 0x0000ffe0 r5: 0x00000000 r6: 0x0000f9a0 r7: 0x00001010
r8: 0x000b7668 r9: 0x00000000 r10: 0x00000010 r11: 0x88002228
r12: 0x00000000 r13: 0x00000000 r14: 0x00000000 r15: 0x00000000
r16: 0x00000000 r17: 0x00000000 r18: 0x00000000 r19: 0x00000000
r20: 0xbffffe88 r21: 0xffffffff r22: 0xbffffc40 r23: 0x00000000
r24: 0x0030f3f0 r25: 0x0000a000 r26: 0xbffffe78 r27: 0x0107061c
r28: 0x00000000 r29: 0x0107061c r30: 0x0102370c r31: 0xbffff93c

Hmm! It look as if the software hasn't got started at all, but has tried to execute some of the game code. I assume you see nothing on the screen between double clicking CivIII and getting the crash message?

My first guess is that you have a bad CD, and it has installed a corrupt application. Have you tried to update it to version 1.29b2? If the updater will run then that may *possibly* completely replace the corrupt application software with a new version. You would want to do that anyway, as version 1.29b2 is better and more stable and is file-compatible with mods build for PC version 1.29f. There's a link to the updater in my sig.

Please let us know how you get on.

Well there's been no luck to report back it seems that the people at Mac Soft are incredibly stupid, and disorganized. If anyone ever reads this and knows of this problem I am having go to my profile and send me an e-mail. Thank you.

Any answers to my questions? Did you try my suggestion of patching to version 1.29b2? Or was it already patched? Can you confirm that you see nothiing on screen before the crash?

Any answers to my questions? Did you try my suggestion of patching to version 1.29b2? Or was it already patched? Can you confirm that you see nothiing on screen before the crash?

Sorry about that, I've been catching up. I have tried the patch, I do not see anything before the game "Unexpectdly quits". But I have some good news: MacSoft is sending me a new copy of the game, so maybe it is the disk and I will happy to play the latest version of Civilization, or a may just give in and buy a PC to be able to play the world... I will be back to inform you as to how it went after the new copy comes.

Thanks for you help! :)

I'm playing a game at the moment and i was just about to complete my final component for the space ship but for some reason after the final part (thrusters) was built it did not go to the space ship screen right away as it usualy does after completing a component, and now it will not let me entire the spaceship screen at all! I can click on the [S] but the scree does not change.

I am currently running on 1.29b and this is the first time I have had any problems on this version. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers.

hey how do you tell the difference between mac and windows downloads? sorry, im no techie... where is a link to the mac downloads on this site? and does it matter what i run it on 1.29 or whatever else? oh, plus, does it always matter if i use windows downloads? thanks

"and now to unveil my 37 point plan!..oh sorry, thats my resume...let me just reboot this...sorry i, have a lot of extensions" -the monarch

Welcome, both of you. :wavey:

@mallesh: I don't have a simple solution. In those circumstances I would install a fresh copy of Civ3, patch it up to 1.29b2, and try running your saved game with it.

@dodgersfan3138: There is no way to tell if .SAV files are frm Mac or Windows if they are from version 1.29. They are identical as far as I know.

If you mean mod downloads then you will find that some are .exe files which means they are Windows aplications - typically self-extracting archives. It has been known for these to be expandable by Stuffit Expander (Double Your Pleasure is an example). Some are .zip files and these can always be expanded by Stuffit Expander.

Well they sent me the new copy and it arrived today, and it only does the same thing. If there are ever any people who run across this same problem, I will be checking in and if anyone reads this and has a soultion email me at sam@anamcara.cc.

It must be my computer, and i will be getting a PC to "play the world" on itll be fun.

I'm new to CivIII and I love it. Highly adddictive. But I keep running into major jams whenever Greece is an opponent. Any game I'm playing completely locks up when Greece/Alexander tries to contact me after the initial contact. This is very frustrating. I don't have any problems with the other Civs. I've seen the same problem in CivIII 1.21g and 1.29b2. :cry:

Any suggestions?? :confused:

Hi, welcome to MacCFC :wavey:

Do you have a save file that demonstrates this. I can try loading it up here and see if it's your set-up.

Hi, welcome to MacCFC :wavey:

Do you have a save file that demonstrates this. I can try loading it up here and see if it's your set-up.

I do. I've attached the file. Its saved right before I encounter the Greeks. CivIII totally quits or locks up. :sad:

That's a very late date to be meeting new civs :mischief:

Well, I loaded it up, met four new civs, including Greece wtih no trouble, traded maps, and techs and finished up with another 500 gold and 30 gpt. So the save's OK, and it's probably a corrupt file in your setup. I notice you've changed the name of the Babylonians to the African Asians. Have you modified anything else in your setup? For example, if you've edited the pediaIcons.txt file to match this name for Babylon, you need to use a text editor that writes the correct line endings.

That's a very late date to be meeting new civs :mischief:

Well, I loaded it up, met four new civs, including Greece wtih no trouble, traded maps, and techs and finished up with another 500 gold and 30 gpt. So the save's OK, and it's probably a corrupt file in your setup. I notice you've changed the name of the Babylonians to the African Asians. Have you modified anything else in your setup? For example, if you've edited the pediaIcons.txt file to match this name for Babylon, you need to use a text editor that writes the correct line endings.

I haven't made any modifications to the actual application files yet :D So, it must be a corrupt file like you suggest. I'll try reinstalling. Thanks. :goodjob:

That's a very late date to be meeting new civs :mischief:

Well, I loaded it up, met four new civs, including Greece wtih no trouble, traded maps, and techs and finished up with another 500 gold and 30 gpt. So the save's OK, and it's probably a corrupt file in your setup. I notice you've changed the name of the Babylonians to the African Asians. Have you modified anything else in your setup? For example, if you've edited the pediaIcons.txt file to match this name for Babylon, you need to use a text editor that writes the correct line endings.

By the way, any suggestions how to meet other Civs sooner? I crushed England and Zulu early on. Neither Germany or Russia revealed that they had made contact with other Civs during trades. Also, my ships can't leave the coastline until I learn navigation, right? :crazyeye:

So how did the civ name get changed from Babylon?

Re. contact date, sorry for the dig. It is Chieftain level, so research rate is slow. You speed up contact in two ways. Either research faster to get to Navigation earlier - that's a big subject in its own right, or use suicide galleys - send galleys out east or west one tile at a time from your most easterly and/or westerly points of departure until they run out of movement points. They'll sink 50% of the time, but if you send enough then eventually one will make it across.

It's worth the effort, as you reduce costs for techs as more known civs know them. If yuo use suicide galleys you can keep contact monopolies until someone else gets Navigation. This allows you to play the continents off against each other, buying techs cheap and sellig them at monopoly prices on the other continent. In this case you can get Banking, Chemistry and Music Theory in the current trading round as well as pretty well cleaning out everyone's treasury and gpt.

No, Germany and Russia don't know the others, so you have a great trading opportunity in this turn. I really enjoy this kind of trading turn since I learned how it's done in Moonsinger's Trade Training (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?threadid=54088) exercise.

Remember to buy one contact at a time and keep your contact sales until last, as each contact reduces in cost as you know more civs with that contact. Don't worry about spending your capital to get the stuff you want in the early part of the trading round, as you'll get it all back again by the end. Use your maps carefully as trading currency, they are valuable for this turn only. They don't devalue as you sell them to other civs during the current turn, until they get their turn to pass them around among themselves. Since Navigation is available the intercontinental contacts are going to happen soon enough anyway, so you might as well use contacts as trading currency now, while you have a corner in them, but use money and maps first to buy contacts, then sell your techs and/or luxuries to grab their money and techs. Use your contacts last to clean them out, because that keeps your techs valuable. Don't forget to look for gpt opportunites.

A quick look at F10, and click on the Space Race button, will tell you what civs are out there. After you meet the ones from your current contact you'll find there's still another one out there somewhere that no one knows yet.

So how did the civ name get changed from Babylon?

I'm not sure how this works on the PC side, but when you are in the game setup screen, after you select a Civ, click on their name. You can then edit the Civ's leader name, nationality, and sex. :cool:

I'm not on the PC side :eek:

Well, I never knew that! You live and learn :)

Actually, I've had to run Civ III on OS 8.6 :ack: for the time being (I have 8.6 on a separate partition). Talk about working in the dark ages. I don't even have the proper video drivers for 8.6 (if they even exist).

Just a short update if anybody cares. I've never been able to run Civ III under OS 9.2.2 (had to load it using OS 9 helper since I have a mac clone), so I had to go back to OS 8.6 for a while. Everything else ran fine by the way.

Anyway, I loaded OS 9.2.1 (again, using OS 9 helper) on a separate partition and Civ III works. I have no idea what the problem with 9.2.2 is, but this may help someone else using a mac clone.

And yes, I'd love to upgrade to OS X, but given that I have a limit of 160 Mb of memory, and insufficient funds for a new computer, that's just not feasible right now.

Chris

Sorry, but I don't know where else to go with this.

My wife inputs some information for her work at home on my eMac. Recently, after she logs in, the utility (adobe acrobat approval 5) has begun d/l'ing as a .asp file rather than opening up to her work's online data bank.

Any idea why this has begun happening? Only two things have happened that I think could be have caused the issue, perhaps:

(1) Apple's latest security update - But, I'm almost positive that the problem didn't start showing up until well after the update was installed.

(2) I went in to Safari's preferences the other day and deleted all the cookies. When I think about all those marketing cookies, I feel violated. ;) But, I really don't think this is the cause either.

... the utility (adobe acrobat approval 5) has begun d/l'ing as a .asp file rather than opening up to her work's online data bank.
...Any idea why this has begun happening?
Hmm... Dunno. A mystery. One thing that popped to mind was account preferences being reset on the server (happens all the time to humungous General Electric network). On the off-chance it is, she might want to log in to her work server and see what the settings are to handle her when she logs in from off-premesis.
***
One other things leaps to mind: if the work is supposedly all online (in the DB), there may have been server issues. One thing you might try just for giggles is going in with a different browser (maybe a different machine, different OS) and see if you get the same results.

EJ

The usual reason for a browser to download a file instead of opening it is because either the server is not flagging it as the correct MIME type, or the browser has forgotten how to handle the offered MIME type. As EJ suggests, the only thing in your power is to try switching browsers - try Internet Exploiter if you are used to using Safari.

Note that, according to adobe here (http://www.adobe.co.uk/products/acrapproval/main.html), sales of Acrobat Approval discontinued in September last year, and support will cease in September this year.

We did try Firefox, but no luck. I'll try the other recs tonight, including IE. Thanks guys. Btw, how would one get the browser to "remember?"

I don't think there's an option to set up mime types in Safari.

.asp is a M$-specific file type (Active Server Pages), but I've never had trouble accessing .asp pages with Safari, so I think it has to be a server-side issue.

Internet Exploder is usually the best option to try when dealing with brain-dead corporate servers whose admins think the world revolves around an obsolete browser on a dodgy computer platform.

...Internet Exploder is usually the best option to try when dealing with brain-dead corporate servers whose admins think the world revolves around an obsolete browser on a dodgy computer platform.
Whew! Spoken like a true Mac addict! :goodjob:
(or somebody really, really annoyed with windows... notice how they often dovetail...)

I've seen people using something that tells them how close to a domination victory they are - what is it - and is there a Mac version?
I've looked through this whole thread, but never saw anything mentioned.

TIA!

The only utility I know of that will run without a PC or PC emulator is the JMapstat program linked in my signature. It's a cross-platform Java application, updated to handle GOTM modded saves, and runs fine in OS X. It will tell you how many tiles from domination you are, but doesn't tell you about population, which also has to be 2/3 of world population.

Note that JMapstat should not be used in a competition game until you have exposed all of the land masses, as it gives full tile counts for the map, which is spoiler info until you've done the exploration/map trades yourself.

Thanks AlanH! I'll check this out when I get home.

Having a bit of a crash to desktop problem. This is civ 1.29b2 with DyP ver 1.01r. When I end my turn the game crashes. I have tried a complete re-install to no avail. Here is a crash log:

Date/Time: 2005-03-17 16:05:22 -0600
OS Version: 10.3.8 (Build 7U16)
Report Version: 2

Command: Civilization III
Path: /Applications/Games/Civilization III/Civilization III
Version: ??? (???)
PID: 975
Thread: 0

Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS (0x0001) at 0x06a1ffe0

Thread 0 Crashed:
0 Civilization III 0x00507fcc AI_obsoleteDefenders__6CityAIFi + 0x10c
1 Civilization III 0x00508590 0x405000 + 0x103590
2 Civilization III 0x005122c8 AI_baseReset__6CityAIFb + 0x1d8
3 Civilization III 0x004fbc08 baseFacProduction__4CityFv + 0x518
4 Civilization III 0x004fc0dc baseProduction__4CityFv + 0x25c
5 Civilization III 0x00502d00 baseUpkeep__4CityFv + 0x2d0
6 Civilization III 0x005df554 faction_upkeep__6LeaderFv + 0xcb4
7 Civilization III 0x00561988 gameUpkeep__Fv + 0x108
8 Civilization III 0x00561c6c control_game__Fb + 0x25c
9 Civilization III 0x00535148 run__13Civilization3Fiib + 0x48
10 Civilization III 0x005f25fc WinMain + 0x26c
11 Civilization III 0x0041f048 main + 0x4c8

Attached is a save game file. If you end the current turn the next thing that should happen is the game should crash. If any one has an idea for a work around it would be appreciated. If you can get to the next turn and upload a save game so I could keep going that would be good too.

Thanks and happy st. Patrick's day

...If you end the current turn the next thing that should happen is the game should crash. If any one has an idea for a work around it would be appreciated. If you can get to the next turn and upload a save game so I could keep going that would be good too.

Thanks and happy st. Patrick's day
Hm... d/l'd it and played it through the next turn and it was fine (sorry, completely missed the part about saving and uploading). My guess, though, is that something is corrupted in your files but who knows what it could be...
I didn't see any new technologies and I don't remember anything being created but units, so it doesn't seem like it would be a civpedia issue...
I've run into similar problems where there is an odd setting at an odd time and it just chokes. You might consider playing with a few in-game parameters and naming the .savs to reflect the experiment. Try little things, like changing the budget ratios. It has been a while since I had that similar issue, and IIRC, it was some weird work-around like tweaking the budget that kept the game from crashing. The next round, everything was fine. What ever code ghosts were in there, they went away...

Good luck.
EJ

Hi Jard, welcome :wavey:

I used to see that sort of "obsoleteDefenders" crash log entry a lot in standard or GOTM-modded Civ3, but it seems to have gone away completely now. My changes since then have been more memory, a faster CPU, and numerous re-installations of the software for various reasons.

I don't play DyP, so I can't comment specifically for that mod, but EJ's result indicates it's a difference in your set-up. I recommend you re-install from scratch and see if it goes away. If not, how much memory does your Mac have?

I figured it out!

I tried a couple of different things, being in anarchy got me to the next turn but as soon as I got my gov back in order it crashed on the next turn. I tried playing around with the sliders and what not that did not help. What turned out to be the issue was having autosave on. Turing that off allowed me to play on.

AlanH, I only have 256 megs of ram. Which causes me great shame on a daily basis :). I suppose this could be the ultimate root of the problem, or it could be some random other bit of whatever.

Anyway, thanks for the input everyone!

I figured it out!
...Anyway, thanks for the input everyone!
Glad we could help... and welcome to the forums!

BTW - that memory is a killer. Check out prices on RAM (they may be cheaper than you expect). You'll find it's worth it. With a little breathing room, everything seems to speed up a little.

EJ

It appears that I spoke to soon.

The games still crashes when I rush buy something, it also crashes when a wonder finishes. Which is pretty much a deal breaker in DyP. With so many different causes I am beginning to think it is a hardware issue, specifically ram. Seeing as how it works for others and breaks for me even on a clean install and right after a reboot. It is a crying shame considering how memory is handled(at least theoretically) in os X.

As to why I don't have more a price of $0 is about all I can afford, ya unemployment sucks :(

The games still crashes... it is a crying shame :(

I tried your save on my eMac (1GHz, 512RAM, OS10.3.4, DYP 1.01R) and it worked fine, though quite a hang between moves since it's a big map...

...It is a crying shame considering how memory is handled(at least theoretically) in os X.
Actually, with protected memory and preemptive multitasking, memory wrangling isn't too bad. However, the system itself is huge – and then if you pile on a few background apps plus a huge map, it's like trying cram 8 pounds of [stuff] into a 5 pound bag. Just ain't gonna happen.

...'Course, that's one of the legitimate and consistent complaints about Apple: they're stingy on the RAM (though RAM manufacturers have no complaints, I'm sure).

Time to get that job... :D

EJ

Screenshot question:
I got the pic I wanted, but it made it a PDF file. how can I change it to jpg?
I don't remember it making pdf's back in 9...

PDF is the nearest thing to native image language there is in OS X. PICT used to be the equivalent in OS 9, but couldn't do half the things that PDF offers.

If you double click the PDF it should open in Preview. If you go to Preview's File menu you should find Export. That should open a dialog box where you can choose JPEG as the exported image format. All this is in Panther. I don't recall whether older versions could do it.

For info, I have Photoshop Elements, which is not expensive. I use Control-Command-Shift-3 or -4 to put a screen image on the clipboard, not in a file to clutter up the desktop. Then I use Photoshop's 'File/New from clipboard' menu option to open it in an editable image window. I can crop it and annotate it with Photoshop's editing tools, and then use 'File/Save for web' to create a jpeg file the size and resolution required to upload here.

PDF is the nearest thing to native image language there is in OS X. PICT used to be the equivalent in OS 9, but couldn't do half the things that PDF offers.

If you double click the PDF it should open in Preview. If you go to Preview's File menu you should find Export. That should open a dialog box where you can choose JPEG as the exported image format. All this is in Panther. I don't recall whether older versions could do it.


Thanks. I thought I did all that - maybe I didn't do export or something (save as, maybe). I do have Panther - so I must have just gone the wrong way.

Thanks

Can anyone recommend whether I buy GOTY or the vanilla version Civ3? They're both knocking around on Ebay, and I'm wondering if GOTY has any worthwhile extras. :crazyeye: I'm trying to choose ...

Dunno. I have vanilla and have never noticed I was missing anything They all have to be upgraded anyway, as MacSoft don't deliver 1.29b2. Do you have a list of the differences between that and GOTY?

Dunno, that's why I was asking! :lol: Perfectly possible all you get is a different box and some irritating features by paying more :spear:. The original version can be the best... I shall see.

There will be absolutely no difference in the actual game software. You might get version 1.21g instead of 1.16f, but neither is the latest. You can upgrade any version you buy to the latest version using the updater in my signature. You may get the scenario editor on the GOTY disk, but that's "normally" available as a free download anyway. If you can't find it at InsideMacGames I can email you a copy or a link. Someone said you get a printed manual and a keyboard shortcut list with GOTY. Well I got the manual with my standard version, and there are lots of Civ Reference guides out there that give you the keyboard shortcuts. Buying on fleabay, there's no real assurance that you'll get all the extras that were in the original box, of course.

Oh, I give up, they all end up as expensive as buying in the shops :sad: , and then there's postage and you have to wait for it to arrive... :( I'll get one from Amazon for £30: nearly £2 cheaper than the shops! :)

... not to mention the risk that you'll send money and receive nothing.

I know this is probably a pipe dream - but is there any alternative to CivAssist for Macs?

I know this is probably a pipe dream - but is there any alternative to CivAssist for Macs?I'm running it with Virtual PC and it is usable.

Just for tile counting, there is a Java version of MapStat which works on Macs.

.. probably a pipe dream, but I do have some Objective C code that does some of what CivAssist does. I'm having trouble finding time to put a user interface on it currently, but CivAssist2 provides an excellent example of the sort of features it should have. The burning question is which will happen first: Windows running near-native on Intellimacs, or me delivering a usable version of my code, or hell freezing. Place your bets ....

I have a problem starting Civilization III. It is exactly the same problem as "SamTheOzzMan" had (has) elsewhere in this thread:

Date/Time: 2005-07-06 19:17:30.869 +0200
OS Version: 10.4.1 (Build 8B15)
Report Version: 3

Command: Civilization III
Path: /Applications/Civilization III/Civilization III
Parent: WindowServer [63]

Version: 1.29b2 (1.29b2 Copyright ©2001-2003 Firaxis. Conversion by Westlake Interactive)

PID: 758
Thread: 0

Exception: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (0x0001)
Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE (0x0002) at 0x0000000c

Thread 0 Crashed:
0 Civilization III 0x004cee08 get__4TextFv + 24
1 Civilization III 0x004f07f4 loadLabels__8CitizensFv + 84
2 Civilization III 0x004f11e8 _sinit_:citizen_cpp + 152
3 Civilization III 0x004093a4 0x405000 + 17316

So actually, it does not do a thing. It doesn't even ask for a CD when it's not present. I've installed and reinstalled the thing; I've upgraded to 1.21g and to 1.29b and tried the default; tried full and small install, nothing matters. I'm stuck. Except for the abovementioned I cannot find similar reports. But perhaps someone has... ?

Berteun

Hello, welcome to MacCivFanatics :wavey:

How much memory do you have in your Mac?
Is any of it add-on, and if so where did you buy it?
How much spare disk space do you have?
Is everything English version - OS, Civ3?

It's failing right at the start, so my best guess is a faulty CD. I am guessing the routine it's running at the crash point is reading text from a file called labels.txt in the /Text/ folder. Perhaps this file is corrupt. Here's the copy from my 1.29 installation. If you replace it we can see if it still fails here or in a different place?

I have a PowerBook 12" Superdrive, that is 512 MB ram, around 40GB free disk space, that shouldn't be any problem.

The only 'strange' thing that I might have is a Case sensitive file system (but I'm not really liking the thought of changing that and reinstalling). As four your file and mine: Both have the same md5sum, and replacing did not help, alas.

Berteun

Do you mean you are running ufs? Is that really a good idea? I wonder if game designers, or even most Mac software designers, even test with ufs. I've never checked any of the little programs I've written with ufs. Remember the basic CIV3 game software is Windows code recompiled for Carbon. The porting process minimises the changes, and Windows is totally case-insensitive.

No, I'm not running UFS. But, at least with 10.4 (Tiger) there is an option to create a Journaled, Case Sensitive HFS partition. Because I'm using quite a lot Unix too, I prefer case sensitive filesystems (makes transferring a bit easier too).

Berteun

I wasn't aware of that option. I still suspect case sensitivity is the issue.

I've used Hexedit to search the Civ3 binary, and I've found references to the file paths: text\labels.txt, Text\labels.txt, text\Labels.txt and Text\Labels.txt. You could try making a duplicate of labels.txt and call it Labels.txt, and the make a duplicate of the Text folder and call it text. As your file system is case sensitive this should be possible, and maybe the game software will find all the variants of the file? Of course the problem may then move to another file ... and there are lots of them!

I wasn't aware of that option. I still suspect case sensitivity is the issue.


Well, you're right. I was beginning to suspect it too, but I was first busy looking into some other things. But indeed, providing {t,T}ext/{L,l}abels.txt makes the application run, I can choose a resolution and such, and after that it kindly displays a message that Cursor.ini cannot be found (Case sensitivity again).

I'm thinking what I'm going to do. But, case can be closed. Thanks for your help.

Berteun

I've found a work-around. I have made a diskimage (.dmg) (read/writable) and copied the complete directory structure into it (creating a disk image from a directory does not work as this 'inherits' the case sensitivity). Now I can mount that image and start Civ and it works. :)

Well done :thumbsup: I was going to suggest a separate case-insensitive partition or drive, but your disk image idea is neat.

Deleted. This was not a requirement for a NoCD solution, which are not discussed on this site.

Hi all,
I have a question. I don't know if it's a bug or me, but I've loaded bombers/fighters onto a carrier. Go out to sea/ocean to fight a war, but I can never initiate those planes to go off the boat. They just don't get selected on their turn like they do inside the city.
Please help, war can't wait. :)
Thanks.

Planes get fortified when the carrier they are on moves. Control click or right click the carrier and wake them up and/or tell them to go on a mission.

Thanks a lot, that worked. Also, discovered other features when I control click diff. items.

Control click seems to be the biggest secret on both Mac and Windows. Contextual menus were a big step forward in all applications, and they've been around for years. It amazes me that a lot of Windows users have never discovered the right click. Mac users at least have the excuse that they don't have a second mouse button. I have a two button mouse specifically so that I can right click.

Sorry for such a strange question. Just tonight I've found when I have my mouse over a particular piece of screen (near top, central) in CFC (no other websites ... yet), it suddenly plays a sound file of someone saying "don't just take our word for it". WTF? Is this some security bug of Safari, or what? It's really annoying when I'm listening to music! Does anyone know anything about this?

Junk advertisement. :thumbdown

Sorry for such a strange question. Just tonight I've found when I have my mouse over a particular piece of screen (near top, central) in CFC (no other websites ... yet), it suddenly plays a sound file of someone saying "don't just take our word for it". WTF? Is this some security bug of Safari, or what? It's really annoying when I'm listening to music! Does anyone know anything about this?
There are some very unpleasant Flash advertisements from time to time. A recent one played the cursed Crazy Frog ring tone at full volume regardless of how I set my sound controls. It only happened in Safari, Firefox seemed to be able to control it.

As a result of that I invested in a license for Pith Helmet, the Safari ad blocker and now I have a plain grey rectangle where the ads usually display.

And another seriously daft question! Is there a Mac equivalent of Paint - the thing where you draw individual pixels with a colour pallette, adn lines/circles/text/fill with colour etc as options? Sorry for this, but this thread is called Macintosh Tech Support! Do you work for a Genius Bar, AlanH? :) I want to play EPYC - see