Civ 3 Complete does NOT work on Leopard??

[stevemcf18]

Hi All! I am new to the forums, and am having problems running Civ 3 Complete on my Mac as well...

I just installed Civ 3 complete on my powerbook 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (Mac OSX 10.5.2 ) with 2 GB of Memory...but amazingly when I try to run Civ 3, I get this error message:

"Civilizaiton 3 Complete recommends a PowerPC processor running at 500MHz or faster.

Yor computer does not meet the recommended processor speed requirement. Game play will suffer as a result. Technical Support will not be able to assist you"

The game then quits, but if I hold down command i can bypass this screen and get to the options. It will allow me to play if I play within a window instead of full screen. I noticed however that when I am running the game, it seems to be taking up large amount of CPU, sometimes as much as 80 or 90 percent. When I check the box to use less memory, it trickles down to about 60, which still seems really high.

I figured the universal patch might help with this, but I haven't been able to download it yet because the fastest it can download is 2.5K/sec (my connection speed isnt' the problem), so it might never finish downloading!

Has anyone experienced similar problems? I'm glad the game seems to be working, but it doesn't seem to be optimal. Does anyone have tips to get everything firing on all cylinders?

 

[MAS]

The speed problems will be solved with the universal patch, but you'll still need to play it in a window. This has something to do with newer video card drivers dropping compatibility with older versions, from what I understand.

You could open a ticked on Aspyr's support page, if they receive enough support request from different costumers they'll be more likely to spend a few more resources on fixing it.

But the first thing they will tell you is to install the UB patch, so asking for support is useless if you don't do that first.

It is possible to download the patch from here (click on the link that has "(mac)" behind it) Maybe that will go faster than from MacGameFiles?

 

[stevemcf18]

Hi MAS-

Thanks for the response. I was finally able to download the patch, but then quickly ran into another problem....When I am installing the patch, it gets stuck about 5 percent of the way through: "Installing...OpenPlay.rsrc..." I saw in another forum another guy had a similar problem with the same version of OSX, but no one had found a solution for it. One person had proposed copying the installer to the desktop and then trying it, but I ran into the same problem as well. Have you come across this problem yet? Thanks again for any ideas.

As for playing in a window, it's definitely much better than playing on my 5-year old iBook on the old version of Civ 3!

 

[AlanH]

When this problem first came up I contacted Aspyr, and they recommended (a) not using Safari to download the updater and (b) copying the installer out of the disk image onto the desktop before running it.

The first one seems a little suspicious to me, but maybe it's worth trying Firefox.

The second one is definitely required in OS X 10.5.2. Note that you have to copy the installer out of the disk image to the desktop. It's no good just mounting the disk image from the desktop.

 

[MAS]

I currently have no problems with C3C myself other than being forced to play it in a window.

My only suggestion is to try putting the patch installer in the same directory as the conquest app. (copying the patch installer app itself, not the .dmg file) I know it has nothing to do with each other, but this is the only way I got the Civ4 patch to work. Its worth a try.

EDIT: Ninja'd by AlanH...

 

[stevemcf18]

Hi Mas and Alan-

Thanks for the tips. I copied the patch installer (after re-downloading with firefox) into the Civ 3 Complete folder and fired up the installer. Same problem where it's getting stuck on OpenPlay.rsrc. Tried the Conquests folder and same thing. Is there a certain way I need to do this other than just dragging it in the folder, or I am just out of luck here. I'll probably give the Aspyr tech support a shot as well, but would definitely welcome any other ideas you guys might have! Really want to get onto the new patch, so hopefully we can crack this thing. Thank again in advance for any ideas!

One more thing. On my most recent attempt to install the patch, after canceling the install, my Civ 3 Complete became unopenable. It gets a white icon with a circle with a bar through it and when I double-click the app it says "you can't open the application "Civilization 3 Complete" because it is not supported on this architecture." Weird. It only started happening today after I tried installing the patch from the Civ 3 Complete Folder.

-Steve-

 

[MAS]

If you drag the installer from the .dmg file to the C3C folder, then it automatically copy's because you are dragging it from one volume to an other, and data can on only be copied between volumes.

An utterly wild random guess: its the patch from atomicgamer.com that is corrupt or something, and only the one from MacGameFiles works? (or did you manage to download it from MGF after all? )

 

[stevemcf18]

Right, I open the dmg file and just drag the install app into the civ 3 folder. It still gets stuck at the same point, but now the problem with Civ 3 not even being able to open appears. I have to reinstall the game just to be able to open it.

I actually was able to download from MGF. The slow download speed finally picked up. I even downloaded a second time after discarding the original, to see if it made any difference. I tried a few times to get it from AtomicGamer, but the site was down...

I opened a ticket with Aspyr last night so hopefully they will give some helpful advice, but from what i have heard I tried all the steps they told someone else with the same problem!

In any case, I noticed when i trying to play a multiplayer game that I only had an option for Play by email, Hot seat, or LAN. Do I need to install the patch to enable the option for "Internet" games? Thanks again, MAS and Alan for your help in trying to get these problems figured out. I guess it's probably wishful thinking that Civ 3 is ever going to be released specifically for the Intel Macs?...I tried the Civ 4 demo, but I was a bit overwhelmed with all the changes. It just felt like a totally new game to me, instead of a continuation of the current game. Anyways, maybe I just need to get used to it, but for now I wanna stick to Civ 3, assuming i can get it to work correctly...

 

[AlanH]

. I guess it's probably wishful thinking that Civ 3 is ever going to be released specifically for the Intel Macs?

Not wishful thinking at all! The Rev A patch makes it a Universal Binary, which means it contains native code for both CPU technologies. My copy runs fine on my Mac Pro w. NVidia 8800, in a window, or in full screen mode at 1280x1024.

 

[MAS]

Civ4 is a totally new game. I mean, its still a civilization game, but its not Civ3 version 2.0!

They redesigned the rules from scratch.

And I agree with AlanH, the universal patch is called that way because it makes the game compatible with Intell! So your wish is already fulfilled.
(though my my MacPro with nVidia8800 isn't able to run the game in full screen mode. Yours can? what gives?)

 

[stevemcf18]

Alan-

Right, I guess I was distinguishing between being able to just pop it in and play and having to through all sorts of trouble to get updated. Since Civ is pretty much the only game I play, I am not too experienced with dealing with these sort of issues. I was just hoping to pop it in and not have to do anything else.

In any case, I'll post when I hear something from Aspyr support and keep trying to get this patch installed, one way or another!

MAS-

Since I was kinda out of the loop for a few years, I guess I didn't realize how different Civ 4 was, so it was just a bit shocking to me. I need to play the full version I suppose before I can really make a judgment on the game...

 

[AlanH]

(though my my MacPro with nVidia8800 isn't able to run the game in full screen mode. Yours can? what gives?)

Remind me what happens when you try? Is it just that you have one of these massive screens?

 

[MAS]

Remind me what happens when you try? Is it just that you have one of these massive screens?

I just tested it, and it appears to work fine.

I don't understand, I changed to windowed mode because I had problems getting it to work otherwise (but I don't remember what exactly happened) and never changed it again until I just tested it again. And now it works fine...

I guess its an nVidia Vodoo.

 

[AlanH]

I like problems that just disappear

 

[stevemcf18]

So i installed Civ 3 Complete on my old iBook with Mac OSX 10.39, downloaded the patch, installed it successfully, and then used the Migration Assistant on my new MacBook to transfer it. That got the job done, although the game still does seem to be running a little hot. How much of the CPU is it supposed to consume? Mine was consistently in the 70s and it felt like the computer was cranking too hard.

Anyway, glad to be finally running on the up to date version. Thanks everyone for the help!

 

[AlanH]

It runs at about 40% of one core on my Mac Pro. Have you started it with the Command key down to open the dialog where you can select display options? That dialog includes a box "Use less CPU power if possible", which you might want to check if you haven't already.