Civ 3, Leopard, Aspyr, WTH!?!

[pkc47]

Okay. Here's the skinny. I bought Civ III Complete. I installed it on my Macbook. It didn't work. I downloaded the patch. It wouldn't install. I contacted Aspyr. They sent me the following instructions:

What I am going to have you do it called a Manual install of the patch and it will be fairly easy.

-The first thing you need to do is completely uninstall Civilization 3.

To remove Civilization III: Complete, drag the "Civ III Complete" folder on your Mac HD to the trash. Then locate the Civilization III: Complete preferences file named "com.aspyr.civ3conquests.plist" located in Home/Library/Preferences and the "Civilization III Complete" folder located in Home/Library/Application Support and drag both of these to the trash.

-Then reinstall the game into your "Applications" folder.
-Then download the .DMG file from here:

http://files.aspyr.com/support/Civilization3_Mac_1.22RevA_ManualInstall.dmg

This file will contain the following:
1. A replacement .app for Civilization 3 Complete.
2. A replacement .app for Civilization 3 Play the World
3. A replacement read-me.
4. Instructions on how to install.

All you need to do is follow the "how to install" instructions.

To manually install version 1.22 Rev A, follow these steps:

1.Locate and open the "Civ III Complete" game folder on your computer.

2.Copy the new "Civilization 3 Complete Rev A Read Me" and "Civilization 3 Complete" application into your game folder. You will be asked to replace the existing copy of "Civilization 3 Complete" application.

3.Copy "Civilization 3 Play the World" application into your "Unsupported Extras" folder, replacing the existing copy.

4.Optionally, if you have a copy of "Civilization 3 Play the World" installed in your main "Civ 3 Complete" folder, then copy "Civilization 3 Play the World" into there as well.

This should get Civ. 3 working for you.

I did this. I tried to run Civ III Complete. It still doesn't work. This game came out a half decade ago and I can't get my computer to run it. Are you serious? Any help would be appreciated, but at this point I'm thinking it's a lost cause. This is the first time I've ever been sorry that I own a Mac.

 

[AlanH]

Hi

Please note that we are *NOT* Aspyr, and we aren't paid by them. We are a bunch of amateurs who try to help each other, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. Aspyr should have definitive answers to your problems, and if they don't work then we are not likely to know better than them.

However, with that disclaimer, I have two questions that I hope Aspyr Support might have asked:

1. You don't say what happened when you tried to run the original installed copy of Civ3. How far did it get? Did you get a crash repot? And is that any different when you try the manually upgraded version that Aspyr sent?

2. Please can you tell us whether this problem is very recent? Specifically, there seems to be an issue with the recent Mac OS update to Quicktime version 7.6. If this update had already been installed on your Mac before the problems started then it *might* be the cause - although most of the QT 7.6 problems are reported by users with Tiger, not Leopard.

 

[pkc47]

No offense intended, if any was taken. I'm just frustrated because I'd like to be able to play an old game and it's not going very smoothly to say the least.

In answer to your questions, I'm on Leopard and when I initially ran C3C it told me that it was intended for Power PC...blah, blah, blah 500 Mhz...etc. I ignored that because I knew I needed Patch Rev A 1.22. However, after it didn't install I got in touch with Aspyr who gave me the instructions in the original post. Anyway, I'm running 10.5.6 and my quicktime is as up to date as possible (as far as I know). When I try to run C3C the icon bounces in the dock and then just disappears. No error message or crash report. I would try opening it windowed if I knew how to do that, which I don't. Does that help?

 

[AlanH]

I wasn't offended , I was just concerned that you might think we have answers as good or authoritative as those you can get from Aspyr.

Are you saying that you were able to run Civ3 before you applied the Rev A patch? It should have run, albeit a bit slower, as it would be using Rosetta.

After the patch is applied, the symptoms you describe are suspiciously like the ones being reported in connection with the recent QuickTime update. Please can you check that you have this update? You can do this by selecting QuickTime Player in the Applications folder in Finder, right clicking and selecting Get Info. If the Version says 7.6 you have that update.

I would then be suspicious that you are suffering from a widespread problem being discussed here (not much, because we don't have many active Mac Civ3 players), and more so in the Civ4 forum. Work is in progress on tracking down fixes, but some people are having success with either (a) a fresh installation of QuickTime from Apple's web site or (b) an archive/install of the OS. The former is, of course, a less major task. The Civ4 threads discussing this are here, here, and here.

BTW. If you do ever get it going, you cn bring the display selection dialog up by launching with the Option key held down. That allows you to select windowed mode, which of multiple monitors to run it on, and what resolution to use.

 

[pkc47]

Okay. I went to Apple's site and downloaded Quicktime 7.6 from them (even though I already had it). After I did that, I started up C3C and wonder of wonders (pun intended) it worked and I was able to start a game and play a few turns. Thanks for your help Alan.

 

[AlanH]

Chalk one up for Team CFC. Maybe you'd like to tell Aspyr Support what you've done to fix it?

 

[red_fox]

Hi guys, I am having the same problem with my CivIII Complete (it crashes before really trying to open-doesn't even get to the point of searching for the CD). I am running Tiger, 10.4.11 and CivIII worked fine until I installed the last quicktime update. I have re-installed CivIII, deleted preferences etc., re-installed quicktime after downloading it from apple.com and followed the instuctions above re: manually installing the Rev A update all to no avail (btw, that download is 125mb). Can you make any other suggestions?
Please help, I miss conquering the world.

 

[AlanH]

Hi, welcome

Sorry, I don't have the problem myself, so all I can do is point you at the solutions others have tried. A full archive/install of OS X has fixed it for some Civ4 players. See the links in my previous post.

 

[elpablo]

Hey everyone, Aspyr has a bug fix here for this problem.

...The specific problem this fixed for me was that after installing QuickTime 7.6 on Mac OS X 10.4.11 (Intel), my Civ3 stopped working. When starting it, it would just bounce the icon in the dock a couple of times and then it would disappear again, without ever bringing up a window or really trying to start the game.

I hate it when updates break older software
...hope this helps someone out!!

 

[AlanH]

Welcome

Well spotted, but you obviously didn't check the top sticky thread in this forum