Macintosh Tech Support/Game FAQ

[Sophie 378]

Oh, I give up, they all end up as expensive as buying in the shops , 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!

 

[AlanH]

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

 

[k-a-bob]

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

 

[tao]

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.

 

[AlanH]

.. 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 ....

 

[Berteun]

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

 

[AlanH]

Hello, welcome to MacCivFanatics

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?

 

[Berteun]

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

 

[AlanH]

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.

 

[Berteun]

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

 

[AlanH]

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!

 

[Berteun]

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

 

[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.

 

[AlanH]

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

 

[good&evil]

Moderator Action: Deleted. This was not a requirement for a NoCD solution, which are not discussed on this site.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[erikmmj]

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.

 

[AlanH]

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.

 

[erikmmj]

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

 

[AlanH]

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.

 

[Sophie 378]

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". WTH? 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?