PC/Mac support/patches

[Mavfin]

This is not a poke at Westlake/Macsoft, BTW. They're only doing what they're contracted to do. I've been playing another '3' game lately that was:

A) released Mac simultaneously with the PC version and
B) patched at the same time on the Mac as the PC

For the record, I have all of Blizzard's games, in dual versions. And the above mentioned things are the main reason why. They even put out an OSX update for D2 with or without LOD.

It made me remember why I haven't played Civ3 for a while, in disgust with Infogrames perceived lack of support/lack of forethought on Mac support of the game they were publishing.

I hope that IF there is a PTW Mac port, that more thought is given to releasing and patching the game a little closer together than at present, especially with PCs on 1.29, and Mac users not even knowing if they'll get there at all. No answer has been made on that yet.

That said, Civ3 does play just fine on my old G4/500, 512 MB with Jaguar. Radeon 32 DDR Mac Edition

 

[Daelda]

Blizzard does have the advantage of an 'in-house' Mac port team. They don't have to send it out to another company. This gives them much better ability to keep patch parity. Unfortunately, they are one of the few companies with this kind of a set-up.

 

[Mavfin]

That is true, David. I just was using them as an example that should be a little more closely followed than the current situation. Basically, right now I feel cheated by Infogrames lack of support/forethought on Mac patches. I now have a game with which I can't play SGs with the Civ3 community at large, because my patchlevel is a step behind them, and am being told that it may not be brought to parity except possibly as part of an expansion port that I'd have to buy, and then of course, I wonder if parity will be any better on PTW if it comes to Mac. I looked forward to being able to play SGs with the RBD crowd every bit as much as the Mac mod-making community looks forward to the editor....

Westlake/Macsoft/Brad Oliver have done a great job for us, and I thank them for their efforts. Unfortunately, Infogrames is not currently on my buy/recommend list for Mac games, as the follow-through on this one by the publisher is abysmal so far. Unless they show some intent to do things differently on a Mac PTW port, I won't be buying it. I'm from Missouri. They're going to have to show me.

Oh, and Blizz is announcing a new project tomorrow, BTW.

 

[Hellfire]

Some of the "port" companies can actually get a simultaneous release if the original game company can properly cooperate with the port company. Myth III, the last installment of the Myth series was sold to another company when Bungie was bought by M$. They contracted the Mac stuff to a porting company. Because the other versions has simultaneous released it would have been a bad idea to mess up the trend.

Part of the contract problem is that Westlake is getting all the information AFTER its fully released by Firaxis. Firaxis says "okay its done on the PC and it looks good, here westlake knock yourself out." Then westlake has to go work on it.

If more investment was made before releasing to coordinate code releases between both companies, which is more possible with in house mac divisions, simultaneous releases are possible.

I wish Brad could comment on this, but I don't think he is allowed.

 

[dojoboy]

"I find it sadly ironic, that, when playing Americans, the first civilization you have to dominate are usually the Iroquois."

Hey, they were divided and conquered by the English & Colonial rebels.

I do hope 1.29f comes along one day, as well as the expansion. However, I instituted a master plan. At school, I began a Civ3 Club. So, I needed the PC version for my school laptop. Wa-la, 1.29f after a quick download on the school's high-speed server. No, I didn't really begin the club for this reason, but it was a bonus.

 

[elpadrino87]

I was wondering, what is the latest patch that still works on OS 9.0? I'm still stuck playing version 1.16f of civ III, and until i can afford to upgrade to jaguar, i want to download a patch that has at least some fixed bugs.

Also, how do you go about running the patch? i tried it once with 1.17g, but i couldn't figure out how.

 

[dojoboy]

Originally posted by elpadrino87
I was wondering, what is the latest patch that still works on OS 9.0? I'm still stuck playing version 1.16f of civ III, and until i can afford to upgrade to jaguar, i want to download a patch that has at least some fixed bugs.

Also, how do you go about running the patch? i tried it once with 1.17g, but i couldn't figure out how.

The latest patch is 1.21g which can be found at Infogrames (search patches) or here at CFC's patch download page (look on the main page). Simply download it and click on it. It is the installer.

There are a list of all Infogrames files for free download at the below site. Just scroll down until you find the mac 1.21g patch. Its about 7 MB in size. You definitely want this patch.

ftp://ftp.infogrames.net/