Re-Installing CIV IV

[SCBrain]

Dear All,

I once had Civ IV and the two expansion disks, and I'd like to play again. But I cannot find the Civ IV vanilla disc any longer- just the Warlords and BTS disks. Is there a way to install them now on OS X 10.12? It appears that Civ IV vanilla cannot be installed on the OS 10.12, so even if I bought an used disk from Amazon.com, it could not be installed.

Put another way: is buying Civ IV Complete on Steam the only way to play Civ IV again on a modern, updated Mac?

SCB

 

[Xyth]

I once had Civ IV and the two expansion disks, and I'd like to play again. But I cannot find the Civ IV vanilla disc any longer- just the Warlords and BTS disks. Is there a way to install them now on OS X 10.12? It appears that Civ IV vanilla cannot be installed on the OS 10.12, so even if I bought an used disk from Amazon.com, it could not be installed.

Vanilla Civ4 can be installed, but it won't run. Installing it is necessary to install or run either of the expansions though.

Put another way: is buying Civ IV Complete on Steam the only way to play Civ IV again on a modern, updated Mac?

No, but it's definitely the easiest and most future-proof way. The AppStore version doesn't support the expansions. Disc versions of Civ4 still require the disc to be in the drive (which most Macs no longer have). When Yosemite broke all versions of Civ4 for Mac, Aspyr only fixed the Steam version (many months later).

 

[SCBrain]

Dear Xyth,

Thanks for the reply, and for helping so many people on this board. I actually got Civ IV vanilla to run on OS 10.12. I backed up an old digital download from Amazon long ago, and I just found the DVD, along with the unlock code from Amazon. Copied the whole thing to the desktop from the DVD, performed the steps you suggested (python and alias of Civ script) and it works! Tomorrow I will try installing BTS from disk. I am doubtful it will work - but any tips on installing BTS from disk to 10.12?

SCB

 

[Xyth]

Tomorrow I will try installing BTS from disk. I am doubtful it will work - but any tips on installing BTS from disk to 10.12?

I don't know of any reasons why it shouldn't install. Good luck!

 

[SCBrain]

Sadly, I got an error message when trying to install from the BTS disk

 

[Xyth]

Sadly, I got an error message when trying to install from the BTS disk

I think that's related to either Gatekeeper or System Integrity Protection (aka Rootless, what you needed to switch off to apply the Python fix). Try disabling one or both temporarily and then running the installer. Alternatively you can try a tool like Pacifist to extract the files manually.

 

[SCBrain]

Thanks Xyst.

Maybe I'll try that.
Or maybe Ill just wait until the Steam copy goes on sale. It isn't always $30, right?

SCB