SMAC for Intel Mac: Can I make this work?

[RiotGearEpsilon]

I have a Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri disc. I have an intel mac with a 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo and 512 MB ram, OS 10.4.9. I sincerely and truly desire to play this thing, but I have a couple problems:

The application is in classic, and thus won't run on my intel mac. Likewise for the INSTALLER.

Can anyone help me get this thing running on my 'puter? :C

 

[Chairman Meow]

Not sure how to get the Mac version running... the Windows version can be run in Qemu, though, which is how I play Alpha Centauri on my Macbook.

 

[beetle]

After Civ III was such a disappointment, I went back to playing Alpha Centauri for a while on a late generation PowerBook. There is a Carbon patch floating around, so I did not need to launch Classic in order to play. I do not have an Intel Mac to test, but presumably this would work for you. You still have the problem of installing however. Do you have a friend with PowerPC Mac? You could put your Intel Mac into target disk mode for the installation and then install the Carbon patch yourself. As a bonus, AC plays fine from a disc image, so you can put the CDROM away for safe keeping.

 

[vyeh]

The carbon patch worked fine for 10.2. As I upgraded to 10.3 and then to 10.4, I notices that I got more crashes from my carbon patch. Now I use classic (its too bad, the carbon patches were significantly faster).

 

[SeleucusNicator]

Install Boot Camp, create a Windows partition, and play the PC version on your Intel Mac. Probably the easiest way to do it.

 

[beetle]

Install Boot Camp, create a Windows partition, and play the PC version on your Intel Mac. Probably the easiest way to do it.

Um, Chairman Meow already suggested Qemu, and while Boot Camp is a little more straightforward, it requires XP and it is silly to have to boot Windows just for SMAC. Besides, RiotGearEpsilon mentions Classic, so clearly he has only a Mac disc. Neither Qemu nor Boot Camp will help with that!

OTOH is SMAC for Mac still going for $100+ on eBay?

 

[beetle]

The carbon patch worked fine for 10.2. As I upgraded to 10.3 and then to 10.4, I notices that I got more crashes from my carbon patch. Now I use classic (its too bad, the carbon patches were significantly faster).

Are you sure you are using the last version? Until this weekend, I don’t think I played SMAX since 10.2. I was pleasantly surprised to find I still had installed, but it ran just fine under 10.4.10! Like you, I am on a PowerPC, I have no idea if Rosetta makes things tricker.

 

[vyeh]

Are you sure you are using the last version? Until this weekend, I don’t think I played SMAX since 10.2. I was pleasantly surprised to find I still had installed, but it ran just fine under 10.4.10! Like you, I am on a PowerPC, I have no idea if Rosetta makes things tricker.

Yes. Everything I could download from Firaxis and SMAX installed on top of that.

As far as I know, there was only one version of the Carbon version of both SMAC and SMAX and it is no longer available for download on the net.

I tend to really push the software (100s of cities & formers), so I may be subject to crashes you wouldn't see. The same game that would crash from a saved game in Carbon would do fine under Classic.

 

[beetle]

Yes. Everything I could download from Firaxis and SMAX installed on top of that.

As far as I know, there was only one version of the Carbon version of both SMAC and SMAX and it is no longer available for download on the net.

I tend to really push the software (100s of cities & formers), so I may be subject to crashes you wouldn't see. The same game that would crash from a saved game in Carbon would do fine under Classic.

Ugh, I hate managing that many cities! Is the early game bug free for you?

Actually, there was a third Carbon patch (beta) that Brad Oliver released. They were never on the the Firaxis site, nor anywhere else AFAIK. (One more reason I am bitter.) One can still find them, but they are obscure. Brad now works for Apple, so who knows if he will be able to keep them posted?

My version of SMAC Carbon is 1.5.3b3 and SMACX Carbon is 1.2.2b3. What is yours? There was a second beta (b2) that had the advantage of not asking for the CDROM and the b3 apparently adds back in multi-player, but I do not believe the changes are terribly well documented.