SMAX on Mac OSX

[jonan73]

Hello
I just came across this board, read a couple of posts and it brought great memories of SMAC & SMAX.
I tried a couple of years ago to re-install it on my mac, just to find out there was no way it would work.
Has anyone come across a solution/idea to play this game on a recent mac (using OX 10.4 or 10.5)?
Many thanks for a hopefully positive answer
Jonan

 

[vyeh]

Look at this thread.

The latest carbon can be found at The Brad Hole.

You can find the Data, Movies in a folder on the SMAC disk and Add-On Data and Add-On-Movies on the SMAX disk. My folder structure looks like this:

Alpha Centauri
-Add-On Data f
-Add-On Movies f
-Alien Crossfire application
-Alpha Centauri application
-Data f
-Hall of Fame (it will be created by the application)
-Maps f
--planet.MP (SMAC map of planet, must be in the installer)
--planetx.MP (SMAC huge map of planet, must be in the installer)
--xplanet.mp (SMAX map of planet, on SMAX disk)
--xplanetx.mp (SMAX huge map of planet, on SMAX disk)
-Saves f (will be created by application)
-Scenarios f (you will create this when you have downloaded a scenario)
-Temp f (believe this is created by the application)

So I think you can re-install without access to a PPC and classic.

If you have a PPC, just use classic to install, download the carbon into your Alpha Centauri folder and you can play without ever going back to classic.

You only need the maps if you want to play on the Map of the Planet for SMAC.

Let me know how it works out.

Are you registered on www.apolyton.net? While many of us (Petek, Maniac, myself) checked both forums, there may be Mac players on 'poly who do not check this forum and may be able to help you.

 

[baldwin]

Hi,

I have been playing smac since it came out, but originally played it on a pc and have a windows copy. I switched to mac a few years ago and went for a while without playing it (and became strangely more productive). After a while I couldn't resist and set out to find a way to play it. I originally thought downloading the aspyr version would work but alas I have an intel macbook pro and it was no go.

So, my solution was to download Sun's Virtualbox (which is free, www.virtualbox.org) and install a copy of xp sp2 (must be at least sp2) on my mac. It was easier than boot camp because it can just run in a window within mac os. This is nice because I can do other things while playing, especially utilizing spaces in leopard.

Smac works great in this setup, but unfortunately I haven't been able to get smacx to work. I'm still trying to figure that out. I think it may have something to do with my particular copy of windows.

Of course this is only of use to you if you have a windows copy of smac and a copy of xp sp2 (of course these things may be had without too much difficulty).

I suppose you could install os 9 in the virtualbox as well if that is an option for you, as vb supports a wide range of oses (not sure if os 9 is one of them unfortunately). This may mean that this could be a solution for linux users as well. Running windows or an older version of linux (for those with the rare and seemingly extinct loki smac) in a virtualbox in a new version of linux might do the trick.

Hopefully this will help someone. It is better to have some alpha centauri than none at all.

 

[Stromboli]

Is there a way to run the game without using the CD? I have it, but when I play, my CD drive becomes obnoxiously loud and it's kinda slow.

I've done it before with civ III, so I'm wondering if this is possible with the patch.

 

[marshmallowcrew]

Hi I'm new here and I'm trying to play SMAC on my mac. I don't really care if it's SMAC or SMACX I just really would like to play.

I have OS 10.4.11, Macbook 2GHz Core 2 Duo with 1GB of Ram.

I have all the SMAC stuff installed, and pretty much exactly what vyeh has in his folder. There are big no symbols over the "Alpha Centauri" app and the "Alien Crossfire" app.

My question is more with the Carbon. I downloaded the Carbon from Brad's site which is: "SMAC_Carbon_b3.sit". Is that right? I move this into my "SMAC Installed" folder which houses the SMAC's app, etc. Then I double click the carbon file and it's supposed to work?

When I move it into the folder and then click the carbon file all that happens is it asks me which application to open it with. I also read to possibly change it to .app. But when I do that it says "You cannot open the application because it is not supported on this system"

Am I doing something wrong? I've moved the carbon patch into the folder so it seems like I'm following the directions exactly, what is the problem? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[marshmallowcrew]

Okay I'm sorry, I figured that i needed to unstuff the .sit file, but now the game crashes after I watch the fraxis logo.

I've realized if i spam the esc key enough I bypass the intro video and it goes to the main menu, but none of the menu bars pop up from the side of the screen. All that happens is i can see the background and the music plays. When I click anywhere it gives me the little "error sound" but if I push esc then enter it quits me out of the game...

Anybody know what would be causing this?

 

[vyeh]

Is your MacBook Intel?

I suspect that Brad's carbon is PPC, rather than universal.

This is my directory structure, check the info for your two applications.

Alpha Centauri folder
-Add-On Data subfolder
-Add-On Movies subfolder
-Data subfolder
-Hall of Fame subfolder
-Maps subfolder
-Saves subfolder
-Scenarios subfolder
-SMAC Carbon App (PowerPC Ver 1.5.3b3, modified Sep 23, 2003)
-SMACX Carbon App (PowerPC Ver 1.2.2b3, modified Sep 23, 2003)
-Temp subfolder

 

[marshmallowcrew]

I really appreciate the reply, after about an hour of tinkering I figured out that the carbon application files weren't in the right spot. The game is now working and I just finished my first one . I'm sad that I can't really watch the movies of the secret projects but that's a miniscule problem compared to actually playing the damn game. Thank you for the help

 

[vyeh]

You're welcome. I think the movies are on youtube.