Will civ3comlete work on new MacBook pro

[stwils]

I have a brand new MacBook Pro. Was distressed to hear civ3complete may not work on it. I have loved civ 3 for years and played it on my Dell windows xp and my old win. 98.

Am switching to a mac. But I want civ3 on my MacBook pro.

Can anyone help me? I was ready to order civ3cmplete then I read there might be a problem getting it to work on my new MacBook Pro. I am upset.

Stwils.

 

[AlanH]

There's no way a new MacBook Pro would fail on Civ3 Complete. Where did you hear that?

I have a 13" MBP with core2duo 2.66GHz CPU, 4GBytes RAM and a GeForce 320M GPU. It can run everything up to and including Civ5.

 

[stwils]

Thank you so much, Alan. I am so relieved. Will place my order tonight with Amazon.

Stwils

 

[AlanH]

Just a warning - when you run it, it will complain that your Mac doesn't meet the minimum requirements. This is simply because it doesn't recognise the Mac hardware and makes a worst-case assumption. Ignore the warning, it's a lie!

Oh! And when you have installed it from DVD, run it once, then quit (if it doesn't crash!), download and install the Rev A updater from Aspyr Support. That makes it an Intel-native application, and fixes some first-release issues.

 

[GamezRule]

Some utility programs will not work on a Mac.

 

[AlanH]

That's true of all Macs, but you can install Windows in a virtualization product like VirtualBox (free), Parallels or VMWare Fusion. Or you may be able to run tools in a Crossover (WINE) bottle that doesn't need a copy of Windows.

There isn't an official scenario editor for the Mac version, but Quintillus is developing a cross-platform (Java) editor that works for most stuff except the maps.

 

[stwils]

Alan, I do not want to put windows in any shape or form on my new MacBook pro. I have 2 good Dell xp computers, andvthe reason I got a Mac is to get away from spyware, etc, and anti virus software.

Stwils.

 

[AlanH]

What utility programs might you want to be able to use on your Mac? If none, then this is a non-problem.

If you want to be able to create your own maps or run CivAssist or MapStat or some "trainer" programs, then you will need one of the options I have described, or you can use one of your Dell's.

 

[Sima Qian]

CivAssist is a .NET program. If the source code weren't obfuscated (ahem), it shouldn't be that hard to get a reasonable subset of the functionality working under Mono on OS X.

Aside from the Java-based editor, which utility programs are known to work on OS X?

 

[stwils]

I'm not interested in modding anything. I just want to play the game as is. Will I have to download anything?

Stwils.

 

[AlanH]

Aside from the Java-based editor, which utility programs are known to work on OS X?

There was an old Java MapStat by Chiefaco that used to work with the old MacSoft vanilla Civ3, but I haven't tried it with Civ3 Complete. I doubt if it can handle the C3C file format without some modifications.

My FileValet (see sig) was originally a hack to compress and decompress saves, before Aspyr added compression in Rev A, and to clean up PBEM saves received from Windows players that can break on the Mac version. I believe it's still useful for the second purpose.

I'm not interested in modding anything. I just want to play the game as is. Will I have to download anything?

Only the Rev A patch from Aspyr Support

 

[stwils]

Alan, civ3complete arrived in my mailbox today.

It has been a total disaster. I got the message saying it would not work, then downloaded from aspyr the patch and installed the patch. Still got the message saying civ had unexpectedly quit. Reinstalled he patch. And they took my serial number. It finally played but without the opening - just went straight to the menu.

So I stopped to see if I could restart. I could not. Just kept getting the same message again. And then. Could not eject the disc because it said Aspyr was using it.fixed that. Ejected the disc and feel somewhat dismayed. Maybe I should just play "Angry Birds"on my macbook pro or go back to my Dells for Civ...

I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Stwils.

 

[AlanH]

Oh! And when you have installed it from DVD, run it once, then quit (if it doesn't crash!), download and install the Rev A updater from Aspyr Support. That makes it an Intel-native application, and fixes some first-release issues.

Emphasis added - did you follow exactly this process?

So I stopped to see if I could restart. I could not. Just kept getting the same message again.

What message was repeating?

(Angry Birds is a great game, but it gets a bit same-ey after the first few levels.)

 

[stwils]

Alan, Iam real disappointed. My experiences with all the civs (from civ1 to civ 4) have all been joyful from my old win. 98 even my ME laptop to my latest Dells win XP.I switched to a MacBook pro because I was sick of spyware. And I fell in love with the iPad.

But civ3 on the Mac is not the fun I thought it would be. I finally downloaded it to my desktop. So I have a copy on my HD and another on the desktop. I have to constantly fiddle with it. Then it runs. The music skips a little. And sometimes (I think it is when I play it from my HD -?not sure) the screen is dark through the intro then does fine for game play.

Something is not quite right.

I get messages before the game comes on and I constsntly click retry.

It is not the fun experience that it was with Windows, yet I think that may be my fault,- I must be doing something wrong...

Stwils.

 

[AlanH]

It runs as smooth as silk on my 2009 MacBookPro 13", which is probably a lower spec than yours.

Are you sure you installed it correctly? Windows users sometimes have trouble with Mac installations, as they don't all use wizards. In this case you just have to drag the Civ4 folder from the DVD to your Applications folder. Then double click the Civ4 application icon in the copied folder to launch it.

It *may* be worth trashing your current copy(s) and starting fresh. You would need to trash the preferences file as well. That's ~/Library/Preferences/com.aspyr.civ3conquests.plist where '~' means your Home folder.

 

[Redman]

Just a warning - when you run it, it will complain that your Mac doesn't meet the minimum requirements. This is simply because it doesn't recognise the Mac hardware and makes a worst-case assumption. Ignore the warning, it's a lie!

Oh! And when you have installed it from DVD, run it once, then quit (if it doesn't crash!), download and install the Rev A updater from Aspyr Support. That makes it an Intel-native application, and fixes some first-release issues.

I just tried to install Civ Complete and got a message that the version doesn't support powerpc anymore. Should I download the patch?

Problem with this is the fact that it won't let me install Complete in the first place..?

 

[AlanH]

If you have an old DVD copy, then it, and its installer, arePowerPC only. If you are running a recent version of Mac OS X, then it cannot run PowerPC software, so you can't install your old version and patch it. You will have to contact Aspyr to get an installer for the current Intel-compatible software.

If you have bought the downloadable software from Aspyr, then it should be the current Intel-compatible version.

 

[Redman]

Thanks AlanH