Installing Diablo II on Leopard w/OS X Native Installer...

Same problem for me too!

MacBook - 2.2 Ghz - 4GB Ram

And I'm sad because I wanted to play all of a sudden again after seeing the D3 announcement. 😟

Hello all

The problem is coming from both Leopard patches (from X.5.2 to X.5.3), and your material.
As said in the discussion mentionned earlier (by Ogmios, page 6, on 6/19/2008, in http://www.battle.net/forums/thread.aspx?FN=support&T=535843&P=6 )

"Blizzard will not be able to fix this. The 256 color palate is missing for nvidia and intel graphic chips in the 10.5.3, it started with the MBP in 10.5.2 and has branched out to more Apple platforms: [...]"

And, in fact, Diablo II crashes when I want to run it on my MacBook: I check the Monitor preferences and see that "256 colours" or "Thousands" colour mode is not listed by the OS. Video card is Intel GMA

Then, on my iMac (from August 2007, with OS X.5.3), with an ATI video card, both "256 colours" and "Thousands" colour mode are proposed. There, Diablo II runs perfectly.

Little add-on: at first, run Diablo II with the "software video mode". Then , via Battle.NET, upgrade the game to the last patch (1.0.12 actually I guess). From this patch, you can run Diablo II with "Open GL"

Same here, really got the urge to play again after seeing all the d3 stuff. Fix please!

what's the best way for us to bring this up with Apple then? I'm presuming that all these threads aren't actively monitored, so do we need to contact them another way?

I've sent the error report from the software crashing, but I've no idea if that actually goes anywhere.

So what I gather from this is that any mac that does not have 256 color display option in the Display system preference pane will not be able to launch DII? Like many others I was inspired to dig through my old CD cabinet to find my DII discs after seeing the DIII announcement and I successfully installed the game using Blizzard's carbon installer and patched it to 1.12a. Even after all this the game crashes immediately upon launching just as others have described. This is really disappointing. Is this issue something Intel has to fix or is this Apple's problem?

Yup same problem here. I used Blizzards new digital download service through their blizzard.com/store service. It's pretty slick in that you just create an account with the store, enter your CD keys from the original retail copies and the game is available for digital download.

BUt alas I'm having the same issues as every one else (Exception Codes: KERN PROTECTIONFAILURE at 0x0000000000000000). From what I can gather it's the lack of 256bit color support in 10.5.4 (and previous versions of Leopard) so I'm not sure if this is going to get fixed. It's annoying for sure, because like everyone else, I've totally caught the D3 fever, and wanted to play D2 to tide me over.

Warcraft3 works great on my MacBook, Starcraft worked great on my iBook, but I can't get that to work on my new MacBook either. Sign, might just have to wait it out...

I was able to get Diablo II installed and running with a little fussing around. Basically you have to downgrade your video drivers to the last version that supported 256colors. Go to System Preferences->Displays and see if you have an option(even if greyed out) for 256colors. If you do not have the option, this might work for you. From what I understand this works on 10.5.3, but not too well on 10.5.4.

_First install D2 using the native installer from blizzard_, apply the patch if you want, but you don't have to, it will update automatically when you connect to battle.net the first time.

_Second, download and install Pacifist_ http://www.charlessoft.com/

_Third, download the old drivers from apple_, http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/leopardgraphicsupdate10.html

_Open the driver package and go to: Contents of....pkg->System->Library->Extensions_

_Right click on Extensions and select "Install to Default Location"_ I personally backed up my Extensions directory before doing this, just to be sure(browse to MacHD->System->Library->Extensions and make a copy of the folder)

_Restart your computer_

_Start up DiabloII_, when the options window comes up you know it worked, I had to set my install to run in software rendering mode(click Configure Video and use the "Test" button) and I was able to use 600x800. The graphics weren't perfect, but it was smooth and playable for sure.

originally from: http://www.aptgetupdate.de/en/index.php/2008/07/01/diablo-2-unter-mac-os-x-1053- bzw-1054-loesung/

Message was edited by: tbartels

I wouldn't recommend doing this unless you absolutely know what you're doing.

When it says that it doesn't work well with 10.5.4 I found that out to be it doesn't work, at least not with my setup.

Anyway I figured that copying the files back over the extentions would take me back to the 10.5.4 update and I'd just wait for another solution.

No such look

I've just broke my Mac.

I get a Kernal error on boot up now, which tells me to reboot.

I'm not that up on fixing macs so I'm stuck with a duff laptop now. My install discs are about 12,000km away too. Dang.

Anyone got any ideas on how I can fix this problem? Maybe I should start a separate thread to ask.

Anyway, don't do this hack unless you're aware of the possible mess ups it can produce.

Ouch. I won't be hacking...

I'm kind'a bummed cuz I haven't played DII for (I don't know) 7 to 8 years now. Got feeling nostalgic with DIII and just paid $20 for DII that is about a half gig through download right now. Don't know what problems I'll run into, but I was looking forward to playing tonight...

I tried this, half out of curiosity. All it got me was laggy, stuttering graphics in every-day OSX functioning, and a still-failing Diablo 2 launcher. I restored the files, rebooted, and everything went back to normal.
Note to those attempting this: dragging the backed-up files +did not work+, citing some permissions error (forget the specifics). I had to go through the terminal, and do a recursive `cp` through sudo to get past the permissions. If you don't know how to do this, +do not attempt it+. Changing system files is a bit too risky for people who don't know their way around a Unix terminal to at least some degree.
Unless, of course, you like reinstalling the operating system to fix a problem like this.

Message was edited by: Steven Littiebrant

OK - going about it a bit differently that most cuz I downloaded after purchase (today) from the website. I had NO issue at all. After download the install window popped up. After installation the play window popped up. I set colors on the display to "thousands" and clicked play. Been killin' crap for the last couple hours...

Greets from Russia. Thanks alot for your solution! I've got the same problems and now can solve it. So I've made a translation for russian users. It's right here - http://www.webwizards.ru/archives/28

Cheers, Roman

Has anyone tried running it under SheepShaver and Mac OS 8.x or 9? I'm going to get a new MacBook Pro soon, and I just realized D2 probably won't install since I have original D2 disks that are Pre-OS X... and Intel Macs don't support Classic. Looks like that's not even my biggest problem reading these threads.

I AM SO FRUSTRATED!!!!! Diablo II was working fine up until a few days ago. I have tried everything, and nothing works! For all of the money that I paid for this computer, the setbacks and limitations have been endless!! I am new to Mac, and I need some serious education, ebay will have another auction coming up! can someone help me please?

Any fix for this yet?

ITs been wayyyy too long...