Old games on Lion

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Level 1

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Old games on Lion

I'm sorry, I know there's already a thousand discussions about this but I had to get it off my chest. The question is just rhetorical.

Lion does not support PowerPC applications, and Rosetta has been stopped after SL. Now, what is bugging me is that everytime this topic comes up, the answer from other users is that in the last five years developers should have updated their apps to make them compatible to the new intel platform. But that answer is just oversimplified. Of course I'm not going to use apps that have been updated by developers! But there are some apps which will NEVER be updated by developers but I might still like to use nonetheless.

I was born in 1988 and I've always had nothing but macs at home. Now, it's not easy growing up as a mac gamer, and I think we all know how hard it was to get games for a mac just 10 years ago. Now, ALL those games I ever played on my computer are useless. Or they will be in a couple of years when I'll have to throw away the hardware.

I mean, I can play games made for an AMIGA in 1991 thanks to an emulator, but there's no way I can play Unreal Tournament, Quake, Elite Force, Wolfenstein, Call of Duty or any of those games anymore? That's just wrong. I'm going to downgrade and stay there until I can, waiting for a rosetta emulator to come up. And if it doesn't, there are other platforms which CAN run emulators. Apple really ****** me off with this one. And it really does mean a lot coming from someone who has always only used its products since he was capable of using a mouse.

Mac OS X (10.7), Gaming

Posted on Jun 2, 2012 3:06 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 2, 2012 3:25 PM in response to Zanmatt

1. Buy an external hard drive.

2. Install Snow Leopard (or whatever).

3. Move your PPC software and whatever else doesn't run in Lion onto it.

When you wish to play your out of date software hold down the option key as you boot (and switch start up drives).

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Answer 2

Zanmatt Author

Level 1

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Jun 2, 2012 3:30 PM in response to QuickTimeKirk

Thanks for the suggestion.

But can a new mac boot a version of OS X older than the one it was shipped with?

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Answer 3

MlchaelLAX

Level 4

2,293 points

Jun 3, 2012 8:27 AM in response to Zanmatt

Install Snow Leopard (and Rosetta) into Parallels 7 in Lion:

Full installation instructions are here:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1365439

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Answer 4

etresoft

Level 9

57,260 points

Jun 3, 2012 9:53 AM in response to Zanmatt

Zanmatt wrote:

there's no way I can play Unreal Tournament, Quake, Elite Force, Wolfenstein, Call of Duty or any of those games anymore? That's just wrong. I'm going to downgrade and stay there until I can, waiting for a rosetta emulator to come up. And if it doesn't, there are other platforms which CAN run emulators. Apple really ****** me off with this one.

Didn't Apple switch to Intel, making it possible to pay any PC game ever made, including anything in the list above, half of which actually do run in Lion?

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Answer 5

Zanmatt Author

Level 1

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Jun 3, 2012 10:13 AM in response to etresoft

Thank you QuickTime Kirk and MichalLAX.

I think the external hard drive might be the best solution, but I still have my doubts that future macs will always support booting snow leopard.

Etresoft: first of all, those games do not run on Lion. Call of duty (1) installed on my computer doesn't open, and the other Quake-based games do not run as well. The only exception might be UT2004, which does run except for the installer which runs on Rosetta. And besides, if I wanted to use windows I'd have bought a PC.

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Answer 6

MlchaelLAX

Level 4

2,293 points

Jun 3, 2012 11:19 AM in response to Zanmatt

Zanmatt wrote:

...Apple really ****** me off with this one...

If it means anything, Apple lost its license to continue to use Rosetta in future operating systems. The core technology was developed by a third party and is now owned by IBM.

Will the open source community write a Rosetta-style emulator for the post Snow Leopard world? Never say never...

SheepShaver brings Classic Environment emulation to the Intel Mac world:

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Answer 7

Jun 3, 2012 1:03 PM in response to Zanmatt

Hi Zanmatt,

you are right: future Macs won’t boot 10.6. Even most of today’s Macs are unable to. I would suggest two things:

1) As long as you’re not getting a new Mac, use a separate partition or external drive with a 10.6 install on it.

2) You mentioned Quake. At least here I can help: I have Q1 to Q4 running in 10.7.4 without a problem. Q4 is offically supported, Q3 just needs the latest official patch and for Q1 and Q2 you should get these excellent ports done by a fellow german: http://www.fruitz-of-dojo.de/php/download.php4

Q1 and Q2 run great on my 2010 MBP with everything cranked up and if you convert the original CD Audio to MP3 or AAC you can even have the original audio!

As for using a VM: It’s perfectly possible to run OS X in a VM (I have 10.5, 10.6, 10.7 running in VMware Fusion), but graphics aren’t accelerated so relatively recent titles won’t be of much fun, I suppose. I once read a (imho true) thing: Windows is the new Classic. If you have no other choice, it might be easier to just boot Windows than to keep around an older Mac.

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Answer 8

etresoft

Level 9

57,260 points

Jun 3, 2012 4:00 PM in response to Zanmatt

Zanmatt wrote:

Etresoft: first of all, those games do not run on Lion.

I'm not a gamer, but I can determine in 5 minutes that all but one of them do work on Lion.

http://forums.epicgames.com/threads/804187-OS-X-Lion-support

http://www.amazon.com/Quake-4-Mac/dp/B000DZ9YOA

http://roaringapps.com/app:494

http://support.aspyr.com/entries/20688372-disk-and-digital-download-versions-not -launching-on-osx-lion

You might have to do a little custom support since they are old games or get the latest version. I assume that isn't a problem since you have already upgraded to Lion.

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Answer 9

Jun 16, 2012 5:05 PM in response to Zanmatt

Hi all,

Actually I've the same problem with Wolfenstein. After doing some recomended steps, don't remember which because was some time ago (I'm trying to solve this since Lion was released), I still can't play the game.

After opening the game, when I try to connect, the game shuts and this message appear:

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