Running Arcanum on Parallels

I know its probably folly of me to ask, but here it goes.

I used to play Arcanum all the time back in the day when I had a PC. Love the game and swear by it constantly, but its been several years since I've played it and I wanted to take it for another spin.

Problem is, I now have a Mac and I'm trying to run it on Parallels with XP installed. Everything seems to install just fine, but I try to run the program and it simply doesn't start up.

I uninstalled, defragged and tried a clean install but to no avail. I've been searching online for some advice on this, but can't find any posts by anyone who has successfully gotten it to run properly. I've never had trouble with any other programs I've tried to run on Parallels, so I'm not sure if this is a problem that the game doesn't recognize my native video card or if gil bates has a vendetta against me for buying a mac.

Any advice would be most welcome. Thanks

 

Gil Bates might not have a problem, but Bill Gates might. Oh I kill me.

Sorry I don't have anything to offer, but I wish you luck with your endeavor. I take it Parallels is an XP emulator? Maybe you could try emulating an earlier version of windows, like 2k, and see if it works. But again, good luck.

 

Hey, I'm amazed to actually find someone else trying to run Arcanum on Parallels AND posting within the past couple of months anywhere on the internet. I'm trying to run it on Win 2000 SP 4 and Parallels build 3214 on a MacBook Pro and I'm running into the same problem you describe: appears to install and then won't actually run. I found this in the Arcanum README:

6. Hardware compatibility issues
--------------------------------

We recommend that Arcanum be run with DirectX compatible sound boards and video cards. While there is a small chance that Arcanum will run with non-DirectX compatible hardware, you may find that:

1) Sound quality suffers.
2) The game runs slower.
3) The game does not run at all.


I was curious so I found a DirectX troubleshooting tool in Device Manager > Troubleshooting and it does show that the Parallels video driver is not certified by Microsoft WHQL and that most of the DirectX features are not available. I don't know if this is the issue, it is one possible explanation. I'll post if I find out anything more.

 

Welcome to the forum, colonelflag!

And thanks for the info.

 

parallels and arcanum

i have tried to use parallels to run the game also in leopard on an osx.

it installs fine but then nothing comes up.

someone in another forum here has said that you can run it using bootcamp. i have to make a copy of xp with service pack 2 installed to get bootcamp on my mac.

it sounds like after that, according to the other poster, is should be fine.

i cant play games that use divx with paralells. rise of legends, icewind dale, nothing.

hopefully bootcamp does the trick.

let me know if you all have any advice.


thanks


justin

 

Welcome to the forum, elferno!

 

Why does his posts remind me of someone, or rather something, unpleasant?

 

Man, lots of new posters looking to get Arcanum running on a Mac.

Hopefully someone figures it out. Not that I care since I have a PC.

 

dstanzler was trying the same trick I think. With bootcamp or parallels or something on his mac. That was about a month ago. I haven't heard from him since. Someone might want to check on him to see if he's still breathing.

 

I was able to get Arcanum running (patched to 1.0.7.4 and then with the Drog Black Tooth unofficial patch applied) in a Parallels XP install, running the exe with the flags:

-no3d -doublebuffer

although the performance sucked. Then I dragged the install folder over to my Mac file system and have been able to get it working in Crossover using these instructions:

http://www.codeweavers.com/compatibilit ... ;msg=34471

Hope this is helpful.

 

why do people even get Mac when they will have to get a emulator to do cool things on it? all the best stuff I know of needs a PC or a Mac running a emulator+a few Aspirin.

Seriously what cool thing do I want that only runs on Mac? sell me a reason to get a Mac. I hear the operating system has less bugs in it but not sure if it's a rumor and I find I'm ok with the # of problems with a 5 year old widows + patches. of course I never touch a brand new version of Windows. I always wait till they patch it about 3 times and by then it seems ok and my programs run without a emulator+a few aspirin.

 

Huh, I'd think the benefit of having a really solid work machine (for those of us whose work is film, graphics, web development, etc) that can also compile *nix OSS natively, boot Windows on bare metal or run Windows apps inside OS X emulated would be clear. Nothing against Windows but I'd rather have everything, and do my paid work on a less-kludgy and more compatible OS. If I only played games, I'd get a PC in an instant.

 

ok PC is my best choice then and I know a little more about why some people use Mac instead. so thank you Knowledge is POWER and now I have more.

MUHAHAHAHAHA

*looks around*
*covers his face with his cape*
*runs out of the room*

 

Vista will never be better, not even when Microsoft fires the asshat that designed it. No amount of patching or expanding will improve it. It's impossible for something that renders half my back library of software obsolete to ever be seen in a more positive light not matter how many bug fixes or new bells and whistles they add to it.

If I knew anything about running OS emulators and could turn back time, I'd have spent my money on a nice Mac and emulated my face off so I could still, at least, play my older games before wasting money on newer ones that are nothing more than rehashes of older ones with flashier graphics.

 

ya it seems that Microsoft is trying to come out with newer crappier windows each time they release a new one part of why when I bought a new PC a week ago I insisted they put the earliest windows they can on it and that if they put Vista on it to expect it to be returned to them with a letter asking for my money back. they sent it with XP on it and I'm sorta ok with that 98 would have been better but XP is ok.

if I was high up in Microsoft I would try my best to have it come with just 1-3 years of free upgrades then charge for each new year of upgrades and I wouldn't make new crappy versions I would just have the updates fix and improve the old Windows. the yearly subscription to upgrade would pay for the work upgrading it and Microsoft wouldn't have to make so many disks because they cold just sell a card with a code on it that you type in for another year of updates or just obtain subscription online. making the only disk you need is to install it 1 time if you built your own or a patch disc for those without internet.

seriously someone needs to tell someone high up in Microsoft that coming out with new crappy versions is not a good thing and that they should stop maybe go back a few versions code it so it can overwrite Vista as a update and just patch it every now and then. make a product and fix it NOT make a product 1/2 fix it then come out with a even more broken product that overrides it.