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The X-Files Game
Agent Craig Willmore is assigned to locate the missing Mulder and Scully in this FMV-driven adventure.
Hybrid Mac/PC discs.
- DL's #1 - #7: The game installer and files in hybrid Mac & Windows ".iso" CD image files.
- DL #8: Pre-installed X-Files game in a bootable Mac OS 8.1 disk image, zipped archive. For use in SheepShaver if having issues with the install set. Note: Still requires the full set of 7 CD .iso image files to complete
(view enclosed ReadMe.txt for full details).
A postmortem can be read at Gamasutra.
Compatibility
Architecture: PPC x86 (Windows)
- Macintosh minimum system requirements:
- Power Macintosh 603e 120 MHz (180 MHz recommended)
- Macintosh System Software 7.1 or later
- 250 MB free HD space
- 12 MB free RAM with Virtual Memory enabled or 18 MB free RAM with VM disabled (32 MB recommended)
- 4x CD ROM (8x recommended)
- Graphics card supporting Thousands of colors at 640 x 480 resolution (Millions of colors recommended)
- Note: QuickTime 3.0 & DrawSprocket 1.1.2 must be installed if they are not already present
- Windows minimum system requirements:
- Pentium 120 MHz or 100% compatible processor (166 MHz recommended)
- Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0 (with Service Pack 3)
- 250 MB free hard drive space
- 16 MB RAM (32 MB recommended)
- 4x CD-ROM (8x recommended)
- Windows 95 DirectX compatible graphics card supporting High Colour (16-bit) at 640 x 480 resolution (24-bit or 32-bit True Colour recommended)
- Note: QuickTime 3.0 and Microsoft DirectX will be installed if they are not already present
- Windows 95 DirectX compatible sound card
- Windows 95 compatible mouse or pointing device
Comments
I've just got in running under the qemu-screamer fork and Mac OS 9.2.2, albeit the Spanish
edition, but the English/American edition should use the same engine, so in
the end it may work the same (and maybe under SheepShaver and 9.0.4) if
you just follow the last step on installing QuickTime 3 and the overwritting
the Drawsprocket extension on your Mac OS 9 install.
The commands to install it (os922.iso is the Mac OS 9 CDROM image), mac9.img is a 10 GB disk:
qemu-img create mac9.img 10g
qemu-system-ppc -accel tcg -m 128m -g 1024x768x32 -hda mac9.img -M mac99,via=pmu -cpu G3 -boot c -display sdl,gl=off -device VGA,edid=on -cdrom os922.iso -boot d
Follow the Mac OS 9 setup as usual.
Boot it:
qemu-system-ppc -accel tcg -m 128m -g 1024x768x32 -hda mac9.img -M mac99,via=pmu -cpu G3 -boot c -display sdl,gl=off -device VGA,edid=on
Press ctrl-alt-f to switch between windowed and fullscreen mode.
Press ctrl-alt-f2 to switch to qemu's monitor prompt, then type "change ide1-cd0 yourcd.iso",
where "yourcd.iso" is the path to a CDROM image, and press ctrl-alt-f1 to return to
the display. Then, install the full game without issues.
Later, you need to install QuickTime 3.0 from the 1st XFiles CD. After that, enter the DrawSprocket folder
from the same disc and drag and drop the extension to the System Folder in your Mac OS 9 volume,
and overwrite the older file if your system ask so. You can always reinstall it from the Mac OS 9 CD.
Heh.
As he got it running by using "Wine", I would say it still is
Huh, there's a Mac version of the DVD version?
Thought that was Windows-only.
Yeah, I pretty much gave up on running the game in SheepShaver. I found the DVD version of the game (it was 8GB and managed to remove the other languages and get it to about 4GB) and got it running in Wine without much issue. Thank you for your help though!
That's too bad. Sorry to hear that it's the same poor result and dumb error message
It works for me, but I installed and ran it on a Windows SheepShaver, maybe there's a problem with the game on the Mac version of Sheep?
Can you use a VM and install Windows 98 or 2000? It's how I was able to run the Windows version on my eMac under 9.2.2 - on Virtual PC. That worked really well, whereas I was unable to run the Mac version on the eMac itself (9.2.2 & QuickTime 5 - 6) any QT beyond version 4 is a problem too.
[Edit] I just tried running it on a Mac version of SheepShaver. I get the same error message as you !!!
I'm thinking now that there really is an incompatibility with this game and the Mac version of SheepShaver.
If so, that really does suck.
@eisnerguy1 Might I entice you to buy a cheap, used Mac mini G4?
You can run Mac OS 9.2.2 on it, and Mac OS X 10.2 (no GPU), 10.3, 10.4 and 10.5 (and 10.6 "alpha"). Plus good old GNU/Linux and BSD. And also MorphOS, if you are into that kind of thing.
I might have to change my username to "G4 mini Evangelist" at this rate. Sorry for the mini derail.
Thank you for trying but, I got the same error message again. I followed every part of the Read Me file. I'm officially out of ideas. It doesn't help that the error message doesn't specify at all what's causing the problem.I'm going to see if I can somehow get the game installed in Wine or I might try Qemu. Thanks again for trying.
Not a problem. I hope it works OK for you. Note, it expands to a 3.5 GB disk drive, so there's plenty of room for other files if it works out - or not. Good luck.
Awesome. Thanks for your help. I really do appreciate it!
OK, I'm going to try installing and running it on Mac OS 7.1 - I'll get back to you in an hour or two with a yay or nay as to how it goes for me.
[Edit 1] settled on OS 8.1, it seems to behave the best for me and running this on SheepShaver.
I'll add an archive to the page shortly.
I'm running SheepShaver on 10.14.6. Ah, gotcha. Oh, I didn't even see Prdous3000's comment. Thanks, I really appreciate it. Was just about ready to give up with SheepShaver and give Wine a try XD Nope, doesn't need to be 8.1. The only reason I tried that version of MacOS is because you had success with that.
@eisnerguy1: What host system are you trying to run this on?
I used the DL's from this page, not from the Mega links. Tho' I don't think there's a difference - I think they were added to the internal server after grabbing them from Mega. My setup was using an International English version of Mac OS 8.1 and an old Windows version of SheepShaver (circa 2010) and the host PC was running Windows XP - I don't know if that has any bearing on things, but that how it was at the time.
I see in the posts below, Prdous3000 was hitting the same error message as what you've been getting. If he resolved this I don't know, as he didn't reply back after I had posted the "how to" (he didn't report what his host PC platform was, either).
I'll look into setting up another instance of the game for you, shouldn't take too long.
p.s. Does it need to be Mac OS 8.1? I can try installing it on an earlier PPC Mac OS if you'd prefer.
No worries. I'm wracking my brain trying to narrow down possible causes for the error message. I even tried the US & UK versions of 8.1 (since ReadMe in Disc 1 mentioned it being the UK version of the game). I just tried changing the ram to 256MB and still got the error message. I honestly don't know what could be causing the issue. Like I mentioned before, I even disabled all of the extensions except the ones mentioned in the ReadMe file. The discs you used were the ones from this page, right?
If it isn't too much trouble, could you set up a fresh install? I feel like I'm missing something but I'm not sure what it is. Thanks!
@eisnerguy1: I'm sorry, but that drive container has since been used for other things. I'd need to set up a fresh install. I have 256MB allocated for SheepShaver's RAM, I don't think I've changed that setting in the meantime.
Got to say, that error message is unhelpful. The only issues I had were with trying to run the game on actual Mac hardware, where the onboard QuickTime was version 5 or higher.
SheepShaver and QT 4.x was OK for me.
@MikeTomTom, is there anyway you could share your 8.1 hard drive image? I've got the exact same set up that you mentioned in your post but, I only get the "The application was unable to start due to an error. Please contact customer support." error message. I even disabled all of the extensions except the ones listed in the ReadMe file. Not sure what could be causing the error. How much ram did you allocate to the vm? I'm just trying to eliminate any possible causes for the error that I'm getting. Thanks!
There is a DVD-Version of this, but I don't know if it runs on mac.
I think it really wants QuickTime 3 to 4 to be present. Beyond this, is a problem with black screen.
Not sure about the OS versions. Plays OK for me in SheepShaver, Mac OS 8.1 and QT 4.
I also haven't been able to get this to run on an iMac G3, neither under Mac OS 9.2.2 or Mac OS 8.6 - I've tried messing with enabled extensions and every video mode you can think of, but it's just a case of working audio but black screen every time. Has anyone else had better luck?
Played this on the Playstation. Great Game for Fans of the Series.
However I try I cannot get this to play nicely on my G3 Mac. The problem is the display. I can hear the game load but all I get is a blank screen, no video. I can't even see how to exit the game without crashing the Mac (Command Q doesn't appear to work with it).
Perhaps QuickTime 6 and the DrawSprocket from Mac OS 9.x is too new for this Game?
Mac & System is Beige G3 300MHz, PCI Rage 128, Mac OS 9.2, QuickTime 6.0.4
The game is playing really well on SheepShaver (running Mac OS 8.1 + QT 4) on a Windows box, so maybe I'll just stick to playing this game on that.
@Prdous3000: Just to confirm. This game works OK in SheepShaver, for me.
If it helps, the setup I was using in SheepSaver:
Emulated PowerMac 9500/200 (Old World ROM)
Mac OS 8.1
QuickTime 4.1.2
DrawSprocketLib 1.1.2
X-Files Standard install - Installed to a secondary mounted disk drive.
I didn't have DrawSprockets installed or at hand so just used the lib file that comes with the X-Files install.
Because I was installing to a secondary drive, the installer wanted to install QuickTime 3 (I opted out of this as I already had QT 4 installed). I shutdown and restarted the emulator after the install completed.
I did run the game with the Install CD images still mounted, which may (or may not) be important.
Seems to play well, but I've only run it for about 15 mins so far. Only glitch I got was the menubar failed to return once I quit the game - it re-appeared when I moved the cursor to the top of the screen and hovered over menu items (which was enough to allow me to shutdown the emulation).
Yeah I guess that might be the reason.. Im just gonna have to buy an old mac it seems
Thanks for your suggestions anyway!
Its possible that this game will not be compatible for playing in SheepShaver. The minimum compatibility info above suggests the need of a "Graphics Card" (without saying what type of graphics card). But games requiring graphics cards are often not compatible with SheepShaver.
I have not tried to play this game on Mac or emulated Mac as yet, so I'm only surmising here and could be wrong. Just guessing.Edit: Scratch that, I've since installed it and have it running OK in SheepShaver.
@Prdous3000: Which host OS? Usually I'm running Windows if I run SheepShaver, in which typically there is a SheepShaver GUI Launcher (SheepShaverGUI.exe) that I run before booting the emulation, where I can make setup changes such as adding disk drives etc.
I think it's slightly different if running OS X as the host, in which there should be an option to setup SheepShaver before booting the emulated OS, where you can add disks in the Volumes list under the Setup tab.
The "How-To's" for setting up and adding drives are explained pretty well at E-Maculation.
Uh, now after install I get a "Application unable to start due to an error, contact support" message :/
I have QuickTime and DrawSprocket lib installed, any suggestions?
Okay! I got it to work! Thanks for your feedback! Every time after I added the iso and shut down
SheepShaver, I started it again using the Recent Items menu, strangely, after I started it again
by clicking on the actual icon of the application, the disk mounted, weird!
Hi, you mean you access Sheepshaver settings before launching your emulated Mac OS? How would I do that? Thanks
I need to do this slightly differently. That is; I add .iso's or additional disk images to the SheepShaver Settings, then I launch a Mac OS session and those images added to the list mount onto the emulated Mac's desktop. After I quit the Mac session and restart SheepShaver, the previous disk images I've added are still listed.
That might be the problem, after shutting down and opening Sheepshaver again, the iso is not on the list anymore
You need to shutdown SS before lauching it again. Verify if changes are validated in SS preferences when lauching it the second time...
Thank you for the quick reply! Unfortunately your solution isnt working for me, I add the .iso
but it wont show up after I restart Sheepshaver.. Might it be because Im using a Chubby Bunny installation? Thanks again for your help!
Welcome,
The easiest way to use .iso files in Sheepshaver is to add them on. To do that, go on Sheepshaver menu, then Preferences. Just click on the "Add" button under "Setup", then choose the first .iso file. Repeat this operation with all the .iso files. When finished, you need to quit Sheepshaver to make changes. Then restart Sheepshaver & all the images should be mounted. You can install the game at this point. Just tell us if it works for you like that.
Thanks.
Hi! Thank you so much for uploading this game! However I have a problem trying to install it in Sheepshaver, the files are .iso, and my OS9 doesnt want to mount them, does anyone know of a solution? Thanks!
Thanks for the upload. This was something I was reluctant to do a couple of years ago when we relied on an external server to host the garden (See: http://macintoshgarden.org/forum/the-x-files-game )