CrossOver Games ?
Community Forums/General Help/CrossOver Games ?
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| Has anyone tried to use CrossOver Games on an Intel Mac (or Linux PC) to run Windows games? From the developer CodeWeavers: "With CrossOver Games, you can run many popular Windows games on your Intel OS X Mac or Linux PC." I'd especially like to hear if any BlitzMax games have run successfully. Thanks. |
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| Why would you want to do this with BlitzMax games? BlitzMax can compile to Mac OSX. |
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| BlitzMax can compile to Max OSX Provided you actually have a Mac. |
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| John G.: CrossOver (all editions) is fancier and can be easier to use, but IMHO, it is now a bit behind Wine in features, performance and compatibility. Wine will work fine on Linux and OS X and will allow you to run a lot of Windows software. Provided you actually have a Mac. And provided you have the source code to the game you are wanting to recompile for Mac. John G. hasn't specified whether he is wanting to run his own stuff or something made by somebody else. |
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| CrossOver is a total disaster in general. I have the package and it worked perfectly on "Get Medieval" and "Jazz Jackrabbit 2" for a month or two, after that it ceased to work and has been that way till today. BlitzMax games do run, but it's CRAP written in capitals. The graphics were completely spooked up and a lot of games I tried on it crashed. When it comes to Blitz3D stuff I did try one program and it turned out crappy as well. Well tried all the stuff in Windows of course where it all worked perfectly, so it's very clear to me that running Blitz Games in CrossOver is NOT a good idea. Is WINE also available directly for MacOS today? That may be good news.... |
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| Is WINE also available directly for MacOS today? That may be good news.... No, it takes a little bit of work. If that is "too much" for somebody, VirtualBox is a great alternative for OS X. |
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| Sorry for the late reply to the your feedback. After 25 years as a Mac-only fan and a decade as a small Mac game developer, Apple finally wore me out with all their frequent surprises and arbitrary, changing rules. Several years back, I got BlitzMax with the idea of cross-platform games. Anyway, I've changed my priorities to Windows-first! Bought a mid-range Win7 PC (AMD) which runs BlitzMax very well -- and cost < half of the entry iMac. While cross-platform is wonderful for independent developers, I've had trouble getting the last 2% finished. My current plan is to offer game(s) for Windows only -- no Mac and no Linux. However, I have a few hundred customers of the older (deprecated by Apple) Mac versions. I was looking for an inexpensive and easy way to bring these old customers along in the future, without asking them to buy a retail copy of Windows. Apple itself has suggested running Windows games on newer Macs. That's my story. Keeping an eye on Monkey/Mojo... |
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| I don't know if that's the best of ideas.... Windows popularity is shrinking a little, but then again, if the current shrink actually lasts it'll be years before alternative systems a really big. When it comes to running Windows software on Mac, Apple did hope that WinE would be ported to MacOS, but that never happened, and since Apple has no authority over the WinE group they cannot make it happen unless they would distribute it themselves. CrossOver is a plain disaster I would most certainly NOT recommend VirtualBox for the aim of gaming. VirtualBox is ideal for some (small) Windows utilities that you would not be able to run in MacOS X, but games do work well there and if they do they run very slowly. A lot of games I tried don't even work at all. When it comes to that all you can do to run Windows Software perfectly is to make a dual boot by programs like BOOTCAMP. If you have a customer line in MacOS, you cannot expect them to switch to Windows, furthermore to make Windows run in either VirtualBox or BOOTCAMP you do need a Windows lisence (though I expect a lot of Mac Users got an illegal copy). If you want to set your aim on Windows-Only, I deem it more likely you'll lose those customers unless they are willing to go for the BOOTCAMP method (I heard that Parralels is also great for dual systems, but I never run that), which is expensive if you want to do it the legal since you need a Windows license. Cut short, when you want to do it legal, I see no cheap/free RELIABLE way to get Windows games run on a MAC. |
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| John G: With CrossOver you could apply to become an advocate and it would not cost you anything, and you could be directly involved in making sure your software worked properly by reporting any issues and conflicts. I do prefer Wine over CrossOver, but the CrossOver folks are very approachable about compatibility issues (whether it be bugs or just unsupported APIs causing the conflict). The problem with CrossOver is it would cost your users money. Wine is free. John G: If I still had a Mac, I would use Wine and Wine Bottler: http://winebottler.kronenberg.org It is extremely easy to install Wine and Wine Bottler on a Mac and there are numerous tutorial videos that will help you. How To Install Wine & Wine Bottler on Mac OS X (The Easy Way) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msYNfqvv-uw&feature=related If you do not want to use Wine the easy way on a Mac, you can go old-school: http://davidbaumgold.com/tutorials/wine-mac/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Yu9hdF-cNo&feature=related I was looking for an inexpensive and easy way to bring these old customers along in the future, without asking them to buy a retail copy of Windows. This is a bit myopic. Sure your prior customers know you and your work, but the Mac market is in the middle of a big change. With the App Store now being for OS X, this will become the main distribution method for OS X software. If your stuff isn't in there, you will be fighting a losing battle to keep sales going to Mac users who are unwilling to use deprecated sales and distribution methods. Since Windows software would never be allowed in the App Store, it would never be an option for you anyway and you would have a harder time getting Mac users to use your Windows based software.Embrace the change to Windows if that is what you think is best for you (only you know that). Keep in mind that many average Mac home users will be running Windows via Bootcamp or they will have a Windows system in the home. For old customers that you want to be able to use your Windows only games, provide a section on your site that links to tutorials on installing Wine & Wine Bottler on OS X and provide the link to Wine Bottler. Cut short, when you want to do it legal, I see no cheap/free RELIABLE way to get Windows games run on a MAC. Wine works great. Very reliable, free and open source. It just isn't idiot proof and hasn't been dumbed down for the average Mac home user, which is why it is unpopular. Wine Bottler for OS X does a very good job of dumbing it down enough so the average Mac home user should have no problem if they follow some of the video tutorials.Last edited 2011 |
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| Thanks for your detailed replies Tricky and GaryV. If I could recommend something cheap, reliable and easy enabler for Mac and Linux, I'd just list it on the web site and be done. Sounds like I was dreaming. I'll just launch the Windows version and listen for complaints. If need be, I'll clean up a Mac version. Thanks to all for the feedback. JLG |
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| OK, I took your advice and used my cross-platform BlitzMax/MaxGUI tools to launch both Windows and Macintosh versions. Main challenge had been Copy-Paste. Flyghty is a simple but fairly accurate flight sim for those without the latest 3D computing hardware. BMax collisions were quite helpful. Cheers. |
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