Garrulous Glaahk The Knight Who Said Ni Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 Like many other things on classic, they have been lost when Apple started using Intel macs with Leopard. While this is very unlikely to happen, I've decided to broach the topic. Will Exile ever be ported to Intel? I know this might sound silly, but maybe they will become open-source, as it would be hard for Jeff to port them to Intel because he hasn't simply the time. It also might help popularize them with the newer comers, as they seem more into Geneforge, later Avernums, etc. -ni. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Lilith Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 You can always run them in a Mac emulator like Basilisk II, although admittedly it's not trivial to actually get it running. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Celtic Minstrel Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 What I've done is set it up to run the Windows version on Crossover. There are a few problems with the first two, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Alorael at Large Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 Jeff may not even have the Exile source code anymore, and it is guaranteed to be an unholy mess. The game is the freshman effort of a self-admitted poor programmer. —Alorael, who wonders why no one has taken the lucrative step of creating a Cider wrapper equivalent for running old Mac programs. Or at the very least a DOSBox-alike. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Slarzahl Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 All the Exile games run flawlessly for me on Basilisk ][. It does take a little effort to set up, but there are web sites out there that give very clear, step-by-step instructions. 20 minutes is a small price to pay for being able to revisit Formello in its antique beauty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Celtic Minstrel Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 My trouble with Basilisk ][ is usually transferring the files to it; for some reason, it sometimes randomly ignores files on the Unix partition. Though I haven't actually tried it yet with Exile. Or wait... if I have, it caused Basilisk to crash. Can't remember which. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Slarzahl Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 What do you mean transferring the files to Basilisk ][? You don't transfer anything to Basilisk ][, you transfer to a disk image. You need to make a correctly-formatted DMG, and then you just load it up in the Finder and copy files into it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Celtic Minstrel Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 I was trying to get Basilisk to use a Mac OSX folder as a drive. It was mostly working, except that not all files would be listed. But I'm not sure if that problem actually involved Exile. It might have been something else that I was trying to transfer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Slarzahl Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel It was mostly working, except that not all files would be listed. If my disk drive lists most of my files, that doesn't mean it's mostly working. That means it's very broken! I really think you are better off using a disk image. Much cleaner and less room for error. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Celtic Minstrel Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 I shall try that sometime, then. I'm not sure if it'll solve my Exile problems, but I'll try it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Lilith Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 My experience with using a folder on OS X as a server is that it works as long as you don't try to move or change files in any way while Basilisk II is running. Basically, it's a convenient way to transfer files from your computer onto your disk image, but all your actual work should be done on the disk image itself. Also, avoid using non-ASCII characters in filenames. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Celtic Minstrel Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 ...that's how I was using it. EDIT: I just checked, and the games are on my Basilisk, however I got them there. However, they won't run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Slarzahl Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 What OS are you running (in Basilisk ][), what version of the games are they, and what happens when you try to run them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Celtic Minstrel Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 1. According to "About this computer", Mac OS 8.0. 2. Exile 2.0.1, Exile II 2.0.3, Exile III 1.0.3 (the ones that came on my CD) 3. Exile I plays the intro sound, but doesn't finish launching. The menus don't appear, and nor do the buttons. Much the same for Exile II. Exile III apparently doesn't have enough memory to run. (Though a quick investigation suggests that it actually does.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Lilith Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 Tried allocating more memory? Also, make sure you're running them in 256 colours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Celtic Minstrel Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 Yes, I was running them in 256 colours. As for the memory... it says it needs 3200K, but there's just a little less than that available... while "About this computer" says the largest unused block is 3.4MB. It's not that there's not enough memory allocated in Get Info. It's that it seems to think there isn't as much memory available as is allocated in Get Info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Slarzahl Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 Aha, you need to change your Basilisk ][ settings to make more RAM available. I would also adjust the application settings for E1-3 to double the default memory allocation (for "preferred" amount of memory) just to be safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Celtic Minstrel Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 ...okay, part of the problem was that I was editing the wrong preferences file. Anyway, Exile 3 appears to work now, but Exile 1 and 2 still behave like I said above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Slarzahl Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 Now that you mention that, I feel like I ran into the exact same problem, with just E1 and E2, on the way to getting mine to work. I did fix it, but I can't remember how. Ideas off the top of my head: 32-bit addressing in the OS 8 system control panel, trashing the E2 prefs file, opening under a different monitors setting and then changing it once open, using a separate disk image as a startup disk rather than the one with the games on it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Celtic Minstrel Posted December 3, 2009 Share Posted December 3, 2009 Originally Posted By: Slartucker 32-bit addressing in the OS 8 system control panel, No idea how this would be done. Originally Posted By: Slartucker trashing the E2 prefs file, Will try. Originally Posted By: Slartucker opening under a different monitors setting and then changing it once open, Not quite sure what you mean. Originally Posted By: Slartucker using a separate disk image as a startup disk rather than the one with the games on it Will try. EDIT: Well, trashing the prefs file and switching startup disks didn't seem to work... and now Exile 3 is having problems too; the cursor stops moving as soon as it starts up, and I can't dismiss the welcome dialog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Slarzahl Posted December 4, 2009 Share Posted December 4, 2009 To explain better: try opening Exile 2 in 16 colors and then changing to 256 once it's open. Or maybe it was changing to Thousands, or opening in Thousands, or opening in 256... I forget what I did, but I think I ended up doing something like this. I'm not sure if that was what fixed the not-opening problem though. More ideas: - Try restarting (within OS 8) and holding down shift to disable extensions. - Re the 32-bit question, just look around in the control panels. I think it's in the Memory panel. What kind of ROM are you using with Basilisk ][? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk The Knight Who Said Ni Posted December 6, 2009 Author Share Posted December 6, 2009 Well I started using Chubby Bunny (Sheepshaver preset) This past summer and now whenever I put a new app/foler/anything on it, it says "The package *blah blah blah* could not be opened because, there is a problem with it. Try reinstalling the package" So that's my problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Alorael at Large Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Chubby Bunny is not the latest SheepShaver. You can get more recent builds from Emaculation. Chubby Bunny is more user-friendly and less installation and setup hairy, but it might be more prone to problems. —Alorael, who hasn't had any luck getting Chubby Bunny to work, ever. On the other hand, he also has had very mixed success with do-it-himself Basilisk II or SheepShaver. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Celtic Minstrel Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Originally Posted By: Drawn And What kind of ROM are you using with Basilisk ][? Well, it's called "QUAD650.ROM", and I assume that's a descriptive name... I have no idea what it means though. Hmm... it seems the problem might be as a result of switching to 256 colours, since it froze when I tried to switch that manually. I'm going to try it without switching. Oh, and there's no 32-bit option anywhere in the Memory control panel. Should I try enabling Virtual Memory? EDIT: YAY!!! I reduced colours to thousands, and suddenly it works! At least, Exile 1 and 2 do. Not Exile 3 though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Slarzahl Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Hooray! I was suspicious that was the problem. Exile 3 was working before, wasn't it? QUAD650 refers to a Quadra 650, a lower end model of a higher end Macintosh line that many people were fond of in the days before Power Macs and other commercially successful Apple products. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Celtic Minstrel Posted December 6, 2009 Share Posted December 6, 2009 Originally Posted By: Lovebound Geas Exile 3 was working before, wasn't it? Well, I thought it was, but it's not working now. It causes a crash if I open it in Thousands of colours, and if I tell it to switch to 256 it freezes at the intro dialog, and stops updating; but I can Cmd-Q to quit it still. ...okay, Exile 1 seems to work fine. Exile 2, however, crashes when the game starts. Also, preferences don't seem to be saved? It asks me every time whether to change the colour depth, and I set Save Maps in Exile 1 but it was unset when I re-opened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk The Knight Who Said Ni Posted December 6, 2009 Author Share Posted December 6, 2009 Whenever I opened Exile 3 in the new Sheepshaver it froze OS 9 and I had to restart. // EDIT: changed Chubby Bunny to new Sheepshaver, just started using it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chittering Clawbug King InuYasha Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 Couldn't the Blades of Exile engine be used to power the Exile games? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Celtic Minstrel Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 Yes, with some alteration of the BoE code and permission from Jeff. It would be similar to how Nethergate: Resurrection is based on the BoA engine: the same underlying engine would be the same, yes, but there would be differences in the engine as well (such as the spell sets). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chittering Clawbug King InuYasha Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 Originally Posted By: Celtic Minstrel Yes, with some alteration of the BoE code and permission from Jeff. It would be similar to how Nethergate: Resurrection is based on the BoA engine: the same underlying engine would be the same, yes, but there would be differences in the engine as well (such as the spell sets). Why would you need Jeff's permission to support the original Exile games with the BoE engine? It's not like you are creating new distributions of Exile series. You could simply have it pull the data from the Exile games on install or runtime. Although, getting his permission is a good idea if you want to make packages with the game data included. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Celtic Minstrel Posted December 7, 2009 Share Posted December 7, 2009 Originally Posted By: King InuYasha You could simply have it pull the data from the Exile games on install or runtime. Hm. I hadn't thought of that. To be honest, I'm not really sure whether Exile 1 and 2 have data that could be read by the BoE engine. Exile 3 probably does, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Cryolemon Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 Originally Posted By: King InuYasha Why would you need Jeff's permission to support the original Exile games with the BoE engine? I'm guessing for reasons related to the art and story side of it rather than the code. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Celtic Minstrel Posted December 9, 2009 Share Posted December 9, 2009 Well yeah, that too I suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Easygoing Eyebeast keira Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 Ishad Nha seems to be able to pull info from the data files from the Exiles using mathey crap. I assume said mathey crap could be used by a modified BoE to load from--and convert--the data to be playable. However, I think this would mean that you could get around paying for the Exiles, since the registration is (?) done by the game, not the data. Thus, Jeff probably wouldn't approve of doing this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chittering Clawbug King InuYasha Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 Originally Posted By: w-dueck Ishad Nha seems to be able to pull info from the data files from the Exiles using mathey crap. I assume said mathey crap could be used by a modified BoE to load from--and convert--the data to be playable. However, I think this would mean that you could get around paying for the Exiles, since the registration is (?) done by the game, not the data. Thus, Jeff probably wouldn't approve of doing this. Well, there is an easy way around that. Figure out where the "valid" registration data is stored and use that to figure out if there is any registration data. If not, restrict to what the demo would be. Or, just not worry about it. The Exile series is not really playable anymore under 64-bit Windows (unless you use a VM of 32-bit Windows to run it), nor is it playable under current Macs. Jeff could probably chime in and give his approval. But, honestly, I don't think he cares. The games are quite old and they don't run under the latest versions of Windows that ship with most new PCs, since most PCs now come with 64-bit Windows, and OS X (Classic doesn't exist for Intel Macs). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Cryolemon Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 Well, since all registration does is change the misc.dat file, you could get an unregistered version and a registered version, compare them and you'd know exactly what to check. We probably would need Jeff's permission for any of this though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chittering Clawbug King InuYasha Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 Originally Posted By: Cryolemon Well, since all registration does is change the misc.dat file, you could get an unregistered version and a registered version, compare them and you'd know exactly what to check. We probably would need Jeff's permission for any of this though. If it doesn't match what the file is for an unregistered version, it's likely to be registered, so that's all that has really has to be done then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Cryolemon Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 Originally Posted By: King InuYasha If it doesn't match what the file is for an unregistered version, it's likely to be registered, so that's all that has really has to be done then. The only problem there is that someone with a hex editor could just alter one byte of the shareware file to get around registering. You have to make sure it matches the registered misc.dat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chittering Clawbug King InuYasha Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Originally Posted By: Cryolemon Originally Posted By: King InuYasha If it doesn't match what the file is for an unregistered version, it's likely to be registered, so that's all that has really has to be done then. The only problem there is that someone with a hex editor could just alter one byte of the shareware file to get around registering. You have to make sure it matches the registered misc.dat But wouldn't that be rather difficult given the varied keys used for registering? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hatchling Cockatrice Lilith Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Originally Posted By: King InuYasha But wouldn't that be rather difficult given the varied keys used for registering? Your suggestion was that should check for registration by checking that misc.dat is not identical to the misc.dat found in the unregistered version. Simply replacing the contents of misc.dat with random data would effectively crack this security method. It's not a good idea unless we actually get the go-ahead to distribute the Exile series for free outright. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrulous Glaahk Cryolemon Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Originally Posted By: Thuryl ...unless we actually get the go-ahead to distribute the Exile series for free outright. And that seems unlikely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chittering Clawbug King InuYasha Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 Originally Posted By: Cryolemon Originally Posted By: Thuryl ...unless we actually get the go-ahead to distribute the Exile series for free outright. And that seems unlikely. Actually. That doesn't. Given the current situation for the Exile series, he might actually permit it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Understated Ur-Drakon Celtic Minstrel Posted December 15, 2009 Share Posted December 15, 2009 This discussion is getting a bit out of hand. I think we'd better stop now. For the record, Jeff does still make a trickle on the Exile series, so he may not give permission. If you're so interested in this, you could always ask. The worst he could do is say "no". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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