Virtual PC 6

[Tassadar500]

Does anyone know how good it is? And if it would be able to run a game like Civ 3?

[Agathon]

If you had a fast G4 maybe. I take it you want to play PTW?

[FlameFlash]

I would wager that if you had a new G5 and Windows XP you could pull it off.

I know with my G4/500 single processor I can play Civ II: Test of Time and SMAC/SMAX (though now I have SMAC/SMAX for Mac) on Virtual PC.

I'd wager that with a new higher-end Mac you could do the same with Civ III.

[Tassadar500]

How many MHz would you say it would need?

[FlameFlash]

For CivIII Gold
Operating System: Windows® 98/2000/XP
Processor: Pentium® II 400MHz
Memory: 64 MB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 1.2 GB free hard drive space
(+50 for swapfile)
CD-ROM Drive: 4X Speed or higher
Video: DirectX® 8.0a-compatible video card* (must be able to display
1024x768x16 bit)
Sound: DirectX® 8.0a-compatible sound card*
DirectX: DirectX® version 8.0a (included) or higher

* Indicates device should be compatible with DirectX® version 8.0a or higher.

I'll look at my comp tonight and see what it emulates Windows at to give you an idea...

[FlameFlash]

My 500MHz G4 runs Windows 2000 at "~399MHz"

I'd say you'd need at least a Mac with 800MHz and 256MB RAM dedicated just to VirtualPC to run CivIII PTW slowly.

[POTUS]

Don't be fooled by what the specs say. I have Virtual PC 6(Windows XP) on my new G4. It is unbelievably slow. Also, many things that would, accorrding to the specifications run on it, don't. Besides, you want to support Microsoft?

[FlameFlash]

Well, how else are we to play PTW on our Macs?

[POTUS]

Originally posted by FlameFlash
Well, how else are we to play PTW on our Macs?

I wish I knew.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by POTUS

I wish I knew.

Play EU2 and HOI instead. Better games than Civ III IMHO. We should organise an Apolyton Mac Network Game of EU2 sometime.

[FlameFlash]

About to get a copy of Civ III for Windows along with PTW from a friend for either this weekend or next. From there I should be able to test to see if it can be run on my comp. If it can be run on mine really slowly then a 800 MHz or 1GHz Mac could easily run it in emulation, IMHO.

[FlameFlash]

Are there any other games that anybody would like for me to attempt to review this weekend for running quality in VPC6?

My resources are limited on the research as I have to borrow original CDs from friends and then give them back so as its legal, but most friends seem to be willing to loan disks for a weekend or so, thus I'd just have to 'shop' around among my PC using friends to see if they have said games.

Current Emulation Review Lineup:

Axis & Allies v. Dogs of War
CivII Test of Time
SMAC/SMAX for Mac v. Windows
Civ III & PTW

The last is probably the one that will be the most enjoyable/disheartening for some of us, but I just wanted to let everyone know what was coming so this forum actually has something to look forward to.

[FlameFlash]

All reviews are while running VPC 6.0 with Windows 2k on a PowerMac G4 500MHz (single processor) with ~400 MB RAM alloted to VPC 6.0.

While your results may vary, faster system recommendations and theroies are included.

Axis & Allies v. Dogs of War

This one is easy. A&A for some reason just wouldn't run on my machine. What is strange is that it ran perfectly when I had Win '98 on it and was in VPC 3.0, however the upgrade to 6.0 and X.2 seems to have caused it to go haywire.

Fortunately, I still had a copy of Dogs of War and loaded that up. There was absolutly no noticeble stress on the system whatsoever. Likewise, when I could run A&A on my system, there was no noticeable slow-down.

Overall, both are great apps, it just depends on if you're wanting the wider supported multiplayer features of A&A as opposed to hotseat DoW use.

CivII Test of Time

Been there, done that. I remember playing this in '98 again way back when with very little problems.

Now I have even fewer problems. The emulation between VPC 3 and 6 is amazing and ToT runs almost perfectly. Granted you have to turn off some of the fancier graphics, however there is no loss in the actual gameplay. I've enjoyed rediscovering the multi-mapped game and can only wonder and hope that they'll do something like this for CivIII someday that is also Mac native.

SMAC/SMAX for Mac v. Windows

Obviously if you can do it, get the version that runs native in your own OS. There's even a player-made carbonized version of SMAC/SMAX so that you don't have to start up Classic if you don't want to.

Other than that, the only major slowdown is when you're producing units. Scrolling through the various units is horribly slow when emulating and of course runs fine when native.

My only other suggestion here is that no matter which version you play, if you're in OS X you should turn off the movies. With the carbonized versions of the app you can sometimes crash the program and be forced to reload. This, of course, when in a PBEM causes that annoying notification to be sent to all the other players.

Civ III & PTW

And the reason for this thread in the first place...

PTW and CivIII are recommended to run on a 400MHz comp, though they didn't even come close to launching on my computer. I'd wager there's a need for at least an 800MHz PowerMac before you get to see anything, though I'd borrow from a friend first if you have VPC 6 and want to try it out. If you don't have VPC 6, don't risk your money on the iffy chance that it will actually work.

The best, and most unfortunate recommendation is the fact that you're just going to have to wait for Conquests to possibly be ported to the Mac if you want PTW and multiplayer functionality. Otherwise you're just going to have to sit back and relax, I'd recommend picking up a copy of CtP and the PC->Mac Transmogrifier so that you can at least PBEM in two communities here at 'poly instead of just the CivII.

SMAC/SMAX requires no special file to convert the saves, though do remember to add '.sav' to the end of the game files before you .zip them and send them on as PC users, in my experiance, get hung up on the fact that you didn't add it.

On my final note, however, don't see CivIII short just because it doesn't have MP capability. It's still a really fun game to play SP IMHO and the more CivIII Mac copies there are out there the more the company who thinks about porting PTW and Conquests may actually do so.

Happy Civving.

[Panag]

hi ,

, when civ III came out , a 650 was running CIV III without a problem ( 256 ram )

loads of people thing that in order to play they need super comps ( well size does matter agreed ) but one can run almost anygames with lower specs if you close all the stuff that you dont need , ... (!)

btw , just check out the new Emacs , waiting for a guy to get back from holidays , he claims its really easy to get a dual install on the new ones , ....

have a nice apple day