Civilization IV Warlords Lock Up and Buzzing

[ghall]

Okay, so I was playing Civilization IV Warlords today and the sound cuts out, so I save and quite the game. After that I try opening it up again, and it skips the into videos, goes straight to the menu screen. I load up the saved game and when it's done loading the game locks up and a buzzing sound comes out of the speakers and I have to force quit to stop it. I try restarting my computer and I still get the lock up and buzzing when loading a saved game. This only started happening after the sound crashed the first time while I was playing.

 

[Keleko]

Have you tried wiping and reinstalling?

I got Civ IV, Warlords and Beyond the Sword through Steam and Crossover Games. It all works fine that way...

 

[ghall]

Have you tried wiping and reinstalling?

I got Civ IV, Warlords and Beyond the Sword through Steam and Crossover Games. It all works fine that way...

You can get beyond the sword for mac?

And I'll try that.

 

[Zortrium]

Keleko is referring to using Crossover Games to run the Windows version of Civ 4 (and the expansions). Beyond the Sword does not exist for Mac and Aspyr has all but confirmed that it isn't coming.

 

[ghall]

Keleko is referring to using Crossover Games to run the Windows version of Civ 4 (and the expansions). Beyond the Sword does not exist for Mac and Aspyr has all but confirmed that it isn't coming.

Ahh ok. So basically I should re-buy Civilaization IV, Warlord, and then buy Beyond the Sword on Steam using Crossover? How well does that run?

 

[Zortrium]

Do you ever run Windows on your Mac? You'll most likely get better performance running C4 on native Windows rather than through Crossover, but I've also heard good things about running C4 through the latest beta of VMware. If you don't own Windows, then Crossover would be the only way to run Windows C4.

Of course, all this would be a good deal less convenient and more expensive than just fixing whatever the problem you're having with the Mac version is. I'd recommend reinstalling and making sure that you've installed the latest Warlords patch from Aspyr (http://support.aspyr.com/index.php?x=&mod_id=2&root=175&id=545) before giving up and trying to go the Windows route (unless you really want BtS, in which case you have no choice).

 

[ghall]

Ok, I have VMWare with a full license of Windows XP Home, so you're saying Civ4 works under VMWare? I'd prefer to stick with the Mac Native version, Beyond the Sword isn't a huge deal to me.

Why isn't Aspyr releasing Beyond the Sword?

 

[Zortrium]

Okay, given that you have VMware, I'd probably give that a shot. VMware posted a video of Beta 1 awhile back running Civ 4 and I've heard that it's much better than Parallels etc, but FYI I haven't actually tried this myself so take this with a grain of salt. I'm also not sure of what kind of performance hit you'll get from trying to run in VMware - you'll be splitting RAM between OS X and Windows, but the Mac version of C4 is a notoriously poor performer compared to its Windows counterpart, so it might not be a big deal. That said, I'm getting a new computer next week and will definitely be trying this, so if you don't want to bother or want to make sure it works reasonably well in VMware I can get back to you once I give it a shot.

Anyhow, here's what I think you can do (this is what I'm planning to do, anyways):

1. Install the Fusion 2.0 Beta 2.
2. Download and install Steam.
3. Buy Civ 4 Complete off Steam for $60 (includes C4 and both expansions, not a bad deal).
4. Try to run it in VMware (and you can always fallback to Boot Camp if it doesn't work well).

As far as the Mac version of BtS is concerned, apparently sales of Warlords on the Mac were pretty poor; I don't think there are any technical reasons why a BtS port couldn't be done, but the Civ 4 codebase is a bit of a mess and I guess there just wasn't enough predicted benefit to tackling it again.

 

[ghall]

Ok, I reinstalled Warlords and I'm still getting the same thing. I'm going to look into the Steam thing, though I'm a bit nervous as I haven't got many games to work under VMWare fusion.

OK so I tried a demo of Civ 4 in VMWare, and it ran about the same as the native OS X version, so I loaded up a Windows installation with Boot Camp, loaded the same demo, and I'm getting fantastic performance. So I think I'm gonna sell my Civ 4 Mac disks and get the Civ 4 complete for Windows. I'm so glad this problem happened.

 

[Zortrium]

Well, I'm very glad to hear that - and performance in VMware can only be expected to improve as 2.0 moves towards final release.

 

[ghall]

Ok so I loaded up Windows in Boot Camp, downloaded Steam and bought Civilization IV Complete. The performance is amazing, the graphics are set to maximum quality and everything is running smooth, much better than the Mac OS X version.

I do find it funny though that people on a Mac forum talked me into using Windows for something.

 

[Zortrium]

I've got no love for Windows (quite the opposite), but when Aspyr releases a poor-performing port that has lots of hardware problems and then doesn't release an expansion, what can you do? I'm all for supporting native Mac gaming, but Civ 4 on the Mac is simply not up to par.

 

[Keleko]

I haven't actually tried my Civ IV install in Windows. I have Parallels, not VMWare. Since I bought Parallels, I don't really want to pay for Fusion now. I really only need Windows for netflix movie streaming (come on, netflix, give us Mac native already!) and game playing with bootcamp.

Civ IV seems to run fairly well in Crossover Games. I don't think it would be much different from the Aspyr port, since they both use a version of WINE to do it. I'd rather run it Mac "native" than wait for Windows to boot up. My Windows partition isn't that big, anyway, so I don't have space for a lot of games there. I've had no problems with it running in Crossover yet. It may even be better than the Aspyr port to Mac.

I'm glad the OP was able to get it working with Fusion, though. Too bad you had to buy the game again to do it.

 

[ghall]

I haven't actually tried my Civ IV install in Windows. I have Parallels, not VMWare. Since I bought Parallels, I don't really want to pay for Fusion now. I really only need Windows for netflix movie streaming (come on, netflix, give us Mac native already!) and game playing with bootcamp.

Civ IV seems to run fairly well in Crossover Games. I don't think it would be much different from the Aspyr port, since they both use a version of WINE to do it. I'd rather run it Mac "native" than wait for Windows to boot up. My Windows partition isn't that big, anyway, so I don't have space for a lot of games there. I've had no problems with it running in Crossover yet. It may even be better than the Aspyr port to Mac.

I'm glad the OP was able to get it working with Fusion, though. Too bad you had to buy the game again to do it.

I did it in Boot Camp...it worked in fusion but it wasn't worth it because it ran the same as the native version.

I'm starting to look at other games to switch over, but all my other games are pretty much equal to their PC counterparts it seems (demos FTW!!). I was thinking of converting over for the Sims 2 as well, but it would be pretty cost prohibitive to re-purchase the game and all the expansions, and Aspyr's port is pretty decent anyway, so it wouldn't be worth it.

 

[Zortrium]

Civ IV seems to run fairly well in Crossover Games. I don't think it would be much different from the Aspyr port, since they both use a version of WINE to do it.

Mac Civ 4 doesn't use Wine or any other trickery I'm aware of - it's just an old-fashioned port.

 

[Keleko]

I thought all Aspyr did was Cider conversions to Mac. Cider is their version of WINE...

 

[Zortrium]

I think you're confusing EA with Aspyr. All of EA's Mac titles use Cider, which is a technology from TransGaming (which in turn is built on the open-source Wine). I don't think Aspyr has done any Wine-based ports.