How to play Sonic Adventure DX (for PC) on a Mac without loading Windows

[alexreich]

Warning: The following was tested on a Macintosh running Mac OS Lion 10.7.3. This guide may very well work with other Intel-based Macs on older Operating Systems but I cannot confirm it. This WILL NOT work on PPC, because the Wine apps are Intel only. If you are not running Lion but own an Intel-based Mac, you may try at your own risk, or ignore this guide. If you try this on a older OS, make a backup of your system before attempting this guide. I am not responsible for any failures or data loss you experience with your use of this guide. Proceed at your own risk.

Step 1: Purchase Sonic Adventure DX. The game is $8.89, plus shipping.
(Here’s a link to the game discs on Amazon http://amzn.to/x4eoMB)

Step 2: Download Wine and Wine Bottler for Mac OS X.
(Here’s a link to the Wine/Wine Bottler webpage http://bit.ly/3ow0V0)
It is a 55.2MB download.

Step 3: Install Wine and Wine Bottler by opening the DMG and dragging Wine.app and WineBottler.app to your system’s Applications folder.

Step 4: Install Sonic Adventure DX.

Step 4a: Load Disc 1 into your Mac and open the disc with the Finder. Once you can see the contents of the disc inside the Finder, find “Setup.exe” and open it. You will be presented with a window showing the terms and conditions, but you will not be able to click anything in the window. No worries, this is what’s supposed to happen!

Step 4b: Go back to Disc 1 in the Finder, and open a file on the disc called “Setup.Now.exe”. Once the application opens, leave it open, but minimize it to get it out of the way. It isn’t needed for anything but to give us the ability to click in our terms and conditions window, and complete the game installation.

Step 4c (going through the installer): Go back to the terms and conditions window mentioned in step 4a. Click the circle next to Agree, then click Next. Select the Full installation type (it is selected by default) and click Next. The installer will show you the location the application will be installed to. Do NOT change the install location, you just need to click Start Installation. The installation will begin, and once all of the data off of Disc 1 is loaded, the installer will request that you insert Disc 2. After inserting Disc 2, follow the instructions on how to continue the installer (I don’t remember exactly what it says, but I am fairly certain that after you insert Disc 2, you click OK in the installer window and the installation continues).
4d: Upon the installations completion, eject Disc 2 from your Mac.

THOSE OF YOU HAVING TROUBLE OPENING THE .EXE FILES LOOK HERE!!!
By default, when you click this Windows executable (.exe files are Windows apps) Wine will assist you in opening the PC app. If you get an error saying something about how there is no application loaded to open files of that type, right-click “Setup.Now.exe” click Open With, and select Wine.app.

Step 5: Backup important game files.

After your installation, you need to go to the following directory inside the Finder:
/Users/yournamehere/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Sega/SONICADVENTUREDX/

There are two files in this directory that we need to backup in case we mess up in later steps of this guide. Find ‘sonic.exe’ and ‘autorun.exe’ inside the SONICADVENTUREDX folder, and then copy and paste each of them into a folder on your Desktop.

THOSE OF YOU THAT CANNOT FIND THE .WINE FOLDER LOOK HERE!!!
By default, the .wine folder that contains your Windows applications is a hidden folder inside your Users/yournamehere/ folder. To go to this hidden directory, press Command+Shift+G, which will bring up a Go To window. Inside the window, type /Users/yournamehere/.wine and you will be able to get to the SONICADVENTUREDX folder from there.

If you don’t want to go through the above steps to get to the hidden folder on your Mac, open Terminal and copy and paste the following text without the quotations.

“sudo defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE”
(shows hidden files in the Finder)

“killall Finder”
(restarts the Finder so the hidden folders will appear”

After inserting these commands, go to the directory mentioned in Step 5.

Step 6: Fixing the NO-CD error
If you were to try and play the game immediately after the installation by opening “sonic.exe”, you would receive an error saying something to the extent of “Insert Disc 2 and try again”. The funny thing about this glitch is that even if you do have inserted Disc 2, the game will not play.

The steps to fix this error are rather simple. I would give the link to the files you need, but I do not know if I am allowed to do so (I don’t even know if I’m allowed to mention the steps of patching this game, but oh well. If I’m not allowed to, moderators please just take this section down). They shouldn’t be hard to find. Search on Google “Sonic Adventure no CD patch”, and you should see a link to a website titled Game Copy World. The file you are looking for is titled NO-CD Fixed EXE or something of that nature.

Once you’ve acquired the two new “sonic.exe” and “autorun.exe” files, replace the previous ones inside the following directory (let me remind you that if you haven’t already, I would reccomend backing up the originals!):

/Users/yournamehere/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Sega/SONICADVENTUREDX/

Upon replacing the old files with the new ones, you will be able to open the game, but there is one more bug to fix.

Step 7: Getting full audio capabilities (installing Windows Media Player).
If you were to open the game after step 6, the game would work, but various audio features, music, sound effects etc. would be non-functional. And what’s the fun in a game without working audio? To fix the audio follow these steps:

Step 7a: Insert Disc 1.

Step 7b: Open the disc with the Finder, and open MPSetup.exe. The executable is located in the /Sonic_DX_DISC_1/WMP/English/ (on the disc).

Step 7c: Go through the installer, and install Windows Media Player.

Step 8: Making a Shortcut (alias) to the game.
Once you have completed all of the steps above, you should be able to play Sonic Adventure DX on your Mac. But to play, you would have to go to
/Users/yournamehere/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Sega/SONICADVENTUREDX/ every time you want to play. By following these next few steps you will be able to access the game much easier using an alias which can be placed on your Desktop, in your Applications folder, or wherever you want it.

Step 8a: Go to /Users/yournamehere/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Sega/SONICADVENTUREDX/ in the Finder.

Step 8b: Upon opening the directory, right click “autorun.exe” and click Make Alias.

Step 8c: Move the alias to whatever location/directory you want it to be on your system so that you can play the game by opening that file instead of going to the Wine folder every time you want to play the game.

After ALL of that, you should be able to play Sonic Adventure DX on your Mac running OS Lion. Post a reply if you have used these steps successfully on another Mac OS, and upon your proof (i.e. videos, images) I will add it to the success list. Also, if you find any errors in this guide please post a reply and I will correct them. Thanks MacRumors!

EDIT 1: I forgot to mention that once your installation is complete you can adjust the following game settings by clicking Set options on the Sonic splash screen:

-Sound Setup
3D sound ON or OFF
-Screen setup
Full Screen or Window Mode
Resolutions: 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1152x864, 1280x1024
Mouse settings
Moving type 1 or 2

and if you click the Details box after clicking Set options you can adjust the following settings:

Frame rate
High, Normal, or Low
Clipping
High, Normal, or Low
Fog Emulation
Auto or Emulation

You can adjust volume settings and disable effects/voices and/or background music if you wish. You can also change the game controls in this menu if you don't like the default ones, though I recommend trying the game first before changing any controls.