Forgive me ... trying to install Gridz, old game

About SheepShaver, a PPC Mac emulator for Windows, MacOS X, and Linux that can run System 7.5.3 to MacOS 9.0.4.

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Batchman
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Forgive me ... trying to install Gridz, old game

Post by Batchman »

I always wanted Gridz, but just about the time it came out, life forced me away from the Macintosh, and into using PCs.

Today I finally decided to see if there was any way I could manage to play the game on my computer.

So I downloaded the game, downloaded Sheep Shaver, and spent the last six hours or so trying to get everything to work right.

I eventually got Sheep Shaver to work (that took a while.)

I eventually managed to get the operating system installed. That took a while, too.

I'm now booting from my newly created hard drive image, into Mac 8.6 fairly smoothly.

But the game will not play.

Here's some information. I am using a Power Mac G3 Desktop rom image, and running 8.6. I have plenty of space left on the hard drive image, and gave myself 512mb of memory, which I think ought to be plenty (though I can boost it if needed.) But as soon as I click on the game, Sheep Shaver crashes due to a runtime error, saying the application asked to terminate in an unusual way.

Can anybody provide any assistance in figuring out how to get this working properly?
Last edited by Batchman on Fri Jul 08, 2016 11:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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24bit
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Re: Forgive me ... trying to install Gridz, old game

Post by 24bit »

Gridz 1.2 demo seems to run here with the latest SS build, MacOS 8.6, OldWorldROM, W10/64 host.
Be sure to run the game from the SheeShaver "HD" in 256 colors.
Also check the "ignore illegal memory access" box in the SS GUI.
I´m clueless how to play but may investigate a bit in the evening (CEST).
Batchman
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Re: Forgive me ... trying to install Gridz, old game

Post by Batchman »

I am in 256 colors (set in monitors and sound), so I do have that part correct.

I am using an older build of SS that was recommended in the install thread as the last 'stable' build, from 2013, IIRC.

I do have the ignore illegal memory box checked.

And I don't know what the 10/64 means, so I can't comment on it, yet.

I tried switching to the old world rom, though I worried it might disagree with the OS installation. It had no problems, but still did not work. Sigh. And I don't remember most of my Mac troubleshooting processes after some 15 years away.

[edit] Wow ... that's weird. The 1.0 demo will install all right. The 1.5 full version will not. Maybe I'll have to try and ask the creator about it, and see what, if anything, can be done.[/edit]
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24bit
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Re: Forgive me ... trying to install Gridz, old game

Post by 24bit »

Good you got it working somehow with SheepShaver.
The app is fat binary PPC and 68k as far as I can tell.
BasiliskII, FusionPC or MiniVMacII may be worth a shot if SheepShaver does not like it at all.

W10/64 was for Windows 10 Pro 64bit.
I´m usually using OSX, things do differ according to the host system sometimes.
I can confirm that Gridz 1.0 installed from CD image is running here too, got no newer version to try right now. :)
Batchman
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Re: Forgive me ... trying to install Gridz, old game

Post by Batchman »

If I could find a non-demo version of 1.0 and get it running, I might very well be happy with it. Was a fun game, but I no longer have even a touch of skill with it after all these years ... and from all indications, may have to find a way to slow it down slightly, as things are just moving too fast for me.

Not sure if that is the emulation just being too efficient, or if my own skills and speed have atrophied too much over the last 20 years, but ....

Wow ... certainly a lot of trouble, just to play one game! Wonder if that means I have issues? :roll:
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24bit
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Re: Forgive me ... trying to install Gridz, old game

Post by 24bit »

Hehe, I do see your point.
But its not only old age, some games made for MacII or earlier are unplayable with SheepShaver or similar as they run way too fast.
MiniVMac is the only emulator I know, where the emulation´s speed can be adjusted.
BasiliskII´s 68k emulation is a lot slower than SheepShaver´s PPC emulation.
In both emulators, you may uncheck the Just In Time (JIT) compiler, which slows things down quite a bit.

I would try Basilisk II and MiniVMacII for Gridz, both emulators are available for Android tablets too BTW, if you don´t mind the Gockel data mining, that is.
MiniVMacII is rather slow on ARM cpus. :)
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adespoton
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Re: Forgive me ... trying to install Gridz, old game

Post by adespoton »

MiniVmac4ios allows you to switch between Mac 128k, Mac Plus and Mac II in 640x480 (for old games/small screens) or 1024x768 (for newer games, iPad) mode -- and all are pretty zippy on recent (last 3 years) hardware. Mac II now fully supports sound if you get the cutting edge release instead of the stable release.

If you're running 7.5.5 68k, Mini vMac II is definitely the best experience now if you don't want networking.
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