Problem with running an old game installer

About BasiliskII, a 68k Mac emulator for Windows, MacOSX, and Linux that can run System 7.x through MacOS 8.1.

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Bullen
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Problem with running an old game installer

Post by Bullen »

Hi everyone!

An extreme newcomer here on everything Mac related, so please bear with me. I do apologize if this is posted in the wrong forum section as it might be a Mac problem and not a Basilisk one.

I've setup Basilisk II with Mac OS System 8.1 and it seems to be running just fine. My sole purpose for doing this is to try and run an old game that was released for both Windows and Mac, possibly using the same install CD.

The installer itself was created using Installer VISE and I'm having no success whatsoever with running this on my virtual Windows 95. The Mac however is showing some promise due to the fact that it actually recognizes the installer and is able to execute it, but when doing so I receive the following error:

"The application program "Installeraren" could not be opened, because an error of type -39 occurred"

Does anyone have any idea what this means and how to solve it? The only thing that comes to my mind is that the game is in Swedish and was not produced or released in any other language, and the System 8.1 that I'm running is in English. I did try to find a Swedish ISO of that operating system but it was simply not possible.

Any thoughts on the matter would be greatly appreciated, thank you!
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Cat_7
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Re: Problem with running an old game installer

Post by Cat_7 »

Hi, and welcome,

To understand your situation better, please tell us:

What host system are you using?
In what shape do you have the game available? As disk image (.iso)? Real CD? As files in your shared folder?
Which game does this concern?

Best,
Cat_7
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adespoton
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Re: Problem with running an old game installer

Post by adespoton »

https://macintosh.lifetips.com/tip/4580 ... pe-39.html
Error Type -39
A -39 error usually means a corrupted file. Specifically, it indicates and end-of-file message, encountered where the program was expecting more data. If you get it when you're tryng to print, the file you''re printing is corrupted. If it occurs on startup, your Launcher Control Panel may be corrupted. Try dragging it to the trash and then re-installing it.
Bullen
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Re: Problem with running an old game installer

Post by Bullen »

Cat_7 wrote: Sat Jun 04, 2022 5:43 am Hi, and welcome,

To understand your situation better, please tell us:

What host system are you using?
In what shape do you have the game available? As disk image (.iso)? Real CD? As files in your shared folder?
Which game does this concern?

Best,
Cat_7
Thank you! Sorry for not including more information from the beginning.

I'm using Windows 10 x64 and I have the game in two different disk image files, one ISO and one CDR. I've tried to mount the CDR in Basilisk (the same way as the system disk was mounted) but it's not showing up in the operating system. The ISO shows up and everything looks fine until I try to run the installer and receives the error.

It's a really old point-and-click game and the images I have I got directly from the developer of the game. According to him, the game was made for System 7 and up and Windows 3.1 and up, but as far as I can tell, the images I got only contains the installation files for Mac.
adespoton wrote: Sat Jun 04, 2022 3:59 pm https://macintosh.lifetips.com/tip/4580 ... pe-39.html
Error Type -39
A -39 error usually means a corrupted file. Specifically, it indicates and end-of-file message, encountered where the program was expecting more data. If you get it when you're tryng to print, the file you''re printing is corrupted. If it occurs on startup, your Launcher Control Panel may be corrupted. Try dragging it to the trash and then re-installing it.
Appreciate the information! I really hope that this is not the case, but I can't know for sure and I probably have to contact the developer again and ask him to take a second look at the images he ripped.
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Cat_7
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Re: Problem with running an old game installer

Post by Cat_7 »

Hi,

Is the iso set to read only in the Explorer?
Can you copy the file(s) onto your Basilisk hard disk before trying to run the installer?

If that doesn't work there might indeed be a problem with the files.

Best,
Cat_7
Bullen
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Re: Problem with running an old game installer

Post by Bullen »

Cat_7 wrote: Sun Jun 05, 2022 5:32 am Hi,

Is the iso set to read only in the Explorer?
Can you copy the file(s) onto your Basilisk hard disk before trying to run the installer?

If that doesn't work there might indeed be a problem with the files.

Best,
Cat_7
I've set it to read only and mounted it again - no dice.

I extracted the ISO on my main system and then moved the files to the Mac. When I do that, the installer is no longer recognized and therefore cannot be executed. However, when I highlight the installer from the mounted ISO and goes to the file menu and selects "Get info", I receive the exact same error as before, the type -39. When I do the same thing on the installer from the extracted files, it shows me the info. Wouldn't it be reasonable to assume that the files are not damaged given this?

Window on the left are the extracted files, on the right is the mounted ISO. Files are hidden on the ISO, but not when extracted. https://i.imgur.com/OceJrbL.png

Here's the error I get when trying to "Get Info" on the installer from the ISO:
https://i.imgur.com/SDze5uc.png

If it's not against any rules, I would gladly upload the ISO and let someone who knows what they're doing take a look at it. Currently, I can't be sure if it's the files that are wrong or my setup/installation of Basilisk/Mac simply because I don't know what I don't know.


Edit: Got it! As I mentioned earlier, I received one ISO and one CDR. The CDR didn't show up in my Mac when I mounted it in Basilisk - so I just gave up on it and focused on the ISO. I went back to it again just now and realized that while the ISO was just named by the game's initials "vls.iso", the CDR had the game's full name, which was "Vår lilla stad.cdr". That one Swedish character was the issue all along and why Basilisk didn't want to deal with it. I renamed it "vls.cdr" and suddenly it showed up in my Mac and the installer and the game runs just fine. Like a lot of problems it seems really stupid in hindsight...

A huge thanks for the input/information and all the assistance!
Last edited by Bullen on Tue Jun 07, 2022 12:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Cat_7
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Re: Problem with running an old game installer

Post by Cat_7 »

That's the last thing that would spring to mind.
Thanks for reporting back!

Best,
Cat_7
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