132 replies to this topic

[Jan]

If you're into adventure games, give

Paradise

a try. It installs and runs perfectly under Crossover Games.

[richmlow]

Hi all,


I just downloaded the 7 day trial of Crossover Games and tried to run Starfleet Command 2: Empires at War.

Let me say that it works surprisingly well, using MacBook 2.4GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, OS X 10.5.4, GMA X3100.


richmlow

Janichsan, on March 27th 2008, 12:51 AM, said:

I think the hype COG has received here justifies a own thread for experiences with its compatibility to see if it lives up to the hype.

Let's face it: Codeweavers compatibility database is pretty useless. Only 25 games are officially supported by Codeweavers, and while the complete list contains more games (more than 800 at his point) most of them are marked as "not tested". The WineHQ app database contains more results (>2600) which usually also apply to CrossOver (since this is basically Wine with a nice GUI), but sometimes don't (for what reason ever) or are very outdated.

So let's have some first-hand experiences!

So far I tried the following games (all with the recent COG 7.0.0 – it was a long evening yesterday):

Falcon 4.0 Allied Force
Doesn't run at all.

Il-2 Sturmovik Complete Edition
Requires NoCD patch. Works and runs rather well (~30 fps in full detail), ugly graphic glitches in the clouds, but: no joystick support at all – that makes the game essentially unplayable.

PlaneScape Torment
Doesn't run at all.

and just for fun:
Doom 3
Doesn't run at all (!) – this could be intentional, though. Wine stopped supporting D3 when the official Linux version came out.

[Buzz Bumble]

I don't know about "CrossOver Games", but the normal "CrossOver" is not particularly good. Yes, it allows you to "run" Windows software directly in Mac OS X, but it's riddled with minor annoyances which mean the software does not function properly. For example, once place I do work for have an Access database, which in general works, but if you don't quit CrossOver  each day (ie. Sleep your Mac) then it doesn't correctly obtain "today's date", so new records with an automatically entered creation date are given incorrect data. Exporting data doesn't work properly either with Access complaining about various errors. It's not the database itself since the exact same file transferred to a proper Windoze box proves it does work properly ... it's definitely CrossOver causing the problems.  

I have yet to try the database under Parallels Desktop or VM Ware Fusion (rebooting using BootCamp just to use Access is simply silly) since these are expensive due to the cost of buying Windoze itself, but that appears to be the only option since it should give a 95% proper PC rather than CrossOver's apparent 75%.

[Thain Esh Kelch]

Could anyone please try Magic The Gathering, the one made by Micropose from 1997? *Sniff*

[Jan]

I've got another adventure gem to work with Crossover Games:

Still Life – Special Edition

works flawlessly out of the box. No graphics glitches, sound or mouse problems.

For our German forum members: The full version of Still Life: SE is featured in this month's issue
of "Computer Bild Spiele" at a bargain price of €2,99.

Unlike most boxed products, this magazine DVD doesn't have copy-protection and you
can play without the DVD inserted.

[G5 Man]

Just wondering would Halo 2 work with CrossOver?  Thanks for your posts and all of your hard work.

[clocknova]

G5 Man, on September 17th 2008, 04:43 PM, said:

Just wondering would Halo 2 work with CrossOver?  Thanks for your posts and all of your hard work.

I don't know as I don't own it.  But since Halo 2 supposedly only works with DX10, thus Vista, I'm guessing that the answer is no.

[bobbob]

clocknova, on September 17th 2008, 03:15 PM, said:

I don't know as I don't own it.  But since Halo 2 supposedly only works with DX10, thus Vista, I'm guessing that the answer is no.

It doesn't require Vista because of DX10*, but I think it does require DX9c, so I'm guessing it'll fail like Fear and other new games do.

*I think it's some 'Games for Windows' thing that it checks for when installing and that's easily circumvented, but it's supported on DX9 regardless so DX10 is certainly not the reason.

[clocknova]

UPDATED WITH 10.5.5
OS X 10.5.5 has fixed several bugs that kept a number of games from running properly (or at all).  Some of them I have retested and have noted any changes in performance.  The rest I will retest as I have time.

These are my experiences trying to get my catalog of PC games to run in OSX via Crossover. I'll add to and alter this list as I try new games and further test the ones already here. I'm using the latest Crossover demo v7.11, on a MacBook Pro, 2.5 GHz, GeForce 8600 512 MB, 4 GB RAM, OS 10.5.4 (now 10.5.5). At the moment, Crossover is unable to properly deal with games that require CD checks, so games that have them will have to be dealt with. If not, they will fail to launch.  Also note that FSAA does not seem to work for any games at all, so you will have to do without it in Crossover for now.  Turning it on in some games will even cause crashes, so don't bother.

What works (not all of these have been fully tested, ie. played to the end):

Arcanum
For this game to work, there are two things to keep in mind: first, you have to copy the game data from the second disk into the installed directory, and second you must launch it with the "safe mode" version of the app. The main executable will run with all kinds of freaky graphical glitches. The "safe" version supposedly uses software rendering, but I'm not sure how much it matters. That being said, I loaded it up, patched it, started a game, and wandered around a bit; no errors to speak of so far. There is a CD check, so it will have to be dealt with.

Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword
Works great, but I had a problem where each expansion and the corresponding patches installed their content in separate directories, and I had to manually merge them into one, a painstaking process. Otherwise, everything is fine. It's so nice to finally be able to launch Civ IV, with Beyond the Sword, right from my dock. I'm using the standard, not Steam, version, so CD checks still have to be dealt with.

Deus Ex
Since anyone with an Intel Mac can pretty much forget about the Mac version of this classic, it's great to know that the PC version works like a charm.

Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind/Tribunal/Bloodmoon UPDATED
It actually runs flawlessly with all expansions and the latest patch applied.  The real test, however, is how it runs when modded.  As anyone who has played this game knows, it is very poorly optimized, and can slow to a crawl on even fast, modern hardware if modded too heavily (sometimes even when not), and I tend to use well over a hundred mods at once, so I was skeptical.

UPDATE: With the install of 10.5.5, I seem to be getting a slightly higher framerate.  Also, I've been able to install quite a lot of mods right in Crossover, so it's not really necessary to do the installations in Windows, as I thought.  The only mods which really make the game crawl are the one that rely heavily on custom scripts, just as you would expect for this game even in Windows.  In Crossover, however, scripts seem to take a heavier toll.  Whereas in Windows I could play with Morrowind Comes Alive, Living Cities, and Wilderness 2.0, now these mods cannot be run simultaneously on my machine without too great a performance impact.  I'm definitely going to have to make some hard choices, but this game is still both stable and entirely playable.  As a plus, mods that improve textures and models seem to have little to no performance impact, so I've been able to retexture the entire game and update all of the character models without slowing it down.  Even most quest and item mods cause no noticeable slowdown.  Just watch out for those heavily scripted mods.

As for third party apps meant to run along side Morrowind and enhance its graphics or scripting abilities, they do not currently work.  Morrowind Graphics Extender, specifically, requires .NET v2.0 to run, which cannot currently be installed via Crossover.  Support for this, however, is expected in version 8 of Crossover, so these apps may soon work as expected.  Third party utilities such as TESTool work just fine.

Half-Life/Blue Shift/Opposing Force
As has been widely reported, these games run absolutely flawlessly.  I had a minor problem getting the HD pack to completely install from my CDs, so I just entered my serial in Steam and let it download the Steam version of the Platinum Pack.  Although I'm not crazy about having to launch Steam every time I want to play these games, it certainly was easier.  But they all work and they work perfectly, so game away.

Half-Life 2
Nothing surprising to report; HL2 works amazingly well for me.  With the 10.5.5 update, I've even been able to activate some DX9 goodness (with a regedit command).  I get framerates from the mid twenties up to 60 (capped at 60 by VSYNC) with all settings set to maximum.  Until the next major release of Crossover, you'll likely have to settle for DX8 level graphics, but that's no big deal at all.  I haven't tried Episodes 1 & 2 yet, but all reports indicate they work as well.

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
Haven't played through it yet, but it installs and launches fine, and the first level runs perfectly. CD checks have to be dealt with.

Icewind Dale 2
Had an even easier time getting this to run than I did with Torment, an earlier Infinity engine game. Other than the CD check, which will have to be dealt with, this game runs flawlessly so far. Chances are all of the remaining Infinity engine games will work, though they may take some tweaking.

Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel
What can I say? It works. No problems at all other than the CD check which will have to be dealt with. From what I understand, Fallout and Fallout 2 work as well.

Gothic 2: Gold Edition UPDATED
Installed fine, but launching it gets me this message: "A hook process was found. Please deactivate all Antivirus and Anti-Trojan programs and debuggers." A google search indicates that this is a common problem even for Windows users (though I never ran into it) and for current WINE users. As it turns out, the solution involves doing something that I cannot openly discuss here, so you may have to figure this one out on your own.

In addition, several dll's from a genuine Windows install will have to be copied into the bottle that contains Gothic 2, or the game will be completely silent. Instructions for doing this can be found on the Gothic 2 database page at the Codeweavers site.

Once these two issues are dealt with, the game actually runs very smoothly for me, even with draw distance and all other settings turned all the way up. I had to enter my own resolution into the gothic.ini file manually (1680x1050), but it looks fantastic. One minor inconvenience, when I quit and restart the game, the resolution defaults back to 800x600, so I either have to settle for the max supported res of 1600x1000, or I have to edit the .ini file every time I launch the game.

Planescape:Torment
Had a hard time at first; the game installed fine, but launched to a blank screen. The key was the window that would sometimes pop up, warning me that my screen needed to be set to 16-bit. Although the dialog implied you could play without changing it, this is not the case. You have to set your monitor to thousands of colors before you launch Crossover. Then launch Torment, and it will work. Because Torment only runs at 640x480, it will look a bit blurry on flat panel screens, but that's life. So far, I've just tooled around the first level, but it runs smoothly and the sound is normal. I have noticed that, once you change the bit depth and launch Crossover, then Torment, if you set the depth back up and launch Torment again, it sets the depth back down automatically. Now if we can just figure out how to get Crossover to handle the switch automatically from the start. Until then, the extra step will be necessary to play Torment. But it seems that we can, in fact, play it. You will need to follow the easily available instructions on how to do a full install from the CDs, and the CD check will be an issue, but these are not insurmountable obstacles.

Settlers 2: 10th Anniversary Edition
This was one of my favorite games back when I had a Powermac 7500, so I was glad to see that this revamped edition from 2006 works perfectly; so far, anyway. CD-checks will have to be dealt with.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl UPDATED
With the release of 10.5.5, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. now appears to run flawlessly, albeit a bit choppier than in native Windows.  It's completely playable, but DX9 eatures still do not work, so there will be no dynamic lighting, HDR, or other advanced graphical goodies.  Still, to go from causing a total reboot to completely playable in one update is quite impressive.  CD checks will have to be dealt with.

Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War and Winter Assault
Had a problem with the install of both games where Crossover wouldn't acknowledge when a CD was swapped. Got around the issue by copying the contents of each disc to a folder on my desktop, then ran the installer from there. No problem after that. DVD editions will not have this problem. Game runs perfectly so far. Latest patch of Dawn of War removes the CD check, so there is no problem there. I can't think of any reason why this shouldn't be a supported game, or at least featured in their list of compatible games, which it isn't. Winter Assault still has the check, so it will have to be dealt with. Haven't tried Dark Crusade or Soulstorm, but they are likely to work.


What works, with reservations:

Dungeon Siege: LoA w/Ultima V:Lazarus
Let's face it; the only reason to install this game is to play Ultima V:Lazarus. There is a Mac version of this mod for the Mac version of DS, but performance is quite a bit below the PC version. The Windows version of DS installs fine, and it even runs well, but there are 2 issues. First, movies play poorly, which truthfully is not much of an issue. Second, the cursor is pretty screwed up, with a garbled box that floats around with it. Other than that, when Lazarus is installed, it actually runs better in Crossover than the native Mac version does. CD checks are still an issue and will have to be dealt with.  No change in status with the 10.5.5 update.

Far Cry UPDATED
Believe it or not, Far Cry now works as of the OS 10.5.5. update.  There are, however, a few caveats.  First, for some reason, though it installed just fine (before 10.5.5, it would not install at all) I couldn't get the 1.4 patch to apply correctly.  It kept failing with a runtime error.  I got around this by running the patch with Parallels and manually selecting the install location in my Crossover bottle, rather than let it install to the default location.  You could use Boot Camp to do the same thing, but you'll have to copy your Far Cry install to your Windows volume first, then manually select its location in the installer.  With that bit of silliness done, the game was patched and installed.  There was still the CD-Check to deal with, but I did, and so can you.  From there, the game ran perfectly with all settings set to high, and textures set to very high.  Nice.

The second problem is one I've had before, even while playing in Windows.  When you start a new game, the mouse won't work.  It will work fine in the menus, just not in the game.  Fix this by navigating to the controls section of the options screen and clicking the defaults button.  For some reason that solves the problem.

The third problem I'm having may be specific to my setup, but whenever I try to use the scrollwheel on my Logitech MX518 Optical Mouse, the game crashes with a critical exception.  So long as I don't touch the wheel, there is no problem, but that's going to get annoying real quick, so I hope I can find a solution.

Despite those problems, the game runs great and looks very nice.  There are still some DX9 goodies missing, but full support for those features should be here soon.  I should note that you can use the Registry Editor to manually enable some of the DX9 settings which are disabled in the current release of Crossover, but you will get graphical errors, particularly with the water in the game, so it's best to leave them off and wait for more robust support of DX9 in a later release (possibly also with Snow Leopard).

Galactic Civilizations 2: Dread Lords/Dark Avatar/Twilight of the Arnor
Oh, joy of joys! GalCiv 2 and its expansions appear to work almost perfectly. There is an odd issue when the game is launched; a series of several error messages pops up proclaiming things such as an irregular desktop resolution (3407100x0 ?!?), incorrect color depth (0-bit?!?), no Direct X, and other nonsense, but nothing seems to come of any of it. The only other issue so far is that the font does not appear to be fully supported, and so can look strange sometimes. It is, however, still legible. At this point I have not played through a game, so I cannot say if there are any other major issues. What I've done is download and install Stardock Central, then used that to download and install GC2. I then used the "run command" option in the Programs menu to link directly to the Twilight .exe. I started the game, set my resolution to 1680x1050 (my native) then started a custom game with all of the default settings. The game started and there seemed to be no problems other than the wacky fonts. Obviously I'll be heavily testing this game as soon as I have the time. If it works well enough, it will be worth the price of Crossover. This game alone will make the sale (but Civ IV:BtS helps).

UPDATE: Unfortunately, it seems to crash a lot while moving from screen to screen in the new game setup process, and will crash every few turns while playing. Hopefully this can be resolved in the near future, because this game is so close to running smoothly, I can almost taste it (I really like this game). I'd still say it's playable though, so long as you set the autosave to every turn or two.

UPDATE: Been playing it a bit and haven't seen that many crashes. Could be luck, or could be the nightly build I'm using. Perhaps the next release will move the status of this game to Gold.

System Shock 2
This is one of the few games I've tried that recognizes the disc in the drive, so you don't technically have to circumvent the copy protection in order to play it with Crossover.  That being said, there are still a couple of issues that keep it from being a perfect experience.  Fist, gameplay is a bit jerky, which is odd for a game this old.  Nevertheless, it's still playable.  Second, once you start a game, when you hit esc to view the main menu (to quit or change settings) it presents a black screen, so you will have to navigate the menu blind.  It does make it hard to quit the game without just shutting down Crossover, though.  All that aside, You can play the game.

What doesn't work:

Arx Fatalis UPDATED
Installs fine, and starts up, but opens to a black screen and nothing more. Darn.
UPDATE: Tried installing the version of DirectX 8 from the Arx disc. Now I get a bit closer; the game launches, the audio from the intro movie plays (with a black screen) then the game starts to load. Some sound effect play, and a loading screen appears for a second. The screen then rapidly changes settings for a few seconds, then dumps to desktop. I'll keep trying.

UPDATE: With the release of 10.5.5, Arx Fatalis now runs.  However, there are massive graphical errors present, so the game is still essentially unplayable.  It's progress, though.

Beyond Divinity
It almost works. It installs and runs just fine, but there seems to be a graphics refresh problem; the graphics become garbled and streak as you move around. Shame; it actually runs much more smoothly than it does under Parallels. Probably wouldn't take much to get it working.  No change in status with the 10.5.5 update.

Beyond Good & Evil
I loved this game on the Gamecube, but can't get the PC version to run with Crossover.  Upon launch, a strange error message pops up, inexplicably in Polish, notifying me that the game was installed improperly.  Note that this is unrelated (it would seem) to the CD-check, as it gives this message whether it has been dealt with or not.

F.E.A.R.
Couldn't get the installer to start properly.

Second Sight
Another good Gamecube game, but the PC version won't work.  The game launches, and the intro logo movies play, then it hangs at a black screen.

Settlers 4:Gold Edition
Installed fine, but had problems with the graphics disappearing and the resolution not setting properly. Might be able to get it to work, as I really like this game, but nothing so far.

Space Rangers 2: Dominators UPDATED
Installs fine, but crashes hard when run, forcing a reboot. Don't see why, as this isn't a very intensive game.

UPDATE: With 10.5.5, the game no longer hard crashes, but it opens to a black screen and is still unplayable.

Star Wars: Empire at War / Forces of Corruption
Empire at war installed and launched, but runs very slowly and with graphical corruption. Might as well use the Mac version. Forces of Corruption, the expansion that Mac users never got, won't run at all yet. Some users report getting it to run. I'll keep trying.

Wizardry 8
Installer failed to run initially. Had to manually select the setup.exe file on disc one, rather than using the install from disc option. After that, it installed just fine. No luck, however, getting it to run so far.  No change in status with the 10.5.5 update.

My Conclusion
As you can see, I have been able to get some very, very good games to work with Crossover, some of them perfectly. It seems that newer games that require DX9 are the ones that are most likely not to work at all, as there are bugs in Apple's code that prevent Crossover from being stable while using it. But a lot of great older games, and even some newer ones, will run and run well, though the new ones will default down to DX8. I definitely consider Crossover worth the purchase.

As a nice touch, I registered to be an advocate for several of my favorite games (essentially making me a beta tester) so I get to use Crossover for free, so long as I keep up my end of the bargain, which I will. As a final note, let me also say that I do not consider being able to run any of these games with Crossover a replacement for having a native Mac version. If any of these games were to receive a proper port, with all relevant expansions, I would buy them even though I have the Windows versions.

[Janichsan]

clocknova, on September 19th 2008, 02:29 AM, said:

Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind/Tribunal/Bloodmoon UPDATED
It actually runs flawlessly with all expansions and the latest patch applied.  ...

I recently revisited Morrowind (GotY Edition) after I had tested it some time before. While back then the game was very slow in outdoor areas, this has now hugely improved. The game is now definitely playable. The graphic glitches I mentioned remain, though, but that's no deal breaker.

[Rank Xerox]

How about:

Close Combat III: The Russian Front

Close Combat IV: Battle of the Bulge

Close Combat V: Invasion Normandy

Have anyone been able to run any of the above games through CrossOver Games?

I'm particular interested in CC3.

[ukimalefu]

I have a problem with Max Payne 2. The installation seemed to go fine, but when I try to play the game, it says it can find the drive! The installer didn't have a problem, and the disc is in there.

What's missing?

I tired to tweak the settings to no avail, but I really don't know what I'm doing. Please help.

[Brad Oliver]

ukimalefu, on October 28th 2008, 05:03 PM, said:

I have a problem with Max Payne 2. The installation seemed to go fine, but when I try to play the game, it says it can find the drive! The installer didn't have a problem, and the disc is in there.

Crossover is pretty poor about working with games that require CD/DVD checks as a form of protection, so that's likely it.

[rampancy]

Has anyone tried Descent 3 with CrossOver Games? I really miss D3, especially with the promised OS X port having died a long time ago.

[Janichsan]

rampancy, on October 29th 2008, 07:07 PM, said:

Has anyone tried Descent 3 with CrossOver Games? I really miss D3, especially with the promised OS X port having died a long time ago.

It seems to work.

[ukimalefu]

Got Trackmania to work! Online account and all!

[QuantaCat]

richmlow, on August 18th 2008, 04:20 AM, said:

Hi all,
I just downloaded the 7 day trial of Crossover Games and tried to run Starfleet Command 2: Empires at War.

Let me say that it works surprisingly well, using MacBook 2.4GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, OS X 10.5.4, GMA X3100.
richmlow

Tried that, but it ran mirrored and upside down. Otherwise, well.

[Mr. Selvetarm]

Morrowind actually runs with no glitches now? I must be dreaming. What about Fable:TLC?

[Janichsan]

Mr. Selvetarm, on October 30th 2008, 01:55 AM, said:

Morrowind actually runs with no glitches now? I must be dreaming. What about Fable:TLC?

You are dreaming. There still are glitches, but the game is playable.

Fable doesn't run at all. Buy the Feral port! I command you!!

[Mr. Selvetarm]

But I spent $30 for the PC version, so spending another $50 just isn't worth it. I would almost certainly buy the port if I didn't already have the Windows edition.