A few questions

[k50 427]

Hello.

I use a PC currently, and at the end of school this year I am planning on upgrading to a MacBook Pro 15.4" Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB memory, 250GB hard drive, and nVidia GeForce 9400M graphic card. I have a lot of questions however with this and SC4.

One: I have heard of FileJuicer. Will it work on everything from these websites? If not, is their any alternates?

• Official SC4 website
• Simtropolis
• SC4Devotion
• SimPeg
• Tout Sim Cities
• http://hide-inoki.com/sc4/buildings_bat.htm#oita
• http://27.pro.tok2.com/~chilitomato2/ 
• http://www.bripizza.net/sc4/ 
• http://sim-ism.nsf.jp/bat.htm
• http://raika-s.hp.infoseek.co.jp/
• http://members3.jcom.home.ne.jp/somy000/index.htm
• http://tadasu29.sakura.ne.jp/bat-ALLstyle.html
• http://tokyo-urbanlab.jpn.org/link-1.htm
• http://yaplog.jp/waldorf/
• http://www.davidluart.com/download.php#ins

Two: What do I need to run the game? SC4 for Mac, or a program that runs PC on a mac (WITHOUT it crashing)?

Three: Will it crash constantly? The mac does have a dual processor.

Four: This is similar to my above query: I have heard of NAM installation and radical ordinance not working properly, super slow simulation speeds, terrain mod issues, and region view zoom problems. Should I be expecting these issues? 

Finally: How do you take pictures? I know there is some control -something (I think 4 or F4?) thing but there isn't a print screen key on a Mac.

If you can answer these questions it would be much appreciated because it would help me consider what software to purchase and what to download without killing the game completely. Thanks!

[thingfishs 416]

OK, well I have had experience with both the mac version and windows version (on a macbook pro). The best advice I can give is stick with the pc version, it's a lot better as far as overall performance is concerned. I currently use my MBP setup and it's great. However I would recommend (if you can) getting one with a dedicated video card, mine has the 8600M (dedicated), new ones often have 9400 (integrated) plus the 9600 (dedicated) It's not a dealbreaker but imo there shouldn't be macbook pros without a dedicated video card.

Filejuicer usually works at extracting from exe files (which should be your only hurdle from any of those sites - oh & thanks for that list, there's a few I don't recognise) But if you get a windows bootcamp installation (I recommend windows 7), you won't need to use it anyway.

The dual processor situation hasn't been an issue for me, and there should be ways around it if it is; most computers are dual processor these days.

As for screenshots it varies between os'es, but it's easily learnt or configured.

BOTTOM LINE: Stick with the PC version of SC4! But DO get a MBP, they are beautiful machines.