A Mac Users Walkthrough

[greenbelt 2]

Why Why Why

I started in the Newbie forum, but I think the Mac forum is appropriate. This journal is based on the information gathered at this site. Basically I'm following Greyveils instructions and then describing any problems I had using the Mac version of Sim City and the solutions found. Along the way I'll refer to all the great threads that have helped me (Thank you, Thank you, Thank you) so maybe you can tell me if I've followed the instructions correctly. Hopefully this journal will help to consolidate all this great help here and help any newbies struggling with Aspyrs lack of ... everything. Also if things get screwed up yet again... y'all can help me figure out how to fix things. Best of all I hope to get more suggestions and or help from the rest of the community.

The Cast and Crew

I have a Mac Mini running OS X v.10.3.9 with a 1,25GHz PowerPC G4 (1,2). RAM memory is 256MB. If I ever get started playing SC4 and have a large population maybe I'll get more RAM. Apple Store says it'll be about $125 to upgrade to 512 RAM.

Other info from About This Mac under the Apple Menu in Finder is all Greek to me. L2 Cache: 512KB, Bus Speed: 167MHz. blah, blah, blah.

Display stats are VRAM of 32MB, an ATI Radeon video card, resolution is 832x624 @ 75Hz and 32 bit color.

I don't know what speed the CD-DVD drive is. SC4 works so it might be 8X.

To move around Simtropolis quickly I have a Motorola SM 56K cable modem and I usually use Safari v.1.3 to hook up to Earthlink TotalAccess 2005.1.1.

I have Stuffit Expander v.9.0.1 to open the .zip files in STEX.

So far so good. Now stuff begins to get strange.

Apocalypse Now

I got so frustrated trying to get all the great stuff I've read about in Simtropolis that I almost threw my Mac out the window.

Date: 12/6/2004 9:23:47 AM
Author: BlackBeard
So maybe it's time to throw your MAC out the window and buy a PC,just a thought.

so I decided to start from scratch because as psycho13 says;

Date: 12/6/2004 11:04:41 AM
Author: psychoh13
Turn to PC?! Ain't you crazy ?! I'll never turn to PC world .... I'd rather blow my head off ..... Only because there's no architect tool on Mac i'd turn to pc ?

I used Find under the File Menu in Finder to find and then delete all files everywhere, with the name SimCity.

In the Beginning...

I reinstalled SimCity 4 (vanilla version) that I bought at the Apple Store back in June ($49.95). (This has been a long haul for me). I was asked to enter the serial number from the back of the CD case.
Clicking the Register Now button took me to the Aspyr site. Again I entered the serial number. After registering I looked for the patch and addons.

http://www.aspyr.com/games.php/mac/sc4/

Clicked on article 1173 to get the patch. Early versions of SimCity 4 tend to crash during the opening movie. Stuffit Expander placed SC4update102.sitx (Stuffit X Archive) and Updater 1.0.1 application on my desktop. Double-clicked the Updater 1.0.1 application. Update was successful!!!

DO NOT INSTALL ANY PATCHES AS PER GREYVEIL'S INSTRUCTIONS

Clicked on article 1006 Using Downloads from PC Version to get additional Landmarks. SC4MacAddons.sit (Stuffit Archive), SC4MacAddons.sit.download (Safari download), Simcity4 Additional Items.dmg (disk image file), and Simcity4 EA Downloads (Volume) were unzipped by Stuffit Expander and placed on my desktop. Double-clicked the Simcity4 EA Downloads (Volume).

A window opened containing the following:

.A. To Plugins folder has 16 items:
.1. Plugin_003_ArcTriomphe.dat
.2. Plugin_006_GlobeArena.dat
.3. Plugin_009_NamDaeMoon.dat
.4. Plugin_00D_Parthenon.dat
.5. Plugin_010_GrandCentralStation.dat
.6. Plugin_032_MayflowerPort.dat
.7. Plugin_004_SeoulCityHall.dat
.8. Plugin_007_AirForceBase.dat
.9. Plugin_063_63Building.dat
.10. Plugin_00E_SchlossShoenbrun.dat
.11. Plugin_012_CapitolRecords.dat
.12. Plugin_005_SeoulSoccerStad.dat
.13. Plugin_008_Kunjungjon.dat
.14. Plugin_00C_BrandenburgGate.dat
.15. Plugin_00F_TempleExpiatiori.dat
.16. Plugin_030_TaipeiArtMuseum.dat,

.B. To Regions folder has 2 items:
.I. Maxis Region folder has 11 items:
.1. City-Centropolis.SC4
.2. City-Commercial Venture.SC4
.3. City-Industrial Wasteland.SC4
.4. City-New City.SC4
.5. City-New City(4).SC4
.6. City-New City(6).SC4 where is 5
.7. City-New City(7).SC4
.8. City-New City(.SC4
.9. City-New City(9).SC4
.10. region.ini
.11. config.bmp
.II. udrive_opt.sc4

Clicked Home under the Go menu, then clicked Documents in my Home window. Found the Plugins folder and Regions folder in the SimCity 4 folder. (Home/Documents/SimCity 4/Plugins and Home/Documents/SimCity 4/Regions)
Dragged the contents of the Simcity4.EA.downloads/To Plugins folder to the Home/Documents/SimCity/Plugins folder.
Dragged the contents of the Simcity4.EA.downloads/To Regions folder and the udrive_opt.sc4 document to the Home/Documents/SimCity/Regions folder. I think we're not supposed to make any sub-folders.

That's Earth, Now Here's Heaven

A per greyveil's instructions I've screwed up already. Start over.

These instructions will assume you have the basic SC4 game installed with no patches and take you thru the process of going to either deluxe or rush-hour as I don't recommend the vanilla SC4 because of the game play issues

So I immediately ran out to the Apple Store and bought Rush Hour Expansion Pack. Another $29.95

a. Rush-hour: do a normal cd install to upgrade from SC4 to Rush-hour.

So now I reinstalled the Rush Hour Expansion Pack. I don't remember being asked to enter the serial number from the back of the CD case. Anyways I thought I'd try out the new serial number. The Aspyr site accepted the number; the Support and Extras buttons took me to the same pages as when I registered Sim City 4. SimCity 4.com still won't recognize Mac serial numbers.

Time to try out the game before I do anything else!!! Besides I've noticed that things really slow down around here exactly at 1:01am central time.

P.S. You know this may work out better if I just attach a file to a post. I need to re-read that stuff about posting etc. I'll never get around to playing the game!!

Back Again. Wed, Aug 24/05

Played all the tutorials and they work fine. Hey let me know if this is of any use or interest to anyone...Anyone out there?

2. And the Earth was Without Form, and Void;

Went to Simcity.com Auto Update via greyviel's link. Hey I got past the nasty invalid serial number stuff. Stuffit Expander unzipped UPDATE_SKU1_TO_P1_B638.EXE and put it on the desktop. To make a long story short I didn't find any way to open or install this file.

[sarad 0]

I haven't even bought the software yet, but I think this post of yours will be helpful when I get as far as you have.

Although I must admit, the list of problems you've run into is daunting.

[doobie 0]

some advice:

buy RAM third party - for instance - crucial.com... sometimes it's half to 1/3 the cost of RAM from apple- and if you take it to the apple store, they should install it for you. there are other places, but crucial is highly recommended.

Max out on RAM if you can... the mini isn't really made for gaming... and SC4 is a demanding program.

simcity.com won't accept mac version serial numbers... you have to contact maxis, send them a fax of the back of your CD case, and they will send you a compatable SN for the website. this has been an issue since the mac version came out... you won't be able to use any .exe files, but will have access to some files.

all updates should come from aspyr's website- the mac version has different issues from the windows version- a lot of stuff that was wrong with the windows version was fixed when the mac version came out, but the updates from aspyr fix mac-specific issues.

http://www.aspyr.com/games.php/mac/sc4/
http://www.aspyr.com/games.php/mac/sc4rh/

the first link has patches and links to where you can find the additional landmarks...

the second link has the rushhour patch


hope this helps...

-doobie