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Age of Empires II and iMac

C

coopwayne

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 8, 2011
1
0
When I try to load Age of Empires II on my iMac 10.6.8, I receive the following message: "Could not initialize graphics system. Make sure that your video card and driver are compatible with DirectDraw. Error.

Can anyone help?
 
That doesn't sound like the Mac version... need more info. Are you using the Mac version, or the Windows version.. and if the Windows version is it running through something like Crossover...

If its a "Mac" version... is it the official Mac version, or a 3rd party Wine based port (which is really the Windows version)...

What is your computers GPU?
 
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DirectDraw is part of Microsofts DirectX API and I don't think it was ported to Mac ever.
 
Well i have the exact same error. I've been playin it for years with every Mac version and i never had any problems. And it is the original Mac Version...

"Could not initialize graphics system. Make sure that your video card and driver are compatible with DirectDraw"


I would really appreciate it if someone could help me with this
Thanks in advance.
 
Well, it is a Microsoft game, isn't it? Easy to forget to adapt error messages while porting...

For those of you trying to run the game, have you consulted the support page and updated the game to the latest version available?
 
Well after the patch its just one badass error report when i try to start a game...

like this--> attached
 

Attachments

  • aoe2 error report.txt
    26.9 KB · Views: 427
This IS actually an error on the Mac version.

I believe it has something to do with the machine not supporting 256 colors. I'm not sure of a fix.

Doesn't matter anyway, Lion will be fully ending support for Mac AoE2. :(
 
Here's the reply from Macsoft/Destineer support

This sounds like a kernel panic. There have been numerous reported
issues about this in conjunction with 10.6.8 with all types of software.

I would suggest uninstalling, then reinstalling the game. If that does
not work, contact Apple Support. It might end up being best to roll back
to 10.6.7 until they've worked out the bugs

Destineer/Macsoft Support
Click to expand...
 
How to get Age of empires 2 work on Crossover or Wine

Just use Run command from Crossover main window. And browse for the AOE exe. Add -opengl to the end. Like this "aoe/path/empires2.exe" -opengl. That's all. It'll work like charm. Enjoy :p

9683515277_63dbaa5b96_o.png
 
AOE on lion?

I have an imac 2.7 running Loin, will Age of Empires, Mac Gold version NOT run on Lion?:confused:

I get a message saying I can't open the application "(null)" because disk maybe damaged or incomplete"

The disk is brand new.

I'm running Lion but if I need to backup to a older version I would like to know which OSX will work?

Your time is much appreciated!
 
Ez catch said:
I have an imac 2.7 running Loin, will Age of Empires, Mac Gold version NOT run on Lion?:confused:

I get a message saying I can't open the application "(null)" because disk maybe damaged or incomplete"

The disk is brand new.

I'm running Lion but if I need to backup to a older version I would like to know which OSX will work?

Your time is much appreciated!
Click to expand...

AoEII is PPC and needs rosetta installed to work on intel. The latest OS to support that is 10.6.
 
Yeah AOE 2 is pretty much dead for new macs. I decided to get VMware just so that I could play AOE 2 and other Windows 98 era games. Totally worth it.
 
truettray said:
Yeah AOE 2 is pretty much dead for new macs. I decided to get VMware just so that I could play AOE 2 and other Windows 98 era games. Totally worth it.
Click to expand...

Indeed + many more titles. After losing access to all my PPC Mac games, I got a gaming PC. Well worth it.

Even in Windows 8, we've little of this inconvenience that plagues older OS X games. With very few exceptions, Windows maintains excellent backwards compatibility.

But to each their own, be it for gaming or whatever. FWIW, I use my Macs for pretty much everything else & that won't change.
 
gregorsamsa said:
Indeed + many more titles. After losing access to all my PPC Mac games, I got a gaming PC. Well worth it.

Even in Windows 8, we've little of this inconvenience that plagues older OS X games. With very few exceptions, Windows maintains excellent backwards compatibility.

But to each their own, be it for gaming or whatever. FWIW, I use my Macs for pretty much everything else & that won't change.
Click to expand...

I keep my old G5 around for everything PPC, including classic OS 9. Windows free and loving every minute of it :)
 
I just got AOE2 w/ the new expansion pack for $15 combined on the Steam sale. I'm running it on Mavericks through Wine. If you do enough fiddling and Googling you can get it to work. It's still not perfect, but it runs.
 
n8mac said:
I keep my old G5 around for everything PPC, including classic OS 9. Windows free and loving every minute of it :)
Click to expand...

Good solution. As stated, to each their own. :) Before getting my PC, I'd considered getting an older Mini with Snow Leopard. Not exclusively for older Mac games, but just to allow that option.

Few regrets about going the way I did as Windows 8 has excellent backwards compatibility & I prefer to keep my Macs Windows-free. That said, in an ideal world, I'd have preferred sticking with Mac for everything.
 
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