Aleph One won't launch

[jrsx]

I thought about posting in the gaming department, but since I have a feeling this is a PPC problem, here it is:
I have a game called Marathon Infinity, and some other scenerios of the game, and this has happened to me twice now: it will not launch, all other programs start stalling and will not respond, and I have to force-shut down the computer sometimes to get it to quit. I have left it for several minutes, and it finally successfully launched after about 5+ mins., but it does this everytime now! The only solution I have found is to completely redownload the game, which takes a long time with all the add on scenarios and eveything. Deleting .plist files doesn't work, and the processor is always at 100% when I try to lauch this. There is nothing on the known-issues page for this program. Sometimes I can get it to force quit, but it takes a couple minutes. Somehow I managed to sample the program, and capture the Log. They are posted below. Please help as I do not want to download 500 megs+ again! Thanks

 

[jrsx]

Update: Re-downloading it didn't help. Getting it off a backup after removing of every trace of it didn't help. What can I do?

 

[treellama]

Where do you have Marathon Infinity installed? If it's in /Applications, can you try moving it into a folder by itself and see if that improves anything? I thought we had fixed that issue but maybe we didn't.

I test each release on a titanium PowerBook G4, but I am lazy and usually only copy the game to the desktop before I run it.

 

[jrsx]

Where do you have Marathon Infinity installed? If it's in /Applications, can you try moving it into a folder by itself and see if that improves anything? I thought we had fixed that issue but maybe we didn't.

I test each release on a titanium PowerBook G4, but I am lazy and usually only copy the game to the desktop before I run it.

I have tested it from just about anywhere, and it won't launch. Also I have tried Marathon Rubicon, Eternal, and Phoenix, and they just lock everything up too. Additional info: I am running this on Tiger, not Leopard, and Tiger is the earliest OS it can run under. Maybe support dropped before I downloaded it? idk. Maybe I'll try an older version of Aleph One.

 

[jrsx]

I have tried the old version of Aleph One, and it doesn't work. I have gone through all my libraries and killed anything that had to do with it, and it still won't run. This application is ridiculously unstable and a royal pain. What in the world can be stopping it since there is nothing left of it, and I downloaded it like it was new? I have only had this issue once, and that was solved by redownloading it, but now nothing helps. There are no bugs reported by anyone and nothing like this has happened on their forums. Please help!

 

[Altemose]

Since you downgraded it may have left some libraries from the newer version installed. I really do not know why it will not work. Have you tried maybe installing OS X again to a different partition, testing the application, and then removing the partition?

 

[treellama]

I also have an SSD installed, which might be why it works better for me. Aleph One 1.1 still supports 10.4, but it may be the last release to do so.

I'll look into it, but please be patient. It's not easy supporting 9 year old hardware!

 

[jrsx]

I also have an SSD installed, which might be why it works better for me. Aleph One 1.1 still supports 10.4, but it may be the last release to do so.

I just restored OS X, so I will test it out when I get the chance. It was strange....working absolutely great, until it just locked everything up!

....It's not easy supporting 9 year old hardware!

I believe it! I really like the engine because I used to use the original game on Mac OS 7, so I'm grateful it still supports PPC!

 

[Altemose]

Sounds like there is another problem if a fresh install of OS X locked up.

 

[jrsx]

Sounds like there is another problem if a fresh install of OS X locked up.

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. I restore of OS X did work. I meant that it was strange before I restored, that everything worked fine then screwed all up. It works, for now at least.

 

[Altemose]

Give it a shot and report back. I personally think that some libraries for that program were messed up due to the initial crash of the program and later tinkering with different versions.

 

[jrsx]

Give it a shot and report back. I personally think that some libraries for that program were messed up due to the initial crash of the program and later tinkering with different versions.

As I said, the restore did work. I went through the libraries and deleted all aleph one plists, prefs, everything, but maybe I somehow missed something or there was invisible files.

 

[Altemose]

Many programs do drop invisible files. I think that one probably got corrupted which caused the initial issue with the program. Then as you started to mess with different versions it overwrote some of the files, causing a whole new mess of an issue. Glad it is resolved now.

 

[jrsx]

Never mind it's completely locking up again. Is there someway I can remove all the invisible files as well? There is no un-installer.

 

[Altemose]

Considering that I do not know what that program even is or does, I don't have a specific answer. The best I could tell you is to enable hidden files in Finder and search away.

 

[jrsx]

Considering that I do not know what that program even is or does, I don't have a specific answer. The best I could tell you is to enable hidden files in Finder and search away.

Would it have anything to do with another application or plug in?

OK, I deleted every file that ever had to do with it. It's Tiger's problem I'm pretty sure. Aleph one and Marathon simply do not run. But what is the error I got in the log supposed to mean? Would it have to do with a certain system configuration, or another app?

 

[jrsx]

I tried creating a new account, but the problem traveled. Something new showed up in the log, though:

 

[treellama]

To uninstall, just drag to the trash. There are no invisible files.

It works for me in Tiger so that is not the problem.

 

[Altemose]

Are you running 10.4.11? I have seen some programs where they would install on 10.4+ and only run on 10.4.11.

 

[treellama]

The attached sample indicates the process spent a lot of time reading from the disk.

Check and make sure Spotlight is finished indexing.

Give it a lot of time to start up, like 5 or 10 minutes, maybe it's not really locked up?

 

[jrsx]

The attached sample indicates the process spent a lot of time reading from the disk.

Check and make sure Spotlight is finished indexing.

Give it a lot of time to start up, like 5 or 10 minutes, maybe it's not really locked up?

No luck. Yes, I am running 10.4.11. I have left some time to start up, and all volumes are done indexing. It is bizarre. I have menumeters CPU monitoring built in, and when ever I try to launch Aleph One, the CPU monitor jumps right 50-60% average to a solid 100%. I have had some luck opening it, I left for several minutes, and it opened, and I messed around with the Open GL settings and stuff, but no luck. It still just takes forever. I don't know why this just started happening, but worked fine earlier. Maybe HD has some bad blocks? Idk.

 

[Altemose]

Is there a possibility to test this under Leopard (10.5.8)? I know that this sounds a bit extreme to have to keep wiping the drive but that is the only advice I can really give.

 

[jrsx]

Is there a possibility to test this under Leopard (10.5.8)? I know that this sounds a bit extreme to have to keep wiping the drive but that is the only advice I can really give.

If I had Leopard, I would. Right now, I'm glad I don't have an SSD, I restore my drive a lot, and SSDs don't like being written to too often.

 

[Altemose]

I totally agree with that statement about the reliability of SSDs. Seven months with one in my MacBook Pro and it read 84% of health. I was done with that, especially with the lack of TRIM support OS X provides by default to third party SSDs. I threw the 500 GB hard drive back in and am going to use the SSD in some other laptop lying around here where I don't care what happens to the data on it.

 

[jrsx]

I totally agree with that statement about the reliability of SSDs. Seven months with one in my MacBook Pro and it read 84% of health. I was done with that, especially with the lack of TRIM support OS X provides by default to third party SSDs. I threw the 500 GB hard drive back in and am going to use the SSD in some other laptop lying around here where I don't care what happens to the data on it.

I really like the speed and quietness of SSDs and everything, but they can just be the wrong drive sometimes, which is when I like good ol' HDDs better.