eMac g4: games are not playing smoothly

[TylerEconomou]

I’m trying to play some games on the 2005 eMac 1.42ghz model, and they drop to less than 30 FPS

One example is The Sims Complete Collection. At random times it’ll freeze for half a second. The other issue is the game lags when I hold ctrl (command? I’m using a windows keyboard, I don’t have an Apple keyboard) and click to move around the house. It doesn’t seem to lag when it stays in one spot. It also only seems to lag when it’s around the house. When I move it around the corners of the lot where the grass is, it lags less. What kind of issue would this be and how can I fix it?
The eMac runs OS X 10.4.11 and has 768MB of RAM
Thanks.

 

[Jubadub]

Hm, you aren't running that game in Classic mode, are you? It should be able to run natively in Tiger, as well.

All I can say is that I played a lot of The Sims Complete Collection just a year ago, on a similarly-spec-ed machine, the 2005 Mac mini G4 1.5GHz, no lags whatsoever (except when you activate fast forwarding to the 3rd speed level), but under Mac OS 9.2.2 instead of Tiger.

Certainly one of the heaviest Mac-OS-9-compatible games, though, I should note (once updated from a regular app to a Carbon app, that is, such as in the case of this collection. Pre-Carbon apps are always faster and better).

 

[TylerEconomou]

Hm, you aren't running that game in Classic mode, are you? It should be able to run natively in Tiger, as well.

All I can say is that I played a lot of The Sims Complete Collection just a year ago, on a similarly-spec-ed machine, the 2005 Mac mini G4 1.5GHz, no lags whatsoever (except when you activate fast forwarding to the 3rd speed level), but under Mac OS 9.2.2 instead of Tiger.

Certainly one of the heaviest Mac-OS-9-compatible games, though, I should note (once updated from a regular app to a Carbon app, that is, such as in the case of this collection. Pre-Carbon apps are always faster and better).

I’m running it natively. I wasn’t able to get classic mode to work with most of my other games so I didn’t bother trying with the sims. Should I try the macOS 9 version?

 

[Jubadub]

I’m running it natively. I wasn’t able to get classic mode to work with most of my other games so I didn’t bother trying with the sims.

Alright, as long you make sure Classic is turned off, or the game's preferences (Cmd+I) specify it not to run under Classic, then all's good.

Should I try the macOS 9 version?

Since Mac OS 9.2.2 is lighter and smoother, maybe, but because of the exact eMac model you have, the process is a little bit involved and is probably not what you want. The GPU for that specific eMac model also doesn't work (other than give you a display) under OS 9 (Radeon 9600), so if The Sims uses the GPU for anything, then it will probably be worse.

I'm not sure what else to recommend, sorry I couldn't be of much help.

 

[TylerEconomou]

Alright, as long you make sure Classic is turned off, or the game's preferences (Cmd+I) specify it not to run under Classic, then all's good.


Since Mac OS 9.2.2 is lighter and smoother, maybe, but because of the exact eMac model you have, the process is a little bit involved and is probably not what you want. The GPU for that specific eMac model also doesn't work (other than give you a display) under OS 9 (Radeon 9600), so if The Sims uses the GPU for anything, then it will probably be worse.

I'm not sure what else to recommend, sorry I couldn't be of much help.

All good. Thanks anyway