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OS X Neverwinter Nights - Can it still be played?

K

Konnor13

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 12, 2010
16
0
Hi guys,

So recently i've been wanting to play Neverwinter nights (the original one, not the second) however it's been a fairly long time since I played it and I had to dump the original mac copy as it didn't work with the newest version of osx. It also seems to have been removed from the mac app store and permanently discontinued pretty much everywhere I look apart from Amazon.

What I want to know is, will any virtual machines run it, and do current versions of the game still work? Obviously I want to avoid bootcamping my Mac as windows is expensive and the partition takes up a rather large amount of hard drive space. I'm open to Wine, but have never used it before, so not sure how that would work out. Wine would be the perfect solution as it is free.

Thanks.
 
The original game is a DOS game from 1991 and was played online via AOL; certainly you don't mean that? ;)

The 2002 game should run fine in a Parallels/VMWare virtual machine. Graphics performance in said VMs is rather poor (compared to native), but since the game is a good 10 years old by now, that shouldn't matter for any recent Mac.
 
The game does not work with Wine in my recent experience just days ago. I tried a fair number of different versions of Wine, read through AppDB for clues, found it was not working for others either although supposedly it had in the past. Well, I tried the versions of Wine it supposedly worked with (keep in mind these were on Linux however) and no joy.

So, I installed it into a Parallels virtual machine running Windows XP SP3 and the most recent patched release of NWN Diamond from gog.com starts right up and works wonderfully from what I can tell. I fooled around changing settings, did some of the tutorial and all was perfect.

Unfortunately though, this means you are looking at either spending for Parallels plus Windows or just getting Windows and having to reboot via bootcamp. I realize that wasn't the answer you were hoping for but that was what I found just the other day trying to do this. I was using Wineskin by the way which I prefer over Barrel personally. In either case, Wine is Wine so it doesn't matter what tool you use, it matters whether some version of Wine itself actually works and in this case it did not. I got a black screen which is a well known issue if you look into this. There is an unresolved Wine bug at play that remains open in the bug database.

On a happier note, I found the NWN2 Complete from gog.com works beautifully with Wine, again using Wineskin to set it up. Just check AppDB for info, etc. if you want to try this one. I tested just a little of the first part of the game and no problems. This was running with OS X 10.8.4

----------
WMD said:
The original game is a DOS game from 1991 and was played online via AOL; certainly you don't mean that? ;)

The 2002 game should run fine in a Parallels/VMWare virtual machine. Graphics performance in said VMs is rather poor (compared to native), but since the game is a good 10 years old by now, that shouldn't matter for any recent Mac.
Click to expand...

The performance of this game in Parallels was excellent in my brief testing of it. I would agree most older games should be just fine with Parallels.
 
Get NEverwinter Nights at gog.com, no drm will make installation on virtual machines much easier!

Neverwinter Nights runs flawless in wine (you can use wineskin, barrel, wine bottler or plain wine if you like)
 
cluthz said:
Get NEverwinter Nights at gog.com, no drm will make installation on virtual machines much easier!

Neverwinter Nights runs flawless in wine (you can use wineskin, barrel, wine bottler or plain wine if you like)
Click to expand...

No, it does not run at all. I just tried it with multiple versions of Wine, old and newest. I also discovered as noted above that there is an outstanding open bug that is the reason why you get a black screen when you try to run the game.

Now, if you know something I do not I would love to hear it in the form of precisely what version of Wine to use and exactly what modifications are necessary to make via Wineskin. That would be awesome.

Here is the bug I am talking about:

http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=28869

Read the comments and there is a developer comment explaining why they cannot fix it, at least it was left that way for the time being and the bug was left open.

Now, supposedly some earlier versions worked and I tried that but no joy. I will try one more time and see if I missed something but I doubt it. I spent hours on this. I know it had been rated Platinum in the past by some using earlier versions of Wine so I was surprised and disappointed that it did not for me.
 
Last edited:
WMD said:
The original game is a DOS game from 1991 and was played online via AOL; certainly you don't mean that? ;)

The 2002 game should run fine in a Parallels/VMWare virtual machine. Graphics performance in said VMs is rather poor (compared to native), but since the game is a good 10 years old by now, that shouldn't matter for any recent Mac.
Click to expand...

Yeah sorry I meant the 2002 version which has Hordes of the underdark expansions etc. I didnt realise there was a version predating the 2002 one.

----------
cluthz said:
Get NEverwinter Nights at gog.com, no drm will make installation on virtual machines much easier!

Neverwinter Nights runs flawless in wine (you can use wineskin, barrel, wine bottler or plain wine if you like)
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I have no clue how to go about using wine, and I am aware it is quite complex. In past I have used windows exp on bootcamp but I don't have the installation disc anymore. I'll look into wine

Do you know if I can get a relatively cheap copy of xp/vista to use or would that not be worth my time? xp is pretty old now and not sure if it would be worth installing via bootcamp. Some info on wine would also be appreciated.
 
Okay, I just spent more time fooling with this and most versions of Wine had issues, mostly black screen. A few would play opening movies but most would not. Some just crashed.

Finally, I found that if you use Wineskin Engine WS8Wine1.3.18 the game actually works but the movies do not, none of them. I was able to test this since the game offers viewing them from the main menu. The opening movies do not display but you can hear the sound playing and the same is true of the game's movies. So you can listen to the narration for the story, etc. You'll just have a black screen display until it finishes. Otherwise, the actual game looks nice and seemed to work fine in limited testing in the tutorial area.

You can skip the opening movies just by pressing spacebar repeatedly until the main menu screen appears. Then you are good to go. Once you begin playing, the first game movie will play and you can listen to the narration and then you'll find yourself in the tutorial starting area and you're off on your adventure.

In my opinion, that's not too bad a tradeoff compared to buying Windows, rebooting or buying Parallels too, etc. The actual game itself will work with that specific Wine version.

Wineskin and Wine are things you can learn about in stages. You don't need to understand all there is to know about this stuff to setup a game. You just need to learn as you go, when you encounter problems.

Google and Bookmark the following places and you'll be in good shape for resources:

AppDB
Wineskin

Don't be scared off by the complexity. It ain't rocket science, believe me. If you can read other people's comments and try things out, you're fine. Wineskin itself is a nice and straightforward to use app that makes working with Wine much easier that it would otherwise be and it is documented on the Wineskin site where you can download it for free.

AppDB is a Wine database where you can look up games and get info on how well they work "out of the box" with Wine and if any special settings are needed, which can normally be accomplished pretty simply with Wineskin.

While not everything works, a lot of games do work with Wine so I'd encourage you to learn about Wineskin and open up some possibilities for yourself for free.
 
Thraun said:
Honestly, I'd just say get NWN 2. Works perfectly (in 10.7.5 at least) and is a much better game than its predecessor.
Click to expand...

Is NWN2 still available for Mac or would I need to use Wine to run it?
The only reason i've not considered the 2nd one is because it seems like there is no diamond edition for mac and the expansions all cost approx £10 from Amazon on top of the original £10 of the game. seems like a bit too much for a game thats been out over 5 years now. Is there anywhere you can suggest buying it from? Seems like there is also some dlc issues with the 2nd one, MOTB isnt out for mac.
 
Last edited:
Neverwinter Nights 2 for Mac should be still available on Amazon. On Amazon Germany it costs 9,99€. I got my copy from the Mac App Store on sale. :D But it isn't available there. Try Amazon in your country.
 
Aspyr doesn't have the rights to sell NWN2 anymore, but you can find it some places. Looks like it'll run you $25 shipped from an Amazon merchant ATM You can buy the PC versions of the expansions, drag them over to your Mac installation to install them, though I think you'll need Windows or a VM to extract the files.
 
Konnor13 said:
Is NWN2 still available for Mac or would I need to use Wine to run it?
The only reason i've not considered the 2nd one is because it seems like there is no diamond edition for mac and the expansions all cost approx £10 from Amazon on top of the original £10 of the game. seems like a bit too much for a game thats been out over 5 years now. Is there anywhere you can suggest buying it from? Seems like there is also some dlc issues with the 2nd one, MOTB isnt out for mac.
Click to expand...

You can get NWN 2 Complete with all content at gog.com:

http://www.gog.com/game/neverwinter_nights_2_complete

and it did start up and work fine with Wine in my limited testing so far.
 
Not sure what most of the issues are with some peoples set ups, but NWN1 with expansions, as well as NWN2 with expansions all work fine for me with Wineskin.

I run NWN 1 with WS8Wine1.2.3 and it runs just fine, movies and all.
 
doh123 said:
Not sure what most of the issues are with some peoples set ups, but NWN1 with expansions, as well as NWN2 with expansions all work fine for me with Wineskin.

I run NWN 1 with WS8Wine1.2.3 and it runs just fine, movies and all.
Click to expand...

I could swear I tried that particular version but I will try changing engines to see what happens. I hope it works here completely as well. That would be great.

Did you need to tweak anything else or does it just work with that version of Wine?

----------
doh123 said:
Not sure what most of the issues are with some peoples set ups, but NWN1 with expansions, as well as NWN2 with expansions all work fine for me with Wineskin.

I run NWN 1 with WS8Wine1.2.3 and it runs just fine, movies and all.
Click to expand...

I just tried 1.2.3 and it works great but no movies at all either starting up or when I try a new game or try to play them from main screen where it lets you. Here's the LastRunWine.log:

wine: cannot find L"C:\\windows\\system32\\plugplay.exe"
fixme:wave:AudioUnit_SetVolume independent left/right volume not implemented (1.000000, 1.000000)
fixme:wave:wodDsCreate DirectSound not implemented
fixme:wave:wodDsCreate The (slower) DirectSound HEL mode will be used instead.
fixme:wave:AudioUnit_SetVolume independent left/right volume not implemented (1.000000, 1.000000)
err:eek:le:COMPOBJ_DllList_Add couldn't load in-process dll L"a3dapi.dll"
err:eek:le:CoGetClassObject no class object {92fa2c24-253c-11d2-90fb-006008a1f441} could be created for context 0x1
fixme:wave:wodDsCreate DirectSound not implemented
fixme:wave:wodDsCreate The (slower) DirectSound HEL mode will be used instead.
fixme:wave:wodDsCreate DirectSound not implemented
fixme:wave:wodDsCreate The (slower) DirectSound HEL mode will be used instead.
fixme:wgl:X11DRV_wglChoosePixelFormatARB unused pfAttribFList
fixme:wgl:X11DRV_wglChoosePixelFormatARB unused pfAttribFList
fixme:wgl:X11DRV_wglChoosePixelFormatARB unused pfAttribFList
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33efcc,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33efcc,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33efcc,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33efcc,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33efcc,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:keyboard:X11DRV_ActivateKeyboardLayout 0x4090409, 0000: semi-stub!
fixme:keyboard:X11DRV_ActivateKeyboardLayout 0x4090409, 0000: semi-stub!
fixme:keyboard:X11DRV_ActivateKeyboardLayout 0x4090409, 0000: semi-stub!
fixme:keyboard:X11DRV_ActivateKeyboardLayout 0x4090409, 0000: semi-stub!
fixme:keyboard:X11DRV_ActivateKeyboardLayout 0x4090409, 0000: semi-stub!
fixme:keyboard:X11DRV_ActivateKeyboardLayout 0x4090409, 0000: semi-stub!
fixme:keyboard:X11DRV_ActivateKeyboardLayout 0x4090409, 0000: semi-stub!
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33efcc,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33ebec,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33ebec,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33ebec,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33ebec,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33eecc,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33eecc,0x00000000), stub!
:: Server player list ::
ServerAdmins: 1
Player :[] [ServerAdmin]
Players: 1
Player :[] [Player]
Total: 2
:: Server mode: Module Loaded.
:: Server mode: Module Running.

Any ideas?
 
Thought I should try starting from scratch just in case where I'd changed engines so many times. Still works fine except no movies with 1.2.3. This is with a brand new wrapper and taking all defaults in Wineskin and NWN itself. Here is the log:


fixme:wave:AudioUnit_SetVolume independent left/right volume not implemented (1.000000, 1.000000)
fixme:wave:wodDsCreate DirectSound not implemented
fixme:wave:wodDsCreate The (slower) DirectSound HEL mode will be used instead.
fixme:wave:AudioUnit_SetVolume independent left/right volume not implemented (1.000000, 1.000000)
err:eek:le:COMPOBJ_DllList_Add couldn't load in-process dll L"a3dapi.dll"
err:eek:le:CoGetClassObject no class object {92fa2c24-253c-11d2-90fb-006008a1f441} could be created for context 0x1
fixme:wave:wodDsCreate DirectSound not implemented
fixme:wave:wodDsCreate The (slower) DirectSound HEL mode will be used instead.
fixme:wave:wodDsCreate DirectSound not implemented
fixme:wave:wodDsCreate The (slower) DirectSound HEL mode will be used instead.
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33efcc,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33efcc,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33efcc,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:keyboard:X11DRV_ActivateKeyboardLayout 0x4090409, 0000: semi-stub!
fixme:keyboard:X11DRV_ActivateKeyboardLayout 0x4090409, 0000: semi-stub!
fixme:keyboard:X11DRV_ActivateKeyboardLayout 0x4090409, 0000: semi-stub!
fixme:keyboard:X11DRV_ActivateKeyboardLayout 0x4090409, 0000: semi-stub!
fixme:keyboard:X11DRV_ActivateKeyboardLayout 0x4090409, 0000: semi-stub!
fixme:keyboard:X11DRV_ActivateKeyboardLayout 0x4090409, 0000: semi-stub!
fixme:keyboard:X11DRV_ActivateKeyboardLayout 0x4090409, 0000: semi-stub!
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33efcc,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33efcc,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33efcc,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33eecc,0x00000000), stub!
fixme:win:EnumDisplayDevicesW ((null),0,0x33eecc,0x00000000), stub!
:: Server player list ::
ServerAdmins: 1
Player :[] [ServerAdmin]
Players: 1
Player :[] [Player]
Total: 2
:: Server mode: Module Loaded.
:: Server mode: Module Running.


I notice above the plug play.exe error is gone now but the a3dapi.dll error is still there. Not sure what the significance of that might be.

Are you running with Nvidia or ATI GPU? I have a Radeon 6970m here.
 
Last edited:
I've got both NWN 1 and 2 (purchased through gameagent on a sale, IIRC). They work great under Codeweavers' Crossover. Might be worth a look. crossover is Wine with a few patches to increase game compatibility.

Good luck!
 
Let me update by saying.. the Intro movie does NOT work, but its a useless movie that tells you nothing. When i say the movies work, I mean the movies that tell the story... cutscene movies... they all work fine. I disable the Intro movie since it won't work and is useless anyways.

EDIT:
I just recently re-tested on Intel and Nvidia graphics and both cutscene movies work ok in the game (not from the movie playback option later, just when they really come up while playing). I did play this all the way through though with an ATI GPU before using the same 1.2.3 Wine version, so I'm pretty sure that works too.

So to wrap it up...
• movies running while your playing, so you understand the story... should work just fine.
• The Intro movie will not work when first starting up NWN.
• The movies played back from the main menu option won't work... mine just plays audio only.
• Wine versions after 1.2.3 broke some of this... so I just stick to running this with 1.2.3.
 
Last edited:
JonasCalhoun said:
I've got both NWN 1 and 2 (purchased through gameagent on a sale, IIRC). They work great under Codeweavers' Crossover. Might be worth a look. crossover is Wine with a few patches to increase game compatibility.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Which Crossover version is being used to run NWN 1 with zero issues including working movies? Checking forum posts there, it does not seem to work consistently either.

Are you using a Nvidia or ATI GPU?

----------
doh123 said:
Let me update by saying.. the Intro movie does NOT work, but its a useless movie that tells you nothing. When i say the movies work, I mean the movies that tell the story... cutscene movies... they all work fine. I disable the Intro movie since it won't work and is useless anyways.

EDIT:
I just recently re-tested on Intel and Nvidia graphics and both cutscene movies work ok in the game (not from the movie playback option later, just when they really come up while playing). I did play this all the way through though with an ATI GPU before using the same 1.2.3 Wine version, so I'm pretty sure that works too.

So to wrap it up...
• movies running while your playing, so you understand the story... should work just fine.
• The Intro movie will not work when first starting up NWN.
• The movies played back from the main menu option won't work... mine just plays audio only.
• Wine versions after 1.2.3 broke some of this... so I just stick to running this with 1.2.3.
Click to expand...

Thank you. That is much clearer to me now. When you say the intro movie, do you mean the stuff that displays before the main screen you first see before you begin playing? The one with buttons to play, options, etc.? I've seen that which follows the various Atari and Bioware logo movies and realize it means zero.

What I have found though is that upon creating a new character and starting the game, the first "in game" movie is just black screen with audio. Is this the one you are referring to as the intro movie and all the rest that follow work?
 
Dirtyharry50 said:
Thank you. That is much clearer to me now. When you say the intro movie, do you mean the stuff that displays before the main screen you first see before you begin playing? The one with buttons to play, options, etc.? I've seen that which follows the various Atari and Bioware logo movies and realize it means zero.

What I have found though is that upon creating a new character and starting the game, the first "in game" movie is just black screen with audio. Is this the one you are referring to as the intro movie and all the rest that follow work?
Click to expand...

The Intro movie I am talking about is the one where it shows some warrior guy going through ruins that gets attacked by and fights a minotaur.

After creating a character and starting a game, the movies all work fine for me at that point... not sure why they aren't working for you.
 
JimBannister said:
It took me a little while to figure out myself. After searching for a long time on Google, I found the following website which explains how to set it up in detail. It really helps if you install NWN on a Windows box and copy the files over into the Wineskin folder. NWN runs great for me!

http://bbellina.blogspot.com/2012/01/running-nwn-for-windows-on-lion-using.html
Click to expand...

Thank you! Thank you!

Disable Intro Movies=1
SafeMovie=1

Did the trick in NWN.INI and I found as doh123 explained that the ingame movie for the opening of the game worked! Yay!

The thing I was missing and had not seen documented elsewhere was to change SafeMovie's value to 1.

I am one happy camper now. Sweet!! Thank you again and thank you doh123 for clarifying what exactly to expect with the movies, etc. :D
 
Dirtyharry50 said:
Thank you! Thank you!

Disable Intro Movies=1
SafeMovie=1

Did the trick in NWN.INI and I found as doh123 explained that the ingame movie for the opening of the game worked! Yay!

The thing I was missing and had not seen documented elsewhere was to change SafeMovie's value to 1.

I am one happy camper now. Sweet!! Thank you again and thank you doh123 for clarifying what exactly to expect with the movies, etc. :D
Click to expand...

oh.. sorry.. yes.. safemovie needs to be 1. I forgot in my wrapper I wrote a program that automatically always does that for me if it gets changed.
 
doh123 said:
oh.. sorry.. yes.. safemovie needs to be 1. I forgot in my wrapper I wrote a program that automatically always does that for me if it gets changed.
Click to expand...

It's all good now. Thank you so much for Wineskin which is awesome. I've been able to setup a lot of my games to work in OS X with relative ease thanks to you.
 
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