You can't open the application because the Classic environment is no longer supported

[Sepultura]

I am trying to install Diablo 2 and the original Starcraft on my PowerBook G4 but I run into this message. The installer has a red strike through it and when I click it I get that message.

I own two copies of Diablo 2 - version 1.0 and version 1.03 both which have the Mac OS installers. I have two versions of Starcraft as well, but only one is Power Mac compatiable, version 1.05. I know that Diablo 2 will not run on Intel based Macs unless you use Boot Camp, but this is a PPC running Leopard...

Blizzard has this post, but I am not above OS X 10.5.

https://us.battle.net/support/en/article/mac-error-classic-environment-not-supported

I'm confused because Snow Leopard was the last version of OS X to support PPC applications through Rosetta. I am on Leopard, so why is there a problem?

Google is giving a lot of conflicting answers. Diablo 2 will only run on 10.4 Tiger - Diablo 2 will only run on Mac OS 9, etc.

There was apparently an OS X installer made by Blizzard found here - https://us.battle.net/support/en/#OSXNative - but the link just goes to a search page now.

Can anyone help?

 

[RedCroissant]

The problem is that you are on Leopard which does not support classic environments or dual booting with OS 9 drivers the way that Tiger and previous versions of OS X did.

The only way for you to run that disc is to downgrade the system to Tiger as long as you have the original installation media for the PowerBook.

And yes, Rosetta did include support for the PPC architecture, but Rosetta is not the same as the classic environment and what it did was allow for a compatibility layer to allow for legacy PPC apps to run.

And the google search is actually displaying accurate information. Diablo 2 will run on OS 9 (as it was designed to). It will also run in the classic environment on version of OS X up to and including 10.4. Tiger. But the key is that you need to have a OS 9 partition and be able to boot into it in order to play Diablo 2.

 

[eyoungren]

To add to what Red has said, think of it this way.

OS9 was the system before OS X. That's the system Diablo 2 was designed to run on. Once OS X came along, it allowed you to run OS9 inside OS X as an emulation, like running Parallels on an Intel Mac lets you run an emulation of Windows. Running OS9 in this manner is referred to as "Classic".

But OS X 10.5 killed the ability to run OS9. Rosetta, introduced with Snow Leopard lets you run older PowerPC BUT STILL OS X ONLY apps on an SL Mac - not older OS9 apps.

Red pretty much laid it out, just wanted to provide a little background.

 

[JRDN]

Just got D1 and D2 on my TiBook and Cube!!

You need to run the native installer from Blizzard and use your disks

http://www.macworld.com/article/1032893/diablo2.html

Even after installing it through classic in Tiger it will prompt you saying there's a native app available.

I have it running in Tiger and Leopard with the osx installer. D1 you need classic through Tiger.

I couldn't find a link to the installer so I uploaded it for you. This'll get you running in no time.

https://copy.com/ewUgOU3OmJX8mqNy

Or: https://www.dropbox.com/s/as4mc3qpzqex6uu/Diablo_II_Installer.dmg?dl=0

After installing download the 1.13 patch from bliz separately and upgrade it that way, not through the game. Just has a better success rate.

Also check out how to run it without the disk after patching it. Follow the directions exactly and overwrite the necessary files and it runs much quicker.

Just through my experience it seems to run with higher fps through Tiger. But if you have a newer machine than a Cube or TiBook it should do just fine in Leopard

I also found that there was always some input lag from any mouse bluetooth or usb when running in windowed mode. Running it in full screen gives much better FPS and no mouse lag!

You should definitely hit me up on bnet (PM me your account name) when you get it installed. Been wanting to start up on the ladder again. Played this game for 10 years easy and would love to get through it again. ALSO you can get on a Slashdiablo private server with bnetcommander.app by changing your realm

As for Starcraft. No idea

Good luck!

 

[Sepultura]

Thanks for your responses. I actually managed to get it working about 2 hours after I posted.

For some reason Blizzard removed the OS X installer from their website many years ago. Why..? I have no idea. Maybe because of Diablo 2's continued popularity they feel people should buy the digital copies of games they already own? Then again, they still have the Starcraft OS X installer uploaded.

After hours of google searching and many dead links, I found the OS X installer. I found it on GameFront which I thought was taken down. http://www.gamefront.com/files/3123362/Diablo_II_Installer_dmg I made backup copy, but thank you JRDN for uploading your own.

I installed D2 on Leopard using the OS X installer and my original discs. It took about 25 minutes to install. Before applying the 1.13 patch I ran the game and worked fine as version 1.10. Then I ran the patch and tested a TCP/IP network game with my PC and it worked! I have not tried closed or open Battle net yet.

To play the game without the CD all I had to do was copy D2xMusic.mpq off my expansion disc. DO NOT copy over Graphics or Music from the D2 Play Disc. This will corrupt the game resulting in the error message 'Diablo II has encountered a serious error please reinstall Diablo II.'

I also got Starcraft and Brood War working with Blizzard's installer found here http://ftp.blizzard.com/pub/starcraft/patches/Mac/StarCraft_OS_X_Installer.dmg I ran the game but didn't actually test Battle net or the campaign because I haven't applied the patch.

So it seems I was a little a confused. Snow Leopard and Leopard (obviously) will run PPC applications, but not 'Classic' applications? I do now remember Tiger having an OS 9 option in the system preferences, but was that like a VM or did you have to dual boot it? I remember it being ran in a window.

 

[eyoungren]

So it seems I was a little a confused. Snow Leopard and Leopard (obviously) will run PPC applications, but not 'Classic' applications? I do now remember Tiger having an OS 9 option in the system preferences, but was that like a VM or did you have to dual boot it? I remember it being ran in a window.

Some PowerPC Macs were/are capable of dual booting both OS9 and OS X. But all OS X Macs capable of running Tiger or below can run OS9 in a window (emulator) as "Classic" even if some of those can not boot into OS9.

For instance and this is an extreme example, but I use it to make my point.

My Quicksilver runs 10.5.8 Leopard, but I can dual boot OS9 if I choose because this Mac was originally produced in 2001.

There is a G5 at work and it came with 10.3 Panther on it. At the time that we got that Mac I could run OS9 as Classic in a window inside OS X on it. But no G5 ever made can actually boot into OS9.

Does that make sense?

P.S., a tip when searching old sites for apps/installers. Try the internet WayBack Machine.

Sometimes this stuff manages to get archived…

 

[Sepultura]

Some PowerPC Macs were/are capable of dual booting both OS9 and OS X. But all OS X Macs capable of running Tiger or below can run OS9 in a window (emulator) as "Classic" even if some of those can not boot into OS9.

For instance and this is an extreme example, but I use it to make my point.

My Quicksilver runs 10.5.8 Leopard, but I can dual boot OS9 if I choose because this Mac was originally produced in 2001.

There is a G5 at work and it came with 10.3 Panther on it. At the time that we got that Mac I could run OS9 as Classic in a window inside OS X on it. But no G5 ever made can actually boot into OS9.

Does that make sense?

P.S., a tip when searching old sites for apps/installers. Try the internet WayBack Machine.

Sometimes this stuff manages to get archived…

If the Quicksilver can dual boot OS 9 can a PowerBook G4? Not that I am going to do it because I detest OS 9 and Diablo 2 works fine on OS X, I am just curious.

Was there a big performance hit running games or other applications in the windowed OS 9? It's been so long I can't remember.

 

[headsh0t95]

If the Quicksilver can dual boot OS 9 can a PowerBook G4? Not that I am going to do it because I detest OS 9 and Diablo 2 works fine on OS X, I am just curious.

Was there a big performance hit running games or other applications in the windowed OS 9? It's been so long I can't remember.

Depends on which model PowerBook G4 you have. All Titanium G4 models can boot OS X, but none of the aluminum G4 models can. Also see http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...os-9-run-classic-applications-windows-xp.html

 

[eyoungren]

^^^Right!

And certain models of PowerMac G4 MDD were also incapable of running OS 9 because Steve Jobs announced the death of OS9 with the release of OS X 10.4 Tiger (although Apple didn't remove the functionality to use Classic in 10.4 at the time).

Major blowback from the education world caused Apple to release one final MDD model that was less powerful than previous versions BUT was capable of booting into OS9.

As of the G5s though booting into OS9 was no longer possible.

 

[bunnspecial]

And certain models of PowerMac G4 MDD were also incapable of running OS 9 because Steve Jobs announced the death of OS9 with the release of OS X 10.4 Tiger (although Apple didn't remove the functionality to use Classic in 10.4 at the time).

Major blowback from the education world caused Apple to release one final MDD model that was less powerful than previous versions BUT was capable of booting into OS9.

Not to nitpick too much, but the "Funeral" for OS 9 was at WWDC in 2002.

This was actually shortly before the release of Jaguar and I believe was shortly before the MDD FW800 models shipped(which lacked the ability to boot into OS 9).

You are correct, though, that Apple essentially re-released the original MDD model as the "MDD2003." It could be had as a single or dual 1.25, although most I've seen were single 1.25s. The FW800 MDD could be had as fast as dual 1.42, but a lot of them were dual 1.25(single 1ghz was the lowest speed of FW800).

The 1.25ghz MDDs in either single or dual(which doesn't make a difference in OS 9 unless you're using something like Photoshop) are blazing fast in OS 9. In fact, since the migration to Xenforo they're one of the few machines that actually make viewing this site in OS 9/Classilla pleasant.

 

[eyoungren]

Not to nitpick too much, but the "Funeral" for OS 9 was at WWDC in 2002.

LOL!

Thanks bunn! I'm ok with being nitpicked. I'd rather be corrected then blamed for false information.

 

[Sepultura]

Dual booting aside, can't you install OS 9 on any G4? They all use PPC chips.

Also JRDN if you are reading, I can't seem to connect to Battle net even though I am on version 1.13.

 

[for this]

Dual booting aside, can't you install OS 9 on any G4? They all use PPC chips.

If that Mac can't boot OS 9 AND the OS X is newer than 10.4. Then no, you can't.

 

[bunnspecial]

Dual booting aside, can't you install OS 9 on any G4? They all use PPC chips.

It is true that all G4s are capable of running OS X Tiger. With an OS 9 system folder present, they are capable of running virtualized OS 9 and therefore running OS 9 programs.

With that said, I prefer natively booting to Classic mode. With GPU intensive programs especially, you do much better with a high end OS9 capable graphics card. Therefore, I tend to not even rely on dual booting but instead optimize computers for either OS 9 or OS X. With a G4 tower, that means that for OS 9 use it ideally gets a GEForce 4Ti(albeit my supply of those is rather limited) and for OS X use it gets a Radeon 9600 or better. A 9600 or higher, or an nVidia 5200(preferably 6200) or better really makes Tiger and Leopard sing, while a 4Ti is limited in OS X due to its lack of core image support.

All of that aside, if your really want to see a fun example of classic mode, I'll point you toward a G4 Digital Audio that I bought from a Graphic Design agency here in town. It was running Panther when I bought it(actually I think it still is) and has Adobe Illustrator 5.5 installed. This is a 68K program, not a fat binary. The computer doesn't have OS 9 drivers on the hard drive, so it's actually not even capable of booting into OS 9 in the current configuration(not without putting in another HDD or reformatting the current one). Illustrator 5.5 runs in the "Classic mode" OS 9 virtual machine using the built-in 68K emulator in OS 9, and does well doing it. The funny thing was that I actually bought both a 400mhz G4 Yikes! and a 667 mhz DA from the same place along with a 21" CRT studio display(the main thing that made me venture out there in the first place). The Yikes! actually had the more update software with the full Adobe Creative Suite(CS1) installed on it.

The G3 beige in my office-which has a 1ghz Sonnet G4-is set up to dual boot Tiger and OS 9, although I normally run it in the latter. One of the programs I run it on is a scientific instrument data processing program that I've run on the 512Ke in my office, although a Macintosh II or SE/30 is "recommended." Needless to say, basically everything is instantaneous in that program with the G4. One of my co-workers runs it in Basilisk, although he comes down to my office to use it on that computer because it's a program that really benefits from more screen area despite the age of it(that beige has a 1680x1050 flat panel).