HELP! new mac user - cannot use mini vmac

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2010, January 23 - 7:55pm

ben

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Joined: 2010 Jan 23

HELP! new mac user - cannot use mini vmac

I'm a new mac convert - using an OSX machine. Wanted to run bards tale, so I did the following.

1. downloaded, installed Mini vmac. I followed all the instructions provided on minivmac.sourceforge.net; I now appear to have a working emulation of the 6.0.8. system Macintosh, which should let me run the bards tale game. I made my own system/boot disk, everything starts up fine.

2. I then downloaded the bards tale .sit file on my OS10 machine. If I drag-n-drop that file into the emulator, it doesnt recognize them.

3. I obtained the stuffit expander software for my OS10 machine. Upon unpacking the .sit file, I now have a folder containing all the bards tale files. If I try to drag-n-drop the folder, or any of the files, into the emulator, it doesnt recognize them.

4. I obtained the importfl-1.0.1b disk image; I drag-n-drop this disk image into the emulator window, and the corresponding disk appears; I open it and start the importfl application; this lets me drag-n-drop all of those files (either the contents of the .sit, or the .sit itself) into the emulated Mac.

5. I obtain the blanks files for creating blank diskettes in the emulator enviroment. I place the bardstale.sit file onto a blank disk inside the emulator. I click on the .sit file, and I get the "cannot open...the application is either busy or missing." So, apparently my emulated mac cannot open .sit files.

6. I look through this website for stuffit; there is not a version available for 6.0.8; only 7 and up.

7. So, on my OSX system, I unpack the .sit file; I then use the importfl program to transfer each file onto another blank disk inside the emulated MAC environment, thus attempting to create exactly what I expect I'd get if I *could* unpack the .sit file directly within the emulated enviroment. I now appear to have the bards tale disk, all contents included, inside my emulated environment.

8. I click on the "bards tale" program (the icon is a blank sheet, top-left dogeared; rather generic icon...). I get the error "cannot open...the application is either busy or missing." So apparently I did something wrong.

9. I double check all available instructions on how to actually get the downloaded .sit file into the emulator, so I can actually play this. There are no instructions. Apparently I'm an idiot.

10. Trying something simpler, I downloaded Cairo Shootout. The .sit file contains ONE program. This should be easier...

11. I unpackage the file in my OSX system; For fun, I try to open the file in OSX; I get the error "Classic system no longer supported." Oh well.

12. I transfer the one file onto a blank disk inside the emulated 6.0.8 mac environment; the file has the same generic file icon (blank page, top left dog-ear); I click on it and get the error "cannot open...application is busy or missing" again.

So, what in the world am I missing here? There is no information on how to magically open up .sit files inside the emulated environment; is there some magical applet that I need to download from this sit first?

Can anybody please explain to me how to actually use get this stuff into the emulator so I can enjoy programs from the last time I used a mac? Please?

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2010, January 23 - 8:32pm

Euryale

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Joined: 2009 Jul 22

There's a Stuffiit expander that works within the mini vMac environment
I think is version 4 (not sure tho') but you might want to try it anyway..

Download the Package of almost All Stuffit versions from here:

http://macintoshgarden.org/apps/stuffit-deluxe

I use other method for transferring and playing games in vMac
and it always works, but it requires more steps..and another Emulator,

'cuz sometimes using the right version of Stuffit within vMac
doesn't work due to the fact that some users compressed the older games
with newer versions of Stuffit...Do'h!

Hopefully this is not the case.
and I'm sure someone else can help you better than me,
because I'm not an expert with OS X.

2010, January 23 - 8:31pm

ben

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Joined: 2010 Jan 23

Since this post I have obtained the stuffit 4.0.1 software, so I now have a disk image where I can use stuffit 4.0.1 inside the 6.0.8 environment.

I copy the blank 1440K disk file, creating a new blank disk. I drag-n-drop it into the emulator environment. I now have my untitled blank disk.

I drag-n-drop the importFL disk onto the emulator window. Inside the emulator, I open this disk, start up the importFL program. I now drag-n-drop the bards talk .sit file onto the emulator; inside the emulator I select to download the .sit file onto my new blank disk.

Operation successful; I now have a blank disk containing bardstale-tmg.sit, 681K in disk, 735K available.

I now eject the ImportFL disk, and insert the stuffit disk. I start the stuffit application. I choose the "file" dropdown menu, and select Expand. I change drives to my "Untitled" disk, which contains the 681K file; the stuffit program DOES NOT SEE ANY FILES TO EXPAND!!!

Now what???

2010, January 23 - 8:33pm

ben

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Joined: 2010 Jan 23

Oh, and of course - I open the folder "Read Us First!" on my newly generated StuffIt disk, and of course I cannot open any of the files, including the StuffIt Expander Read Me file - because of the error "cannot open...application is either busy or missing."

What is incredible annoying at this point is, I followed all of the instructions provided for this emulator, including creating the boot disk, getting all of the system files, and now I get this crap. Is there a separate set of *real* instructions on how to use this emulator that I'm missing?

2010, January 23 - 8:37pm

Euryale

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Joined: 2009 Jul 22

I'm gonna download and run the Bard's tale game
and check the file out..

(I also have this Game on my Apple //c and never actually played it.)

2010, January 23 - 8:56pm

ben

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Joined: 2010 Jan 23

More fun - after reading all the documentation on the importfl, is would appear that this program dumps all the file identify information which would seem to be rather useless; but it would explain why inside the emulator, stuffit doesnt recognize the imported .sit file?

So, I tried to create my own disk image containing this .sit file in my OSX environment. I created a new disk image from the 1440K blank file; I changed the extension from .dsk to .dmg, so that I could open it up (mount it as a disk, actually) on my OSX desktop - no problems so far.

Then, I open up this disk image, and try to transfer in the .sit file - and the disk image is read only! And there is no way I can find to change the permission!!

2010, January 23 - 9:11pm

Euryale

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Joined: 2009 Jul 22

Well, I just tested the Game, and it works fine,
it even expanded fine from within mini vMac using Stuffit v 4.0.2,
(I'm using System 6.0.5)

So after installing Stuffit 4.0.2,
you need to get the Bard's Tale file .sit into the vMac emulator AS IS..

(as I said, I don't know how the other users do it using Mac OS X, but it shouldn't be difficult)

once it's within the vMac emulator,
Open the Stuffit Expander 4 App and chose FILE >>EXPAND
then choose the Bard's Game and
and you should get 3 files, (the main game App, one Characters folder and one Data folder)
that's all I did.

if that doesn't work, then have patience,
someone else will be glad to help you later on.

2010, January 24 - 6:37am

IIGS_User

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Joined: 2009 Apr 8

Then, I open up this disk image, and try to transfer in the .sit file - and the disk image is read only!

This problem has been introduced in Snow Leopard by its developers.

I wish all of our downloads would be shipped on ready-made .img/.dmg images just to be dragged onto the emulator's window (my uploads are, at least).

CD-ROMs are OK as Toasted .cdr.zip files, though.

2010, July 27 - 6:44am

Doommaster1994

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Joined: 2009 Oct 17

OK I need help. I am using Mini vMac for Windows. I put Uninvited.sit into the disk. I went to Stuffit 4.0.1 on the emulator, I click on Expand and go to the folder where the .sit file is at but it doesn't read any of the files. Please help me.
Thanks.

2010, July 27 - 9:36am

#10

IIGS_User

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Joined: 2009 Apr 8

Probably the sit file format is to new for Stuffit Expander 4.0.
I would wish all our downloads were available as ready-to-use Disk Copy disk image files simply to drag-and-drop onto the Mini-vMac application window...

2010, July 27 - 1:17pm

#11

bertyboy

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Joined: 2009 Jun 14

I would wish all our downloads were available as ready-to-use Disk Copy disk image files simply to drag-and-drop onto the Mini-vMac application window...

Some Disk Copy disk images seem to be fine, but most of the time there's something required in the resource fork which is lost if we upload without some sort of compression / binhexing. Ironically, BinHex would be fine, the earliest Stufit versions supported it and it would help keep the resource fork safe, but there's no compression at all, and it was intended for other reasons.

2010, July 27 - 1:28pm

#12

IIGS_User

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Joined: 2009 Apr 8

... yes, I mean stuffed Disk Copy images.

I also noticed recently, when I started a game from Disk Copy image mounted inside the emulator, it shows an err msg at game start, so I decided to upload it as-is (Battle of Britain II).