Hey all, had a few questions about these emulators. For reference, I'm trying to run Might and Magic I and II on both, to no avail. I feel as if the whole StuffIt thing is where I get lost: do I use HFV Explorer to put the whole .sit file onto my disk or what? When I do that and use the Expander, all I get is either .DS_Store for MM1 or Master Roster for MM2. Am I in the wrong, or are the ROMs broken? I'd really appreciate some help, because I've been longing to play these two games for months now. :/
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2009, July 29 - 2:15am
#1
Questions about vMac and Basilisk II in Vista
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2009, July 29 - 2:52am
#2
For Basilisk II, I would recommend getting a boot drive setup that has stuffit installed. From there all you have to do is have a "My Computer" icon on your desktop--see the "Volumes" tab of Basilisk's Settings window. You can then copy *.SIT files over from Vista's file system into the virtual file system in Basilisk, and unpack without wrecking your resource forks.
To get it onto vMac, you can just open the volume file that you've unpacked your stuffit to--just make sure that you've quit Basilisk first.
2009, July 29 - 3:10am
#3
Alright, so Basilisk II has started hating me and not opening, so I'll focus on vMac. I have the .SIT file and I have to put it on the drive using HFV Explorer, correct? And then I use StuffIt?
2009, July 29 - 3:19am
#4
Brimruk, check the "guides" page. There is a step by step setup guide for Basilisk II (and also for Mini vMac) that will help you a lot.
I wrote them, so if you hit any snags, you can just ask me.
Meanwhile, when I get home tonight I will try installing Might and Magic using the files on this site. I'll let you know if there are any issues with these specific files.
2009, July 29 - 3:27am
#5
Thank you very much, I'll re-install vMac and maybe try some other games.
2009, July 29 - 4:20am
#6
In the meantime, I will suggest that for Might and Magic I and II, Mini vMac is the way to go. Those are OLD games. They were designed for the computers that Mini vMac emulates, NOT the computers that Basilisk II and SheepShaver emulate.
2009, July 29 - 4:24am
#7
Yeah, I've switched over to it completely. It runs much faster, doesn't have problems starting up. My expander is not even picking up the .sit Might and Magic files, so either something is wrong with the files, or the expander...
2009, July 29 - 4:28am
#8
There's a problem with many of the files here on the site.
They are in Stuffit 5 format. But Mini vMac can only run Stuffit 4. So you cannot expand them!
SO you should create an empty hard disk image and add it to you Basilisk II system. Boot up Basilisk II, and use Stuffit 5 to expand the file. Shut down Basilisk II. Boot up vMac, and after you've booted, add THAT SAME hard disk image to Mini vMac. You can then run the game.
Can you follow that?
Not sure if this is the case with the games you are playing. But it is a very common issue with files on this site.
2009, July 29 - 4:37am
#9
Yeah, I can follow that, thanks for the simple explanation. And I'm getting the same old, just the .DS_Store file in my Q#MM1 folder...
2009, July 29 - 4:29am
#10
Oh, also: the file associations often get messed up in the emulators. Not sure why. Often you cannot double click on a SIT file (or whatever) to open it. You have to start up Stuffit and manually browse to the archive to open it.
2009, July 29 - 4:43am
#11
".DS_Store" is a file created by OS X.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.DS_Store
That's not a great sign. The file might have been archived badly before it was put on the site. I'll check it out myself...
2009, July 29 - 4:46am
#12
And Might and Magic 2 is still only giving me the Master Roster file. 
2009, July 29 - 5:24am
#13
I just checked the files.
They are useless to Windows users.
Sorry. Uploaders need to follow some standards before they send files to the site.
2009, July 29 - 9:22am
#14
I've tried 3 times today, and perhaps twice previously to get a full version of M&M2 up onto it's page, this would be a Stuffit v5.5 file containing the B&W and Colour versions.
Although the upload happens and I click save, ehrn I'm returned to the page and I refresh or search up the page, it still downloads the original file you're getting.
I can try the same for M&M1, but I expect similar results.
Is this a side effect of hosting some files on amazon ?
Edit:
Might and Magic I is the same, although I can upload in a suitable format, and the page shows the correct file size (4.56MB), the download is just the original file (336K).
2009, July 29 - 4:24pm
#15
As I understand it, there is some time lag between your upload and the transfer to amazon. So, it makes sense that immediately after the upload, the file available for download is the "old" archive.
2009, July 29 - 5:38pm
#16
Ok, so now when I download it, MM1 has a 4.56 MB .sit file, and MM2 has a 2.xx MB .sit file. Is this how it's supposed to be? I can't try them out yet as I am at work, but when I get home I'll update you gentlemen on the situation. And watchsmart, what do you mean the files are useless to Windows users? Just the old broken ones, or the new ones too? It shouldn't matter as I'm running an emulator, should it?
P.S. I knew something was weird last night when the MM1 description was talking about the installer and I wasn't finding one.
2009, July 29 - 8:07pm
#17
For M&M1 and M&M2, that's perfect.
M&M1 has the original disk images, as well as the full installed game (with Sounds missing from the first original post) - the disk images are there because the purpose of the site is to preserve original Mac software, rather than just provide free games for everyone. The installed app is there so those who just want to play don't have to fuss about with disk images in emulators.
Thanks for the info explaining the delay, I'll learn some patience for next time.
2009, July 29 - 8:51pm
#18
So I'm finally home, and I am pleased to say that both games work perfectly! My only little nuance is that M&M2 Color needs QuickDraw and Basilisk II to work, and the images are a little grainy in full-screen, but that's all small nitpicks. Thank you all very much for the expedient responses and tips. 
2009, August 5 - 2:09am
#19
Brimruk,
The old ones!