Kids games and OSX

2449 Views 8 Replies 5 Participants Last post by lewdvig, Jun 16, 2007

lewdvig

Discussion Starter · Jun 12, 2007

Is anyone else as frustrated as I am getting 'Mac' compatible games to work in OSX?

I have 10.4.9 and quite a few of the games that I have bought refuse to work in OSX. There seems to be three main causes:

1. Games that only run in OS9
2. Games that run in OSX but need classic
3. Games that say they are OSX native but do not work

Most recently I picked up Books by You - this is the John Lithgow creative writing game. It seems to break when a restricted account tries to save their game. Wildlife Tycoon has the same issue - you can play without saving. But where is the fun in that?

Anyone have ideas on how to fix this? Giving my 8 and 3 year old full admin rights is not an option.

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MickMac

· #2 · Jun 13, 2007

I'm with you. I'm very wary buying any games that say they'll run under windows or OS X. I've bought a couple things that require Classic, and the quality is invariably poor. So far, the only thing I've found that my daughter likes is ArtRage, which isn't a game at all, but still fun.

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Script Kiddie

· #3 · Jun 13, 2007

Holy crap look at the 'paintings' this guy has made with ArtRage:

Artrage

wow wow wow

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robert

· #4 · Jun 13, 2007

I picked up a G3 upgrade card for my PM7300. This machine is now being used by my daughter as her first "puter".

I'd buy an older mac and set it up with OS9. There are a fair amount of games and learning software that is available and dirt cheap.

I sneak in a game of Marathon once and a while too.

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lewdvig

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jun 13, 2007

Yeah Robert, you have the right idea.

I bought an iMac Core Duo for the kids. I figured there would be more software available. Anyway, I have a bunch of kids games I will be putting for sale in the classifieds if you want them.

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lewdvig

Discussion Starter · #6 · Jun 14, 2007

Found a solution to the most common problem with OSX native games: not saving files in the right user account (and therefore gave save data not being written).

This is from the Apple support discussion and fixed the problem I was having with John Lithgow's Book by You, Wildlife Tycoon, and Starry Night Constellation Adventure.

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Properly written software stores user data inside each user's home folder. Some poorly written software, particularly game software, is not set up to run in a multi-user environment and writes data (high scores, etc) to itself rather than to user space. It sounds like that is the case here.

To fix it, try logging in as an administrator, opening Terminal, and entering:

sudo chmod -R ugo+rwX [spacebar, drag item to Terminal window, return]

That will make the app writable by all users. Caveat: It will also make the app deletable by all users. Make sure you keep backups.

If that does indeed fix it, I'd get back on the horn to the software company and tell them to fix their broken software.

Király

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irontree

· #7 · Jun 14, 2007 (Edited)

I managed to get a beige G3 tower for free off of my friend. I decided just to keep it OS 9 because of the enormous collection of classic kids games I have. Our other computer is an intel machine so it can't run them. Going to stick it in the kids room when I get the chance.
(going to have to hide the Carmagedon folder somewhere they can't find it LOL)

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· #8 · Jun 14, 2007

You might also try having the games point to the /Users/shared folder (if it allows this). The locked down accounts do have some issues with games that are not written to store things in a proper location! if they were set to the application's own application suppport folder this wouldn't be a problem.

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lewdvig

Discussion Starter · #9 · Jun 16, 2007

mguertin said:
You might also try having the games point to the /Users/shared folder (if it allows this). The locked down accounts do have some issues with games that are not written to store things in a proper location! if they were set to the application's own application suppport folder this wouldn't be a problem.

Most games don't give you a save dialog box when you save a game.

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