For those who don't know, it is quite possible to get SWC mac running in both Basilisk II (windows port) and Sheepsaver and the 3do version runs quite nicely in the latest alpha of FreeDO (available in the top link here: http://www.arts-union.ru/smf/index.php?topic=288.0)
Both mac emulators will run (provided you have a suitable bios which can be found quite easily online) system 7 and with some coaxing will run the game.
So the good done with lets move to the bad:
Both mac emulators require you to mount the iso of the game (or load it into the drive) externally and will irritatingly forget it's there if you run the emulator again without remounting the iso!
Basilisk which emulates a 68k processor mac runs fine but the music feels a bit jittery note though, that even though i couldnt get the all new and shiny superfast version of basilisk working, that when i emulated a 68040 with fpu the game was a tad too fast (unless you like fighting the fastest shoklar in the west!)
If anyone knows the original system requirements that would be great!
Sheepsaver which emulates the powerpc was a little smoother but the music didnt work at all for me. The game is more playable though! (but more prone to crash! - actually i can't get it working again now - probably shouldn't have installed quicktime 2!)
Finally the 3do version - in my opinion better due to the cheat menu providing cheats and video watching abilities (is there a similar debug mode on the MAC version?)- the problem is that the audio is juddery, speech will skip and sometimes loop on itself - a major problem! Also, after a bit of playing/cheating i finished the starpost in venice, only to finish the mission, be told i was guest of honour at a party upstairs (come on planet!) before getting the "im changing your squadron" video! The same happened when i deliberately played "retreat" in SM1 where i didnt get the "you lose" video but instead just carried on into SM1.5
whether these are problems in swc generally i don't know but it's irritating.
Also in the 3do version are the killer asteroids from outerspace, not present in the mac version where they operate like the pc's 2 hit killer monsters, the 3do's asteroids are homing missiles of high-speed doom, shooting along (even when you're doing 10 kps) and destroying you instantly!
the final problems are of course the comic itts - which seemingly makes you aim such that you will miss and of course the voice acting, although I do love the way that halcyon sounds surprised/questioning when telling me my kills "you got three?????" and the masterfully well voiced iceman (i mean seriously, a cat mewling would have sounded more like the icemans cold hard edge!)
Finally there's the reason we all care - SM1.5 - I actually launched on this mission following reading the script that LOAF posted some time back. Specifically one line that disturbed me - the defecting dralthi whose pilot is "Colonel Ralgha".
We never see his face and he gets no more detailed a description but I believe end-run states that no other kilrathi has ever defected before... Kalrahr Ralgha nar Hhallas and Kirha - so what gives! On the other hand it's nice to see Bossman killed off properly (not just described as in SM2) and more importantly, to see some more backstory to the Gwynevhar and Spirits fiancé.
Finally for those who want to try all these things out - my system is a Athlon II X4 620 (thats a quad core at 2.6Ghz) with 4Gig of ram and a Geforce GTS 250
Both mac emulators will run (provided you have a suitable bios which can be found quite easily online) system 7 and with some coaxing will run the game.
So the good done with lets move to the bad:
Both mac emulators require you to mount the iso of the game (or load it into the drive) externally and will irritatingly forget it's there if you run the emulator again without remounting the iso!
Basilisk which emulates a 68k processor mac runs fine but the music feels a bit jittery note though, that even though i couldnt get the all new and shiny superfast version of basilisk working, that when i emulated a 68040 with fpu the game was a tad too fast (unless you like fighting the fastest shoklar in the west!)
If anyone knows the original system requirements that would be great!
Sheepsaver which emulates the powerpc was a little smoother but the music didnt work at all for me. The game is more playable though! (but more prone to crash! - actually i can't get it working again now - probably shouldn't have installed quicktime 2!)
Finally the 3do version - in my opinion better due to the cheat menu providing cheats and video watching abilities (is there a similar debug mode on the MAC version?)- the problem is that the audio is juddery, speech will skip and sometimes loop on itself - a major problem! Also, after a bit of playing/cheating i finished the starpost in venice, only to finish the mission, be told i was guest of honour at a party upstairs (come on planet!) before getting the "im changing your squadron" video! The same happened when i deliberately played "retreat" in SM1 where i didnt get the "you lose" video but instead just carried on into SM1.5
whether these are problems in swc generally i don't know but it's irritating.
Also in the 3do version are the killer asteroids from outerspace, not present in the mac version where they operate like the pc's 2 hit killer monsters, the 3do's asteroids are homing missiles of high-speed doom, shooting along (even when you're doing 10 kps) and destroying you instantly!
the final problems are of course the comic itts - which seemingly makes you aim such that you will miss and of course the voice acting, although I do love the way that halcyon sounds surprised/questioning when telling me my kills "you got three?????" and the masterfully well voiced iceman (i mean seriously, a cat mewling would have sounded more like the icemans cold hard edge!)
Finally there's the reason we all care - SM1.5 - I actually launched on this mission following reading the script that LOAF posted some time back. Specifically one line that disturbed me - the defecting dralthi whose pilot is "Colonel Ralgha".
We never see his face and he gets no more detailed a description but I believe end-run states that no other kilrathi has ever defected before... Kalrahr Ralgha nar Hhallas and Kirha - so what gives! On the other hand it's nice to see Bossman killed off properly (not just described as in SM2) and more importantly, to see some more backstory to the Gwynevhar and Spirits fiancé.
Finally for those who want to try all these things out - my system is a Athlon II X4 620 (thats a quad core at 2.6Ghz) with 4Gig of ram and a Geforce GTS 250