Wolfenstein 3D on a G4

[Johnnya101]

I'm wondering if it's possible to play on a G4 400 or 500 MHz?

When I try running it, it just says I need a color capable monitor. I'm using an Apple studio display LCD...

 

[Themk]

You can play it on a 65C816 .... (A IIgs)

IN the classic environment (or when booting classic Mac OS) Check your color depth, might need to be 256-colors in order for the game to work....

Or, you could use Basilisk II or Sheepshaver if you are running OS Ten.

 

[Gorgonops]

I second that it's probably a color depth issue. A significant amount of 68k Mac software wigs out under Classic because it doesn't understand 24 bit color.

 

[blitter]

Wolfenstein 3D should run great on a G4. At the very least, the latest version is a fat binary, so it'll be PPC accelerated. As far as I know, it will auto switch to 256 colors on launch, but if you have a video card that's not capable of 256 colors (for whatever reason) then it might not run.

 

[Johnnya101]

The thing is is that I'm not using classic... it booting to os 9.2.2

I also have AGP is it?

I'm also using the disk images under Macintosh garden.

 

[Themk]

Still check your color depth. If 256-colors isnt an option, then you will have to figure out why.

 

[Gorgonops]

What video card does the G4 have in it? If it was upgraded to something that has sufficiently poor OS 9 support (like a GeForce 5200FX, which some crazy people upgraded to for Core Image support under OS X) you might essentially be stuck with a default video mode

 

[Johnnya101]

My Monitor colors only has one option at millions. Is that what you mean?

Yeah my card I'm guessing has no support for this stuff... even the original recovery cd makes the screen blank and won't do anything.

Side note: I only have one monitor connected. It says I have two so my mouse goes off the screen to the second. Can I fix this? I've already tried to click identify.

 

[Themk]

Well, that is your problem :-/ .

The game only runs in 256 colors mode, and since you are now using 24-bit color, it doesn't know how to deal with that, or switch your monitor to the correct depth, therefore it fails.

Try a different video card.

P.S. try the IIgs version; its kind of cool! Also try Castle Wolfenstein on your Apple II (which is 8-bit).

P.P.S. You can try to emulate it in Basilisk II or SheepShaver too.

 

[bunnspecial]

What video card does the G4 have in it? If it was upgraded to something that has sufficiently poor OS 9 support (like a GeForce 5200FX, which some crazy people upgraded to for Core Image support under OS X) you might essentially be stuck with a default video mode

This is why when I "build" a G4 tower, I decide ahead of time if it's going to be an OS 9 or OS X computer by choice of the video card. Of course, good OS 9 video cards(like the Geforce 4Ti) still do well in OS X, although CI are best for Tiger and later.

 

[Gorgonops]

Definitely find out what kind of video card is in the system, because several things sound like they're just plain wrong.

Out of curiosity, what *specific* Studio Display are you using? Apple slapped the same name on a bunch of different monitors. Is it an ADC version or does it have a DVI (or VGA?) plug. The presence of ADC would at least imply a stock Apple video card, which would make the inability to adjust the resolution or color depth more difficult to explain. I'm also wondering what is the deal with the "phantom" second display.

Did you install the OS on the system or are you using whatever the previous owner had on there? I'm wondering if you might have a corrupt/broken OS 9 install. One perfect way to get one on an OS 9 bootable machine is to clone the boot partition of a newer (and, especially, non-OS-9-native-boot-capable) machine that doesn't have a "real" OS 9 install and instead just has a "Classic Support" System folder installed on it. I know from experience you can boot the neutered "Classic Support" folder that shipped on things like Aluminum G4 Powerbooks on 9-capable machine but a bunch of things are broken in subtle ways, including video drivers.

 

[Johnnya101]

Ok.

Its an ATI R7000L card REV 1.3. I will be installing drivers later.

I just wiped the old original hard drive. It was just slow and filled with junk. There were no drivers present I don't think, as this happened there too along with other driver missing things.

The LCD is an ADC studio display. It has the swivel stand, its blue, two built in USB ports, etc.

The phantom second display I think is a missing driver issue. Again, I will be installing it later.

 

[Themk]

Hopefully after you install the drivers you will get 256 colors as an option.

P.S. What happened to copying all the files off the computer? Did you just decide it wasn't worth it?

 

[Johnnya101]

Oh no I copied them! I have to send them off to the owner now.

I'll be able to install the drivers I think later today.

 

[Themk]

OKay, let us know how it goes!

 

[Johnnya101]

Oh forgot to update. It did work! Nanosaur crashes he entire thing though.

 

[Themk]

yay, glad it works good! Nanosaur.... I'll have to think about that one.