I saw mention in another post that one could use the game files from the Mac port on Windows. I have the opposite issue, and was wondering if anyone could help.

I purchased the Windows version of Darwinia a while back, and now I want to play it on my Mac. Now, I know I could just run it in Windows mode (it's an Intel Mac), but where's the fun in that?
I tried copying "main.dat" and "sounds.dat" from the PC CD-ROM into the Mac Darwinia package, replacing the Mac files. When I try to launch the Mac app, I get the following error: "Failed to open mouse cursor resource icons/mouse_selection.bmp"
Is this something I can work around? Is what I'm trying to do even possible? Will the Mac version recognize this as the full version of the game, or will the lack of an Ambrosia registration prevent the game from running?

Thanks for your help.

There are several files that are used by the Mac version that are not used by the Windows version. These include, but are not limited to, the authentication software that ASW uses to ensure that you have paid for the game. If you have the Windows version, but want to play the Mac version, then you need to purchase the Mac version from ASW.

Also, while it is possible to play the Windows version with the Mac files, this is not officially supported by either ASW or IV, and is probably illegal in the technical sense, as you can get the Mac data files from the demo.

xander

I semi-answered my own question (actually by searching for a windows-specific problem)--downloading the latest PC patch, unzipping the files, and putting those into the Mac package allows it to launch.

Although, as you indicated would probably be the case, the program considers itself unregistered, which is a bummer. It seems a bit silly that you can pay for the Mac version and use those files for the Windows version, but not the other way around.

Oh, and I discovered that while running Parallels, the game runs at about 2 FPS. Eh. I guess it doesn't much care for the graphics card in a MacBook Pro.

Ah well.

Paralells is basically an emulation layer. Emulation is never the right way to go when it comes to 3D or anything intensive at all. It isn't the graphic card's fault.