Suddenly not compatible anymore? I run Sims2 on a Mac G4 Dual 1.25Ghz tower PPC with 1.5Gb RAM, and have been running just fine with OSX 10.3.9. I have Sims2, Nightlife, Pets, University, Open for Business, and Seasons, and so far have had no problems. Then I upgraded to OSX 10.4, and subsequently to OSX 10.4.1, and now Sims2 wont launch. I double-click the icon, and nothing happens. No bouncing icon, no spinning wheel, nothing. The requirements say: 10.3.9 OR 10.4.9, but say nothing about 10.4.1?? My machine claims that it does not meet the hardware requirements to upgrade to 10.4.2, so I can't go any higher! Do I have to downgrade back to 10.3.9? huh? Is there a work-around, or a driver that I need now? Can anyone help? Please! I don't want to have to reboot from an older OS everytime I want to play Sims!
Have you checked the Aspyr website? I believe that there are a couple of updates/fixes for the Sims 2 that you need to download and install. It seems to me that there were some things that they needed to fix so that the game would run properly on 10.4...I've got the game running on G4 Powerbook and had it running from 10.3.9 through all of the 10.4 upgrades...
Interesting... but not helpful. Well, I checked aspyr.com, downloaded the new version of GameAgent, and it claims that my computer does not meet the requirements to play this game. That is quite interesting, because I bought the game as son as it came out, and have had no problem running it until now. It seems to run fast, too, with only a short lag when big things happen, like seasons change, or my sims goes into werewolf mode. (I have University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, and Seasons) I was only not able to opens Sims2 after I upgraded to 10.4.1. GameAgent says that it requires a CPU of 1.4Ghz or faster to run the game, and mine is only 1.25 (although it has DUAL 1.25 processors!) Is anyone else out there able to run Seasons on a dual 1.25 Ghz machine? Can anyone guess why it would allow me to with the older OS, but not with 10.4.1? Help! Thanks!
Forget the Game Agent!! In fact, remove it from your Mac! It simply takes up precious resources only to tell you that your Mac is below specifications! Well, we already KNOW that! Your machine IS below specifications...But then, So is mine! I am playing it on a G4 Powerbook, 1.25Ghz with only 1gb ram! It can be a bit slow, But I am able to play Sims to with ALL of the Expansion Packs, including Seasons! (by far the most demanding!) There are a couple of the official patches listed over at MacGameFiles.com. Choose the one that corresponds with whatever expansion packs you have. The links are listed in the two stickies that are displayed at the top of this forum (The Mac Sims 2 Discussion Forum.)
Back to the drawing board. Alright, well I downloaded the Sims2 Patch (2 1.0 Rev F) and installed it, but I still can't launch the App! When I click on the icon in the dock, it flashes the little black arrow underneath, but the icon does not bounce up and down (like when I launch other apps) and then the arrow goes away, and nothing happens. The same thing if I open it directly from the Applications folder, I double-click the icon, and nothing happens. I have been running fine for so long (like in my above post) and the only thing different is the new OS (10.4.1, I used to run fine on 10.3.9) Any more ideas? Maybe I'll trash the plist file for sims, and restart. Hmm, maybe I shoulda tried that first.... I'll post my results in a moment.
Shucks. Aw, Geez. I really hoped that would work. I trashed the plist files, and restarted, and when that didn't work, I reset a few other plist files, optimized the system, and searched around to verify that there were not multiple copies of the SIms, or anything else weird, and I can't find anything wrong! I just don't get it. Can anyone else verify that they run The Sims2, with nightlife, open for business, university, pets, seasons, and the glamour life booster pack, all on a mirror-door Dual 1.25Ghz Mac G4 tower, with 1.5 Gb of RAM, and the nVidia GeForce4 Ti 4600 w/ 128Mb VRAM. and are using OSX (Tiger) 10.4.1 ??? :( If you DO run all of these things on this kind of machine, did you have similar problems? did you have a better patch? any clever minds out there want to help me troubleshoot? Thanks! Larsifer.
Are you opening the game while its in the macintosh HD? If it is not in the HD, then you should drag it in and then open it from inside. I hope this helps. I had the same problem and once i did that i was finally able to play the game. I understand how frustrating this must be for you. Let me know.
Not in a boat, not with a goat... Darn. Still nothing. It doesn';t seem to matter where the app is. I ran Tech Tool 4 over the whole computer, and nothing improved, and I ran TigerCache CLeaner, and had it repair my permissions, etc.. and nothing. Then (after backup up my EA Games folder with my sims2 neighborhoods etc.) I wiped the Sims2 off my computer, and re-installed the first disc. Just The Sims2, and it wont run. The specs say 10.3.8 or later, which I have. I match everything, except my video card is Nvideo GeForce 4800, and the game says I need 5400 or 5200, something in the 5000's, and mine is not. So now, I guess my only option is to go buy a newer faster better video card and see if that works! Ridiculous, mine has more VRam than is required, i have more RAM than required, my processor is fast enough for the Sims 2, even if it fall short of the requirements for Seasons. Oh well, more help is always appreciated, I'll post my results after getting a better video card. Any suggestions for the best card? Thx, LP :(
It sounds to me as though something has "broken". I'm not up on Macs so any advice I can offer is purely speculative. Is it possible that a Mac update has occurred between the time the game last ran properly and the current series of woes? If so, is it possible to roll back whatever driver was changed to the earlier version? BTW ... required cpu speeds are quoted for single core chips. Duo and quad cores are sold with a quoted clock speed, but as there are 2 or 4 processors their combined speed is effectively larger than the actual quoted clock speed. I don't think it doubles (or quadruples) but it's pretty much that way. If you're shopping for a new graphics card I recommend you aim to get one with a 256 bit memory bus and DDR3 memory.
Aaargh!... almost got it. Almost. Alright, here is an update on my struggles: I completely wiped and zero'd out my hard drive, and re-installed 10.4 from the CD. I updated everything that software update recommended repeatedly until it claimed I needed no more updates. Then I re-installed all of the Sims2 games, in order: Sims2, University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, The Pets Rev 1.6 Patch, Then Glamour Life expansion pack, Family Fun stuff expansion Pack, and finally Seasons. After each install, I would launch the Sims2, and make sure it was working. It seemed to be working fine... until I was done, and tried to open a neighborhood. Then the graphics went all wonky, and it would blink on and off, solid beige background, then I could see houses, then blank again. When it was blank, I could still see the 'pop-up' name sof the family's that I'd mouse over, but could not see the houses or terrain. So I searched online, and found Sims2 Patch Rev F (the universal patch) which claimed to be the latest in Sims2 Patches. I downloaded it, and ran it, and when I tried to launch the Sims2, it asked for the original DVD for the Sims2 (instead of the Seasons DVD) and when I inserted it, it claimed it had an error, and that I would have to completely re-install the Sims2 from scratch. I looked again online, and others have also reported that this patch did nothing except for destroy their Sims game. So now I'm stuck again, I have everything as clean and free as I can get it, and the Sims2 will not run on my Dual 1.25 Ghz Mac G4, with 1 Gb of RAM (I had 1.5, but removed one chip because it was causing crashes) and the only thing different now from when the SIms2 ran perfectly and flawlessly on my mac is the darned OS 10.4. I am determined to get it running without having to revert to 10.3.9, but I need some help! Ideas or suggestions? (PC users, please post your suggestions in the PC forum, this place is for Mac users. Thanks!)
Here for the rescue... Mac 10.4 will not work with Mac 10.3 --- The quick reason, Quicktime version 6 generated serious conflicts, where you can't upload or view material from an ipod, iphone, and some new movie files such as .Mp4 is often used now for places such as www.youtube.com Do not go back and fix anything - once you install 10.4 (( you can't use that word processing program Apple 6 - say goodbye to it.)) Get a system update for your 10.4 - the latest one is 10.4.11 --- are you using a g4 or a g5 computer ? The g3's are good for the 10.3 Still, it's a whole new ball game - with 10.4 (( the truth is - The Sims 2, still needs quicktime to load the game's special video capture feed, and logically you must need to get yourself a DVD disk iLIFE-08', to install the new quicktime, itunes, iphoto and some new soundtrack software called garageband. )) - expect to pay $75. U.S.D. for that disk to install, if you expect to even have the Sims 2 DVD to work and process correctly. Sorry to say this - but when I bought this G5 computer in February 08' - nobody mentioned that I would have to purchase iLIFE and iWORK to get the 10.4 to function correctly. Yes, I know it's terrible and many, many mac owners felt "cheated" for having to shell out more money for the missing software. Once you get iLife installed - your Sims 2 DVD should work. T.G.
